title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Despite its advantages, the use of natural gas vehicles faces several limitations, including fuel storage and infrastructure available for delivery and distribution at fueling stations. CNG must be stored in high pressure cylinders (), and LNG must be stored in cryogenic cylinders (). These cylinders take up more space than gasoline or diesel tanks that can be molded in intricate shapes to store more fuel and use less on-vehicle space. CNG tanks are sometimes located in the vehicle's trunk or pickup bed, reducing the space for other cargo. This problem has been solved by installing the tanks under the vehicle's body or on the roof (typical for buses), leaving cargo areas free. As with alternative fuels, other barriers to the widespread use of NGVs are natural gas distribution to and at fueling stations and the lower number of CNG and LNG stations than liquid fuels.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Other challenges include: relatively expensive and environmentally insensitive but convenience-seeking private individuals; good profits and taxes extractable from small-batch sales of value-added, branded petrol and diesel fuels via established trade channels and oil refiners; resistance and safety concerns to increasing gas inventories in urban areas; dual-use of utility distribution networks originally built for home gas supply and allocation of network expansion costs; reluctance, effort and costs associated with switching; prestige and nostalgia associated with petroleum vehicles; fear of redundancy and disruption. A particular challenge may be that refiners are currently set up to produce a certain fuel mix from crude oil. Aviation fuel is likely to remain the fuel of choice for aircraft due to their weight sensitivity for the foreseeable future.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: The Asia-Pacific region leads the world with 6.8 million vehicles, followed by Latin America with 4.2 million. In Latin America, almost 90% of NGVs have bi-fuel engines, allowing these vehicles to run on either gasoline or CNG. In Pakistan, almost every vehicle converted to (or manufactured for) alternative fuel use typically retains the capability of running on gasoline.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: As of 2016, the U.S. had a fleet of 160,000 NG vehicles, including 3,176 LNG vehicles. Other countries where natural gas-powered buses are popular include India, Australia, Argentina, Germany, and Greece. In OECD countries, there are around 500,000 CNG vehicles. Pakistan's market share of NGVs was 61.1% in 2010, follow by Armenia with more than 77% (2014), and Bolivia with 20%. The number of NGV refueling stations has also increased to 18,202 worldwide as of 2010, up 10.2% from the previous year.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: An increasing number of vehicles worldwide are being manufactured to run on CNG by major carmakers. Until recently, the Honda Civic GX was the only NGV commercially available in the US market. More recently, Ford, General Motors and Ram Trucks have bi-fuel offerings in their vehicle lineup. In 2006, the Brazilian subsidiary of FIAT introduced the Fiat Siena Tetra fuel, a four-fuel car that can run on natural gas (CNG).


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Existing gasoline-powered vehicles may be converted to run on CNG or LNG, and can be dedicated (running only on natural gas) or bi-fuel (running on either gasoline or natural gas). However, an increasing number of vehicles worldwide are being manufactured to run on CNG. Until recently, the now-discontinued Honda Civic GX was the only NGV commercially available in the US market. More recently, Ford, General Motors and Ram Trucks have bi-fuel offerings in their vehicle lineup. Ford's approach is to offer a bi-fuel prep kit as a factory option and then have the customer choose an authorized partner to install the natural gas equipment. Choosing GM's bi-fuel option sends the HD pickups with the 6.0L gasoline engine to IMPCO in Indiana to upfit the vehicle to run on CNG. Ram currently is the only pickup truck manufacturer with a truly CNG factory-installed bi-fuel system available in the U.S. market.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Outside the U.S. GM do Brasil introduced the Multipower engine in 2004, which was capable of using CNG, alcohol and gasoline (E20-E25 blend) as fuel. It was used in the Chevrolet Astra 2.0 model 2005, aimed at the taxi market. In 2006, the Brazilian subsidiary of FIAT introduced the Fiat Siena Tetra fuel, a four-fuel car developed under Magneti Marelli of Fiat Brazil. This automobile can run on natural gas (CNG); 100% ethanol (E100); E20 to E25 gasoline blend, Brazil's mandatory gasoline; and pure gasoline. However, it is no longer available in Brazil but is used in other neighboring countries.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: In 2015, Honda announced its decision to phase out the commercialization of natural-gas powered vehicles to focus on the development of a new generation of electrified vehicles such as hybrids, plug-in electric cars and hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles. Since 2008, Honda sold about 16,000 natural-gas vehicles, mainly to taxi and commercial fleets.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Though LNG and CNG are both considered NGVs, the technologies are vastly different. Refueling equipment, fuel cost, pumps, tanks, hazards, and capital costs are different.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: One thing they share is that due to engines made for gasoline, computer-controlled valves to control fuel mixtures are required for both of them, often being proprietary and specific to the manufacturer. The on-engine technology for fuel metering is the same for LNG and CNG.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: CNG, or compressed natural gas, is stored at high pressure, . The required tank is more massive and costly than a conventional fuel tank. Commercial on-demand refueling stations are more expensive to operate than LNG stations because of the energy required for compression; the compressor requires 100 times more electrical power. However, slow-fill (many hours) can be cost-effective with LNG stations [missing citation - the initial liquefaction of natural gas by cooling requires more energy than gas compression]. The time to fill a CNG tank varies greatly depending on the station. Home refuels typically fill at about 1 kg/h (0.4 GGE/h). At gas stations, where the pressure is greatly higher, it is possible to refill a 25 kg (10 GGE) tank in 5–10 minutes. Also, because of the lower energy density, the CNG range is lower compared to LNG. Gas composition and throughput allowing, it should be feasible to connect commercial CNG fueling stations to city gas networks or enable home fueling of CNG vehicles directly using a gas compressor. Similar to a car battery, the CNG tank of a car could double as a home energy storage device, and the compressor could be powered at times when there is excess/ free renewable electrical energy.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: LNG, or liquified natural gas, is natural gas that has been cooled to the point that it is a cryogenic liquid. Its liquid state is still more than twice as dense as CNG. LNG is either dispensed from bulk storage tanks or made locally from utility pipes at LNG fuel stations. Because of its cryogenic nature, it is stored in specially designed insulated tanks. Generally speaking, these tanks operate at fairly low pressures (about ) when compared to CNG. A vaporizer is mounted in the fuel system, turning the LNG into a gas (which may be considered low-pressure CNG). When comparing a commercial LNG station with a CNG station, utility infrastructure, capital cost, and electricity heavily favor LNG over CNG, but the availability of piped gas is more common than LNG delivery by tanker. There are existing LCNG stations (CNG and LNG), where fuel is stored as LNG, then vaporized to CNG on-demand. LCNG stations require less capital cost than fast-fill CNG stations alone but more than LNG stations.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Aside from different fuel tanks, fuel metering and computer modules, the engines in NG vehicles could be run by CNG or LNG without requiring any modification because both are forms of natural gas.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: LNG – and especially CNG – tends to corrode and wear the parts of an engine less rapidly than gasoline. Thus it is quite common to find diesel-engine NGVs with high mileages (over ). CNG also emits 20-29% less than diesel and gasoline. Emissions are cleaner, with lower emissions of carbon and lower particulate emissions per equivalent distance traveled. There is generally less wasted fuel. However, the cost (monetary, environmental, pre-existing infrastructure) of distribution, compression, and cooling must be taken into account. In addition, natural gas has a higher Octane rating than gasoline, with an octane rating of 112 RON/105 AKI for propane and 120 RON/120 AKI for methane, making it less likely to cause engine knocking.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Autogas, also known as LPG or propane, has a different chemical composition. However, it is still a petroleum-based gas produced from refining petroleum oil and has several inherent advantages and disadvantages, as well as noninherent ones. The inherent advantage of autogas over CNG is that it requires far less compression (20% of CNG cost), is denser and easier to store as at this lower pressure it is a liquid at room temperature, and thus requires far cheaper tanks (consumer) and fuel compressors (provider) than CNG. As compared to LNG, it requires no chilling (and thus less energy) or problems associated with the extreme cold such as frostbite. Like NGVs, it also has advantages over gasoline and diesel in terms of cleaner emissions and less wear on engines than gasoline. A major drawback of LPG is its safety. The fuel is volatile and flammable, and the fumes are heavier than air, which causes them to collect in a low spot in the event of a leak, making it far more hazardous to use. More care is needed in handling. Besides this, LPG (40% from Crude Oil refining) has historically been more expensive than Natural Gas, even though the energy density per weight is higher.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: In places like the US, Thailand, and India, there are five to ten times more LPG stations, thus making the fuel more accessible than NGV stations. In some countries like Poland, South Korea, and Turkey, LPG stations and autos are widespread, while NGVs are not. In addition, retail LPG fuel is considerably cheaper in some countries, such as Thailand.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Though ANG (adsorbed natural gas) has not yet been used in either providing stations nor consumer storage tanks, its low compression ( vs ) has the potential to drive down costs of NGV infrastructure and vehicle tanks.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: LNG is being evaluated and tested for over-the-road trucking, off-road, marine, and railroad applications. There are known problems with the fuel tanks and delivery of gas to the engine.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: China has been a leader in the use of LNG vehicles with over 100,000 LNG powered vehicles on the road as of 2014.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: In the United States, there were 69 public truck LNG fuel centers as of February 2015. The 2013 National Trucker's Directory lists approximately 7,000 truck stops, thus approximately 1% of US truck stops have LNG available.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: In 2013, Dillon Transport announced they were putting 25 large LNG trucks into service in Dallas, USA. They are refueling at a public LNG fuel center. The same year Raven Transportation announced they were buying 36 LNG large trucks to be fueled by Clean Energy Fuels locations and Lowe's finished converting one of its dedicated fleets to LNG fueled trucks.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: UPS had over 1200 LNG fueled trucks on the roads in February 2015. UPS has 16,000 tractor trucks in its fleet, and 60 of the new for 2014 large trucks will be placed in service in the Houston, USA area, where UPS is building its own private LNG fuel center to avoid the lines at retail fuel centers. In Amarillo, USA and Oklahoma City, USA, UPS is using public fuel centers.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Clean Energy Fuels has opened several public LNG Fuel Lanes along I-10 and claims that as of June 2014 LNG fueled trucks can use the route from Los Angeles to Houston, USA by refueling exclusively at Clean Energy Fuels public facilities. In 2014 Shell and Travel Centers of America opened the first of a planned network of U.S. truck stop LNG stations in California, USA. Per the alternative fuel fuelling centre tracking site there are 10 LNG capable public fuel stations in the greater Los Angeles area, making it the single most penetrated metro market. As of February 2015, Blu LNG has at least 23 operational LNG capable fuel centers across 8 states, and Clean Energy had 39 operational public LNG facilities.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: As can be seen at the alternative fuel fueling center tracking site, as of early 2015 there is void of LNG fuel centers, public and private, from Illinois to the Rockies. A Noble Energy LNG production plant in northern Colorado was planned to go online in first quarter 2015 and to have a capacity of 100,000 gallons of LNG per day for on-road, off-road, and drilling operations.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: American Gas & Technology pioneered the use of onsite liquefaction using van sized station to access Natural Gas from utility pipe and clean, liquefy, store and dispense it. Their stations make of LNG per day.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: In internal combustion engines, the volume of the cylinders is a common measure of the power of an engine. Thus a 2000cc engine would typically be more powerful than a 1800cc engine, but that assumes a similar air-fuel mixture is used.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: If via a turbocharger as an example, the 1800cc engine were using an air-fuel mixture that was significantly more energy dense, then it might be able to produce more power than a 2000cc engine burning a less energy-dense air-fuel mixture. However, turbochargers are both complex and expensive. Thus, it becomes clear that for high-horsepower/high-torque engines, a fuel that can inherently be used to create an energy-dense dense air-fuel mixture is preferred because a smaller and simpler engine can produce the same power.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: With traditional gasoline and diesel engines, the energy density of the air-fuel mixture is limited because the liquid fuels do not mix well in the cylinder. Further, gasoline and diesel auto-ignite at temperatures and pressures relevant to engine design. An important part of traditional engine design is designing the cylinders, compression ratios, and fuel injectors such that pre-ignition is avoided, but at the same time as much fuel as possible can be injected, become well mixed, and still have time to complete the combustion process during the power stroke.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Natural gas does not auto-ignite at pressures and temperatures relevant to traditional gasoline and diesel engine design, thus providing more flexibility in the design of a natural gas engine. Methane, the main component of natural gas, has an autoignition temperature of 580 °C, whereas gasoline and diesel autoignite at approximately 250 °C and 210 °C respectively.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: With a compressed natural gas (CNG) engine, the mixing of the fuel and the air is more effective since gases typically mix well in a short period of time. Still, at typical CNG compression pressures, the fuel itself is less energy dense than gasoline or diesel thus the result is a lower energy dense air-fuel mixture. Thus for the same cylinder displacement engine, a non-turbocharged CNG-powered engine is typically less powerful than a similarly sized gasoline or diesel engine. For that reason, turbochargers are popular in European CNG cars. Despite that limitation, the 12 litre Cummins Westport ISX12G engine is an example of a CNG capable engine designed to pull tractor/trailer loads up to showing CNG can be used in most if not all on-road truck applications. The original ISX G engines incorporated a turbocharger to enhance the air-fuel energy density.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: LNG offers a unique advantage over CNG for more demanding high-horsepower applications by eliminating the need for a turbocharger. Because LNG boils at approximately -160 °C, using a simple heat exchanger, a small amount of LNG can be converted to its gaseous form at extremely high pressure with little or no mechanical energy. A properly designed high-horsepower engine can leverage this high-pressure energy-dense gaseous fuel source to create a higher energy-density air-fuel mixture than can be efficiently created with a CNG-powered engine. Compared to CNG engines, the result is more overall efficiency in high-horsepower engine applications when high-pressure direct injection technology is used. The Westport HDMI2 fuel system is an example of a high-pressure direct injection technology that does not require a turbocharger if teamed with appropriate LNG heat exchanger technology. The Volvo Trucks 13-liter LNG engine is another example of an LNG engine leveraging advanced high-pressure technology.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Westport recommends CNG for engines 7 litres or smaller and LNG with direct injection for engines between 20 and 150 litres. For engines between 7 and 20 litres, either option is recommended. See slide 13 from their NGV BRUXELLES – INDUSTRY INNOVATION SESSION presentation


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: High horsepower engines in the oil drilling, mining, locomotive, and marine fields have been or are being developed. Paul Blomerus has written a paper concluding as much as 40 million tonnes per annum of LNG could be required to meet the global needs of the high-horsepower engines by 2025 to 2030.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: As of the end of the first quarter of 2015, Prometheus Energy Group Inc claims to have delivered over 100 million gallons (380 million litres) of LNG within the previous four years into the industrial market, and is continuing to add new customers.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: The was the world's first LNG powered container ship. LNG carriers are sometimes powered by the boil-off of LNG from their storage tanks, although Diesel powered LNG carriers are also common to minimize loss of cargo and enable more versatile refueling.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Some airplanes use LNG to power their turbofans. Aircraft are susceptible to weight; much of an aircraft's weight goes into fuel carriage. Liquified natural gas has a high specific energy (MJ/kg), a useful optimization for flight applications.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: The primary component of natural gas is methane (CH), the shortest and lightest hydrocarbon molecule. It may also contain heavier gaseous hydrocarbons such as ethane (CH), propane (CH) and butane (CH), as well as other gases, in varying amounts. Hydrogen sulfide (HS) is a common contaminant, which must be removed prior to most uses.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Combustion of one cubic meter yields 38 MJ (10.6 kWh). Natural gas has the highest energy/carbon ratio of any fossil fuel and thus produces less carbon dioxide per unit of energy.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: The major difficulty in the use of natural gas is transportation. Natural gas pipelines are economical and common on land and across medium-length stretches of water (like Langeled, Interconnector and Trans-Mediterranean Pipeline), but are impractical across large oceans. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker ships, railway tankers, and tank trucks are also used.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: CNG is typically stored in steel or composite containers at high pressure (). These containers are not typically temperature controlled but are allowed to stay at local ambient temperature. There are many standards for CNG cylinders. The most popular one is ISO 11439. For North America the standard is ANSI NGV-2.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: LNG storage pressures are typically around 3 to 10 bar. At atmospheric pressure, LNG is at a temperature of -162 °C. However, in a vehicle tank under pressure, the temperature is slightly higher (see saturated fluid). Storage temperatures may vary due to varying composition and storage pressure. LNG is far denser than even the highly compressed state of CNG. As a consequence of the low temperatures, vacuum-insulated storage tanks typically made of stainless steel are used to hold LNG.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: CNG can be stored at lower pressure in a form known as an ANG (Adsorbed Natural Gas) tank at 35 bar (500 psi, the pressure of gas in natural gas pipelines) in various sponge-like materials, such as activated carbon and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). The fuel is stored at similar or greater energy density than CNG. This means that vehicles can be refuelled from the natural gas network without extra gas compression, and the fuel tanks can be slimmed down and made of lighter, less strong materials.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Conversion kits for gasoline or diesel to LNG/CNG are available in many countries, along with the labor to install them. However, the range of prices and quality of conversion vary enormously.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Recently, regulations involving certification of installations in the USA have been loosened to include certified private companies, those same kit installations for CNG have fallen to the $6,000+ range (depending on the type of vehicle).


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Natural gas vehicles are popular in regions or countries where natural gas is abundant and where the government chooses to price CNG lower than gasoline. The use of natural gas began in the Po River Valley of Italy in the 1930s, followed by New Zealand in the 1980s, though its use has declined there. At the peak of New Zealand's natural gas use, 10% of the nation's cars were converted, around 110,000 vehicles. In the United States CNG powered buses are the favorite choice of several public transit agencies, with a fleet of more than 114,000 vehicles, mostly buses. India, Australia, Argentina, and Germany also have widespread use of natural gas-powered buses in their public transportation fleets.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Germany hit the milestone of 900 CNG filling stations nationwide in December 2011. Gibgas, an independent consumer group, estimates that 21% of all CNG filling stations in the country offer a natural gas/biomethane mix to varying ratios, and 38 stations offer pure biomethane.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Also, the Public Gas Company (DEPA) has a network of 14 stations (as of June 2020), under brand "Fisikon", with expansion plans.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Bus Éireann Introduced the first NGV on 17 July 2012. It will operate on the 216 city centre to Mount Oval, Rochestown, route until mid-August on trial being undertaken in partnership with Ervia. The Eco-city bus is made by MAN.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Natural gas traction is quite popular in Italy, due to the existence of a capillary distribution network for industrial use since the late 50s and a traditionally high retail price for petrol. As of April 2012 there were about 1500 filling stations, spread on the entire country except for the island of Sardinia, while the fleet reached 730,000 CNG vehicles at the end of 2010.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Ukraine's first compressed natural gas refueling station (CNGS) was commissioned in 1937. Today, there is a well-developed CNGS network across the country. Many buses were converted to run on CNG during the 1990s, primarily for economic reasons. The retrofitted cylinders are often visible atop the vehicle's roof and/or underneath the body. Despite their age, these buses remain in service and continue to provide reliable public transport combined with the environmental benefits of CNG.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: CNG buses are beginning to be used in the UK, e.g. by Reading Buses and Nottingham City Transport. The latter company purchased 53 double-decker gas buses between 2017 and 2018, earning them the world record for the largest fleet of CNG buses in the world. In 2019, Nottingham City Transport purchased a further 67 CNG buses.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: With the recent increase in natural gas production due to widespread use of fracking technology, many countries, including the United States and Canada, can now be self-sufficient. Canada is a substantial net exporter of natural gas, though the United States still has a net import of natural gas. Natural gas prices have decreased dramatically in the past few years and are likely to decrease further as additional production comes on line. However, the EIA predicts that natural gas prices will start increasing in a few years as the most profitable natural gas reserves are used up. Natural gas prices have decreased from US in 2008 to in 2012. It is likely therefore that natural gas-powered vehicles will be increasingly cheaper to run relative to gasoline-powered vehicles. The issue is how to finance the purchase and installation of conversion kits. Some support may be available through the Department of Energy. Private initiatives, which essentially lease the conversion equipment in exchange for slightly higher natural gas refueling, can be self-financing and offer considerable advantages to liquidity-strapped consumers.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Natural Gas has been used as a motor fuel in Canada for over 20 years. With assistance from federal and provincial research programs, demonstration projects, and NGV market deployment programs during the 1980s and 1990s, the population of light-duty NGVs grew to over 35,000 by the early 1990s. This assistance resulted in a significant adoption of natural gas transit buses as well. The NGV market started to decline after 1995, eventually reaching today's vehicle population of about 12,000.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: This figure includes 150 urban transit buses, 45 school buses, 9,450 light-duty cars and trucks, and 2,400 forklifts and ice-resurfacers. The total fuel use in all NGV markets in Canada was 1.9 petajoules (PJs) in 2007 (or 54.6 million litres of gasoline litres equivalent), down from 2.6 PJs in 1997. Public CNG refuelling stations have declined in quantity from


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: As of December 2009, the U.S. had a fleet of 114,270 compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles, 147,030 vehicles running on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and 3,176 vehicles running on liquefied natural gas (LNG). The NGV fleet is made up mostly of transit buses, but there are also some government fleet cars and vans, as well as an increasing number of corporate trucks replacing diesel versions, most notably Waste Management, Inc and UPS trucks. As of 12-Dec-2013, Waste Management has a fleet of 2000 CNG Collection trucks; as of 12-Dec-2013, UPS has 2700 alternative fuel vehicles. As of February 2011, there were 873 CNG refueling sites, 2,589 LPG sites, and 40 LNG sites, led by California with 215 CNG refueling stations in operation, 228 LPG sites and 32 LNG sites. The number of refueling stations includes public and private sites; not all are available to the public. As of December 2010, the U.S. ranked sixth in the world in terms of number of NGV stations. Currently, there are 160,000 NGVs operating in the country.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: The natural gas vehicle market is limited to fleet vehicles and other public use vehicles like minibuses in larger cities. However, the state-owned bus company RTP Of Mexico City has purchased 30 Hyundai Super Aero City CNG-Propelled buses to integrate with the existing fleet as well as to introduce new routes within the city.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: CNG vehicles are common in South America, with a 35% share of the worldwide NGV fleet, where these vehicles are mainly used as taxicabs in main cities of Argentina and Brazil. Normally, standard gasoline vehicles are retrofitted in specialized shops, which involve installing the gas cylinder in the trunk, the CNG injection system, and electronics.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: As of 2009 Argentina had 1,807,186 NGV's with 1,851 refueling stations across the nation, or 15% of all vehicles; and Brazil had 1,632,101 vehicles and 1,704 refueling stations, with a higher concentration in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Colombia had an NGV fleet of 300,000 vehicles, and 460 refueling stations as of 2009. Bolivia has increased its fleet from 10,000 in 2003 to 121,908 units in 2009, with 128 refueling stations.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Peru had 81,024 NGVs and 94 fueling stations as 2009. In Peru, several factory-built CNVs have tanks installed under the vehicle's body, leaving the trunk free. Among the models built with this feature are the Fiat Multipla, the new Fiat Panda, the Volkswagen Touran Ecofuel, the Volkswagen Caddy Ecofuel, and the Chevy Taxi. Right now, Peru has 224,035 NGVs.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Other countries with significant NGV fleets are Venezuela (226,100) as of 2017 and Chile (15,000) as of 2017.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: GM do Brasil introduced the MultiPower engine in August 2004 which was capable of using CNG, alcohol and gasoline as fuel. The GM engine has electronic fuel injection that automatically adjusts to any acceptable fuel configuration. This motor was used in the Chevrolet Astra and was aimed at the taxi market.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: In 2006 the Brazilian subsidiary of Fiat introduced the Fiat Siena Tetra fuel, a four-fuel car developed under Magneti Marelli of Fiat Brazil. This automobile can run on 100% ethanol (E100), E20 to E25 blend (Brazil's normal ethanol gasoline blend), pure gasoline (not available in Brazil), and natural gas, and switches from the gasoline-ethanol blend to CNG automatically, depending on the power required by road conditions.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Since 2003 and with the commercial success of flex cars in Brazil, another existing option is to retrofit an ethanol flexible-fuel vehicle to add a natural gas tank and the corresponding injection system. Some taxicabs in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, run on this option, allowing the user to choose among three fuels (E25, E100 and CNG) according to the current market prices at the pump. Vehicles with this adaptation are known in Brazil as tri-fuel cars.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: In 1993, CNG had become available in Delhi, India's capital, though LPG is what really took off due to its inherently far lower capital costs. Compressed Natural Gas is a domestic energy produced in Western parts of India. In India, most CNG vehicles are dual-fuelled, which means they can run both on CNG and petrol. This makes it very convenient, and users can drive long distances without worrying about the availability of natural gas (as long as petrol is available). As of December 2010, India had 1,080,000 NGVs and 560 fueling stations, many of the older ones being LPG rather than CNG. In addition, it is thought that more illegally converted LPG autos than legal ones ply the streets in India, some estimates are as high as 15 million "autos" (running the gamut of everything from LPG motored pedal bicycles to CNG buses)


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: In 1995, a lawyer filed a case with the Supreme Court of India under the Public Interest Litigation rule, which is part of the Constitution of India and enables any citizen to address the Supreme Court directly. The lawyer's case was about the health risks caused by air pollution emitted from road vehicles. The Supreme Court decided that cars in circulation after 1995 would have to run on unleaded fuel. By 1998, India was converted to 100% of unleaded fuel after the government ruled that diesel cars in India were restricted to 10,000 ppm after 1995. At the beginning of 2005, 10,300 CNG busses, 55,000 CNG three-wheelers taxis, 5,000 CNG minibuses, 10,000 CNG taxis and 10,000 CNG cars run on India's roads (1982-2008 Product-Life Institute, Geneva). The Delhi Transport Corporation currently operates the world's largest fleet of CNG buses for public transport. Currently India stands third with 3.045 million NGVs.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: By the end of 2015, Iran had the world's largest fleet of NGV at 3.5 million vehicles. The share of compressed natural gas in the national fuel basket is more than 23%. CNG consumption by Iran's transportation sector is around 20 million cubic meters per day. There are 2,335 CNG stations. The growth of NGV market in Iran has in large part been due to Iranian government intervention to decrease the society's dependence on gasoline. This governmental plan was implemented to reduce the effect of sanctions on Iran and make the nation's domestic market less dependent on imported gasoline. Iran has been manufacturing its own NGV's through local manufacturing using dedicated CNG engines which use gasoline only as a backup fuel. Also by 2012, Iranian manufacturers had the capacity to build 1.5 million CNG cylinders per year and therefore Iranian government has banned their imports to support the local manufacturers. In addition CNG in Iran costs the least compared to the rest of the world. In 2012, the Iranian government announced a plan to replace the traditional CNG cylinders with Adsorbed Natural Gas (ANG) cylinders.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Pakistan was the country with the second largest fleet of NGV with a total of 2.85 million by the end of 2011. Most of the public transportation fleet has been converted to CNG. Also, in Pakistan and India, there have been on-going (last several years now) series of CNG fuel shortages which periodically waxes and wanes, getting the fuel into a tank can be a major problem. In July 2011, petrol usage shot up 15% from the month before due to shortages. Pakistan also has reported that over 2,000 people have died in 2011 from CNG cylinder blasts, because of low quality of cylinders there. In 2012, the Pakistani government decided to gradually phase out the CNG sector, beginning by banning any new conversions to CNG and banning the manufacturing of new NGV's. In addition, the government plans to close down all refueling stations in the next three years.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Thailand has for over a 15 years run autogas taxi cabs in Bangkok, though autos and buses had erroneously labelled NGV stickers on them, when in fact, were LPG fuelled.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: Given a generous natural gas supply but relying on imported oil, the Thailand government heavily promoted alternative fuels like LPG, natural gas and ethanol to replace gasoline beginning around 2003. Yet, NGV was very slow to take off due to cheaper LPG fuel, a pre-existing LPG fleet, and the low conversion cost of local LPG conversion shops compared to factory-installed CNG or conversion. A significant effort was made when the state-controlled oil company PTT PCL built a network of natural gas refueling stations. The cost of subsidy was estimated at US$150 million in 2008.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: As the price of oil climbed rapidly, it was estimated more than 40,000 new cars and trucks powered by natural gas were purchased in six months in 2008, including many buses. That year, about half of the taxi fleet in Bangkok used LPG and was prodded to convert to CNG, with little success. Since 2008, there has been government arm-twisting to switch from LPG to CNG, with a rollout of CNG stations near Bangkok around 2007 and then upcountry in 2010, at times replacing LPG stations. Operators of used vehicles have balked at the massive conversion cost (up to quadruple that of LPG in Thailand), especially given Thailand's strong ultra-competitive domestic LPG conversion industry and retail CNG fuel cost (one and a half times). Thailand had some 700,000 LPG-fueled vehicles and 300,000 CNG fueled, with 1,000 LPG stations and 600 CNG as of 2011. Demand has increased 26% over 2011 for CNG in Thailand. As of the end of 2012, Thailand has 1,014,000 LPG fueled vehicles, and consumed 606,000 tonnes in 2012 of LPG, while 483 stations serve up some 380,000 CNG vehicles., showing that LPG conversion continues to enjoy heavy favor over NGVs despite a massive government push for CNG. CNG vehicles are more likely to be bought factory installed, while LPG is likely to be an aftermarket conversion. LNG vehicles in Thailand are almost non-existent except for lorries.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: In Malaysia, the use of compressed natural gas was originally introduced for taxicabs and airport limousines during the late-1990s, when new taxis were launched with NGV engines while taxicab operators were encouraged to send in existing taxis for full engine conversions, reducing their costs of operation. Any vehicle converted to use CNG is labelled with white rhombus "NGV" (Natural Gas Vehicle) tags, lending to the common use of "NGV" when referring to road vehicles with CNG engines. The practice of using CNG remained largely confined to taxicabs predominantly in the Klang Valley and Penang due to a lack of interest. No incentives were offered for those besides taxicab owners to use CNG engines. At the same time, government subsidies on petrol and diesel made conventional road vehicles cheaper to use in the eyes of the consumers. Petronas, Malaysia's state-owned oil company, also monopolizes the provision of CNG to road users. , Petronas only operates about 150 CNG refueling stations, most of which are concentrated in the Klang Valley. At the same time, another 50 was expected by the end of 2008.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: As fuel subsidies were gradually removed in Malaysia starting June 5, 2008, the subsequent 41% price hike on petrol and diesel led to a 500% increase in the number of new CNG tanks installed. National car maker Proton considered fitting its Waja, Saga and Persona models with CNG kits from Prins Autogassystemen by the end of 2008, while a local distributor of locally assembled Hyundai cars offers new models with CNG kits. Conversion centres, which also benefited from the rush for lower running costs, also perform partial conversions to existing road vehicles, allowing them to run on both petrol or diesel and CNG with a cost varying between RM3,500 to RM5,000 for passenger cars.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: There were about 400 CNG-fueled vehicles in Singapore in mid-2007, of which about 110 are taxis operated by Smart Automobile. By February 2008, the number has risen to 520 CNG vehicles, of which about half are taxis. All vehicles had to refuel at the sole CNG station operated by Sembcorp Gas and located on Jurong Island until the opening of the first publicly accessible CNG station at Mandai in 2008, operated by Smart Automobile. The company plans to build another four stations by 2011, by which time the company projects to operate 3,000 to 4,000 CNG taxis, and with 10,000 CNG public and commercial vehicles of other types on Singapore's roads. Sembcorp Gas opened its second CNG station a week after the Mandai station at Jalan Buroh.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: CNG is almost unheard of as a transport fuel before 2010 in the archipelago except in Jakarta, where a very relatively minor number of vehicles, most notably Transjakarta buses, use the fuel. However, since 2010, the government has emphasised using CNG for vehicle fuel and domestic consumption over wood burning (which can produce deadly methanol) and kerosene. /


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: China had 450,000 NGV's and 870 refueling stations as of 2009. China in 2012 had 1 million NGVs on the roads, 3 million forecasts for 2015, and over 2000 stations (CNG and LPG), with plans for 12,000 by 2020. Currently, China leads the World with 5 million NGVs China also has a lot of vehicles running of Petrol blended with Methanol as M15 and M85.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: For the purpose of improving air quality in the metropolitan area of Seoul, CNG buses were first introduced in July 1997. By 2014, all Seoul buses were operating on CNG. Hyundai motor developed a CNG hybrid bus with 34.5% more-fuel efficiency and 30% lower pollution compared to CNG buses. As a result, the Seoul city government plans to change to CNG hybrid buses for 2,235 low-bed disabled-friendly CNG buses in Seoul.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: CNG buses are operating in other major South Korean cities like Busan, Daegu, Daejeon, Gwangju and Incheon.


title: Natural gas vehicle

text: A new category of motorcar racing unites teams which compete with cars powered by natural gas, to demonstrate the effectiveness of natural gas as an alternative fuel. ECOMOTORI (magazine) Racing Team The magazine's team participates in the FIA Alternative Energies Cup and the Italian . In 2012, the team, led by Nicola Ventura, competed with a Fiat 500 Abarth, modified to run on natural gas with a Cavagna/Bigas fuel conversion kit and thus renamed "500 EcoAbarth". The driver is Massimo Liverani while in the role of navigator, alternate Valeria Strada, Alessandro Talmelli and Fulvio Ciervo. On October 14, 2012, at the end of the seventh Ecorally San Marino-Vatican, with three wins and second place (out of four races), the Team also won the Italian CSAI Alternative Energy Pilots and Navigators titles. On 28 October 2012, after having raced in seven European countries, collecting three wins, two second places and additional points, the team won the FIA Alternative Energies Drivers and Constructors world titles. For the first time, a methane-powered car won an FIA world title. In 2013, the team raced in the FIA Alternative Energies Cup and Championships. The "500 EcoAbarth" of Ecomotori.net dominated the season, winning five out of five titles. Thanks to the team's work, the Abarth once again won a constructors' title since its last win 46 years ago.


title: Michael Carter (actor)

text: Michael Carter (born 29 June 1947) is a Scottish actor of film, stage and television, known for portraying Gerald Bringsley in "An American Werewolf in London", Bib Fortuna in "", and Von Thurnburg in "The Illusionist".


title: Michael Carter (actor)

text: Michael Carter was born 29 June 1947, and brought up in Dumfries, Scotland, and educated at Dumfries Academy, where he was goalkeeper in the school football team. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) in London, graduating in 1969.


title: Michael Carter (actor)

text: Carter's earliest role was in the "Doctor Who" serial "The Mind of Evil" (1971), in which he played a UNIT soldier and a prisoner. He made his film debut in "An American Werewolf in London" (1981) as London Underground passenger Gerald Bringsley who is killed by the werewolf.


title: Michael Carter (actor)

text: In 1983, Carter portrayed Bib Fortuna in "Return of the Jedi" (1983) he had come to the attention of casting director Mary Selway, who saw him perform in a musical in the West End theatre section of London in the early 1980s. Director Richard Marquand had also seen and enjoyed Carter's theater work, and wanted to cast him as Fortuna; Marquand, who described Carter as a "terrific actor", was drawn to him for the role because he wanted Fortuna to be very tall, and Carter was about six feet tall. Marquand invited Carter to meet at a studio in Elstree Studios to discuss a role he was casting in a film, which Marquand would only identify by its fake working title "Blue Harvest". Carter was performing on a television series at the time. Carter's train was late and Marquand was in a meeting when he arrived, and the front desk forgot to inform Marquand that he arrived, so Carter waited for an hour without being called in. Marquand happened upon Carter as he was leaving for the day, and the meeting took place. During the 30-minute meeting, Marquand informed him the part was an alien in a science-fiction film, also describing it as a children's film, and that Carter could have the role without auditioning if he wanted it, but Marquand could not discuss any details about the character or film because it was a "top secret Hollywood movie". Carter was initially not sure the part interested him, but Marquand persisted, and Carter reluctantly agreed. Only then did Marquand reveal that it was a "Star Wars" film. Carter was sworn to secrecy about the role, but he told his family about the part anyway, and the next day his daughter discussed it publicly with a friend at her school.


title: Michael Carter (actor)

text: Carter had never seen the original "Star Wars" film, and had only seen the sequel, "The Empire Strikes Back", because he was working at the time in a theater production with Anthony Daniels, who played C-3PO in the film. Carter spent three months undergoing extensive makeup casts and tests for the character at Elstree Studios before shooting began. Molds were made from his hands and head. Several foam appliances were sculpted to conform to Carter's face, and molds were made and cast into foam latex, which were then trimmed and carefully glued to the actor's face. It took about eight-and-a-half hours to apply the makeup to Carter the first time, though the process was eventually reduced to slightly under an hour. Carter had been told a great deal of makeup would be involved with the part, but he said, "I did not know what I was letting myself in for when it came to having to wear so much makeup. It did come as a bit of a shock."


title: Michael Carter (actor)

text: Following his appearance in "Return of the Jedi", Carter was offered several alien roles or parts that involved heavy amounts of prosthetics. For example, he was cast in the role of Radu Molasar, a monster and warlord in the Michael Mann film "The Keep" (1983), as a direct result of his work in "Return of the Jedi". Carter has continued to receive letters and autograph requests from "Star Wars" fans for decades after the film's release, and he has made appearances at sci-fi and fantasy conventions. Carter was offered the opportunity to reprise the role of Bib Fortuna in the prequel "The Phantom Menace", but he declined due to the rigors associated with the makeup application.


title: Michael Carter (actor)

text: His appearances on television include "Rebus" with both John Hannah and Ken Stott, and "Taggart". He starred as the polygynist husband of Brenda Fricker and Josette Simon in the 1992 TV mini-series "Seekers", and as Tulloch, head of the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service in Thames TV's seven part series "Call Red". Carter created the role of Douglas Raeburn in twenty two episodes of BBC Scotland's "Two Thousand Acres of Sky".


title: Human echolocation

text: Human echolocation is the ability of humans to detect objects in their environment by sensing echoes from those objects, by actively creating sounds: for example, by tapping their canes, lightly stomping their foot, snapping their fingers, or making clicking noises with their mouths. People trained to orient by echolocation can interpret the sound waves reflected by nearby objects, accurately identifying their location and size.


title: Human echolocation

text: The term "echolocation" was coined by zoologist Donald Griffin in 1944; however, reports of blind humans being able to locate silent objects date back to 1749. Human echolocation has been known and formally studied since at least the 1950s. In earlier times, human echolocation was sometimes described as "facial vision" or "obstacle sense," as it was believed that the proximity of nearby objects caused pressure changes on the skin. Only in the 1940s did a series of experiments performed in the Cornell Psychological Laboratory show that sound and hearing, rather than pressure changes on the skin, were the mechanisms driving this ability. The field of human and animal echolocation was surveyed in book form as early as 1959. See also White, et al. (1970)


title: Human echolocation

text: Many blind individuals passively use natural environmental echoes to sense details about their environment; however, others actively produce mouth clicks and are able to gauge information about their environment using the echoes from those clicks. Both passive and active echolocation help blind individuals sense their environments.


title: Human echolocation

text: Those who can see their environments often do not readily perceive echoes from nearby objects, due to an echo suppression phenomenon brought on by the precedence effect. However, with training, sighted individuals with normal hearing can learn to avoid obstacles using only sound, showing that echolocation is a general human ability.


title: Human echolocation

text: Vision and hearing are akin in that each interprets detections of reflected waves of energy. Vision processes light waves that travel from their source, bounce off surfaces throughout the environment and enter the eyes. Similarly, the auditory system processes sound waves as they travel from their source, bounce off surfaces and enter the ears. Both neural systems can extract a great deal of information about the environment by interpreting the complex patterns of reflected energy that their sense organs receive. In the case of sound these waves of reflected energy are referred to as echoes.


title: Human echolocation

text: Echoes and other sounds can convey spatial data that are comparable in many respects to those conveyed by light. A blind traveler using echoes can perceive very complex, detailed, and specific features of the world from distances far beyond the reach of the longest cane or arm. Echoes make information available about the nature and arrangement of objects and environmental features such as overhangs, walls, doorways and recesses, poles, ascending curbs and steps, planter boxes, pedestrians, fire hydrants, parked or moving vehicles, trees and other foliage, and much more. Echoes can give detailed information about location (where objects are), dimension (how big they are and their general shape), and density (how solid they are). Location is generally broken down into distance from the observer and direction (left/right, front/back, high/low). Dimension refers to the object's height (tall or short) and breadth (wide or narrow).


title: Human echolocation

text: By understanding the interrelationships of these qualities, much can be perceived about the nature of an object or multiple objects. For example, an object that is tall and narrow may be recognized quickly as a pole. An object that is tall and narrow near the bottom while broad near the top would be a tree. Something that is tall and very broad registers as a wall or building. Something that is broad and tall in the middle, while being shorter at either end may be identified as a parked car. An object that is low and broad may be a planter, retaining wall, or curb. And finally, something that starts out close and very low but recedes into the distance as it gets higher is a set of steps. Density refers to the solidity of the object (solid/sparse, hard/soft). Awareness of density adds richness and complexity to one's available information. For instance, an object that is low and solid may be recognized as a table, while something low and sparse sounds like a bush; but an object that is tall and broad and very sparse is probably a fence.


title: Human echolocation

text: Some blind people are skilled at echolocating silent objects simply by producing mouth clicks and listening to the returning echoes, for example, Ben Underwood. Although few studies have been performed on the neural basis of human echolocation, those studies report activation of primary visual cortex during echolocation in blind expert echolocators. The driving mechanism of this brain region remapping phenomenon is known as neuroplasticity.


title: Human echolocation

text: In a 2014 study by Thaler and colleagues, the researchers first made recordings of the clicks and their very faint echoes using tiny microphones placed in the ears of the blind echolocators as they stood outside and tried to identify different objects such as a car, a flag pole, and a tree. The researchers then played the recorded sounds back to the echolocators while their brain activity was being measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Remarkably, when the echolocation recordings were played back to the blind experts, not only did they perceive the objects based on the echoes, but they also showed activity in those areas of their brain that normally process visual information in sighted people, primarily primary visual cortex or V1. This result is surprising, as visual areas, as their names suggest, are only active during visual tasks. The brain areas that process auditory information were no more activated by sound recordings of outdoor scenes containing echoes than they were by sound recordings of outdoor scenes with the echoes removed. Importantly, when the same experiment was carried out with sighted people who did not echolocate, these individuals could not perceive the objects and there was no echo-related activity anywhere in the brain. This suggests that the cortex of blind echolocators is plastic and reorganizes such that primary visual cortex, rather than any auditory area, becomes involved in the computation of echolocation tasks.


title: Human echolocation

text: Despite this evidence, the extent to which activation in the visual cortex in blind echolocators contributes to echolocation abilities is unclear. As previously mentioned, sighted individuals have the ability to echolocate; however, they do not show comparable activation in visual cortex. This would suggest that sighted individuals use areas beyond visual cortex for echolocation.


title: Human echolocation

text: Echolocation has been further developed by Daniel Kish, who works with the blind through the non-profit organization World Access for the Blind. He leads blind teenagers hiking and mountain-biking through the wilderness, and teaches them how to navigate new locations safely, with a technique that he calls "FlashSonar". Kish had his eyes removed at the age of 13 months due to retinal cancer. He learned to make palatal clicks with his tongue when he was still a child—and now trains other blind people in the use of echolocation and in what he calls "Perceptual Mobility". Though at first resistant to using a cane for mobility, seeing it as a "handicapped" device, and considering himself "not handicapped at all", Kish developed a technique using his white cane combined with echolocation to further expand his mobility.


title: Human echolocation

text: Kish reports that "The sense of imagery is very rich for an experienced user. One can get a sense of beauty or starkness or whatever—from sound as well as echo." He is able to distinguish a metal fence from a wooden one by the information returned by the echoes on the arrangement of the fence structures; in extremely quiet conditions, he can also hear the warmer and duller quality of the echoes from wood compared to metal.


title: Human echolocation

text: Thomas Tajo was born in the remote Himalayan village of Chayang Tajo in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in the north-east India and became blind around the age of 7 or 8 due to optic nerve atrophy. Tajo taught himself to echolocate. Today he lives in Belgium and works with Visioneers or World Access to impart independent navigational skills to blind individuals across the world.


title: Human echolocation

text: Tajo is also an independent researcher. He researches the cultural and biological evolutionary history of the senses and presents his findings to scientific conferences around the world.


title: Human echolocation

text: Ben Underwood was a blind American who was born on January 26, 1992, in Riverside, California. He was diagnosed with retinal cancer at the age of two, and had his eyes removed at the age of three.


title: Human echolocation

text: He taught himself echolocation at the age of five, becoming able to detect the location of objects by making frequent clicking noises with his tongue. This case was explained in "20/20: Medical Mysteries". He used it to accomplish such feats as running, playing basketball, riding a bicycle, rollerblading, playing football, and skateboarding. He attended school at Edward Harris Jr. Middle School. Underwood's childhood eye doctor claimed that Underwood was one of the most proficient human echolocators. He died on January 19, 2009, a week before his 17th birthday, from retinal cancer, the same cancer that took his eyesight.


title: Human echolocation

text: Tom De Witte was born in 1979 in Belgium with bilateral congenital glaucoma. It had seemed that he would become a successful flautist until he had to give up playing music in 2005. De Witte has been completely blind since 2009 due to additional problems with his eyes. He was taught echolocation by Daniel Kish and was given the nickname "Batman from Belgium" by the press.


title: Human echolocation

text: Scadden has written of his experiences with blindness. He was not born blind, but lost his sight due to illness. As a child, he learned to use echolocation well enough to ride a bicycle in traffic. (His parents thought that he still had some sight remaining.) He later participated in experiments in facial vision. In about 1998, he visited the Auditory Neuroethology Laboratory at the University of Maryland and was interviewed about his experience with facial vision. The researchers in the lab study bat echolocation and were aware of the "Wiederorientierung" phenomenon described by Griffin (1959), where bats, despite continuing to emit echolocation calls, use path integration in familiar acoustic space. Scadden indicated that he found echolocation required extra effort, and would not use it to navigate in familiar areas unless he was alert for obstacles, thus providing insight into the bat behavior.


title: Human echolocation

text: The Regional Alliance of Science, Engineering and Mathematics for Students with Disabilities (RASEM) and the Science Education for Students With Disabilities (SESD), a Special Interest Group of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) have created the Lawrence A. Scadden Outstanding Teacher Award of the Year for Students With Disabilities in his honor.


title: Human echolocation

text: Lucas Murray (born ), from Poole, Dorset, was born blind, but is one of the first British people to learn human echolocation. By the echo caused by clicking his tongue on the roof of his mouth, Murray can identify how close objects are, and what they are made of. He was taught the technique by Daniel Kish. Murray was born in Poole in Dorset with complex medical needs including septo-optic dysplasia. He was blind from birth but this was not confirmed until he was five months old. At this stage his parents, Sarah and Iain, believed his blindness would cause him problems. However, Sarah and Iain watched a documentary about a young American called Ben Underwood, a boy who used echo-location that he had taught himself to a very high level. In the documentary, Daniel Kish, founder of the World Access for the Blind charity, spoke about not only echo-location but the importance of a Long Cane. Many months after seeing the documentary on television, Sarah discovered that Daniel would be visiting a Scottish Charity called Visibility, so contacted him and asked if he could visit Lucas. Daniel Kish, a 41-year-old blind Californian, alongside Brian Bushway from World Access for the Blind, taught the basics of echo-location and the importance of a suitable Long Cane to Lucas over the course of four days in 2007.


title: Human echolocation

text: Sarah says that the echo-location and "No Limits Approach" has given Lucas a "fantastic future". His parents have set up a charity called Common Sense, which aims to provide support for parents and carers of visually impaired children. They also offer long white canes to children in the UK, through The Common Sense Children's Cane Bank.


title: Human echolocation

text: Lucas' mother Sarah said that, at seven years old, his independence was improving almost every day, and he could play with other children in sports such as rock climbing and basketball. Lucas identifies the distance of objects by timing the time that the echo from him clicking takes to return, and from the sound which bounces back he can also tell the density and shape, Lucas is the first British pupil to receive a comprehensive program in advanced echo-location. similar to echolocation and the use of sonar to picture surroundings used by bats. Kish is reported to have said that Lucas' "mobility is amazing", and that he is the "best for his age in the UK". However, Kish wrote to Lucas' parents and other reporters, unpublished, that he actually said, "Lucas' mobility is among the best in the U.K. for his age in my experience." Lucas says that he really likes the system. Lucas also uses a Long White cane to find objects near his feet. He uses an AmbuTech Telescopic Cane because it is light in weight and has a ceramic tip. At the proper length, it comes up to his nose when upright.


title: Human echolocation

text: The scientist Kevin Warwick experimented with feeding ultrasonic pulses into the brain (via electrical stimulation from a neural implant) as an additional sensory input. In tests he was able to discern distance to objects accurately and to detect small movements of those objects.


title: Human echolocation

text: Blind from birth, Juan Ruiz lives in Los Angeles, California. He appeared in the first episode of "Stan Lee's Superhumans", titled "Electro Man". The episode showed him capable of riding a bicycle, avoiding parked cars and other obstacles, and identifying nearby objects. He entered and exited a cave, where he determined its length and other features.


title: Human echolocation

text: The 2017 video game "Perception" places the player in the role of a blind woman who must use echolocation to navigate the environment.


title: Human echolocation

text: In the 2012 film "Imagine", the main character teaches echolocation to students at a clinic for the visually impaired. This unconventional method spurs a controversy but helps students explore the world.


title: AN/SPY-6

text: The AN/SPY-6, also known as the Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR), is an active electronically scanned array 3D radar under development for the United States Navy (USN). It will provide integrated air and missile defense for Flight III s. Variants are under development for retrofitting Flight IIA "Arleigh Burke"s and for installation aboard s, s, and s.


title: AN/SPY-6

text: On 10 October 2013, "Raytheon Company (RTN) [was] awarded an almost $386m cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase design, development, integration, test, and delivery of Air and Missile Defense S-band Radar (AMDR-S) and Radar Suite Controller (RSC)." In September 2010, the Navy awarded technology development contracts to Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon to develop the S-band radar and radar suite controller (RSC). X-band radar development reportedly will come under separate contracts. The Navy hopes to place AMDR on Flight III "Arleigh Burke"-class destroyers, possibly beginning in 2016. Those ships currently mount the Aegis Combat System, produced by Lockheed Martin.


title: AN/SPY-6

text: In 2013, the Navy cut almost $10B from the cost of the program by adopting a smaller less capable system that will be challenged by "future threats". , the program is expected to deliver 22 radars at a total cost of almost $6.6B; they will cost $300m/unit in serial production. Testing is planned for 2021 and Initial operating capability is planned for March 2023. The Navy then was forced to halt the contract in response to a challenge by Lockheed. Lockheed officially withdrew their protest on January 10, 2014, allowing the Navy to lift the stop work order.


title: AN/SPY-6

text: In March 2022, Raytheon announced an $3.2B contract to outfit every new surface ship in the US Navy with the SPY-6 family of radars.


title: AN/SPY-6

text: The AMDR system consists of two primary radars and a radar suite controller (RSC) to coordinate the sensors. An S-band radar is to provide volume search, tracking, ballistic missile defense discrimination, and missile communications, while the X-band radar is to provide horizon search, precision tracking, missile communication, and terminal illumination of targets. The S-band and X-band sensors will also share functionality, including radar navigation, periscope detection, and missile guidance and communication. AMDR is intended as a scalable system, with each sensor array assembled from Radar Modular Assemblies (RMA), self-contained radar modules. The "Arleigh Burke" deckhouse can only accommodate a version, but the USN claims they need a radar of or more to meet future ballistic missile threats. This would require a new ship design; Ingalls has proposed the "San Antonio"-class amphibious transport dock as the basis for a ballistic missile defense cruiser with 6.1 m (20 ft) AMDR. To cut costs, the first 12 AMDR sets will have an X-band component based on the existing SPQ-9B rotating radar, to be replaced by a new X-band radar in set 13 that will be more capable against future threats. The transmit-receive modules will use new gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor technology, allowing for a higher power density than the previous gallium arsenide radar modules. The new radar will require twice the electrical power as the previous generation while generating over 35 times as much radar power.


title: AN/SPY-6

text: Although it was not an initial requirement, the AMDR may be capable of performing electronic attacks using its AESA antenna; airborne AESA radar systems, like the APG-77, APG-81, and APG-79 used on the F-22 Raptor, F-35 Lightning II, and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet/EA-18G Growler, respectively, have demonstrated their capability to conduct electronic attack. All the contenders for the Navy's Next Generation Jammer used Gallium Nitride-based (GaN) transmit-receiver modules for their EW systems, which enables the possibility that the high-power GaN-based AESA radar used on Flight III ships can perform the mission. Precise beam steering could attack air and surface threats with tightly directed beams of high-powered radio waves to electronically blind aircraft, ships, and missiles.


title: AN/SPY-6

text: The radar is 30 times more sensitive and can simultaneously handle over 30 times the targets of the existing AN/SPY-1D(V), allowing it to counter large and complex saturation attacks.


title: AN/SPY-6

text: Distributed sensing software allows AN/SPY-6 to form a network of bistatic radars, where forward-deployed sensors work in receive mode while targets are illuminated by separate transmitters at the back.


title: Room 39

text: Room 39 (officially Central Committee Bureau 39 of the Workers' Party of Korea, also referred to as Bureau 39, Division 39, or Office 39) is a secretive North Korean party organization that seeks ways to maintain the foreign currency slush fund for the country's leaders.


title: Room 39

text: The organization is estimated to bring in between $500 million and $1 billion per year or more and is involved in illegal activities, such as counterfeiting $100 bills, producing controlled substances (including the synthesis of methamphetamine and the conversion of morphine-containing opium into more potent opiates like heroin), and international insurance fraud.


title: Room 39

text: Room 39 is the largest of three influential so-called Third Floor offices along with Office 35 tasked with intelligence and Office 38 which handles legal financial activities. Room 39 is believed to be located inside a ruling Workers' Party building in Pyongyang, not far from one of the North Korean leader's residences. All three Offices were initially housed on the third floor of the building where Kim Jong-il's office used to be, hence the moniker "Third Floor".


title: Room 39

text: Room 39 has been described as the linchpin of the North's so-called "court economy" centered on the dynastic Kim family.


title: Room 39

text: According to Kim Kwang-jin, in 1972, Kim Jong-il created the central party department called "Office No. 39", which was named after the arbitrary office number where it began operations. Initially the Office was under the Finance and Accounting Department of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.


title: Room 39

text: In early 2010, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that Kim Dong-un, head of the department, was replaced by his deputy, Jon Il-chun.


title: Room 39

text: The "Chosun Ilbo" reported that Room 38, led by Kim Jong-il, was merged into Room 39 in late 2009, but the two were split again in 2010 due to difficulties in obtaining foreign currency. Room 38 handles funds of the Kim family in legal businesses and acts as a front organization for Room 39.


title: Room 39

text: In July 2017, Chon Il-chun, first vice department director of the party's Central Committee and a former classmate of Kim Jong-il was leader of the office.


title: Room 39

text: Room 39 is also involved in the management of foreign currency earnings from foreigners' hotels in Pyongyang, gold and zinc mining, and agricultural and fisheries exports. They are believed to run networks of illegal and legal companies that often change names. The number of companies believed to be controlled by Room 39 - reportedly up to 120 in number at one point - include Zokwang Trading and Taesong Bank. Many of the $500 million worth of textiles North Korea exports each year have phony "made in China" labels attached to them and the wages of the estimated 50,000 North Korean workers sent abroad to work are reported to have added between $500 million and $2 billion a year to Room 39's income.


title: Room 39

text: A 2007 report published by the Millennium Project of the World Federation of United Nations Associations said North Korea makes an estimated $500 million to $1 billion annually from illegal enterprises. Criminal operations reported to be run by Room 39 include trafficking fake US dollars, peddling bogus Viagra, exporting the recreational drug N-methylamphetamine and obtaining Russian oil using dealers in Singapore. At some point, transactions and trade by Office 39 reached 25 to 50% of the total of North Korea.


title: Room 39

text: In 2009, a "Washington Post" report outlined a global insurance fraud scheme by the North Korean government. The state-owned Korea National Insurance Corp (KNIC) sought reinsurance contracts with international reinsurers and then submitted fraudulent claims; the contracts were governed by North Korean law and legal challenges were fruitless. Document forgeries are also reported.


title: Room 39

text: Room 39 is also believed to be operating the overseas North Korean restaurant chain called "Pyongyang".


title: Room 39

text: In 2015, the European Union placed the Korea National Insurance Corporation (KNIC) under sanctions and added that the KNIC had links to Office 39. The KNIC (which had offices in Hamburg, Germany and London, UK) was reported to have had assets of UK £787 million in 2014 and had been involved in scamming insurance markets and making investments in property and foreign exchange. Thae Yong-ho, a North Korean diplomat who defected in 2016, said that North Korea earned each year "tens of millions of dollars" with insurance fraud.


title: Room 39

text: Ri Jong Ho was chairman of the Korea Kumgang Group that formed a joint venture with a Chinese businessman to run a taxi company in Pyongyang, the president of a North Korean shipping company, and head of a Chinese branch of Daeheung, a North Korean trading company involved in seafood, coal, shipping and oil. In a 2017 newspaper article Ri described how he evaded sanctions by transferring cash from China to North Korea by ship and by train.


title: Room 39

text: A 2020 review by the National Intelligence Service found that the Korea Kaesong Koryo Insam Trading Corporation was likely a front for Room 39.


title: Wolf Rüdiger Hess

text: Wolf Rüdiger Hess ("Heß" in German script; 18 November 1937 – 24 October 2001) was a German architect, the only son of Rudolf Hess and Ilse Hess (née Pröhl).


title: Wolf Rüdiger Hess

text: Born in Munich, Hess lived with his parents until his father’s flight to Scotland on 14 May 1941. After that, his father was denounced by the Nazi government as "mentally ill", and this led his mother to leave Munich and take her son to live at the family’s house in the country, at Bad Oberdorf, a small spa village in the Allgäu Alps. There, young Wolf Rüdiger gained the lifelong nickname of "Buz". On 3 June 1947, Hess’s mother was arrested by Allied forces, together with all the wives of the other Germans convicted at Nuremberg, and she was interned at Augsburg-Göggingen camp. Hess then lived with an aunt until his mother’s release in March 1948. He began to attend a local high school in 1947 and then from the mid-1950s studied architecture, qualifying as an architect in 1961.


title: Wolf Rüdiger Hess

text: Hess gained prominence for criticising an investigation into his father's alleged suicide while serving a life sentence in Spandau Prison in Berlin. Hess maintained that the investigation was a cover-up, and that the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) had murdered him. He believed that they had done this to prevent his father's parole – which he believed to be imminent – because the British government was afraid that he would reveal embarrassing information about British actions during World War II. Wolf Rüdiger Hess and his father's lawyer, Alfred Seidl, arranged their own autopsy.


title: Wolf Rüdiger Hess

text: Hess wrote three books: "My Father Rudolf Hess" (1986), "Who Murdered My Father, Rudolf Hess?" (1989) and "Rudolf Heß: Ich bereue nichts" ("Rudolf Hess: I regret nothing") (1994/1998). Hess was head of the "Rudolf-Heß-Gesellschaft e.V." before his death.


title: Wolf Rüdiger Hess

text: At the age of 63, Wolf Rüdiger Hess suffered a stroke and was taken to a Munich hospital, where he died. He left a widow and three children.


title: Principality of Wales

text: The Principality of Wales () was originally the territory of the native Welsh princes of the House of Aberffraw from 1216 to 1283, encompassing two-thirds of modern Wales during its height of 1267–1277. Following the conquest of Wales by Edward I of England of 1277 to 1283, those parts of Wales retained under the direct control of the English crown, principally in the north and west of the country, were re-constituted as a new Principality of Wales and ruled either by the monarch or the monarch's heir though not formally incorporated into the Kingdom of England. This was ultimately accomplished with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 when the Principality ceased to exist as a separate entity.


title: Principality of Wales

text: The Principality was formally founded in 1216 by native Welshman and King of Gwynedd, Llywelyn the Great who gathered other leaders of "pura Wallia" at the Council of Aberdyfi. The agreement was later recognised by the 1218 Treaty of Worcester between Llywelyn the Great of Wales and Henry III of England. The treaty gave substance to the political reality of 13th-century Wales and England, and the relationship of the former with the Angevin Empire. The principality retained a great degree of autonomy, characterized by a separate legal jurisprudence based on the well-established laws of "Cyfraith Hywel", and by the increasingly sophisticated court of the House of Aberffraw. Although it owed fealty to the Angevin king of England, the principality was "de facto" independent, with a similar status in the empire to the Kingdom of Scotland. Its existence has been seen as proof that all the elements necessary for the growth of Welsh statehood were in place.


title: Principality of Wales

text: The period of "de facto" independence ended with Edward I's conquest of the principality between 1277 and 1283. Under the Statute of Rhuddlan, the principality lost its independence and became effectively an annexed territory of the English crown. From 1301, the crown's lands in north and west Wales formed part of the appanage of England's heir apparent, with the title "Prince of Wales". On accession of the prince to the English throne, the lands and title became merged with the Crown again. On two occasions Welsh claimants to the title rose up in rebellion during this period, although neither ultimately succeeded.


title: Principality of Wales

text: Since the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, which formally incorporated all of Wales within the Kingdom of England, there has been no geographical or constitutional basis for describing any of the territory of Wales as a principality, although the term has occasionally been used in an informal sense to describe the country, and in relation to the honorary title of Prince of Wales.


title: Principality of Wales

text: The Principality of Wales was created in 1216 at the Council of Aberdyfi, when it was agreed between Llywelyn the Great and the other sovereign princes among the Welsh that he was the paramount ruler amongst them, and they would pay homage to him. Later he obtained recognition, at least in part, of this agreement from the King of England, who agreed that Llywelyn's heirs and successors would enjoy the title "Prince of Wales" but with certain limitations to his realm and other conditions, including homage to the King of England as vassal, and adherence to rules regarding a legitimate succession. Llywelyn had been at pains to ensure that his heirs and successors would follow the "approved" (by the Pope at least) system of inheritance which excluded illegitimate sons. In so doing he excluded his elder bastard son Gruffydd ap Llywelyn from the inheritance, a decision which would have later ramifications. In 1240 Llywelyn died and Henry III of England (who succeeded John) promptly invaded large areas of his former realm, usurping them from him. However, the two sides came to peace and Henry honoured at least part of the agreement and bestowed upon Dafydd ap Llywelyn the title 'Prince of Wales'. This title would be granted to his successor Llywelyn in 1267 (after a campaign by him to achieve it) and was later claimed by his brother Dafydd and other members of the princely House of Aberffraw.


title: Principality of Wales

text: By 1200 Llywelyn Fawr (the Great) ap Iorwerth ruled over all of Gwynedd, with England endorsing all of Llywelyn's holdings that year. England's endorsement was part of a larger strategy of reducing the influence of Powys Wenwynwyn, as King John had given William de Breos licence in 1200 to "seize as much as he could" from the native Welsh. However, de Breos was in disgrace by 1208, and Llywelyn seized both Powys Wenwynwyn and northern Ceredigon.


title: Principality of Wales

text: In his expansion, the Prince was careful not to antagonise King John, his father-in-law. Llywelyn had married Joan, King John's illegitimate daughter, in 1204. In 1209 Prince Llywelyn joined King John on his campaign in Scotland. However, by 1211 King John recognised the growing influence of Prince Llywelyn as a threat to English authority in Wales. King John invaded Gwynedd and reached the banks of the Menai, and Llywelyn was forced to cede the Perfeddwlad, and recognize John as his heir presumptive if Llywelyn's marriage to Joan did not produce any legitimate successors. Succession was a complicated matter given that Welsh law recognized children born out of wedlock as equal to those in born in wedlock and sometimes accepted claims through the female line. By then, Llywelyn had several illegitimate children. Many of Llywelyn's Welsh allies had abandoned him during England's invasion of Gwynedd, preferring an overlord far away rather than one nearby. Welsh lords expected an unobtrusive English crown; but King John had a castle built at Aberystwyth, and his direct interference in Powys and the Perfeddwlad caused many of these Welsh lords to rethink their position. Llywelyn capitalised on Welsh resentment against King John, and led a church-sanctioned revolt against him. As King John was an enemy of the church, Pope Innocent III gave his blessing to Llywelyn's revolt.


title: Principality of Wales

text: Early in 1212 Llywelyn had regained the Perfeddwlad and burned the castle at Aberystwyth. Llywelyn's revolt caused John to postpone his invasion of France, and Philip Augustus, the King of France, was so moved as to contact Llywelyn and propose that they ally against the English king, King John ordered the execution by hanging of his Welsh hostages, the sons of many of Llywelyn's supporters, Llywelyn I was the first prince to receive the fealty of other Welsh lords at the 1216 Council of Aberdyfi, thus becoming the "de facto" Prince of Wales and giving substance to the Aberffraw claims.


title: Principality of Wales

text: On succeeding his father, Dafydd immediately had to contend with the claims of his half-brother, Gruffudd, to the throne. Having imprisoned Gruffudd, his ambitions were curbed by an invasion of Wales led by Henry III in league with a number of the captive Gruffudd's supporters. In August 1241, Dafydd capitulated and signed the Treaty of Gwerneigron, further restricting his powers. By 1244, however, Gruffudd was dead, and Dafydd seems to have benefited from the backing of many of his brother's erstwhile supporters. He was acknowledged by the Pope as Prince of Wales for a time, and defeated Henry III in battle in 1245 during the English king's second invasion of Wales. A truce was agreed in the autumn, and Henry withdrew; but Dafydd died unexpectedly in 1246 without issue. His wife, Isabella de Braose, returned to England; she was dead by 1248.


title: Principality of Wales

text: Dafydd married Isabella de Braose in 1231. Their marriage produced no children, and there is no contemporary evidence that Dafydd sired any heirs. According to late genealogical sources collected by Bartrum (1973), Dafydd had two children by an unknown woman (or women), a daughter, Annes, and a son, Llywelyn ap Dafydd, who apparently later became Constable of Rhuddlan and was succeeded in that post by his son Cynwrig ap Llywelyn.


title: Principality of Wales

text: Following Dafydd's death, Gwynedd was divided between Owain Goch and his younger brother Llywelyn. This situation lasted until 1252 when their younger brother Dafydd ap Gruffudd reached his majority. Disagreement about how to further divide the realm led to conflict in 1253 in which Llywelyn was victorious. Owain spent the remainder of his days a prisoner of his brother.


title: Principality of Wales

text: After achieving victory over his brothers, Llywelyn went on to reconquer the areas of Gwynedd occupied by England (the Perfeddwlad and others). His alliance with Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, in 1265 against King Henry III of England allowed him to reconquer large areas of mid Wales from the English Marcher Lords. At the Treaty of Montgomery between England and Wales in 1267 Llywelyn was granted the title "Prince of Wales" for his heirs and successors and allowed to keep the lands he had conquered as well as the homage of lesser Welsh princes in return for his own homage to the King of England and payment of a substantial fee. Disputes between him, his brother Dafydd and English lords bordering his own led to renewed conflict with England (now ruled by Edward I) in 1277. Following the Treaty of Aberconwy Llywelyn was confined to Gwynedd-uwch-Conwy. He joined a revolt instigated by his brother Dafydd in 1282 in which he died in battle.


title: Principality of Wales

text: Dafydd assumed his elder brother's title in 1282 and led a brief period of continued resistance against England. He was captured and executed in 1283.


title: Principality of Wales

text: The political maturation of the principality's government fostered a more defined relationship between prince and the people. Emphasis was placed on the territorial integrity of the principality, with the prince as lord of all the land, and other Welsh lords swearing fealty to the prince directly, a distinction with which the Prince of Wales paid yearly tribute to the King of England. By treaty the principality was obliged to pay the kingdom large annual sums. Between 1267 and 1272 Wales made a total payment of £11,500, "proof of a growing money economy... and testimony of the effectiveness of the principality's financial administration," wrote historian Dr. John Davies. Additionally, modifications and amendments to the Law Codes of Hywel Dda encouraged the decline of the galanas (blood-fine) and the use of the jury system. The Aberffraw dynasty maintained vigorous diplomatic and domestic policies; and patronized the Church in Wales, particularly that of the Cistercian Order.


title: Principality of Wales

text: At the end of the twelfth century, beginning of the thirteenth century, Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (Llywelyn Fawr or Llywelyn the Great), built a royal home at Abergwyngregyn (known as "Tŷ Hir", the Long House, in later documents) on the site of the subsequent manor house of Pen y Bryn. To the east was the newly endowed Cistercian Monastery of Aberconwy; to the west the cathedral city of Bangor. In 1211, King John of England brought an army across the river Conwy, and occupied the royal home for a brief period; his troops went on to burn Bangor. Llywelyn's wife, John's daughter Joan, also known as Joanna, negotiated between the two men, and John withdrew. Joan died at Abergwyngregyn in 1237; Dafydd ap Llywelyn died there in 1246; Eleanor de Montfort, Lady of Wales, wife of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, died there on 19 June 1282, giving birth to a baby, Gwenllian of Wales.


title: Principality of Wales

text: The 13th-century Principality of Wales encompassed three-quarters of the surface area of modern Wales; "from Anglesey to Machen, from the outskirts of Chester to the outskirts of Cydweli," wrote Davies. By 1271, Prince Llywelyn II could claim a growing population of about 200,000 people, or a little less than three-quarters of the total Welsh population. The population increase was common throughout Europe in the 13th century, but in Wales it was more pronounced. By Llywelyn II's reign as much as 10 percent of the population were town-dwellers. Additionally, "unfree slaves... had long disappeared" from within the territory of the principality, wrote Davies. The increase in men allowed the prince to call on and field a far more substantial army.


title: Principality of Wales

text: A more stable social and political environment provided by the Aberffraw administration allowed for the natural development of Welsh culture, particularly in literature, law, and religion. Tradition originating from "The History of Gruffydd ap Cynan" attributes Gruffydd I as reforming the orders of bards and musicians; Welsh literature demonstrated "vigor and a sense of commitment" as new ideas reached Wales, even in "the wake of the invaders", according to historian John Davies. Contacts with continental Europe "sharpened Welsh pride", wrote Davies in his "History of Wales".


title: Principality of Wales

text: The increase in the Welsh population, especially in the lands of the principality, allowed for a greater diversification of the economy. The Meirionnydd tax rolls give evidence to the thirty-seven various professions present in Meirionnydd directly before the conquest. Of these professions, there were eight goldsmiths, four bards (poets) by trade, 26 shoemakers, a doctor in Cynwyd and a hotel keeper in Maentwrog, and 28 priests; two of whom were university graduates. Also present were a significant number of fishermen, administrators, professional men and craftsmen.


title: Principality of Wales

text: With the average temperature of Wales a degree or two higher than it is today, more Welsh lands were arable for agriculture, "a crucial bonus for a country like Wales," wrote the historian John Davies. Of significant importance for the principality included more developed trade routes, which allowed for the introduction of new energy sources such as the windmill, the fulling mill and the horse collar (which doubled the efficiency of horse-power).


title: Principality of Wales

text: The principality traded cattle, skins, cheese, timber, horses, wax, dogs, hawks, and fleeces, but also flannel (with the growth of fulling mills). Flannel was second only to cattle among the principality's exports. In exchange, the principality imported salt, wine, wheat, and other luxuries from London and Paris. But most importantly for the defence of the principality, iron and specialised weaponry were also imported. Welsh dependence on foreign imports was a tool that England used to wear down the principality during times of conflict between the two countries.


title: Principality of Wales

text: Between 1277 and 1283, Edward I of England conquered the territories of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and the other last remaining native Welsh princes. The governance and constitutional position of the principality after its conquest was set out in the Statute of Rhuddlan of 1284. In the words of the Statute, the principality was "annexed and united" to the English crown.


title: Principality of Wales

text: The Principality's administration was overseen by the Prince of Wales's Council comprising between 8 and 15 councillors sitting in London or, later, Ludlow in Shropshire. The Council acted as the Principality's final Court of Appeal. By 1476, the Council, which became known as the Council of Wales and the Marches, began taking responsibility not only for the Principality itself but its authority was extended over the whole of Wales.


title: Principality of Wales

text: The territory of the principality fell into two distinct areas: the lands under direct royal control and lands which Edward I had distributed by feudal grants.


title: Principality of Wales

text: For lands under royal control, the administration, under the Statute of Rhuddlan, was divided into the two territories: North Wales based at Caernarfon and West Wales based at Carmarthen. The Statute organized the Principality into shire counties. Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire were administered by the Justiciar of South Wales (or "of West Wales") at Carmarthen. In the North, the counties of Anglesey, Merionethshire, and Caernarfonshire were created under the control of Justiciar of North Wales and a provincial exchequer at Caernarfon, run by the Chamberlain of North Wales, who accounted for the revenues he collected to the Exchequer at Westminster. Under them were royal officials such as sheriffs, coroners, and bailiffs to collect taxes and administer justice. Another county, Flintshire, was created out of the lordships of Tegeingl, Hopedale and Maelor Saesneg, and was administered with the Palatinate of Cheshire by the Justiciar of Chester.


title: Principality of Wales

text: The remainder of the principality comprised lands which Edward I had granted to supporters shortly after the completion of the conquest in 1284, and which, in practice, became Marcher lordships: for example, the lordship of Denbigh granted to the Earl of Lincoln and the lordship of Powys granted to Owain ap Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, who became Owen de la Pole. These lands after 1301 were held as tenants-in-chief of the Principality of Wales, rather than from the Crown directly, but were, for all practical purposes, not part of the principality.


title: Principality of Wales

text: The Statute of Rhuddlan also introduced English common law to the principality, albeit with some local variation. Criminal law became entirely based on common law: the Statute stated that "in thefts, larcenies, burnings, murders, manslaughters and manifest and notorious robberies – we will that they shall use the laws of England". However, Welsh law continued to be used in civil cases such as land inheritance, contracts, sureties and similar matters, though with changes, for example illegitimate sons could no longer claim part of the inheritance, which Welsh law had allowed them to do. In 1301, this modified principality was bestowed on the English monarch's heir apparent and thereafter became the territorial endowment of the heir to the throne.


title: Principality of Wales

text: There were few attempts by the English parliament to legislate in Wales and the lands of the Principality remained subject to laws enacted by the king and his council. However, the king was prepared to allow Parliament to legislate in emergencies such as treason or rebellion. An example was the Penal Laws against Wales 1402 enacted to contain the Glyndŵr Rising and which, "inter alia", prohibited the Welsh from intermarrying with the English or owning land in England or the Welsh boroughs. Some Welshman who were loyal to the Principality successfully petitioned for exemption from the penal laws. An example was Rhys ap Thomas ap Dafydd of Carmarthenshire who was a royal official in the southern part of the Principality.


title: Principality of Wales

text: Edward's main concern following the conquest was to ensure the military security of his new territories and the stone castle was to be the primary means for achieving this. Under the supervision of James of Saint George, Edward's master-builder, a series of imposing castles was built, using a distinctive design and the most advanced defensive features of the day, to form a "ring of stone" around the northern part of the principality. Among the major buildings were the castles of Beaumaris, Caernarfon, Conwy and Harlech. Aside from their practical military role, the castles made a clear symbolic statement to the Welsh that the principality was subject to English rule on a permanent basis.


title: Principality of Wales

text: Outside of urban areas, the principality retained its Welsh character. Unlike in some of the newly created Marcher lordships, such as Denbigh, there was little evidence of successful colonisation of rural areas by English settlers. For the royal shires, Edward established a series of new towns, usually attached to one of his stone castles, which would be the focus of English settlement. These “plantation boroughs”, often with the castle constable as town mayor, were populated by English burgesses and acted as a support for the royal military establishment as well as being an anglicizing influence. Examples include Flint, Aberystwyth, Beaumaris, Conwy, and Caernarfon.


title: Principality of Wales

text: The boroughs were given economic rights over the surrounding Welsh rural areas and prospered as a result. For example, the burgesses of Caernarfon had a monopoly over trade within eight miles of the town. The burgesses of Carmarthen were given the right to raise taxes from the surrounding population to maintain their town walls. Royal ordinances initially prohibited the Welsh from becoming burgesses, owning land or even residing in the "English" towns. The enforcement of these laws weakened over time and, although they were temporarily reinforced in 1402 by Henry IV's Penal Laws following the Welsh Revolt led by Owain Glyndŵr, they had largely been abandoned by the Tudor period. Even so, in the 14th century in particular, the privileged "English" boroughs were a focus of intense Welsh resentment and the English burgesses continued to hold the Welsh in disdain and sought to maintain their own distinctiveness and settlers’ rights.


title: Principality of Wales

text: Nevertheless, there is ample evidence of the gradual assimilation of the two groups, not least through intermarriage. A town such as Aberystwyth had become entirely Welsh in character by the end of the medieval period. At the time of the union with England in the 16th century, English migrant ethnic origin ceased to have the same significance, although upward mobility was linked to anglicisation and use of the English language. Nevertheless, as late as 1532, a group of burgesses from Caernarfon bitterly complained that some of their number had let properties in the town to “foreigners”, all of whom had Welsh names.


title: Principality of Wales

text: From 1301, the Plantagenet (and later, Tudor) English kings gave their heir apparent, if he was the king's son or grandson, the lands and title of "Prince of Wales". The one exception was Edward II's son, Edward of Windsor, who later became Edward III. Upon the heir's accession to the throne, the lands and title merged in the Crown.


title: Principality of Wales

text: The first "English" Prince of Wales was Edward I's son, Edward of Caernarfon. A late 16th-century story claimed that Edward I gave him the title following his declaration to the Welsh that there would be a Prince of Wales "that was borne in Wales and could speake never a word of English": Edward was born at Caernarfon Castle and, in common with rest of the English ruling elite, spoke French. However, there seems to be no basis for the story. On 7 February 1301, the king granted to Edward all the lands under royal control in Wales, mainly the territory of the former Principality. Although the documents granting the land made no reference to the title "Prince of Wales", it seems likely that Edward was invested with it at the same time, since, within a month of the grant, he was referred to as the "Prince of Wales" in official documents.


title: Principality of Wales

text: Madog ap Llywelyn led a Welsh revolt in 1294–95 against English rule in Wales, and was proclaimed "Prince of Wales".


title: Principality of Wales

text: Owain Lawgoch, a great-nephew of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and Dafydd ap Gruffudd, claimed the title in exile in France and supporters revolted in his name across Wales between 1372 and 1378. He was assassinated before being able to return to Wales to lead them.


title: Principality of Wales

text: Owain Glyndŵr was crowned at Machynlleth in 1404 during a revolt against Henry IV of England. He claimed descent from Rhodri Mawr through the House of Powys Fadog. He went on to establish diplomatic relations with foreign powers and liberated Wales from English rule. He was ultimately unsuccessful and was driven to the mountains where he led a guerrilla war. When and where he died is not known, but it is believed he died disguised as a friar in the company of his daughter, Alys, at Monnington Straddle in Herefordshire.