title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Bray ( ) is a coastal town in north County Wicklow, Ireland. It is situated about south of Dublin city centre on the east coast. It has a population of 32,600 making it the ninth largest urban area within Ireland (at the 2016 census). Bray is home to Ardmore Studios, and some light industry is located in the town, with some business and retail parks on its southern periphery. Commuter links between Bray and Dublin are provided by rail, Dublin Bus and the M11 and M50 motorways. Small parts of the town's northern outskirts are in County Dublin.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Originally developed as a planned resort town in the 19th century, Bray's popularity as a seaside resort was serviced by the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, which was extended to Bray in 1854. During the late 20th century, the town's use as a resort declined when foreign travel became an option for holiday-makers. However, day-trippers continued to come to Bray during the summer months.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: The name "Bray" is an anglicisation of the Irish , whose meaning is unclear. Liam Price suggested it may be an old name for the River Dargle or a tributary. In 1875 P. W. Joyce mistakenly ascribed the Irish name , an old word meaning "hill", referring in this case to Bray Head. In a 1905 Gaelic League publication advocating use of Irish-language postal addresses, Seosamh Laoide coined the name "Brí in Cualu", as part of his policy that "If the name of the town [in Irish] be one word, the [ancient Gaelic] territory should be added to it in the genitive case". and remained in use in the mid 20th century despite having been refuted by Liam Price and Osborn Bergin. was adopted by statute in 1975.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: In medieval times, Bray was on the southern border of the Pale, and the coastal district was governed directly by the English crown from Dublin Castle. Inland, the countryside was largely under the control of Gaelic Chieftains, such as the O'Toole and O'Byrne clans. Bray features on the 1598 map "A Modern Depiction of Ireland, One of the British Isles" by Abraham Ortelius as "Brey". The Earl of Meath purchased the Killruddery Estate in Bray in 1627 with the establishment of the Earl title.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: The Dublin and Kingstown Railway, the first in Ireland, opened in 1834 and was extended as far as Bray in 1854. With the coming of the railway in the mid-19th century, the town grew to become a seaside resort. It was developed primarily by local entrepreneurs as a planned resort town, modelled on the seaside resorts of the English south-coast, specifically Brighton. Hotels and residential terraces were built in the vicinity of the seafront. Railway entrepreneur William Dargan developed the Turkish baths, designed in a Moorish style at a cost of £10,000; built in 1859, these were demolished in 1980.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Bray was a popular destination from the 1860s onwards. While small amenities such as regattas, firework displays and band performances were plentiful in the town, Bray failed to secure the necessary capital to develop major attractions and sustain tourism, leading to its decline in the early 1900s. Pleasure piers such as the Palace Pier were a mainstay of resorts at that time. Despite repeated efforts, Bray never acquired such a pier and abandoned plans to build one in 1906. Additional planned amenities which were never built included a concert hall, a theatre, an exhibition centre, a marine aquarium, winter gardens and an electrified tramway along the seafront. It experienced a brief revival from British tourists in the years immediately after World War II. However, Bray's popularity as a seaside resort declined significantly when foreign travel became an option for holiday-makers. Its proximity to Dublin still makes it a popular destination for day-trippers from the capital.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: The town is situated on the east coast to the south of County Dublin. Shankill, County Dublin lies to the north, and Greystones, County Wicklow to the south. The village of Enniskerry lies to the west of the town, at the foot of the Wicklow Mountains. People participate in such sports as sailing, rowing, and swimming. The beach and seafront promenade are used by residents and visitors. While Bray's promenade and south beach is to a Blue Flag standard, the north beach has been impacted by erosion and leaching pollution since the closure and sale of a municipal landfill in the late 20th century.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: The River Dargle which enters the sea at the north end of Bray rises from a source near Djouce, in the Wicklow Mountains. Bray Head is situated at the southern end of the Victorian Promenade with paths leading to the summit and along the sea cliffs. The rocks of Bray Head are a mixture of greywackes and quartzite. There is a large cross at the summit.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Bray has a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen: "Cfb"), similar to most other towns in Ireland, with few extremes of temperature and abundant precipitation year round. However, Bray is relatively sheltered from the prevailing south-westerly winds by the Wicklow Mountains and receives around of rainfall per year. The sunniest months on average are May and June, while October is by far the wettest.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: A public transport network, both north into Dublin and south into County Wicklow and County Wexford, serves the town. Bray is on the Irish Rail DART Rail Network which stretches north to Malahide and Howth and south to Greystones. The town is also on the mainline InterCity and Commuter rail network which connects north to Connolly Station in Dublin city centre and further to Drogheda and Dundalk. To the south, the rail line goes through Arklow and Gorey before reaching Rosslare Europort. Bray's railway station is named after Edward Daly, an executed leader of the 1916 Easter Rising. Bray Station was opened on 10 July 1854.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Bray lies along the M11 motorway corridor; an interchange at its northern side links with the M50 Dublin bypass.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Six bus companies pass through Bray: Dublin Bus, Go-Ahead Ireland, Bus Éireann, Finnegan's Bray, Aircoach, and St. Kevin's Bus Service to Glendalough. Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead Ireland are the two primary bus operators in the town operating service on behalf of the NTA. Bus services serving the town include the 145 which serves the town between Ballywaltrim just south of Bray to Heuston Station serving UCD and Dublin city centre along the way. Other routes serving the town include the 45A/B, 84/A, 84N, 155, 184 and 185. Finnegan's Bray also offer a nightlink service from Dublin. Aircoach operates a service to and from Dublin Airport.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Dublin Airport is reachable via the M50 which passes to the west of Dublin City. The AirCoach has two stops in Bray to and from Dublin Airport. Newcastle Aerodrome is the closest private airfield a short distance south of Bray.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Bray is represented on Wicklow County Council by two local electoral areas. Bray East is approximately two-thirds of the town, while Bray West is the other third and includes the neighbouring villages of Enniskerry and Kilmacanogue. Bray Municipal District consists of both of these local electoral areas.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: The following are the eight councillors representing Bray at Bray Municipal District and Wicklow County Council. The local elections took place in 2019.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: The Bray Town Commissioners were established by a local act in 1866. The Earl of Meath was named in the act as the first chairman of the commissioners. In 1899, this body became an urban district council under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898. At the same time, a portion of the town which had been in County Dublin was transferred to County Wicklow and the jurisdiction of the urban district. The boundary of the town was further extended in 1952 (taking in the area around Killruddery), in 1958 (taking in the area in Rathmichael which had been transferred the previous year from County Dublin to County Wicklow), and in 1978 (extending the town to the west).


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: The urban district council became a town council in 2002. It was abolished by the Local Government Reform Act 2014, with the powers and functions of the town council given to the county council, but its functions could be administered by the new municipal district council created by the act.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Part of the northern Bray area lies within the local authority area of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, and forms part of the Shankill–Killiney local electoral area. The border between County Wicklow and County Dublin (Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown) lies along Old Connaught Avenue and runs down along and across the Dublin Road to Ravenswell, making all areas north of that line Bray, County Dublin.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Bray is a long-established holiday resort dating back to the early 19th century. The Parliamentary gazetteer of 1846 described it thusly:


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: The town has for many years been a favourite summer resort of the wealthier of the Dublin citizens and of the gentry from a large part of Ireland; and it possesses, in a state of high facility and polish, the various appliances required for their accommodation and comfort, whether as lodgers or as tourists. Handsome cottages ornees, boarding houses on different scales of economy, and furnished houses from the small abode to the luxurious mansion, abound both in the town and in its environs, for the special use of visitors.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Bray has numerous hotels and guesthouses, shops, restaurants and evening entertainment. The town also hosts a number of festival events. In the town's vicinity are an 18-hole golf courses, a tennis club, fishing, a sailing club and horse riding. Other features of Bray are the amusement arcades and the National Sealife Centre. It has a beach of sand and shingle which is over long, fronted by an esplanade and Bray Head, which rises from the coast, has views of mountains and sea. The concrete cross at the top of Bray head was erected in 1950 for the holy year.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Bray is used as a base for walkers, and has a promenade which stretches from the harbour, with its colony of mute swans, to the base of Bray Head at the southern end. A track leads to the summit. Also used by walkers is the Cliff Walk along Bray Head out to Greystones.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: In January 2010, Bray was named the "cleanest town in Ireland" in the 2009 Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) survey of 60 towns and cities.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Tourist sites in the area include the Elizabethan-revival mansion Killruddery House (which is open to the public in the summer months), and the hill and headland at Bray Head (which has a number of walking trails). Raheen-a-Cluig, a medieval church which is catalogued as national monument, is located on the north face of Bray Head. Other religious sites and churches in the area include the Fassaroe Cross (12th century), the Holy Redeemer Church, Bray (1792), and the Gothic Revival churches of Christ Church (1863) and Bray Methodist Church (1864).


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: The Bray St. Patrick's Carnival and Parade is presented by Bray and District Chamber to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Bray also hosts a yearly silent film festival, the Killruddery Film Festival in Killruddery Gardens. Bray Jazz Festival takes place annually on the May bank holiday weekend and includes performances by jazz and world music artists.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: The annual Bray Summerfest takes place over six weeks in July and August and includes free entertainment, live music, markets, sporting events, and carnivals. Performers who have headlined include Mundy, Brian Kennedy, the Undertones, the Hothouse Flowers and Mary Black.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Bray's pubs and restaurants include the first Porterhouse bar, who brew their own ales, stouts and beers. In 2010, the Lonely Planet Guide ranked the Harbour Bar in Bray the Best Bar in the World and the Best off the Beaten Track Bar in the world. The O'Toole family owned the bar for three generations, but it was bought by the Duggan family in 2013. The Duggans also operate two seafront premises, Katie Gallagher's and the Martello, both include restaurants on site.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: There are twelve fully licensed restaurants, several unlicensed restaurants and cafes, and fast food outlets in Bray. In 2015, "The Irish Times" published a study which analysed the presence of fast food outlets in Ireland. Bray was found to have the lowest per capita concentration of the ten towns and cities included, with just 0.09 stores per 1,000 people.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Bray is home to Ireland's oldest film studios, Ardmore Studios, established in 1958, where films such as "Excalibur", "Braveheart" and "Breakfast on Pluto" have been shot. "Custer's Last Stand-up" was filmed in Bray and the town was also used to film Neil Jordan's 2012 film "Byzantium", part of which was shot in the Bray Head Inn. Neil Jordan's 1991 film "The Miracle" is set in Bray.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Authors who have lived in Bray have included James Joyce, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Molly Keane and Neil Jordan. Situated on Eglinton Road is a Carnegie Library dating from 1910. There is also another library serving the Ballywaltrim district on Boghall Road, at the southern end of the town


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: The "Bray People" newspaper is focused on the news in the local areas and neighbourhoods, as does the freesheet "Wicklow Times" (North Edition). East Coast FM Radio Station also operates locally.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Bray is home to League of Ireland football club Bray Wanderers who play at the Carlisle Grounds. It also hosts schoolboy football club Ardmore Rovers and Wolfe Tone F.C. The local Gaelic Athletic Association club's are Fergal Og's and Bray Emmets. Bray Emmets Established in 1885, the club hosts the annual All-Ireland Kick Fada Championship.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: There are a number of golf clubs and pitch & putt courses in the area, including Bray Golf Club, Dun Laoghaire Golf Club, and Old Conna Golf Club. Bray is also host to Bray Bowling Club, which trains in Fáilte Park, and there is 10 Pin Bowling at the Bray Bowling Alley.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: There is fishing in both the River Dargle and on the sea coastline, and a number of clubs locally, including Bray Head Fishing Club and Dargle Anglers Club. Other clubs and facilities in the area include Bray Wheelers Cycling Club, Brennanstown Riding School, Bray Sailing Club, Wicklow Lawn Tennis Club, founded in 1894 and located on Vevay Road, Bray Hockey Club, and Wicklow County Cricket Club.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: A short-lived greyhound racing track existed in the town from 1949 until 1955, run by the Bray Greyhound Racing Association Ltd. In December 1947, notice was given that a track would be constructed at Sunnybank but the Wicklow County Manager refused the application. However, the greyhound company continued to build the facilities and in 1949 the track opened. It was not until 1950 that the High Court ruled against the company for building without planning permission and levied a fine of £470. The dispute continued until, in 1955, the track was bought by Bray Urban Council under a compulsory purchase order. The site, consisting of almost five acres, was bought at £440 per acre, and 36 houses were built on the land.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: Thousands of people turned out on the seafront to see Olympic boxing champion Katie Taylor, return home from London in August 2012.


title: Bray, County Wicklow

text: There are approximately 13 primary schools in the Bray area, including national schools (like Saint Cronan's Boys' National School), gaelscoileanna, a co-educational day school (St. Gerard's School), and schools for special needs. Secondary schools in the area include Saint Brendan's College, Loreto Secondary School and St. Kilian's Community School and Presentation College, Bray. A number of "English as a foreign language" and third-level schools also operate locally, including Bray Institute of Further Education.


title: Shah Alam

text: Shah Alam () is a city and the state capital of Selangor, Malaysia and situated within the Petaling District and a small portion of the neighbouring Klang District. Shah Alam replaced Kuala Lumpur as the capital city of the state of Selangor in 1978 due to Kuala Lumpur's incorporation into a Federal Territory in 1974. Shah Alam was the first planned city in Malaysia after independence from Britain in 1957.


title: Shah Alam

text: Malaysia grew rapidly after its independence in 1957 under its second Prime Minister of Malaysia, Allahyarham Tun Abdul Razak Hussein. Shah Alam was once known as Sungai Renggam and was noted for its rubber and oil palm estates. Later, the same area was identified as Batu Tiga prior to Malaysian independence, and has been a centre of rubber and palm oil trade for centuries. The Sungai Renggam Plantation was earmarked for the development of a township by the Selangor government in 1963, and under the recommendations of Vlado Antolic, a town planning advisor from the United Nations, chose the present site strategically located between Kuala Lumpur and Port Klang.


title: Shah Alam

text: Its current name was chosen by the then state Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, after his late father Sultan Alam Shah. Many other monuments, buildings and even a street are named after the late Sultan. Shah Alam was opened in 1963 with the purpose of making it the new administrative centre of Selangor, replacing Kuala Lumpur which was made a Federal Territory on 1 February 1974. With the consent of the Sultan, Shah Alam was proclaimed the capital of Selangor on 7 December 1978 with an initial area of 41.68 km, and administrated by a municipal council.


title: Shah Alam

text: Shah Alam was granted city status on 10 October 2000 with Dato' Haji Abu Sujak Haji Mahmud as the first mayor. He recently served as deputy Menteri Besar, or Chief Minister of Selangor. Abu Sujak declared the vision of making Shah Alam a modern city with a unique identity of a "Bandaraya Melayu" ("Malay City"), showcasing the achievements of the Malay race in all sectors.


title: Shah Alam

text: Shah Alam is located within the district of Petaling and a portion of the district of Klang in the state of Selangor with total area 290.3 km. Due to its recent expansion, it is bordered by the cities of Subang Jaya and Petaling Jaya in the east, the district of Klang in the west, the district of Kuala Selangor and Selayang in the north, and the district of Kuala Langat in the south. Shah Alam is also one of the major cities within the Klang Valley, an area in Malaysia comprising Kuala Lumpur and its suburbs, and adjoining cities and towns in the state of Selangor, due to the Klang River flowing through it on its way westward to the Strait of Malacca.


title: Shah Alam

text: Located in Klang Valley, Shah Alam topography is mostly flat, except in the northern part of the city where it features a prominent rolling hill.


title: Shah Alam

text: Shah Alam has a similar urban layout to Petaling Jaya or Subang Jaya with housing areas occupying most of the city (55.2 km) and commercial centres scattered around the different 'Seksyen' (sections). There are 56 sections in total. Generally Shah Alam can be divided into three parts; the north, central and south parts. North Shah Alam consists of 18 Sections including Sections U1 and U2 and Kampung Melayu Subang. The Central Shah Alam is where all the state administrative buildings and agencies are situated. It consists of Section 1 until Section 24 (seen in the map as beige coloured areas). South Shah Alam consists of 12 sections including Section 25 (Sri Muda), Section 30 (Jalan Kebun), Section 31 (Kota Kemuning) and Section 32 (Bukit Rimau). In the map, south Shah Alam is seen as the light purple coloured areas.


title: Shah Alam

text: The city has a number of shopping malls ("Aeon Shah Alam Seksyen 13", "Plaza Alam Sentral", (also known as PAS), "SACC Mall", "Plaza Shah Alam" (formerly known as Shah Alam Mall, also known as Plaza Masalam), "Ole-Ole Seksyen 18", "Central i-City Mall", "Anggerik Mall and Kompleks PKNS"). Vibrant commercial areas are situated mostly at the city centre ("Seksyen 14"), "Seksyen 13" and "Seksyen 9".


title: Shah Alam

text: All of the main roads and streets in Shah Alam including the new townships such as Setia Alam and Kota Kemuning have signs with their names shown in both Roman and Jawi scripts.


title: Shah Alam

text: As with other cities across Peninsular Malaysia, Shah Alam experiences a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen climate classification "Af"). Temperatures are consistent throughout the year with an average high temperature of 31.9 °C and an average low temperature of 23.2 °C. The city is warmest in the month of March, and experiences heavy rains and showers during the month of November as the northeast monsoon moves in from October to March. Overall the climate is fairly humid.


title: Shah Alam

text: The Selangor state government's decision to develop the present land into a township saw the formation of the Shah Alam Town Board, a body governed by the Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Selangor (PKNS) or Selangor State Development Corporation in 1963. With the declaration of Shah Alam as the state capital by the Sultan of Selangor at the time, the Majlis Perbandaran Shah Alam (MPSA) or Shah Alam Municipal Council was formed in accordance to the Local Government Act 1976.


title: Shah Alam

text: Shah Alam is presently administrated by Shah Alam City Council () (MBSA), which is an agency under the Selangor state government. It was founded as Shah Alam Municipal Council () (MPSA) at the same time Shah Alam was declared the capital city of Selangor. Operating from a shophouse in Section 3, the council began operations on 1 January 1979 before moving twice; first to the Kompleks PKNS building on 1981 and later to a newly built 28-storey building called Wisma MPSA on 1988. With the declaration of Shah Alam's city status on 10 October 2000, the agency was upgraded into a city council. Since then, nine mayors have been appointed, with the latest being Zamani Ahmad Mansor, who have been in office since 14 June 2021.


title: Shah Alam

text: Within the Dewan Rakyat, the parliamentary constituency of (P108) is represented by Azly Yusof of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) while the southern part of the city - (P111) is represented by Mohamad Sabu of the Pakatan Harapan (PH), both of them are from AMANAH. Currently there is a number of State Assembly located in the administrative area of MBSA, namely YB Rodziah, YB Zawawi Mughni, YB Najwan Halimi etc.


title: Shah Alam

text: Shah Alam economy consists of government-related for the state government as it's the capital of Selangor, outside of government, Shah Alam major economy are mostly in the manufacturing sector followed by services.


title: Shah Alam

text: The Malaysian supermarket chain Giant Hypermarket is headquartered at the Giant Hypermarket Shah Alam Stadium in Shah Alam.


title: Shah Alam

text: Manufacturing plays a big role in Shah Alam economy, it predates Shah Alam existence, most of them are concentrated in the Batu Tiga area and Seksyen 26, 27, and 28. Major plant include CSR Sugar Refinery, Fraser and Neave, Panasonic-Matsushita and more.


title: Shah Alam

text: Shah Alam also features few automotive industry operation, most notably Volvo being the first and the oldest surviving automobile assembly plant in Malaysia. Proton was founded in Shah Alam and has it headquarters here. PROTON still operates their Shah Alam assembly plant despite having built a bigger assembly plant in Tanjung Malim, Perak. Toyota (under UMW) has an assembly plant here as well.


title: Shah Alam

text: The Universiti Teknologi MARA ("UiTM", formerly known until 1996 as "Institut Teknologi MARA" or "ITM") is located nearby the state capital. The whole university area occupies an entire section on the western hills of the city known as Seksyen 1. At Seksyen 17, there is also a branch campus of UiTM called INTEC UiTM (International Education College), where its students undergo preparation programmes for overseas studies. INTEC UiTM is the only UiTM campus where non-bumiputra students are accepted for admission.


title: Shah Alam

text: Other institutions of higher learning in Shah Alam include University of Selangor, Management and Science University (MSU), and its affiliate college, MSU College, Shah Alam also has several industrial-related education centres namely Shah Alam Polytechnic (or Politeknik Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah), CIAST, and ADTEC.


title: Shah Alam

text: Shah Alam is also served by many primary and secondary schools such as SK Bukit Rimau and SMK Kota Kemuning. In some cases, the maximum capacity of students enrolled in schools exceeds the number of potential students in the residential areas. For example, in Taman Alam Megah, Taman Bunga Negara, and Taman Bukit Saga, which are situated in Section 27 and Section 28, there are three secondary schools and seven primary schools. In contrast, in Section 16 and 17, the only secondary school there is Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Seksyen 16. Currently, Shah Alam has 23 secondary schools, 1 technical school, 1 vocational school, and 37 primary schools. The SMJK Chung Hwa is the only national-type secondary school within the city.


title: Shah Alam

text: Shah Alam is well connected to other main cities in Klang Valley via a network of major highways, namely the Federal Highway, New Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE), Shah Alam Expressway (KESAS), Guthrie Corridor Expressway (GCE), North–South Expressway Central Link (ELITE) and the newest highway Kemuning–Shah Alam Highway (LKSA). Highways also connect the city to two major airports. The Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) located 30 km south of the city serves international flights and is connected via the ELITE highway, while the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang caters to domestic flights and is connected via the Federal Highway. Major roads within the city are connected via roundabouts that divide the city into different Sections. Each Section contain a network of local roads named according to a chosen theme; for example, Section 20's roads are named after animals. Shah Alam is also notable for being the only city in Malaysia to have its own route numbering for the road in the city.


title: Shah Alam

text: The KTM Komuter commuter train service provides for residents who use public transportation to other major cities, connecting Shah Alam via the Tanjong Malim–Port Klang Route. This route stops at three stations within Shah Alam: the Shah Alam Komuter station situated at the southern part of the city in Section 19, the Padang Jawa Komuter station at Section 17 and the Sungai Buloh Komuter station at Section U20. Another KTM Komuter station located at the outskirts of Shah Alam is the Batu Tiga Komuter station situated near UEP Subang Jaya in Batu Tiga. Residents would then transfer to different routes at the KL Sentral station and Subang Jaya station which provides interchange station with LRT Kelana Jaya Line.


title: Shah Alam

text: Shah Alam is also served by the Prasarana's Kelana Jaya line, providing rapid transit access for people in Taman Alam Megah via the Alam Megah LRT station and Subang Alam LRT station.


title: Shah Alam

text: Buses and taxis provide public transport in commercial areas in the city. A bus and taxi hub is located at Section 17, providing offices for several mini buses, express buses and taxi companies as well as rental car services. This hub also provides for passengers that travel on express bus services to major cities throughout Peninsular Malaysia.


title: Shah Alam

text: Shah Alam is served with many private clinics that exist in every part and residential parks in the city. The main government-owned clinic, on the other hand, is located in Section 7 and known as "Klinik Kesihatan Shah Alam" (Shah Alam Health Clinic). Another government-owned clinic is located in Section 19.


title: Shah Alam

text: A government-owned hospital; Shah Alam Hospitalwas opened on 5 October 2015 after a four-year delay. The hospital costs MYR 565 million and will also be used as a teaching hospital for undergraduate and post-graduate medical students. It is located beside the government-owned clinic in Section 7.


title: Shah Alam

text: There are seven private hospitals in Shah Alam: KPJ Selangor Specialist Hospital, Salam Shah Alam Specialist Hospital, Avisena Specialist Hospital, Avisena Women's & Children's Specialist Hospital, Hospital Umra, Columbia Asia Extended Care Hospital, and Columbia Asia Bukit Rimau.


title: Shah Alam

text: As of 2010, the city has a population of 541,306. The following ethnic group composition is based on Department of Statistics Malaysia 2010 census.


title: Shah Alam

text: Shah Alam is most famous for its mosque, the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Mosque. It is also known as the Blue Mosque and has been claimed to be the largest mosque in Malaysia, and one of the largest in Southeast Asia. The mosque has the capacity to accommodate 24,000 worshippers at one time. Its distinguishing feature is its large blue and silver dome, which measures 51.2 m (167 ft) in diameter and reaches 106.7 m (350 ft) above ground level. The mosque has four minarets erected at the corners, each minaret is 142.3 m (460 ft) tall. The mosque was commissioned by the late Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz when he declared Shah Alam as the new capital of Selangor on 14 February 1974. Construction of the mosque was completed on 11 March 1988. As the capital of Selangor, Islam is the religion preferred by a majority of Shah Alam residents.


title: Shah Alam

text: Buddhist Missionary Society Malaysia (BMSM)'s Samadhi Vihara is distinct with its iconic lotus-top Shrine Hall. Since its completion in 2012, Samadhi Vihara serves a premier Dhammaduta centre for Buddhists in the south western part of Klang Valley. It is a landmark development at Section U12, Bukit Raja, Shah Alam. As the only Theravadin-based Vihara (Buddhist Temple) in the vicinity of Klang and Shah Alam, it has grown in popularity with its regular Dhamma programme and activities.


title: Shah Alam

text: The Blue Mosque overlooks the Garden of Islamic Arts, a landscaped park inspired by the Quranic Garden of Paradise. This 14 hectares of spiritual sanctuary houses nine galleries exhibiting a rich array of Islamic arts such as calligraphy, sculptures, paintings and architecture. The site is occasionally used for traditional Islamic performances.


title: Shah Alam

text: The Selangor State Museum ("Sultan Alam Shah Museum") displays many treasures and artefacts related to the history of Selangor. Adjacent to the museum is the former Selangor State Library ("Perpustakaan Raja Tun Uda"). The Selangor Islamic Arts Complex ("Kompleks Kesenian Islam Selangor" or "Riyadh Fannil Islam") is situated nearby, housing many Islamic masterpieces and creativities such as a variety of Islamic calligraphy, known as "khat", and a number of precious treasures. An Islamic Art College is located within the Complex. At the banks of the Lake Gardens, an art gallery and performance centre called "Laman Budaya" is located, where exhibitions and shows regularly take place.


title: Shah Alam

text: The city is surrounded by many parks and gardens, such as the Shah Alam Lake Gardens (developed around seven artificial lakes), the Shah Alam National Botanical Park and the Kota Kemuning Lakeside Park situated in Kota Kemuning.


title: Shah Alam

text: Shah Alam has a fully equipped sports complex known as Kompleks Sukan Shah Alam or "Shah Alam Sports Complex".


title: Shah Alam

text: Among the facilities located within the Complex is the gigantic Stadium Shah Alam or Shah Alam Stadium. Shah Alam Stadium is the home of Selangor FA. Shah Alam Stadium was the biggest stadium in Malaysia with 80,000 seats prior to the construction of the National Stadium, Bukit Jalil which could accommodate up to 100,000 spectators. Shah Alam Stadium was featured in a challenge in the first leg of The Amazing Race Asia Season 1 where teams had to ride go-karts around the circuit.


title: Shah Alam

text: Apart from Stadium Shah Alam, there is Stadium Melawati or the Melawati Stadium, an indoor stadium that could accommodate 40,000 people in one time. Besides sports matches, this stadium had been used for several occasions such as the final concert of Akademi Fantasia and the Perhimpunan Pekerja 2008 held by the Dewan Pemuda PAS. The grandest occasion ever held in this stadium was the boxing finals of the 1998 Commonwealth Games which saw Malaysian Sapok Biki winning a gold medal.


title: Shah Alam

text: The Shah Alam Sports Complex also includes the Pusat Akuatik Darul Ehsan or the Darul Ehsan Aquatic Centre, a Go-Kart track located within the Stadium Shah Alam parking compound, as well as the Shah Alam Extreme Park located in Section 13.


title: Shah Alam

text: In September 2016, a group of 7 men who are professionals in their own fields in football came together and formed Shah Alam Antlers F.C. (nickname Shah Alam Antlers or SAAFC). The club was formed as the founders were tired of the current football league system in Malaysia and wanted a revolution in a system that is old, unprofessional and politically corrupt. The current board also wants a club that puts the people of Shah Alam as their priority. SAAFC is currently playing their home games at the Panasonic Stadium in Seksyen 21, Shah Alam. They are currently participating in the Klang Valley League and will be hoping to climb up the ranks. Although newly formed, SAAFC already has a club membership program for their fans, a feat most 'professional' clubs in the Malaysian League do not have. The club's motto is "All Unite For The City".


title: Shah Alam

text: Uptown Shah Alam is located in Section 24 near the LKSA highway. It is a very popular place for locals where it is more than just a flea market. There are food stalls and events such as concert and games every now and then.


title: Shah Alam

text: Bon Odori is a yearly event held during Obon. It is celebrated as Japanese Buddhist custom to honour the departed (deceased) spirits of one's ancestors. In Malaysia, Bon Odori festivals are also celebrated in a smaller scale every year in Penang and at the Panasonic Sports Complex in Section 21, Shah Alam, Selangor. Held mainly to expose locals to a part of Japanese culture, the festival provides the experience of a variety of Japanese food & drinks, art and dance. Celebrations in Malaysia, especially in the cities, tend to be more oriented towards culture than to its religious origins. Admission is free and this event is organised by The Japan Club of Kuala Lumpur, The Japanese School of Kuala Lumpur and The Embassy of Japan.


title: Shah Alam

text: Wet World is known as Malaysia's largest water theme park chain. It has three venues in Malaysia, strategically located at Wet World Shah Alam, Selangor; Wet World Batu Pahat, Johor; and Wet World Air Panas, Pedas, Negeri Sembilan.


title: Lappeenranta

text: Lappeenranta (; ) is a city and municipality in the region of South Karelia, about from the Russian border and from the town of Vyborg ("Viipuri"). It is situated on the shore of the Lake Saimaa in southeastern Finland, and is one of the most significant urban centers in the whole Saimaa region, along with the towns of Imatra, Mikkeli and Savonlinna. With approximately inhabitants () Lappeenranta is the largest city in Finland, after incorporating the previous municipalities of Lappee and Lauritsala in 1967, Nuijamaa in 1989, Joutseno in 2009, and Ylämaa in 2010.


title: Lappeenranta

text: Lappeenranta, the region's centre for tourism, is the second most visited city by Russian tourists in Finland after Helsinki and it competes with Helsinki for the largest share of tax-free sales in Finland. Lappeenranta is a model for renewable energies and a clean living environment. Lappeenranta was the only Finnish city among the 14 finalists in the international Earth Hour City Challenge 2014, organized by WWF. In 2009, Lappeenranta was rated the fourth best in the comparison of the largest Finnish cities, while in the 2008 survey Lappeenranta was ranked fifth. In a survey conducted in 2011 for business representatives, Lappeenranta ranked 17th among Finnish cities in terms of image.


title: Lappeenranta

text: Opened in 1918, Lappeenranta Airport, located in the center of the city, is the oldest airport still in operation in Finland.


title: Lappeenranta

text: Pollen analysis has shown that the modern-day municipality of Lappeenranta has been continuously inhabited for at least 2,000 years. Lappeenranta's original core settlement, Lapvesi, later Lappee, was originally formed around a headland jutting into Lake Saimaa, the site of the present fortress. The public market was established here, which became so important as a trading place that general Governor Count Per Brahe the Younger proposed that the Swedish government should grant town privileges to Lapvesi. The town was chartered in 1649 by Queen Christina of Sweden. At the time, Lapvesi was an important port for tar.


title: Lappeenranta

text: Between 1721 and 1743, Lappeenranta was the capital of Kymmenegård and Nyslott County and during this period the Swedes built the fortress out in stages.


title: Lappeenranta

text: In 1741, the Battle of Villmanstrand was fought between the Swedish and Russian armies in the Russo-Swedish War of 1741–1743. The battle ended in a Russian victory. The town was pillaged, wooden structures including the provincial chancellery were burnt and the ecclesiastical archives damaged. Lappeenranta, along with a portion of Old Finland, was ceded by Sweden to Russia per the Treaty of Turku. Following the creation of the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809, Old Finland (including Lappeenranta) was joined to the Grand Duchy in 1812 as a gesture of goodwill by Alexander I of Russia.


title: Lappeenranta

text: Lappeenranta incorporated the neighbouring municipalities of Lappee and Lauritsala on 1 January 1967, Nuijamaa on 1 January 1989, Joutseno on 1 January 2009, and Ylämaa on 1 January 2010.


title: Lappeenranta

text: The name "Lappeenranta" consists of the genitive of "Lappee" (the name of the original core town) and the common noun "ranta" which means "shore". The history of Lappeenranta includes the rural municipality of Lappee and the hundred Lapvesi. The Swedish name "Villmanstrand" contains the words "vildman" meaning "wild-man" and "strand" also meaning "shore". A wild-man is depicted on Lappeenranta's coat of arms.


title: Lappeenranta

text: Located on the southern shore of Lake Saimaa, Lappeenranta's neighboring municipalities on the Finnish side are Imatra, Lemi, Luumäki, Miehikkälä, Ruokolahti and Taipalsaari, and on the Russian side, the neighbors are Seleznjovo, Svetogorsk and Kamennogorsk.


title: Lappeenranta

text: It currently has a humid continental climate of the warm-summer type (Köppen: "Dfb"), formerly in the continental subarctic zone ("Dfc") on older data. The summers are longer, although rarely hot, and usually warm. Some of the warmest summers in the country can be found here, due to its orientation: southern but inland. Being in an eastern part of Finland, the winters are often harsh but still mild.


title: Lappeenranta

text: Anchorage has some similarities by being of marine influence of hot currents and at the same time of the marginal continentality. But Lappeenranta is still able to receive heat waves that cross Central Europe in a warmer climate than cool.


title: Lappeenranta

text: Between 2000 and 2017 the temperature change was greater than the whole previous century, with +1.2 °C (higher values than Helsinki or Oulu). Since 2000 the number of warm days (> 24 °C) has become 2 per year, while the 1900 data indicates only 2 days per decade. From the first half of the twentieth century the days above 24 °C changed from rare to occasional in the second half to regular in the present century. There was also a 17.5 decrease in temperature below -1 °C for the same comparison period. 2015 was the hottest year since 1900. Having one of the less than 50 days with freezing days. Work to reduce the temperature increase has been carried out, the city is again among the best 45 cities in the world in the WWF City Challenge 2016. One of the goals is to reduce carbon dioxide by 30% by 2020 and zero emissions by 2050.


title: Lappeenranta

text: Lappeenranta is known as a summer city, mostly due to its closeness to the Lake Saimaa. Europe's 4th largest lake. The eponymous GoSaimaa (www.gosaimaa.com) provides all the touristic activities in the area. In addition, its inland location means that summers tend to be warmer and winters colder than along the coastal areas.


title: Lappeenranta

text: Lappeenranta does have a healthy winter tourism industry. Various cabins around Lake Saimaa, as well as numerous snowmobiles, Nordic skating, floating in the river, reindeer rides, paragliding, skiing and sledding tracks draw a fair number of winter visitors.


title: Lappeenranta

text: The proximity of the Russian border is increasingly evident in the number of Russian tourists visiting the city. In fact, Lappeenranta is closer to Saint Petersburg () than it is to Helsinki, the capital of Finland (). The presence of Russian tourists is noticeable by the many Russian registered cars on the streets and the use of Cyrillic letters in signs of some shops.


title: Lappeenranta

text: SaiPa is an Ice hockey team playing in the highest level in Finland, SM-liiga. SaiPa was fourth in the national Ice hockey league in the season of 2013–2014.


title: Lappeenranta

text: 2014 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship - Tournament was played Kisapuisto Ice Hall, Lappeenranta & Imatra Ice Hall during 17–27 April 2014. United States won the tournament, Czech Republic was second and Canada was the third.


title: Lappeenranta

text: Lappeenrannan NMKY is a basketball team playing in the highest level in Korisliiga and have won two championships in 2005 and 2006.


title: Lappeenranta

text: NST plays floorball in the Salibandyliiga and Rajaritarit is an American football team in the Vaahteraliiga.


title: Lappeenranta

text: Lappeenrannan Veiterä, or just Veiterä, plays in Bandyliiga and has been Finnish champions five times, including in 2017. They have been the champions for women and for girls born in 1995 and 1998. The city hosted the first ever Women's Bandy World Championship in 2004 and in 2014 the tournament was again played in Lappeenranta. The Old Boys World Cup is annually hosted in town, in 2017 for the seventh time.


title: Lappeenranta

text: In women's sports Catz Lappeenranta plays basketball and Pesä Ysit plays Finnish baseball, both in the top leagues of the nation. Catz has won Finnish national basketball championship four times in a row.


title: Lappeenranta

text: Lappeenranta is connected to neighbouring cities and municipalities by road. The city is located from Helsinki and from St. Petersburg. From Lappeenranta, the distance to Joensuu, the capital of North Karelia, is along Highway 6.


title: Lappeenranta

text: There are multiple daily train departures to destinations within Finland from the Lappeenranta and Joutseno stations and to Russia from Vainikkala station. The Allegro train service operating between Helsinki and St. Petersburg stops in Vainikkala, a village in Lappeenranta. The journey time to Helsinki is about 2 hours and St. Petersburg about 1.5 hours.


title: Lappeenranta

text: During the summer, when Lake Saimaa and the Saimaa Canal are accessible by water, there is a visa-free connection by ship from Lappeenranta to Vyborg, Russia.


title: Lappeenranta

text: The regionally owned Lappeenranta Airport is located west of the city center. The airport predominantly serves charter flights to southern Europe, the Canary Islands and Madeira.


title: Lappeenranta

text: The public transport is by bus and is called Jouko. The Jouko-buses are pink-colored and they serve 12 sub-urban lines (1, 1Z, 2, 2H, 3, 3K, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12 and 47) and 21 regional lines (100, 101, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 120, 121, 130, 131, 200, 201, 300, 301, 500, 601, 602, 603, 610, 620). Jouko has Waltti-travel card, to which you can charge a 30-day season ticket (travel zones A-D) or a value tickets, which works also in other finnish cities which do have the Waltti-ticket system. Other ways to buy a ticket in Jouko-buses are single tickets (payment with cash or credit card), mobile-tickets (PayIQ, etc.) and 24-hour ticket. Jouko has also own route-guide (https://lappeenranta.digitransit.fi/), where you can plan a route, see timetables and also see all the Jouko-buses in the map. You can also view delays, exceptions, and other releases. Jouko sub-urban transport is operated by Savonlinja. Regional lines are operated by Savonlinja, Rantanen, Vento and Mikkonen. The bus fleet consists of low-floor city buses, and the bus models are Scania Lahti Scala (9 units) (ones in Jouko-traffic built in 2010 and 2012), Volvo 8900 (7 units) (ones in Jouko-traffic built in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019) and Scania Citywide (3 units) (CNG-powered ones built in 2018 and diesel-powered one built in 2020).


title: Lappeenranta

text: Lappeenranta is known as an international university city in Finland with LUT University and LAB University of Applied Sciences which together have approximately 13,000 students from 68 countries. Lappeenranta is also a commercial centre of South-East Finland and the meeting point of the EU and Russia, from both Helsinki and St. Petersburg.


title: Lappeenranta

text: Lappeenranta has numerous schools at almost all levels of education, including the LUT University, LAB University of Applied Sciences, located in a shared Skinnarila campus of around 8000 students, the Army Academy (branch of the Finnish Defence Forces), South Karelia Vocational College and South Karelia Adult Education Centre.


title: Alpha wave

text: Alpha waves, or the alpha rhythm, are neural oscillations in the frequency range of 8–12 Hz likely originating from the synchronous and coherent (in phase or constructive) electrical activity of thalamic pacemaker cells in humans. Historically, they are also called "Berger's waves" after Hans Berger, who first described them when he invented the EEG in 1924.


title: Alpha wave

text: Alpha waves are one type of brain waves detected by electrophysiological and closely related methods, such as by electroencephalography (EEG) or magnetoencephalography (MEG), and can be quantified using quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG). They can be predominantly recorded from the occipital lobes during wakeful relaxation with closed eyes and were the earliest brain rhythm recorded in humans. Alpha waves are reduced with open eyes and sleep, while they are enhanced during drowsiness. Historically, they were thought to represent the activity of the visual cortex in an idle state. More recent papers have argued that they inhibit areas of the cortex not in use, or alternatively that they play an active role in network coordination and communication. Occipital alpha waves during periods of eyes closed are the strongest EEG brain signals.


title: Alpha wave

text: Some researchers posit that there are at least two forms of alpha waves, which may have different functions in the wake-sleep cycle.


title: Alpha wave

text: Alpha waves are present at different stages of the wake-sleep cycle. The most widely researched is during the relaxed mental state, where the subject is at rest with eyes closed, but is not tired or asleep. This alpha activity is centered in the occipital lobe, although there has been speculation that it has a thalamic origin. This wave begins appearing at around four months, and is initially a frequency of 4 waves per second. The mature alpha wave, at 10 waves per second, is firmly established by age 3.


title: Alpha wave

text: The second occurrence of alpha wave activity is during REM sleep. As opposed to the awake form of alpha activity, this form is located in a frontal-central location in the brain. The purpose of alpha activity during REM sleep has yet to be fully understood. Currently, there are arguments that alpha patterns are a normal part of REM sleep, and for the notion that it indicates a semi-arousal period. It has been suggested that this alpha activity is inversely related to REM sleep pressure.


title: Alpha wave

text: It has long been believed that alpha waves indicate a wakeful period during sleep. This has been attributed to studies where subjects report non-refreshing sleep and have EEG records reporting high levels of alpha intrusion into sleep. This occurrence is known as alpha wave intrusion. However, it is possible that these explanations may be misleading, as they only focus on alpha waves being generated from the occipital lobe.


title: Alpha wave

text: Mindfulness meditation has been shown to increase alpha wave power in both healthy subjects and patients. Practitioners of Transcendental Meditation have demonstrated a one Hertz reduction in alpha wave frequency relative to controls.


title: Alpha wave

text: Alpha wave intrusion occurs when the alpha waves appear with non-REM sleep when delta activity is expected. It is hypothesized to be associated with fibromyalgia with increased phasic alpha sleep activity correlated with clinical manifestations of fibromyalgia, such as longer pain duration.


title: Alpha wave

text: Despite this, alpha wave intrusion has not been significantly linked to any major sleep disorder, including chronic fatigue syndrome, and major depression. However, it is common in chronic fatigued patients, and may amplify the effects of other sleep disorders.


title: Alpha wave

text: Following this lapse-of-attention line of thought, a recent study indicates that alpha waves may be used to predict mistakes. In it, MEGs measured increases of up to 25% in alpha brain wave activity before mistakes occurred. This study used common sense: alpha waves indicate idleness, and mistakes are often made when a person is doing something automatically, or "on auto-pilot", and not paying attention to the task they are performing. After the mistake was noticed by the subject, there was a decrease in alpha waves as the subject began paying more attention. This study hopes to promote the use of wireless EEG technology on employees in high-risk fields, such as air traffic controlling, to monitor alpha wave activity and gauge the attention level of the employee.


title: Alpha wave

text: A study has shown that the appearance of an alpha rhythm with open eyes can be a predictor of visual information processing in working memory. It was shown that the moment of appearance of alpha activity depends on the type of stimulus in memory and the number of visual characteristics (color, shape, etc.) that it needs to keep in memory. The authors suggest that the appearance of the alpha rhythm with open eyes may indicate a temporary shutdown of visual information processing in the primary visual cortex at the moments when the subject analyzes the image in visual memory. At these moments, information is processed in the association areas of the visual cortex (hV4, V3v, VO1, VO2 areas).


title: Alpha wave

text: As demonstrated by Dr. Adrian R. M. Upton, it is possible for extraneous sources (ambient fluctuations detected with a mound of Jell-O in Upton's experiments) to cause signals to appear on an EEG readout, causing false signals to be interpreted as healthy alpha waves. This finding suggests that it is possible that a non-flat EEG could lead to the interpretation that a patient is still living when in fact he or she is long dead.


title: Alpha wave

text: Sometimes it's claimed Jell-O brainwaves are identical to a healthy adult's. That's clearly a stretch, but the Jell-O EEG readings do look pretty similar to a normal human alpha rhythm. Alpha waves are observed when a patient is awake and resting with eyes closed, and in some kinds of sleep and reversible coma. True, the Jell-O waves are a little slower and of much lower amplitude, barely within normal human limits, but that doesn't tell you much by itself. Hypoxia, encephalitis, and other medical conditions can cause reduced frequency and amplitude, as can drug use.


title: Alpha wave

text: Alpha waves were discovered by German neurologist Hans Berger, the inventor of the EEG itself. Alpha waves were among the first waves documented by Berger, along with beta waves, and he displayed an interest in "alpha blockage", the process by which alpha waves decrease and beta waves increase upon a subject opening their eyes. This distinction earned the alpha wave the alternate title of "Berger's Wave".


title: Alpha wave

text: Berger took a cue from Ukrainian physiologist Vladimir Pravdich-Neminsky, who used a string galvanometer to create a photograph of the electrical activity of a dog's brain. Using similar techniques, Berger confirmed the existence of electrical activity in the human brain. He first did this by presenting a stimulus to hospital patients with skull damage and measuring the electrical activity in their brains. Later he ceased the stimulus method and began measuring the natural rhythmic electrical cycles in the brain. The first natural rhythm he documented was what would become known as the alpha wave. Berger was very thorough and meticulous in his data-gathering, but despite his brilliance, he did not feel confident enough to publish his discoveries until at least five years after he had made them. In 1929, he published his first findings on alpha waves in the journal "Archiv für Psychiatrie". He was originally met with derision for his EEG technique and his subsequent alpha and beta wave discoveries. His technique and findings did not gain widespread acceptance in the psychological community until 1937, when he gained the approval of the famous physiologist Lord Adrian, who took a particular interest in alpha waves.


title: Alpha wave

text: Alpha waves again gained recognition in the early 1960s and 1970s with the creation of a biofeedback theory relating to brain waves (see below). Such biofeedback, referred to as a kind of neurofeedback, relating to alpha waves is the conscious elicitation of alpha brainwaves by a subject. Two researchers in the United States explored this concept through unrelated experiments. Joe Kamiya, of the University of Chicago, discovered that some individuals had the conscious ability to recognize when they were creating alpha waves, and could increase their alpha activity. These individuals were motivated through a reward system from Kamiya. The second progenitor of biofeedback is Barry Sterman, from the University of California, Los Angeles. He was working with monitoring brain waves in cats and found that, when the cats were trained to withhold motor movement, they released SMR, or mu, waves, a wave similar to alpha waves. Using a reward system, he further trained these cats to enter this state more easily. Later, he was approached by the United States Air Force to test the effects of a jet fuel that was known to cause seizures in humans. Sterman tested the effects of this fuel on the previously-trained cats, and discovered that they had a higher resistance to seizures than non-trained cats.


title: Alpha wave

text: Alpha wave biofeedback has gained interest for having some successes in humans for seizure suppression and for treatment of depression.


title: Alpha wave

text: Alpha waves again gained interest in regards to an engineering approach to the science fiction challenge of psychokinesis, i.e. control of movement of a physical object using energy emanating from a human brain. In 1988, EEG alpha rhythm was used in a brain–computer interface experiment of control of a movement of a physical object, a robot. It was the first experiment to demonstrate control of a physical object, a robot, using EEG.


title: Womanism

text: Womanism is a social theory based on the history and everyday experiences of Black women. It seeks, according to womanist scholar Layli Maparyan (Phillips), to "restore the balance between people and the environment/nature and reconcil[e] human life with the spiritual dimension". Writer Alice Walker coined the term "womanist" in a short story, "Coming Apart", in 1979. Since Walker's initial use, the term has evolved to envelop a spectrum of varied perspectives on the issues facing Black women.


title: Womanism

text: Womanist theory, while diverse, holds at its core that mainstream feminism is a movement led by white women, to serve white women's goals, and can often be indifferent to, or even in opposition to, the needs of Black women. Feminism does not inherently render white women non-racist, while womanism places anti-racism at its core. Both the empowerment of women and the upholding of Black cultural values are seen as important to Black women's existence. In this view, the very definition of "the feminine" and "femininity" must be re-examined and contextualized. While third-wave feminism shares this concern with the more recently coined term, intersectionality, the two concepts differ in the valuation they place on intersectionality within their respective theoretical frameworks. Womanism supports the idea that the culture of the woman, which in this case is the focal point of intersection as opposed to class or some other characteristic, is not an element of her identity but rather is the lens through which her identity exists. As such, a woman's Blackness is not a component of her feminism. Instead, her Blackness is the lens through which she understands her feminist/womanist identity.


title: Womanism

text: Womanist theory grew in large part out of the perceived indifference of the feminist movement towards the concerns of Black women. Early feminist activism around suffrage (first-wave feminism) in the United States largely excluded non-white women, as non-white women were not seen as feminine/female in the same ways as white women and therefore did not merit full inclusion.


title: Womanism

text: The rise of second-wave feminism brought greater inclusivity of non-white women within the movement. However, white feminists equated this inclusion with "colorblindness" and preferred to deemphasize racial issues in favor of focusing exclusively on gender concerns. An inability to reconcile this division ultimately hampered the ability of white and non-white feminists to create a functional interracial movement. As a result of this disconnect between the groups, a third-wave feminism began that incorporated the concepts of intersectionality and womanism.


title: Womanism

text: The historic exclusion of Black women from the broader feminist movement has resulted in two interpretations of womanism. Some womanists believe that the experience of Black women will not be validated by feminists to be equal to the experience of white women because of the problematic way in which some feminists treated Blackness throughout history. As such, womanists do not see womanism as an extension of feminism, but rather as a theoretical framework which exists independent of feminist theory. This is a departure from the thinking of Black feminists who have carved their own space in feminism through academia and activism.


title: Womanism

text: However, not all womanists hold this view of womanism as distinct from feminism. The earliest conception of womanism is expressed in Alice Walker's statement "womanism is to feminism as purple is to lavender". Under this rubric, the theories appear intimately tied, with womanism as the broad umbrella under which feminism falls.


title: Womanism

text: Author and poet Alice Walker first used the term "womanist" in her short story, "Coming Apart", in 1979, and later in" In Search of our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose" (1983). Walker defined a "womanist" as a Black feminist or feminist of color. The term comes from the Black folk expression of mothers to female children, 'You acting womanish', referring to grown-up behavior. The womanish girl exhibits willful, courageous, and outrageous behavior that is considered to be beyond the scope of societal norms. She goes on to say that a womanist is also:


title: Womanism

text: According to Walker, while feminism is incorporated into womanism, it is also instinctively pro-humankind; womanism is a broader category that includes feminism as a subtype. The focus of the theology is not on gender inequality, but race- and class-based oppression. She sees womanism as a theory/movement for the survival of the Black race; a theory that takes into consideration the experiences of Black women, Black culture, Black myths, spiritual life, and orality. Walker's much cited phrase, "womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender", suggests that feminism is a component beneath the much larger ideological umbrella of womanism.


title: Womanism

text: Walker's definition also holds that womanists are universalists. This philosophy is further invoked by her metaphor of a garden where all flowers bloom equally. A womanist is committed to the survival of both males and females and desires a world where men and women can coexist, while maintaining their cultural distinctiveness. This inclusion of men provides Black women with an opportunity to address gender oppression without directly attacking men.


title: Womanism

text: A third definition provided by Walker pertains to the sexuality of the women portrayed in her review of "Gifts of Power: The Writings of Rebecca Jackson". Here, she argues that the best term to describe Rebecca Jackson, a Black Shaker who leaves her husband and goes on to live with her white Shaker companion, would be a womanist, because it is a word that affirms the connection to the world, regardless of sexuality. The seemingly contrasting interpretations of womanism given by Walker validate the experiences of African-American women, while promoting a visionary perspective for the world based on said experiences.


title: Womanism

text: Much of Alice Walker's progeny admit that while she is the creator of the term, Walker fails to consistently define the term and often contradicts herself. At some points she portrays womanism as a more inclusive revision of Black feminism as it is not limited to Black women and focuses on the woman as a whole. Later in life she begins to regret this peace-seeking and inclusive form of womanism due to the constant and consistent prejudice inflicted upon Black women, specifically, whose voices had yet to be validated by both white women and Black men.


title: Womanism

text: Clenora Hudson-Weems is credited with coining the term Africana womanism. In 1995, the publication of her book, "Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves" sent shock waves through the Black nationalism community and established her as an independent thinker. Hudson-Weems rejects feminism as the theology of Africana women, that is to say women of the African diaspora, because it is philosophically rooted in Eurocentric ideals. Hudson-Weems identifies further differences between womanism and feminism being; womanism is "family-oriented" and focuses on race, class, and gender, while feminism is "female-oriented" and strictly focuses on biological sex related issues women and girls face, globally.


title: Womanism

text: She further asserts that it is impossible to incorporate the cultural perspectives of African women into the feminism ideal due to the history of slavery and racism in America. Furthermore, Weems rejects feminism's characterization of the man as the enemy. She claims that this does not connect with Africana women as they do not see Africana men as the enemy. Instead the enemy is the oppressive force that subjugates the Africana man, woman, and child. She claims that feminism's masculine-feminine binary comes from a lack of additional hardship placed on women by their circumstances (i.e. race and socio-economic) as feminism was founded to appeal to upper-class white women.


title: Womanism

text: She also distances the Africana woman from Black feminism by demarcating the latter as distinctly African-American which is in turn distinctly western. She also critiques Black feminism as a subset of feminism needing the validation of white feminists for their voices to be heard. She claims that feminism will never truly accept Black feminists, but instead relegate them to the fringes of the feminist movement.


title: Womanism

text: She ultimately claims that the matriarchs of the Black feminist movement will never be put into the same conversation as the matriarchs of the feminist movement. A large part of her work mirrors separatist Black Nationalist discourse, because of the focus on the collective rather than the individual as the forefront of her ideology. Hudson-Weems refutes Africana womanism as an addendum to feminism, and asserts that her ideology differs from Black feminism, Walker's womanism, and African womanism.


title: Womanism

text: Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi is a Nigerian literary critic who in 1985 published the article "Womanism: The Dynamics of the Contemporary Black Female Novel in English", describing her interpretation of womanism. She asserts that the womanist vision is to answer the ultimate question of how to equitably share power among the races and between the sexes. She arrived at her interpretation of the term independently of Alice Walker's definition, yet there are several overlaps between the two ideologies. In alignment with Walker's definition focusing on Blackness and womanhood, Ogunyemi writes, "black womanism is a philosophy that celebrates black roots, the ideals of black life, while giving a balanced presentation of black womandom".


title: Womanism

text: Rather than citing gender inequality as the source of Black oppression, Ogunyemi takes a separatist stance much like Hudson-Weems, and dismisses the possibility of reconciliation of white feminists and Black feminists on the grounds of the intractability of racism. She uses a few examples of how feminists write about Blackness and African Blackness specifically to make salient the need for an African conception of womanism. These critiques include the use of Blackness as a tool to forward feminist ideals without also forwarding ideals related to Blackness, the thought that western feminism is a tool which would work in African nations without acknowledging cultural norms and differences, and a co-opting of things that African women have been doing for centuries before the western notion of feminism into western feminism.


title: Womanism

text: Ogunyemi finds her conception of womanism's relationship with men at the cross roads of Walker's and Hudson Weems'. Walker's expresses a communal opportunity for men while acknowledging how they can be dangerous to the womanist community. Hudson-Weems' conception refuses to see the Africana man as an enemy, disregarding the harm that Africana men have imparted on to the community.


title: Womanism

text: Womanism has various definitions and interpretations. At its broadest definition, it is a universalist ideology for all women, regardless of color. A womanist is, according to Walker's 1979 story "Coming Apart", an African-American heterosexual woman willing to utilize wisdom from African-American lesbians about how to improve sexual relationships and avoid being sexually objectified. In the context of men's destructive use of pornography and their exploitation of Black women as pornographic objects, a womanist is also committed to "the survival and wholeness of an entire people, male and female" through confronting oppressive forces.


title: Womanism

text: Walker's much cited phrase, "womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender", suggests that Walker considers feminism as a component of the wider ideological umbrella of womanism. It focuses on the unique experiences, struggles, needs, and desires of not just Black women, but all women of color in addition to critically addressing the dynamics of the conflict between the mainstream feminist, the Black feminist, the African feminist, and the Africana womanist movement. However, there is Black nationalist discourse prevalent within womanist work and for this reason scholars are divided between associating womanism with other similar ideologies such as Black feminism and Africana womanism or taking the stance that the three are inherently incompatible.


title: Womanism

text: The Black feminist movement was formed in response to the needs of women who were racially underrepresented by the Women's Movement and sexually oppressed by the Black Liberation Movement. Black feminist scholars assert that African-American women are doubly disadvantaged in the social, economic, and political sphere, because they face discrimination on the basis of both race and gender. Black women felt that their needs were being ignored by both movements and they struggled to identify with either based on race or gender. African-American women who use the term Black feminism attach a variety of interpretations to it.


title: Womanism

text: One such interpretation is that Black feminism addresses the needs of African-American women that the feminism movement largely ignores. Feminism, as Black feminist theorist Pearl Cleage defines it, is "the belief that women are full human beings capable of participation and leadership in the full range of human activities—intellectual, political, social, sexual, spiritual, and economic". With this definition, the feminist agenda can be said to encompass different issues ranging from political rights to educational opportunities within a global context. The Black feminist agenda seeks to streamline these issues and focuses on those that are the most applicable to African-American women.


title: Womanism

text: Clenora Hudson-Weems's Africana womanism arose from a nationalist Africana studies concept. In "Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves", Hudson-Weems explores the limitations of feminist theory and explains the ideas and activism of different African women who have contributed to womanist theory. At its core, Africana womanism rejects feminism because it is set up in a way as to promote the issues of white women over the issues of Black women. Hudson-Weems argues that feminism will never be okay for Black women due to the implications of slavery and prejudice.


title: Womanism

text: Weems professes womanism is separate from other feminism in that it has a different agenda, different priorities, and "focuses on the unique experiences, struggles, needs, and desires of Africana women." She further asserts that the relationship between a Black man and a Black woman is significantly different from the relationship between a white man and a white woman, because the white woman battles the white man for subjugating her, but the black woman battles all oppressive forces that subjugate her, her children, and the black man.


title: Womanism

text: She further asserts that racism forced African-American men and African-American women to assume unconventional gender roles. In this context, the desire of mainstream feminism to dismantle traditional gender roles becomes inapplicable to the Black experience. Unlike womanism, though closely related, Africana womanism is an ideology designed specifically with women of African descent in mind. It is grounded in African culture and focuses on the unique struggles, needs, and desires of African women. Based on this reasoning, Africana womanism posits race- and class-based oppression as far more significant than gender-based oppression.


title: Womanism

text: In her introduction to "The Womanist Reader", Layli Phillips contends that despite womanism's characterization, its main concern is not the Black woman per se but rather the Black woman is the point of origin for womanism. The basic tenets of womanism includes a strong self-authored spirit of activism that is especially evident in literature. Womanism has been such a polarizing movement for women that it has managed to step outside of the Black community and extend itself into other non-white communities. "Purple is to Lavender" illustrates this through experiences that Dimpal Jain and Caroline Turner discuss.


title: Womanism

text: Some scholars view womanism as a subcategory of feminism while others argue that it is actually the other way around. Purple is to Lavender explores the concept that womanism is to feminism as purple is to lavender, that feminism falls under the umbrella of womanism. In "Purple is to Lavender", Dimpal Jain and Caroline Turner discuss their experiences as non-white women in faculty. They experienced a great deal of discrimination because they were minorities. Jain is South Asian, while Caroline identifies as Filipino.


title: Womanism

text: They go on to describe the concept of "The Politics of Naming" which shapes the reason for why they prefer womanism as opposed to feminism Jain states: "I knew that the term feminism was contested and that I did not like how it fit in my mouth. It was uncomfortable and scratchy, almost like a foreign substance that I was being forced to consume as the white women continued to smile with comforting looks of familiarity and pride"


title: Womanism

text: Here Turner makes it well known that she feels as though feminism is something that is forced upon her. She feels like she cannot completely identify with feminism. It is also important to note Jain's statement that, "The crux of the politics of naming is that names serve as identifiers and are not neutral when attached to social movements, ideas, and groups of people. Naming and labeling become politicized acts when they serve to determine any type of membership at a group level."


title: Womanism

text: This statement illustrates that if an individual identifies with feminism they may do so for particular reasons. However, those reasons may not be evident to the general public because of the connotation that the word feminism brings with it in terms of social movements, ideas, and groups of people. Individuals want something to identify with that expresses and supports their beliefs holistically. They want something that they can embrace to the fullest without any hint of regret. Similarly, Alice Walker even states: "I don't choose womanism because it is 'better' than feminism ... I choose it because I prefer the sound, the feel, the fit of it... because I share the old ethnic-American habit of offering society a new word when the old word it is using fails to describe behavior and change that only a new word can help it more fully see"


title: Womanism

text: For a majority of Black women feminism has failed to accurately and holistically describe them as individuals to the world that surrounds them. They feel as though it takes something new that is not already bound to a predetermined master in order to capture this new movement. Womanism is something that Alice Walker can completely identify with without having second thoughts; it feels natural to her. Feminism does not. When distinguishing between feminism and womanism it is important to remember that many women find womanism easier to identify with. In addition, a key component of a womanist discourse is the role that spirituality and ethics has on ending the interlocking oppression of race, gender, and class that circumscribes the lives of African-American women.


title: Womanism

text: Womanist literature and activism are two areas that are largely interpolated, with each having a considerable effect on the other. A major tenet of womanist literature and activism is the idea that Black activists and Black authors should separate themselves from the feminist ideology. This stems from assertions by Kalenda Eaton, Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi, and numerous other womanist theologians that the goal of a womanist should be to promote the issues affecting not just Black women, but Black men and other groups that have been subjected to discrimination or impotence. In the words of Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi, a white woman writer may be a feminist, but a Black woman writer is likely to be a womanist. That is, she recognizes that along with battling for sexual equality, she must also incorporate race, economics, culture, and politics within her philosophy.


title: Womanism

text: In Kalenda Eaton's, "Womanism, Literature and the Transformation of the Black Community", Black women writers are portrayed as both activists and visionaries for change in the Black Community following the Civil Rights Movement. She interweaves the historical events of African-American history with the development of Afro-Politico womanism in a bid to create a haven for Black female activism within the Black community. This Afro-Politico womanism veers from the traditional feminist goal of gender equality within a group and rather seeks to fight for the men and women whose civil rights are infringed upon. While Eaton takes the stance that Black women were largely excluded from the more prominent positions within the Black Movement, she argues that Black women activists had the greatest effect in small-scale grassroots protests within their communities.


title: Womanism

text: Using various characters from Toni Morrison's "Song of Solomon", Alice Walker's "Meridian", Toni Cade Bambara's "The Salt Eaters", and Paule Marshall's "The Chosen Place, the Timeless People" as symbols of the various political agendas and issues that were prevalent within The Black Movement, Eaton draws upon the actions of the protagonists to illustrate solutions to the problems of disgruntlement and disorganization within the movement. Often the main task of these literary activists was to empower the impoverished masses—defined by Eaton as mainly Southern African-Americans, and they used the Black middle class as a model for the possibility of social mobility within the African-American community. A common theme within womanist literature is the failure of Black women writers to identify with feminist thought. Womanism becomes the concept that binds these novelists together.


title: Womanism

text: Audre Lorde in "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House" criticizes second-wave feminism, arguing that women were taught to ignore their differences, or alternately to let their differences divide them. Lorde never used the word "womanist" or "womanism" in her writing or in descriptions of herself, but her work has helped to further the concept. As she pointed out, traditional second-wave feminism often focused too narrowly on the concerns of white, heterosexual women, with the concerns of Black women and lesbians often being ignored.


title: Womanism

text: Womanist spirituality has six identifying characteristics—it is eclectic, synthetic, holistic, personal, visionary, and pragmatic. It draws from its resources and uses the summation of said resources to create a whole from multiple parts. Although it is ultimately defined by self, womanist spirituality envisions the larger picture and exists to solve problems and end injustice. Emilie Townes, a womanist theologian, further asserts that womanist spirituality grows out of individual and communal reflection on African-American faith and life. She explains that it is not grounded in the notion that spirituality is a force but rather a practice separate from who we are moment by moment.


title: Womanism

text: One of the main characteristics of womanism is its religious aspect, commonly thought of as Christian. This connotation portrays spiritual Black womanists as "church going" women who play a vital role in the operation of the church. In William's article "Womanist Spirituality Defined" she discusses how womanist spirituality is directly connected to an individual's experiences with God. For instance, Williams declares, "the use of the term spirituality in this paper speaks of the everyday experiences of life and the way in which we relate to and interpret God at work in those experiences".


title: Womanism

text: This connotation is disputed in Monica Coleman's Roundtable Discussion: "Must I Be a Womanist?" where she focuses on the shortcomings of womanism that result from how individuals have historically described womanism. This holistic discussion of womanism is the result of a roundtable discussion. Coleman, who initiated the discussion, describes her thoughts on why she prefers Black feminism as opposed to womanism, and she also discusses the limited scope that womanist religious scholarship embodies. Coleman offers deep insight into the spiritual aspect of womanism when she declares that, "Intentionally or not, womanists have created a Christian hegemonic discourse within the field".


title: Womanism

text: Here Coleman argues that the majority of womanists have defined womanist spirituality as Christian. A specific example of this occurs in Walker's "Everyday Use", when the mother suddenly gains the courage to take a stand against her spoiled daughter as she declares, "When I looked at her like that something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the soles of my feet. Just like when I'm in church and the spirit of God touches me and I get happy and shout".


title: Womanism

text: However, Coleman provides a counter example to this assumption, writing: "How, for example, might a womanist interpret the strength Tina Turner finds in Buddhism and the role her faith played in helping her to leave a violent relationship?" Coleman believes that the assumption of Christianity as the default in womanism is a limited view. She asserts that Womanist religious scholarship has the ability to spread across a variety of paradigms and traditions, and can represent and support a radical womanist spirituality.


title: Womanism

text: Womanist ethics is a religious discipline that examines the ethical theories concerning human agency, action, and relationship. At the same time, it rejects social constructions that have neglected the existence of a group of women that have bared the brunt of injustice and oppression. Its perspective is shaped by the theological experiences of African-American women. With the use of analytic tools, the effect of race, class, gender, and sexuality on the individual and communal perspective is examined. Womanist ethic provides an alternative to Christian and other religious ethics while utilizing the elements of critique, description, and construction to assess the power imbalance and patriarchy that has been used to oppress women of color and their communities.


title: Womanism

text: Katie Cannon's "The Emergence of Black Feminist Consciousness" was the first publication to speak directly about womanist ethics. In this article, Cannon argues that the perspectives of Black women are largely ignored in various religious and academic discourses. Jacquelyn Grant expands on this point by asserting that Black women concurrently experience the three oppressive forces of racism, sexism, and classism. Black feminist theory has been used by womanist ethics to explain the lack of participation of African-American women and men in academic discourse. Patricia Collins credits this phenomenon to prevalence of white men determining what should or should not be considered valid discourse and urges for an alternative mode of producing knowledge that includes the core themes of Black female consciousness.


title: Womanism

text: A major ongoing critique about womanist scholarship is the failure of many scholars to critically address homosexuality within the Black community. Walker's protagonist in "Coming Apart" uses writings from two African-American womanists, Audre Lorde and Luisah Teish, to support her argument that her husband should stop consuming pornography, and posts quotes from lesbian poet Lorde above her kitchen sink. "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens" states that a womanist is "a woman who loves another woman, sexually and/or non-sexually", yet despite "Coming Apart" and "In Search of Our Mother's Gardens", there is very little literature linking womanism to lesbian or bisexual issues. Womanist theologian Renee Hill cites Christian influences as a source of this heterosexism and homophobia.


title: Womanism

text: Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas also sees the influence of the Black church, and its male leadership, as a reason for the community at large having little regard for queer women of color. Black feminist critic Barbara Smith blames this lack of support on the Black community's reluctance to come to terms with homosexuality. On the other hand, there is also an increase in the criticism of heterosexism within womanist scholarship. Christian womanist theologian Pamela R. Lightsey, in her book "Our Lives Matter: A Womanist Queer Theology" (2015), writes, "To many people, we are still "perverts". To many, the black pervert is the most dangerous threat to the American ideal. Because the black conservative bourgeoisie has joined the attack on our personhood, black LGBTQ persons cannot allow the discourse to be controlled such that our existence within the black community is denied or made invisible."


title: Womanism

text: An additional critique lies within the ambivalence of womanism. In African womanism, the term is associated with Black nationalist discourse and the separatist movement. Patricia Collins argues that this exaggerates racial differences by promoting homogeneous identity. This is a sharp contrast to the universalist model of womanism that is championed by Walker. The continued controversy and dissidence within the various ideologies of womanism serves only to draw attention away from the goal of ending race and gender-based oppression.


title: Vacuum-tube computer

text: A vacuum-tube computer, now termed a first-generation computer, is a computer that uses vacuum tubes for logic circuitry. Although superseded by second-generation transistorized computers, vacuum-tube computers continued to be built into the 1960s. These computers were mostly one-of-a-kind designs.


title: Vacuum-tube computer

text: The use of cross-coupled vacuum-tube amplifiers to produce a train of pulses was described by Eccles and Jordan in 1918. This circuit became the basis of the flip-flop, a circuit with two states that became the fundamental element of electronic binary digital computers.


title: Vacuum-tube computer

text: The Atanasoff–Berry computer, a prototype of which was first demonstrated in 1939, is now credited as the first vacuum-tube computer. However, it was not a general-purpose computer, being able to only solve a system of linear equations, and was also not very reliable.


title: Vacuum-tube computer

text: During World War II, special-purpose vacuum-tube digital computers such as Colossus were used to break German machine (teleprinter) ciphers known as Fish. The military intelligence gathered by these systems was essential to the Allied war effort. By the end of the war 10 Mark II COLOSSI were in use at Bletchley Park; they superseded the Heath Robinson. Each COLOSSI used 1,600 vacuum tubes (Mark I) and 2,400 vacuum tubes (Mark II). The wartime codebreaking at "BP" was kept secret until the 1970s.


title: Vacuum-tube computer

text: Also during the war, electro-mechanical binary computers were being developed by Konrad Zuse. The German military establishment during the war did not prioritize computer development. An experimental electronic computer circuit with around 100 tubes was developed in 1942, but destroyed in an air raid.


title: Vacuum-tube computer

text: In the United States, work started on the ENIAC computer late in the Second World War. The machine was completed in 1945. Although one application which motivated its development was the production of firing tables for artillery, one of the first uses of ENIAC was to carry out calculations related to the development of a hydrogen bomb. ENIAC was initially programmed with plugboards and switches instead of an electronically stored program. A post-war series of lectures disclosing the design of ENIAC, and a report by John von Neumann on a foreseeable successor to ENIAC, First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, were widely distributed and were influential in the design of post-war vacuum-tube computers.


title: Vacuum-tube computer

text: The Ferranti Mark 1 (1951) is considered the first commercial vacuum tube computer. The first mass-produced computer was the IBM 650 (1953).


title: Vacuum-tube computer

text: Vacuum-tube technology required a great deal of electricity. The ENIAC computer (1946) had over 17,000 tubes and suffered a tube failure (which would take 15 minutes to locate) on average every two days. In operation the ENIAC consumed 150 kilowatts of power, of which 80 kilowatts were used for heating tubes, 45 kilowatts for DC power supplies, 20 kilowatts for ventilation blowers, and 5 kilowatts for punched-card auxiliary equipment.


title: Vacuum-tube computer

text: Because the failure of any one of the thousands of tubes in a computer could result in errors, tube reliability was of high importance. Special quality tubes were built for computer service, with higher standards of materials, inspection and testing than standard receiving tubes.


title: Vacuum-tube computer

text: One effect of digital operation that rarely appeared in analog circuits was cathode poisoning. Vacuum tubes that operated for extended intervals with no plate current would develop a high-resistivity layer on the cathodes, reducing the gain of the tube. Specially selected materials were required for computer tubes to prevent this effect. To avoid mechanical stresses associated with warming the tubes to operating temperature, often the tube heaters had their full operating voltage applied slowly, over a minute or more, to prevent stress-related fractures of the cathode heaters. Heater power could be left on during standby time for the machine, with high-voltage plate supplies switched off. Marginal testing was built into sub-systems of a vacuum-tube computer; by lowering plate or heater voltages and testing for proper operation, components at risk of early failure could be detected. To regulate all the power-supply voltages and prevent surges and dips from the power grid from affecting computer operation, power was derived from a motor-generator set that improved the stability and regulation of power-supply voltages.


title: Vacuum-tube computer

text: Two broad types of logic circuits were used in construction of vacuum-tube computers. The "asynchronous", or direct, DC-coupled type used only resistors to connect between logic gates and within the gates themselves. Logic levels were represented by two widely separated voltages. In the "synchronous", or "dynamic pulse", type of logic, every stage was coupled by pulse networks such as transformers or capacitors. Each logic element had a "clock" pulse applied. Logic states were represented by the presence or absence of pulses during each clock interval. Asynchronous designs potentially could operate faster, but required more circuitry to protect against logic "races", as different logic paths would have different propagation time from input to stable output. Synchronous systems avoided this problem, but needed extra circuitry to distribute a clock signal, which might have several phases for each stage of the machine. Direct-coupled logic stages were somewhat sensitive to drift in component values or small leakage currents, but the binary nature of operation gave circuits considerable margin against malfunction due to drift. An example of a "pulse" (synchronous) compute was the MIT Whirlwind. The IAS computers (ILLIAC and others) used asynchronous, direct-coupled logic stages.


title: Vacuum-tube computer

text: Tube computers primarily used triodes and pentodes as switching and amplifying elements. At least one specially designed gating tube had two control grids with similar characteristics, which allowed it to directly implement a two-input AND gate. Thyratrons were sometimes used, such as for driving I/O devices or to simplify design of latches and holding registers. Often vacuum-tube computers made extensive use of solid-state ("crystal") diodes to perform AND and OR logic functions, and only used vacuum tubes to amplify signals between stages or to construct elements such as flip-flops, counters, and registers. The solid-state diodes reduced the size and power consumption of the overall machine.


title: Vacuum-tube computer

text: Early systems used a variety of memory technologies prior to finally settling on magnetic-core memory. The Atanasoff–Berry computer of 1942 stored numerical values as binary numbers in a revolving mechanical drum, with a special circuit to refresh this "dynamic" memory on every revolution. The war-time ENIAC could store 20 numbers, but the vacuum-tube registers used were too expensive to build to store more than a few numbers. A stored-program computer was out of reach until an economical form of memory could be developed. Maurice Wilkes built EDSAC in 1947, which had a mercury delay-line memory that could store 32 words of 17 bits each. Since the delay-line memory was inherently serially organized, the machine logic was also bit-serial as well.


title: Vacuum-tube computer

text: Mercury delay-line memory was used by J. Presper Eckert in the EDVAC and UNIVAC I. Eckert and John Mauchly received a patent for delay-line memory in 1953. Bits in a delay line are stored as sound waves in the medium, which travel at a constant rate. The UNIVAC I (1951) used seven memory units, each containing 18 columns of mercury, storing 120 bits each. This provided a memory of 1,000 12-character words with an average access time of 300 microseconds. This memory subsystem formed its own walk-in room.


title: Vacuum-tube computer

text: Williams tubes were the first true random-access memory device. The Williams tube displays a grid of dots on a cathode-ray tube (CRT), creating a small charge of static electricity over each dot. The charge at the location of each of the dots is read by a thin metal sheet just in front of the display. Frederic Calland Williams and Tom Kilburn applied for patents for the Williams tube in 1946. The Williams tube was much faster than the delay line, but suffered from reliability problems. The UNIVAC 1103 used 36 Williams tubes with a capacity of 1,024 bits each, giving a total random access memory of 1,024 words of 36 bits each. The access time for Williams-tube memory on the IBM 701 was 30 microseconds.


title: Vacuum-tube computer

text: Magnetic drum memory was invented in 1932 by Gustav Tauschek in Austria. A drum consisted of a large rapidly rotating metal cylinder coated with a ferromagnetic recording material. Most drums had one or more rows of fixed read-write heads along the long axis of the drum for each track. The drum controller selected the proper head and waited for the data to appear under it as the drum turned. The IBM 650 had a drum memory of 1,000 to 4,000 10-digit words with an average access time of 2.5 milliseconds.


title: Vacuum-tube computer

text: Magnetic-core memory was patented by An Wang in 1951. Core uses tiny magnetic ring cores, through which wires are threaded to write and read information. Each core represents one bit of information. The cores can be magnetized in two different ways (clockwise or counterclockwise), and the bit stored in a core is zero or one depending on that core's magnetization direction. The wires allow an individual core to be set to either a one or a zero and for its magnetization to be changed by sending appropriate electric current pulses through selected wires. Core memory offered random access and greater speed, in addition to much higher reliability. It was quickly put to use in computers such as the MIT/IBM Whirlwind, where an initial 1,024 16-bit words of memory were installed replacing Williams tubes. Likewise the UNIVAC 1103 was upgraded to the 1103A in 1956, with core memory replacing Williams tubes. The core memory used on the 1103 had an access time of 10 microseconds.


title: Frederick Sanger

text: Frederick Sanger (; 13 August 1918 – 19 November 2013) was an English biochemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry twice. He is one of only three people to have done so in the same category (the others being John Bardeen in physics and Karl Barry Sharpless in chemistry), and one of five persons with . He won the 1958 Prize for his research in determining the structure of numerous proteins, most importantly insulin, and shared half the 1980 Prize with Walter Gilbert for the invention of the first-ever DNA sequencing technique, still in broad use today.


title: Frederick Sanger

text: Frederick Sanger was born on 13 August 1918 in Rendcomb, a small village in Gloucestershire, England, the second son of Frederick Sanger, a general practitioner, and his wife, Cicely Sanger (née Crewdson). He was one of three children. His brother, Theodore, was only a year older, while his sister May (Mary) was five years younger. His father had worked as an Anglican medical missionary in China but returned to England because of ill health. He was 40 in 1916 when he married Cicely, who was four years younger. Sanger's father converted to Quakerism soon after his two sons were born and brought up the children as Quakers. Sanger's mother was the daughter of an affluent cotton manufacturer and had a Quaker background, but was not a Quaker.