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# Flag
## Railway flags {#railway_flags}
Railways use a number of coloured flags. When used as wayside signals they usually use the following meanings (exact meanings are set by the individual railroad company):
- red = stop
- yellow = proceed with caution
- green or white = proceed.
- a flag of any colour waved vigorously means stop
- a blue flag on the side of a locomotive means that it should not be moved because someone is working on it (or on the train attached to it). A blue flag on a track means that nothing on that track should be moved. The flag can only be removed by the person or group that placed it. In the railway dominated steel industry this principle of \"blue flag and tag\" was extended to all operations at Bethlehem Steel, Lackawanna, New York. If a man went inside a large machine or worked on an electrical circuit for example, his blue flag and tag was sacrosanct. The \"Lock Out/Tag Out\" practice is similar and now used in other industries to comply with safety regulations.
At night, the flags are replaced with lanterns showing the same colours.
Flags displayed on the front of a moving locomotive are an acceptable replacement for classification lights and usually have the following meanings (exact meanings are set by the individual railroad company):
- white = extra (not on the timetable)
- green = another section following
- red = last section
Additionally, a railroad brakeman will typically carry a red flag to make his or her hand signals more visible to the engineer. Railway signals are a development of railway flags.
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# Flag
## Flagpoles
A flagpole, flagmast, flagstaff, or staff can be a simple support made of wood or metal. If it is taller than can be easily reached to raise the flag, a cord is used, looping around a pulley at the top of the pole with the ends tied at the bottom. The flag is fixed to one lower end of the cord, and is then raised by pulling on the other end. The cord is then tightened and tied to the pole at the bottom. The pole is usually topped by a flat plate or ball called a \"truck\" (originally meant to keep a wooden pole from splitting) or a finial in a more complex shape. Very high flagpoles may require more complex support structures than a simple pole, such as a guyed mast.
Dwajasthambam are flagpoles commonly found at the entrances of South Indian Hindu temples.
### Record heights {#record_heights}
Since 26 December 2021, the tallest free-standing flagpole in the world is the Cairo Flagpole, located in the New Administrative Capital under construction in Egypt at a height of 201.952 m, exceeding the former record holders, the Jeddah Flagpole in Saudi Arabia (height: 171 m), the Dushanbe Flagpole in Tajikistan (height: 165 m) and the National Flagpole in Azerbaijan (height: 162 m). The flagpole in North Korea is the fourth tallest flagpole in the world, however, it is not free-standing. It is a radio tower supported flagpole. Many of these were built by American company Trident Support: the Dushanbe Flagpole, the National Flagpole in Azerbaijan, the Ashgabat flagpole in Turkmenistan at 133 m; the Aqaba Flagpole in Jordan at 130 m; the Raghadan Flagpole in Jordan at 126.8 m; and the Abu Dhabi Flagpole in the United Arab Emirates at 122 m.
The current tallest flagpole in India (and the tallest flying the tricolour) is the 110 m flagpole in Belgaum, Karnataka which was first hoisted on 12 March 2018. The tallest flagpole in the United Kingdom from 1959 until 2013 stood in Kew Gardens. It was made from a Canadian Douglas-fir tree and was 68.5 m in height.
The current tallest flagpole in the United States (and the tallest flying an American flag) is the 400 ft pole completed before Memorial Day 2014 and custom-made with an 11 ft base in concrete by wind turbine manufacturer Broadwind Energy. It is situated on the north side of the Acuity Insurance headquarters campus along Interstate 43 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and is visible from Cedar Grove. The pole can fly a 220-pound flag in light wind conditions and a heavier 350-pound flag in higher wind conditions.
### Design
Flagpoles can be designed in one piece with a taper (typically a steel taper or a Greek entasis taper), or be made from multiple pieces to make them able to expand. In the United States, ANSI/NAAMM guide specification FP-1001-97 covers the engineering design of metal flagpoles to ensure safety.
<File:Bickleigh> , Bickleigh Maize Maze - Flagpole - geograph.org.uk - 1223767.jpg\|Flagpole of modest size, with simple truck <File:New> Zealand flag at Auckland Airport.jpg\|Large flagpole, showing structured truck (New Zealand) <File:Two> official flags of New Caledonia on same flagpole.png\|New Caledonia has two flags, flown here in Nouméa, the capital city, on a single flagpole with a crossbar <File:Thanjavur> periya kovil-tamil nadu.JPG\|Dwajasthambam (flagpole) at Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India
## Hoisting the flag {#hoisting_the_flag}
Hoisting the flag is the act of raising the flag on the flagpole. Raising or lowering flags, especially national flags, usually involves ceremonies and certain sets of rules, depending on the country, and usually involve the performance of a national anthem.
A flag-raising squad is a group of people, usually troops, cadets, or students, that march in and bring the flags for the flag-hoisting ceremony. Flag-hoisting ceremonies involving flag-raising squads can be simple or elaborate, involving large numbers of squads. Elaborate flag-hoisting ceremonies are usually performed on national holidays.
The cord or rope that ties a flag to its pole is called a halyard. Flags may have a strip of fabric along the hoist side called a *heading* for the halyard to pass through, or a pair of grommets for the halyard to be threaded through. Flags may also be held in position using Inglefield clips.
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# Flag
## Flags in communication {#flags_in_communication}
Semaphore is a form of communication that utilises flags. The signalling is performed by an individual using two flags (or lighted wands), the positions of the flags indicating a symbol. The person who holds the flags is known as the signalman. This form of communication is primarily used by naval signallers. This technique of signalling was adopted in the early 19th century and is still used in various forms today.
The colours of the flags can also be used to communicate. For example; a white flag means, among other things, surrender or peace, a red flag can be used as a warning signal, and a black flag can mean war, or determination to defeat enemies.
Orientation of a flag is also used for communication, though the practice is rarely used given modern communication systems. Raising a flag upside-down was indicative that the raising force controlled that particular area, but that it was in severe distress
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# Father Dougal McGuire
**Father Dougal McGuire** is a character in the Channel 4 sitcom *Father Ted*. Created by Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan, Dougal was portrayed by comedian Ardal O\'Hanlon for the programme\'s three series. The character is a childlike, simple-minded Roman Catholic curate exiled to Craggy Island, a small island off the coast of Galway.
Dougal originated as an unseen character in a short-lived stand-up routine performed by Mathews in the late 1980s. Portraying an early version of Father Ted Crilly on-stage, Mathews occasionally discussed Dougal as one of Ted\'s great friends. In 1994, the writers took *Father Ted* to television, casting O\'Hanlon as the on-screen Dougal. In a 2001 poll conducted by Channel 4, Dougal was ranked fifth on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters.
## Concept and creation {#concept_and_creation}
Arthur Mathews created the character of Father Ted while working at *Hot Press* in 1987--89. During production weekends, he and Paul Woodfull had the idea for The Joshua Trio, a comedic U2 tribute band. The band performed various warm-up sketches written by Mathews, Woodfull, and Graham Linehan, who joined in a non-musical capacity. These sketches included stand-up performed by Mathews in-character as Father Ted Crilly. As Ted, Mathews sometimes read from a book, *Notes from Africa*, purportedly written by Father Dougal McGuire, a missionary friend who described his experiences of being attacked and chased by natives. In one sketch, Ted discussed his concern for Dougal, who had been voted Most Unpopular Priest in Africa for two years running and was spending Christmas up a tree in the grounds of The Bob Geldof Centre.
In 1990, Linehan and Mathews began writing *Irish Lives*, a six-part comedy television series. The show would have taken the form of a mockumentary, with each episode focusing on interviewing a different character, one of whom was Father Ted Crilly. The story involved Ted returning to his seminary to catch up with old friends. When producer Geoffrey Perkins asked Linehan and Mathews to discard the mockumentary format and expand the Father Ted episode to a traditional sitcom, Father Dougal became one of the main characters. When writing Dougal, Linehan and Mathews drew on Stan Laurel, incorporating some of Linehan\'s own behaviour during moments of confusion.
## Casting
Linehan and Mathews saw O\'Hanlon in a modernised Shakespeare play broadcast by RTÉ, and were impressed by the \"weird, gormless\" face he could pull. Linehan later said, \"That was Dougal right there. He was just spot-on and he became our secret weapon. The show took off so quickly because Ardal was so instantly funny.\" The writers have said that the only other actor they feel might have worked in the role is Don Wycherley, who plays Dougal\'s Rugged Island counterpart, Father Cyril McDuff, in the show.
There have been several attempts to remake the show for American audiences. In 2004, it was reported that Graham Norton (who played Father Noel Furlong in *Father Ted*) had signed on to play Dougal alongside Steve Martin as Ted.
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# Father Dougal McGuire
## Fictional character biography {#fictional_character_biography}
References to Dougal\'s family are rare. In \"Grant Unto Him Eternal Rest\", he mentions that his parents are dead, and also refers to an uncle who died after his heart stopped beating for a week. It is unclear how Dougal entered the priesthood, with Ted wondering, \"Dougal, how did you get into the Church? Was it, like, collect twelve crisp packets and become a priest?\"
Dougal is dim-witted and childlike. In \"Chirpy Burpy Cheap Sheep\", it is revealed that Ted has made him write a list of things that do not exist, which is on a pull-down chart in their bedroom. Often he says things that Ted specifically told him not to say, such as by asking about Bishop Brennan\'s son, as well as shouting to Ted to ask if the Bishop found a large number of rabbits that they are hiding in the parochial house (fortunately for Ted, the bishop was more concerned about Dougal addressing him by his first name instead of using his proper title). In \"The Mainland\", he forgets to have any breakfast and fails to realise this until he and Ted are waiting for Father Jack at the optician. He also nearly gives a visiting bishop a heart attack when he screams in excitement after remembering the director\'s cut of *Aliens* is airing on television that night.
Sometimes he talks more sense, however, such as when Ted inadvertently winds up his unravelled jumper upon discovering that it could provide a way out, and he asks what use it will be when all wound up. In \"Kicking Bishop Brennan Up the Arse\", he suggests that Ted use his fear of Bishop Brennan to his advantage to carry out the forfeit he was assigned by his rival, and to get Bishop Brennan into position, draws a crude watercolour painting on the skirting board, depicting a man wearing a bishop\'s hat.
By the time the show begins, Dougal has been exiled to Craggy Island as punishment for unknown misdeeds. In an early interview, the writers stated that it involved \"a baptism gone wrong\". In \"The Passion of Saint Tibulus\", Bishop Brennan says that Dougal cannot be allowed back into \"the real world\" after \"the Blackrock incident\", in which hundreds of nuns\' lives were \"irreparably damaged\".
In \"A Christmassy Ted\", Dougal performs a funeral that Ted was meant to do, but forgot about. Ted is alarmed to learn from Mrs Doyle that Dougal is performing a funeral, and the consequences of Dougal performing the funeral are predictably disastrous.
Bishop Brennan despises Dougal, at one point referring to him as a \"cabbage\". He also does not take kindly to Dougal calling him \"Len\", often shouting profanity at him when he does.
Dougal is famously known for wearing an Irish football jersey when he is in bed. He and Ted share a bedroom, but owing to his childlike nature Dougal does not sleep with a normal blanket like Ted; instead he sleeps with a child\'s cartoon character bedspread (specifically *Masters of the Universe*).
On the [Channel 4 website](http://www.channel4.com/programmes/father-ted) for Father Ted, the profile for Father Dougal states that \'Dougal was relegated to the island after an unfortunate incident on a SeaLink ferry that put the lives of hundreds of nuns in danger.\'
In \"Old Grey Whistle Theft\", Dougal mentions that he is 25 years old (soon to be 26).
## Personality
In the 2011 documentary *Unintelligent Design*, Linehan said that Dougal had been conceived as a cross between wide-eyed bartender Woody in *Cheers* and roadsweeper Trigger in *Only Fools and Horses*. In another interview, they mentioned Latka Gravas from *Taxi* as an influence and compared the relationship between Ted and Dougal to that between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza: \"Alongside the wily priest who would lie at the drop of a hat we wanted a gormless idiot who was the very model of innocence.\"
For his portrayal of Dougal, O\'Hanlon turned to Laurel and Hardy and *Fawlty Towers*{{\'}}s bumbling waiter Manuel. O\'Hanlon also drew inspiration from his child sister, as well as dogs, explaining: \"Dougal had to be more than just stupid. He had to be otherworldly and very, very strange. I saw Dougal as very doglike, very puppyish and lovable, and really loyal to Ted.\"
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# Father Dougal McGuire
## Reception and legacy {#reception_and_legacy}
After the first episode aired, Ben Thompson of *The Independent* singled out O\'Hanlon as \"the real star of the show\", and said that Dougal\'s \"holy-fool innocence\" as \"worthy of James Stewart\". Writing for the *Irish Examiner*, Ed Power said that while the \"meme-worthy\" Dougal and Jack received the most attention at the time of broadcast, Dermot Morgan\'s straight-man performance was the highlight in retrospect. Morgan attributed the show\'s success to the appealing double-act formed by Dougal, \"an idiot who knows nothing\", and Ted, \"an idiot who thinks he knows something but actually knows nothing.\"
As testament to the character\'s enduring popularity, Irish bookmakers humorously began collecting bets on whether Dougal would succeed Pope John Paul II upon his death. The odds were 1,000-1 (better odds than some genuine candidates), and some small stakes were actually received.
In 2001, O\'Hanlon reprised the role of Dougal for a series of PBS advertisements to coincide with *Father Ted*{{\'}}s American broadcast; these segments were included on later DVD releases as \"Fundraising with Father Dougal\"
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# Full moon
The **full moon** is the lunar phase when the Moon appears fully illuminated from Earth\'s perspective. This occurs when Earth is located between the Sun and the Moon (when the ecliptic longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180°). This means that the lunar hemisphere facing Earth---the near side---is completely sunlit and appears as an approximately circular disk. The full moon occurs roughly once a month.
The time interval between a full moon and the next repetition of the same phase, a synodic month, averages about 29.53 days. Because of irregularities in the moon\'s orbit, the new and full moons may fall up to thirteen hours either side of their mean. If the calendar date is not locally determined through observation of the new moon at the beginning of the month there is the potential for a further twelve hours difference depending on the time zone. Potential discrepancies also arise from whether the calendar day is considered to begin in the evening or at midnight. It is normal for the full moon to fall on the fourteenth or the fifteenth of the month according to whether the start of the month is reckoned from the appearance of the new moon or from the conjunction.
Culturally and spiritually significant across many societies, full moons are associated with festivals such as Vesak in Buddhism and various Purnima observances in Hinduism. Many traditions have named specific full moons---like the harvest moon or hunter's moon---and linked them to seasonal or agricultural events. Folklore has associated full moons with insomnia, madness, and supernatural events, though scientific studies have not found consistent evidence of behavioral effects. In modern times, terms like "blood moon" and "blue moon" have entered popular use, often referring to lunar eclipses or rare lunar events.
A tabular lunar calendar will also exhibit variations depending on the intercalation system used. Because a calendar month consists of a whole number of days, a month in a lunar calendar may be either 29 or 30 days long.
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# Full moon
## Characteristics
A full moon is often thought of as an event of a full night\'s duration, although its phase seen from Earth continuously waxes or wanes, and is full only at the instant when waxing ends and waning begins. For any given location, about half of these maximum full moons may be visible, while the other half occurs during the day, when the full moon is below the horizon. As the Moon\'s orbit is inclined by 5.145° from the ecliptic, it is not generally perfectly opposite from the Sun during full phase, therefore a full moon is in general not perfectly full except on nights with a lunar eclipse as the Moon crosses the ecliptic at opposition from the Sun.
Many almanacs list full moons not only by date, but also by their exact time, usually in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Typical monthly calendars that include lunar phases may be offset by one day when prepared for a different time zone.
The full moon is generally a suboptimal time for astronomical observation of the Moon because shadows vanish. It is a poor time for other observations because the bright sunlight reflected by the Moon, amplified by the opposition surge, then outshines many stars.
### Moon phases {#moon_phases}
There are eight phases of the moon, which vary from partial to full illumination. The moon phases are also called lunar phases. These stages have different names that come from its shape and size at each phase. For example, the crescent moon is \'banana\' shaped, and the half-moon is D-shaped. When the moon is nearly full, it is called a gibbous moon. The crescent and gibbous moons each last approximately a week.
Each phase is also described in accordance to its position on the full 29.5-day cycle. The eight phases of the moon in order:
- new moon
- waxing crescent moon
- first quarter moon
- waxing gibbous moon
- full moon
- waning gibbous moon
- last quarter moon
- waning crescent moon
### Formula
The date and approximate time of a specific full moon (assuming a circular orbit) can be calculated from the following equation:
$$d = 20.362000+ 29.530588861 \times N + 102.026 \times 10^{-12} \times N^2$$ where *d* is the number of days since 1 January 2000 00:00:00 in the Terrestrial Time scale used in astronomical ephemerides; for Universal Time (UT) add the following approximate correction to *d*:
: $-0.000739 - (235 \times 10^{-12})\times N^2$ days
where *N* is the number of full moons since the first full moon of 2000. The true time of a full moon may differ from this approximation by up to about 14.5 hours as a result of the non-circularity of the Moon\'s orbit. See New moon for an explanation of the formula and its parameters.
The age and apparent size of the full moon vary in a cycle of just under 14 synodic months, which has been referred to as a full moon cycle.
### Lunar eclipses {#lunar_eclipses}
When the Moon moves into Earth\'s shadow, a lunar eclipse occurs, during which all or part of the Moon\'s face may appear reddish due to the Rayleigh scattering of blue wavelengths and the refraction of sunlight through Earth\'s atmosphere. Lunar eclipses happen only during a full moon and around points on its orbit where the satellite may pass through the planet\'s shadow. A lunar eclipse does not occur every month because the Moon\'s orbit is inclined 5.145° with respect to the ecliptic plane of Earth; thus, the Moon usually passes north or south of Earth\'s shadow, which is mostly restricted to this plane of reference. Lunar eclipses happen only when the full moon occurs around either node of its orbit (ascending or descending). Therefore, a lunar eclipse occurs about every six months, and often two weeks before or after a solar eclipse, which occurs during a new moon around the opposite node.
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# Full moon
## In folklore and tradition {#in_folklore_and_tradition}
In Buddhism, Vesak is celebrated on the full moon day of the Vaisakha month, marking the birth, enlightenment, and the death of the Buddha.
In Arabic, badr (بدر ) means \'full moon\', but it is often translated as \'white moon\', referring to The White Days, the three days when the full moon is celebrated.
Full moons are traditionally associated with insomnia (inability to sleep), insanity (hence the terms *lunacy* and *lunatic*) and various \"magical phenomena\" such as lycanthropy. Psychologists, however, have found that there is no strong evidence for effects on human behavior around the time of a full moon. They find that studies are generally not consistent, with some showing a positive effect and others showing a negative effect. In one instance, the 23 December 2000 issue of the *British Medical Journal* published two studies on dog bite admission to hospitals in England and Australia. The study of the Bradford Royal Infirmary found that dog bites were twice as common during a full moon, whereas the study conducted by the public hospitals in Australia found that they were less likely.
The symbol of the Triple Goddess is drawn with the circular image of the full moon in the center flanked by a left facing crescent and right facing crescent, on either side, representing a maiden, mother and crone archetype.
### Full moon names {#full_moon_names}
Historically, month names are names of moons (lunations, not necessarily full moons) in lunisolar calendars. Since the introduction of the solar Julian calendar in the Roman Empire, and later the Gregorian calendar worldwide, people no longer perceive month names as \"moon\" names. The traditional Old English month names were equated with the names of the Julian calendar from an early time, soon after the Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England. This can be seen in the testimony of Bede from *The Reckoning of Time* (CE 725), where lunar month names are equated with the approximate Roman equivalents.
Some full moons have developed new names in modern times, such as \"blue moon\", as well as \"harvest moon\" and \"hunter\'s moon\" for the full moons of autumn.
The golden or reddish hue of the Harvest Moon and other full moons near the horizon is caused by atmospheric scattering. When the Moon is low in the sky, its light passes through a thicker layer of Earth\'s atmosphere, scattering shorter wavelengths like blue and violet and allowing longer wavelengths, such as red and yellow, to dominate. This effect, combined with environmental factors such as dust, pollutants, or haze, can intensify or dull the Moon\'s color. Clear skies often enhance the yellow or golden appearance, particularly during the autumn months when these full moons are observed.
Lunar eclipses occur only at a full moon and often cause a reddish hue on the near side of the Moon. This full moon has been called a blood moon in popular culture.
#### Harvest and hunter\'s moons {#harvest_and_hunters_moons}
The \"harvest moon\" and the \"hunter\'s moon\" are traditional names for the full moons in late summer and in the autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, usually in September and October, respectively. People may celebrate these occurrences in festivities such as the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival.
The \"harvest moon\" (also known as the \"barley moon\" or \"full corn moon\") is the full moon nearest to the autumnal equinox (22 or 23 September), occurring anytime within two weeks before or after that date. The \"hunter\'s moon\" is the full moon following it. The names are recorded from the early 18th century. The *Oxford English Dictionary* entry for \"harvest moon\" cites a 1706 reference, and for \"hunter\'s moon\" a 1710 edition of *The British Apollo*, which attributes the term to \"the country people\" (\"The Country People call this the Hunters-Moon.\") The names became traditional in American folklore, where they are now often popularly attributed to Native Americans. The Feast of the Hunters\' Moon is a yearly festival in West Lafayette, Indiana, held in late September or early October each year since 1968. In 2010 the harvest moon occurred on the night of the equinox itself (some 5`{{fraction|1|2}}`{=mediawiki} hours after the moment of equinox) for the first time since 1991, after a period known as the Metonic cycle.
All full moons rise around the time of sunset. Since the Moon moves eastward among the stars faster than the Sun, lunar culmination is delayed by about 50.47 minutes (on average) each day, thus causing moonrise to occur later each day.
Due to the high lunar standstill, the harvest and hunter\'s moons of 2007 were special because the time difference between moonrises on successive evenings was much shorter than average. The moon rose about 30 minutes later from one night to the next, as seen from about 40° N or S latitude (because the full moon of September 2007 rose in the northeast rather than in the east). Hence, no long period of darkness occurred between sunset and moonrise for several days after the full moon, thus lengthening the time in the evening when there is enough twilight and moonlight to work to get the harvest in.
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# Full moon
## In folklore and tradition {#in_folklore_and_tradition}
### Full moon names {#full_moon_names}
#### Native American {#native_american}
Age of Adonxs}} Various 18th and 19th century writers gave what were claimed to be Native American or First Nations moon names. These were not the names of the full moons as such, but were the names of lunar months beginning with each new moon. According to Jonathan Carver in 1778, \"Some nations among them reckon their years by moons, and make them consist of twelve synodical or lunar months, observing, when thirty moons have waned, to add a supernumerary one, which they term the lost moon; and then begin to count as before.\" Carver gave the names of the lunar months (starting from the first after the March equinox) as Worm, Plants, Flowers, Hot, Buck, Sturgeon, Corn, Travelling, Beaver, Hunting, Cold, Snow. Carver\'s account was reproduced verbatim in *Events in Indian History* (1841), but completely different lists were given by Eugene Vetromile (1856) and Peter Jones (1861).
In a book on Native American culture published in 1882, Richard Irving Dodge stated:
> There is a difference among authorities as to whether or not the moons themselves are named. Brown gives names for nine moons corresponding to months. Maximillian gives the names of twelve moons; and Belden, who lived many years among the Sioux, asserts that \"the Indians compute their time very much as white men do, only they use moons instead of months to designate the seasons, each answering to some month in our calendar.\" Then follows a list of twelve moons with Indian and English names. While I cannot contradict so positive and minute a statement of one so thoroughly in a position to know, I must assert with equal positiveness that I have never met any wild Indians, of the Sioux or other Plains tribes, who had a permanent, common, conventional name for any moon. The looseness of Belden\'s general statement, that \"Indians compute time like white people,\" when his only particularization of similarity is between the months and moons, is in itself sufficient to render the whole statement questionable.
>
> My experience is that the Indian, in attempting to fix on a particular moon, will designate it by some natural and well-known phenomenon which culminates during that moon. But two Indians of the same tribe may fix on different designations; and even the same Indian, on different occasions, may give different names to the same moon. Thus, an Indian of the middle Plains will to-day designate a spring moon as \"the moon when corn is planted;\" to-morrow, speaking of the same moon, he may call it \"the moon when the buffalo comes.\" Moreover, though there are thirteen moons in our year, no observer has ever given an Indian name to the thirteenth. My opinion is, that if any of the wild tribes have given conventional names to twelve moons, it is not an indigenous idea, but borrowed from the whites.
Jonathan Carver\'s list of purportedly Native American month names was adopted in the 19th century by the Improved Order of Red Men, an all-white U.S. fraternal organization. They called the month of January \"Cold moon\", the rest being Snow, Worm, Plant, Flower, Hot, Buck, Sturgeon, Corn, Travelling, Beaver and Hunting moon. They numbered years from the time of Columbus\'s arrival in America.
In *The American Boy\'s Book of Signs, Signals and Symbols* (1918), Daniel Carter Beard wrote: \"The Indians\' Moons naturally vary in the different parts of the country, but by comparing them all and striking an average as near as may be, the moons are reduced to the following.\" He then gave a list that had two names for each lunar month, again quite different from earlier lists that had been published.
The 1937 *Maine Farmers\' Almanac* published a list of full moon names that it said \"were named by our early English ancestors as follows\":
It also mentioned blue moon. These were considered in some quarters to be Native American full moon names, and some were adopted by colonial Americans. The *Farmers\' Almanac* (since 1955 published in Maine, but not the same publication as the *Maine Farmers\' Almanac*) continues to print such names.
Such names have gained currency in American folklore. They appeared in print more widely outside of the almanac tradition from the 1990s in popular publications about the Moon. *Mysteries of the Moon* by Patricia Haddock (\"Great Mysteries Series\", Greenhaven Press, 1992) gave an extensive list of such names along with the individual tribal groups they were supposedly associated with. Haddock supposes that certain \"Colonial American\" moon names were adopted from Algonquian languages (which were formerly spoken in the territory of New England), while others are based in European tradition (e.g. the Colonial American names for the May moon, \"Milk Moon\", \"Mother\'s Moon\", \"Hare Moon\" have no parallels in the supposed native names, while the name of November, \"Beaver Moon\" is supposedly based in an Algonquian language). Many other names have been reported.
These have passed into modern mythology, either as full-moon names, or as names for lunar months. Deanna J. Conway\'s *Moon Magick: Myth & Magick, Crafts & Recipes, Rituals & Spells* (1995) gave as headline names for the lunar months (from January): Wolf, Ice, Storm, Growing, Hare, Mead, Hay, Corn, Harvest, Blood, Snow, Cold. Conway also gave multiple alternative names for each month, e.g. the first lunar month after the winter solstice could be called the Wolf, Quiet, Snow, Cold, Chaste or Disting Moon, or the Moon of Little Winter.`{{r|"magick"|page=19}}`{=mediawiki} For the last lunar month Conway offered the names Cold, Oak or Wolf Moon, or Moon of Long Nights, Long Night\'s Moon, Aerra Geola (Month Before Yule), Wintermonat (Winter Month), Heilagmanoth (Holy Month), Big Winter Moon, Moon of Popping Trees.`{{r|"magick"|page=247}}`{=mediawiki} Conway did not cite specific sources for most of the names she listed, but some have gained wider currency as full-moon names, such as Pink Moon for a full moon in April, `{{r|"magick"|page=77}}`{=mediawiki} Long Night\'s Moon for the last in December and Ice Moon for the first full moon of January or February.
### Hindu full moon festivals {#hindu_full_moon_festivals}
In Hinduism, most festivals are celebrated on auspicious days. Many Hindu festivals are celebrated on days with a full moon night, called the *purnima*. Different parts of India celebrate the same festival with different names, as listed below:
1. Chaitra Purnima -- Gudi Padua, Ugadi, Hanuman Jayanti (15 April 2014)
2. Vaishakha Purnima -- Narasimha Jayanti, Buddha Jayanti (14 May 2014)
3. Jyeshtha Purnima -- Savitri Vrata, Vat Purnima (8 June 2014)
4. Ashadha Purnima -- Guru Purnima, Vyasa Purnima
5. Shravana Purnima -- Upanayana ceremony, Avani Avittam, Raksha Bandhan, Onam
6. Bhadrapada Purnima -- Start of Pitru Paksha, Madhu Purnima
7. Ashvin Purnima -- Sharad Purnima
8. Kartika Purnima -- Karthikai Deepam, Thrukkarthika
9. Margashirsha Purnima -- Thiruvathira, Dattatreya Jayanti
10. Pushya Purnima -- Thaipusam, Shakambhari Purnima
11. Magha Purnima
12. Phalguna Purnima -- Holi
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# Full moon
## Lunar and lunisolar calendars {#lunar_and_lunisolar_calendars}
Most pre-modern calendars the world over were lunisolar, combining the solar year with the lunation by means of intercalary months. The Julian calendar abandoned this method in favour of a purely solar reckoning while conversely the 7th-century Islamic calendar opted for a purely lunar one.
A continuing lunisolar calendar is the Hebrew calendar. Evidence of this is noted in the dates of Passover and Easter in Judaism and Christianity, respectively. Passover falls on the full moon on 15 Nisan of the Hebrew calendar. The date of the Jewish Rosh Hashana and Sukkot festivals along with all other Jewish holidays are dependent on the dates of the new moons. Another continuing lunisolar calendar is the Chinese calendar, which places many of its most important festivals, such as Chinese New Year, the Dragon Boat Festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival, according to lunisolar dates.
### Intercalary months {#intercalary_months}
In lunisolar calendars, an intercalary month occurs seven times in the 19 years of the Metonic cycle, or on average every 2.7 years (19/7). In the Hebrew calendar this is noted with a periodic extra month of Adar in the early spring. The Chinese calendar, by contrast, can place its intercalary month anywhere in the year, and does so based on finding the first month within a thirteen-month winter-solstice-to-winter-solstice period to include no major solar term.
## Meetings arranged to coincide with full moon {#meetings_arranged_to_coincide_with_full_moon}
Before the days of good street lighting and car headlights, several organisations arranged their meetings for full moon, so that it would be easier for their members to walk, or ride home. Examples include the Lunar Society of Birmingham, several Masonic societies, including Warren Lodge No. 32, USA and Masonic Hall, York, Western Australia, and several New Zealand local authorities, including Awakino, Ohura and Whangarei County Councils and Maori Hill and Wanganui East Borough Councils
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# Film format
A **film format** is a technical definition of a set of standard characteristics regarding image capture on photographic film for still images or film stock for filmmaking. It can also apply to projected film, either slides or movies. The primary characteristic of a film format is its size and shape.
In the case of motion picture film, the format sometimes includes audio parameters. Other characteristics usually include the film gauge, pulldown method, lens anamorphosis (or lack thereof), and film gate or projector aperture dimensions, all of which need to be defined for photography as well as projection, as they may differ
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# Faster-than-light
**Faster-than-light** (**superluminal** or **supercausal**) travel and communication are the conjectural propagation of matter or information faster than the speed of light in vacuum (`{{mvar|'''c'''}}`{=mediawiki}). The special theory of relativity implies that only particles with zero rest mass (i.e., photons) may travel *at* the speed of light, and that nothing may travel faster.
Particles whose speed exceeds that of light (tachyons) have been hypothesized, but their existence would violate causality and would imply time travel. The scientific consensus is that they do not exist.
According to all observations and current scientific theories, matter travels at **slower-than-light** (**subluminal**) speed with respect to the locally distorted spacetime region. Speculative faster-than-light concepts include the Alcubierre drive, Krasnikov tubes, traversable wormholes, and quantum tunneling. Some of these proposals find loopholes around general relativity, such as by expanding or contracting space to make the object appear to be travelling greater than *c*. Such proposals are still widely believed to be impossible as they still violate current understandings of causality, and they all require fanciful mechanisms to work (such as requiring exotic matter).
## Superluminal travel of non-information {#superluminal_travel_of_non_information}
In the context of this article, \"faster-than-light\" means the transmission of information or matter faster than *c*, a constant equal to the speed of light in vacuum, which is 299,792,458 m/s (by definition of the metre) or about 186,282.397 miles per second. This is not quite the same as traveling faster than light, since:
- Some processes propagate faster than *c*, but cannot carry information (see examples in the sections immediately following).
- In some materials where light travels at speed *c/n* (where *n* is the refractive index) other particles can travel faster than *c/n* (but still slower than *c*), leading to Cherenkov radiation (see phase velocity below).
Neither of these phenomena violates special relativity or creates problems with causality, and thus neither qualifies as faster-than-light as described here.
In the following examples, certain influences may appear to travel faster than light, but they do not convey energy or information faster than light, so they do not violate special relativity.
### Daily sky motion {#daily_sky_motion}
For an earth-bound observer, objects in the sky complete one revolution around the Earth in one day. Proxima Centauri, the nearest star outside the Solar System, is about four and a half light-years away. In this frame of reference, in which Proxima Centauri is perceived to be moving in a circular trajectory with a radius of four light years, it could be described as having a speed many times greater than *c* as the rim speed of an object moving in a circle is a product of the radius and angular speed. It is also possible on a geostatic view, for objects such as comets to vary their speed from subluminal to superluminal and vice versa simply because the distance from the Earth varies. Comets may have orbits which take them out to more than 1000 AU. The circumference of a circle with a radius of 1000 AU is greater than one light day. In other words, a comet at such a distance is superluminal in a geostatic, and therefore non-inertial, frame.
### Light spots and shadows {#light_spots_and_shadows}
If a laser beam is swept across a distant object, the spot of laser light can seem to move across the object at a speed greater than *c*. Similarly, a shadow projected onto a distant object seems to move across the object faster than *c*. In neither case does the light travel from the source to the object faster than *c*, nor does any information travel faster than light. No object is moving in these examples. For comparison, consider water squirting out of a garden hose as it is swung side to side: water does not instantly follow the direction of the hose.
### Closing speeds {#closing_speeds}
The rate at which two objects in motion in a single frame of reference get closer together is called the mutual or closing speed. This may approach twice the speed of light, as in the case of two particles travelling at close to the speed of light in opposite directions with respect to the reference frame.
Imagine two fast-moving particles approaching each other from opposite sides of a particle accelerator of the collider type. The closing speed would be the rate at which the distance between the two particles is decreasing. From the point of view of an observer standing at rest relative to the accelerator, this rate will be slightly less than twice the speed of light.
Special relativity does not prohibit this. It tells us that it is wrong to use Galilean relativity to compute the velocity of one of the particles, as would be measured by an observer traveling alongside the other particle. That is, special relativity gives the correct velocity-addition formula for computing such relative velocity.
It is instructive to compute the relative velocity of particles moving at *v* and −*v* in accelerator frame, which corresponds to the closing speed of 2*v* \> *c*. Expressing the speeds in units of *c*, *β* = *v*/*c*:
$$\beta_\text{rel} = \frac{\beta + \beta}{1 + \beta ^2} = \frac{2\beta}{1 + \beta^2} \leq 1.$$
### Proper speeds {#proper_speeds}
If a spaceship travels to a planet one light-year (as measured in the Earth\'s rest frame) away from Earth at high speed, the time taken to reach that planet could be less than one year as measured by the traveller\'s clock (although it will always be more than one year as measured by a clock on Earth). The value obtained by dividing the distance traveled, as determined in the Earth\'s frame, by the time taken, measured by the traveller\'s clock, is known as a proper speed or a proper velocity. There is no limit on the value of a proper speed as a proper speed does not represent a speed measured in a single inertial frame. A light signal that left the Earth at the same time as the traveller would always get to the destination before the traveller would.
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# Faster-than-light
## Superluminal travel of non-information {#superluminal_travel_of_non_information}
### Phase velocities above *c* {#phase_velocities_above_c}
The phase velocity of an electromagnetic wave, when traveling through a medium, can routinely exceed *c*, the vacuum velocity of light. For example, this occurs in most glasses at X-ray frequencies. However, the phase velocity of a wave corresponds to the propagation speed of a theoretical single-frequency (purely monochromatic) component of the wave at that frequency. Such a wave component must be infinite in extent and of constant amplitude (otherwise it is not truly monochromatic), and so cannot convey any information. Thus a phase velocity above *c* does not imply the propagation of signals with a velocity above *c*.
### Group velocities above *c* {#group_velocities_above_c}
The group velocity of a wave may also exceed *c* in some circumstances. In such cases, which typically at the same time involve rapid attenuation of the intensity, the maximum of the envelope of a pulse may travel with a velocity above *c*. However, even this situation does not imply the propagation of signals with a velocity above *c*, even though one may be tempted to associate pulse maxima with signals. The latter association has been shown to be misleading, because the information on the arrival of a pulse can be obtained before the pulse maximum arrives. For example, if some mechanism allows the full transmission of the leading part of a pulse while strongly attenuating the pulse maximum and everything behind (distortion), the pulse maximum is effectively shifted forward in time, while the information on the pulse does not come faster than *c* without this effect. However, group velocity can exceed *c* in some parts of a Gaussian beam in vacuum (without attenuation). The diffraction causes the peak of the pulse to propagate faster, while overall power does not.
### Cosmic expansion {#cosmic_expansion}
According to Hubble\'s law, the expansion of the universe causes distant galaxies to appear to recede from us faster than the speed of light. However, the recession speed associated with Hubble\'s law, defined as the rate of increase in proper distance per interval of cosmological time, is not a velocity in a relativistic sense. Moreover, in general relativity, velocity is a local notion, and there is not even a unique definition for the relative velocity of a cosmologically distant object. Faster-than-light cosmological recession speeds are entirely a coordinate effect.
There are many galaxies visible in telescopes with redshift numbers of 1.4 or higher. All of these have cosmological recession speeds greater than the speed of light. Because the Hubble parameter is decreasing with time, there can actually be cases where a galaxy that is receding from us faster than light does manage to emit a signal which reaches us eventually.
However, because the expansion of the universe is accelerating, it is projected that most galaxies will eventually cross a type of cosmological event horizon where any light they emit past that point will never be able to reach us at any time in the infinite future, because the light never reaches a point where its \"peculiar velocity\" towards us exceeds the expansion velocity away from us (these two notions of velocity are also discussed in `{{Section link|Comoving and proper distances|Uses of the proper distance}}`{=mediawiki}). The current distance to this cosmological event horizon is about 16 billion light-years, meaning that a signal from an event happening at present would eventually be able to reach us in the future if the event was less than 16 billion light-years away, but the signal would never reach us if the event was more than 16 billion light-years away.
### Astronomical observations {#astronomical_observations}
Apparent superluminal motion is observed in many radio galaxies, blazars, quasars, and recently also in microquasars. The effect was predicted before it was observed by Martin Rees`{{clarify|Was it predicted by Rees or observed by Rees?|date=March 2012}}`{=mediawiki} and can be explained as an optical illusion caused by the object partly moving in the direction of the observer, when the speed calculations assume it does not. The phenomenon does not contradict the theory of special relativity. Corrected calculations show these objects have velocities close to the speed of light (relative to our reference frame). They are the first examples of large amounts of mass moving at close to the speed of light. Earth-bound laboratories have only been able to accelerate small numbers of elementary particles to such speeds.
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# Faster-than-light
## Superluminal travel of non-information {#superluminal_travel_of_non_information}
### Quantum mechanics {#quantum_mechanics}
Certain phenomena in quantum mechanics, such as quantum entanglement, might give the superficial impression of allowing communication of information faster than light. According to the no-communication theorem these phenomena do not allow true communication; they only let two observers in different locations see the same system simultaneously, without any way of controlling what either sees. Wavefunction collapse can be viewed as an epiphenomenon of quantum decoherence, which in turn is nothing more than an effect of the underlying local time evolution of the wavefunction of a system and *all* of its environment. Since the underlying behavior does not violate local causality or allow FTL communication, it follows that neither does the additional effect of wavefunction collapse, whether real *or* apparent.
The uncertainty principle implies that individual photons may travel for short distances at speeds somewhat faster (or slower) than *c*, even in vacuum; this possibility must be taken into account when enumerating Feynman diagrams for a particle interaction. However, it was shown in 2011 that a single photon may not travel faster than *c*.
There have been various reports in the popular press of experiments on faster-than-light transmission in optics --- most often in the context of a kind of quantum tunnelling phenomenon. Usually, such reports deal with a phase velocity or group velocity faster than the vacuum velocity of light. However, as stated above, a superluminal phase velocity cannot be used for faster-than-light transmission of information
#### Hartman effect {#hartman_effect}
The Hartman effect is the tunneling effect through a barrier where the tunneling time tends to a constant for large barriers. This could, for instance, be the gap between two prisms. When the prisms are in contact, the light passes straight through, but when there is a gap, the light is refracted. There is a non-zero probability that the photon will tunnel across the gap rather than follow the refracted path.
However, it has been claimed that the Hartman effect cannot actually be used to violate relativity by transmitting signals faster than *c*, also because the tunnelling time \"should not be linked to a velocity since evanescent waves do not propagate\". The evanescent waves in the Hartman effect are due to virtual particles and a non-propagating static field, as mentioned in the sections above for gravity and electromagnetism.
#### Casimir effect {#casimir_effect}
In physics, the Casimir--Polder force is a physical force exerted between separate objects due to resonance of vacuum energy in the intervening space between the objects. This is sometimes described in terms of virtual particles interacting with the objects, owing to the mathematical form of one possible way of calculating the strength of the effect. Because the strength of the force falls off rapidly with distance, it is only measurable when the distance between the objects is extremely small. Because the effect is due to virtual particles mediating a static field effect, it is subject to the comments about static fields discussed above.
#### EPR paradox {#epr_paradox}
The EPR paradox refers to a famous thought experiment of Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen that was realized experimentally for the first time by Alain Aspect in 1981 and 1982 in the Aspect experiment. In this experiment, the two measurements of an entangled state are correlated even when the measurements are distant from the source and each other. However, no information can be transmitted this way; the answer to whether or not the measurement actually affects the other quantum system comes down to which interpretation of quantum mechanics one subscribes to.
An experiment performed in 1997 by Nicolas Gisin has demonstrated quantum correlations between particles separated by over 10 kilometers. But as noted earlier, the non-local correlations seen in entanglement cannot actually be used to transmit classical information faster than light, so that relativistic causality is preserved. The situation is akin to sharing a synchronized coin flip, where the second person to flip their coin will always see the opposite of what the first person sees, but neither has any way of knowing whether they were the first or second flipper, without communicating classically. See No-communication theorem for further information. A 2008 quantum physics experiment also performed by Nicolas Gisin and his colleagues has determined that in any hypothetical non-local hidden-variable theory, the speed of the quantum non-local connection (what Einstein called \"spooky action at a distance\") is at least 10,000 times the speed of light.
#### Delayed choice quantum eraser {#delayed_choice_quantum_eraser}
The delayed-choice quantum eraser is a version of the EPR paradox in which the observation (or not) of interference after the passage of a photon through a double slit experiment depends on the conditions of observation of a second photon entangled with the first. The characteristic of this experiment is that the observation of the second photon can take place at a later time than the observation of the first photon, which may give the impression that the measurement of the later photons \"retroactively\" determines whether the earlier photons show interference or not, although the interference pattern can only be seen by correlating the measurements of both members of every pair and so it cannot be observed until both photons have been measured, ensuring that an experimenter watching only the photons going through the slit does not obtain information about the other photons in an faster-than-light or backwards-in-time manner.
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# Faster-than-light
## Superluminal communication {#superluminal_communication}
Faster-than-light communication is, according to relativity, equivalent to time travel. What we measure as the speed of light in vacuum (or near vacuum) is actually the fundamental physical constant *c*. This means that all inertial and, for the coordinate speed of light, non-inertial observers, regardless of their relative velocity, will always measure zero-mass particles such as photons traveling at *c* in vacuum. This result means that measurements of time and velocity in different frames are no longer related simply by constant shifts, but are instead related by Poincaré transformations. These transformations have important implications:
- The relativistic momentum of a massive particle would increase with speed in such a way that at the speed of light an object would have infinite momentum.
- To accelerate an object of non-zero rest mass to *c* would require infinite time with any finite acceleration, or infinite acceleration for a finite amount of time.
- Either way, such acceleration requires infinite energy.
- Some observers with sub-light relative motion will disagree about which occurs first of any two events that are separated by a space-like interval.
In other words, any travel that is faster-than-light will be seen as traveling backwards in time in some other, equally valid, frames of reference, or need to assume the speculative hypothesis of possible Lorentz violations at a presently unobserved scale (for instance the Planck scale). Therefore, any theory which permits \"true\" FTL also has to cope with time travel and all its associated paradoxes, or else to assume the Lorentz invariance to be a symmetry of thermodynamical statistical nature (hence a symmetry broken at some presently unobserved scale).
- In special relativity the coordinate speed of light is only guaranteed to be *c* in an inertial frame; in a non-inertial frame the coordinate speed may be different from *c*.
In general relativity no coordinate system on a large region of curved spacetime is \"inertial\", so it is permissible to use a global coordinate system where objects travel faster than *c*, but in the local neighborhood of any point in curved spacetime we can define a \"local inertial frame\" and the local speed of light will be *c* in this frame, with massive objects moving through this local neighborhood always having a speed less than *c* in the local inertial frame.
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# Faster-than-light
## Justifications
### Casimir vacuum and quantum tunnelling {#casimir_vacuum_and_quantum_tunnelling}
Special relativity postulates that the speed of light in vacuum is invariant in inertial frames. That is, it will be the same from any frame of reference moving at a constant speed. The equations do not specify any particular value for the speed of light, which is an experimentally determined quantity for a fixed unit of length. Since 1983, the SI unit of length (the meter) has been defined using the speed of light.
The experimental determination has been made in vacuum. However, the vacuum we know is not the only possible vacuum which can exist. The vacuum has energy associated with it, called simply the vacuum energy, which could perhaps be altered in certain cases. When vacuum energy is lowered, light itself has been predicted to go faster than the standard value *c*. This is known as the Scharnhorst effect. Such a vacuum can be produced by bringing two perfectly smooth metal plates together at near atomic diameter spacing. It is called a Casimir vacuum. Calculations imply that light will go faster in such a vacuum by a minuscule amount: a photon traveling between two plates that are 1 micrometer apart would increase the photon\'s speed by only about one part in 10^36^. Accordingly, there has as yet been no experimental verification of the prediction. A recent analysis argued that the Scharnhorst effect cannot be used to send information backwards in time with a single set of plates since the plates\' rest frame would define a \"preferred frame\" for FTL signaling. However, with multiple pairs of plates in motion relative to one another the authors noted that they had no arguments that could \"guarantee the total absence of causality violations\", and invoked Hawking\'s speculative chronology protection conjecture which suggests that feedback loops of virtual particles would create \"uncontrollable singularities in the renormalized quantum stress-energy\" on the boundary of any potential time machine, and thus would require a theory of quantum gravity to fully analyze. Other authors argue that Scharnhorst\'s original analysis, which seemed to show the possibility of faster-than-*c* signals, involved approximations which may be incorrect, so that it is not clear whether this effect could actually increase signal speed at all.
It was later claimed by Eckle *et al.* that particle tunneling does indeed occur in zero real time. Their tests involved tunneling electrons, where the group argued a relativistic prediction for tunneling time should be 500--600 attoseconds (an attosecond is one quintillionth (10^−18^) of a second). All that could be measured was 24 attoseconds, which is the limit of the test accuracy. Again, though, other physicists believe that tunneling experiments in which particles appear to spend anomalously short times inside the barrier are in fact fully compatible with relativity, although there is disagreement about whether the explanation involves reshaping of the wave packet or other effects.
### Give up (absolute) relativity {#give_up_absolute_relativity}
Because of the strong empirical support for special relativity, any modifications to it must necessarily be quite subtle and difficult to measure. The best-known attempt is doubly special relativity, which posits that the Planck length is also the same in all reference frames, and is associated with the work of Giovanni Amelino-Camelia and João Magueijo. There are speculative theories that claim inertia is produced by the combined mass of the universe (e.g., Mach\'s principle), which implies that the rest frame of the universe might be *preferred* by conventional measurements of natural law. If confirmed, this would imply special relativity is an approximation to a more general theory, but since the relevant comparison would (by definition) be outside the observable universe, it is difficult to imagine (much less construct) experiments to test this hypothesis. Despite this difficulty, such experiments have been proposed.
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# Faster-than-light
## Justifications
### Spacetime distortion {#spacetime_distortion}
Although the theory of special relativity forbids objects to have a relative velocity greater than light speed, and general relativity reduces to special relativity in a local sense (in small regions of spacetime where curvature is negligible), general relativity does allow the space between distant objects to expand in such a way that they have a \"recession velocity\" which exceeds the speed of light, and it is thought that galaxies which are at a distance of more than about 14 billion light-years from us today have a recession velocity which is faster than light. Miguel Alcubierre theorized that it would be possible to create a warp drive, in which a ship would be enclosed in a \"warp bubble\" where the space at the front of the bubble is rapidly contracting and the space at the back is rapidly expanding, with the result that the bubble can reach a distant destination much faster than a light beam moving outside the bubble, but without objects inside the bubble locally traveling faster than light. However, several objections raised against the Alcubierre drive appear to rule out the possibility of actually using it in any practical fashion. Another possibility predicted by general relativity is the traversable wormhole, which could create a shortcut between arbitrarily distant points in space. As with the Alcubierre drive, travelers moving through the wormhole would not *locally* move faster than light travelling through the wormhole alongside them, but they would be able to reach their destination (and return to their starting location) faster than light traveling outside the wormhole.
Gerald Cleaver and Richard Obousy, a professor and student of Baylor University, theorized that manipulating the extra spatial dimensions of string theory around a spaceship with an extremely large amount of energy would create a \"bubble\" that could cause the ship to travel faster than the speed of light. To create this bubble, the physicists believe manipulating the 10th spatial dimension would alter the dark energy in three large spatial dimensions: height, width and length. Cleaver said positive dark energy is currently responsible for speeding up the expansion rate of our universe as time moves on.
### Lorentz symmetry violation {#lorentz_symmetry_violation}
The possibility that Lorentz symmetry may be violated has been seriously considered in the last two decades, particularly after the development of a realistic effective field theory that describes this possible violation, the so-called Standard-Model Extension. This general framework has allowed experimental searches by ultra-high energy cosmic-ray experiments and a wide variety of experiments in gravity, electrons, protons, neutrons, neutrinos, mesons, and photons. The breaking of rotation and boost invariance causes direction dependence in the theory as well as unconventional energy dependence that introduces novel effects, including Lorentz-violating neutrino oscillations and modifications to the dispersion relations of different particle species, which naturally could make particles move faster than light.
In some models of broken Lorentz symmetry, it is postulated that the symmetry is still built into the most fundamental laws of physics, but that spontaneous symmetry breaking of Lorentz invariance shortly after the Big Bang could have left a \"relic field\" throughout the universe which causes particles to behave differently depending on their velocity relative to the field; however, there are also some models where Lorentz symmetry is broken in a more fundamental way. If Lorentz symmetry can cease to be a fundamental symmetry at the Planck scale or at some other fundamental scale, it is conceivable that particles with a critical speed different from the speed of light be the ultimate constituents of matter.
In current models of Lorentz symmetry violation, the phenomenological parameters are expected to be energy-dependent. Therefore, as widely recognized, existing low-energy bounds cannot be applied to high-energy phenomena; however, many searches for Lorentz violation at high energies have been carried out using the Standard-Model Extension. Lorentz symmetry violation is expected to become stronger as one gets closer to the fundamental scale.
### Superfluid theories of physical vacuum {#superfluid_theories_of_physical_vacuum}
In this approach, the physical vacuum is viewed as a quantum superfluid which is essentially non-relativistic, whereas Lorentz symmetry is not an exact symmetry of nature but rather the approximate description valid only for the small fluctuations of the superfluid background. Within the framework of the approach, a theory was proposed in which the physical vacuum is conjectured to be a quantum Bose liquid whose ground-state wavefunction is described by the logarithmic Schrödinger equation. It was shown that the relativistic gravitational interaction arises as the small-amplitude collective excitation mode whereas relativistic elementary particles can be described by the particle-like modes in the limit of low momenta. The important fact is that at very high velocities the behavior of the particle-like modes becomes distinct from the relativistic one -- they can reach the speed of light limit at finite energy; also, faster-than-light propagation is possible without requiring moving objects to have imaginary mass.
## FTL neutrino flight results {#ftl_neutrino_flight_results}
### MINOS experiment {#minos_experiment}
High precision measurements from the MINOS collaboration for the flight-time of 3 GeV neutrinos yielded a speed (`{{mvar|v}}`{=mediawiki}/`{{mvar|c}}`{=mediawiki}−1)=(1.0±1.1)×10^−6^, that is equal to the speed of light to one part in a million.
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# Faster-than-light
## Justifications
### OPERA neutrino anomaly {#opera_neutrino_anomaly}
On September 22, 2011, a preprint from the OPERA Collaboration indicated detection of 17 and 28 GeV muon neutrinos, sent 730 kilometers (454 miles) from CERN near Geneva, Switzerland to the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy, traveling faster than light by a relative amount of `{{val|2.48|e=-5}}`{=mediawiki} (approximately 1 in 40,000), a statistic with 6.0-sigma significance. On 17 November 2011, a second follow-up experiment by OPERA scientists confirmed their initial results. However, scientists were skeptical about the results of these experiments, the significance of which was disputed. In March 2012, the ICARUS collaboration failed to reproduce the OPERA results with their equipment, detecting neutrino travel time from CERN to the Gran Sasso National Laboratory indistinguishable from the speed of light. Later the OPERA team reported two flaws in their equipment set-up that had caused errors far outside their original confidence interval: a fiber-optic cable attached improperly, which caused the apparently faster-than-light measurements, and a clock oscillator ticking too fast.
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# Faster-than-light
## Tachyons
In special relativity, it is impossible to accelerate an object `{{em|to}}`{=mediawiki} the speed of light, or for a massive object to move `{{em|at}}`{=mediawiki} the speed of light. However, it might be possible for an object to exist which `{{em|always}}`{=mediawiki} moves faster than light. The hypothetical elementary particles with this property are called tachyons or tachyonic particles. Attempts to quantize them failed to produce faster-than-light particles, and instead illustrated that their presence leads to an instability.
Various theorists have suggested that the neutrino might have a tachyonic nature, while others have disputed the possibility.
## General relativity {#general_relativity}
General relativity was developed after special relativity to include concepts like gravity. It maintains the principle that no object can accelerate to the speed of light in the reference frame of any coincident observer. However, it permits distortions in spacetime that allow an object to move faster than light from the point of view of a distant observer. One such distortion is the Alcubierre drive, which can be thought of as producing a ripple in spacetime that carries an object along with it. Another possible system is the wormhole, which connects two distant locations as though by a shortcut. Both distortions would need to create a very strong curvature in a highly localized region of space-time and their gravity fields would be immense. To counteract the unstable nature, and prevent the distortions from collapsing under their own \'weight\', one would need to introduce hypothetical exotic matter or negative energy.
General relativity also recognizes that any means of faster-than-light travel could also be used for time travel. This raises problems with causality. Many physicists believe that the above phenomena are impossible and that future theories of gravity will prohibit them. One theory states that stable wormholes are possible, but that any attempt to use a network of wormholes to violate causality would result in their decay. In string theory, Eric G. Gimon and Petr Hořava have argued that in a supersymmetric five-dimensional Gödel universe, quantum corrections to general relativity effectively cut off regions of spacetime with causality-violating closed timelike curves. In particular, in the quantum theory a smeared supertube is present that cuts the spacetime in such a way that, although in the full spacetime a closed timelike curve passed through every point, no complete curves exist on the interior region bounded by the tube.
## In fiction and popular culture {#in_fiction_and_popular_culture}
FTL travel is a common plot device in science fiction
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# FidoNet
__
/ \
/|oo \
(_| /_)
_`@/_ \ _
| | \ \\
| (*) | \ ))
______ |__U__| / \//
/ FIDO \ _//|| _\ /
(________) (_/(_|(____/
(c) John Madill
FidoNet logo by John Madill
**FidoNet** is a worldwide computer network that is used for communication between bulletin board systems (BBSes). It uses a store-and-forward system to exchange private (email) and public (forum) messages between the BBSes in the network, as well as other files and protocols in some cases.
The FidoNet system was based on several small interacting programs, only one of which needed to be ported to support other BBS software. FidoNet was one of the few networks that was supported by almost all BBS software, as well as a number of non-BBS online services. This modular construction also allowed FidoNet to easily upgrade to new data compression systems, which was important in an era using modem-based communications over telephone links with high long-distance calling charges.
The rapid improvement in modem speeds during the early 1990s, combined with the rapid decrease in price of computer systems and storage, made BBSes increasingly popular. By the mid-1990s there were almost 40,000 FidoNet systems in operation, and it was possible to communicate with millions of users around the world. Only UUCPNET came close in terms of breadth or numbers; FidoNet\'s user base far surpassed other networks like BITNET.
The broad availability of low-cost Internet connections starting in the mid-1990s lessened the need for FidoNet\'s store-and-forward system, as any system in the world could be reached for equal cost. Direct dialing into local BBS systems rapidly declined. Although FidoNet has shrunk considerably since the late 1990s, it has remained in use even today despite internet connectivity becoming more widespread.
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# FidoNet
## History
### Origins
There are two major accounts of the development of the FidoNet, differing only in small details.
#### Tom Jennings\' account {#tom_jennings_account}
Around Christmas 1983, Tom Jennings started work on a new bulletin board system that would emerge as Fido BBS. It was called \"Fido\" because the assorted hardware together was \"a real mongrel\". Jennings set up the system in San Francisco sometime in early 1984. Another early user was John Madill, who was trying to set up a similar system in Baltimore on his Rainbow 100. Fido started spreading to new systems, and Jennings eventually started keeping an informal list of their phone numbers, with Jennings becoming #1 and Madill #2.
Jennings released the first version of the FidoNet software in June 1984. In early 1985 he wrote a document explaining the operations of the FidoNet, along with a short portion on the history of the system. In this version, FidoNet was developed as a way to exchange mail between the first two Fido BBS systems, Jennings\' and Madill\'s, to \"see if it could be done, merely for the fun of it\". This was first supported in Fido V7, \"sometime in June 84 or so\".
#### Ben Baker\'s account {#ben_bakers_account}
In early 1984, Ben Baker was planning on starting a BBS for the newly forming computer club at the McDonnell Douglas automotive division in St. Louis. Baker was part of the CP/M special interest group within the club. He intended to use the seminal, CP/M-hosted, CBBS system, and went looking for a machine to run it on. The club\'s president told Baker that DEC would be giving them a Rainbow 100 computer on indefinite loan, so he made plans to move the CBBS onto this machine. The Rainbow contained two processors, an Intel 8088 and a Zilog Z80, allowing it to run both MS-DOS and CP/M, with the BBS running on the latter. When the machine arrived, they learned that the Z80 side had no access to the I/O ports, so CBBS could not communicate with a modem. While searching for software that would run on the MS-DOS side of the system, Baker learned of Fido through Madill.
The Fido software required changes to the serial drivers to work properly on the Rainbow. A porting effort started, involving Jennings, Madill and Baker. This caused all involved to rack up considerable long-distance charges as they all called each other during development, or called into each other\'s BBSes to leave email. During one such call \"in May or early June\", Baker and Jennings discussed how great it would be if the BBS systems could call each other automatically, exchanging mail and files between them. This would allow them to compose mail on their local machines, and then deliver it quickly, as opposed to calling in and typing the message in while on a long-distance telephone connection.
Jennings responded by calling into Baker\'s system that night and uploading a new version of the software consisting of three files: FIDO_DECV6, a new version of the BBS program itself, FIDONET, a new program, and NODELIST.BBS, a text file. The new version of FIDO BBS had a timer that caused it to exit at a specified time, normally at night. As it exited it would run the separate FIDONET program. NODELIST was the list of Fido BBS systems, which Jennings had already been compiling.
The FIDONET program was what later became known as a *mailer*. The FIDO BBS software was modified to use a previously unused numeric field in the message headers to store a *node number* for the machine to which the message should be delivered to. When FIDONET ran, it would search through the email database for any messages with a number in this field. FIDONET collected all of the messages for a particular node number into a file known as a *message packet*. After all the packets were generated, one for each node, the FIDONET program would look up the destination node\'s phone number in NODELIST.BBS, and call the remote system. Provided that FIDONET was running on that system, the two systems would handshake and, if this succeeded, the calling system would upload its packet, download a return packet if there was one, and disconnect. FIDONET would then unpack the return packet, place the received messages into the local system\'s database, and move onto the next packet. When there were no remaining packets, FIDONET would exit, and run the FIDO BBS program.
In order to lower long-distance charges, the mail exchanges were timed to run late at night, normally 4 AM. This would later be known as *national mail hour*, and, later still, as *Zone Mail Hour*.
### Up and running {#up_and_running}
By June 1984, Version 7 of the system was being run in production, and nodes were rapidly being added to the network. By August there were almost 30 systems in the nodelist, 50 by September, and over 160 by January 1985. As the network grew, the maintenance of the nodelist became prohibitive, and errors were common. In these cases, people would start receiving phone calls at 4 AM, from a caller that would say nothing and then hang up. In other cases the system would be listed before it was up and running, resulting in long-distance calls that accomplished nothing.
In August 1984, Jennings handed off control of the nodelist to the group in St. Louis, mostly Ken Kaplan and Ben Baker. Kaplan had come across Fido as part of finding a BBS solution for his company, which worked with DEC computers and had been given a Rainbow computer and a USRobotics 1200bit/s modem. From then on, joining FidoNet required one to set up their system and use it to deliver a netmail message to a special system, Node 51. The message contained various required contact information. If this message was transmitted successfully, it ensured that at least some of the system was working properly. The nodelist team would then reply with another netmail message back to the system in question, containing the assigned node number. If delivery succeeded, the system was considered to be working properly, and it was added to the nodelist. The first new nodelist was published on 21 September 1984.
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# FidoNet
## History
### Nets and nodes {#nets_and_nodes}
Growth continued to accelerate, and by the spring of 1985, the system was already reaching its limit of 250 nodes. In addition to the limits on the growth of what was clearly a popular system, nodelist maintenance continued to grow more and more time-consuming.
It was also realized that Fido systems were generally clustered -- of the fifteen systems running by the start of June 1984, five of them were in St. Louis. A user on Jennings\'s system in San Francisco that addressed emails to different systems in St. Louis would cause calls to be made to each of those BBSes in turn. In the United States, local calls were normally free, and in most other countries were charged at a lower rate. Additionally, the initial call setup, generally the first minute of the call, was normally billed at a higher rate than continuing an existing connection. Therefore, it would be less expensive to deliver all the messages from all the users in San Francisco to all of the users in St. Louis in a single call. Packets were generally small enough to be delivered within a minute or two, so delivering all the messages in a single call could greatly reduce costs by avoiding multiple first-minute charges. Once delivered, the packet would be broken out into separate packets for local systems, and delivered using multiple local free calls.
The team settled on the concept of adding a new *network number* patterned on the idea of area codes. A complete network address would now consist of the network and node number pair, which would be written with a slash between them. All mail travelling between networks would first be sent to their local *network host*, someone who volunteered to pay for any long-distance charges. That single site would collect up all the netmail from all of the systems in their network, then re-package it into single packets destined to each network. They would then call any required network admin sites and deliver the packet to them. That site would then process the mail as normal, although all of the messages in the packet would be guaranteed to be local calls.
The network address was placed in an unused field in the Fido message database, which formerly always held a zero. Systems running existing versions of the software already ignored the fields containing the new addressing, so they would continue to work as before; when noticing a message addressed to another node they would look it up and call that system. Newer systems would recognize the network number and instead deliver that message to the network host. To ensure backward compatibility, existing systems retained their original node numbers through this period.
A huge advantage of the new scheme was that node numbers were now unique only within their network, not globally. This meant the previous 250 node limit was gone, but for a variety of reasons this was initially limited to about 1,200. This change also devolved the maintenance of the nodelists down to the network hosts, who then sent updated lists back to Node 51 to be collected into the master list. The St. Louis group now had to only maintain their own local network, and do basic work to compile the global list.
At a meeting held in Kaplan\'s living room in St. Louis on 11 April 1985 the various parties hammered out all of the details of the new concept. As part of this meeting, they also added the concept of a *region*, a purely administrative level that was not part of the addressing scheme. Regional hosts would handle any stragglers in the network maps, remote systems that had no local network hosts. They then divided up the US into ten regions that they felt would have roughly equal populations.
By May, Jennings had early versions of the new software running. These early versions specified the routing manually through a new ROUTE.BBS file that listed network hosts for each node. For instance, an operator might want to forward all mail to St. Louis through a single node, node 10. ROUTE.BBS would then include a list of all the known systems in that area, with instructions to forward mail to each of those nodes through node 10. This process was later semi-automated by John Warren\'s NODELIST program. Over time, this information was folded into updated versions of the nodelist format, and the ROUTES file is no longer used.
A new version of FIDO and FIDONET, 10C, was released containing all of these features. On 12 June 1985 the core group brought up 10C, and most Fido systems had upgraded within a few months. The process went much smoother than anyone imagined, and very few nodes had any problems.
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# FidoNet
## History
### Echomail
Sometime during the evolution of Fido, file attachments were added to the system, allowing a file to be referenced from an email message. During the normal exchange between two instances of FIDONET, any files attached to the messages in the packets were delivered after the packet itself had been up or downloaded. It is not clear when this was added, but it was already a feature of the basic system when the 8 February 1985 version of the FidoNet standards document was released, so this was added very early in Fido\'s history.
At a sysop meeting in Dallas, the idea was raised that it would be nice if there was some way for the sysops to post messages that would be shared among the systems. In February 1986 Jeff Rush, one of the group members, introduced a new mailer that extracted messages from public forums that the sysop selected, similar to the way the original mailer handled private messages. The new program was known as a *tosser/scanner*. The tosser produced a file that was similar (or identical) to the output from the normal netmail scan, but these files were then compressed and attached to a normal netmail message as an attachment. This message was then sent to a special address on the remote system. After receiving netmail as normal, the scanner on the remote system looked for these messages, unpacked them, and put them into the same public forum on the original system.
In this fashion, Rush\'s system implemented a store and forward public message system similar to Usenet, but based on, and hosted by, the FidoNet system. The first such *echomail* forum was one created by the Dallas area sysops to discuss business, known as SYSOP. Another called TECH soon followed. Several public *echos* soon followed, including GAYNET and CLANG. These spawned hundreds of new echos, and led to the creation of the Echomail Conference List (Echolist) by Thomas Kenny in January 1987. Echomail produced world-spanning shared forums, and its traffic volume quickly surpassed the original netmail system. By the early 1990s, echo mail was carrying over 8 MB of compressed message traffic a day, many times that when uncompressed.
Echomail did not necessarily use the same distribution pathways as normal netmail, and the distribution routing was stored in a separate setup file not unlike the original ROUTES.BBS. At the originating site a header line was added to the message indicating the origin system\'s name and address. After that, each system that the message traveled through added itself to a growing PATH header, as well as a SEENBY header. SEENBY prevented the message from looping around the network in the case of misconfigured routing information.
Echomail was not the only system to use the file attachment feature of netmail to implement store-and-forward capabilities. Similar concepts were used by online games and other systems as well.
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# FidoNet
## History
### Zones and points {#zones_and_points}
The evolution towards the net/node addressing scheme was also useful for reducing communications costs between continents, where time zone differences on either end of the connection might also come into play. For instance, the best time to forward mail in the US was at night, but that might not be the best time for European hosts to exchange. Efforts towards introducing a continental level to the addressing system started in 1986.
At the same time, it was noted that some power users were interested in using FidoNet protocols as a way of delivering the large quantities of echomail to their local machines where it could be read offline. These users did not want their systems to appear in the nodelist - they did not (necessarily) run a bulletin board system and were not publicly accessible. A mechanism allowing netmail delivery to these systems without the overhead of nodelist maintenance was desirable.
In October 1986 the last major change to the FidoNet network was released, adding *zones* and *points*. Zones represented major geographical areas roughly corresponding to continents. There were six zones in total, North America, South America, Europe, Oceania, Asia, and Africa. Points represented non-public nodes, which were created privately on a host BBS system. Point mail was delivered to a selected host as if it was addressed to a user on that machine, but then re-packaged into a packet for the point to pick up on-demand. The complete addressing format was now `zone:net/node.point`, so a real example might be `Bob Smith@1:250/250.10`. Points were widely used only for a short time, the introduction of offline reader systems filled this role with systems that were much easier to use. Points remain in use to this day but are less popular than when they were introduced.
### Other extensions {#other_extensions}
FidoNet supported file attachments from even the earliest standards. File attachments followed the normal mail routing through multiple systems and could back up transfers all along the line as the files were copied. Additionally, users could send files to other users and rack up long-distance charges on host systems. For these reasons, file transfers were normally turned off for most users, and only available to the system operators and tosser/scanners.
A solution was offered in the form of *file requests*. This reversed the flow of information, instead of being driven by the sending systems, these were driven by the calling system. This meant it was the receiver, the user trying to get the file, that paid for the connection. Additionally, requests were directly routed using one-time point-to-point connections instead of the traditional routing, so they did not cause the file to be copied multiple times. Two such standards became common, \"WaZOO\" and \"Bark\", which saw varying support among different mailers. Both worked similarly, with the mailer calling the remote system and sending a new handshake packet to request the files.
Although FidoNet was, by far, the best known BBS-based network, it was by no means the only one. From 1988 on, PCBoard systems were able to host similar functionality known as RelayNet, while other popular networks included RBBSNet from the Commodore 64 world, and AlterNet. Late in the evolution of the FidoNet system, there was a proposal to allow mail (but not forum messages) from these systems to switch into the FidoNet structure. This was not adopted, and the rapid rise of the internet made this superfluous as these networks rapidly added internet exchange, which acted as a lingua franca.
### Peak
FidoNet started in 1984 and listed 100 nodes by the end of that year. Steady growth continued through the 1980s, but a combination of factors led to rapid growth after 1988. These included faster and less expensive modems and rapidly declining costs of hard drives and computer systems in general. By April 1993, the FidoNet nodelist contained over 20,000 systems. At that time it was estimated that each node had, on average, about 200 active users. Of these 4 million users in total, 2 million users commonly used echomail, the shared public forums, while about 200,000 used the private netmail system. At its peak, FidoNet listed approximately 39,000 systems.
Throughout its lifetime, FidoNet was beset with management problems and infighting. Much of this can be traced to the fact that the inter-net delivery cost real money, and the traffic grew more rapidly than decreases caused by improving modem speeds and downward trending long-distance rates. As they increased, various methods of recouping the costs were attempted, all of which caused friction in the groups. The problems were so bad that Jennings came to refer to the system as the \"fight-o-net\".
### Decline
As modems reached speeds of 28.8 kbit/s, dial-up Internet became increasingly common. By 1995, the bulletin board market was reeling as users abandoned local BBS systems in favour of a subscription to a local Internet Provider, which allowed access to worldwide internet services, such as HTTP, internet mail and so on, for the same cost as accessing a local BBS system. Many BBS sysops became Internet Service Providers. Their Internet gateways also made FidoNet less expensive to implement, because inter-net transfers could be delivered over the Internet as well, at little or no marginal cost. But this seriously diluted the entire purpose of the store-and-forward model, which had been built up specifically to address a long-distance problem that no longer existed.
The FidoNet nodelist started shrinking, especially in areas with a widespread availability of internet connections. This downward trend continues but has levelled out at approximately 2,500 nodes. FidoNet remains popular in areas where Internet access is difficult to come by, or expensive.
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# FidoNet
## History
### Resurgence
Around 2014, a retro movement led to a slow increase in internet-connected BBS and nodes. Telnet, rlogin, and SSH are being used between systems. This means the user can telnet to any BBS worldwide as cheaply as ones next door. Also, Usenet and internet mail has been added, along with long file names to many newer versions of BBS software, some being freeware, resulting in increasing use. Nodelists are no longer declining in all cases.
## FidoNet organizational structure {#fidonet_organizational_structure}
FidoNet is governed in a hierarchical structure according to FidoNet policy, with designated coordinators at each level to manage the administration of FidoNet nodes and resolve disputes between members. The rules of conduct are summed up into these two deliberately vague principles:
1. Thou shalt not excessively annoy others.
2. Thou shalt not be too easily annoyed.
Network coordinators are responsible for managing the individual nodes within their area, usually a city or similar sized area. Regional coordinators are responsible for managing the administration of the network coordinators within their region, typically the size of a state, or small country. Zone coordinators are responsible for managing the administration of all of the regions within their zone. The world is divided into six zones, the coordinators of which elect one of themselves to be the *International Coordinator* of FidoNet.
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# FidoNet
## Technical structure {#technical_structure}
FidoNet was historically designed to use modem-based dial-up access between bulletin board systems, and much of its policy and structure reflected this.
The FidoNet system officially referred only to the transfer of *Netmail*---the individual private messages between people using bulletin boards---including the protocols and standards with which to support it. A netmail message would contain the name of the person sending, the name of the intended recipient, and the respective FidoNet addresses of each. The FidoNet system was responsible for routing the message from one system to the other (details below), with the bulletin board software on each end being responsible for ensuring that only the intended recipient could read it. Due to the hobbyist nature of the network, any privacy between the sender and recipient was only the result of politeness from the owners of the FidoNet systems involved in the mail\'s transfer. It was common, however, for system operators to reserve the right to review the content of mail that passed through their system.
Netmail allowed for the *attachment* of a single file to every message. This led to a series of *piggyback* protocols that built additional features onto FidoNet by passing information back and forth as file attachments. These included the automated distribution of files and transmission of data for inter-BBS games.
By far the most commonly used of these piggyback protocols was *Echomail*, public discussions similar to Usenet newsgroups in nature. Echomail was supported by a variety of software that collected up new messages from the local BBSes\' public forums (the *scanner*), compressed it using ARC or ZIP, attached the resulting archive to a Netmail message, and sent that message to a selected system. On receiving such a message, identified because it was addressed to a particular *user*, the reverse process was used to extract the messages, and a *tosser* put them back into the new system\'s forums.
Echomail was so popular that for many users, Echomail *was* the FidoNet. Private person-to-person Netmail was relatively rare.
### Geographical structure {#geographical_structure}
FidoNet is politically organized into a tree structure, with different parts of the tree electing their respective coordinators. The FidoNet hierarchy consists of *zones*, *regions*, *networks*, *nodes* and *points* broken down more-or-less geographically.
The highest level is the zone, which is largely continent-based:
- Zone 1 is the United States and Canada
- Zone 2 is Europe, Former Soviet Union countries, and Israel
- Zone 3 is Australasia
- Zone 4 is Latin America (except Puerto Rico)
- Zone 5 was Africa
- Zone 6 was Asia, Israel and the Asian parts of Russia, (which are listed in Zone 2). On 26 July 2007 zone 6 was removed, and all remaining nodes were moved to zone 3.
Each zone is broken down into regions, which are broken down into nets, which consist of individual nodes. Zones 7-4095 are used for *othernets*; groupings of nodes that use Fido-compatible software to carry their own independent message areas without being in any way controlled by FidoNet\'s political structure. Using un-used zone numbers would ensure that each network would have a unique set of addresses, avoiding potential routing conflicts and ambiguities for systems that belonged to more than one network.
### FidoNet addresses {#fidonet_addresses}
FidoNet addresses explicitly consist of a *zone* number, a *network* number (or region number), and a *node* number. They are written in the form `Zone:Network/Node`. The FidoNet structure also allows for semantic designation of region, host, and hub status for particular nodes, but this status is not directly indicated by the main address.
For example, consider a node located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States with an assigned node number is 918, located in Zone 1 (North America), Region 19, and Network 170. The full FidoNet address for this system would be `1:170/918`. The *region* was used for administrative purposes, and was only part of the address if the node was listed directly underneath the Regional Coordinator, rather than one of the networks that were used to divide the region further.
FidoNet policy requires that each FidoNet system maintain a *nodelist* of every other member system. Information on each node includes the name of the system or BBS, the name of the node operator, the geographic location, the telephone number, and software capabilities. The nodelist is updated weekly, to avoid unwanted calls to nodes that had shut down, with their phone numbers possibly having been reassigned for voice use by the respective telephone company.
To accomplish regular updates, coordinators of each network maintain the list of systems in their local areas. The lists are forwarded back to the International Coordinator via automated systems on a regular basis. The International Coordinator would then compile a new nodelist, and generate the list of changes (nodediff) to be distributed for node operators to apply to their existing nodelist.
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# FidoNet
## Technical structure {#technical_structure}
### Routing of FidoNet mail {#routing_of_fidonet_mail}
In a theoretical situation, a node would normally forward messages to a *hub*. The hub, acting as a distribution point for mail, might then send the message to the Net Coordinator. From there it may be sent through a Regional Coordinator, or to some other system specifically set up for the function. Mail to other zones might be sent through a Zone Gate.
For example, a FidoNet message might follow the path:
- 1:170/918 *(node)* to 1:170/900 *(hub)* to 1:170/0 *(net coordinator)* to 1:19/0 *(region coordinator)* to 1:1/0 *(zone coordinator)*. From there, it was distributed \'down stream\' to the destination node(s).
Originally there was no specific relationship between network numbers and the regions they reside in. In some areas of FidoNet, most notably in Zone 2, the relationship between region number and network number are entwined. For example, 2:201/329 is in Net 201 which is in Region 20 while 2:2410/330 is in Net 2410 which is in Region 24. Zone 2 also relates the node number to the hub number if the network is large enough to contain any hubs. This effect may be seen in the nodelist by looking at the structure of Net 2410 where node 2:2410/330 is listed under Hub 300. This is not the case in other zones.
In Zone 1, things are different. Zone 1 was the starting point and when Zones and Regions were formed, the existing nets were divided up regionally with no set formula. The only consideration taken was where they were located geographically with respect to the region\'s mapped outline. As net numbers got added, the following formula was used.
> Region number × 20
Then when some regions started running out of network numbers, the following was also used.
> Region number × 200
Region 19, for instance, contains nets 380-399 and 3800--3999 in addition to those that were in Region 19 when it was formed.
Part of the objective behind the formation of local nets was to implement cost reduction plans by which all messages would be sent to one or more hubs or hosts in compressed form (ARC was nominally standard, but PKZIP is universally supported); one toll call could then be made during off-peak hours to exchange entire message-filled archives with an out-of-town uplink for further redistribution.
In practice, the FidoNet structure allows for any node to connect directly to any other, and node operators would sometimes form their own toll-calling arrangements on an ad-hoc basis, allowing for a balance between collective cost saving and timely delivery. For instance, if one node operator in a network offered to make regular toll calls to a particular system elsewhere, other operators might arrange to forward all of their mail destined for the remote system, and those near it, to the local volunteer. Operators within individual networks would sometimes have cost-sharing arrangements, but it was also common for people to volunteer to pay for regular toll calls either out of generosity or to build their status in the community.
This ad-hoc system was particularly popular with networks that were built on top of FidoNet. Echomail, for instance, often involved relatively large file transfers due to its popularity. If official FidoNet distributors refused to transfer Echomail due to additional toll charges, other node operators would sometimes volunteer. In such cases, Echomail messages would be routed to the volunteers\' systems instead.
The FidoNet system was best adapted to an environment in which local telephone service was inexpensive and long-distance calls (or intercity data transfer via packet-switched networks) costly. Therefore, it fared somewhat poorly in Japan, where even local lines are expensive, or in France, where tolls on local calls and competition with Minitel or other data networks limited its growth.
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# FidoNet
## Technical structure {#technical_structure}
### Points
As the number of messages in Echomail grew over time, it became very difficult for users to keep up with the volume while logged into their local BBS. *Points* were introduced to address this, allowing technically savvy users to receive the already compressed and batched Echomail (and Netmail) and read it locally on their own machines.
To do this, the FidoNet addressing scheme was extended with the addition of a final address segment, the point number. For instance, a user on the example system above might be given point number 10, and thus could be sent mail at the address `1:170/918.10`.
In real-world use, points are fairly difficult to set up. The FidoNet software typically consisted of a number of small utility programs run by manually edited scripts that required some level of technical ability. Reading and editing the mail required either a \"sysop editor\" program or a BBS program to be run locally.
In North America (Zone 1), where local calls are generally free, the benefits of the system were offset by its complexity. Points were used only briefly, and even then only to a limited degree. Dedicated offline mail reader programs such as Blue Wave, Squiggy and Silver Xpress (OPX) were introduced in the mid-1990s and quickly rendered the point system obsolete. Many of these packages supported the QWK offline mail standard.
In other parts of the world, especially Europe, this was different. In Europe, even local calls are generally metered, so there was a strong incentive to keep the duration of the calls as short as possible. Point software employs standard compression (ZIP, ARJ, etc.) and so keeps the calls down to a few minutes a day at most. In contrast to North America, pointing saw rapid and fairly widespread uptake in Europe.
Many regions distribute a pointlist in parallel with the nodelist. The pointlist segments are maintained by Net- and Region Pointlist Keepers and the Zone Point List Keeper assembles them into the Zone pointlist. At the peak of FidoNet there were over 120,000 points listed in the Zone 2 pointlist. Listing points is on a voluntary basis and not every point is listed, so how many points there really were is anybody\'s guess. As of June 2006, there are still some 50,000 listed points. Most of them are in Russia and Ukraine.
### Technical specifications {#technical_specifications}
FidoNet contained several technical specifications for compatibility between systems. The most basic of all is *FTS-0001*, with which all FidoNet systems are required to comply as a minimum requirement. FTS-0001 defined:
- Handshaking - the protocols used by mailer software to identify each other and exchange meta-information about the session.
- Transfer protocol *(XMODEM)* - the protocols to be used for transferring files containing FidoNet mail between systems.
- Message format - the standard format for FidoNet messages during the time which they were exchanged between systems.
Other specifications that were commonly used provided for *echomail*, different transfer protocols and handshake methods (*e.g.: Yoohoo/Yoohoo2u2, EMSI*), file compression, nodelist format, transfer over reliable connections such as the Internet (Binkp), and other aspects.
### Zone mail hour {#zone_mail_hour}
Since computer bulletin boards historically used the same telephone lines for transferring mail as were used for dial-in human users of the BBS, FidoNet policy dictates that at least one designated line of each FidoNet node must be available for accepting mail from other FidoNet nodes during a particular hour of each day.
*Zone Mail Hour*, as it was named, varies depending on the geographic location of the node, and was designated to occur during the early morning. The exact hour varies depending on the time zone, and any node with only one telephone line is required to reject human callers. In practice, particularly in later times, most FidoNet systems tend to accept mail at any time of day when the phone line is not busy, usually during night.
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# FidoNet
## FidoNet deployments {#fidonet_deployments}
Most FidoNet deployments were designed in a modular fashion. A typical deployment would involve several applications that would communicate through shared files and directories, and switch between each other through carefully designed scripts or batch files. However, monolithic software that encompassed all required functions in one package is available, such as D\'Bridge. Such software eliminated the need for custom batch files and is tightly integrated in operation. The preference for deployment was that of the operator and there were both pros and cons of running in either fashion.
Arguably the most important piece of software on a DOS-based Fido system was the * FOSSIL driver*, which was a small device driver which provided a standard way for the Fido software to talk to the modem. This driver needed to be loaded before any Fido software would work. An efficient FOSSIL driver meant faster, more reliable connections.
*Mailer software* was responsible for transferring files and messages between systems, as well as passing control to other applications, such as the BBS software, at appropriate times. The mailer would initially answer the phone and, if necessary, deal with incoming mail via FidoNet transfer protocols. If the mailer answered the phone and a human caller was detected rather than other mailer software, the mailer would exit, and pass control to the BBS software, which would then initialise for interaction with the user. When outgoing mail was waiting on the local system, the mailer software would attempt to send it from time to time by dialing and connecting to other systems who would accept and route the mail further. Due to the costs of toll calls which often varied between peak and off-peak times, mailer software would usually allow its operator to configure the optimal times in which to attempt to send mail to other systems.
*BBS software* was used to interact with human callers to the system. BBS software would allow dial-in users to use the system\'s message bases and write mail to others, locally or on other BBSes. Mail directed to other BBSes would later be routed and sent by the mailer, usually after the user had finished using the system. Many BBSes also allowed users to exchange files, play games, and interact with other users in a variety of ways (i.e.: node to node chat).
A *scanner/tosser* application, such as FastEcho, FMail, TosScan and Squish, would normally be invoked when a BBS user had entered a new FidoNet message that needed to be sent, or when a mailer had received new mail to be imported into the local messages bases. This application would be responsible for handling the packaging of incoming and outgoing mail, moving it between the local system\'s message bases and the mailer\'s inbound and outbound directories. The scanner/tosser application would generally be responsible for basic routing information, determining which systems to forward mail to.
In later times, *message readers* or *editors* that were independent of BBS software were also developed. Often the System Operator of a particular BBS would use a devoted message reader, rather than the BBS software itself, to read and write FidoNet and related messages. One of the most popular editors in 2008 was GoldED+. In some cases, FidoNet nodes, or more often FidoNet points, had no public bulletin board attached and existed only for the transfer of mail for the benefit of the node\'s operator. Most nodes in 2009 had no BBS access, but only points, if anything.
The original *Fido BBS* software, and some other FidoNet-supporting software from the 1980s, is no longer functional on modern systems. This is for several reasons, including problems related to the Y2K bug. In some cases, the original authors have left the BBS or shareware community, and the software, much of which was closed source, is no longer supported.
Several DOS-based legacy FidoNet Mailers such as FrontDoor, Intermail, MainDoor and D\'Bridge from the early 1990s can still be run today under Windows without a modem, by using the freeware NetFoss Telnet FOSSIL driver, and by using a Virtual Modem such as NetSerial. This allows the mailer to *dial* an IP address or hostname via Telnet, rather than dialing a real POTS phone number. There are similar solutions for Linux such as MODEMU (modem emulator) which has limited success when combined with DOSEMU (DOS emulator). Mail Tossers such as FastEcho and FMail are still used today under both Windows and Linux/DOSEMU.
There are several modern Windows-based FidoNet Mailers available today with source code, including Argus, Radius, and Taurus. MainDoor is another Windows-based Fidonet mailer, which also can be run using either a modem or directly over TCP/IP. Two popular free and open source software FidoNet mailers for Unix-like systems are the binkd (cross-platform, IP-only, uses the binkp protocol) and qico (supports modem communication as well as the IP protocol of ifcico and binkp).
On the *hardware* side, Fido systems were usually well-equipped machines, for their day, with quick CPUs, high-speed modems and 16550 UARTs, which were at the time an upgrade. As a Fidonet system was usually a BBS, it needed to quickly process any new mail events before returning to its \'waiting for call\' state. In addition, the BBS itself usually necessitated lots of storage space. Finally, a FidoNet system usually had at least one dedicated phone line. Consequently, operating a Fidonet system often required significant financial investment, a cost usually met by the owner of the system.
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# FidoNet
## FidoNet availability {#fidonet_availability}
While the use of FidoNet has dropped dramatically compared with its use up to the mid-1990s, it is still used`{{as of?|date=May 2025}}`{=mediawiki} in many countries and especially Russia and former republics of the USSR. Some BBSes, including those that are now available for users with Internet connections via telnet, also retain their FidoNet netmail and echomail feeds.
Some of FidoNet\'s echomail conferences are available via gateways with the Usenet news hierarchy using software like UFGate. There are also mail gates for exchanging messages between Internet and FidoNet. Widespread net abuse and e-mail spam on the Internet side has caused some gateways (such as the former 1:1/31 IEEE fidonet.org gateway) to become unusable or cease operation entirely.
## FidoNews
*FidoNews* is the newsletter of the FidoNet community. Affectionately nicknamed *The Snooze*, it is published weekly. It was first published in 1984. Throughout its history, it has been published by various people and entities, including the short-lived International FidoNet Association. From January 2002 it has been published by Björn Felten, Sweden
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# Frédéric Bazille
**Jean Frédéric Bazille** (`{{IPA|fr|ʒɑ̃ fʁedeʁik bazij}}`{=mediawiki}; December 6, 1841 -- November 28, 1870) was a French Impressionist painter. Many of Bazille\'s major works are examples of figure painting in which he placed the subject figure within a landscape painted *en plein air*.
## Life and work {#life_and_work}
Frédéric Bazille was born in Montpellier, Hérault, Languedoc-Roussillon, France, into a wealthy wine merchant Protestant family. Bazille grew up in the Le Domaine de Méric, a wine-producing estate in Castelnau-le-Lez, near Montpellier, owned by his family. He became interested in painting after seeing some works of Eugène Delacroix. His family agreed to let him study painting, but only if he also studied medicine.
Bazille began studying medicine in 1859, and moved to Paris in 1862 to continue his studies. There he met Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley, was drawn to Impressionist painting, and began taking classes in Charles Gleyre\'s studio. After failing his medical exam in 1864, he began painting full-time. His close friends included Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and Édouard Manet. Bazille was generous with his wealth and helped support his less fortunate associates by giving them space in his studio and materials to use.
Bazille was just twenty-three years old when he painted several of his best-known works, including *The Pink Dress* (c. 1864, Musée d\'Orsay, Paris). This painting combines a portrait-like depiction of Bazille\'s cousin, Thérèse des Hours, who is seen from behind---and the sunlit landscape at which she gazes. His best-known painting is *Family Reunion*, painted 1867--1868 (Musée d\'Orsay, Paris).
Frédéric Bazille joined a Zouave regiment in August 1870, a month after the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. On November 28th of that year he was with his unit at the Battle of Beaune-la-Rolande when his commanding officer was injured. That required him to take command and lead an assault on the German position. He was hit twice in the failed attack and died on the battlefield at the age of twenty-eight. His father travelled to the battlefield a few days later to take his body back for burial at Montpellier in the Protestant cemetery over a week later.
### Personal life {#personal_life}
Bazille never married, claiming it was because of "an early heartbreak with a woman." He developed intimate friendships with men, such as Edmond Maître, but was also melancholic and claimed to "hav\[e\] constant migraines while he was painting his nude men." This and the homoeroticism of his paintings led to modern suggestions that Bazille may have been gay and conflicted about his sexuality.
## Main works {#main_works}
- *La robe rose*, (1864) -- 147 x 110 cm, Musée d\'Orsay, Paris
- *Studio on Rue Furstenberg*, (1865) -- 80 x 65 cm, Musée Fabre, Montpellier
- *Aigues-Mortes*, (1867) -- 46 x 55 cm, Musée Fabre, Montpellier
- *Self-portrait*, (1865) -- 109 x72 cm, Art Institute of Chicago
- *Family Reunion*, (1867) -- 152 x 230 cm, Musée d\'Orsay, Paris
- *Le Pécheur à l\'épervier*, (1868) -- 134 x 83 cm, Fondation Rau pour le tiers-monde, Zürich
- *View of the Village*, (1868) -- 130 x 89 cm, Musée Fabre, Montpellier
- *Scène d\'été*, (1869) -- 158 x 158 cm, Cambridge, Harvard University
- *La Toilette*, (1870) -- 132 x 127 cm., Musée Fabre, Montpellier
- *L\'Atelier de la rue Condamine*, (1870) -- 98 x 128.5 cm, Musée d\'Orsay, Paris
- *Paysage au bord du Lez*, (1870) -- 137.8 x 202.5 cm, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis
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# Frédéric Bazille
## Gallery
<File:Bazille>, Frédéric - Self Portrait.jpeg\|*Self Portrait,* unknown date <File:Frédéric> Bazille Study of Trees.jpg\|*Study of Trees*, 1863 <File:Jean> Frédéric Bazille - Reclining Nude - 1864.jpg\|*Reclining Nude*, 1864 <File:Frédéric> Bazille - The Pink Dress - Google Art Project.jpg\|*The Pink Dress (View of Castelnau-le-Lez, Hérault),* 1864, oil on canvas, Musée d\'Orsay <File:Bazille>, Frédéric - Chailly.jpeg\|*Chailly*, 1865, Musée Fabre, Montpellier <File:Bazille> Sutdio in the rue de Furstenberg.jpg\|*Studio on Rue Furstenberg*, 1865, Musée Fabre, Montpellier <File:Jean> Frédéric Bazille - Little Italian Street Singer 1866.jpg\|*Little Italian Street Singer*, 1866 <File:Frédéric> Bazille - The Little Gardener - Google Art Project.jpg\|*Le Petit Jardinier (The Little Gardener),* c. 1866--67, oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Houston <File:Frédéric> Bazille - Nature morte avec du poisson.jpg\|*Nature morte avec du poisson*, Still life with fish, c. 1866--67 <File:Renoir> by Bazille.jpg\|*Portrait of Renoir*, 1867, oil on canvas, Musée d\'Orsay <File:Bazille>, Frédéric - Aigues-Mortes.jpeg\|*Aigues-Mortes*, 1867 <File:Réunion> de famille - Frédéric Bazille - musée d\'Orsay RF 2749.jpg\|*The Family Reunion*, c. 1867, Musée d\'Orsay <File:Bazille-Nature> morte au héron.JPG\|*Nature morte au héron*, 1867 <File:Jean> Frédéric Bazille - Etude pour une vendange (left) 1868.jpg\|*Etude pour une vendange*, 1868 <File:Bazille>, Frédéric \~ View of the Village, 1868.jpg\|*View of the Village*, 1868, Musée Fabre, Montpellier <File:Bazille> - Pêcheur à l\'épervier.jpg\|*Fisherman with a Net*, 1868 <File:Bazille>, Frédéric - Portrait of Alphonse Tissie.jpeg\|*Portrait of Alphonse Tissie*, 1868, Musée Fabre, Montpellier <File:Bazille>, Frederic --- Flowers --- 1868.jpg\|*Flowers*, 1868 <File:Frédéric> Bazille - Portrait de Paul Verlaine comme une Troubadour.jpg\|*Portrait of Paul Verlaine*, 1868, Dallas Museum of Art <File:Bazille>, Frédéric \~ Summer Scene, 1869, Oil on canvas Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts.jpg\|*Scène d\'été,* 1869, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts <File:Bazille>, Frédéric - Portrait of Edmond Maitre.jpeg\|*Portrait of Edmond Maître*, 1869 <File:Bazille>, Frédéric \~ La Toilette, 1869-70, Oil on canvas Musee Fabre, Montpelier.jpg\|*La Toilette*, 1870, Musée Fabre <File:Frédéric> Bazille, Young Woman with Peonies, 1870, NGA 61356.jpg\|*Black Woman with Peonies*, 1870, National Gallery of Art <File:Frederic> Bazille Paysage au bord du Lez
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# Ford Madox Brown
**Ford Madox Brown** (16 April 1821 -- 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his most notable painting was *Work* (1852--1865). Brown spent the latter years of his life painting the twelve works known as *The Manchester Murals*, depicting Mancunian history, for Manchester Town Hall.
## Early life {#early_life}
Brown was the grandson of the medical theorist John Brown, founder of the Brunonian system of medicine. His great-grandfather was a Scottish labourer. His father Ford Brown served as a purser in the Royal Navy, including a period serving under Sir Isaac Coffin and a period on HMS *Arethusa*. He left the Navy after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
In 1818, Ford Brown married Caroline Madox, of an old Kentish family. Brown\'s parents had limited financial resources, and they moved to Calais to seek cheaper lodgings, where their daughter Elizabeth Coffin was born in 1819 and their son Ford Madox Brown in 1821.
Brown\'s education was limited, as the family frequently moved between lodgings in the Pas-de-Calais and relatives in Kent, but he showed artistic talent in copying of Old Master prints. His father initially sought a naval career for his son, writing to his former captain Sir Isaac Coffin. The family moved to Bruges in 1835 so Brown could study at the academy under Albert Gregorius. Brown moved to Ghent in 1836 to continue his studies under Pieter van Hanselaere. He moved to Antwerp in 1837 to study under Gustaf Wappers. He continued to study in Antwerp after his mother\'s death in 1839. His sister died in 1840, and then his father in 1842.
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# Ford Madox Brown
## Works
The Tate Gallery holds an early example of Brown\'s work, a portrait of his father. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1840, a work inspired by Lord Byron\'s poem *The Giaour* (now lost) and then completed a version of *The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots*, with his cousin and future wife Elisabeth Bromley as one of his models. He lived in Montmartre with his new wife and ageing father in 1841. He painted *Manfred on the Jungfrau*, inspired by Lord Byron\'s poem *Manfred* while he was in Paris.
In 1843 he submitted work to the Westminster Cartoon Competition, for compositions to decorate the new Palace of Westminster. His entry, \'The Body of Harold Brought before William\', was not successful. His early works were, however, greatly admired by the young Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who asked him to become his tutor. Through Rossetti, Brown came into contact with the artists who went on to form the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Though closely linked to them, he was never actually a member of the brotherhood itself, but adopted the bright colours and realistic style of William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. He was also influenced by the works of Holbein that he saw in Basel in 1845, and by Friedrich Overbeck and Peter Cornelius, whom he met in Rome in 1845--46.
Brown struggled to make his mark in the 1850s, with his paintings failing to find buyers, and he considered emigrating to India. In 1852 he started work on two of his most significant works.
One of his most famous images is *The Last of England*, painted from 1852 to 1855, which was sold in March 1859 for 325 guineas (*2010: £`{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|341.25|1859|2010|r=-2}}}}`{=mediawiki}*). It depicts a pair of stricken emigrants as they sail away on the ship that will take them from England forever. It was inspired by the departure of the Pre-Raphaelite sculptor Thomas Woolner, who had left for Australia. In an unusual tondo format, the painting is structured with Brown\'s characteristic linear energy, and emphasis on apparently grotesque and banal details, such as the cabbages hanging from the ship\'s side. The husband and wife are portraits of Brown and his second wife Emma.
thumb\|upright=1.5\|*Work* (1852--1865) is Brown\'s best known painting
Brown\'s most important painting was *Work* (1852--1865), begun in Hampstead in 1852 and which he showed at his retrospective exhibition in 1865. Thomas Plint advanced funds to enable Brown to complete the work, in anticipation of obtaining the finished painting, but died in 1861 before the painting had been completed. In this painting, Brown attempted to depict the totality of the mid-Victorian social experience in a single image, depicting \'navvies\' digging up a road (The Mount, off Heath Street in Hampstead, north London) and disrupting the old social hierarchies in the process. The image erupts into proliferating details from the dynamic centre of the action, as the workers tear a hole in the road -- and, symbolically, in the social fabric. Each character represents a particular social class and role in the modern urban environment.
Brown wrote a catalogue to accompany the special exhibition of *Work*. This publication included an extensive explanation of *Work* that nevertheless leaves many questions unanswered. Brown\'s concern with the social issues addressed in *Work* prompted him to open a soup kitchen for Manchester\'s hungry, and to attempt to aid the city\'s unemployed to find work by founding a labour exchange.
Brown found patrons in the north of England, including Plint, George Rae from Birkenhead, John Miller from Liverpool, and James Leathart from Newcastle. By the late 1850s he had lost patience with the poor reception he received at the Royal Academy and ceased to show his works there, rejecting an offer from Millais to support his becoming an associate member. He founded the Hogarth Club in 1858, with William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, and his former pupil Rossetti. After a successful period of a few years, the club reached over 80 members, including several prominent members of the Royal Academy, but Brown resigned in 1860, and the club collapsed in 1861.
From the 1860s, Brown also designed furniture and stained glass. He was a founder partner of William Morris\'s design company, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., in 1861, which dissolved in 1874 with Morris continuing on his own. He was a close friend of the landscape artist Henry Mark Anthony.
Brown\'s major achievement after *Work* was *The Manchester Murals*, a cycle of twelve paintings in the Great Hall of Manchester Town Hall depicting the history of the city. Brown would be 72 by the time he finished the murals. In total, he took six years perfecting the murals, which were his last major work.
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# Ford Madox Brown
## Family
Ford Madox Brown was married twice. His first wife Elizabeth Bromley was his first cousin, the daughter of his mother\'s sister Mary. They were married in Meopham in Kent in April 1841, shortly before his 20th birthday and less than a year after the sudden death of his sister Elizabeth. They lived in Montmartre in 1841 with Brown\'s invalid father who died the following summer.
Their first child died young as an infant in November 1842. Their daughter Emma Lucy was born in 1843 and the family moved back to England in 1844. They travelled to Rome in 1845 to alleviate the illness of his wife, who was suffering from consumption (pulmonary tuberculosis). She died in Paris in June 1846, aged 27, on the journey back to England from Rome, and was buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery. Christina Rossetti, Elizabeth Siddal and other members of the Rossetti family were later buried alongside.
Emma Hill became a frequent model for Brown from 1848; for example, she is the wife in *The Last of England*. She became his mistress, and they shared a house in London, but social convention discouraged him from marrying an illiterate daughter of a bricklayer. Their daughter Catherine Emily was born in 1850, and eventually they were married at St Dunstan-in-the-West in April 1853. Ford leased a house in Fitzroy Square.
Their son, **Oliver Madox Brown** (1855--1874) (known as Nolly) showed promise both as an artist and poet, but died of blood poisoning before his maturity. The death of Nolly was a crushing blow for Brown, and he kept a room for his son\'s belongings as a shrine. Another son Arthur was born in September 1856. Brown used Arthur as the model for the baby held by a ragged girl in the foreground of *Work*, but he died aged only ten months old in July 1857. thumb\|upright=1.2\|*The Pretty Baa-Lambs*. Brown\'s mistress and later wife Emma and second daughter Cathy in 1851 His daughters Lucy Madox Brown and Catherine Madox Brown were also competent artists. Lucy married William Michael Rossetti in 1874. Catherine, married Francis Hueffer; through Catherine, Brown was the grandfather of novelist Ford Madox Ford and great-grandfather of Labour Home Secretary Frank Soskice.
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# Ford Madox Brown
## Death
Brown\'s second wife died in October 1890, and he died in Primrose Hill, north London, in 1893. He is buried in the St Pancras and Islington Cemetery in East Finchley. He was given a secular funeral, and the funeral oration was delivered by the American Moncure D. Conway, the secularist after whom Conway Hall was later named.
<File:Lucy> Madox Brown.jpg\|Brown\'s first surviving daughter Lucy in 1849 <File:Catherine> Madox Brown2.jpg\|Catherine Madox Brown <File:Oliver> Madox Brown.jpg\|Oliver in 1855 <File:Arthur> Madox Brown1.jpg\|Arthur in 1856 <File:Ford> Madox Brown - The Last of England - Portrait of Emma Hill - Google Art Project.jpg\|Emma in 1852 (study for *The Last of England*) <File:Dante> Gabriel Rossetti drawing of Ford Madox Brown 1867.jpg\|*Ford Madox Brown*, 1867, drawn by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
## Legacy
The Ford Madox Brown, a J D Wetherspoon pub in Oxford Road, Manchester, is named after Ford Madox Brown. It states on the Wetherspoon\'s website that \"This J D Wetherspoon pub is named after the much-travelled artist Ford Madox Brown, a one-time resident of Victoria Park, a suburb south of the pub.\" The pub opened in 2007.
## Gallery
<File:James> Leathart.jpg\|*James Leathart* <File:Traveller001.jpg>\|*Traveller*, 1868 <File:Ford> Madox Brown - The Irish Girl - Google Art Project.jpg\|*The Irish Girl*, 1860
<File:Cromwell>, Protector of the Vaudois.jpg\|*Cromwell, Protector of the Vaudois*, 1877 <File:Ford> Madox Brown - Finding of Don Juan by Haidee - Google Art Project.jpg\|*Finding of Don Juan by Haidee*, 1873 <File:Cordelia's> Portion2.jpg\|*Cordelia\'s Portion* <File:Byron's> Dream.jpg\|*Byron\'s Dream* <File:St> Louis IX.jpg\|The French saint King Louis IX in the stained glass of the East window of All Saints Church, Cambridge Image:Ford Madox Brown - Chaucer at the court of Edward III - Google Art Project.jpg\|*Chaucer at the Court of Edward III*, oil on canvas painting by Ford Madox Brown, 1847--1851, Art Gallery of New South Wales Image:Romeo and juliet brown.jpg\|*Romeo and Juliet* parting on the balcony in Act III. Delaware Art Museum, 1870 <File:Ford> Madox Brown - The Coat of Many Colours - Google Art Project.jpg\|Brown\'s *Jacob and Joseph\'s Coat* at Museo de Arte de Ponce, Ponce, Puerto Rico <File:King> Rene-s Honeymoon 1864.jpg\|*King Rene\'s Honeymoon*, 1864, an imaginary scene in the life of the art-loving medieval king René of Anjou. <File:Jesus> washing Peter\'s feet
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# Francis van Aarssens
**Baron Francis van Aarssens** or **Baron François van Aerssen** (27 September 1572 - 27 December 1641), from 1611 on lord of Sommelsdijk, was a diplomat and statesman of the United Provinces.
## Biography
He was born in Brussels, the son of Cornelis van Aarsens, also a statesman. His talents commended him to the notice of Advocate Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, who sent him, at the age of 26 years, as a diplomatic agent of the states-general to the court of France. He took a considerable part in the negotiations of the Twelve Years\' Truce in 1609.
His conduct of affairs having displeased the French king, he was recalled from his post by Oldenbarneveldt in 1614, after the French ambassador Benjamin Aubery du Maurier had demanded Aarsens\' recall. Such was the hatred he henceforth conceived against his former benefactor, that he did his very utmost to effect Oldebarneveldt\'s ruin. However, he was not a member of the court that convicted Oldenbarnevelt in the Trial of Oldenbarnevelt, Grotius and Hogerbeets, as Chisholm mistakenly reports.
He afterwards became the confidential counselor of Maurice, Prince of Orange, and afterwards of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, in their conduct of the foreign affairs of the republic. He was sent on special embassies to Venice, Germany and England, and displayed so much diplomatic skill and finesse that Cardinal Richelieu ranked him among the three greatest politicians of his time. He died, aged 69, in The Hague
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# Flash Crowd
\"**Flash Crowd**\" is a 1973 English-language novella by science fiction author Larry Niven, one of a series about the social consequence of inventing an instant, practically free displacement booth.
One consequence not foreseen by the builders of the system was that with the almost immediate reporting of newsworthy events, tens of thousands of people worldwide`{{Snd}}`{=mediawiki}along with criminals`{{Snd}}`{=mediawiki}would teleport to the scene of anything interesting, thus creating disorder and confusion. The plot centers around a television journalist who, after being fired for his inadvertent role in inciting a post-robbery riot in Los Angeles, seeks to independently investigate the teleportation system for the flaws in its design allowing for such spontaneous riots to occur. His investigation takes him to destinations and people around the world within the matter of less than 12 hours before he gets his chance to plead his case on television, and he encounters the wide-ranging effects of displacements upon aspects of human behavior such as settlement, crime, natural resources, agriculture, waste management and tourism.
## Characters
- Barry Jerome \"Jerryberry\" Jansen`{{Snd}}`{=mediawiki}\"newstaper\" (television correspondent and cameraman) for Central Broadcasting Association (CBA). Father Eric brought the family to ruin when attempting to participate in the massive investment rush for the then-burgeoning stock in displacement booths.
- George Lincoln Bailey`{{Snd}}`{=mediawiki}CBA editor
- Wash Evans`{{Snd}}`{=mediawiki}host for CBA\'s *Tonight Show* flagship news program
- Janice Wolfe`{{Snd}}`{=mediawiki}friend of Jerryberry
- Nils Kjerulf`{{Snd}}`{=mediawiki}manager of Los Angeles International, now far from the major depot of mass transit of yesteryear due to the decrease in need for air transport
- Gregory Scheffer`{{Snd}}`{=mediawiki}customs guard.
- Dr. Robin \"Robbie\" Whyte`{{Snd}}`{=mediawiki}inventor of the displacement booth
- Harry McCord`{{Snd}}`{=mediawiki}former Los Angeles Police Department Chief.
- Tahitian ticket-taker`{{Snd}}`{=mediawiki}formerly owned a house until squatters drove him and his family out and moved in
## Other Flash Crowd stories by Larry Niven {#other_flash_crowd_stories_by_larry_niven}
- *The Alibi Machine* (1973)
- Transfer booths turned out to be a convenient alibi tool: you slip from a party for a minute, kill someone across the globe, and be back unnoticed.
- *All the Bridges Rusting* (1973)
- *A Kind of Murder* (1974)
- *The Last Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club* (1974)
- The titular Club is a gang of pickpockets who took an advantage of flash crowds. Their doom came when police figured out how to deal with flash crowd crime. Previously when police was spotted the crowd used to quickly disperse via JumpShift booths. Eventually police figured out how to reroute destinations of all booths in an area into detention nets.
## Use in other works {#use_in_other_works}
In various other books, for example *Ringworld*, Niven suggests that easy transportation might be disruptive to traditional behavior and open the way for new forms of parties, spontaneous congregations, or shopping trips around the world. The central character in *Ringworld*, celebrating his birthday, teleports across time-zones to \"lengthen\" his birthday multiple times (particularly notable since the first edition had the error of the character heading the wrong direction, increasing that edition\'s value).
Niven\'s essay \"Exercise in Speculation: The Theory and Practice of Teleportation\" was published in the collection *All the Myriad Ways* In it he discusses the ideas that underlie his teleportation stories.
## Other reading {#other_reading}
- \"Flash Crowd\" is included in the short story collection *The Flight of the Horse*. The story (or parts of it) was originally published as \"Flash Crowd\" in *Three Trips in Time and Space*, by Robert Silverberg, ed.
- \"The Last Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club\" is included in the short story collection *A Hole in Space*
- Other stories in this series are in these two books and in *All the Myriad Ways*
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# Fuerteventura
**Fuerteventura** (`{{IPA|es|ˌfweɾteβenˈtuɾa|lang|Pronunciation of Fuerteventura in Spanish.ogg}}`{=mediawiki}) is one of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, geographically part of Macaronesia, and politically part of Spain. It is located 97 km away from the coast of North Africa. The island was declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 2009.
Fuerteventura belongs to the Province of Las Palmas, one of the two provinces that form the autonomous community of the Canary Islands. The island\'s capital is Puerto del Rosario, where the Insule Council is found (the government of the island). Fuerteventura had 124,152 inhabitants (`{{As of|lc=y|2023}}`{=mediawiki}), the fourth largest population of the Canary Islands and the third of the province. At 1659.74 km2, it is the second largest of the Canary Islands, after Tenerife. From a geological point of view, Fuerteventura is the oldest island in the archipelago.
## Toponymy
The island\'s name is a compound formed by the Spanish words *fuerte* (either \"strong\" or \"fort\") and *ventura* (\"fortune\"). Traditionally, Fuerteventura\'s name has incorrectly thought to have been a reference to the strong winds (*fuertes vientos* in Spanish) around the island coastline, and the resulting danger to nautical adventurers. However, it might have referred instead (or also) to wealth, luck or destiny.
In 1339 the Mallorcan navigator Angelino Dulcert, in the *Planisferio de Angelino Dulcert*, referred to the island as \"Forte Ventura\".
Another theory is that the island\'s name derives from \"Fortunatae Insulae\" (Fortunate Islands), the name by which the Romans knew the Canary Islands.
The indigenous name of the island, before its conquest in the 15th century, was Erbania, divided into two regions (Jandía and Maxorata), from which the name majorero (originally majo or maxo) derives. However, it has been suggested that, at some point, Maxorata (which meant \"the children of the country\") was the aboriginal toponym of the entire island.
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# Fuerteventura
## History
### Precolonial history {#precolonial_history}
The first settlers of Fuerteventura are believed to have come from North Africa. The word *Mahorero* (*Majorero*) or *Maho* is still used today to describe the people of Fuerteventura and is derived from the ancient word \'mahos\', a type of goatskin shoe worn by these original inhabitants. They lived in caves and semi-subterranean dwellings, some of which have been excavated, revealing remnants of early tools and pottery. In antiquity, the island was originally known as *Planaria*, in reference to the flatness of most of its terrain.
Phoenician settlers landed in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.
Several Spanish and Portuguese expeditions to the islands were organized around 1340, followed by Moors and European slave traders. At the end of the Iberian conquest, the island was divided into two Guanches kingdoms, one adhering to King Guize and the other to King Ayoze. The territories of these kingdoms were called Maxorata (in the North) and Jandía (in the South) respectively. They were separated by a wall, which traversed the La Pared isthmus. Some remains have been preserved. The ancient name for the island, Erbania, is derived from this wall\'s name.
### Conquest
The island\'s conquest began in earnest in 1402, commanded by French knights and crusaders Jean de Béthencourt and Gadifer de la Salle. They arrived with only 63 sailors out of the original 283, as many had deserted along the way. After arriving and settling in Lanzarote, the invaders made some first excursions to the neighboring islands. In 1404, Bethencourt and Gadifer founded Betancuria, on the West coast, the first settlement on the island. After numerous difficulties, Gadifer took charge of the invasion, while Bethencourt returned to Spain to seek the recognition and support of the Castilian king.
In 1405, de Béthencourt completed his conquest of the island, establishing its capital in Betancuria (Puerto Rosario took over the mantle as island capital in 1835).
In 1424 Pope Martin V, through the Betancuria Brief, edicted the establishment of the Bishopric of Fuerteventura, which encompassed all the Canary Islands save for the island of Lanzarote. The origin of this bishopric is directly related to the events that occurred after the Great Schism (1378--1417), in that the bishop of San Marcial del Rubicón of Lanzarote (at the time, the only diocese in the Canary Islands) did not recognize the papacy of Martin V, and instead adhered to anti-Pope Benedict XIII. The *Bishopric of Fuerteventura* was based in the *Parish of Santa María de Betancuria*, bestowing upon the latter the status of Grant Cathedral. After the reabsorbtion of the *Diocese of San Marcial del Rubicón* by the papacy of Pope Martin V, the Bishopric of Fuerteventura was abolished in 1431, only seven years after it was created.
The first census`{{when|date=February 2021}}`{=mediawiki} recorded a population of some 1,200 inhabitants. The population increased gradually thereafter. In 1476 the territory became the *Señorío Territorial de Fuerteventura*, subjected to the Catholic Monarchs. In later years, the island was invaded by the Spanish, French and the English.
### 2nd conquest of Fuerteventura {#nd_conquest_of_fuerteventura}
Over time, the island endured numerous raids. A Berber-led expedition invaded in 1593, sweeping as far inland as the capital. Various castles were built along the coastline, to protect against these types of attacks. The population was moved inland as a second protective measure. Because of the raids, a first *Captain General* was dispatched to Fuerteventura, accompanied by a number of *Sergeants Major*, to defend the island in the name of the Crown. At that time, Betancuria became the religious capital of the island. Two major attacks took place in 1740, within a month of each other. Two separate bands of English privateers attempted to loot the town of Tuineje. These attacks were however successfully averted by the local population and the island\'s militia. This successful repelling of the invaders is celebrated at a re-enactment that takes place in Gran Tarajal every year in October.
The island\'s garrison was officially instated in 1708. Its colonel assumed the title of *Governor at Arms*, a hereditary, lifelong appointment which has remained in the Sánchez-Dumpiérrez family. In time, this family increasingly garnered power over the other islands through alliances with the family of Arias de Saavedra and the Lady of Fuerteventura. During the same year the *Assistant Parish of La Oliva and Pájara* was created, to become operational in 1711. On 17 December 1790, the *Assistant Parish of Tuineje* was created, which became a new parish division on 23 June 1792 under the bishop Tavira, with lands including part of the Jandía peninsular, and with a population of 1,670 inhabitants. 1780 saw the start of a barrilla plantation industry.
### To the present {#to_the_present}
In 1852, a free trade zone was extended by Isabella II to the Canary Islands. Military island rule, which began in 1708, was finally dissolved in 1859, and *Puerto de Cabras* (now Puerto del Rosario) - the only municipal seat on the coast - became the new capital.
The Canary Islands obtained self-governance in 1912. In 1927, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote became part of the province of Gran Canaria. The seat of the island\'s government (*cabildo insular*) is located in Puerto del Rosario. A total of 118,574 people lived on the island in 2018.
By the 1940s the island had an airport (just west of Puerto del Rosario on the road to Tindaya, still visible today). Mass tourism began to arrive in the mid-1960s, facilitated by the construction of Fuerteventura Airport at El Matorral and the first tourist hotels.
The island\'s proximity (a mere 100 km) to the West African coast and the fact that it is part of the Schengen territory make it a prime target destination for undocumented immigrants. However, many have perished while attempting the crossing.
## Flag
The flag of Fuerteventura is in proportions 1:2, divided vertically, green to the hoist and white to the fly end, with the coat of arms of the island in the centre.
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# Fuerteventura
## Flag
### Coat of arms {#coat_of_arms}
The coat of arms of Fuerteventura was prescribed by a Decree adopted on 15 October 1998 by the Government of the Canary Islands and published on 11 November 1998 in the official gazette of the Canary Islands, No. 142, pp. 13,432--13,433. It was adopted on 24 April 1998 by the Island Council and validated on 18 September 1998 by the Heraldry Commission of the Canary Islands.
The heraldic description is \"per pale and per fess. First, gules, a castle or, masoned sable, its gate and windows azure. Second, argent, lion gules, crowned, armed and langued or. Third, silver, three fesses chequy gules and or, in four rows, each one charged with a fess or. Bordure gules, with eight saltires or. Ensigned with a royal crown, open.\"
According to José Manuel Erbez (Banderas y escudos de Canarias, 2007), the coat of arms is based on the arms of the island\'s provincial militia. The upper quarters represent Castile (symbolized by a castle) and León (symbolized by a lion). The lower quarter alludes to the Saavedra family; various members of this family were lords of Fuerteventura.
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# Fuerteventura
## Geography
### Environment
The elongated island is 100 km long and 31 km wide. It has an area of 1660 km2.
Located just 100 km off the coast of North Africa, it is the second biggest of the islands, after Tenerife, and has the longest white sand beaches in the archipelago. The island is a destination for sun, beach and watersports enthusiasts. It lies at the same latitude as Florida and Mexico and temperatures rarely fall below 18 °C or rise above 32 °C. It counts 152 separate beaches along its seaboard --- 50 km of white sand and 25 km of black volcanic shingle.
The highest point in Fuerteventura is Pico de la Zarza standing at 2648 ft (807 m) in the southwestern part of the island. Geographical features include **Istmo de la Pared** which is 5 km wide and is the narrowest part of Fuerteventura. The island is divided into two parts, the northern portion which is **Maxorata** and the southwestern part called the Jandía peninsula.
### Climate
Fuerteventura has a hot desert climate (Köppen: *BWh*). The climate is mild, but mostly windy, throughout the year. The island is hence referred to as *the island of eternal spring*. The sea regulates air temperature, diverting hot Sahara winds away from the island. The island\'s name in English translates as \"strong fortune\" or \"strong wind\", the Spanish word for wind being *viento*. During the winter months, temperatures average a high of 22 °C and a low of around 15 °C, whereas during the summer a mean high of 28 °C and a low of 20 °C can be expected. Precipitation is about 147 mm per year, most of which falls in autumn and winter. December is the month with highest rainfall.
A sandstorm known as the Calima (similar to the Sirocco wind, which blows to the North of the Sahara, to Europe) may blow from the Sahara Desert to the Northwest, and can cause high temperatures, low visibility and drying air. Temperatures during this phenomenon rise temporarily by approximately 10 degrees Celsius. The wind brings in fine red dust, The fine white sand is not blown in from Sahara, It is made up of dead coral reef and local seabed upheaval. Visibility can drop to between 100 and or even lower, and together with very warm temperatures, it can even bring African locusts to the island. `{{Weather box
|location = [[Fuerteventura Airport]], 25 m (1981–2010)
|metric first = yes
|single line = yes
|Jan record high C = 28.5
|Feb record high C = 30.8
|Mar record high C = 34.0
|Apr record high C = 38.0
|May record high C = 36.8
|Jun record high C = 41.6
|Jul record high C = 43.0
|Aug record high C = 41.0
|Sep record high C = 37.9
|Oct record high C = 36.5
|Nov record high C = 34.8
|Dec record high C = 29.5
|year record high C = 43.0
|Jan high C = 20.6
|Feb high C = 21.0
|Mar high C = 22.2
|Apr high C = 22.9
|May high C = 24.1
|Jun high C = 25.8
|Jul high C = 27.3
|Aug high C = 27.8
|Sep high C = 27.5
|Oct high C = 26.1
|Nov high C = 24.0
|Dec high C = 22.0
|year high C = 24.3
|Jan mean C = 17.6
|Feb mean C = 17.9
|Mar mean C = 18.9
|Apr mean C = 19.5
|May mean C = 20.6
|Jun mean C = 22.5
|Jul mean C = 24.0
|Aug mean C = 24.6
|Sep mean C = 24.4
|Oct mean C = 22.9
|Nov mean C = 20.9
|Dec mean C = 18.9
|year mean C = 21.1
|Jan low C = 14.7
|Feb low C = 14.8
|Mar low C = 15.5
|Apr low C = 16.0
|May low C = 17.1
|Jun low C = 19.1
|Jul low C = 20.8
|Aug low C = 21.5
|Sep low C = 21.2
|Oct low C = 19.8
|Nov low C = 17.7
|Dec low C = 15.9
|year low C = 17.8
|Jan record low C = 8.0
|Feb record low C = 8.0
|Mar record low C = 8.0
|Apr record low C = 9.5
|May record low C = 11.6
|Jun record low C = 13.0
|Jul record low C = 14.0
|Aug record low C = 15.0
|Sep record low C = 15.0
|Oct record low C = 12.0
|Nov record low C = 10.5
|Dec record low C = 9.0
|year record low C = 8.0
|Jan rain mm = 14
|Feb rain mm = 16
|Mar rain mm = 12
|Apr rain mm = 5
|May rain mm = 1
|Jun rain mm = 0
|Jul rain mm = 0
|Aug rain mm = 0
|Sep rain mm = 2
|Oct rain mm = 8
|Nov rain mm = 13
|Dec rain mm = 26
|Jan rain days = 2.5
|Feb rain days = 2.4
|Mar rain days = 1.9
|Apr rain days = 1.0
|May rain days = 0.2
|Jun rain days = 0.0
|Jul rain days = 0.0
|Aug rain days = 0.1
|Sep rain days = 0.5
|Oct rain days = 1.7
|Nov rain days = 2.2
|Dec rain days = 3.2
|year rain days =
|Jan sun = 190
|Feb sun = 190
|Mar sun = 233
|Apr sun = 242
|May sun = 280
|Jun sun = 285
|Jul sun = 294
|Aug sun = 289
|Sep sun = 246
|Oct sun = 227
|Nov sun = 203
|Dec sun = 186
|year sun = 2836
|Jan humidity = 68
|Feb humidity = 69
|Mar humidity = 68
|Apr humidity = 65
|May humidity = 66
|Jun humidity = 67
|Jul humidity = 69
|Aug humidity = 71
|Sep humidity = 72
|Oct humidity = 73
|Nov humidity = 71
|Dec humidity = 71
|year humidity = 69
|source 1 = [[Agencia Estatal de Meteorología]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aemet.es/es/serviciosclimaticos/datosclimatologicos/valoresclimatologicos?l=C249I&k=coo |title=Valores climatológicos normales. Fuerteventura Aeropuerto |access-date=2 November 2015 |archive-date=13 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180913185054/http://www.aemet.es/es/serviciosclimaticos/datosclimatologicos/valoresclimatologicos?l=C249I&k=coo |url-status=live }}</ref>
|date = December 2014}}`{=mediawiki}
### Hydrology
In the winter months, up to 80% of the rainwater flows unused into the ocean, as there is no vegetation to capture the water (also due to overgrazing by free-ranging goats near the coast). The mountain forests, which were still present in the 19th century, were all chopped down. Instead, there are many desalination plants (running on electricity) which produce the required amount of freshwater on the island. The tourists on the island use about double the amount of water as the native inhabitants of Fuerteventura. Causes are the filling of swimming pools, watering hotel gardens and washing towels.
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# Fuerteventura
## Geography
### Geology
Fuerteventura is the oldest island in the Canary Islands dating back 20 million years to a volcanic eruption from the Canary hotspot. The majority of the island was created about 5 million years ago and since then has been eroded by wind and precipitation. On the seabed off the west coast of the island rests an enormous slab of bedrock 22 km long and 11 km wide, which appears to have slid off the island largely intact at some point in prehistory, similar to the predicted future collapse of Cumbre Vieja, a geological fault on another Canary Island, La Palma. The last volcanic activity in Fuerteventura occurred between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago. `{{wide image|Fuerteventura D81 6914 (39814797895).jpg|700px|Fuerteventura seen from the south}}`{=mediawiki}
### Beaches
Fuerteventura was chosen among 500 European destinations by the Quality Coast International Certification Program of the European Coastal and Marine Union as one of the most attractive tourist destinations for visitors interested in cultural heritage, environment and sustainability. The best beaches to visit are Playa de Cofete, Playas de Jandia, Playas de Corralejo, Playa de Ajuy, and Playas de El Cotillo.
### Wildlife
The island is home to one of the two surviving populations of the threatened Canarian Egyptian vulture. It is also inhabited by many wild dogs and cats. On the barren, rocky land there are Barbary ground squirrels and geckos. Fuerteventura also hosts several migratory and nesting birds. The island has significant populations of the collared dove, common swifts and several finch species especially in the vicinity of holiday developments.
Despite its arid climate, the island is also home to a surprisingly large insect fauna. Butterflies which commonly occur on the island include the clouded yellow (*Colias hyale*) and the bath white (*Pontia daplidice*) which feeds on xerophytic cruciferae. The island is also home to the monarch butterfly (*Danaus plexippus*) and its close African relative *Danaus chrysippus*. Around holiday developments such as Caleta de Fuste, water is relatively abundant, and dragonfly species including the blue emperor (*Anax imperator*) and the scarlet darter (*Crocothemis erythraea*) can be found. The island\'s sand dunes and shoreline are home to a number of bee and wasp species including the large eumenid caterpillar hunting wasp, *Delta dimidiatipenne* and the blue banded bee (*Amegilla canifrons*).
Hawkmoths also occur on the island. One of the more notable species is *Hyles tithymali* which feeds on endemic spurges such as *Euphorbia regis-jubae*. *Acherontia atropos*, the deaths-head hawkmoth also occurs on the island presumably feeding on members of the Solanaceae, for example, *Datura innoxia* and *Nicotiana glauca* which are common weeds in the vicinity of human habitation.
## Natural symbols {#natural_symbols}
The official natural symbols associated with Fuerteventura are *Chlamydotis undulata fuertaventurae* (hubara or houbara) and *Euphorbia handiensis* (Cardón de Jandía).
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# Fuerteventura
## Demographics
### Population
The island had a population of 124,152 at the start of 2023. Throughout its long history, Fuerteventura has suffered from a population decline due to the economic situation and the climate, which have made it into a desert island. However, the development of tourism during the 1980s has caused the population to grow year on year since then, doubling it in a little less than a decade.
In 2005, with 86,642 registered inhabitants, the Fuerteventura population was formed by the following:
- Born on the island: 30,364
- Born on another Canary Island: 13,175
- Born elsewhere in Spain: 20,938
- Born in other countries: 22,165
Comparing this data with the 2001 census shows that the number of permanent residents born on the island has increased by just 3,000. The number who have moved in from abroad has increased by 22,910, making this the biggest contributor to population growth in recent years.
### Education
The island has 116 schools, with a total of 14,337 pupils. Of these, 45 are primary schools, ten are secondary schools, six are for Baccalaureate students and four are vocational colleges.
Fuerteventura also has a centre linked with the National University of Distance Education, offering courses in many subjects including economics, business studies, law, history and tourism.
## Administration
Fuerteventura is governed by the Island Department of the Government of Spain, which holds the rank of a Government Subdepartment. The government building is located in the centre of the capital city.
This institution is charged with representing the Government of Spain on the island, and managing all the functions that are not under control of the Canarian Government. This includes the following public services:
- Island Security Forces (National Police and Guardia Civil)
- Puerto del Rosario port and Fuerteventura Airport
- Tax Agency
- Customs
- the Maritime and Coastguard department
- Driving licences, Traffic and Highways
- Immigration -- the Immigration Detention Centre and residential permits
- Social Security
- Red Cross
- Seprona (the Nature Protection Service)
- Passports
Since 30 June 2007, the island\'s governor has been Eustaquio Juan Santana Gil. 4
### Island Council of Fuerteventura (Cabildo) {#island_council_of_fuerteventura_cabildo}
The councils, formed as part of the Councils Act of 1912, administer the Canary Islands and have two principal functions. On one hand, they perform services for the Autonomous Community, and on the other, they are the local government centre for the island. In the 2003 elections, Mario Cabrera González was elected as president representing the Canarian Coalition, with 31.02% of the votes, followed by the Spanish Socialist Workers\' Party with 27.53%, represented by the Vice President Domingo Fuentes Curbelo.
### Municipalities
Fuerteventura is part of the Province of Las Palmas. The island is divided into six municipalities, as follows:
+--------------------+----------+-------------------+---------+
| Name | Area\ | Census Population | |
| | (km^2^) | | |
+====================+==========+===================+=========+
| 2001 | 2011 | 2021 | |
+--------------------+----------+-------------------+---------+
| Antigua | 250.56 | 5,519 | 10,391 |
+--------------------+----------+-------------------+---------+
| Betancuria | 103.64 | 685 | 770 |
+--------------------+----------+-------------------+---------+
| La Oliva | 356.13 | 10,548 | 22,827 |
+--------------------+----------+-------------------+---------+
| Pájara | 383.52 | 12,382 | 19,773 |
+--------------------+----------+-------------------+---------+
| Puerto del Rosario | 289.95 | 21,296 | 35,878 |
+--------------------+----------+-------------------+---------+
| Tuineje | 275.94 | 9,843 | 13,302 |
+--------------------+----------+-------------------+---------+
| Totals | 1,659.74 | 60,273 | 102,941 |
+--------------------+----------+-------------------+---------+
In turn, these municipalities are organised into two associations: the *Mancomunidad de Municipios del Centro-Norte de Fuerteventura* formed from La Oliva and Puerto del Rosario, and the remaining municipalities make up the *Mancomunidad de Municipios del Centro-Sur de Fuerteventura*.
All municipalities are ruled by a town council, and are members of the FECAM (Federation of Canarian Municipalities). They are governed by the basic legislation of the local regime and their respective organic rules.
About 100 individual settlements are distributed through these municipalities. The largest not being municipal seats are Corralejo (in La Oliva; pop. 10,714 in 2023), Morro Jable (in Pájara; pop. 8,245) Gran Tarajal (in Tuineje; pop. 7,584), and Costa Calma (in Pájara; pop. 5,704), all coastal localities of recent development.
A nearby islet, Islote de Lobos, is close to Corralejo and part of the municipality of La Oliva.
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# Fuerteventura
## Economy
Both Fuerteventura and Lanzarote would have been the main exporters of wheat and cereals to the central islands of the archipelago during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries; Tenerife and Gran Canaria. However, this trade was of little benefit to the inhabitants of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura (because the landowners of the islands profited from this activity), leading to periods of famine, resulting in some of the population of the islands moving to Tenerife and Gran Canaria to try to improve their lives. Therefore, the island of Tenerife became the main focus of attraction for *majoreros* and *lanzaroteños*, hence the feeling of union that has always existed amongst these islands.
The economy of Fuerteventura is mainly based on tourism. Primary tourist areas are located around the existing towns of Corralejo in the north and Morro Jable in Jandia, plus the purely tourist development of Caleta de Fuste, south of Puerto del Rosario. Other main industries are fishing and agriculture (cereals and vegetables). The famous Majorero cheese is locally made from the milk of the indigenous majorera goat.
In 2009, Fuerteventura recorded the highest EU regional unemployment rate at a NUTS3 level, at 29.2 percent.
### Tourism
The first tourist hotel was built in 1965 followed by the construction of Fuerteventura Airport at El Matorral, heralding the dawn of a new era for the island. Fuerteventura, with its 3,000 sunshine hours a year, was placed firmly on the world stage as a major European holiday destination. While having fully developed tourist facilities, the island has not experienced the overdevelopment found on some other islands. Nonetheless, it remains a destination for predominantly but not exclusively European tourists.
The summer Trade Winds and winter swells of the Atlantic make this a year-round surfers\' paradise, with more exposed areas on the north and west shores such as Corralejo and El Cotillo proving most popular. Wind surfing takes places at locations around the island. Sailors, scuba divers and big-game fishermen are all drawn to these clear blue Atlantic waters where whales, dolphins, marlin and turtles are all common sights. With many hills present throughout the Island, hikers are also attracted to this Island.
Sandy beaches are found in many locations. Western beaches, such as those around El Cotillo, can experience strong surf. The beaches adjoining the extensive sand dunes east of Corralejo are popular, as are the more protected extensive sandy shores of the Playa de Sotavento de Jandia on the southeastern coast between Costa Calma and the Morro Jable. Naked sun bathing and swimming are the norm almost on all beaches.
Much of the interior, with its large plains, lavascapes and volcanic mountains, consists of protected areas, although there are organised tours and vehicular access across them. `{{wide image|fuerteventura panorama1 1200px.jpg|700px|Mountaintop of Cardón (619 m), viewed from the west}}`{=mediawiki}
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# Fuerteventura
## Art and culture {#art_and_culture}
### Traditional holidays {#traditional_holidays}
Like the rest of the Canaries, Carnival is traditionally one of the biggest festivals celebrated on the island. It is celebrated in different ways in all the towns during February and March. These festivities have a different theme each year. They include activities such as parades and galas to choose the carnival king.
### Concerts and festivals {#concerts_and_festivals}
There are many concerts and festivals held in the auditoriums, such as the Festival of Canarian Music. They are also held in smaller venues across the island, featuring bands such as Estopa, Van Gogh\'s Ear, and King Africa.
- Lebrancho Rock: in 2004, the Town Hall of Puerto del Rosario started this initiative for the growing number of local bands who had been performing in the area for years but had not had the chance to play at the same event.
- Fuertemusica: like Lebrancho Rock, this festival aims to encourage the local or emerging groups. It started in the same year. This festival is mainly for groups that are already known in the music world. It takes place in El Cotillo.
- In the municipality of Betancuria (more specifically in the village of Vega de Rio Palmas) held every year the festivities in honor of the Virgen de la Peña, patron saint of the island of Fuerteventura, the most representative is the pilgrimage in which are involved people from all corners of the island. The holiday is celebrated on the third Saturday of September.
Festival Internacional de Cometas/International Kite Festival is held on the second week of November each year centering on the Corralejo Beaches. It attracts kitefliers and kite surfers from all over Europe. It is popular because the winds are warm and constant and the beaches become filled with hundreds of colourful kites of all shapes and sizes.
### Auditoriums
Fuerteventura has three auditoriums. These are used for all types of performing art. They are also used for non-artistic purposes, such as conferences, charity galas and political meetings.
- The Isle of Fuerteventura Auditorium
- Gran Tarajal Auditorium
- Corralejo Auditorium
### Central library {#central_library}
The Central Library of the Island is located in Antigua\'s city centre, in the public university. In addition to providing the traditional library services, it has a 180-seat multipurpose room, air conditioning, a wifi zone, and a multimedia room used for seminars, presentations, film festivals etc.
### Museums and exhibition spaces {#museums_and_exhibition_spaces}
The island has several museums with different themes and plenty of exhibition spaces, both public and private. These include:
- The Antigua Windmill Craft Centre
- The Salt Museum
- The Atalayita Archeological Interpretation Centre
### Sculpture park {#sculpture_park}
In addition to the museums, the capital Puerto del Rosario has an open-air sculpture park consisting of around 100 sculptures by different artists scattered across the city. Most of them were created for the International Symposium of Sculpture celebrated annually since 2001. During the festival, artists come from all over the world to erect their sculptures in the open air, in full view of passers by.
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# Fuerteventura
## Main sights {#main_sights}
Sites of interest include Corralejo and El Jable to the north which are made up of fine sand dunes whilst the south is filled with long beaches and remote bays. The constant winds blowing onto the beaches provide a paradise for windsurfing. Surfing is common on the west and north coasts where there are large waves. Windsurfing is common around Corralejo and Playas de Sotavento and wave sailing (windsurfing on the waves) on the coast along the northern half of the island. El Cotillo is a small fishing village in the north-west of the Island famous for a very long beach to the south of the village and few very calm beaches to the north. The northern beaches frequented by snorkeling enthusiasts and sun worshippers alike are referred to as lakes by the locals. At Cofete on the western side of Jandía a remote and imposing house -- Villa Winter -- looks out to sea across wide beaches. It was reputedly built by a Mr Winter on land given by Generalisimo Franco.
For a time, the beaches were home to a popular accidental attraction. On 18 January 1994 the United States Lines ocean liner SS *American Star* (former *America*, USS *West Point*, *Australis*) was beached in Playa de Garcey during a severe storm. Within a year, she broke in two and later lost her stern. By 2007 the rest of the severely deteriorated ship had collapsed onto her port side, gradually keeling over further and almost completely submerged. By 2008--2012, most of the remains finally slipped below the surface.
## Food
The cuisine is fairly basic due to the customs and climate conditions. They share this simplicity with the other Canary islands, and similarly to them, they use a large quantity of fish. They also use whatever they can grow in the near-barren land. This includes papas arrugadas, a dish of wrinkled potatoes usually served with mojo, which is a hot pepper sauce or with puchero canario, a meat stew.
Seafood is prepared in many ways traditionally, such as pejines (salted fish), jareas, or sancocho (a type of stew) made from fish, generally the grouper, corvina or sama, boiled after salting, and served with mojo, potatoes, or gofio (a type of grain). People are also very keen on the mussels and limpets collected on the island\'s coasts.
They also use meat such as beef and pork to make different dishes or simply to for braising, but their main meat is goat, both from the kids and from the older animals. They eat the goat roasted or stewed. Goats are not only useful for their meat -- the Fuerteventurans also use the milk to make the cheese majorero, which has won many prizes. The majorero is mostly made of goats milk, and occasionally it is up to 15% ewes milk. It is cured in pimento oil or gofio meal. Majorero and palmero cheese are the only two Canarian cheeses with protected denomination of origin.
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# Fuerteventura
## Transport and communications {#transport_and_communications}
The main methods of arriving and departing the islands are by flying and by ferry.
### Airports
The airport is the main access point to the island. It is situated in El Matorral, 5 km southwest of the capital city Puerto del Rosario. The airport has flight connections to over 80 destinations worldwide, and over 5.6 million passengers passed through it in 2016. In 1994, the new airport terminal was constructed. In December 2009, the new facilities of the arrivals terminal of Fuerteventura Airport were inaugurated, tripling the space available in the old facilities. Up to 4000 passengers per hour can be served concurrently thanks to the new facilities.
Notably, Binter Canarias serves the airport as the regional airline connecting passengers across Canary Islands.
### Ports
Maritime communications are made from four ports: Puerto del Rosario, Corralejo, Gran Tarajal and Morro Jable. Cargo operations are the main activity of the island\'s main port in Puerto del Rosario, although its facilities allow the docking of tourist cruises including a ferry from Gran Canaria. Passenger traffic is mainly channeled through Corralejo, Gran Tarajal and Morro Jable. The port of Corralejo connects the island with Lanzarote. The port of Gran Tarajal connects the island with Gran Canaria and Morro Jable connects the island with Gran Canaria and Tenerife.
### Roads
There are two highways on the island: FV-1 and FV-2. The FV-1, together with the FV-2, is part of the major construction project of the north--south motorway on Fuerteventura.
The FV-1 begins in the north, in the town of Corralejo and ends in the island\'s capital Puerto del Rosario. FV-1 is part dual carriageway and part single carriageway. In the past, the FV-1 also ran through the Corralejo Dune Nature Reserve. In order to direct through traffic out of the nature reserve, the dual carriageway bypass around the nature reserve was opened in 2017 as the first section of the motorway after three years of construction, plus five years of construction delay. The road through nature reserve was renamed FV-104.
FV-2 connects Morro Jable and Puerto del Rosario. Between La Lajita and Morro Jable, FV-2 is a dual carriageway highway. Car rental companies that have offices in the airports are: Autoreisen, Avis, Cicar, Europcar, Goldcar, Hertz, Sixt and TopCar.
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# Fuerteventura
## Sport
Many sports are commonly played in Fuerteventura, both in the open air and in sports centres across the island.
### Native sports {#native_sports}
These are the Canarian sports found on the island:
#### Canarian wrestling {#canarian_wrestling}
The wrestling takes place in a ring of sand called the *terrero*. Inside it, the two contestants try to knock each other over. Fuerteventura has 14 terreros distributed through all the towns except Betancuria.
- Antigua: Terrero de Antigua.
- La Oliva: Terrero Venancio Guerra and Terrero de Villaverde.
- Pájara: Terrero Miguel Díaz La Lajita, Terrero de Morro Jable a Terrero de Pájara.
- Puerto del Rosario: Terrero de Casillas del Angel, Terrero Manuel Nieves, Terrero de Puerto Cabras, Terrero de Tefía a Terrero de Tetir.
- Tuineje: Terrero de Gran Tarajal, Terrero de Tamasite, and Terrero Pedro Sánchez in Tarajalejo.
The island also has a school wrestling league organized by the council and a programme to promote this sport in clubs. Twelve wrestling schools participate in this, based in Antigua, Costa Calma, El Matorral, La Lajita, Lajares, Las Playitas, Morro Jable, Puerto del Rosario, Tefía, Tetir, Unión Sur and Villaverde.
#### Juego del Palo {#juego_del_palo}
Juego del Palo is a Canarian martial art which literally translates as \"game of the stick\". It is played by two players both armed with sticks. They aim to defeat each other without making contact with their opponent\'s body. The origin of this game is unclear. All we know is that it is based on a method of combat used by the precolonial Canarian people.
Fuerteventura has the following Palo clubs:
- Club-Escuela Dunas de Corralejo.
- Club-Escuela Huriamen de Villaverde.
- Club-Escuela Puerto Cabras.
- Club-Escuela Sorinque de Gran Tarajal.
#### Canarian boules {#canarian_boules}
This is a similar game to the French Pétanque which is actually played very little on the island, although there are a few teams and courts. Basically the game consists of scoring points by throwing a ball to get it as near as possible to an object called a *mingue* or *boliche*. It is played on a rectangular sand or earth pitch which is 18 to(-) long and 3.5 to(-) wide.
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# Fuerteventura
## Sport
### Watersports
The sea and climate conditions make the island the perfect place for a huge variety of watersports.
#### Surfing, windsurfing and kitesurfing {#surfing_windsurfing_and_kitesurfing}
Many types of surfing are popular on the island, including traditional surfing, windsurfing (where the board is propelled by a sail) and most recently kitesurfing. The island has many schools and courses dedicated to teaching these sports.
The sports where Fuerteventura has the most impact internationally are windsurfing and kitesurfing, mainly due to the International Windsurfing and Kiteboarding Championship. This has run since 1985 and is held at Playas de Sotavento in Pájara municipality. Many important wind and kitesurfing figures compete in this championship, such as the several-times world windsurfing champion Björn Dunkerbeck and Gisela Pulido, the very young kiteboarding champion from Tarifa.
Many Canarian windsurfers are on the Canarian Waveriders circuit, which has been based in Corralejo since 2005.
#### Diving
Diving schools are just as frequent as surfing ones, all around the coast of Fuerteventura. Unlike the other islands of the archipelago, Fuerteventura has a shelf which at some points goes up to 30 km, making it an ideal place to practice this sport.
Two of the most useful points for diving are the coast off Playa del Matorral in the South, and the zone between Lobos Island and Corralejo in the north. It is here in Corralejo that the International Sea and Submarine Photography Festival takes places, known as Fimarsub Corralejo -- Lobos. During the festival there are beginners\' lessons, professional dives, lessons in underwater photography, screenings and other events related to the sport.
#### Swimming
There are many swimming pools on the island but the most obvious place to swim is in the open sea. There is an annual swim from Lobos Island to Fuerteventura, held every year since 1999. The event attracts amateur swimmers from all over the Canaries and Spain, and also swimming professionals such as David Meca and Maarten van der Weijden, the paralympist Jesús Collado Alarcón who won gold medals for 100m backstroke and butterfly in Athens 2004, and Xavi Torres Ramis, the paralympic champion in Barcelona 1992, Sydney and Atlanta.
#### Sailing
The island holds competitions involving different types of boat, such as the lateen and the Optimist. An interesting event is the Tour of Fuerteventura by Kayak, which is organised as a series of stages rather than a competition, and is an easy way to explore the island.
#### Fishing
The most notable competition here is the Gran Tarajal Fishing Open.
### Other sports {#other_sports}
Since 2004 the Marcha Ciclotourista has been held in La Oliva and the Criterium Ciclista has been held in Corralejo (also part of the La Oliva municipality) since 2005. Participants include `{{UCI team code|Euskaltel}}`{=mediawiki}, T-Mobile and a team from Orbea. These competitions have contributed to local interest in the sport and the first professional local team, the Fuerteventura--Canarias, was formed, initially run by Óscar Guerrero, director of Kaiku, although they have not competed for the past few seasons.
There are various motocross circuits on the island, including *Los Alares* in Antigua and *Isla de Fuerteventura* in Puerto del Rosario municipality. They hold regular trials, some of which form part of the Canarian Regional Motocross Championship. Throughout the year there are gravel rally races. Two are part of the Canarian Dirt Rally Championship. These are the Antiguan Rally and the La Oliva Rally.
The island\'s main football clubs are CD Union Puerto and CD Cotillo, who play in Group XII of the Spanish Tercera División RFEF.
The resort Playitas on the south coast is since around 2008 equipped with a 50 m swimming pool and has become a destination for triathlon training camps for Europeans. An annual race called Challenge Fuerteventura is held there on the half ironman distance.
## People
- Manuel Velázquez Cabrera: born in Tiscamanita in 1863, the politician and lawyer who created the island\'s council.
- Juan Ismael: painter, cartoonist and poet born in La Oliva in 1907, considered one of the great Canarian surrealists.
- Eustaquio Gopar: born in Tuineje in 1866. He was one of the Spanish soldiers involved in the Siege of Baler together with Major Rafael Alonso Mederos, who died of beri-beri during the siege. On his return Eustaquio became mayor over his native people. He held this post both during the republic and under Franco
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# Free verse
**Free verse** is an open form of poetry which does not use a prescribed or regular meter or rhyme and tends to follow the rhythm of natural or irregular speech. Free verse encompasses a large range of poetic form, and the distinction between free verse and other forms (such as prose) is often ambiguous.
## History
Though individual examples of English free verse poetry surfaced before the 20th-century (parts of John Milton\'s *Samson Agonistes* or the majority of Walt Whitman\'s poetry, for example), free verse is generally considered an early 20th century innovation of the late 19th-century French *vers libre*.
T. E. Hulme and F. S. Flint first introduced the form to the London-based Poets\' Club in 1909. This later became the heart of the Imagist movement through Flint\'s advocacy of the genre. Imagism, in the wake of French Symbolism (i.e. vers libre of French Symbolist poets) was the wellspring out of which the main current of Modernism in English flowed. T. S. Eliot later identified this as \"the point de repere usually taken as the starting point of modern poetry,\" as hundreds of poets were led to adopt vers libre as their medium.
## Definition
It is said that verse is free \"when it is not primarily obtained by the metered line.\" Free verse does not \"proceed by a strict set of rules ... is not a literary type, and does not conform to a formal structure,\" but it is not considered to be completely free. In 1948, Charles Allen wrote, \"The only freedom cadenced verse obtains is a limited freedom from the tight demands of the metered line.\" Free verse is as equally subject to elements of form (the poetic line, which may vary freely; rhythm; strophes or strophic rhythms; stanzaic patterns and rhythmic units or cadences) as other forms of poetry. Donald Hall goes as far as to say that \"the *form* of free verse is as binding and as liberating as the *form* of a rondeau,\" and T. S. Eliot wrote, \"No verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job.\"
Kenneth Allott, the poet and critic, said the adoption by some poets of *vers libre* arose from \"mere desire for novelty, the imitation of Whitman, the study of Jacobean dramatic blank verse, and the awareness of what French poets had already done to the alexandrine in France.\" The American critic John Livingston Lowes in 1916 observed \"Free verse may be written as very beautiful prose; prose may be written as very beautiful free verse. Which is which?\"
Some poets have considered free verse restrictive in its own way. In 1922, Robert Bridges voiced his reservations in the essay \"Humdrum and Harum-Scarum\". Robert Frost, in a comment regarding Carl Sandburg, later remarked that writing free verse was like \"playing tennis without a net.\" Sandburg responded saying, in part, \"There have been poets who could and did play more than one game of tennis with unseen rackets, volleying airy and fantastic balls over an insubstantial net, on a frail moonlight fabric of a court.\" William Carlos Williams said, \"Being an art form, a verse cannot be free in the sense of having no limitations or guiding principles.\" Yvor Winters, the poet and critic, said, \"...the greatest fluidity of statement is possible where the greatest clarity of form prevails. ... The free verse that is really verse---the best that is, of W.C. Williams, H. D., Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, and Ezra Pound---is, in its peculiar fashion, the antithesis of free.\"
In Welsh poetry, however, the term has a completely different meaning. According to Jan Morris, \"When Welsh poets speak of Free Verse, they mean forms like the sonnet or the ode, which obey the same rules as English poesy. Strict Metres verse still honours the immensely complex rules laid down for correct poetic composition 600 years ago.\"
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# Free verse
## Vers libre {#vers_libre}
**Vers libre** is a free-verse poetic form of flexibility, complexity, and naturalness created in the late 19th century in France, in 1886. It was largely through the activities of *La Vogue*, a weekly journal founded by Gustave Kahn, as well as the appearance of a band of poets unequaled at any one time in the history of French poetry. Their style of poetry was dubbed \"Counter-Romanticism\" and it was led by Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Laforgue and Corbière. It was concerned with synaethesis (the harmony or equilibrium of sensation) and later described as \"the moment when French poetry began to take consciousness of itself as poetry.\" Gustave Kahn was commonly supposed to have invented the term vers libre and according to F. S. Flint, he \"was undoubtedly the first theorist of the technique(s).\" Later in 1912, Robert de Souza published his conclusion on the genre, voicing that \"A vers libre was possible which would keep all the essential characteristics of *vers Classique*, but would free it from the encumbrances which usage had made appear indispensable.\" Thus the practice of vers libre was not the abandoning of pattern, but the creation of an original and complicated metrical form for each poem.
The formal stimuli for vers libre were *vers libéré* (French verse of the late 19th century that liberated itself from classical rules of versification whilst observing the principle of isosyllabism and regular patterned rhyme) and *vers libre Classique* (a minor French genre of the 17th and 18th century which conformed to classic concepts, but in which lines of different length were irregularly and unpredictably combined) and *vers Populaire* (versification derived from oral aspects of popular song). Remy de Gourmont\'s *Livre des Masques* gave definition to the whole vers libre movement; he notes that there should arise, at regular intervals, a full and complete line, which reassures the ear and guides the rhythm.
### Form and structure {#form_and_structure}
The unit of vers libre is not the foot, the number of the syllables, the quantity, or the line. The unit is the strophe, which may be the whole poem or only a part. Each strophe is a complete circle. Vers libre is \"verse-formal based upon cadence that allows the lines to flow as they will when read aloud by an intelligent reader.\"
Unrhymed cadence in vers libre is built upon \"organic rhythm\" or the rhythm of the speaking voice with its necessity for breathing, rather than upon a strict metrical system. For vers libre addresses the ear, not the eye. Vers libre is liberated from traditional rules concerning meter, caesura, and line end stopping. Every syllable pronounced is of nearly equal value but is less strongly accented than in English; being less intense requires less discipline to mold the accents into the poem\'s rhythm. This new technique, as defined by Kahn, consists of the denial of a regular number of syllables as the basis for versification; the length of the line is long and short, oscillating with images used by the poet following the contours of his or her thoughts and is free rather than regular.
Although free verse requires no meter, rhyme, or other traditional poetic techniques, a poet can still use them to create some sense of structure. A clear example of this can be found in Walt Whitman\'s poems, where he repeats certain phrases and uses commas to create both a rhythm and structure.
Pattern and discipline are to be found in good free verse: the internal pattern of sounds, the choice of exact words, and the effect of associations give free verse its beauty. With the Imagists free verse became a discipline and acquired status as a legitimate poetic form. Herbert Read, however, noted that \"the Imagist Ezra Pound gave free verse its musical structure to an extent that paradoxically it was no longer free.\"
Unrestrained by traditional boundaries, the poet possesses more license to express and has more control over the development of the poem. This can allow for a more spontaneous and individualized poetic art product.
Technically, free verse has been described as spaced prose, a mosaic of verse and prose experience.
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# Free verse
## Antecedents
As the French-language term *vers libre* suggests, this technique of using more irregular cadences is often said to have its origin in the practices of 19th-century French poets such as Gustave Kahn and Jules Laforgue, in his *Derniers vers* of 1890. Taupin, the US-based French poet and critic, concluded that free verse and *vers libre* are not synonymous, since \"the French language tends to give equal weight to each spoken syllable, whereas English syllables vary in quantity according to whether stressed or unstressed.\"
The sort of cadencing that we now recognize in free verse can be traced back at least as far as the Biblical Hebrew psalmist poetry of the Bible. By referring to the Psalms, it is possible to argue that free verse in English first appeared in the 1380s in the John Wycliffe translation of the Psalms and was repeated in different form in most biblical translations ever since.
Walt Whitman, who based his long lines in his poetry collection *Leaves of Grass* on the phrasing of the King James Bible, influenced later American free verse composers, notably Allen Ginsberg. One form of free verse was employed by Christopher Smart in his long poem *Jubilate Agno* (Latin: *Rejoice in the Lamb*), written some time between 1759 and 1763 but not published until 1939.
Many poets of the Victorian era experimented with free verse. Christina Rossetti, Coventry Patmore, and T. E. Brown all wrote examples of rhymed but unmetered verse, poems such as W. E. Henley\'s \"Discharged\" (from his *In Hospital* sequence).
Free verse in English was persuasively advocated by critic T. E. Hulme in his *A Lecture on Modern Poetry* (1908). Later in the preface to *Some Imagist Poets* 1916, he comments, \"Only the name is new, you will find something much like *vers libre* in Dryden\'s *Threnodia Augustalis*; a great deal of Milton\'s *Samson Agonistes*, and the oldest in Chaucer\'s *House of Fame*.\"
In France, a few pieces in Arthur Rimbaud\'s prose poem collection *Illuminations* were arranged in manuscript in lines, rather than prose, and in the Netherlands, tachtiger (i.e., a member of the 1880s generation of innovative poets) Frederik van Eeden employed the form at least once in his poem \"Waterlelie\" (\"Water Lily\").
Goethe in some early poems, such as \"Prometheus\" and also Hölderlin used free verse occasionally, due in part to a misinterpretation of the meter used in Pindar\'s poetry. Hölderlin also continued to write unmetered poems after discovering this error.
The German poet Heinrich Heine made an important contribution to the development of free verse with 22 poems, written in two-poem cycles, called *Die Nordsee* (*The North Sea*) (written 1825--1826). These were first published in *Buch der Lieder* (*Book of Songs*) in 1827
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# Furlong
A **furlong** is a measure of distance in imperial units and United States customary units equal to one-eighth of a mile, equivalent to any of 660 feet, 220 yards, 40 rods, 10 chains, or approximately 201 metres. It is now mostly confined to use in horse racing, where in many countries`{{which|date=September 2024}}`{=mediawiki} it is the standard measurement of race lengths, and agriculture, where it is used to measure rural field lengths and distances.
In the United States, some states use older definitions for surveying purposes, leading to variations in the length of the furlong of two parts per million, or about 0.4 mm. This variation is small enough to not have practical consequences in most applications.
Using the international definition of the yard as exactly 0.9144 metres, one furlong is 201.168 metres, and five furlongs are about 1 kilometre (5/8 mi exactly).
## History
The name *furlong* derives from the Old English words **furh** (furrow) and **lang** (long). Dating back at least to early Anglo-Saxon times, it originally referred to the length of the furrow in one acre of a ploughed open field (a medieval communal field which was divided into strips). The furlong (meaning furrow length) was the distance a team of oxen could plough without resting. This was standardised to be exactly 40 rods or 10 chains. The system of long furrows arose because turning a team of oxen pulling a heavy plough was difficult. This offset the drainage advantages of short furrows and meant furrows were made as long as possible. An acre is an area that is one furlong long and one chain (66 feet or 22 yards) wide. For this reason, the furlong was once also called an **acre\'s length**, though in modern usage an area of one acre can be of any shape. The term furlong, or shot, was also used to describe a grouping of adjacent strips within an open field.
Among the early Anglo-Saxons, the rod was the fundamental unit of land measurement. A furlong was 40 rods; an acre 4 by 40 rods, or 4 rods by 1 furlong, and thus 160 square rods; there are 10 acres in a square furlong. At the time, the Saxons used the North German foot, which was about 10 percent longer than the foot of the international 1959 agreement. When England changed to a shorter foot in the late 13th century, rods and furlongs remained unchanged, since property boundaries were already defined in rods and furlongs. The only thing that changed was the number of feet and yards in a rod or a furlong, and the number of square feet and square yards in an acre. The definition of the rod went from 15 old feet to `{{frac|16|1|2}}`{=mediawiki} new feet, or from 5 old yards to `{{frac|5|1|2}}`{=mediawiki} new yards. The furlong went from 600 old feet to 660 new feet, or from 200 old yards to 220 new yards. The acre went from 36,000 old square feet to 43,560 new square feet, or from 4,000 old square yards to 4,840 new square yards.
The furlong was historically viewed as being equivalent to the Roman stade (*stadium*), which in turn derived from the Greek system. For example, the King James Bible uses the term \"furlong\" in place of the Greek *stadion*, although more recent translations often use miles or kilometres in the main text and give the original numbers in footnotes.
In the Roman system, there were 625 feet to the *stadium*, eight *stadia* to the mile, and 1½ miles to the league. A league was considered to be the distance a man could walk in one hour, and the mile (from *mille*, meaning \"thousand\") consisted of 1,000 *passus* (paces, five feet, or double-step).
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, medieval Europe continued with the Roman system, which the people proceeded to diversify, leading to serious complications in trade, taxation, etc. Around the year 1300, by royal decree England standardized a long list of measures. Among the important units of distance and length at the time were the foot, yard, rod (or pole), furlong, and the mile. The rod was defined as `{{frac|5|1|2}}`{=mediawiki} yards or `{{frac|16|1|2}}`{=mediawiki} feet, and the mile was eight furlongs, so the definition of the furlong became 40 rods and that of the mile became 5,280 feet (eight furlongs/mile times 40 rods/furlong times `{{frac|16|1|2}}`{=mediawiki} feet/rod). The invention of the measuring chain in the 1620s led to the introduction of an intermediate unit of length, the chain of 22 yards, being equal to four rods, and to one-tenth of a furlong.
A description from 1675 states, \"Dimensurator or Measuring Instrument whereof the mosts usual has been the Chain, and the common length for English Measures four Poles, as answering indifferently to the Englishs Mile and Acre, 10 such Chains in length making a Furlong, and 10 single square Chains an Acre, so that a square Mile contains 640 square Acres.\" ---John Ogilby, Britannia, 1675
The official use of the furlong was abolished in the United Kingdom under the Weights and Measures Act 1985, an act that also abolished the official use of many other traditional units of measurement.
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# Furlong
## Use
In Myanmar furlongs are currently used in conjunction with miles to indicate distances on highway signs. Mileposts on the Yangon--Mandalay Expressway use miles and furlongs.
In the rest of the world the furlong has very limited use, with the notable exception of horse racing in most English-speaking countries, including Canada and the United States. The distances for horse racing in Australia were converted to metric in 1972 and the term survives only in slang. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and the United States, races are still given in miles and furlongs. Also distances along English canals navigated by narrowboats are commonly expressed in miles and furlongs.
The city of Chicago\'s street numbering system allots a measure of 800 address units to each mile, in keeping with the city\'s system of eight blocks per mile. This means that every block in a typical Chicago neighborhood (in either north--south or east--west direction but rarely both) is approximately one furlong in length. City blocks in the Hoddle Grid of Melbourne are also one furlong in length. Salt Lake City\'s blocks are each a square furlong in the downtown area. The blocks become less regular in shape farther from the center, but the numbering system (800 units to each mile) remains the same everywhere in Salt Lake County. Blocks in central Logan, Utah, and in large sections of Phoenix, Arizona, are similarly a square furlong in extent (eight to a mile, which explains the series of freeway exits: 19th Ave, 27th, 35th, 43rd, 51st, 59th \...).
Much of Ontario, Canada, was originally surveyed on a ten-furlong grid, with major roads being laid out along the grid lines. Now that distances are shown on road signs in kilometres, these major roads are almost exactly two kilometres apart. The exits on highways running through Toronto, for example, are generally at intervals of two kilometres.
The Bangor City Forest in Bangor, Maine has its trail system marked in miles and furlongs.
The furlong is also a base unit of the humorous FFF system of units.
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# Furlong
## Definition of length {#definition_of_length}
The exact length of the furlong varies slightly among English-speaking countries. In Canada and the United Kingdom, which define the furlong in terms of the international yard of exactly 0.9144 metres, a furlong is 201.168 m. Australia does not formally define the furlong, but it does define the chain and link in terms of the international yard.
The United States previously defined the furlong, chain, rod, and link in terms of the U.S. survey foot of exactly `{{fract|1200|3937}}`{=mediawiki} metre, resulting in a furlong approximately 201.1684 m long. The difference of approximately two parts per million between the old U.S. value and the \"international\" value was insignificant for most practical measurements.
In October 2019, U.S. National Geodetic Survey and National Institute of Standards and Technology announced their joint intent to retire the U.S. survey foot, with effect from the end of 2022. The furlong in U.S. Customary units is thereafter defined based on the International 1959 foot, giving the length of the furlong as exact 201.168 meters in the United States as well
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# Fundamental frequency
The **fundamental frequency**, often referred to simply as the ***fundamental*** (abbreviated as **`{{var|f}}`{=mediawiki}~0~** or **`{{var|f}}`{=mediawiki}~1~** ), is defined as the lowest frequency of a periodic waveform. In music, the fundamental is the musical pitch of a note that is perceived as the lowest partial present. In terms of a superposition of sinusoids, the fundamental frequency is the lowest frequency sinusoidal in the sum of harmonically related frequencies, or the frequency of the difference between adjacent frequencies. In some contexts, the fundamental is usually abbreviated as **`{{var|f}}`{=mediawiki}~0~**, indicating the lowest frequency counting from zero. In other contexts, it is more common to abbreviate it as **`{{var|f}}`{=mediawiki}~1~**, the first harmonic. (The second harmonic is then `{{var|f}}`{=mediawiki}~2~ = 2⋅`{{var|f}}`{=mediawiki}~1~, etc.)
According to Benward and Saker\'s *Music: In Theory and Practice*: `{{Blockquote|1=Since the fundamental is the lowest frequency and is also perceived as the loudest, the ear identifies it as the specific pitch of the musical tone [[[harmonic spectrum]]].... The individual partials are not heard separately but are blended together by the ear into a single tone.}}`{=mediawiki}
## Explanation
All sinusoidal and many non-sinusoidal waveforms repeat exactly over time -- they are periodic. The period of a waveform is the smallest positive value $T$ for which the following is true:
Where $x(t)$ is the value of the waveform $t$. This means that the waveform\'s values over any interval of length $T$ is all that is required to describe the waveform completely (for example, by the associated Fourier series). Since any multiple of period $T$ also satisfies this definition, the fundamental period is defined as the smallest period over which the function may be described completely. The fundamental frequency is defined as its reciprocal:
When the units of time are seconds, the frequency is in $s^{-1}$, also known as Hertz.
### Fundamental frequency of a pipe {#fundamental_frequency_of_a_pipe}
For a pipe of length $L$ with one end closed and the other end open the wavelength of the fundamental harmonic is $4L$, as indicated by the first two animations. Hence, `{{block indent|1=<math>\lambda_0 = 4L</math>}}`{=mediawiki}
Therefore, using the relation
where $v$ is the speed of the wave, the fundamental frequency can be found in terms of the speed of the wave and the length of the pipe:
If the ends of the same pipe are now both closed or both opened, the wavelength of the fundamental harmonic becomes $2L$ . By the same method as above, the fundamental frequency is found to be
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# Fundamental frequency
## In music {#in_music}
In music, the fundamental is the musical pitch of a note that is perceived as the lowest partial present. The fundamental may be created by vibration over the full length of a string or air column, or a higher harmonic chosen by the player. The fundamental is one of the harmonics. A harmonic is any member of the harmonic series, an ideal set of frequencies that are positive integer multiples of a common fundamental frequency. The reason a fundamental is also considered a harmonic is because it is 1 times itself.
The fundamental is the frequency at which the entire wave vibrates. Overtones are other sinusoidal components present at frequencies above the fundamental. All of the frequency components that make up the total waveform, including the fundamental and the overtones, are called partials. Together they form the harmonic series. Overtones which are perfect integer multiples of the fundamental are called harmonics. When an overtone is near to being harmonic, but not exact, it is sometimes called a harmonic partial, although they are often referred to simply as harmonics. Sometimes overtones are created that are not anywhere near a harmonic, and are just called partials or inharmonic overtones.
The fundamental frequency is considered the *first harmonic* and the *first partial*. The numbering of the partials and harmonics is then usually the same; the second partial is the second harmonic, etc. But if there are inharmonic partials, the numbering no longer coincides. Overtones are numbered as they appear `{{em|above}}`{=mediawiki} the fundamental. So strictly speaking, the *first* overtone is the *second* partial (and usually the *second* harmonic). As this can result in confusion, only harmonics are usually referred to by their numbers, and overtones and partials are described by their relationships to those harmonics.
## Mechanical systems {#mechanical_systems}
Consider a spring, fixed at one end and having a mass attached to the other; this would be a single degree of freedom (SDoF) oscillator. Once set into motion, it will oscillate at its natural frequency. For a single degree of freedom oscillator, a system in which the motion can be described by a single coordinate, the natural frequency depends on two system properties: mass and stiffness; (providing the system is undamped). The natural frequency, or fundamental frequency, `{{var|ω}}`{=mediawiki}~0~, can be found using the following equation:
\\, }}
where:
- = stiffness of the spring
- = mass
- ~0~ = natural frequency in radians per second.
To determine the natural frequency in Hz, the omega value is divided by 2`{{var|[[Pi|π]]}}`{=mediawiki}. Or:
\\,}}
where:
- ~0~ = natural frequency (SI unit: hertz)
- = stiffness of the spring (SI unit: newtons/metre or N/m)
- = mass (SI unit: kg).
While doing a modal analysis, the frequency of the 1st mode is the fundamental frequency
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# History of the Federated States of Micronesia
thumb\|upright=2\|A map of the Federated States of Micronesia. The Federated States of Micronesia are located on the Caroline Islands in the western Pacific Ocean. The history of the modern Federated States of Micronesia is one of settlement by Micronesians; colonization by Spain, Germany, and Japan; United Nations trusteeship under United States-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands; and gradual independence beginning with the ratification of a sovereign constitution in 1979.
## Pre-colonial history {#pre_colonial_history}
The Austronesian ancestors of the Micronesians settled there over 4,000 years ago. A decentralized chieftain-based system eventually evolved into a more centralized economic and religious culture centered on Pohnpei. People from the Caroline Islands had regular contact with the Chamorro people of the Marianas Islands, as well as rarer voyages into the eastern islands of the Philippines.
### Yap and the Yapese Empire {#yap_and_the_yapese_empire}
#### Yapese Empire {#yapese_empire}
From circa 1500 BC, before the beginning of foreign colonial administration by Western powers, the island of Yap created and maintained a unique set of socio-economic and political relationships with neighbouring islands to its east and southwest in what is known as the Yapese Empire. Although small-scale and informal, the Empire *per se* was formed when what is now known as Gagil Municipality through the chief village of Gatchaper, developed and maintained a maritime trade and political network with smaller atolls and island groups between Yap and Chuuk, covering over approximately 1,500 kilometres (932.01 miles) of the western Pacific. Through a relationship known as *sawey*, the Empire demanded tribute known as *Pitigil Tamol* to be given to the paramount chief of Gagil in Gatchaper. These tributes would include bagiiy (lavalava), coconut rope, coconut oil, mats and shells. In return, Gagil would reciprocate with mutual support from the main island in case of natural emergencies as well as goods. These goods from Gagil would include Yapese canoes, turmeric, flint stone and other Yapese resources. The relationship also asked those with navigational experience and expertise for service along with Yapese navigators. This relationship may have helped the Yapese sail to Palau for quarrying the Rai stones, the stone currency disks carved from crystalline calcite still used today in cultural transactions. Although this unique relationship with Gagil and the outer islands may appear exploitative, researchers such as Lessa (1950, pp. 43, 52; 1986, p. 35) and Lingenfelter (p. 147) maintain that the relationship was mostly mutual and, in most cases, was more beneficial to the Carolinians than to the Yapese. Lessa (1950, p. 70-71) had also suggested that the so-called empire was formed out of conquest and \"blackmail\" through sorcery and economics.
Other places mentioned in Pacific anthropological-historical literature that were quite similar to the Yapese Empire was the Tongan Empire, also known as Tu\'i Tonga, which is now present-day Kingdom of Tonga.
#### Yapese traditional society: feudalism and the social caste system {#yapese_traditional_society_feudalism_and_the_social_caste_system}
Yapese traditional society before foreign colonial administrations was divided into multiple villages and municipalities and is highly feudal in nature. Power was not allocated to one single authority that controlled Yap but was decentralised and allocated to at least ten municipalities. A defining feature of Yapese society was its unique and complex social caste system, which is still in use today. Each of the current one-hundred twenty-nine (129) villages of Yap are organised into single units based on the class system depicted below.
----------------------------------
HIGH CLASSES: TABUGUL (\"PURE\")
CLASSES/CASTES
Bulche\'/ \'Ulun
Methibaan/Tethibaan
Daworchig
----------------------------------
----------------------------------
LOW CLASSES: TA\'AY (\"IMPURE\")
CLASSES/CASTES
Milingaay ni \'Arow
Milingaay
Yagug/Milignaay ni Kaan
----------------------------------
Although each village has its own class ranking within the municipality based on the number of military victories, each village also has its own internal set of social classes exclusive to that group. All low classes and low-class villages were under the authority of villages that were ranked higher since the latter had considerable power and voice (*lungun*). An example of a high-ranking village is the aforementioned Gatchaper, which is ranked *Bulche*\' or *\'UIun.* Because villages and municipalities were continuously at war amongst one another, village and personal social ranks fluctuated based on military outcomes.
However, in the 20th century, during the German occupation of Yap, the German administration pacified the island and enforced strict prohibition against violent conflicts. This policy resulted in a permanent freeze of all social caste rankings. Today, there are three villages with the high-ranking chief villages: Teb Village in Tamil Municipality, Ngolog Village in Rull Municipality and Gatchaper in Gagil Municipality.
These chief villages and their municipalities are referred to in Yapese as \"*fare dalip e ngucho*l\", which means \"the three cooking stones\". This similarity was created to describe the relationship between these three villages and municipalities with the other remaining seven. The stones, or *nguchol*, represent Tamil, Gagil and Rull while the pot represents the island of Yap. The saying goes that when one stone, or one municipality or village, fell, all of Yap and its value would fall as well.
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# History of the Federated States of Micronesia
## Pre-colonial history {#pre_colonial_history}
### Pohnpei and Saudeleur rule {#pohnpei_and_saudeleur_rule}
On Pohnpei, pre-colonial history is divided into three eras: *Mwehin Kawa* or *Mwehin Aramas* (Period of Building, or Period of Peopling, before c. 1100); *Mwehin Sau Deleur* (Period of the Lord of Deleur, c. 1100 to c. 1628);{{#tag:ref\|The Saudeleur era lasted around 500 years. Legend generally dates their downfall to the 1500s, however archaeologists date Saudeleur ruins to c. 1628. \|group=note}} and *Mwehin Nahnmwarki* (Period of the Nahnmwarki, c. 1628 to c. 1885). Pohnpeian legend recounts that the Saudeleur rulers, the first to bring government to Pohnpei, were of foreign origin. The Saudeleur centralized form of absolute rule is characterized in Pohnpeian legend as becoming increasingly oppressive over several generations. Arbitrary and onerous demands, as well as a reputation for offending Pohnpeian deities, sowed resentment among Pohnpeians. The Saudeleur Dynasty ended with the invasion of Isokelekel, another semi-mythical foreigner, who replaced the Saudeleur rule with the more decentralized *nahnmwarki* system in existence today. Isokelekel is regarded as the creator of the modern Pohnpeian *nahnmwarki* social system and the father of the Pohnpeian people.
Nan Madol offshore of Temwen Island near Pohnpei, consists of a series of small artificial islands linked by a network of canals, and is often called the *Venice of the Pacific*. It is located near the island of Pohnpei and was the ceremonial and political seat of the Saudeleur Dynasty that united Pohnpei\'s estimated 25,000 people until its centralized system collapsed amid the invasion of Isokelekel. Isokelekel and his descendants initially occupied the stone city, but later abandoned it.
## European colonisation {#european_colonisation}
European explorers - first the Portuguese in search of the Spice Islands (Indonesia) and then the Spanish - reached the Carolines in the 16th century, with the Spanish establishing sovereignty.
Spain sold the islands to Germany in 1899 under the terms of the German--Spanish Treaty of that year. Germany placed them under the jurisdiction of German New Guinea. German efforts to reorganize the traditional social hierarchy and recruit forced labor for construction resulted in a rebellion by inhabitants of Sokehs Municipality in 1910.
Yap was a major German naval communications center before the First World War and an important international hub for cable telegraphy. It was occupied by Japanese troops in September, 1914, and passed to the Japanese Empire under the Versailles Treaty in 1919 as a mandated territory under League of Nations supervision. US commercial rights on the island were secured by a special US-Japanese treaty to that effect, concluded on February 11, 1922.
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# History of the Federated States of Micronesia
## Empire of Japan {#empire_of_japan}
During World War I, many of the German possessions in the Pacific were conquered by Japan, who fought on the side of the Allies of World War I and was active in the Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I.
The Empire of Japan administered the islands from 1920 under the South Seas Mandate granted by the League of Nations. During this period, the Japanese population grew to over 100,000 throughout Micronesia, while the indigenous population was about 40,000. Sugar cane, mining, fishing and tropical agriculture became the major industries.
### World War II {#world_war_ii}
In World War II, Japanese-held Yap was one of the islands bypassed in the U.S. \"leapfrogging\" strategy, although it was regularly bombed by U.S. ships and aircraft, and Yap-based Japanese bombers did some damage in return. The Japanese garrison comprised 4,423 Imperial Japanese Army men under the command of Colonel Daihachi Itoh and 1,494 Imperial Japanese Navy men. A significant portion of the Japanese fleet was based in Truk Lagoon. In February 1944, Operation Hailstone, one of the most important naval battles of the war, took place at Truk, in which many Japanese support vessels and aircraft were destroyed.
World War II brought an abrupt end to the relative prosperity experienced during Japanese civil administration.
## Trusteeship
*Main article: Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands* The United Nations created the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) in 1947. Pohnpei (then including Kusaie), Truk, Yap, Palau, the Marshall Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands, together constituted the TTPI. The United States accepted the role of Trustee of this, the only United Nations Trusteeship to be designated as a \"Security Trusteeship\", whose ultimate disposition was to be determined by the UN Security Council. As Trustee the US was to \"promote the economic advancement and self-sufficiency of the inhabitants.\"
## Independence
On May 10, 1979, four of the Trust Territory districts ratified the Constitution of the Federated States of Micronesia. The neighboring trust districts of Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands chose not to participate. The Honorable Tosiwo Nakayama, the former President of the Congress of Micronesia, became the first President of the FSM and formed his Cabinet. The FSM signed a Compact of Free Association with the U.S., which entered into force on November 3, 1986, marking Micronesia\'s emergence from trusteeship to independence. Under the Compact, the U.S. has full authority and responsibility for the defense of the FSM. This security relationship can be changed or terminated by mutual agreement. The Compact provides U.S. grant funds and federal program assistance to the FSM. Amended financial assistance provisions came on-line in FY 2004. The basic relationship of free association continues indefinitely.
Trusteeship of the islands ended under United Nations Security Council Resolution 683, passed on December 22, 1990. The Compact was renewed in 2004
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# Politics of the Federated States of Micronesia
The **politics of the Federated States of Micronesia** (FSM) takes place in a framework of a federal assembly-independent representative democratic republic. The President of the Federated States of Micronesia is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the president and his cabinet, while legislative power is vested in both the president and the Congress. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
The internal workings of the FSM are governed by the 1979 constitution, which guarantees fundamental human rights and establishes a separation of governmental powers. The Federation is in free association with the United States; the Compact of Free Association entered into force 3 November 1986.
## Executive branch {#executive_branch}
Office Name Party Since
---------------- --------------- ------------- -------------------
President Wesley Simina Independent 11 May 2023
Vice President Aren Palik Independent 13 September 2022
: Main office holders
The president and the vice president are elected by Congress from among the four senators-at-large for four-year terms. The president is both the chief of state and head of government. Their congressional seats are then filled by special elections. The president and vice president are supported by an appointed cabinet.
### Cabinet
The President and Vice President are supported in the administration by a Cabinet made up of 9 appointed officials. They are: the Secretaries of the Department of Environment, Climate Change & Emergency Management (DECEM), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Foreign Affairs (Foreign Affairs), the Department of Resource & Development (R&D), the Department of Health & Social Affairs (DHSA), the Department of Transportation, Communications, & Infrastructure (TC&I), and the Department of Education (DOE); the heads of the Office of the Public Defender, Office of National Archives, Culture, & Historic Preservations, and FSM Postal Services. Other Cabinet-level officials include the director of the National Oceanic Resource & Maritime Authority, Coconut Development Authority, FSM Banking Board, and National Fisheries Corporation.
Department Dept. Head\'s Title Department Head
------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Department of Education Secretary The Honorable Gardenia Aisek
Department of Finance and Administration Secretary The Honorable Rose Nakanaga
Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary The Honorable Lorin Robert Deputy Secretary: Ricky Cantero
Department of Health and Social Affairs Secretary The Honorable Marcus Samo
Department of Justice Secretary The Honorable Leonito Bacalando Jr.
Department of Resource & Development Secretary The Honorable Elina Akinaga \|- Division of Statistics: [email protected]
Department of Transportation, Communication, and Infrastructure Secretary The Honorable Carlson Apis
Department of Environment, Climate Change & Emergency Management Secretary The Honorable Andrew Yatilman
Office of Public Defender Acting Chief Public Defender Timoci Romanu Esq.
FSM Postal Services Postmaster General Ginger Porter Mida
National Archives, Culture and Historic Preservation Office Director Dr. Rufino Mauricio
**Cabinet-level officials**
Coconut Development Authority General Manager Peterson Sam
FSM Banking Board
National Fisheries Corporation President & CEO *Patricia Jack-Jossien*
National Oceanic Resource and Maritime Authority (NORMA) Executive Director Eugene Pangelinan
: Cabinet of Micronesia
## Legislative branch {#legislative_branch}
The Congress has fourteen non-partisan members, ten members elected for a two-year term in single-seat constituencies and four members elected for a four-year term, one from each state at large.
## Judicial branch {#judicial_branch}
The judiciary is headed by the Supreme Court of the Federated States of Micronesia, which is divided into trial and appellate divisions. The president appoints judges with the advice and consent of the Congress. Andon Amaraich was Chief Justice of the Federated States of Micronesia until his death in January 2010. He was succeeded by Martin G. Yinug, who served until his death on August 31, 2014. He was succeeded by Dennis K. Yamase, who continues to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court since his investiture on October 2, 2015.
## Political parties and elections {#political_parties_and_elections}
A head of state (the President) and a legislature are elected on a national level. At the 2011 election, only non-partisans have been elected. The president is elected for a four-year term by Congress. There are no political parties in Micronesia, though they are not banned. Political allegiances depend mainly on family and island-related factors.
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# Politics of the Federated States of Micronesia
## Government Agencies {#government_agencies}
The government of Micronesia includes national agencies to serve the Micronesian people. The FSM Social Security Administration, FSM Telecommunications Corporation, Office of the Public Auditor, and FSM PetroCorp are independent agencies.
Agency Dept. Head\'s Title Department Head
------------------------------------ --------------------- -------------------
College of Micronesia-FSM President Dr. Joseph Daisy
FSM Development Bank President & CEO Anna Mendiola
FSM Social Security Administration Administrator Alexander Narruhn
FSM Telecommunications Corporation General Manager John Sohl
National Election Commission Director Kimeuo Kimuo
Office of the Public Auditor Public Auditor Haser Hainrick
: Government Agencies
## Administrative divisions {#administrative_divisions}
The FSM is divided in four states: Chuuk (Truk), Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap. Each has its own constitution, elected legislature, governor, and lieutenant governor. The state governments maintain considerable power, particularly regarding the implementation of budgetary policies.
State Governor Lt. Governor
--------------- -------------------- -------------------
Chuuk State Alexander Narruhn Mekeioshy William
Kosrae State Tulensa Palik Arthy G. Nena
Pohnpei State Stevenson A Joseph Francisco Ioanis
Yap State Charles Chieng Francis Itimai
: Current Governors and Lt. Governors
## International organization participation {#international_organization_participation}
Micronesia is a member of the following international organizations:
- Alliance of Small Island States
- Asian Development Bank
- U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
- Group of 77
- International Civil Aviation Organization
- International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
- International Development Association
- International Finance Corporation
- International Monetary Fund
- Intelsat
- International Olympic Committee
- International Telecommunication Union
- Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
- Pacific Islands Forum
- South Pacific Regional Trade and Economic Co-operation Agreement
- Pacific Community (SPC)
- United Nations
- U.N
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# Geography of the Federated States of Micronesia
**Geography of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM)**, a country located in the western Pacific Ocean, and in the Micronesia cultural and ecological sub-region of Oceania. While its total land area is very small at 702 km2, it has the 14th largest exclusive economic zone at 2,996,419 km2.
## Geography
The country consists of 607 islands extending 1800 mi across the Caroline Islands Archipelago. They are east of the Philippine Islands, and north of the island of New Guinea. The federal capital is Palikir, on Pohnpei island.
The 607 islands are grouped into four states, and from west to east are:
- Yap State
- Chuuk State --- *before 1990 named Truk*.
- Pohnpei State --- *before 1985 named Ponape*.
- Kosrae State
Separated from the main islands in southern Pohnpei State are the two islands of Nukuoro and Kapingamarangi. They are geographically part of the Micronesia region, but the population are linguistically and culturally part of the Polynesia region. The indigenous languages spoken on these two islands are in the Samoic family of Polynesian languages.
### Location
The Federated States of Micronesia are an island group in the Caroline Islands Archipelago of the western Pacific Ocean, in the Micronesia sub-region of Oceania.
Located about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to Indonesia at Geographic coordinates: 6 55 N 158 15 E type:country\
Map references are Oceania and Micronesia.
### Dimensions
**Area:**
- Land area --- 702 km²
- Water area (freshwater) --- 0 km²
- Total area --- 702 km²
The country\'s total area is four times the size of Washington, D.C. in the U.S.
**Coastline:** The combined coastlines of the country\'s 607 islands equal 6112 km.
**Maritime claims:**
- Territorial sea (12 nmi) ---
- Exclusive economic zone (200 nmi) --- 2,996,419 km2
### Terrain
The country\'s 607 islands vary from high mountainous ones to low coral atolls. Geologically, there are volcanic rock outcroppings on the islands of Pohnpei, Kosrae, and Chuuk.
#### Elevation extremes {#elevation_extremes}
- Lowest point --- shoreline mean sea level of the Pacific Ocean --- 0 m
- Highest point --- Nanlaud on Pohnpei at 2566 ft as indicated on the definitive USGS 1:25,000 scale topographic survey.
#### Extreme points {#extreme_points}
The extreme points of the Federated States of Micronesia, the landforms that are farther north, south, east or west --- than any other location in the country.
- Northernmost point --- Mogmog islet, Ulithi Atoll, Yap State.
- Easternmost point --- unnamed headland on Kosrae island, Kosrae State.
- Southernmost point --- Kapingamarangi atoll, Pohnpei State.
- Westernmost point --- Ngulu Atoll, Yap State.
## Environment
**Environment---current issues:** Overfishing, land and water pollution.
**Environment---international agreements:**
- Party to --- Biodiversity, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection.
- Signed, but not ratified --- none of the selected agreements
### Land use {#land_use}
- Arable land --- 2.86%
- Permanent crops --- 24.29%
- Other --- 72.86%
- Irrigated land --- none
**Products:** Tropical woods and lumber, marine products, deep-seabed minerals, surface mined phosphate.
### Climate
The Federated States of Micronesia enjoys a tropical climate, with quite even, warm temperatures throughout the year.
Precipitation is generally plentiful, with heavy year-round rainfall. Pohnpei reputedly is one of the wettest places on earth, with up to 330 inches (8.4 m) of rain per year. Nevertheless, drought conditions do occur periodically throughout FSM, especially when the El Niño condition moves into the Western Pacific, when groundwater supplies can dwindle to emergency proportions.
#### Natural hazards {#natural_hazards}
Tropical typhoons are an annual threat, from June to December. The country is located on southern edge of the typhoon belt, with occasionally severe damage, particularly to the low-lying atolls.
Tsunamis and rising sea levels are other natural threats
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# Demographics of the Federated States of Micronesia
Demographic features of the population of the Federated States of Micronesia include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects. The indigenous population of the Federated States of Micronesia, which is predominantly Micronesian, consists of various ethnolinguistic groups. English has become the common language. Population growth remains high at more than 3%, but is ameliorated somewhat by net emigration.
The island of Pingelap is genetically notable for the prevalence of the extreme form of color blindness known as maskun.
## Population
### Structure of the population {#structure_of_the_population}
Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (01.VII.2021) (Based on the 2010 Population and Housing Census and 2013/2014 Household Income and Expenditure Survey.):
Age Group Male Female Total \%
----------- -------- -------- --------- ---------
Total 53 202 51 630 104 832 100
0--4 6 261 6 045 12 306 11.74
5--9 6 257 5 913 12 170 11.61
10--14 6 643 6 287 12 930 12.33
15--19 6 359 5 861 12 220 11.66
20--24 5 001 4 541 9 542 9.10
25--29 3 917 3 879 7 796 7.44
30--34 3 463 3 256 6 718 6.41
35--39 2 985 3 077 6 062 5.78
40--44 2 772 2 919 5 691 5.43
45--49 2 693 2 598 5 291 5.05
50--54 2 347 2 367 4 713 4.50
55--59 1 911 1 771 3 682 3.51
60--64 1 192 1 145 2 336 2.23
65+ 1 404 1 969 3 373 3.22
Age group Male Female Total Percent
0--14 19 161 18 245 37 406 35.68
15--64 32 637 31 416 64 053 61.10
65+ 1 404 1 969 3 373 3.22
## Ethnic groups {#ethnic_groups}
Chuukese 49.3%, Pohnpeian 29.8%, Kosraean 6.3%, Yapese 5.7%, other 8.9%
## Languages
English (official and common language), Chuukese, Pohnpeian, Yapese, Kosraean (recognized at state level in Chuuk, Pohnpei, Yap and Kosrae respectively) In addition other language such as Pingelapese, Ngatikese, Satawalese, Puluwatese, Mortlockese, Mokilese, Ulithian, Woleaian, Nukuoro, and Kapingamarangi are recognized.
## Religion
Roman Catholic 54.7%, Protestant 41.1%, other and none 4
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# Economy of the Federated States of Micronesia
The economic activity of the Federated States of Micronesia consists primarily of subsistence agriculture and fishing. The islands have few mineral deposits worth exploiting, except for high-grade phosphate. The potential for a tourist industry exists, but the remoteness of the location and a lack of adequate facilities hinder development. Financial assistance from the US is the primary source of revenue, with the US pledged to spend \$1.3 billion in the islands in 1986--2001. Geographical isolation and a poorly developed infrastructure are major impediments to long-term growth.
Under the terms of the Compact of Free Association, the United States provided FSM with around \$2 billion in grants and services from 1986 to 2001. The Compact\'s financial terms are being renegotiated for an extension period. In 2001 the U.S. provided more than \$84 million in Compact grants---an amount equivalent to over one-third of FSM\'s GDP---plus more than \$20 million through other federal programs. Total official development assistance from all sources was more than \$100 million in 2001, with nearly 90% of that total coming from the U.S.
The FSM public sector plays a central role in the economy as the administrator of the Compact money. The national and state-level governments employ over one-half of the country\'s workers and provide services accounting for more than 40% of GDP. Faced with the potential decrease or cessation of some of the assistance programs upon the Compact\'s financial provisions\' expiry in 2001, the Government of the FSM in 1996 began to implement a program of economic reforms designed to reduce the role of the public sector in the economy. In addition, the advent of music startups using .fm domain names has provided a new, albeit fairly small, stream of revenue to the government.
## Industries
The fishing industry is highly important. Foreign commercial fishing fleets pay over \$20 million annually for the right to operate in FSM territorial waters. These licensing fees account for nearly 30% of domestic budgetary revenue. Additionally, exports of marine products, mainly reexports of fish to Japan, account for nearly 85% of export revenue.
The tourist industry is present but has been hampered by a lack of infrastructure. Visitor attractions include scuba diving in each state, World War II battle sites, and the ancient ruined city of Nan Madol on Pohnpei. Some 15,000 tourists visit the islands each year. The Asian Development Bank has identified tourism as one of FSM\'s highest potential growth industries.
Farming is mainly subsistence, and its importance is declining. The principal crops are coconuts, bananas, betel nuts, cassava, and sweet potatoes. Less than 10% of the formal labor force and less than 7% of export revenue come from the agriculture sector. Manufacturing activity is modest, consisting mainly of the export of betel nut in Yap and production of buttons from trochus shells.
## Taxation and trade {#taxation_and_trade}
The large inflow of official assistance to FSM allows it to run a substantial trade deficit and to have a much lighter tax burden than other states in the region (11% of GDP in FSM compared to 18--25% elsewhere). The government also borrowed against future Compact disbursements in the early 1990s, yielding an external debt of \$111 million in 1997 (over 50% of GDP).
There are no patent laws in Micronesia
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# Telecommunications in the Federated States of Micronesia
This article is about communications systems in the Federated States of Micronesia.
In 2010, Pohnpei State was connected to the Internet using the HANTRU-1 undersea communications cable to provide high-speed bandwidth. Kosrae State, Chuuk State, and Yap State, were planned to be connected in a second phase.
## Telephone
**Main lines in use:** 8,000 (1995)
**Mobile cellular:** NA
**Telephone system:**\
*domestic:* islands interconnected by shortwave radiotelephone (used mostly for government purposes)\
*international:* satellite earth stations - 4 Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)
## Radio
**Broadcast stations:** AM 5, FM 1, shortwave 1 (2011)
Stations below are included in the total: AM Radio stations:
- AM 999 V6AF - (Pohnpei)
- AM 1350 V6A - Baptist Radio - Moen (Chuuk) FM.. religious-Baptist
- AM 1449 V6AH - Radio V6AH - Kolonia (Pohnpei) FM.. religious-Christian
- AM 1494 V6AI - Radio Yap - Colonia, Yap (Yap)
- AM 1503 V6AJ - Voice of Kosrae - Tofol (Kosrae) FM.. English, Kosraean
- AM 1593 V6AK - Moen (Chuuk)..
FM Radio stations:
- FM 88.1 V6BC (Truk)
- FM 88.1 V6AI-FM (Moen)
- FM 88.5 V6MA-FM
- FM 88.5 V6MA Bible Baptist Church Radio (Weno, Chuuk)
- FM 88.9 V6JY (Yap)
- FM 88.9 V6KIZ (Pohnpei)
- FM 89.5 V6W-1
- FM 89.5 V6CWS
- FM 89.7 V6AA (Yap)
- FM 89.7 V6AJ (Kosrae)
- FM 101.1 V6AV (BBC World Service) (Yap)
- FM 104.1 V6AF-FM - Kolonia (Pohnpei) FM.. religious-Christian
There is also a shortwave relay of 88.5 FM at 4755 kHz, V6MP.
**Radios:** NA
## Television
**Broadcast stations:**
- KPON 7 Kolonia (Pohnpei, 1 kW)
- TTKK 7 Moen (Truk, 0.1 kW)
- WAAB 7 (Government station) Colonia (Yap, 1 kW) - (1997)
Several Honolulu local stations are available on cable (converted from ATSC to DVB-T): KHET (PBS), KHON-TV (Fox), KITV-TV (ABC), KHNL-TV (NBC) and KGMB-TV (CBS).
**Televisions:** NA
## Internet
**Internet Service Providers (ISPs):**
- FSMTC
- iBoom
- iSolutions Micronesia LTD
- Starlink Pacific Islands
- Kacific Broadband Satellite Group
1
**Country code:**
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# Transportation in the Federated States of Micronesia
**Railways:** 0 km
**Highways:**\
*total:* 388 km\
*paved:* 42 km\
*unpaved:* 198 km (1996 est
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# Fort William, Scotland
**Fort William** is a town in the Lochaber region of the Scottish Highlands, located on the eastern shore of Loch Linnhe in the Highland Council of Scotland.
At the 2011 census, Fort William had a population of 15,757, making it the second-largest settlement both in the Highland council area and in the whole of the Scottish Highlands; only the city of Inverness has a larger population.
Fort William is a major tourist centre with Glen Coe just to the south, *italic=no* to the east, and Glenfinnan to the west. It is the start and end of the Road to the Isles. It is a huge centre for hillwalking and climbing due to its proximity to Ben Nevis, the largest mountain in Scotland and the United Kingdom, and many other Munros. It is also known for its nearby downhill mountain bike track.
It is the start/end of both the West Highland Way (a walk/cycleway, Milngavie -- Fort William) and the Great Glen Way (a walk/cycleway, Fort William -- Inverness).
Around 726 people (7.33% of the population) can speak Scottish Gaelic.
## Origins
The earliest recorded settlement on the site is a Cromwellian wooden fort, known as the Garrison of Inverlochy, built in 1654 as a base for the New Model Army to \"pacify\" Clan Cameron after the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The post-1688 revolution fort was named Fort William after William of Orange, who ordered that it be built to control some of the Scottish clans. The settlement that grew around it was called Maryburgh, after his wife Mary II of England. This settlement was later renamed Gordonsburgh, and then Duncansburgh before being renamed Fort William, this time after Prince William, Duke of Cumberland.
There have been various suggestions over the years to rename the town (for example, to Invernevis).
The origin of the Gaelic name for Fort William, **An Gearasdan**, is not recorded but could be a loanword from the English *garrison*, having entered common usage some time after the royal garrison was established during the reign of William of Orange, or perhaps after the earlier Cromwellian fort.
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# Fort William, Scotland
## History
Historically, the Fort William area of Lochaber was old Clan Chattan and then Clan Cameron country, and there were a number of mainly Cameron settlements in the area (such as Blarmacfoldach). Before the building of the fort, Inverlochy was the main local settlement and was also the site of two battles---the first Battle of Inverlochy in 1431 and the second Battle of Inverlochy in 1645.
The town grew in size as a settlement when the fort was constructed to control the population after Oliver Cromwell\'s invasion during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and then to suppress the Jacobite risings after the 1688 overthrow of the House of Stuart.
During the 1745 Jacobite Rising, known as the Forty-Five, Fort William was besieged for two weeks by the Jacobite forces, from 20 March to 3 April 1746. However, although the Jacobites had captured both of the other forts in the chain of three Great Glen fortifications (Fort Augustus and the original Fort George), they failed to take Fort William. Fort William Sheriff Court held its first hearing in 1794.
In 1934, the Laggan Dam on the River Spean was completed as part of the Lochaber hydroelectric scheme by Balfour Beatty for the British Aluminium Company. The supervising engineers were the firm of C. S. Meik and William Halcrow, now known as the Halcrow Group. The dam was built to power the aluminium smelter.
During the Second World War, Fort William was the home of `{{HMS|St Christopher|shore establishment|6}}`{=mediawiki}, which was a training base for Royal Navy Coastal Forces. Fort William Town Hall, which started life as an 18th-century church, was converted for municipal use in 1881. It was burnt down in 1975.
### Proposed development {#proposed_development}
A \"waterfront\" development was proposed by the council in 2007, but failed due to lack of public support. The development would have included a hotel, shops, and housing. The proposed development was slated to take 7 years by the local council, but opponents of the project said that it was unlikely to be completed before 2020. It was announced in April 2010 that the project had been abandoned.
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# Fort William, Scotland
## Geography
The town lies at the southern end of the Great Glen. Fort William lies near the head of Loch Linnhe, one of Scotland\'s longest sea lochs, beside the mouth of the rivers Nevis and Lochy. They join in the intertidal zone and briefly become one river before discharging to the sea. The town and its suburbs are surrounded by mountains. Its suburbs of Lochyside, Caol and Corpach are on the shore of Loch Eil. It is close to Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles, Glen Nevis, and the settlement of Achnaphubuil, which is on the opposite shore of the loch. The original railway station, which was at the south end of the town, was opened on 7 August 1894. The town is centred on the High Street, which was pedestrianised in the 1990s. Off this, there are several squares: Monzie Square (named after the Cameron Campbells of Monzie, Perthshire, former landowners in the town); Station Square, where the long-since demolished railway station used to be; Gordon Square (named after the Gordons, who in the late 18th century owned land where the town now stands, when the town was named Gordonsburgh); and Cameron Square---formerly known as Town Hall Square. There is also Fraser Square, which is not so square-like, since it now opens out into Middle Street, but which still houses the Imperial Hotel.
The main residential areas of the town are unseen from the High Street and the A82 main road. Upper Achintore and the Plantation spread steeply uphill from above the high street. Inverlochy, Claggan, An-Aird, Lochyside, Caol, Banavie and Corpach outwith (i.e. outside) the town are the other main residential areas. These areas are built on much flatter land than the town.
Fort William is the northern end of the West Highland Way, a long-distance route which runs 95 mi through the Scottish Highlands to Milngavie, on the outskirts of Glasgow, and the start/end point of the Great Glen Way, which runs between Fort William and Inverness.
Glenfinnan, 17 mi away, is home of the Glenfinnan Monument (Jacobite era) and the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct (as seen on a Bank Of Scotland £10 note). The viaduct has become known to millions in recent years as the \"Harry Potter Bridge\" after it featured in the films of the books by J.K. Rowling, specifically *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*. Glenfinnan has also been used in *Charlotte Gray* and *Highlander*.
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# Fort William, Scotland
## Geography
### Climate
Fort William has an oceanic climate (*Cfb*) with moderate, but generally cool, temperatures and abundant precipitation. In the towns immediate vicinity, there are significant variations in elevation, which leads to some uninhabited areas near the town having a subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc), or, at the absolute highest elevations such as Ben Nevis, a tundra climate (ET). Fort William does not have an official Met Office weather station; as such, the values in the table below are simulated, and the record high and low temperatures are not available. `{{Weather box
| location = Fort William, United Kingdom
| metric first = Yes
| single line = Yes
| Jan high C = 7.1
| Feb high C = 7.5
| Mar high C = 9.4
| Apr high C = 11.1
| May high C = 14.7
| Jun high C = 16.5
| Jul high C = 18.5
| Aug high C = 18.3
| Sep high C = 16.1
| Oct high C = 12.8
| Nov high C = 9.4
| Dec high C = 7.3
|Jan mean C = 4.2
|Feb mean C = 4.3
|Mar mean C = 5.8
|Apr mean C = 7.4
|May mean C = 10.4
|Jun mean C = 12.6
|Jul mean C = 14.7
|Aug mean C = 14.6
|Sep mean C = 12.5
|Oct mean C = 9.4
|Nov mean C = 6.3
|Dec mean C = 4.2
| year mean C =
| Jan low C = 1.2
| Feb low C = 1.1
| Mar low C = 2.1
| Apr low C = 3.6
| May low C = 6.0
| Jun low C = 8.6
| Jul low C = 10.8
| Aug low C = 10.8
| Sep low C = 8.8
| Oct low C = 6.0
| Nov low C = 3.1
| Dec low C = 1.0
|precipitation colour = green
|Jan precipitation mm = 199
|Feb precipitation mm = 140
|Mar precipitation mm = 149
|Apr precipitation mm = 78
|May precipitation mm = 71
|Jun precipitation mm = 71
|Jul precipitation mm = 79
|Aug precipitation mm = 98
|Sep precipitation mm = 129
|Oct precipitation mm = 172
|Nov precipitation mm = 159
|Dec precipitation mm = 159
|year precipitation mm = 1504
|unit precipitation days = 1.0 mm
| Jan precipitation days = 18
| Feb precipitation days = 14
| Mar precipitation days = 17
| Apr precipitation days = 13
| May precipitation days = 13
| Jun precipitation days = 12
| Jul precipitation days = 14
| Aug precipitation days = 14
| Sep precipitation days = 15
| Oct precipitation days = 18
| Nov precipitation days = 17
| Dec precipitation days = 16
| year precipitation days =181
|Jan sun = 33
|Feb sun = 63
|Mar sun = 90
|Apr sun = 138
|May sun = 183
|Jun sun = 157
|Jul sun = 139
|Aug sun = 132
|Sep sun = 101
|Oct sun = 74
|Nov sun = 43
|Dec sun = 28
|year sun = 1181
| source 1 = scottish-places.info<ref>{{cite web|title=Climate data for Fort William |url=https://www.scottish-places.info/towns/townclimate2108.html |publisher=Scottish Places Info |access-date=2024-10-23}}</ref>
| date = August 2022
| source =
}}`{=mediawiki}
## Economy
Just outside the town is a large aluminium plant once operated by Alcan and powered by the Lochaber hydroelectric scheme, in its day the biggest tunnelling project in the world. This was formerly served by the Lochaber Narrow Gauge Railway better known locally as the Puggy Line.
In November 2016, Sanjeev Gupta\'s Liberty Steel Group purchased the Lochaber aluminum plant from Rio Tinto.
On 3 April 2021, it came to light during Gupta\'s financial troubles involving Greensill Capital that the Jahama Highland Estates (formerly the \"Alcan Estate\") had been purchased in 2016 as part of the Rio Tinto deal for the Lochaber aluminium plant, because the furnace requires so much power that the smelter is located near a hydroelectric plant, which drains the basin of the 114,000 acre Estate.
The Estate includes the north face of Ben Nevis. According to reports, the Scottish National Party mandated that the Estate never be split from the hydro plant and aluminium smelter, but Gupta ignored them and placed ownership of the Estate in a company that is domiciled on the Isle of Man. The 2016 deal was worth £330 million and was guaranteed by the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer. Conservative finance spokesperson Murdo Fraser was critical of the alleged breach of the SNP agreement and urged the SNP to \"take whatever steps are necessary to protect public funds\".
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# Fort William, Scotland
## Transport
Trains - The West Highland Line passes through Fort William. Owing to the difficult terrain in the area, the line from Glasgow to the south enters from the north-east. Trains from Glasgow to Mallaig, the terminus of the line, have to reverse at Fort William railway station. An overnight train between Fort William and London is also ran by the Caledonian Sleeper, this service is known colloquially as \"The Deerstalker\".
Bus and Coach Connections - There are Scottish Citylink busses linking Fort William Bus Station with Glasgow, Oban, the Isle of Skye, and Inverness as well as various smaller connections to nearby places such as Mallaig and Glen Nevis. The stands for buses and express coaches are on MacFarlane Way adjacent to the railway station.
The Caledonian Canal connects the Scottish east coast at Inverness with the west coast at Corpach, near Fort William.
The Corran Ferry crosses Loch Linnhe, connecting the A82 road to the A861 road.
Fort William is located on the A82. The closest motorway access is the junction after Erskine bridge (just off the A82) of the M898 near Erskine in Renfrewshire, 98 miles to the south west, joining onto the M8 motorway and the south.`{{relevance inline|reason=Why does the closest motorway access matter?|date=September 2024}}`{=mediawiki}
## Health
The main hospital in Lochaber is Belford Hospital in Fort William.
In 2023 exploratory work began to replace the hospital, with construction expected to begin in the Blar Mhor area near Caol in 2025, with an estimated completion date of 2028. In 2024 funding issues resulted in a potential delay to the construction of the new hospital with protests taking place in Fort William.
## Education
Lochaber High School is the local high school and serves a large catchment area which includes the surrounding villages.
West Highland College is part of the University of the Highlands and Islands. It hosts the School of Adventure Studies (SOAS) offering both further education courses and higher education honours degrees.
## Sport
### Mountain biking {#mountain_biking}
Just outside the town, parallel to the Nevis Range Gondola, there is a large downhill mountain bike track which attracts thousands of visitors every year, including international competitors and fans.
Each year since 2002, Fort William has hosted a round of UCI Mountain Bike World Cup and, in 2007, it hosted the UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships (\'The Worlds\'). A trials competition is held at the various courses at the bottom.
Fort William has hosted the World Endurance Mountain Bike Organisation (WEMBO) solo 24-hour championship in 2014 and again in 2018. The event consists of riders racing for a full 24 hours and is won by the rider who has completed the greater number of laps.
### Motorcycle trials {#motorcycle_trials}
Fort William is the home of the Scottish Six Day Motorcycle Trial (SSDT), which is held annually in the first full week of May. It attracts many competitors from all across the globe and, in 2011, the event celebrated its centenary year.
### Others
Fort William has two major shinty teams: Fort William Shinty Club and Kilmallie Shinty Club. It also has a football team, Fort William F.C., that competes in the Scottish North Caledonian League and plays home games at Claggan Park.
In addition, the town is home to Lochaber Rugby Club and to the Lochaber Yacht Club, a Community Amateur Sports Club that was founded in 1954. The town also has one golf club, called Fort William Golf Club, which has eighteen holes and is open year-round; it also hosts weekly competitions.
## Festivals
In a celebration of mountains and the culture that surrounds them, and in recognition of the importance of climbing and walking tourism to the town, the Fort William Mountain Festival is held there each year. For a number of years,`{{when|date=September 2014}}`{=mediawiki} this volunteer-led festival has concentrated mostly around film but, starting in the Year of Highland Culture -- Highland 2007, its scope was widened, and it dropped the word \'film\' from its title.
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# Fort William, Scotland
## Notable people {#notable_people}
- Danny Alexander (born 1972), the former Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Liberal Democrat MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey. Brought up in Invergarry, a small village near Fort William.
- Colonel Hugh Cochrane (1829--1884), recipient of the Victoria Cross for actions during the Indian Rebellion of 1857
- Barry Hutchison, author
- Charles Kennedy (1959--2015), former leader of the Liberal Democrat party and former Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament (MP) for Ross, Skye and Lochaber. Although born in Inverness, he was brought up and educated in Fort William.
- Allan MacDonald (*Maighstir Alein, An t-Athair Ailean Dòmhnallach*) (1859--1905), Roman Catholic priest, folklore collector, pastor in South Uist & Eriskay and poet who helped create modern Scottish Gaelic literature, was born and brought up in Fort William.
- John McGinlay (born 1964), former Scotland international footballer
- Mary Mackellar (*Màiri NicEalair*) (1834--1890), poet and literary translator, was born and brought up in Fort William
- Justin Ryan, interior decorator and television presenter, although born in Glasgow, was brought up in Fort William
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# Financial rand
The South African **financial rand** was the most visible part of a system of capital controls. Although the financial rand was abolished in March 1995, some capital controls remain in place. These capital controls are locally referred to as \"exchange controls\", although the system has since 1995 moved towards surveillance --- recording and reporting to the authorities of foreign currency transactions --- rather than control.
Capital controls have been in place in South Africa in various guises on an uninterrupted basis since the outbreak of World War II, when Great Britain and its dominions implemented the Sterling area.
Following the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, South Africa experienced significant outflows of foreign exchange on the capital account of the balance of payments and instituted an additional level of capital controls, known as the Blocked Rand system. This had the principal effect of blocking outflows of capital to the other countries in the Sterling Area, notably Britain.
To some extent the Blocked Rand system mirrored Germany\'s Reichsbank system introduced under Hjalmar Schacht in 1937, called \"aski\" accounts --- short for *Ausländer Sonderkonten für Inlandszahlungen* (\"foreigners\' special accounts for inland payments\"). In other words, creating a closed loop system that did not create a claim on the foreign exchange reserves of the Third Reich, or in this case South Africa.
The report of the De Kock Commission on Exchange Controls tabled in November 1978, proposed a gradual easing of exchange controls. This saw the replacement of the Blocked Rand by the Financial Rand in early 1979. In line with this policy, the Financial Rand itself was abolished in 1983 and non-residents could repatriate the majority of their South African investments via the Commercial Rand.
This easing was, however, short-lived and the Financial Rand system was re-introduced on 1 September 1985. The outflows during 1984--1985 were largely the result of economic sanctions in response to apartheid. At the same time, the government enacted the exchange controls. Investments in South Africa by foreigners could only be sold for financial rand.
The financial rand system provided for two exchange rates for the rand --- one for current account transactions and one for capital account transactions for non-residents. Investments made in South Africa by non-residents could only be sold for financial rand, and limitations were placed on the convertibility of financial rand into foreign currencies. Financial rand had the ISO 4217 currency code ZAL. Financial rand had a previous life, from January 1979 to February 1983. The 1985 crisis coincided with a default (then called a \"standstill\") on foreign debt by the apartheid government
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# List of FIPS country codes
This is a list of FIPS 10-4 country codes for *Countries, Dependencies, Areas of Special Sovereignty, and Their Principal Administrative Divisions*.
The two-letter country codes were used by the US government for geographical data processing in many publications, such as the CIA World Factbook. The standard is also known as DAFIF 0413 ed 7 Amdt. No. 3 (Nov 2003) and as DIA 65-18 (Defense Intelligence Agency, 1994, \"Geopolitical Data Elements and Related Features\").
The FIPS standard includes both the codes for independent countries (similar but often incompatible with the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 standard) and the codes for top-level subdivision of the countries (similar to but usually incompatible with the ISO 3166-2 standard). The ISO 3166 codes are used by the United Nations and for Internet top-level country code domains.
Non-sovereign entities are in italics.
On September 2, 2008, FIPS 10-4 was one of ten standards withdrawn by NIST as a Federal Information Processing Standard. It was replaced in the U.S. Government by the Geopolitical Entities, Names, and Codes (GENC), which is based on ISO 3166
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# Fly-by-wire
**Fly-by-wire** (**FBW**) is a system that replaces the conventional manual flight controls of an aircraft with an electronic interface. The movements of flight controls are converted to electronic signals, and flight control computers determine how to move the actuators at each control surface to provide the ordered response. Implementations either use mechanical flight control backup systems or else are fully electronic.
Improved fully fly-by-wire systems interpret the pilot\'s control inputs as a desired outcome and calculate the control surface positions required to achieve that outcome; this results in various combinations of rudder, elevator, aileron, flaps and engine controls in different situations using a closed feedback loop. The pilot may not be fully aware of all the control outputs acting to affect the outcome, only that the aircraft is reacting as expected. The fly-by-wire computers act to stabilize the aircraft and adjust the flying characteristics without the pilot\'s involvement, and to prevent the pilot from operating outside of the aircraft\'s safe performance envelope.
## Rationale
Mechanical and hydro-mechanical flight control systems are relatively heavy and require careful routing of flight control cables through the aircraft by systems of pulleys, cranks, tension cables and hydraulic pipes. Both systems often require redundant backup to deal with failures, which increases weight. Both have limited ability to compensate for changing aerodynamic conditions. Dangerous characteristics such as stalling, spinning and pilot-induced oscillation (PIO), which depend mainly on the stability and structure of the aircraft rather than the control system itself, are dependent on the pilot\'s actions.
The term \"fly-by-wire\" implies a purely electrically signaled control system. It is used in the general sense of computer-configured controls, where a computer system is interposed between the operator and the final control actuators or surfaces. This modifies the manual inputs of the pilot in accordance with control parameters.
Side-sticks or conventional flight control yokes can be used to fly fly-by-wire aircraft.
### Weight saving {#weight_saving}
A fly-by-wire aircraft can be lighter than a similar design with conventional controls. This is partly due to the lower overall weight of the system components and partly because the natural stability of the aircraft can be relaxed (slightly for a transport aircraft; more for a maneuverable fighter), which means that the stability surfaces that are part of the aircraft structure can therefore be made smaller. These include the vertical and horizontal stabilizers (fin and tailplane) that are (normally) at the rear of the fuselage. If these structures can be reduced in size, airframe weight is reduced. The advantages of fly-by-wire controls were first exploited by the military and then in the commercial airline market. The Airbus series of airliners used full-authority fly-by-wire controls beginning with their A320 series, see A320 flight control (though some limited fly-by-wire functions existed on A310 aircraft). Boeing followed with their 777 and later designs.
## Basic operation {#basic_operation}
### Closed-loop feedback control {#closed_loop_feedback_control}
A pilot commands the flight control computer to make the aircraft perform a certain action, such as pitch the aircraft up, or roll to one side, by moving the control column or sidestick. The flight control computer then calculates what control surface movements will cause the plane to perform that action and issues those commands to the electronic controllers for each surface. The controllers at each surface receive these commands and then move actuators attached to the control surface until it has moved to where the flight control computer commanded it to. The controllers measure the position of the flight control surface with sensors such as LVDTs.
### Automatic stability systems {#automatic_stability_systems}
Fly-by-wire control systems allow aircraft computers to perform tasks without pilot input. Automatic stability systems operate in this way. Gyroscopes and sensors such as accelerometers are mounted in an aircraft to sense rotation on the pitch, roll and yaw axes. Any movement (from straight and level flight for example) results in signals to the computer, which can automatically move control actuators to stabilize the aircraft.
## Safety and redundancy {#safety_and_redundancy}
While traditional mechanical or hydraulic control systems usually fail gradually, the loss of all flight control computers immediately renders the aircraft uncontrollable. For this reason, most fly-by-wire systems incorporate either redundant computers (triplex, quadruplex etc.), some kind of mechanical or hydraulic backup or a combination of both. A \"mixed\" control system with mechanical backup feedbacks any rudder elevation directly to the pilot and therefore makes closed loop (feedback) systems senseless.
Aircraft systems may be quadruplexed (four independent channels) to prevent loss of signals in the case of failure of one or even two channels. High performance aircraft that have fly-by-wire controls (also called CCVs or Control-Configured Vehicles) may be deliberately designed to have low or even negative stability in some flight regimes `{{ndash}}`{=mediawiki} rapid-reacting CCV controls can electronically stabilize the lack of natural stability.
Pre-flight safety checks of a fly-by-wire system are often performed using built-in test equipment (BITE). A number of control movement steps can be automatically performed, reducing workload of the pilot or groundcrew and speeding up flight-checks.
Some aircraft, the Panavia Tornado for example, retain a very basic hydro-mechanical backup system for limited flight control capability on losing electrical power; in the case of the Tornado this allows rudimentary control of the stabilators only for pitch and roll axis movements.
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# Fly-by-wire
## History
Servo-electrically operated control surfaces were first tested in the 1930s on the Soviet Tupolev ANT-20. Long runs of mechanical and hydraulic connections were replaced with wires and electric servos.
In 1934, Karl Otto Altvater filed a patent about the automatic-electronic system, which flared the aircraft, when it was close to the ground. In 1941, while being an engineer at Siemens, developed and tested the first fly-by-wire system for the Heinkel He 111, in which the aircraft was fully controlled by electronic impulses.`{{unreliable source?|date=January 2022}}`{=mediawiki}
The first non-experimental aircraft that was designed and flown (in 1958) with a fly-by-wire flight control system was the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow, the North American A-5 Vigilante which flew later the same year would be the first aircraft to reach operational service with a fly by wire system. This system also included solid-state components and system redundancy, was designed to be integrated with a computerised navigation and automatic search and track radar, was flyable from ground control with data uplink and downlink, and provided artificial feel (feedback) to the pilot.
The first electronic fly-by-wire testbed operated by the U.S. Air Force was a Boeing B-47E Stratojet (Ser. No. 53-2280)
The first pure electronic fly-by-wire aircraft with no mechanical or hydraulic backup was the Apollo Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV), first flown in 1968. This was preceded in 1964 by the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) which pioneered fly-by-wire flight with no mechanical backup. Control was through a digital computer with three analog redundant channels. In the USSR, the Sukhoi T-4 also flew. At about the same time in the United Kingdom a trainer variant of the British Hawker Hunter fighter was modified at the British Royal Aircraft Establishment with fly-by-wire flight controls for the right-seat pilot.
In the UK the two seater Avro 707C was flown with a Fairey system with mechanical backup in the early to mid-60s. The program was curtailed when the air-frame ran out of flight time.
In 1972, the first digital fly-by-wire fixed-wing aircraft without a mechanical backup to take to the air was an F-8 Crusader, which had been modified electronically by NASA of the United States as a test aircraft; the F-8 used the Apollo guidance, navigation and control hardware.
The Airbus A320 began service in 1988 as the first mass-produced airliner with digital fly-by-wire controls. As of June 2024, over 11,000 A320 family aircraft, variants included, are operational around the world, making it one of the best-selling commercial jets.
Boeing chose fly-by-wire flight controls for the 777 in 1994, departing from traditional cable and pulley systems. In addition to overseeing the aircraft\'s flight control, the FBW offered \"envelope protection\", which guaranteed that the system would step in to avoid accidental mishandling, stalls, or excessive structural stress on the aircraft. The 777 used ARINC 629 buses to connect primary flight computers (PFCs) with actuator-control electronics units (ACEs). Every PFC housed three 32-bit microprocessors, including a Motorola 68040, an Intel 80486, and an AMD 29050, all programmed in Ada programming language.
## Analog systems {#analog_systems}
All fly-by-wire flight control systems eliminate the complexity, fragility and weight of the mechanical circuit of the hydromechanical or electromechanical flight control systems -- each being replaced with electronic circuits. The control mechanisms in the cockpit now operate signal transducers, which in turn generate the appropriate commands. These are next processed by an electronic controller---either an analog one, or (more modernly) a digital one. Aircraft and spacecraft autopilots are now part of the electronic controller.
The hydraulic circuits are similar except that mechanical servo valves are replaced with electrically controlled servo valves, operated by the electronic controller. This is the simplest and earliest configuration of an analog fly-by-wire flight control system. In this configuration, the flight control systems must simulate \"feel\". The electronic controller controls electrical devices that provide the appropriate \"feel\" forces on the manual controls. This was used in Concorde, the first production fly-by-wire airliner.
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# Fly-by-wire
## Digital systems {#digital_systems}
A digital fly-by-wire flight control system can be extended from its analog counterpart. Digital signal processing can receive and interpret input from multiple sensors simultaneously (such as the altimeters and the pitot tubes) and adjust the controls in real time. The computers sense position and force inputs from pilot controls and aircraft sensors. They then solve differential equations related to the aircraft\'s equations of motion to determine the appropriate command signals for the flight controls to execute the intentions of the pilot.
The programming of the digital computers enable flight envelope protection. These protections are tailored to an aircraft\'s handling characteristics to stay within aerodynamic and structural limitations of the aircraft. For example, the computer in flight envelope protection mode can try to prevent the aircraft from being handled dangerously by preventing pilots from exceeding preset limits on the aircraft\'s flight-control envelope, such as those that prevent stalls and spins, and which limit airspeeds and g forces on the airplane. Software can also be included that stabilize the flight-control inputs to avoid pilot-induced oscillations.
Since the flight-control computers continuously feedback the environment, pilot\'s workloads can be reduced. This also enables military aircraft with relaxed stability. The primary benefit for such aircraft is more maneuverability during combat and training flights, and the so-called \"carefree handling\" because stalling, spinning and other undesirable performances are prevented automatically by the computers. Digital flight control systems (DFCS) enable inherently unstable combat aircraft, such as the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk and the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit flying wing to fly in usable and safe manners.
### Legislation
The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has adopted the RTCA/DO-178C, titled \"Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification\", as the certification standard for aviation software. Any safety-critical component in a digital fly-by-wire system including applications of the laws of aeronautics and computer operating systems will need to be certified to DO-178C Level A or B, depending on the class of aircraft, which is applicable for preventing potential catastrophic failures.
Nevertheless, the top concern for computerized, digital, fly-by-wire systems is reliability, even more so than for analog electronic control systems. This is because the digital computers that are running software are often the only control path between the pilot and aircraft\'s flight control surfaces. If the computer software crashes for any reason, the pilot may be unable to control an aircraft. Hence virtually all fly-by-wire flight control systems are either triply or quadruply redundant in their computers and electronics. These have three or four flight-control computers operating in parallel and three or four separate data buses connecting them with each control surface.
### Redundancy
The multiple redundant flight control computers continuously monitor each other\'s output. If one computer begins to give aberrant results for any reason, potentially including software or hardware failures or flawed input data, then the combined system is designed to exclude the results from that computer in deciding the appropriate actions for the flight controls. Depending on specific system details there may be the potential to reboot an aberrant flight control computer, or to reincorporate its inputs if they return to agreement. Complex logic exists to deal with multiple failures, which may prompt the system to revert to simpler back-up modes.
In addition, most of the early digital fly-by-wire aircraft also had an analog electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic back-up flight control system. The Space Shuttle had, in addition to its redundant set of four digital computers running its primary flight-control software, a fifth backup computer running a separately developed, reduced-function, software flight-control system -- one that could be commanded to take over in the event that a fault ever affected all of the other four computers. This backup system served to reduce the risk of total flight control system failure ever happening because of a general-purpose flight software fault that had escaped notice in the other four computers.
### Efficiency of flight {#efficiency_of_flight}
For airliners, flight-control redundancy improves their safety, but fly-by-wire control systems, which are physically lighter and have lower maintenance demands than conventional controls also improve economy, both in terms of cost of ownership and for in-flight economy. In certain designs with limited relaxed stability in the pitch axis, for example the Boeing 777, the flight control system may allow the aircraft to fly at a more aerodynamically efficient angle of attack than a conventionally stable design. Modern airliners also commonly feature computerized Full-Authority Digital Engine Control systems (FADECs) that control their engines, air inlets, fuel storage and distribution system, in a similar fashion to the way that FBW controls the flight control surfaces. This allows the engine output to be continually varied for the most efficient usage possible.
The second generation Embraer E-Jet family gained a 1.5% efficiency improvement over the first generation from the fly-by-wire system, which enabled a reduction from 280 ft.² to 250 ft.² for the horizontal stabilizer on the E190/195 variants.
### Airbus/Boeing
Airbus and Boeing differ in their approaches to implementing fly-by-wire systems in commercial aircraft. Since the Airbus A320, Airbus flight-envelope control systems always retain ultimate flight control when flying under normal law and will not permit pilots to violate aircraft performance limits unless they choose to fly under alternate law. This strategy has been continued on subsequent Airbus airliners. However, in the event of multiple failures of redundant computers, the A320 does have a mechanical back-up system for its pitch trim and its rudder, the Airbus A340 has a purely electrical (not electronic) back-up rudder control system and beginning with the A380, all flight-control systems have back-up systems that are purely electrical through the use of a \"three-axis Backup Control Module\" (BCM).
Boeing airliners, such as the Boeing 777, allow the pilots to completely override the computerized flight control system, permitting the aircraft to be flown outside of its usual flight control envelope.
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# Fly-by-wire
## Digital systems {#digital_systems}
### Applications
- Concorde was the first production fly-by-wire aircraft with analog control.
- The General Dynamics F-16 was the first production aircraft to use digital fly-by-wire controls.
- The Space Shuttle orbiter had an all-digital fly-by-wire control system. This system was first exercised (as the only flight control system) during the glider unpowered-flight \"Approach and Landing Tests\" that began with the Space Shuttle *Enterprise* during 1977.
- Launched into production during 1984, the Airbus Industries Airbus A320 became the first airliner to fly with an all-digital fly-by-wire control system.
- With its launch in 1993 the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III became the first fly-by-wire military transport aircraft.
- In 2005, the Dassault Falcon 7X became the first business jet with fly-by-wire controls.
- A fully digital fly-by-wire without a closed feedback loop was integrated in 2002 in the first generation Embraer E-Jet family. By closing the loop (feedback), the second generation Embraer E-Jet family gained a 1.5% efficiency improvement in 2016.
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# Fly-by-wire
## Engine digital control {#engine_digital_control}
The advent of FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control) engines permits operation of the flight control systems and autothrottles for the engines to be fully integrated. On modern military aircraft other systems such as autostabilization, navigation, radar and weapons system are all integrated with the flight control systems. FADEC allows maximum performance to be extracted from the aircraft without fear of engine misoperation, aircraft damage or high pilot workloads.
In the civil field, the integration increases flight safety and economy. Airbus fly-by-wire aircraft are protected from dangerous situations such as low-speed stall or overstressing by flight envelope protection. As a result, in such conditions, the flight control systems commands the engines to increase thrust without pilot intervention. In economy cruise modes, the flight control systems adjust the throttles and fuel tank selections precisely. FADEC reduces rudder drag needed to compensate for sideways flight from unbalanced engine thrust. On the A330/A340 family, fuel is transferred between the main (wing and center fuselage) tanks and a fuel tank in the horizontal stabilizer, to optimize the aircraft\'s center of gravity during cruise flight. The fuel management controls keep the aircraft\'s center of gravity accurately trimmed with fuel weight, rather than drag-inducing aerodynamic trims in the elevators.
## Further developments {#further_developments}
### Fly-by-optics {#fly_by_optics}
Fly-by-optics is sometimes used instead of fly-by-wire because it offers a higher data transfer rate, immunity to electromagnetic interference and lighter weight. In most cases, the cables are just changed from electrical to optical fiber cables. Sometimes it is referred to as \"fly-by-light\" due to its use of fiber optics. The data generated by the software and interpreted by the controller remain the same. Fly-by-light has the effect of decreasing electro-magnetic disturbances to sensors in comparison to more common fly-by-wire control systems. The Kawasaki P-1 is the first production aircraft in the world to be equipped with such a flight control system.
### Power-by-wire {#power_by_wire}
Having eliminated the mechanical transmission circuits in fly-by-wire flight control systems, the next step is to eliminate the bulky and heavy hydraulic circuits. The hydraulic circuit is replaced by an electrical power circuit. The power circuits power electrical or self-contained electrohydraulic actuators that are controlled by the digital flight control computers. All benefits of digital fly-by-wire are retained since the power-by-wire components are strictly complementary to the fly-by-wire components.
The biggest benefits are weight savings, the possibility of redundant power circuits and tighter integration between the aircraft flight control systems and its avionics systems. The absence of hydraulics greatly reduces maintenance costs. This system is used in the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II and in Airbus A380 backup flight controls. The Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 also incorporate electrically powered backup flight controls which remain operational even in the event of a total loss of hydraulic power.
### Fly-by-wireless {#fly_by_wireless}
Wiring adds a considerable amount of weight to an aircraft; therefore, researchers are exploring implementing fly-by-wireless solutions. Fly-by-wireless systems are very similar to fly-by-wire systems, however, instead of using a wired protocol for the physical layer a wireless protocol is employed.
In addition to reducing weight, implementing a wireless solution has the potential to reduce costs throughout an aircraft\'s life cycle. For example, many key failure points associated with wire and connectors will be eliminated thus hours spent troubleshooting wires and connectors will be reduced. Furthermore, engineering costs could potentially decrease because less time would be spent on designing wiring installations, late changes in an aircraft\'s design would be easier to manage, etc.
### Intelligent flight control system {#intelligent_flight_control_system}
A newer flight control system, called intelligent flight control system (IFCS), is an extension of modern digital fly-by-wire flight control systems. The aim is to intelligently compensate for aircraft damage and failure during flight, such as automatically using engine thrust and other avionics to compensate for severe failures such as loss of hydraulics, loss of rudder, loss of ailerons, loss of an engine, etc. Several demonstrations were made on a flight simulator where a Cessna-trained small-aircraft pilot successfully landed a heavily damaged full-size concept jet, without prior experience with large-body jet aircraft. This development is being spearheaded by NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. It is reported that enhancements are mostly software upgrades to existing fully computerized digital fly-by-wire flight control systems. The Dassault Falcon 7X and Embraer Legacy 500 business jets have flight computers that can partially compensate for engine-out scenarios by adjusting thrust levels and control inputs, but still require pilots to respond appropriately
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# Fundamental theorem on homomorphisms
In abstract algebra, the **fundamental theorem on homomorphisms**, also known as the **fundamental homomorphism theorem**, or the **first isomorphism theorem**, relates the structure of two objects between which a homomorphism is given, and of the kernel and image of the homomorphism.
The homomorphism theorem is used to prove the isomorphism theorems. Similar theorems are valid for vector spaces, modules, and rings.
## Group-theoretic version {#group_theoretic_version}
Given two groups $G$ and $H$ and a group homomorphism $f: G \rarr H$, let $N$ be a normal subgroup in $G$ and $\varphi$ the natural surjective homomorphism $G \rarr G / N$ (where $G / N$ is the quotient group of $G$ by $N$). If $N$ is a subset of $\ker(f)$ (where $\ker$ represents a kernel) then there exists a unique homomorphism $h: G / N \rarr H$ such that $f = h \circ \varphi$.
In other words, the natural projection $\varphi$ is universal among homomorphisms on $G$ that map $N$ to the identity element.
The situation is described by the following commutative diagram:
:
$h$ is injective if and only if $N = \ker(f)$. Therefore, by setting $N = \ker(f)$, we immediately get the first isomorphism theorem.
We can write the statement of the fundamental theorem on homomorphisms of groups as \"every homomorphic image of a group is isomorphic to a quotient group\".
## Proof
The proof follows from two basic facts about homomorphisms, namely their preservation of the group operation, and their mapping of the identity element to the identity element. We need to show that if $f: G \to H$ is a homomorphism of groups, then:
1. $\text{im}(f)$ is a subgroup of `{{tmath|1= H }}`{=mediawiki}.
2. $G / \ker(f)$ is isomorphic to `{{tmath|1= \text{im}(f) }}`{=mediawiki}.
### Proof of 1 {#proof_of_1}
The operation that is preserved by $f$ is the group operation. If `{{tmath|1= a, b \in \text{im}(f)}}`{=mediawiki}, then there exist elements $a', b' \in G$ such that $f(a')=a$ and `{{tmath|1= f(b')=b}}`{=mediawiki}. For these $a$ and `{{tmath|1= b }}`{=mediawiki}, we have $ab = f(a')f(b') = f(a'b') \in \text{im}(f)$ (since $f$ preserves the group operation), and thus, the closure property is satisfied in `{{tmath|1= \text{im}(f) }}`{=mediawiki}. The identity element $e \in H$ is also in $\text{im}(f)$ because $f$ maps the identity element of $G$ to it. Since every element $a'$ in $G$ has an inverse $(a')^{-1}$ such that $f((a')^{-1}) = (f(a'))^{-1}$ (because $f$ preserves the inverse property as well), we have an inverse for each element $f(a') = a$ in `{{tmath|1= \text{im}(f) }}`{=mediawiki}, therefore, $\text{im}(f)$ is a subgroup of `{{tmath|1= H }}`{=mediawiki}.
### Proof of 2 {#proof_of_2}
Construct a map $\psi: G / \ker(f) \to \text{im}(f)$ by `{{tmath|1= \psi(a\ker(f)) = f(a) }}`{=mediawiki}. This map is well-defined, as if `{{tmath|1= a\ker(f) = b\ker(f) }}`{=mediawiki}, then $b^{-1}a \in \ker(f)$ and so $f(b^{-1}a) = e \Rightarrow f(b^{-1})f(a) = e$ which gives `{{tmath|1= f(a) = f(b) }}`{=mediawiki}. This map is an isomorphism. $\psi$ is surjective onto $\text{im}(f)$ by definition. To show injectivity, if $\psi(a\ker(f)) = \psi(b\ker(f))$, then `{{tmath|1= f(a) = f(b) }}`{=mediawiki}, which implies $b^{-1}a \in\ker(f)$ so `{{tmath|1= a\ker(f) = b\ker(f) }}`{=mediawiki}.
Finally,
$$\psi((a\ker(f))(b\ker(f))) = \psi(ab\ker(f)) = f(ab)$$
$$= f(a)f(b) = \psi(a\ker(f))\psi(b\ker(f)),$$
hence $\psi$ preserves the group operation. Hence $\psi$ is an isomorphism between $G / \ker(f)$ and `{{tmath|1= \text{im}(f) }}`{=mediawiki}, which completes the proof.
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# Fundamental theorem on homomorphisms
## Applications
The group theoretic version of the fundamental homomorphism theorem can be used to show that two selected groups are isomorphic. Two examples are shown below.
### Integers modulo *n* {#integers_modulo_n}
For each `{{tmath|1= n \in \mathbb{N} }}`{=mediawiki}, consider the groups $\mathbb{Z}$ and $\mathbb{Z}_n$ and a group homomorphism $f:\mathbb{Z} \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}_n$ defined by $m \mapsto m \text{ mod }n$ (see modular arithmetic). Next, consider the kernel of `{{tmath|1= f }}`{=mediawiki}, `{{tmath|1= \text{ker} (f) = n \mathbb{Z} }}`{=mediawiki}, which is a normal subgroup in `{{tmath|1= \mathbb{Z} }}`{=mediawiki}. There exists a natural surjective homomorphism $\varphi : \mathbb{Z} \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}$ defined by `{{tmath|1= m \mapsto m+n\mathbb{Z} }}`{=mediawiki}. The theorem asserts that there exists an isomorphism $h$ between $\mathbb{Z}_n$ and `{{tmath|1= \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z} }}`{=mediawiki}, or in other words `{{tmath|1= \mathbb{Z}_n \cong \mathbb{Z}/n \mathbb{Z} }}`{=mediawiki}. The commutative diagram is illustrated below.
:
### *N / C* theorem {#n_c_theorem}
Let $G$ be a group with subgroup `{{tmath|1= H }}`{=mediawiki}. Let `{{tmath|1= C_G(H) }}`{=mediawiki}, $N_G(H)$ and $\operatorname{Aut}(H)$ be the centralizer, the normalizer and the automorphism group of $H$ in `{{tmath|1= G }}`{=mediawiki}, respectively. Then, the $N/C$ theorem states that $N_G(H)/C_G(H)$ is isomorphic to a subgroup of `{{tmath|1= \operatorname{Aut}(H) }}`{=mediawiki}.
#### Proof {#proof_1}
We are able to find a group homomorphism $f: N_G(H) \rightarrow \operatorname{Aut}(H)$ defined by `{{tmath|1= g \mapsto ghg^{-1} }}`{=mediawiki}, for all `{{tmath|1= h \in H }}`{=mediawiki}. Clearly, the kernel of $f$ is `{{tmath|1= C_G(H) }}`{=mediawiki}. Hence, we have a natural surjective homomorphism $\varphi : N_G(H) \rightarrow N_G(H)/C_G(H)$ defined by `{{tmath|1= g \mapsto gC(H) }}`{=mediawiki}. The fundamental homomorphism theorem then asserts that there exists an isomorphism between $N_G(H)/C_G(H)$ and `{{tmath|1= \varphi(N_G(H)) }}`{=mediawiki}, which is a subgroup of `{{tmath|1= \operatorname{Aut}(H) }}`{=mediawiki}
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# Firmin Abauzit
**Firmin Abauzit** (11 November 1679`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}20 March 1767) was a French scholar who worked on physics, theology and philosophy, and served as librarian in Geneva (Republic of Geneva) during his final 40 years. Abauzit is also notable for proofreading or correcting the writings of Isaac Newton and other scholars.
## Biography
Firmin Abauzit was born of Huguenot parents on 11 November 1679 at Uzès, in Languedoc. His paternal family traces its origin to an Arab physician who settled in Toulouse during the 9th century. Accordingly, the name "Abauzit" is liked derived from the Arabic "Abu Zaid" (father of Zaid).
His father died when he was only two years of age; and when, on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, the authorities took steps to have him educated in the Roman Catholic faith, his mother contrived his escape.
For two years his brother and he lived as fugitives in the mountains of the Cévennes, but they at last reached Geneva, where their mother afterwards joined them on escaping from the imprisonment in which she was held from the time of their flight. Abauzit at an early age acquired great proficiency in languages, physics, and theology.
In 1698, he traveled to Germany, then to Holland, where he became acquainted with Pierre Bayle, Pierre Jurieu and Jacques Basnage. Proceeding to England, he was introduced to Sir Isaac Newton, who found in him one of the earliest defenders of his discoveries against Castel. Newton corrected in the second edition of his *Principia* an error pointed out by Abauzit, and, when sending him the *Commercium Epistolicum,* said, \"You are well worthy to judge between Leibnitz and me.\"
The reputation of Abauzit induced William III to request him to settle in England, but he did not accept the king\'s offer, preferring to return to Geneva. There from 1715 he rendered valuable assistance to a society that had been formed for translating the New Testament into French. He declined the offer of the chair of philosophy at the University of Geneva in 1723. He assisted in the French language New Testament in 1726. In 1727, he was granted citizenship in Geneva, and he accepted the office of honorary librarian to Geneva, the city of his adoption. It was while he was in Geneva in his later years that he authored many of his works. He died in Geneva at the age of 87, on 20 March 1767.
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# Firmin Abauzit
## Legacy
Abauzit was a man of great learning and of wonderful versatility. Whatever chanced to be discussed, it used to be said of Abauzit that he seemed to have made it a subject of particular study. Rousseau, who was jealously sparing of his praises, addressed to him, in his *Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse*, a fine panegyric; and when a stranger flatteringly told Voltaire he had come to see a great man, the philosopher asked him if he had seen Abauzit. Among his acquaintances, Abauzit claimed Rousseau, Voltaire, Newton, and Bayle.
Little remains of the labours of this intellectual giant, his heirs having, it is said, destroyed the papers that came into their possession, because their own religious opinions were different. A few theological, archaeological, and astronomical articles from his pen appeared in the *Journal helvétique* and elsewhere, and he contributed several papers to Rousseau\'s *Dictionnaire de musique* (1767). He wrote a work throwing doubt on the canonical authority of the Apocalypse, which called forth a reply from Dr Leonard Twells, and was published in Denis Diderot\'s *Encyclopédie*. He also edited and made valuable additions to Jacob Spon\'s *Histoire de la république de Genève*. A collection of his writings was published at Geneva in 1770 (*Œuvres de feu M. Abauzit*), and another at London in 1773 (*Œuvres diverses de M. Abauzit*).
### Works
year Title Notes
------ --------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------
Articles Multiple articles for *Journal helvétique*
1726 French language New Testament Collaboration
*apocalypse* Article for Denis Diderot\'s *Encyclopédie*
1767 Articles Multiple articles for *Dictionnaire de musique*
Edited and contributions *Histoire de la république de Genève* by Jacob Spon
1770 *Œuvres de feu M. Abauzit* Posthumously published collection
1773 *Œuvres diverses de M
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# Furigana
is a Japanese reading aid consisting of smaller kana (syllabic characters) printed either above or next to kanji (logographic characters) or other characters to indicate their pronunciation. It is one type of ruby text. Furigana is also known as `{{nihongo|'''yomigana'''|読み仮名}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{nihongo|'''rubi'''|[[wikt:ルビ|ルビ]]||{{IPA|ja|ɾɯꜜbi|}}}}`{=mediawiki} in Japanese. In modern Japanese, it is usually used to gloss rare kanji, to clarify rare, nonstandard or ambiguous kanji readings, or in children\'s or learners\' materials. Before the post-World War II script reforms, it was more widespread.
Furigana is most often written in hiragana, though in certain cases it may be written in katakana, Roman alphabet letters or in other, simpler kanji. In vertical text, *tategaki*, the furigana is placed to the right of the line of text; in horizontal text, *yokogaki*, it is placed above the line of text, as illustrated below.
------------------------------------------------ --
style=\"line-height:1em; font-size:2em \| *日*
style=\"line-height:1em; font-size:2em \| *本*
style=\"line-height:1em; font-size:2em \| *語*
------------------------------------------------ --
or `{{col-3}}`{=mediawiki}
-- -- --
-- -- --
These examples spell the word *nihongo*, which is made up of three kanji characters: *日* (*ni*, written in hiragana as *に*), *本* (*hon*, written in hiragana as *ほん*) and *語* (*go*, written in hiragana as *ご*).
## Appearance
Furigana may be added by character, in which case the furigana character(s) that correspond to a kanji are centered over that kanji; or by word or phrase, in which case the entire furigana text is centered over several kanji characters, even if the kanji do not represent equal shares of the kana needed to write them. The latter method is more common, especially since some words in Japanese have unique pronunciations (*jukujikun*) that are not related to readings of any of the characters the word is written with.
Furigana fonts are generally sized so that two kana characters fit naturally over one kanji; when more kana are required, this is resolved either by adjusting the furigana by using a condensed font (narrowing the kana), or by adjusting the kanji by intercharacter spacing (adding spaces around the kanji). In case an isolated kanji character has a long reading---for example *〜に携わる* (where *携* reads *たずさ*, *tazusa*)---the furigana may instead spill over into the space next to the neighboring kana characters, without condensing or changing spacing. Three-kana readings are not uncommon, particularly due to *yōon* with a long vowel, such as `{{Nihongo||りょう|ryō}}`{=mediawiki}; five kana are required for `{{Nihongo||志、こころざし|kokorozashi}}`{=mediawiki} and six for `{{Nihongo||承る、うけたまわる|uketamawaru}}`{=mediawiki}, the longest of any character in the Joyo kanji. Very long readings also occur for certain kanji or symbols which have a *gairaigo* (loan word) reading; the word \"centimeter\" is generally written as \"cm\" (with two half-width characters, so occupying one space) and has the seven-kana reading *センチメートル* (*senchimētoru*) (it can also be written as the kanji *糎*, though this is very rare); another common example is \"%\" (the percent sign), which has the five kana reading *パーセント* (*pāsento*). These cause severe spacing problems due to length and these words being used as units (hence closely associated with the preceding figure).
When it is necessary to distinguish between native Japanese *kun\'yomi* pronunciations and Chinese-derived *on\'yomi* pronunciations, for example in kanji dictionaries, the kun\'yomi pronunciations are written in hiragana, and the on\'yomi pronunciations are written in katakana. However, this distinction is really only important in dictionaries and other reference works. In ordinary prose, the script chosen will usually be hiragana. The one general exception to this is *modern* Chinese place names, personal names, and (occasionally) food names---these will often be written with kanji, and katakana used for the furigana; in more casual writing these are simply written in katakana, as borrowed words. Occasionally this style is also used for loanwords from other languages (especially English). For example, the kanji *一角獣* (literally \"one horn beast\") might be glossed with katakana *ユニコーン*, *yunikōn*, to show the pronunciation of the loanword \"unicorn\", which is unrelated to the normal reading of the kanji. Generally, though, such loanwords are just written in straight katakana.
The distinction between regular kana and the smaller character forms (yōon and sokuon), which are used in regular orthography to mark such things as gemination and palatalization, is often not made in furigana: for example, the usual hiragana spelling of the word *却下* (*kyakka*) is *きゃっか*, but in furigana it might be written *きやつか*. This was especially common in old-fashioned movable type printing when smaller fonts were not available. Nowadays, with computer-based printing systems, this occurs less frequently.
## Alignment rules in word processing or typesetting {#alignment_rules_in_word_processing_or_typesetting}
Various word processing or typesetting software programs, such as Microsoft Word, Adobe InDesign, Adobe InCopy, etc. have features for adding ruby text, especially Japanese furigana. Among formatting features are different rules for aligning the kana over or to the right of the base text, usually either when the base text string is longer than the furigana string or vice versa. Extra spaces may be needed depending on the size of the shorter string (either the ruby string or the base string) relatively to the longer one.
- Centered, left/top or right/bottom: No spaces are added in between the characters. The shorter string is aligned to the center (中付きルビ *nakatsuki rubi*), the left/top (肩付きルビ *katatsuki rubi*) or the right/bottom of the longer string.
- 1-2-1 (JIS): Spaces are added at the start of and the end of the shorter string, and in between its component characters, so that the spaces in between are twice as wide or tall as the spaces at the start and at the end. Space width or height is calculated based on the width or height of the square bounding box of a glyph (Japanese typefaces are generally monospaced). The strings are still, in essence, aligned to the center of each other, rather than to the left/top or right/bottom.
- 0-1-0: Equal spaces are added, similarly to the 1-2-1 rule, in between the component characters of the shorter string, but not its start or end.
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# Furigana
## Usage
Furigana are most commonly used in works for children, who may not have sufficiently advanced reading skills to recognize the kanji, but can understand the word when written phonetically in hiragana. Because children learn hiragana before katakana, in books for very young children, there are hiragana－furigana next to the katakana characters. It is common to use furigana on all kanji characters in works for young children. This is called `{{nihongo|''sōrubi''|[[wikt:総ルビ|総ルビ]]}}`{=mediawiki} in Japanese.
Numeric characters used for counting (e.g. *ほん}}* *ni-hon* \"two long things\"; *2つめ* *futatsume* \"second\"; *かん}}* *dai-ni kan* \"book 2\"; *2ページ* *ni-pēji* \"page 2\"; etc.) are usually not tagged with furigana. Exceptions include a few cases such as 一人/1人 *hitori* \"one person\" and 二人/2人 *futari* \"two people\", which may be tagged with separate kana for each character (*り}}*/*り}}*), or non-separated kana for the whole word (*ひとり}}*/*ひとり}}*), depending on the style of the publisher in question; or characters for numerals greater than 1,000 (千), such as 万 (10,000), 億 (100,000,000), etc. Numeric words in established compounds (e.g. *ぽ}}* *ippo* \"step\"; *め}}* *hitome* \"sight; attention\"), however, are generally tagged with furigana.
Many children\'s manga, shōnen and shōjo manga use furigana (again however, rarely on numerals). Shōnen and shōjo manga tend to have furigana for all non-numeric characters, while some manga (such as early volumes of *Doraemon* and other manga published by Shogakukan), may also ignore furigana on elementary-grade kanji or easy words. Seinen and josei manga ignores furigana most of the time, even on the names of the characters if they\'re common names, although some publishers may still routinely use furigana for the first mentions of important characters\' names in a volume or chapter. There are also books with a phonetic guide (mainly in hiragana but sometimes in rōmaji) for Japanese learners, which may be bilingual or Japanese only. These are popular with foreigners wishing to master Japanese faster and enjoy reading Japanese short stories, novels or articles.
Due to the small type used for furigana, for maximum readability, some manga publishers may use regular kana instead of small kana. For example, はっしん *hasshin* may be spelled はつしん \**hatsushin* instead.
Some websites and tools exist which provide a phonetic guide for Japanese web pages (in hiragana, rōmaji or kiriru-moji); these are popular with both Japanese children and foreign Japanese learners.
In works aimed at adult Japanese speakers, furigana may be used on a word written in uncommon kanji; in the mass media, they are generally used on words containing non-Jōyō kanji.
Furigana commonly appear alongside kanji names and their romanizations on signs for railway stations, even if the pronunciation of the kanji is commonly known. Furigana also appear often on maps to show the pronunciation of unusual place names.
Before the second world war, the Japanese youth might have arguably been almost illiterate, and unable to read texts containing high amounts of Kanji if not for furigana.`{{Unreliable source?|reason=Not easily verifiable; No statistics to support.|date=July 2022}}`{=mediawiki}
### Names
Japanese names are usually written in kanji. Because there are many possible readings for kanji names, including special name-only readings called nanori, furigana are often used to give the readings of names. On Japanese official forms, where the name is to be written, there is always an adjacent column for the name to be written in furigana.
Furigana may also be used for foreign names written in kanji. Chinese and Korean names are the most common examples: Chinese names are usually pronounced with Japanese readings and the pronunciation written in hiragana, while Korean names are usually pronounced with Korean readings and the pronunciation written in katakana.
### Language learning {#language_learning}
Kanji and kanji compounds are often presented with furigana in Japanese-language textbooks for non-native speakers.
Furigana are also often used in foreign-language textbooks for Japanese learners to indicate pronunciation. The words are written in the original foreign script, such as hangul for Korean, and furigana is used to indicate the pronunciation. According to Ministry of Education guidelines, and the opinions of educators, the use of Japanese furigana should be avoided in English teaching due to the differences in pronunciation between English and Japanese. For instance, the word \"birthdate\" might be glossed in furigana as *バースデイト* (*bāsudeito*), which corresponds to an imperfect pronunciation.
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# Furigana
## Usage
### Other effects {#other_effects}
Furigana unrelated to the kanji they are assigned to are often used to convey certain effects, rather than to denote a phonetic guide, especially in manga, anime, video games, and tabletop games. This usage is known as *義訓* *gikun* (see also Kanji#Special readings). The specific effects vary.
It may be used to visually reinforce complex ideas without having to use long expressions. For example, the word `{{wikt-lang|ja|悪夢}}`{=mediawiki} *akumu* \"nightmare\" may be annotated with *しんじつ\]\]* *shinjitsu* \"truth\" (i.e. `{{ruby-ja|悪夢|しんじつ}}`{=mediawiki}) rather than its true reading, to convey the meaning of \"nightmarish truth\". Some authors may even use furigana that means the opposite of what the base text does to reinforce the complicated relationship between characters. For example, `{{wikt-lang|ja|親友}}`{=mediawiki} *shin\'yū* \"close friend\" may be annotated with `{{wikt-lang|ja|ライバル}}`{=mediawiki} *raibaru* \"rival\", to mean \"a rival who is also friend\".
Another use is to indicate the meanings of ambiguous or foreign words. For example, the word `{{wikt-lang|ja|ここ}}`{=mediawiki} (*koko*, \"here\") may be annotated with a more specific description like `{{wikt-lang|ja|病院}}`{=mediawiki} *byōin* \"hospital\" (i.e. `{{ruby-ja|病院|ここ}}`{=mediawiki}) to mean \"here (at this hospital)\". Or in a work of science fiction, an astronaut may use the word `{{wikt-lang|ja|ふるさと}}`{=mediawiki} *furusato* \"my hometown\", when referring to planet Earth; to clarify that for the reader, *ふるさと* may be written over the word `{{wikt-lang|ja|地球}}`{=mediawiki} *chikyū* \"Earth\". A similar technique is used in Japanese subtitles on foreign films to associate the written Japanese with the sounds actually being spoken by the actors, or in a translation of a work of fiction to preserve the original sound of a proper name in furigana while indicating its meaning with kanji. For example, \"Firebolt\" in the Harry Potter series is written `{{ruby-ja|炎の雷|ファイアボルト}}`{=mediawiki}, composed of the kanji `{{wikt-lang|ja|炎の雷}}`{=mediawiki} *honō no ikazuchi* \"flame thunderbolt\" and the furigana *ファイアボルト* *faiaboruto*.
Some manga combine the rendition of a foreign word (especially an obscure one) in furigana as the intended reading of a term, with more familiar kanji as the meaning. For example, `{{wikt-lang|ja|駅}}`{=mediawiki} *eki* \"station\" may be annotated with *ステーション* *sutēshon* (the rendition of the English \"station\") to convey a foreign, exotic feel; This is sometimes done conversely, for example, by annotating an exotic term like `{{wikt-lang|ja|ベーゼ}}`{=mediawiki} *bēze* \"kiss\" with a more common synonym like `{{wikt-lang|ja|キッス}}`{=mediawiki} *kissu*.
Some writers use furigana to represent slang pronunciations, particularly those that would be difficult to understand without the kanji to provide their meaning. Others use it simply to shrink kana spellings that are too long, thanks to the small type of furigana. For example, `{{wikt-lang|ja|インターポール}}`{=mediawiki} *intāpōru* \"Interpol\" may be shortened to `{{ruby-ja|ICPO|インターポール}}`{=mediawiki}.
In karaoke it is common for furigana to be placed on the song lyrics. The song lyrics are often written in kanji pronounced quite differently from the furigana. The furigana version is used for pronunciation.
## Other Japanese reading aids {#other_japanese_reading_aids}
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# Furigana
## Usage
### Okurigana
Okurigana are kana that appear inline at normal size following kanji stems, typically to complete and to inflect adjectives and verbs. In this use they may also help to disambiguate kanji with multiple readings; for example, *上がる* (*あがる*, *agaru*) vs. *上る* (*のぼる*, *noboru*). Unlike furigana, the use of okurigana is a mandatory part of the written language.
### Kunten
In the written style known as *kanbun*, which is the Japanese approximation of Classical Chinese, small marks called *kunten* are sometimes added as reading aids. Unlike furigana, which indicate pronunciation, *kunten* indicate Japanese grammatical structures absent from the *kanbun*, and also show how words should be reordered to fit Japanese sentence structure.
### Furikanji
Furigana are sometimes also used to indicate meaning, rather than pronunciation. Over the foreign text, smaller-sized Japanese words, in kana or kanji, corresponding to the *meaning* of the foreign words, effectively translate it in place. While rare now, some late 19th--early 20th century authors used kanji as furigana for loanwords written in katakana. This usage is called `{{nihongo|''furikanji''|振り漢字}}`{=mediawiki} in Japanese, since *furigana* implies the use of *kana*. For example, *歌詞}}\]\]* *ririkku* \"lyric\" may be tagged with *歌詞\]\]* *kashi* \"lyrics\" for clarification rather than for phonetic guidance
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# Frederick Abel
**Sir Frederick Augustus Abel, 1st Baronet** `{{post-nominals|country=GBR|GCVO|KCB|FRS}}`{=mediawiki} (17 July 1827`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}6 September 1902) was an English chemist who was recognised as the leading British authority on explosives. He is best known for the invention of cordite as a replacement for gunpowder in firearms.
## Education
Born in London as son of Johann Leopold Abel, Abel studied chemistry at the Royal Polytechnic Institution and in 1845 became one of the original 26 students of A. W. von Hofmann at the Royal College of Chemistry (now a constituent of Imperial College London). In 1852 he was appointed lecturer in chemistry at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, succeeding Michael Faraday, who had held that post since 1829.
## Early career {#early_career}
From 1854 until 1888 Abel served as ordnance chemist at the Chemical Establishment of the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, establishing himself as the leading British authority on explosives. Three years later was appointed chemist to the War Department and chemical referee to the government. During his tenure of this office, which lasted until 1888, he carried out a large amount of work in connection with the chemistry of explosives.
## Notable work {#notable_work}
One of the most important of his investigations had to do with the manufacture of guncotton, and he developed a process, consisting essentially of reducing the nitrated cotton to fine pulp, which enabled it to be safely manufactured and at the same time yielded the product in a form that increased its usefulness. This work to an important extent prepared the way for the \"smokeless powders\" which came into general use towards the end of the 19th century; cordite, the type adopted by the British government in 1891, was invented jointly by him and Sir James Dewar. He and Dewar were unsuccessfully sued by Alfred Nobel over infringement of Nobel\'s patent for a similar explosive called ballistite, the case finally being resolved in the House of Lords in 1895. He also extensively researched the behaviour of black powder when ignited, with the Scottish physicist Sir Andrew Noble. At the request of the British government, he devised the Abel test, a means of determining the flash point of petroleum products. His first instrument, the open-test apparatus, was specified in an Act of Parliament in 1868 for officially specifying petroleum products. It was superseded in August 1879 by the much more reliable Abel close-test instrument. Under his leadership, first, guncotton was developed at Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills, patented in 1865, then, the propellant cordite, patented in 1889. In electricity, Abel studied the construction of electrical fuses and other applications of electricity to warlike purposes.
## Leadership and honours {#leadership_and_honours}
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1860 and received their Royal Medal in 1887. He was president of the Chemical Society (1875--77), of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (then the Society of Telegraph Engineers) (1877), of the Institute of Chemistry (1881--82) and of the Society of Chemical Industry (1882--83). He was also president of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1891 and was awarded the Bessemer Gold Medal in 1897 for his work on problems of steel manufacture. He was awarded the Telford Medal by the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1879.
He was made a Commander of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1877. and knighted on 20 April 1883 He took an important part in the work of the Inventions Exhibition (London) in 1885, and in 1887 became organizing secretary and first director of the Imperial Institute, a position he held till his death in 1902. He was Rede Lecturer and received an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University in 1888. He was upgraded Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) on 3 February 1891, created a baronet, of Cadogan Place in the Parish of Chelsea in the County of London, on 25 May 1893 and made a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) on 8 March 1901.
Abel died at his residence in Whitehall Court, London, on 6 September 1902, aged 75, and was buried in Nunhead Cemetery, London. The baronetcy became extinct on his death.
## Family
Abel married twice; first to Sarah Blanch, daughter of James Blanch, of Bristol; secondly after his first wife\'s death to Giulietta de La Feuillade. He left no children. `{{Infobox hereditary title
| name = Abel baronets
| image = [[File:Abel Escutcheon.png|220px]]
| image_size = 220px
| alt =
| caption = Escutcheon of the Abel baronets
| creation_date = 1893<ref name="Burke-1903">{{cite book|last=Burke|first=Bernard|authorlink=Bernard Burke|editor=Ashworth P. Burke|title=A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage, the Privy Council, Knightage and Companionage|edition=65th|year=1903|publisher=Harrison and Sons|location=London|pages=1462–3}}</ref>
| status = extinct
| extinction_date = 1902<ref name="Burke-1903"/>
| family_seat =
| former_seat =
| arms = Sable on a Fess engrailed between two Roses palewise Argent three Trefoils slipped Vert
| crest = In front of a Dexter Arm embowed in Armour the hand grasping a Thunderbolt a Torch fesswise fired all proper
| motto = Ohne Rast Zum Ziel<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/index1988.htm|title=Abel (UK Baronet, 1893 – 1902}}</ref>
}}`{=mediawiki}
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# Frederick Abel
## Books
- [*Handbook of Chemistry*](https://archive.org/details/handbookofchemis00abelrich) (with C. L. Bloxam)
- *The Modern History of Gunpowder* (1866)
- *Gun-cotton* (1866)
- *On Explosive Agents* (1872)
- *Researches in Explosives* (1875)
-
- *Electricity applied to Explosive Purposes* (1898)
He also wrote several articles in the ninth edition of the *Encyclopædia Britannica*
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# Father Christmas
**Father Christmas** is the traditional English name for the personification of Christmas. Although now known as a Christmas gift-bringer, and typically considered to be synonymous with Santa Claus, he was originally part of a much older and unrelated English folkloric tradition. The recognisably modern figure of the English Father Christmas developed in the late Victorian period, but Christmas had been personified for centuries before then.
English personifications of Christmas were first recorded in the 15th century, with Father Christmas himself first appearing in the mid 17th century in the aftermath of the English Civil War. The Puritan-controlled English government had legislated to abolish Christmas, considering it popish, and had outlawed its traditional customs. Royalist political pamphleteers, linking the old traditions with their cause, adopted Old Father Christmas as the symbol of \'the good old days\' of feasting and good cheer. Following the Restoration in 1660, Father Christmas\'s profile declined. His character was maintained during the late 18th and into the 19th century by the Christmas folk plays later known as mummers\' plays.
Until Victorian times, Father Christmas was concerned with adult feasting and merry-making. He had no particular connection with children, nor with the giving of presents, nocturnal visits, stockings, chimneys or reindeer. But as later Victorian Christmases developed into child-centric family festivals, Father Christmas became a bringer of gifts.
The popular American myth of Santa Claus arrived in England in the 1850s and Father Christmas started to take on Santa Claus\'s attributes. By the 1880s the new customs had become established, with the nocturnal visitor sometimes being known as Santa Claus and sometimes as Father Christmas. He was often illustrated wearing a long red hooded gown trimmed with white fur.
Most residual distinctions between Father Christmas and Santa Claus largely faded away in the early years of the 20th century, and modern dictionaries consider the terms Father Christmas and Santa Claus to be synonymous.
## Early midwinter celebrations {#early_midwinter_celebrations}
The custom of merrymaking and feasting at Christmastide first appears in the historical record during the High Middle Ages (c 1100--1300). This almost certainly represented a continuation of pre-Christian midwinter celebrations in Britain of which---as the historian Ronald Hutton has pointed out---\"we have no details at all\". Personifications came later, and when they did they reflected the existing custom.
## 15th century---the first English personifications of Christmas {#th_centurythe_first_english_personifications_of_christmas}
The first known English personification of Christmas was associated with merry-making, singing and drinking. A carol attributed to Richard Smart, Rector of Plymtree in Devon from 1435 to 1477, has \'Sir Christemas\' announcing the news of Christ\'s birth and encouraging his listeners to drink: \"*Buvez bien par toute la compagnie*, / Make good cheer and be right merry, / And sing with us now joyfully: Nowell, nowell.\"
Many Christmas customs of the Late Middle Ages incorporated both sacred and secular themes. In Norwich in January 1443, at a traditional battle between the flesh and the spirit (represented by Christmas and Lent), John Gladman, crowned and disguised as \'King of Christmas\', rode behind a pageant of the months \"disguysed as the seson requird\" on a horse decorated with tinfoil.
## 16th century---feasting, entertainment and music {#th_centuryfeasting_entertainment_and_music}
In most of England the archaic word \'Yule\' had been replaced by \'Christmas\' by the 11th century, but in some places \'Yule\' survived as the normal dialect term. The City of York maintained an annual St Thomas\'s Day celebration of *The Riding of Yule and his Wife* which involved a figure representing Yule who carried bread and a leg of lamb. In 1572, the riding was suppressed on the orders of Edmund Grindal, the Archbishop of York (term 1570--1576), who complained of the \"undecent and uncomely disguising\" which drew multitudes of people from divine service.
Such personifications, illustrating the medieval fondness for pageantry and symbolism, extended throughout the Tudor and Stuart periods with Lord of Misrule characters, sometimes called \'Captain Christmas\', \'Prince Christmas\' or \'The Christmas Lord\', presiding over feasting and entertainment in grand houses, university colleges and Inns of Court.
In his allegorical play *Summer\'s Last Will and Testament*, written in about 1592, Thomas Nashe introduced for comic effect a miserly Christmas character who refuses to keep the feast. He is reminded by Summer of the traditional role that he ought to be playing: \"Christmas, how chance thou com'st not as the rest, / Accompanied with some music, or some song? / A merry carol would have graced thee well; / Thy ancestors have used it heretofore.\"
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# Father Christmas
## 17th century---religion and politics {#th_centuryreligion_and_politics}
### Puritan criticisms {#puritan_criticisms}
Early 17th century writers used the techniques of personification and allegory as a means of defending Christmas from attacks by radical Protestants.
Responding to a perceived decline in the levels of Christmas hospitality provided by the gentry, Ben Jonson in *Christmas, His Masque* (1616) dressed his Old Christmas in out-of-date fashions: \"attir\'d in round Hose, long Stockings, a close Doublet, a high crownd Hat with a Broach, a long thin beard, a Truncheon, little Ruffes, white shoes, his Scarffes, and Garters tyed crosse\". Surrounded by guards, Christmas asserts his rightful place in the Protestant Church and protests against attempts to exclude him: \"Why Gentlemen, doe you know what you doe? ha! would you ha\'kept me out? Christmas, old Christmas? Christmas of London, and Captaine Christmas? \... they would not let me in: I must come another time! a good jeast, as if I could come more then once a yeare; why, I am no dangerous person, and so I told my friends, o\'the Guard. I am old Gregorie Christmas still, and though I come out of Popes-head-alley as good a Protestant, as any i\'my Parish.\"
The stage directions to *The Springs Glorie*, a 1638 court masque by Thomas Nabbes, state, \"Christmas is personated by an old reverend Gentleman in a furr\'d gown and cappe &c.\" Shrovetide and Christmas dispute precedence, and Shrovetide issues a challenge: \"I say Christmas you are past date, you are out of the Almanack. Resigne, resigne.\" To which Christmas responds: \"Resigne to thee! I that am the King of good cheere and feasting, though I come but once a yeare to raigne over bak\'t, boyled, roast and plum-porridge, will have being in despight of thy lard-ship.\"
This sort of character was to feature repeatedly over the next 250 years in pictures, stage plays and folk dramas. Initially known as \'Sir Christmas\' or \'Lord Christmas\', he later became increasingly referred to as \'Father Christmas\'.
### Puritan revolution---enter \'Father Christmas\' {#puritan_revolutionenter_father_christmas}
The rise of puritanism led to accusations of popery in connection with pre-reformation Christmas traditions. When the Puritans took control of government in the mid-1640s they made concerted efforts to abolish Christmas and to outlaw its traditional customs. For 15 years from around 1644, before and during the Interregnum of 1649-1660, the celebration of Christmas in England was forbidden. The suppression was given greater legal weight from June 1647 when parliament passed an *Ordinance for Abolishing of Festivals* which formally abolished Christmas in its entirety, along with the other traditional church festivals of Easter and Whitsun.
It was in this context that Royalist pamphleteers linked the old traditions of Christmas with the cause of King and Church, while radical puritans argued for the suppression of Christmas both in its religious and its secular aspects. In the hands of Royalist pamphlet writers, Old Father Christmas served as the symbol and spokesman of \'the good old days\' of feasting and good cheer, and it became popular for Christmastide\'s defenders to present him as lamenting past times.
*The Arraignment, Conviction and Imprisoning of Christmas* (January 1646) describes a discussion between a town crier and a Royalist gentlewoman enquiring after Old Father Christmas who \'is gone from hence\'. Its anonymous author, a parliamentarian, presents Father Christmas in a negative light, concentrating on his allegedly popish attributes: \"For age, this hoarie headed man was of great yeares, and as white as snow; he entred the Romish Kallender time out of mind; \[he\] is old \...; he was full and fat as any dumb Docter of them all. He looked under the consecrated Laune sleeves as big as Bul-beefe \... but, since the catholike liquor is taken from him, he is much wasted, so that he hath looked very thin and ill of late \... But yet some other markes that you may know him by, is that the wanton Women dote after him; he helped them to so many new Gownes, Hatts, and Hankerches, and other fine knacks, of which he hath a pack on his back, in which is good store of all sorts, besides the fine knacks that he got out of their husbands\' pockets for household provisions for him. He got Prentises, Servants, and Schollars many play dayes, and therefore was well beloved by them also, and made all merry with Bagpipes, Fiddles, and other musicks, Giggs, Dances, and Mummings.\"
The character of \'Christmas\' (also called \'father Christmas\') speaks in a pamphlet of 1652, immediately after the English Civil War, published anonymously by the satirical Royalist poet John Taylor: *The Vindication of Christmas or, His Twelve Yeares\' Observations upon the Times*. A frontispiece illustrates an old, bearded Christmas in a brimmed hat, a long open robe and undersleeves. Christmas laments the pitiful quandary he has fallen into since he came into \"this headlesse countrey\". \"I was in good hope that so long a misery would have made them glad to bid a merry Christmas welcome. But welcome or not welcome, I am come\....\" He concludes with a verse: \"Lets dance and sing, and make good chear, / For Christmas comes but once a year.\"
In 1658 Josiah King published *The Examination and Tryall of Old Father Christmas* (the earliest citation for the specific term \'Father Christmas\' recognised by the *Oxford English Dictionary*). King portrays Father Christmas as a white-haired old man who is on trial for his life based on evidence laid against him by the Commonwealth. Father Christmas\'s counsel mounts the defence: \"Me thinks my Lord, the very Clouds blush, to see this old Gentleman thus egregiously abused. if at any time any have abused themselves by immoderate eating, and drinking or otherwise spoil the creatures, it is none of this old mans fault; neither ought he to suffer for it; for example the Sun and the Moon are by the heathens worship'd are they therefore bad because idolized? so if any abuse this old man, they are bad for abusing him, not he bad, for being abused.\" The jury acquits.
### Restoration
Following the Restoration in 1660, most traditional Christmas celebrations were revived, although as these were no longer contentious the historic documentary sources become fewer.
In 1678 Josiah King reprinted his 1658 pamphlet with additional material. In this version, the restored Father Christmas is looking better: \"\[he\] look\'t so smug and pleasant, his cherry cheeks appeared through his thin milk white locks, like \[b\]lushing Roses vail\'d with snow white Tiffany \... the true Emblem of Joy and Innocence.\"
*Old Christmass Returnd*, a ballad collected by Samuel Pepys, celebrated the revival of festivities in the latter part of the century: \"Old Christmass is come for to keep open house / He scorns to be guilty of starving a mouse, / Then come boyes and welcome, for dyet the chief / Plumb pudding, Goose, Capon, minc\'t pies & Roast beef\".
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# Father Christmas
## 18th century---a low profile {#th_centurya_low_profile}
As interest in Christmas customs waned, Father Christmas\'s profile declined. He still continued to be regarded as Christmas\'s presiding spirit, although his occasional earlier associations with the Lord of Misrule died out with the disappearance of the Lord of Misrule himself. The historian Ronald Hutton notes, \"after a taste of genuine misrule during the Interregnum nobody in the ruling elite seems to have had any stomach for simulating it.\" Hutton also found \"patterns of entertainment at late Stuart Christmases are remarkably timeless \[and\] nothing very much seems to have altered during the next century either.\" The diaries of 18th and early 19th century clergy take little note of any Christmas traditions.
In *The Country Squire*, a play of 1732, Old Christmas is depicted as someone who is rarely-found: a generous squire. The character Scabbard remarks, \"Men are grown so \... stingy, now-a-days, that there is scarce One, in ten Parishes, makes any House-keeping. \... Squire Christmas \... keeps a good House, or else I do not know of One besides.\" When invited to spend Christmas with the squire, he comments \"I will \... else I shall forget Christmas, for aught I see.\" Similar opinions were expressed in *Round About Our Coal Fire \... with some curious Memories of Old Father Christmas; Shewing what Hospitality was in former Times, and how little there remains of it at present* (1734, reprinted with Father Christmas subtitle 1796).
David Garrick\'s popular 1774 Drury Lane production of *A Christmas Tale* included a personified Christmas character who announced \"Behold a personage well known to fame; / Once lov\'d and honour\'d -- Christmas is my name! /\.../ I, English hearts rejoic\'d in days of yore; / for new strange modes, imported by the score, / You will not sure turn Christmas out of door!\"
### Early records of folk plays {#early_records_of_folk_plays}
By the late 18th century Father Christmas had become a stock character in the Christmas folk plays later known as mummers plays. During the following century they became probably the most widespread of all calendar customs. Hundreds of villages had their own mummers who performed traditional plays around the neighbourhood, especially at the big houses. Father Christmas appears as a character in plays of the Southern England type, being mostly confined to plays from the south and west of England and Wales. His ritual opening speech is characterised by variants of a couplet closely reminiscent of John Taylor\'s \"But welcome or not welcome, I am come\...\" from 1652.
The oldest extant speech is from Truro, Cornwall in the late 1780s:
: {\|
\| hare comes i ould father Christmas welcom or welcom not \
i hope ould father Christmas will never be forgot \
ould father Christmas a pair but woance a yare \
he lucks like an ould man of 4 score yare
\| *Here comes I, old Father Christmas, welcome or welcome not,\
I hope old Father Christmas will never be forgot.\
Old Father Christmas appear\[s\] but once a year,\
He looks like an old man of fourscore year \[80\]*. \|}
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# Father Christmas
## 19th century---revival {#th_centuryrevival}
During the Victorian period, Christmas customs enjoyed a significant revival, including the figure of Father Christmas himself as the emblem of \'good cheer\'. His physical appearance at this time became more variable, and he was by no means always portrayed as the old and bearded figure imagined by 17th century writers.
### \'Merry England\' view of Christmas {#merry_england_view_of_christmas}
In his 1808 poem *Marmion*, Walter Scott wrote:
: \"England was merry England, when / Old Christmas brought his sports again.
: \'Twas Christmas broach\'d the mightiest ale; / \'Twas Christmas told the merriest tale;
: A Christmas gambol oft could cheer / The poor man\'s heart through half the year.\"
Scott\'s phrase Merry England has been adopted by historians to describe the romantic notion that there was a Golden Age of the English past, allegedly since lost, that was characterised by universal hospitality and charity. The notion had a profound influence on the way that popular customs were seen, and most of the 19th century writers who bemoaned the state of contemporary Christmases were, at least to some extent, yearning for the mythical Merry England version.
Thomas Hervey\'s *The Book of Christmas* (1836), illustrated by Robert Seymour, exemplifies this view. In Hervey\'s personification of the lost charitable festival, \"Old Father Christmas, at the head of his numerous and uproarious family, might ride his goat through the streets of the city and the lanes of the village, but he dismounted to sit for some few moments by each man\'s hearth; while some one or another of his merry sons would break away, to visit the remote farm-houses or show their laughing faces at many a poor man\'s door.\" Seymour\'s illustration shows Old Christmas dressed in a fur gown, crowned with a holly wreath, and riding a yule goat.
In an extended allegory, Hervey imagines his contemporary Old Father Christmas as a white-bearded magician dressed in a long robe and crowned with holly. His children are identified as Roast Beef (Sir Loin) and his faithful squire or bottle-holder Plum Pudding; the slender figure of Wassail with her fount of perpetual youth; a \'tricksy spirit\' who bears the bowl and is on the best of terms with the Turkey; Mumming; Misrule, with a feather in his cap; the Lord of Twelfth Night under a state-canopy of cake and wearing his ancient crown; Saint Distaff looking like an old maid (\"she used to be a sad romp; but her merriest days we fear are over\"); Carol singing; the Waits; and the twin-faced Janus.
Hervey ends by lamenting the lost \"uproarious merriment\" of Christmas, and calls on his readers \"who know anything of the \'old, old, very old, gray-bearded gentleman\' or his family to aid us in our search after them; and with their good help we will endeavor to restore them to some portion of their ancient honors in England\".
Father Christmas or Old Christmas, represented as a jolly-faced bearded man often surrounded by plentiful food and drink, started to appear regularly in illustrated magazines of the 1840s. He was dressed in a variety of costumes and usually had holly on his head, as in these illustrations from the *Illustrated London News*:
<File:Old> Christmas, Illustrated London News 24 Dec 1842.jpg\|alt=Engraving of Old Christmas 1842\|Old Christmas 1842 <File:The> Music in the Hall, Illustrated London News, 23 Dec 1843.jpg\|alt=Engraving of Old Christmas or Father Christmas 1843\|Old Christmas / Father Christmas 1843 <File:Merry> Christmas, Illustrated London News, 25 December 1847.jpg\|alt=Engraving of Old Christmas 1847\|Old Christmas 1847
Charles Dickens\'s 1843 novel *A Christmas Carol* was highly influential, and has been credited both with reviving interest in Christmas in England and with shaping the themes attached to it. A famous image from the novel is John Leech\'s illustration of the \'Ghost of Christmas Present\'. Although not explicitly named Father Christmas, the character wears a holly wreath, is shown sitting among food, drink and wassail bowl, and is dressed in the traditional loose furred gown---but in green rather than the red that later become ubiquitous.
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# Father Christmas
## 19th century---revival {#th_centuryrevival}
### Later 19th century mumming {#later_19th_century_mumming}
Old Father Christmas continued to make his annual appearance in Christmas folk plays throughout the 19th century, his appearance varying considerably according to local custom. Sometimes, as in Hervey\'s book of 1836, he was portrayed (below left) as a hunchback.
One unusual portrayal (below centre) was described several times by William Sandys between 1830 and 1852, all in essentially the same terms: \"Father Christmas is represented as a grotesque old man, with a large mask and comic wig, and a huge club in his hand.\" This representation is considered by the folklore scholar Peter Millington to be the result of the southern Father Christmas replacing the northern Beelzebub character in a hybrid play. A spectator to a Worcestershire version of the *St George* play in 1856 noted, \"Beelzebub was identical with Old Father Christmas.\"
A mummers play mentioned in *The Book of Days* (1864) opened with \"Old Father Christmas, bearing, as emblematic devices, the holly bough, wassail-bowl, &c\". A corresponding illustration (below right) shows the character wearing not only a holly wreath but also a gown with a hood.
<File:Mummers>, by Robert Seymour, 1836.jpg\|alt=Engraving showing a hunchback Old Father Christmas in an 1836 mummers play\|A hunchback Old Father Christmas in an 1836 play with long robe, holly wreath and staff. <File:Sandys> 1852 - Modern Christmas Plays, ChapterVIII.jpg\|alt=Engraving of an 1852 play with grotesque Old Father Christmas character\|An 1852 play. The Old Father Christmas character is on the far left. <File:A> party of mummers, Robert Chambers, The Book of Days, vol II, 1864.jpg\|alt=Engraving of a party of mummers 1864\|A party of mummers 1864
In a Hampshire folk play of 1860 Father Christmas is portrayed as a disabled soldier: \"\[he\] wore breeches and stockings, carried a begging-box, and conveyed himself upon two sticks; his arms were striped with chevrons like a noncommissioned officer.\"
In the latter part of the 19th century and the early years of the next the folk play tradition in England rapidly faded, and the plays almost died out after the First World War taking their ability to influence the character of Father Christmas with them.
### Father Christmas as gift-giver {#father_christmas_as_gift_giver}
In pre-Victorian personifications, Father Christmas had been concerned essentially with adult feasting and games. He had no particular connection with children, nor with the giving of presents. But as Victorian Christmases developed into family festivals centred mainly on children, Father Christmas started to be associated with the giving of gifts.
The Cornish Quaker diarist Barclay Fox relates a family party given on 26 December 1842 that featured \"the venerable effigies of Father Christmas with scarlet coat & cocked hat, stuck all over with presents for the guests, by his side the old year, a most dismal & haggard old beldame in a night cap and spectacles, then 1843 \[the new year\], a promising baby asleep in a cradle\".
In Britain, the first evidence of a child writing letters to Father Christmas requesting gift has been found in 1895.
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# Father Christmas
## 19th century---revival {#th_centuryrevival}
### Santa Claus crosses the Atlantic {#santa_claus_crosses_the_atlantic}
The figure of Santa Claus had originated in the US, drawing at least partly upon Dutch St Nicolas traditions. A New York publication of 1821, *A New-Year's Present*, contained an illustrated poem *Old Santeclaus with Much Delight* in which a Santa Claus figure on a reindeer sleigh brings presents for good children and a \"long, black birchen rod\" for use on the bad ones. In 1823 came the famous poem *A Visit from St. Nicholas*, usually attributed to the New York writer Clement Clarke Moore, which developed the character further. Moore\'s poem became immensely popular and Santa Claus customs, initially localized in the Dutch American areas, were becoming general in the United States by the middle of the century.
The January 1848 edition of *Howitt\'s Journal of Literature and Popular Progress*, published in London, carried an illustrated article entitled \"New Year\'s Eve in Different Nations\". This noted that one of the chief features of the American New Year\'s Eve was a custom carried over from the Dutch, namely the arrival of Santa Claus with gifts for the children. Santa Claus is \"no other than the Pelz Nickel of Germany \... the good Saint Nicholas of Russia \... He arrives in Germany about a fortnight before Christmas, but as may be supposed from all the visits he has to pay there, and the length of his voyage, he does not arrive in America, until this eve.\"
In 1851 advertisements began appearing in Liverpool newspapers for a new transatlantic passenger service to and from New York aboard the Eagle Line\'s ship *Santa Claus*, and returning visitors and emigrants to the British Isles on this and other vessels will have been familiar with the American figure. There were some early adoptions in Britain. A Scottish reference has Santa Claus leaving presents on New Year\'s Eve 1852, with children \"hanging their stockings up on each side of the fire-place, in their sleeping apartments, at night, and waiting patiently till morning, to see what Santa Claus puts into them during their slumbers\". In Ireland in 1853, on the other hand, presents were being left on Christmas Eve according to a character in a newspaper short story who says \"\... tomorrow will be Christmas. What will Santa Claus bring us?\" A poem published in Belfast in 1858 includes the lines \"The children sleep; they dream of him, the fairy, / Kind Santa Claus, who with a right good will / Comes down the chimney with a footstep airy \...\"
*A Visit from St. Nicholas* was published in England in December 1853 in *Notes and Queries*. An explanatory note states that the St Nicholas figure is known as Santa Claus in New York State and as Krishkinkle in Pennsylvania.
1854 marked the first English publication of *Carl Krinkin; or, The Christmas Stocking* by the popular American author Susan Warner. The novel was published three times in London in 1854--5, and there were several later editions. Characters in the book include both Santa Claus (complete with sleigh, stocking and chimney), leaving presents on Christmas Eve and---separately---Old Father Christmas. The Stocking of the title tells of how in England, \"a great many years ago\", it saw Father Christmas enter with his traditional refrain \"Oh! here come I, old father Christmas, welcome or not \...\" He wore a crown of yew and ivy, and he carried a long staff topped with holly-berries. His dress \"was a long brown robe which fell down about his feet, and on it were sewed little spots of white cloth to represent snow\".
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# Father Christmas
## 19th century---revival {#th_centuryrevival}
### Merger with Santa Claus {#merger_with_santa_claus}
As the US-inspired customs became popular in England, Father Christmas started to take on Santa Claus\'s attributes. His costume became more standardised, and although depictions often still showed him carrying holly, the holly crown became rarer and was often replaced with a hood. It still remained common, though, for Father Christmas and Santa Claus to be distinguished, and as late as the 1890s there were still examples of the old-style Father Christmas appearing without any of the new American features.
#### Appearances in public {#appearances_in_public}
The blurring of public roles occurred quite rapidly. In an 1854 newspaper description of the public Boxing Day festivities in Luton, Bedfordshire, a gift-giving Father Christmas/Santa Claus figure was already being described as \'familiar\': \"On the right-hand side was Father Christmas\'s bower, formed of evergreens, and in front was the proverbial Yule log, glistening in the snow \... He wore a great furry white coat and cap, and a long white beard and hair spoke to his hoar antiquity. Behind his bower he had a large selection of fancy articles which formed the gifts he distributed to holders of prize tickets from time to time during the day \... Father Christmas bore in his hand a small Christmas tree laden with bright little gifts and bon-bons, and altogether he looked like the familiar Santa Claus or Father Christmas of the picture book.\" Discussing the shops of Regent Street in London, another writer noted in December of that year, \"you may fancy yourself in the abode of Father Christmas or St. Nicholas himself.\"
During the 1860s and the 1870s, Father Christmas became a popular subject on Christmas cards, where he was shown in many different costumes. Sometimes he gave presents and sometimes received them.
An illustrated article of 1866 explained the concept of *The Cave of Mystery*. In an imagined children\'s party this took the form of a recess in the library which evoked \"dim visions of the cave of Aladdin\" and was \"well filled \... with all that delights the eye, pleases the ear, or tickles the fancy of children\". The young guests \"tremblingly await the decision of the improvised Father Christmas, with his flowing grey beard, long robe, and slender staff\".
From the 1870s onwards, Christmas shopping had begun to evolve as a separate seasonal activity, and by the late 19th century it had become an important part of the English Christmas. The purchasing of toys, especially from the new department stores, became strongly associated with the season. The first retail Christmas Grotto was set up in JR Robert\'s store in Stratford, London in December 1888, and shopping arenas for children---often called \'Christmas Bazaars\'---spread rapidly during the 1890s and 1900s, helping to assimilate Father Christmas/Santa Claus into society.
Sometimes the two characters continued to be presented as separate, as in a procession at the Olympia Exhibition of 1888 in which both Father Christmas and Santa Claus took part, with Little Red Riding Hood and other children\'s characters in between. At other times the characters were conflated: in 1885 Mr Williamson\'s London Bazaar in Sunderland was reported to be a \"Temple of juvenile delectation and delight. In the well-lighted window is a representation of Father Christmas, with the printed intimation that \'Santa Claus is arranging within.\'\"
Even after the appearance of the store grotto, it was still not firmly established who should hand out gifts at parties. A writer in the *Illustrated London News* of December 1888 suggested that a Sibyl should dispense gifts from a \'snow cave\', but a little over a year later she had changed her recommendation to a gypsy in a \'magic cave\'. Alternatively, the hostess could \"have Father Christmas arrive, towards the end of the evening, with a sack of toys on his back. He must have a white head and a long white beard, of course. Wig and beard can be cheaply hired from a theatrical costumier, or may be improvised from tow in case of need. He should wear a greatcoat down to his heels, liberally sprinkled with flour as though he had just come from that land of ice where Father Christmas is supposed to reside.\"
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# Father Christmas
## 19th century---revival {#th_centuryrevival}
### Merger with Santa Claus {#merger_with_santa_claus}
#### As secret nocturnal visitor {#as_secret_nocturnal_visitor}
The nocturnal visitor aspect of the American myth took much longer to become naturalised. From the 1840s it had been accepted readily enough that presents were left for children by unseen hands overnight on Christmas Eve, but the receptacle was a matter of debate, as was the nature of the visitor. Dutch tradition had St Nicholas leaving presents in shoes laid out on 5 December, while in France shoes were filled by Père Noël. The older shoe custom and the newer American stocking custom trickled only slowly into Britain, with writers and illustrators remaining uncertain for many years. Although the stocking eventually triumphed, the shoe custom had still not been forgotten by 1901 when an illustration entitled *Did you see Santa Claus, Mother?* was accompanied by the verse \"Her Christmas dreams / Have all come true; / Stocking o\'erflows / and likewise shoe.\"
Before Santa Claus and the stocking became ubiquitous, one English tradition had been for fairies to visit on Christmas Eve to leave gifts in shoes set out in front of the fireplace.
Aspects of the American Santa Claus myth were sometimes adopted in isolation and applied to Father Christmas. In a short fantasy piece, the editor of the *Cheltenham Chronicle* in 1867 dreamt of being seized by the collar by Father Christmas, \"rising up like a Geni of the Arabian Nights \... and moving rapidly through the *aether*\". Hovering over the roof of a house, Father Christmas cries \'Open Sesame\' to have the roof roll back to disclose the scene within.
It was not until the 1870s that the tradition of a nocturnal Santa Claus began to be adopted by ordinary people. The poem *The Baby\'s Stocking*, which was syndicated to local newspapers in 1871, took it for granted that readers would be familiar with the custom, and would understand the joke that the stocking might be missed as \"Santa Claus wouldn\'t be looking for anything half so small.\" On the other hand, when *The Preston Guardian* published its poem *Santa Claus and the Children* in 1877 it felt the need to include a long preface explaining exactly who Santa Claus was.
Folklorists and antiquarians were not, it seems, familiar with the new local customs and Ronald Hutton notes that in 1879 the newly formed Folk-Lore Society, ignorant of American practices, was still \"excitedly trying to discover the source of the new belief\".
In January 1879 the antiquarian Edwin Lees wrote to *Notes and Queries* seeking information about an observance he had been told about by \'a country person\': \"On Christmas Eve, when the inmates of a house in the country retire to bed, all those desirous of a present place a stocking outside the door of their bedroom, with the expectation that some mythical being called Santiclaus will fill the stocking or place something within it before the morning. This is of course well known, and the master of the house does in reality place a Christmas gift secretly in each stocking; but the giggling girls in the morning, when bringing down their presents, affect to say that Santiclaus visited and filled the stockings in the night. From what region of the earth or air this benevolent Santiclaus takes flight I have not been able to ascertain \...\" Lees received several responses, linking \'Santiclaus\' with the continental traditions of St Nicholas and \'Petit Jesus\' (Christkind), but no-one mentioned Father Christmas and no-one was correctly able to identify the American source.
By the 1880s the American myth had become firmly established in the popular English imagination, the nocturnal visitor sometimes being known as Santa Claus and sometimes as Father Christmas (often complete with a hooded robe). An 1881 poem imagined a child awaiting a visit from Santa Claus and asking \"Will he come like Father Christmas, / Robed in green and beard all white? / Will he come amid the darkness? / Will he come at all tonight?\" The French writer Max O\'Rell, who evidently thought the custom was established in the England of 1883, explained that Father Christmas \"*descend par la cheminée, pour remplir de bonbons et de joux les bas que les enfants ont suspendus au pied du lit.*\" \[comes down the chimney, to fill with sweets and games the stockings that the children have hung from the foot of the bed\]. And in her poem *Agnes: A Fairy Tale* (1891), Lilian M Bennett treats the two names as interchangeable: \"Old Santa Claus is exceedingly kind, / but he won\'t come to Wide-awakes, you will find\... / Father Christmas won\'t come if he can hear / You\'re awake. So to bed my bairnies dear.\" The commercial availability from 1895 of Tom Smith & Co\'s *Santa Claus Surprise Stockings* indicates how deeply the American myth had penetrated English society by the end of the century.
Representations of the developing character at this period were sometimes labelled \'Santa Claus\' and sometimes \'Father Christmas\', with a tendency for the latter still to allude to old-style associations with charity and with food and drink, as in several of these *Punch* illustrations:
<File:The> Awakening of Father Christmas, Punch, Dec 1891.jpg\|alt=1891 engraving of Father Christmas being awoken by a figure representing Charity\|*The Awakening of Father Christmas* 1891 <File:A> Christmas Puzzle, Punch, Dec 1895.jpg\|alt=1895 engraving of Father Christmas asking a ragged child \"Where\'s your stocking?\"\|\"Where\'s your stocking?\" 1895 <File:Father> Christmas Up-To-Date, Punch, Dec 1896.jpg\|alt=1896 engraving of Father Christmas driving an early car\|*Father Christmas Up-To-Date* 1896 <File:Father> Christmas Not Up-To-Date, Punch, Dec 1897.jpg\|alt=1897 engraving of Father Christmas\|*Father Christmas Not Up-To-Date* 1897
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