title: Walkover

text: The actual act of 'walking over' was seen in Australian rules football matches during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was not uncommon in the 19th century for a scheduled match to be cancelled on the day, often due to one of the two teams failing to field enough players, but these were generally considered no-game or rescheduled. The first team to claim victory by walkover on such an occasion was Albert-park, in an 1870 match against Railway which was to have counted towards the Challenge Cup. Railway had insufficient players and declined to play, so the Albert-park team took to the field with the umpire and without opposition and put through two goals, claiming a walkover victory. The claimed victory and its impact on the Challenge Cup was controversial and widely disputed by the other clubs; one sportswriter at the time commented that "in connection with football, the idea of a walkover is simply absurd and unprecedented." Nevertheless, actual walkovers were thereafter often observed in similar circumstances: the umpire would bounce the ball to officially start the game, the unopposed team would score at least once to secure a lead, and the match would then be abandoned. The highest level occurrence of this was in a Victorian Football Association match in 1900, and sporadic reports from games at the local level confirm that actual walkovers were observed as late as the 1930s, including outside Melbourne.


title: Walkover

text: In the 1908 Summer Olympics, there was a walkover for a gold medal by Wyndham Halswelle in the rerun of the final race of the 400 m: Halswelle's two opponents refused to take part in the rerun, leaving Halswelle to jog the track alone to claim gold.


title: Walkover

text: In the 1920 Summer Olympics sailing program, there were a total of sixteen different yacht classes – no other Olympic games sailed more than seven classes until the 1980s – spreading the competitors so thinly that there were six gold medals won by walkover, each of those yachts completing its course unopposed to claim gold. A seventh yacht, Francis Richards' entrant in the 18' dinghy, also attempted a walkover but did not finish the course; this crew is officially recognized as gold medalists by the International Olympic Committee, but was not mentioned in the most official contemporary report by games organizers, casting doubt over whether or not the crew actually received gold medals at the time due to not finishing the course. There were also two of the sixteen classes with no entrants at all.


title: Walkover

text: A walkover occurred in the 2020 Summer Olympics in sport climbing. French climber Bassa Mawem was injured in his last climb during qualification and was unable to compete in the finals, but IFSC rules did not allow him to be replaced. His opening round speed climbing opponent in the finals, Czech climber Adam Ondra, was made to race unopposed up the wall to advance.


title: Walkover

text: A walkover was observed in the second leg of the 1974 FIFA World Cup qualification playoff between the Soviet Union and Chile. The Soviet Union refused to play in Chile two months after the 1973 right-wing coup d'état and FIFA awarded the game to Chile by a nominal 1–0 result; but the walkover itself was still staged, the Chilean team taking the field and captain Francisco Valdés scoring an unopposed goal in front of a crowd of 15,000.


title: Walkover

text: In a more general sense, the term 'walkover' is used broadly across many sports for a forfeiture due to one team being unable or unwilling to play, even if no actual act of walking over occurs. In some instances, there are distinctions between walkovers and other victories by default: for example, in tennis a walkover occurs when a player withdraws prior to the match, but not when a player retired due to injury during a match. Many sporting bodies have a nominal score applied in the case of walkover for the purposes of points differential tiebreakers; the 2019 Pan American Games women's basketball tournament, for example, awarded a 20–0 walkover victory to Colombia when their Argentinian opponents turned up with the wrong uniforms. Colloquially, an extremely one-sided game may also be called a 'walkover', implying a similar score could have been achieved without the losing team's presence.


title: Walkover

text: In poker games that use blinds, a hand is considered a walkover (usually shortened to "walk") when no other players call or raise the big blind, resulting in the player who posted the big blind winning the hand without opposition. Walks are most often seen in tournament play, since cash games often allow the players to "split the blinds" (i.e. take back their blind bets in case there are no callers or raisers by the time the action gets to the small blind). Chopping is not permitted in tournaments.


title: Walkover

text: An uncontested election is often referred to as a walkover, when it is also referred to as winning "by default". The word is used more generally by extension for an election in which the winner is not the only participant but where no opponent has a credible chance of victory.


title: Poaching (cooking)

text: Poaching is a cooking technique that involves heating food submerged in a liquid, such as water, milk, stock or wine. Poaching is differentiated from the other "moist heat" cooking methods, such as simmering and boiling, in that it uses a relatively lower temperature (about ). This temperature range makes it particularly suitable for delicate food, such as eggs, poultry, fish and fruit, which might easily fall apart or dry out using other cooking methods. Poaching is often considered a healthy method of cooking because it does not use fat to cook or flavor the food.


title: Poaching (cooking)

text: This moist-heat cooking method uses a sautoir or other shallow cooking vessel; heat is transferred by conduction from the pan, to the liquid, to the food. Shallow poaching is best suited for boneless, naturally tender, single-serving-size, sliced or diced pieces of meat, poultry or fish.


title: Poaching (cooking)

text: This preparation involves smearing the inside of the pan with whole butter and adding aromatics into the pan. The items to be cooked are then placed on top of the aromatics presentation side up. Cold poaching liquid is then poured in until the product is partially submerged then heated. The liquid should never be allowed to boil but kept as close to boiling as possible.


title: Poaching (cooking)

text: A more contemporary technique of shallow poaching involves BPA-free plastic bags and is very convenient for the home cook.


title: Poaching (cooking)

text: This technique is similar to shallow poaching, but the product is fully submerged. The pot used for deep poaching should hold the food, liquid, and aromatics comfortably. There should also be enough space so that the surface can be skimmed if necessary throughout cooking. A tight-fitting lid may be helpful for bringing the liquid up to temperature.


title: Poaching (cooking)

text: The poaching liquid traditionally uses a stock, broth or court bouillon which can consist of an acid (wine, lemon juice) and aromatics, such as herbs and/or spices, (for example bouquet garni and mirepoix). Although any flavorful liquid can be used in poaching. The liquid should ideally be around , but when poaching chicken, it is vital that the chicken reach an internal temperature of at least in the core, in order to be eaten safely.


title: Poaching (cooking)

text: A significant amount of flavor is transferred from the food to the cooking liquid, and so making stock. For maximum flavor, the cooking liquid (stock, or cuisson) is usually reduced and used as the base for a soup or sauce.


title: Poaching (cooking)

text: Poached eggs are generally cooked in water and vinegar, fish in white wine, poultry in stock and fruit in red wine.


title: Poaching (cooking)

text: The liquid used for shallow poaching is typically called a cuisson, and can be reduced and used as a base for the poached item's sauce.


title: Poaching (cooking)

text: Poaching allows the proteins to denature without pulling too much (if any at all) moisture out of the food. For this reason, it is important to keep the heat low and to keep the poaching time to a bare minimum, which will also preserve the flavor of the food.


title: Poaching (cooking)

text: Typically an egg is poached just to the point where the white is no longer runny and the yolk is beginning to harden around the edges. Creating a whirlpool may help the egg stay together while poaching by wrapping the white around the yolk.


title: Poaching (cooking)

text: Water is a relatively efficient conductor of heat, but it also has a fairly low limit to its maximum potential temperature ( at sea level). As such, it is a technique that applies itself to a broad spectrum of methods and results. It is used to regulate food at a low temperature for extended periods, as with sous-vide. It is also used to rapidly raise the temperature of foods, as with blanching.


title: Poaching (cooking)

text: Poaching itself is part of a family of moist-heat cooking methods but separates itself in that it is primarily for delicate foods such as eggs. Simmering generally uses a higher temperature for cooking, and because it surrounds the food in water that maintains a more or less constant temperature, simmering cooks food very evenly. Boiling uses the absolute highest temperature for water and is least likely to be used in cooking delicate foods.


title: Poaching (cooking)

text: While it cannot achieve caramelization, which to many is very desirable, many find the delicate nuance of so-called "blanc" foods very pleasant. Poaching is often confused with stewing, as both techniques involve cooking through simmering. However, the purpose of poaching is to cook while retaining the basic shape and structure of the food, rather than to soften it, as with stewing.


title: Samina Ahmad

text: Samina Ahmad is a Pakistani film and television actress, stage performer, producer and director. She is a veteran television actress with over 50 years of work experience in the Urdu entertainment industry. Ahmad performed for many of PTV's major successful series, including "Waris" (1979), "Aahat" (1991) and "Family Front" (1997). One of her most recent roles includes the Geo TV's widely-popular four-part comedy series "Kis Ki Aayegi Baraat" (2009–2012), and the Hum TV's acclaimed comedy drama series "Suno Chanda" (2018) and its sequel "Suno Chanda 2" (2019). For her contributions towards the television industry, she was honoured by the Government of Pakistan with the Pride of Performance in 2011.


title: Samina Ahmad

text: Ahmad was born in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan (then Punjab, British India) on 20 March 1946. Her father was Director of Forests in the West of Pakistan, and her mother was a housewife. Her father died in 1965 and her mother in 2018. She is the elder among her five siblings. She has a Masters in Home Economics.


title: Samina Ahmad

text: Ahmad had started her career with serious plays on Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV), however she is known for comedy plays like "Akkar Bakkar", "Taal Matol", "Alif Noon" and "Such Gup". She also acted in the famous comedy drama "Family Front" (1997 Comedy Drama TV Series). She has recently acted in another TV comedy named "Side Order". Her switch to the comic roles proved to be highly rewarding for her, and she quickly became a top media person in Pakistan. When asked in an interview about what she values most in life, her prompt reply was, "Humanity". Samina Ahmad was just an 18-year-old college student in Lahore, Pakistan, when she first started working for Pakistan Television Corporation. During her long career, she had also worked at Alhamra Arts Council, Lahore as a Program Director for two decades. Despite her busy professional career, Samina Ahmed has also been an active member of Women's Action Forum in Pakistan.


title: Samina Ahmad

text: Ahmad was a programme director at Alhamra Arts Council in Lahore while also performing on television. In 1997, she launched her own television company named as Samina Ahmad Productions, which produced the widely-popular TV drama "Family Front".


title: Samina Ahmad

text: Ahmad was married to a Pakistani filmmaker Fariduddin Ahmed, the son of veteran filmmaker W.Z. Ahmed, who made a popular Pakistani film "Waada" (1957). The couple has a son, and a daughter together. Fariduddin divorced her, a few years before his death in 1993, the reason being his love for the actress Shamim Ara, who he later married. Ahmad married actor Manzar Sehbai on 4 April 2020, in a private Nikah ceremony in Lahore.


title: Lily Nicksay

text: Lily Nicksay (born January 8, 1988) is an American actress. She is known for originating the role of Morgan Matthews, Cory's little sister, in the first two seasons of "Boy Meets World". She reprised the role for the season 3 finale of "Girl Meets World".


title: Lily Nicksay

text: Nicksay's television credits include guest star appearances on "NCIS", "The Mentalist", "The Guardian", "8 Simple Rules", and "Judging Amy". She has also appeared in the feature films "The Negotiator", "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle", and "Up Close & Personal", and in the 1995 television movie "The Christmas Box".


title: Lily Nicksay

text: She was seen in a series of UPS commercials, featuring as an operations manager in a company called Gunderman Group.


title: Lily Nicksay

text: Nicksay starred as May in the 2017 production of "Gulf View Drive", the 2016 production of "See Rock City", and the 2015 production of "Last Train To Nibroc" at the Rubicon Theatre, to rave reviews. (The three plays, all written by Arlene Hutton, are known as The Nibroc Trilogy.) She won the 2017 LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play for her performance in "See Rock City". "Gulf View Drive" won the 2018 Ovation Award for Best Production (Large Theatre), and Nicksay was nominated for Best Lead Actress in a Play.


title: Lily Nicksay

text: Nicksay graduated from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, with an MA degree in Latin and Ancient Greek. She married BMG songwriter Dave Gibson on August 16, 2015.


title: Management science

text: Management science or Managerial Science (MS) is a wide and interdisciplinary study of solving complex problems and making strategic decisions as it pertains to institutions, corporations, governments and other types of organizational entities. It is closely related to management, economics, business, engineering, management consulting, and other fields. It uses various scientific research-based principles, strategies, and analytical methods including mathematical modeling, statistics and numerical algorithms and aims to improve an organization's ability to enact rational and accurate management decisions by arriving at optimal or near optimal solutions to complex decision problems.


title: Management science

text: Management science looks to help businesses achieve goals using a number of scientific methods. The field was initially an outgrowth of applied mathematics, where early challenges were problems relating to the optimization of systems which could be modeled linearly, i.e., determining the optima (maximum value of profit, assembly line performance, crop yield, bandwidth, etc. or minimum of loss, risk, costs, etc.) of some objective function. Today, management science encompasses any organizational activity for which a problem is structured in mathematical form to generate managerially relevant insights.


title: Management science

text: The management scientist's mandate is to use rational, systematic, science-based techniques to inform and improve decisions of all kinds. The techniques of management science are not restricted to business applications but may be applied to military, medical, public administration, charitable groups, political groups or community groups.


title: Management science

text: The origins of management science can be traced to operations research, which became influential during World War II when the Allied forces recruited scientists of various disciplines to assist with military operations. In these early applications, the scientists used simple mathematical models to make efficient use of limited technologies and resources. The application of these models to the corporate sector became known as management science.


title: Management science

text: In 1967 Stafford Beer characterized the field of management science as "the business use of operations research".


title: Management science

text: Applications of management science are abundant in industries such as airlines, manufacturing companies, service organizations, military branches, and in government. Management science has contributed insights and solutions to a vast range of problems and issues, including:


title: Management science

text: Management science is also concerned with so-called "soft-operational analysis", which concerns methods for strategic planning, strategic decision support, and problem structuring methods (PSM). At this level of abstraction, mathematical modeling and simulation will not suffice. Therefore, since the late 20th century, new "non-quantified" modelling methods have been developed, including morphological analysis and various forms of influence diagrams.


title: The Guilt Trip (film)

text: The Guilt Trip is a 2012 American road comedy film directed by Anne Fletcher from a screenplay written by Dan Fogelman, starring Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen, who both also served as executive producers on the film. The film was released on December 19, 2012, received mixed reviews from critics, and grossed $41 million on a production budget of $40 million.


title: The Guilt Trip (film)

text: Andy Brewster is a UCLA-graduate organic chemist and inventor. He is attempting to get his environmentally friendly cleaning product, ScieoClean, in a major retail store. However, everywhere he visits dismisses him before he can end his pitch.


title: The Guilt Trip (film)

text: After a disappointing sales pitch to K-Mart, he visits his mother, Joyce Brewster, in New Jersey before leaving on a cross-country trip to Las Vegas, lying that his pitch went well so she won't worry.


title: The Guilt Trip (film)

text: While there she reveals that he was named after Andrew Margolis, a boy she fell in love with in Florida, who she hoped would object to her marriage with Andy's father. However, he didn't and she felt she'd never mattered to him afterwards. After a little research, he finds Andrew Margolis is alive, unmarried and living in San Francisco. He invites his unknowing mother on the trip, saying he wants to spend some time with her.


title: The Guilt Trip (film)

text: The road trip quickly becomes hard for Andy as his mother meddles in his life. After their car breaks down in Tennessee, Joyce calls Andy's ex-girlfriend Jessica, whom she insists he should get back together with, to pick them up. At a pregnant and married Jessica's house she reveals that Andy proposed to her before college and she turned him down, shocking an unknowing Joyce.


title: The Guilt Trip (film)

text: Andy is glum afterward and Joyce apologizes for calling Jessica, which he half-heartedly accepts. In Texas, he meets with Costco executive Ryan McFeer; however, Joyce stays at the meeting, criticizing the product's labeling and name along with Ryan until Andy snaps at him. At the motel that night, a depressed Andy begins drinking and Joyce attempts to make up with him; however, Andy snaps at her, only to have Joyce snap back and leave for a nearby bar. Later Andy attempts to retrieve his mother but gets in a fight with a bar patron over her, receiving a black eye in the process.


title: The Guilt Trip (film)

text: At a steak restaurant the next day, the two exchange apologies and Andy reveals that he is failing at selling ScieoClean. Joyce enters a steak-eating challenge where she is noticed by cowboy-businessman Ben Graw, who gives her tips to help her finish the challenge. Afterwards he reveals he does business in New Jersey and asks her to dinner. Joyce, who has not been in a relationship since Andy's dad died when he was eight, balks at the offer so Ben merely leaves his number and asks her to call if she reconsiders.


title: The Guilt Trip (film)

text: Andy and Joyce begin to genuinely enjoy each other's company after, taking time to visit the Grand Canyon (which Joyce has always wanted to see) and having many other adventures.


title: The Guilt Trip (film)

text: In Las Vegas, Joyce has such a good time that she suggests Andy leave her while he visits San Francisco, forcing him to reveal that San Francisco is so she can meet Andrew Margolis. Joyce is very distraught as she believed Andy solely invited her to spend time with her.


title: The Guilt Trip (film)

text: Andy makes his pitch at the Home Shopping Network but finds that his science-fact based pitch bores the executives. Seeing Joyce, he takes her advice by appealing to the Network's host family's safety. Andy drinks his product, proving that it is organic and safe for children. Afterwards the Network CEO approaches him and shows genuine interest in selling ScieoClean on the Network. Later, a jubilant Andy and Joyce decide to visit Andrew Margolis's house.


title: The Guilt Trip (film)

text: However, when they arrive they see it's Andrew's son, Andrew Margolis Jr. (whom Andy mistakenly found instead of the father), who reveals that his father died five years ago. Seeing Joyce's grief he invites them inside, where he learns that his father and Joyce were close. She asks if Andrew's father ever mentioned her, but he says he never did as he only confided personal information to their mother, who is in Florida. However, he then introduces his sister, who is also named Joyce. Joyce is overjoyed, as she believes that you name your children after someone you cherished and want to remember. This shatters her belief that she didn't matter to Andrew.


title: The Guilt Trip (film)

text: Afterwards they part ways at the San Francisco Airport; Andy to make his next sales pitch and Joyce back to New Jersey, where she arranges a date with Ben Graw. The two leave content and much closer than they had been.


title: The Guilt Trip (film)

text: The film is based on a real-life trip by screenwriter Fogelman and his mother from New Jersey to Las Vegas years before. The film completed production in late spring or early summer (May–July) 2011 under the working title "My Mother's Curse". In late 2011, the film was renamed "The Guilt Trip". It was released December 19, 2012.


title: The Guilt Trip (film)

text: This film marks Streisand's first starring role since "The Mirror Has Two Faces" in 1996. She appeared in supporting roles in "Meet the Fockers" in 2004 and "Little Fockers" in 2010, as well as in a number of television series.


title: The Guilt Trip (film)

text: "The Guilt Trip" grossed $5.3 million in its opening weekend, coming in at No. 6. It ultimately grossed $37.1 million in the US and $4.7 million elsewhere, for a total of $41.9 million worldwide.


title: The Guilt Trip (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 37% based on 128 reviews, with an average rating of 5.10/10. The website's critical consensus states: "Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand have enough chemistry to drive a solidly assembled comedy; unfortunately, "The Guilt Trip" has a lemon of a script and is perilously low on comedic fuel." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 50 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B−" on scale of A to F.


title: The Guilt Trip (film)

text: Mary Pols of "Time" stated, ""The Guilt Trip" works because we all know and like a Joyce Brewster (or dozens of them)". At the 33rd Golden Raspberry Awards, Streisand was nominated for Worst Actress, where she lost to Kristen Stewart for both "Snow White and the Huntsman" and "".


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: Mercury(II) chloride (or mercury bichloride, mercury dichloride), historically also known as sulema or corrosive sublimate, is the inorganic chemical compound of mercury and chlorine with the formula HgCl. It is white crystalline solid and is a laboratory reagent and a molecular compound that is very toxic to humans. Once used as a treatment for syphilis, it is no longer used for medicinal purposes because of mercury toxicity and the availability of superior treatments.


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: Mercuric chloride is obtained by the action of chlorine on mercury or on mercury(I) chloride. It can also be produced by the addition of hydrochloric acid to a hot, concentrated solution of mercury(I) compounds such as the nitrate:


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: Heating a mixture of solid mercury(II) sulfate and sodium chloride also affords volatile HgCl, which can be separated by sublimation. Process for synthesis of Mercuric chloride first appeared in Abu Bakr al-Razi's "De aluminibus et salibus."


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: Mercuric chloride exists not as a salt composed of discrete ions, but rather is composed of linear triatomic molecules, hence its tendency to sublime. In the crystal, each mercury atom is bonded to two chloride ligands with Hg—Cl distance of 2.38 Å; six more chlorides are more distant at 3.38 Å.


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: Its solubility increases from 6% at to 36% in . In the presence of chloride ions, it dissolves to give the tetrahedral coordination complex [HgCl].


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: The main application of mercuric chloride is as a catalyst for the conversion of acetylene to vinyl chloride, the precursor to polyvinyl chloride:


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: For this application, the mercuric chloride is supported on carbon in concentrations of about 5 weight percent. This technology has been eclipsed by the thermal cracking of 1,2-dichloroethane. Other significant applications of mercuric chloride include its use as a depolarizer in batteries and as a reagent in organic synthesis and analytical chemistry (see below).


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: It is being used in plant tissue culture for surface sterilisation of explants such as leaf or stem nodes.


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: Mercuric chloride is occasionally used to form an amalgam with metals, such as aluminium. Upon treatment with an aqueous solution of mercuric chloride, aluminium strips quickly become covered by a thin layer of the amalgam. Normally, aluminium is protected by a thin layer of oxide, thus making it inert. Once amalgamated, aluminium can undergo a variety of reactions. For example, upon removal of the oxide layer, the exposed aluminium will immediately react with water generating Al(OH) and hydrogen gas. Halocarbons react with amalgamated aluminium in the Barbier reaction. These alkylaluminium compounds are nucleophilic and can be used in a similar fashion to the Grignard reagent. Amalgamated aluminium is also used as a reducing agent in organic synthesis. Zinc is also commonly amalgamated using mercuric chloride.


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: Mercuric chloride is used to remove dithiane groups attached to a carbonyl in an umpolung reaction. This reaction exploits the high affinity of Hg for anionic sulfur ligands.


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: Mercuric chloride may be used as a stabilising agent for chemicals and analytical samples. Care must be taken to ensure that detected mercuric chloride does not eclipse the signals of other components in the sample, such as is possible in gas chromatography.


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: Mercury(II) chloride was used as a photographic intensifier to produce positive pictures in the collodion process of the 1800s. When applied to a negative, the mercury(II) chloride whitens and thickens the image, thereby increasing the opacity of the shadows and creating the illusion of a positive image.


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: For the preservation of anthropological and biological specimens during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, objects were dipped in or were painted with a "mercuric solution". This was done to prevent the specimens' destruction by moths, mites and mold. Objects in drawers were protected by scattering crystalline mercuric chloride over them. It finds minor use in tanning, and wood was preserved by kyanizing (soaking in mercuric chloride). Mercuric chloride was one of the three chemicals used for railroad tie wood treatment between 1830 and 1856 in Europe and the United States. Limited railroad ties were treated in the United States until there were concerns over lumber shortages in the 1890s. The process was generally abandoned because mercuric chloride was water-soluble and not effective for the long term, as well as being highly poisonous. Furthermore, alternative treatment processes, such as copper sulfate, zinc chloride, and ultimately creosote; were found to be less toxic. Limited kyanizing was used for some railroad ties in the 1890s and early 1900s.


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: Mercuric chloride was a common over-the-counter disinfectant in the early twentieth century, recommended for everything from fighting measles germs to protecting fur coats and exterminating red ants.


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: A New York physician, Carlin Philips, wrote in 1913 that "it is one of our most popular and effective household antiseptics", but so corrosive and poisonous that it should only be available by prescription. A group of physicians in Chicago made the same demand later the same month. The product frequently caused accidental poisonings and was used as a suicide method.


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: It was used to disinfect wounds by Arab physicians in the Middle Ages. It continued to be used by Arab physicians into the twentieth century, until modern medicine deemed it unsafe for use.


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: Syphilis was frequently treated with mercuric chloride before the advent of antibiotics. It was inhaled, ingested, injected, and applied topically. Both mercuric-chloride treatment for syphilis and poisoning during the course of treatment were so common that the latter's symptoms were often confused with those of syphilis. This use of "salts of white mercury" is referred to in the English-language folk song "The Unfortunate Rake".


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: Yaws was treated with mercuric chloride (labeled as Corrosive Sublimate) before the advent of antibiotics. It was applied topically to alleviate ulcerative symptoms. Evidence of this is found in Jack London's book "The Cruise of the Snark" in the chapter entitled "The Amateur M.D."


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: Mercury dichloride is highly toxic compound, both acutely and as a cumulative poison. Its toxicity is due not just to its mercury content but also to its corrosive properties, which can cause serious internal damage, including ulcers to the stomach, mouth, and throat, and corrosive damage to the intestines. Mercuric chloride also tends to accumulate in the kidneys, causing severe corrosive damage which can lead to acute kidney failure. However, mercuric chloride, like all inorganic mercury salts, does not cross the blood–brain barrier as readily as organic mercury, although it is known to be a cumulative poison.


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: Common side effects of acute mercuric chloride poisoning include burning sensations in the mouth and throat, stomach pain, abdominal discomfort, lethargy, vomiting of blood, corrosive bronchitis, severe irritation to the gastrointestinal tract, and kidney failure. Chronic exposure can lead to symptoms more common with mercury poisoning, such as insomnia, delayed reflexes, excessive salivation, bleeding gums, fatigue, tremors, and dental problems.


title: Mercury(II) chloride

text: Acute exposure to large amounts of mercuric chloride can cause death in as little as 24 hours, usually due to acute kidney failure or damage to the gastrointestinal tract. In other cases, victims of acute exposure have taken up to two weeks to die.


title: Handbag

text: A handbag, commonly known as a purse or pocketbook in North American English, is a handled medium-to-large bag used to carry personal items.


title: Handbag

text: The term "purse" originally referred to a small bag for holding coins. In many English-speaking countries, it is still used to refer to a small money bag. A "handbag" is a larger accessory that holds objects beyond currency, such as personal items. American English typically uses the terms purse and handbag interchangeably. The term handbag began appearing in the early 1900s. Initially, it was most often used to refer to men's hand-luggage. Women's bags grew larger and more complex during this period, and the term was attached to the accessory. "Pocketbook" is another term for a woman's handbag that was most commonly used on the East Coast of the United States in the mid-twentieth century.


title: Handbag

text: Early modern Europeans wore purses for one sole purpose: to carry coins. Purses were made of soft fabric or leather and were worn by men as often as ladies; the Scottish sporran is a survival of this custom. In the 17th century, young girls were taught embroidery as a necessary skill for marriage; this also helped them make very beautiful handbags.


title: Handbag

text: By the late 18th century, fashions in Europe were moving towards a slender shape for these accessories, inspired by the silhouettes of Ancient Greece and Rome. Women wanted purses that would not be bulky or untidy in appearance, so "reticules" were designed. Reticules were made of fine fabrics like silk and velvet, carried with wrist straps. First becoming popular in France, they crossed over into Britain, where they became known as "indispensables." Men, however, did not adopt the trend. They used purses and pockets, which became popular in men's trousers.


title: Handbag

text: The modern purse, clutch, pouch, or handbag came about in England during the Industrial Revolution, in part due to the increase in travel by railway. In 1841 the Doncaster industrialist and confectionery entrepreneur Samuel Parkinson (of butterscotch fame) ordered a set of traveling cases and trunks and insisted on a traveling case or bag for his wife's particulars after noticing that her purse was too small and made from a material that would not withstand the journey.


title: Handbag

text: He stipulated that he wanted various handbags for his wife, varying in size for different occasions, and asked that they be made from the same leather that was being used for his cases and trunks to distinguish them from the then-familiar carpetbag and other travelers' cloth bags used by members of the popular classes. H. J. Cave (London) obliged and produced the first modern set of luxury handbags, as we would recognize them today, including a clutch and a tote (named as 'ladies traveling case').


title: Handbag

text: These are now on display in the Museum of Bags and Purses in Amsterdam. H. J. Cave did continue to sell and advertise the handbags, but many critics said that women did not need them and that bags of such size and heavy material would 'break the backs of ladies.' H. J. Cave ceased to promote the bags after 1865, concentrating on trunks instead, although they continued to make the odd handbag for royalty, celebrities or to celebrate special occasions, the Queen's 2012 Diamond Jubilee being the most recent. However, H.J. Cave resumed handbag production in 2010.


title: Handbag

text: When handbags started to become popularized, they were heavily criticized as it was seen as unfeminine. In the early 20th century, Sigmund Freud argued that purses were sexually suggestive as the structure of the purse symbolized female genitalia and sexuality. Before handbags, pockets were secured inside of a woman's dress which held personal items and retrieving items was done discreetly and modestly. Due to handbags being carried in the open, the accessory exposed a woman's personal items. Freud compared women retrieving items from their purse as a representation of masturbation. According to Freud's argument, women who carried purses openly displayed their sexuality due to the sexual symbolism of the purse.


title: Handbag

text: As handbags grew into the mainstream in the 20th century, they began to transform from purely practical items to symbols of the wearer's wealth and worth in society. The styles, materials, prices, and, most importantly, the brand names of purses and handbags became just as (if not more) valuable than the functionality of the bags themselves. Handbags transitioned from being seen as unfeminine, to being seen as specifically feminine and unmasculine. While women's bags served as fashion accessories not meant to hold more than a few personal and beauty items (feminine things), men's bags stayed more in the realm of briefcases: square, hard-edged, plain; containing items pertaining to the “man’s world”: business-related items, documents, files, stationery and pens. The gendered division between the personal bag and the business bag meets in the middle with the unisex alms purse originating in the Middle Ages meant to carry coins to donate to the church or the poor. The charitable symbolism of the alms purse later carried over to women's handbags in general; a woman carrying a bag was seen as upper class and therefore potentially using the bag to hold her donations.


title: Handbag

text: During the 1940s, the rationing of textiles for World War II led to the manufacturing of handbags made in materials like raffia or crocheted from yarn. Some women crocheted their own small handbags from commercial patterns during this period.


title: Handbag

text: The oldest known purse dates back more than 5000 years, and was a pouch worn by a man, Ötzi the Iceman. Men once carried coin purses. In early modern Europe, when women's fashions moved in the direction of using small ornamental purses, which evolved into handbags, men's fashions were moving in another direction. Men's trousers replaced men's breeches during the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, and pockets were incorporated in the loose, heavy material. This enabled men to continue carrying coins, and then paper currency, in small leather wallets. Men's pockets were plentiful in the 19th century and 20th century trousers and coats, to carry possessions, such as pipes, matches, and knives, and they were an item frequently mended by their wives.


title: Handbag

text: Men's purses were revived by designers in the 1970s in Europe. Since the 1990s, designers have marketed a more diverse range of accessory bags for men. The names man bag, man-purse and murse have been used. The designs common in the U.S. are typically variations on backpacks or messenger bags, and have either a masculine or a more unisex appearance, although they are often more streamlined than a backpack and less bulky than a briefcase. These bags are often called messenger bags or organizer bags. In many other countries, it is common for men to carry small rectangular shoulder bags, often made of leather. The leather satchel is also common. Men's designer bags are produced by well-known companies such as Prada, Louis Vuitton, Coach, and Bottega Veneta in a variety of shapes and sizes. The global men's bag and small leather goods trade is a $4-billion-a-year industry. Sales of men's accessories including "holdall" bags are increasing in North America.


title: Handbag

text: As a fashion accessory, handbags can be categorized according to the silhouette of the bag, as well as the type of handle.


title: Handbag

text: A distinction can also be made between soft-body handbags or frame handbags, where a metal frame supports the textile or leather of the bag. Frame bags often use a kissing lock closure, with two interlocking metal beads set on the top of the frame. Kissing locks were popular on handbags during the early- to mid-20th century, and remain popular with vintage collectors and in "retro" designs. These locks are still seen on smaller coin purses.


title: Handbag

text: The verb "to handbag" and its humorous usage was inspired in the 1980s by UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher having “weaponized” the handbag in the opinion of British biographer and historian David Cannadine. As “her most visible symbol of her power to command” the bag became an emphatic prop that she produced at meetings to show she meant business. She would invariably bring out of the bag a crucial document from which she would quote, her speech notes often being cut to size to fit inside. Because Thatcher was Britain's first female prime minister, former Daily Telegraph editor Charles Moore wrote in his authorised biography of 2013, “her handbag became the sceptre of her rule”.


title: Handbag

text: The verb's more general meaning of "treating ruthlessly" came to symbolize Thatcher's whole style of government. Victims of her handbaggings, from political leaders to journalists, have testified to what the German chancellor Helmut Kohl perceived as her “ice-cold pursuit of her interests”. US secretary of state James Baker recalled her standby ploy: “When negotiations stall, get out the handbag! The solution is always there.”


title: Handbag

text: Julian Critchley, one of her biggest Tory backbench critics, once said, "Margaret Thatcher and her handbag is the same as Winston Churchill and his cigar." Thatcher's bag was almost as newsworthy an item as she was herself and on the day she died, one of her handbag-makers saw a sharp rise in sales of her favorite structured design. The original bag Thatcher asserts on a signed card was the one “used every day in my time at Downing Street” is archived at Churchill College, Cambridge. Made of dark blue leather “in mock-croc style”, it was a gift from friends on her birthday in 1984.


title: Handbag

text: In 2014, the auction house Christie's started a handbag department, which now has several staff, headed by an "international head of handbags". In June 2017, Christie's had its first sale devoted exclusively to handbags.


title: Handbag

text: According to "The Daily Telegraph", the most sought-after and valuable brand is Hermès, followed by others including Céline, Chanel and Louis Vuitton.


title: Handbag

text: In June 2015, a Christie's handbag sale in Hong Kong saw a pink crocodile skin Hermès Birkin bag made only in 2014, sell for a then world record £146,000.


title: Handbag

text: In May 2017, Christie's Hong Kong sold a white crocodile skin Hermès Birkin bag with 10.23 carats of diamonds for a world record HK$2.9 million (£293,000).


title: Handbag

text: The Museum of Bags and Purses is in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; the Simone Handbag Museum is in Seoul, South Korea; and the ESSE Purse Museum is in Little Rock, Arkansas.


title: Handbag

text: Other notable collectors include Victoria Beckham, who has over 100 Birkin bags, Katie Holmes, Rita Ora and Kelly Brook. Cara Delevingne, Miranda Kerr, Lauren Conrad, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Beyoncé, Mary-Kate Olsen, Ashley Olsen, Lady Gaga, Olivia Palermo, and Rihanna are also collectors. Others include Kim Chiu, KC Concepcion, Kris Aquino, Heart Evangelista, Marian Rivera, Bea Alonzo, Kathryn Bernardo, Lovi Poe, Megan Young, Gretchen Barretto, Camille Prats, Sarah Lahbati, and Jefree Star.


title: Laura Secord

text: Laura Secord ( Ingersoll; 13 September 1775 – 17 October 1868) was a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812. She is known for having walked out of American-occupied territory in 1813 to warn British forces of an impending American attack. Her contribution to the war was little known during her lifetime, but since her death she has been frequently honoured in Canada. Though Laura Secord had no relation to it, most Canadians associate her with the Laura Secord Chocolates company, named after her on the centennial of her walk.


title: Laura Secord

text: Laura Secord's father, Thomas Ingersoll, lived in Massachusetts and fought on the side of the Patriots during the Revolutionary War (1775–1783). In 1795 he moved his family to the Niagara region of Upper Canada after he had applied for and received a land grant. Shortly after, Laura married Loyalist James Secord, who was later seriously wounded at the Battle of Queenston Heights early in the War of 1812. While he was still recovering in 1813, the Americans invaded the Niagara Peninsula, including Queenston. During the occupation, Secord acquired information about a planned American attack, and stole away on the morning of 22 June to inform Lieutenant James FitzGibbon in the territory still controlled by the British. The information helped the British and their Mohawk allies repel the invading Americans at the Battle of Beaver Dams. Her effort was forgotten until 1860, when Edward, Prince of Wales awarded the impoverished widow £100 (£12,955.64 in 2022) for her service on his visit to Canada.


title: Laura Secord

text: The story of Laura Secord has taken on mythic overtones in Canada. Her tale has been the subject of books, plays, and poetry, often with many embellishments. Since her death, Canada has bestowed honours on her, including schools named after her, monuments, a museum, a memorial stamp and coin, and a statue at the Valiants Memorial in the Canadian capital.


title: Laura Secord

text: Her father, Thomas Ingersoll (1749–1812) married seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Dewey on 28 February 1775. Their first child, Laura, was born in Great Barrington in the colonial Province of Massachusetts Bay on 13 September 1775. Thomas's family had lived in Massachusetts for five generations. His paternal immigrant ancestor was Richard Ingersoll, who had arrived in Salem, Massachusetts, from Bedfordshire, England, in 1629. Thomas was born in 1749 in Westfield, Massachusetts. Elizabeth, daughter of Israel Dewey and his wife, was also born in Westfield, on 28 January 1758. Thomas moved to Great Barrington in 1774, where he settled into a house on a small piece of land by the Housatonic River. Over the next several years, his success as a hatmaker allowed him to marry, increase his landholdings, and expand his house as his family grew. He spent much time away from home, as he rose through the ranks in the military on the side of the American revolutionaries during the American Revolutionary War. Upon his return to Great Barrington, he was made a magistrate.


title: Laura Secord

text: Elizabeth gave birth to three more girls: Elizabeth Franks on 17 October 1779; Mira (or Myra) in 1781; and Abigail in September 1783. They gave up Abigail for adoption in 1784 to an aunt with the surname Nash. Elizabeth Ingersoll died 20 February 1784. Thomas remarried the following year to Mercy Smith, widow of Josiah Smith, on 26 May 1785. Mercy had no children. She has been credited with teaching her stepdaughters to read and do needlework before her death from tuberculosis in 1789. By adolescence, the eldest daughter Laura was caring for her sisters and looking after the household affairs.


title: Laura Secord

text: Thomas remarried four months after Mercy's death, on 20 September 1789, to Sarah "Sally" Backus, a widow with a daughter, Harriet. The couple had an additional four girls and three boys. The first boy, Charles Fortescue, was born on 27 September 1791. Charlotte (born 1793) and Appolonia (born 1811) were the last members of this branch of the Ingersoll family to be born in Massachusetts.


title: Laura Secord

text: Thomas helped suppress Shays' Rebellion in 1786, which earned him the rank of major. In the years following, he witnessed and was offended by the continuing persecution of Loyalists in Massachusetts. He realized that in the depressed economic conditions that followed the Revolutionary War, and with his own deep debts, he was unlikely to see his former prosperity again. In 1793, Thomas met in New York City with Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, who offered to show him the best land for settlement in Upper Canada, where the Crown was encouraging development. He and four associates travelled to Upper Canada to petition Lieutenant Governor John Simcoe for a land grant. They received in the Thames Valley, and founded Oxford-on-the-Thames (later known as Ingersoll, Ontario), on condition that they populate it with forty other families within seven years. After winding up their affairs in Great Barrington, the Ingersoll family moved to Upper Canada in 1795.


title: Laura Secord

text: Thomas Ingersoll supported his family in their early years in Upper Canada by running a tavern in Queenston while land was being cleared and roads built in the settlement. The family stayed in Queenston until a log cabin was completed on the settlement in 1796. After Governor Simcoe returned to England in 1796, opposition grew in Upper Canada to the "Late Loyalists", such as Thomas, who had come to Canada for the land grants. The grants were greatly reduced, and Thomas's contract was cancelled for not having all of its conditions fulfilled. Feeling cheated, in 1805 he moved the family to Credit River, close to York (present-day Toronto), where he successfully ran an inn until his 1812 death following a stroke. Sally continued to run it until her own death in 1833.


title: Laura Secord

text: Laura Ingersoll remained in Queenston when the family moved. She married the wealthy James Secord, likely in June 1797. The Secord family originated in France, where the name was spelled "D'Secor" or "Sicar". Five Secord brothers, who were Protestant Huguenots, fled from persecution in France and founded New Rochelle, New York in 1688. At the time of the American Revolution, Loyalist members of the family anglicized their surname to "Secord".


title: Laura Secord

text: The Secord couple lived in a house built in , the first floor of which was a shop. Secord gave birth to her first child, Mary, in St. in 1799. Mary was followed by Charlotte (1801), Harriet (10 February 1803), Charles Badeau (1809 – the only male child) and Appolonia (1810).


title: Laura Secord

text: James Secord served in the 1st Lincoln Militia under Isaac Brock when the War of 1812 broke out. He was among those who helped carry away Brock's body after Brock was killed in the first attack of the Battle of Queenston Heights in October 1812. James himself was severely wounded in the leg and shoulder during the battle. Laura heard of his predicament and rushed to his side. Some sources suggest that she found three American soldiers preparing to beat him to death with their gunstocks. She begged them to save her husband's life, reportedly offering her own in return, when American Captain John E. Wool happened upon the situation and reprimanded the soldiers. This story may have been a later embellishment and may have originated with her grandson, James B. Secord. When the Secords arrived home, they found that the house had been looted in Laura's absence. Spending the winter in St. , Laura spent the next several months nursing her wounded husband back to health.


title: Laura Secord

text: On 27 May 1813, the American army launched an attack across the Niagara River, and captured Fort George. Queenston and the Niagara area fell to the Americans. Men of military age were sent as prisoners to the U.S., though the still-recuperating James Secord was not among them. That June, a number of U.S. soldiers were billeted at the Secords' home.


title: Laura Secord

text: On the evening of 21 June 1813, Laura Secord heard of plans for a surprise American attack on Lieutenant James FitzGibbon's British troops at Beaver Dams, which would have furthered American control in the Niagara Peninsula. It is unclear how she became aware of these plans. According to tradition she overheard a conversation among the billeted Americans as they ate dinner.


title: Laura Secord

text: As her husband was still recovering from his October injuries, Secord set out early the next morning to warn the Lieutenant. She reportedly walked from present-day Queenston through St. , Homer, Shipman's Corners and Short Hills at the Niagara Escarpment before she arrived at the camp of allied Mohawk warriors, who led her the rest of the way to FitzGibbon's headquarters at the DeCew House. Based on her warning, a small British force and a larger contingent of Mohawk warriors were readied for the American attack. They defeated the Americans, most of whom were casualties or taken prisoner in the Battle of Beaver Dams on 24 June. No mention of Secord was made in reports that immediately followed the battle.


title: Laura Secord

text: After the war, with the Secords' Queenston store in ruins, the family was impoverished. Only James's small war pension and the rent from 200 acres of land they had in Grantham Township supported them.


title: Laura Secord

text: The Secords' sixth child, Laura Anne, was born in October 1815, and their last child, Hannah, was born in 1817. The Secords' eldest daughter Mary wedded a doctor, William Trumball, on 18 April 1816. On 27 March 1817, Mary gave birth in Ireland to Elizabeth Trumball, the first of Laura and James's grandchildren. Mary had another daughter, also named Mary, in Jamaica. Following her husband's death, Mary returned to Queenston with her children in 1821.


title: Laura Secord

text: The struggling James petitioned the government in 1827 for some sort of employment. Lieutenant-Governor Peregrine Maitland did not offer him a position, but offered something to Laura. He asked her to be in charge of the yet-to-be-completed Brock's Monument. At first, she turned it down, but then reluctantly accepted it. When Brock's Monument opened in 1831, Secord learned the new Lieutenant-Governor, John Colborne, intended to give the keys to the widow of a member of the monument committee who had died in an accident. On 17 July 1831, Secord petitioned Colborne to honour Maitland's promise, and included another certificate from FitzGibbon attesting her contribution to the war. She wrote that Colonel Thomas Clarke had been told by Maitland, "it was too late to think of [the committee member's widow] Mrs. Nichol as I have pledged my word to Mrs. Secord that as soon as possible she should have the key." Despite her pleas, Secord did not receive the keys to the monument.


title: Laura Secord

text: In 1828, the Secords' daughter, Appolonia, died at 18 of typhus, and James was appointed registrar of the Niagara Surrogate Court. He was promoted to judge in 1833, and his son Charles Badeau Secord took over the registrar position. Charles Badeau Secord's first son, Charles Forsyth Secord, was born 9 May 1833. His is the only line of Secords that survived into the 21st century.


title: Laura Secord

text: James became a customs collector in 1835 at the port of Chippawa. The position came with a home in Chippawa, into which the family moved. Charles Badeau Secord took over the Queenston home. Daughter Laura Ann and her son moved into the home in 1837 following her husband's death.


title: Laura Secord

text: James Secord died of a stroke on 22 February 1841. He was buried, according to his wishes, at Drummond Hill (now in Niagara Falls). James's death left Laura destitute. When his war pension ended, she was unable to maintain her land as profitable and sold off much of it. Governor-General Sydenham denied a 27 February 1841 petition which she sent, seeking to have her son to take over James's customs position. Sydenham also denied a petition she sent that May for a pension for herself, as James had received a pension for decades.


title: Laura Secord

text: Possibly with help from better-off members of the family, Secord moved to a red brick cottage on Water Street in November 1841. Daughter Harriet and her own two daughters joined her in May 1842, after Harriet's husband died of alcohol poisoning. The three shared quarters with Secord for the rest of her life. Youngest daughter Hannah also moved in when she was widowed in 1844, and brought two daughters with her. Though she lacked training, for a short time Laura Secord ran a small school out of the home in an effort to support herself. This venture came to an end when the public common school system was introduced in the 1840s.


title: Laura Secord

text: Over the years, the Secords unsuccessfully petitioned the government for some kind of acknowledgement. In 1860, when Secord was 85, the Prince of Wales heard of her story while travelling in Canada. At Chippawa, near Niagara Falls, he learned of Laura Secord's plight as an aging widow and sent an award of £100 (). It was the only official recognition that she received during her lifetime.


title: Laura Secord

text: Laura Secord died in 1868 at the age of 93. She was interred next to her husband in the Drummond Hill Cemetery in Niagara Falls. Her grave is marked by a monument with a bust on top, and is close to a monument marking the Battle of Lundy's Lane.


title: Laura Secord

text: Her granddaughter described Secord as being with brown eyes and a fair complexion. James FitzGibbon wrote she was "of slight frame and delicate appearance". She was skilled at needlework, dressmaking and cooking. According to biographer Peggy Dymond Leavey, her many grandchildren enjoyed hearing their grandmother tell stories of her early life, and her Anglican faith increased with age.


title: Laura Secord

text: In his report of the battle, FitzGibbon stated only that he "received information" about the threat; it is possible he omitted mention of Secord to protect her family during wartime. He first wrote of Secord in a certificate dated 26 February 1820, in support of a petition by her husband for a licence to operate a stone quarry in Queenston. In 1827 FitzGibbon wrote:


title: Laura Secord

text: FitzGibbon wrote in a certificate dated 23 February 1837 that Secord did "acquaint" him with the Americans' intentions, but does not state whether he used the information. A diary entry of Mohawk chief John Norton talks of "a loyal Inhabitant brought information that the Enemy intended to attack", but does not name the "Inhabitant". Dominique Ducharme, leader of the Caughnawaga Mohawk in the Battle of Beaver Dams, made no mention of Secord in his reports, nor of receiving information from either Secord or FitzGibbon about the impending American attack.


title: Laura Secord

text: Secord wrote two accounts of her walk, the first in 1853, and the second in 1861. Neither account contains details that can be corroborated with military accounts of the battle, such as specific dates or details about troops. Her account changed throughout her life. Historian Pierre Berton noted that she never stated clearly how she learned of the impending attack. She told FitzGibbon that her husband had learned about it from an American officer, but years later told her granddaughter that she had overheard the plans directly from the American soldiers billeted in her home. Berton suggested that Secord's informant could have been an American still residing in the United States, who would have been charged with treason had Secord revealed her source. In the 1860s, as Secord's story gained prominence, historian William Foster Coffin added new details, which included the claim that Laura had brought a cow with her as an excuse to leave her home in case the American patrols questioned her.


title: Laura Secord

text: A number of historians have questioned Secord's account. W. Stewart Wallace, in his 1932 book, "The Story of Laura Secord: A Study in Historical Evidence", concluded her story was mostly myth, and that she played no significant role in the outcome of the Battle of Beaver Dams. Historian George Ingram contended in his 1965 book "The Story of Laura Secord Revisited" that Secord's debunking had been taken too far. Ruth MacKenzie also burnished Secord's reputation with "Laura Secord: The Legend and the Lady" in 1971.


title: Laura Secord

text: The question of Secord's actual contribution to the British success has been contested. In the early 1920s, historians suggested that Native scouts had already informed FitzGibbon of the coming attack well before Secord had arrived on 23 June. Historian Ernest Cruikshank wrote in 1895 that "Scarcely had Mrs Secord concluded her narrative, when [Ducharme's] scouts came in ... they had encountered the advance guard of the enemy." Later, two testimonials were found which FitzGibbon wrote in 1820 and 1827, which supported Secord's claim. FitzGibbon asserted that Laura Secord had arrived on 22 June (not 23 June), and that "in consequence of this information", he had been able to intercept the American troops.


title: Laura Secord

text: According to legend, "it took her approximately 17 hours to travel the distance to warn James FitzGibbon of the impending American attack".


title: Laura Secord

text: She has often been depicted as "a lone figure bravely travelling through approximately 30 km of wilderness from her home at Queenston to a British military detachment camped in DeCew House in what is today Thorold, Ontario."


title: Laura Secord

text: Historian Cecilia Morgan argues that the Secord story became famous in the 1880s when upper-class women sought to strengthen the emotional ties between Canadian women and the British Empire. She writes that they needed a female heroine to validate their claims for women's suffrage. The first product of their campaign was Sarah Anne Curzon's verse drama "Laura Secord: The Heroine of 1812" in 1887. The play was a catalyst for "a deluge of articles and entries on Secord that filled Canadian histories and school textbooks at the turn of the 20th century". Although critics gave the play negative reviews, it was the first full work devoted to Secord's story and popularized her image.


title: Laura Secord

text: Secord has been compared to French-Canadian heroine Madeleine de Verchères and to American Revolution hero Paul Revere. Her story has been retold and commemorated by generations of biographers, playwrights, poets, novelists and journalists.


title: Laura Secord

text: After discovering a newspaper clipping of the events, early feminist Emma Currie began a lifelong interest in Secord's life. She tracked down information from Laura's relatives as far away as Great Barrington, and published a biographical account in 1900 called "The Story of Laura Secord". She later successfully petitioned to have a Secord memorial erected in Queenston Heights. The cut stone granite monument stands and was dedicated in 1901. In 1905, Secord's portrait was hung in Parliament. Playwright Merrill Denison wrote a radio play of her story in 1931 which mixed serious history with parody.


title: Laura Secord

text: On the centennial of Secord's walk in 1913, and to capitalize on Canadian patriotic feelings, Frank O'Connor founded Laura Secord Chocolates. The chain's first location opened on Yonge and Elm streets in Toronto. The chocolates were packaged in black boxes adorned with a cameo of Secord. By the 1970s, the company had become the largest candy retailer in Canada. Among most Canadians, the name Laura Secord is more strongly associated with the chocolate company than with the historical figure.


title: Laura Secord

text: During the War of 1812, the Secords' Queenston homestead was fired upon and looted. It was restored in the late 20th century and given to the Niagara Parks Commission in 1971. It is now operated as a museum and gift shop at Partition and Queen streets in Queenston. The Laura Secord Legacy Trail covers the 32 kilometer route of the journey she undertook from her homestead in Queenston to DeCew House in Thorold where she delivered her message to Lt. Fitzgibbon on 22 June 1813.


title: Laura Secord

text: Thomas Ingersoll's old home on Main Street in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Laura Secord's birthplace, was used as the town's Free Library from 1896 until 1913. The Mason Library replaced it and was built on the site. The Great Barrington Historic District Commission made 18 October 1997 Laura Secord Day, and dedicated a plaque in her honour at the site of the Mason Library.


title: Laura Secord

text: Laura Secord is the namesake of a number of schools, including Laura Secord Public School (also known as Laura Secord Memorial School, 1914–2010) in Queenston, École Laura Secord School in Winnipeg, Manitoba (built 1912), Laura Secord Secondary School in St. Catharines, Ontario and Laura Secord Elementary School in Vancouver, British Columbia. Beaver Dams Battlefield Park has a plaque dedicated to Secord. In 1992, Canada Post issued a Laura Secord commemorative stamp. In 2003, the Minister of Canadian Heritage declared Secord a "Person of National Historical Significance", and in 2006 Secord's was one of fourteen statues dedicated at the Valiants Memorial in Ottawa. To commemorate the 200th anniversary of her walk, Secord's image adorned a circulation quarter issued by the Royal Canadian Mint and a postage stamp from Canada Post.


title: Angora wool

text: Angora hair or Angora fibre refers to the downy coat produced by the Angora rabbit. While the names of the source animals are similar, Angora fibre is distinct from mohair, which comes from the Angora goat. Angora fibre is also distinct from cashmere, which comes from the cashmere goat. Angora is known for its softness, thin fibres, and what knitters refer to as a halo (fluffiness). It is also known for its silky texture. It is much warmer and lighter than wool due to the hollow core of the angora fibre. It also gives the wool its characteristic floating feel.


title: Angora wool

text: Angora rabbits produce coats in a variety of colours, from white through tan, grey, and brown to black. Good quality Angora fibre is around 12–16 micrometres in diameter, and can cost as much as US$10–16 per ounce (35 to 50 cents/gram). It felts very easily, even on the animal itself if it is not groomed frequently.


title: Angora wool

text: Yarns of 100% angora are typically used as accents. They have the most halo and warmth, but can felt very easily through abrasion and humidity and can be excessively warm in a finished garment. The fibre is normally blended with wool to give the yarn elasticity, as Angora fibre is not naturally elastic. The blend decreases the softness and halo as well as the price of the finished object. Commercial knitting yarns typically use 30–50% angora, in order to produce some halo, warmth, and softness without the side effects of excessive felting.


title: Angora wool

text: There are four different types of Angora recognized by the American Rabbit Breeders Association (ARBA): English, French, Satin and Giant. There are many other breeds, one of the more common being German. Each breed produces different quality and quantity of fibre, and has a different range of colours.


title: Angora wool

text: 90% of Angora fur is produced in China, although Europe, Chile and the United States also produce small quantities. In China, there are more than 50 million Angora rabbits, growing 2,500–3,000 tonnes per year. Harvesting occurs up to three times a year (about every 4 months) and is collected by plucking or shearing of the moulting fur.


title: Angora wool

text: Most breeds of Angora rabbits moult with their natural growth cycle about every four months. Many producers of the fibre pluck the fur of these breeds. Plucking is, in effect, pulling out the moulted fur. Plucking ensures a minimum of guard hair, and the fur is not as matted when plucked as when it is collected from the rabbit's cage. However, plucking a rabbit is time consuming, so some producers shear the rabbit instead. While this results in slightly lower quality fleece, as the guard hairs are included, it does take less time and results in more fleece. Also, not all breeds of Angora moult, and if the rabbit does not naturally moult, it cannot be plucked. German Angoras do not moult.


title: Angora wool

text: The rabbits must be groomed at least once or twice a week to prevent the fur from matting and felting. There is also a danger a rabbit will ingest its own moulted fur; unlike a cat, a rabbit cannot easily be rid of the build up.


title: Angora wool

text: In 2013, several clothing retailers suspended the sourcing of products containing angora wool after video evidence surfaced of live rabbits with their paws tied being plucked raw in Chinese fur farms. Major retailers that banned angora products in response to welfare concerns include Hugo Boss, Gap Inc., Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, H&M and Esprit.


title: Angora wool

text: In September 2016, French animal rights charity One Voice released disturbing footage from six angora rabbit farms across France. The videos depict the animals being pinned down with their front and hind legs spread apart, while workers pluck and rip the fur from their skin. In the video, the rabbits scream and cry in pain as their fur is ripped off, leaving them completely bare except for their heads.


title: Angora wool

text: The premium first quality wool is taken from the back and upper sides of the rabbit. This is usually the longest and cleanest fibre on the rabbit. There should not be hay or vegetable matter in the fibre. Second quality is from the neck and lower sides, and may have some vegetable matter. Third quality is the buttocks and legs and any other areas that easily felt and are of shorter length. Fourth quality is totally unsalvageable, and consists of the larger felted bits or stained fibre. Third and fourth quality are perfect for cutting up for birds to use in lining their nests. With daily brushing, felting of the fibre can be avoided, increasing the usable portion of fibre.


title: History of aluminium

text: Aluminium (or aluminum) metal is very rare in native form, and the process to refine it from ores is complex, so for most of human history it was unknown. However, the compound alum has been known since the 5th century BCE and was used extensively by the ancients for dyeing. During the Middle Ages, its use for dyeing made it a commodity of international commerce. Renaissance scientists believed that alum was a salt of a new earth; during the Age of Enlightenment, it was established that this earth, alumina, was an oxide of a new metal. Discovery of this metal was announced in 1825 by Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted, whose work was extended by German chemist Friedrich Wöhler.


title: History of aluminium

text: Aluminium was difficult to refine and thus uncommon in actual usage. Soon after its discovery, the price of aluminium exceeded that of gold. It was reduced only after the initiation of the first industrial production by French chemist Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville in 1856. In 1878, James Fern Webster was producing 100 pounds of pure Aluminium every week at his Solihull Lodge factory in Warwickshire, using a chemical process. In 1884, he established a trading title, Webster's Patent Aluminium Crown Metal Company Ltd. Aluminium became much more available to the public with the Hall–Héroult process developed independently by French engineer Paul Héroult and American engineer Charles Martin Hall in 1886, and the Bayer process developed by Austrian chemist Carl Joseph Bayer in 1889. These processes have been used for aluminium production up to the present.


title: History of aluminium

text: The introduction of these methods for the mass production of aluminium led to extensive use of the light, corrosion-resistant metal in industry and everyday life. Aluminium began to be used in engineering and construction. In World Wars I and II, aluminium was a crucial strategic resource for aviation. World production of the metal grew from 6,800 metric tons in 1900 to 2,810,000 metric tons in 1954, when aluminium became the most produced non-ferrous metal, surpassing copper.


title: History of aluminium

text: In the second half of the 20th century, aluminium gained usage in transportation and packaging. Aluminium production became a source of concern due to its effect on the environment, and aluminium recycling gained ground. The metal became an exchange commodity in the 1970s. Production began to shift from developed countries to developing ones; by 2010, China had accumulated an especially large share in both production and consumption of aluminium. World production continued to rise, reaching 58,500,000 metric tons in 2015. Aluminium production exceeds those of all other non-ferrous metals combined.


title: History of aluminium

text: The history of aluminium was shaped by the usage of its compound alum. The first written record of alum was in the 5th century BCE by Greek historian Herodotus. The ancients used it as a dyeing mordant, in medicine, in chemical milling, and as a fire-resistant coating for wood to protect fortresses from enemy arson. Aluminium metal was unknown. Roman writer Petronius mentioned in his novel "Satyricon" that an unusual glass had been presented to the emperor: after it was thrown on the pavement, it did not break but only deformed. It was returned to its former shape using a hammer. After learning from the inventor that nobody else knew how to produce this material, the emperor had the inventor executed so that it did not diminish the price of gold. Variations of this story were mentioned briefly in "Natural History" by Roman historian Pliny the Elder (who noted the story had "been current through frequent repetition rather than authentic") and "Roman History" by Roman historian Cassius Dio. Some sources suggest this glass could be aluminium. It is possible aluminium-containing alloys were produced in China during the reign of the first Jin dynasty (266–420).


title: History of aluminium

text: After the Crusades, alum was a commodity of international commerce; it was indispensable in the European fabric industry. Small alum mines were worked in Catholic Europe but most alum came from the Middle East. Alum continued to be traded through the Mediterranean Sea until the mid-15th century, when the Ottomans greatly increased export taxes. In a few years, alum was discovered in great abundance in Italy. Pope Pius II forbade all imports from the east, using the profits from the alum trade to start a war with the Ottomans. This newly found alum long played an important role in European pharmacy, but the high prices set by the papal government eventually made other states start their own production; large-scale alum mining came to other regions of Europe in the 16th century.


title: History of aluminium

text: At the start of the Renaissance, the nature of alum remained unknown. Around 1530, Swiss physician Paracelsus recognized alum as separate from "vitriole" (sulfates) and suggested it was a salt of an earth. In 1595, German doctor and chemist Andreas Libavius demonstrated that alum and green and blue "vitriole" were formed by the same acid but different earths; for the undiscovered earth that formed alum, he proposed the name "alumina". German chemist Georg Ernst Stahl stated that the unknown base of alum was akin to lime or chalk in 1702; this mistaken view was shared by many scientists for half a century. In 1722, German chemist Friedrich Hoffmann suggested that the base of alum was a distinct earth. In 1728, French chemist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire claimed alum was formed by an unknown earth and sulfuric acid; he mistakenly believed burning that earth yielded silica. (Geoffroy's mistake was corrected only in 1785 by German chemist and pharmacist Johann Christian Wiegleb. He determined that earth of alum could not be synthesized from silica and alkalis, contrary to contemporary belief.) French chemist Jean Gello proved the earth in clay and the earth resulting from the reaction of an alkali on alum were identical in 1739. German chemist Johann Heinrich Pott showed the precipitate obtained from pouring an alkali into a solution of alum was different from lime and chalk in 1746.


title: History of aluminium

text: German chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf synthesized the earth of alum by boiling clay in sulfuric acid and adding potash in 1754. He realized that adding soda, potash, or an alkali to a solution of the new earth in sulfuric acid yielded alum. He described the earth as alkaline, as he had discovered it dissolved in acids when dried. Marggraf also described salts of this earth: chloride, nitrate and acetate. In 1758, French chemist Pierre Macquer wrote that alumina resembled a metallic earth. In 1760, French chemist Théodore Baron d'Hénouville expressed his confidence that alumina was a metallic earth.


title: History of aluminium

text: In 1767, Swedish chemist Torbern Bergman synthesized alum by boiling alunite in sulfuric acid and adding potash to the solution. He also synthesized alum as a reaction product between sulfates of potassium and earth of alum, demonstrating that alum was a double salt. Swedish German pharmaceutical chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele demonstrated that both alum and silica originated from clay and alum did not contain silicon in 1776. Writing in 1782, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier considered alumina an oxide of a metal with an affinity for oxygen so strong that no known reducing agents could overcome it.


title: History of aluminium

text: Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius suggested the formula AlO for alumina in 1815. The correct formula, AlO, was established by German chemist Eilhard Mitscherlich in 1821; this helped Berzelius determine the correct atomic weight of the metal, 27.


title: History of aluminium

text: In 1760, Baron de Hénouville unsuccessfully attempted to reduce alumina to its metal. He claimed he had tried every method of reduction known at the time, though his methods were unpublished. It is probable he mixed alum with carbon or some organic substance, with salt or soda for flux, and heated it in a charcoal fire. Austrian chemists Anton Leopold Ruprecht and Matteo Tondi repeated Baron's experiments in 1790, significantly increasing the temperatures. They found small metallic particles they believed were the sought-after metal; but later experiments by other chemists showed these were iron phosphide from impurities in the charcoal and bone ash. German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth commented in an aftermath, "if there exists an earth which has been put in conditions where its metallic nature should be disclosed, if it had such, an earth exposed to experiments suitable for reducing it, tested in the hottest fires by all sorts of methods, on a large as well as on a small scale, that earth is certainly alumina, yet no one has yet perceived its metallization." Lavoisier in 1794 and French chemist Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau in 1795 melted alumina to a white enamel in a charcoal fire fed by pure oxygen but found no metal. American chemist Robert Hare melted alumina with an oxyhydrogen blowpipe in 1802, also obtaining the enamel, but still found no metal.


title: History of aluminium

text: In 1807, British chemist Humphry Davy successfully electrolyzed alumina with alkaline batteries, but the resulting alloy contained potassium and sodium, and Davy had no means to separate the desired metal from these. He then heated alumina with potassium, forming potassium oxide but was unable to produce the sought-after metal. In 1808, Davy set up a different experiment on electrolysis of alumina, establishing that alumina decomposed in the electric arc but formed metal alloyed with iron; he was unable to separate the two. Finally, he tried yet another electrolysis experiment, seeking to collect the metal on iron, but was again unable to separate the coveted metal from it. Davy suggested the metal be named "alumium" in 1808 and "aluminum" in 1812, thus producing the modern name. Other scientists used the spelling "aluminium"; the former spelling regained usage in the United States in the following decades.


title: History of aluminium

text: American chemist Benjamin Silliman repeated Hare's experiment in 1813 and obtained small granules of the sought-after metal, which almost immediately burned.


title: History of aluminium

text: In 1824, Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted attempted to produce the metal. He reacted anhydrous aluminium chloride with potassium amalgam, yielding a lump of metal that looked similar to tin. He presented his results and demonstrated a sample of the new metal in 1825. In 1826, he wrote, "aluminium has a metallic luster and somewhat grayish color and breaks down water very slowly"; this suggests he had obtained an aluminium–potassium alloy, rather than pure aluminium. Ørsted placed little importance on his discovery. He did not notify either Davy or Berzelius, both of whom he knew, and published his work in a Danish magazine unknown to the European public. As a result, he is often not credited as the discoverer of the element; some earlier sources claimed Ørsted had not isolated aluminium.


title: History of aluminium

text: Berzelius tried isolating the metal in 1825 by carefully washing the potassium analog of the base salt in cryolite in a crucible. Prior to the experiment, he had correctly identified the formula of this salt as KAlF. He found no metal, but his experiment came very close to succeeding and was successfully reproduced many times later. Berzelius's mistake was in using an excess of potassium, which made the solution too alkaline and dissolved all the newly formed aluminium.


title: History of aluminium

text: German chemist Friedrich Wöhler visited Ørsted in 1827 and received explicit permission to continue the aluminium research, which Ørsted "did not have time" for. Wöhler repeated Ørsted's experiments but did not identify any aluminium. (Wöhler later wrote to Berzelius, "what Oersted assumed to be a lump of aluminium was certainly nothing but aluminium-containing potassium".) He conducted a similar experiment, mixing anhydrous aluminium chloride with potassium, and produced a powder of aluminium. After hearing about this, Ørsted suggested that his own aluminium might have contained potassium. Wöhler continued his research and in 1845 was able to produce small pieces of the metal and described some of its physical properties. Wöhler's description of the properties indicates that he had obtained impure aluminium. Other scientists also failed to reproduce Ørsted's experiment, and Wöhler was credited as the discoverer for many years. While Ørsted was not concerned with the priority of the discovery, some Danes tried to demonstrate he had obtained aluminium. In 1921, the reason for the inconsistency between Ørsted's and Wöhler's experiments was discovered by Danish chemist Johan Fogh, who demonstrated that Ørsted's experiment was successful thanks to use of a large amount of excess aluminium chloride and an amalgam with low potassium content. In 1936, scientists from American aluminium producing company Alcoa successfully recreated that experiment. However, many later sources still credit Wöhler with the discovery of aluminium, as well as its successful isolation in a relatively pure form.


title: History of aluminium

text: Since Wöhler's method could not yield large amounts of aluminium, the metal remained uncommon; its cost had exceeded that of gold before a new method was devised. In 1852, aluminium was sold at US$34 per ounce. In comparison, the price of gold at the time was $19 per ounce.


title: History of aluminium

text: French chemist Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville announced an industrial method of aluminium production in 1854 at the Paris Academy of Sciences. Aluminium chloride could be reduced by sodium, a metal more convenient and less expensive than potassium used by Wöhler. Deville was able to produce an ingot of the metal. Napoleon III of France promised Deville an unlimited subsidy for aluminium research; in total, Deville used 36,000 French francs—20 times the annual income of an ordinary family. Napoleon's interest in aluminium lay in its potential military use: he wished weapons, helmets, armor, and other equipment for the French army could be made of the new light, shiny metal. While the metal was still not displayed to the public, Napoleon is reputed to have held a banquet where the most honored guests were given aluminium utensils while others made do with gold.


title: History of aluminium

text: Twelve small ingots of aluminium were later exhibited for the first time to the public at the Exposition Universelle of 1855. The metal was presented as "the silver from clay" (aluminium is very similar to silver visually), and this name was soon widely used. It attracted widespread attention; it was suggested aluminium be used in arts, music, medicine, cooking, and tableware. The metal was noticed by the avant-garde writers of the time—Charles Dickens, Nikolay Chernyshevsky, and Jules Verne—who envisioned its use in the future. However, not all of attention was favorable. Newspapers wrote, "The Parisian expo put an end to the fairy tale of the silver from clay", saying that much of what had been said about the metal was exaggerated if not untrue and that the amount of the presented metal—about a kilogram—contrasted with what had been expected and was "not a lot for a discovery that was said to turn the world upside down". Overall, the fair led to the eventual commercialization of the metal. That year, aluminium was put to the market at a price of 300 F per kilogram. At the next fair in Paris in 1867, visitors were presented with aluminium wire and foil as well a new alloy—aluminium bronze, notable for its low cost of production, high resistance to corrosion, and desirable mechanical properties.


title: History of aluminium

text: Manufacturers did not wish to divert resources from producing well-known (and marketable) metals, such as iron and bronze, to experiment with a new one; moreover, produced aluminium was still not of great purity and differed in properties by sample. This led to an initial general reluctance to produce the new metal. Deville and partners established the world's first industrial production of aluminium at a smelter in Rouen in 1856. Deville's smelter moved that year to La Glacière and then Nanterre, and in 1857 to Salindres. For the factory in Nanterre, an output of 2 kilograms of aluminium per day was recorded; with a purity of 98%. Originally, production started with synthesis of pure alumina, which was obtained from calcination of ammonium alum. In 1858, Deville was introduced to bauxite and soon developed into what became known as the Deville process, employing the mineral as a source for alumina production. In 1860, Deville sold his aluminium interests to Henri Merle, a founder of Compagnie d'Alais et de la Camargue; this company dominated the aluminium market in France decades later.


title: History of aluminium

text: Some chemists, including Deville, sought to use cryolite as the source ore, but with little success. British engineer William Gerhard set up a plant with cryolite as the primary raw material in Battersea, London, in 1856, but technical and financial difficulties forced the closure of the plant in three years. British ironmaster Isaac Lowthian Bell produced aluminium from 1860 to 1874. During the opening of his factory, he waved to the crowd with a unique and costly aluminium top hat. No statistics about this production can be recovered, but it "cannot be very high". Deville's output grew to 1 metric ton per year in 1860; 1.7 metric tons in 1867; and 1.8 metric tons in 1872. At the time, demand for aluminium was low: for example, sales of Deville's aluminium by his British agents equaled 15 kilograms in 1872. Aluminium at the time was often compared with silver; like silver, it was found to be suitable for making jewelry and objéts d'art. Price for aluminium steadily declined to 240 F in 1859; 200 F in 1862; 120 F in 1867.


title: History of aluminium

text: Other production sites began to appear in the 1880s. British engineer James Fern Webster launched the industrial production of aluminium by reduction with sodium in 1882; his aluminium was much purer than Deville's (it contained 0.8% impurities whereas Deville's typically contained 2%). World production of aluminium in 1884 equaled 3.6 metric tons. In 1884, American architect William Frishmuth combined production of sodium, alumina, and aluminium into a single technological process; this contrasted with the previous need to collect sodium, which combusts in water and sometimes air; his aluminium production cost was about $16 per pound (compare to silver's cost of $19 per pound, or the French price, an equivalent of $12 per pound). In 1885, Aluminium- und Magnesiumfabrik started production in Hemelingen. Its production figures strongly exceeded those of the factory in Salindres but the factory stopped production in 1888. In 1886, American engineer Hamilton Castner devised a method of cheaper production of sodium, which decreased the cost of aluminium production to $8 per pound, but he did not have enough capital to construct a large factory like Deville's. In 1887, he constructed a factory in Oldbury; Webster constructed a plant nearby and bought Castner's sodium to use it in his own production of aluminium. In 1889, German metallurgist Curt Netto launched a method of reduction of cryolite with sodium that produced aluminium containing 0.5–1.0% of impurities.


title: History of aluminium

text: Aluminium was first produced independently using electrolysis in 1854 by the German chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and Deville. Their methods did not become the basis for industrial production of aluminium because electrical supplies were inefficient at the time. This changed only with Belgian engineer Zénobe-Théophile Gramme's invention of the dynamo in 1870, which made creation of large amounts of electricity possible. The invention of the three-phase current by Russian engineer Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky in 1889 made transmission of this electricity over long distances achievable. Soon after his discovery, Bunsen moved on to other areas of interest while Deville's work was noticed by Napoleon III; this was the reason Deville's Napoleon-funded research on aluminium production had been started. Deville quickly realized electrolytic production was impractical at the time and moved on to chemical methods, presenting results later that year.


title: History of aluminium

text: Electrolytic mass production remained difficult because electrolytic baths could not withstand prolonged contact with molten salts, succumbing to corrosion. The first attempt to overcome this for aluminium production was made by American engineer Charles Bradley in 1883. Bradley heated aluminium salts internally: the highest temperature was inside the bath and the lowest was on its walls, where salts would solidify and protect the bath. Bradley then sold his patent claim to brothers Alfred and Eugene Cowles, who used it at a smelter in Lockport and later in Stoke-upon-Trent but the method was modified to yield alloys rather than pure aluminium. Bradley applied for a patent in 1883; due to his broad wordings, it was rejected as composed of prior art. After a necessary two-year break, he re-applied. This process lasted for six years, as the patent office questioned whether Bradley's ideas were original. When Bradley was granted a patent, electrolytic aluminium production had already been in place for several years.


title: History of aluminium

text: The first large-scale production method was independently developed by French engineer Paul Héroult and American engineer Charles Martin Hall in 1886; it is now known as the Hall–Héroult process. Electrolysis of pure alumina is impractical, given its very high melting point; both Héroult and Hall realized it could be greatly lowered by the presence of molten cryolite. Héroult was granted a patent in France in April and subsequently in several other European countries; he also applied for a U.S. patent in May. After securing a patent, Héroult could not find interest in his invention. When asking professionals for advice, he was told there was no demand for aluminium but some for aluminium bronze. The factory in Salindres did not wish to improve its process. In 1888, Héroult and his companions founded Aluminium Industrie Aktiengesellschaft and started industrial production of aluminium bronze in Neuhausen am Rheinfall. Then, Société électrométallurgique française was founded in Paris. They convinced Héroult to return to France, purchased his patents, and appointed him as the director of a smelter in Isère, which produced aluminium bronze on a large scale at first and pure aluminium in a few months.


title: History of aluminium

text: At the same time, Hall produced aluminium by the same process in his home at Oberlin. He applied for a patent in July, and the patent office notified Hall of an "interference" with Héroult's application. The Cowles brothers offered legal support. By then, Hall had failed to develop a commercial process for his first investors, and he turned to experimenting at Cowles' smelter in Lockport. He experimented for a year without much success but gained attention of investors. Hall co-founded the Pittsburgh Reduction Company in 1888 and initiated production of aluminium. Hall's patent was granted in 1889. In 1889, Hall's production began to use the principle of internal heating. By September 1889, Hall's production grew to at a cost of $0.65 per pound. By 1890, Hall's company still lacked capital and did not pay dividends; Hall had to sell some of his shares to attract investments. During that year, a new factory in Patricroft was constructed. The smelter in Lockport was unable to withstand the competition and shut down by 1892.


title: History of aluminium

text: The Hall–Héroult process converts alumina into the metal. Austrian chemist Carl Josef Bayer discovered a way of purifying bauxite to yield alumina in 1888 at a textile factory in Saint Petersburg and was issued a patent later that year; this is now known as the Bayer process. Bayer sintered bauxite with alkali and leached it with water; after stirring the solution and introducing a seeding agent to it, he found a precipitate of pure aluminium hydroxide, which decomposed to alumina on heating. In 1892, while working at a chemical plant in Yelabuga, he discovered the aluminium contents of bauxite dissolved in the alkaline leftover from isolation of alumina solids; this was crucial for the industrial employment of this method. He was issued a patent later that year.


title: History of aluminium

text: The total amount of unalloyed aluminium produced using Deville's chemical method from 1856 to 1889 equaled 200 metric tons. Production in 1890 alone was 175 metric tons. It grew to 715 metric tons in 1893 and to 4,034 metric tons in 1898. The price fell to $2 per pound in 1889 and to $0.5 per pound in 1894.


title: History of aluminium

text: By the end of 1889, a consistently high purity of aluminium produced via electrolysis had been achieved. In 1890, Webster's factory went obsolete after an electrolysis factory was opened in England. Netto's main advantage, the high purity of the resulting aluminium, was outmatched by electrolytic aluminium and his company closed the following year. Compagnie d'Alais et de la Camargue also decided to switch to electrolytic production, and their first plant using this method was opened in 1895.


title: History of aluminium

text: Modern production of the aluminium metal is based on the Bayer and Hall–Héroult processes. It was further improved in 1920 by a team led by Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Söderberg. Previously, anode electrodes had been made from pre-baked coal blocks, which quickly corrupted and required replacement; the team introduced continuous electrodes made from a coke and tar paste in a reduction chamber. This advance greatly increased the world output of aluminium.


title: History of aluminium

text: Prices for aluminium declined, and by the early 1890s, the metal had become widely used in jewelry, eyeglass frames, optical instruments, and many everyday items. Aluminium cookware began to be produced in the late 19th century and gradually supplanted copper and cast iron cookware in the first decades of the 20th century. Aluminium foil was popularized at that time. Aluminium is soft and light, but it was soon discovered that alloying it with other metals could increase its hardness while preserving its low density. Aluminium alloys found many uses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For instance, aluminium bronze is applied to make flexible bands, sheets, and wire, and is widely employed in the shipbuilding and aviation industries. Aviation used a new aluminium alloy, duralumin, invented in 1903. Aluminium recycling began in the early 1900s and has been used extensively since as aluminium is not impaired by recycling and thus can be recycled repeatedly. At this point, only the metal that had not been used by end-consumers was recycled. During World War I, major governments demanded large shipments of aluminium for light strong airframes. They often subsidized factories and the necessary electrical supply systems. Overall production of aluminium peaked during the war: world production of aluminium in 1900 was 6,800 metric tons; in 1916, annual production exceeded 100,000 metric tons. The war created a greater demand for aluminium, which the growing primary production was unable to fully satisfy, and recycling grew intensely as well. The peak in production was followed by a decline, then a swift growth.


title: History of aluminium

text: During the first half of the 20th century, the real price for aluminium fell continuously from $14,000 per metric ton in 1900 to $2,340 in 1948 (in 1998 United States dollars). There were some exceptions such as the sharp price rise during World War I. Aluminium was plentiful, and in 1919 Germany began to replace its silver coins with aluminium ones; more and more denominations were switched to aluminium coins as hyperinflation progressed in the country. By the mid-20th century, aluminium had become a part of everyday lives, becoming an essential component of housewares. Aluminium freight cars first appeared in 1931. Their lower mass allowed them to carry more cargo. During the 1930s, aluminium emerged as a civil engineering material used in both basic construction and building interiors. Its use in military engineering for both airplanes and tank engines advanced.


title: History of aluminium

text: Aluminium obtained from recycling was considered inferior to primary aluminium because of poorer chemistry control as well as poor removal of dross and slags. Recycling grew overall but depended largely on the output of primary production: for instance, as electric energy prices declined in the United States in the late 1930s, more primary aluminium could be produced using the energy-expensive Hall–Héroult process. This rendered recycling less necessary, and thus aluminium recycling rates went down. By 1940, mass recycling of post-consumer aluminium had begun.