Biography.

Humperdinck was born at Siegburg in the Rhine Province in 1854. After receiving piano lessons, he produced his first composition at the age of seven. His first attempts at works for the stage were two singspiele written when he was 13. His parents disapproved of his plans for a career in music and encouraged him to study architecture. Nevertheless, he began taking music classes under Ferdinand Hiller and Isidor Seiss at the Cologne Conservatory in 1872. In 1876, he won a scholarship that enabled him to go to Munich, where he studied with Franz Lachner and later with Josef Rheinberger. In 1879, he won the first Mendelssohn Award given by the Mendelssohn Stiftung (foundation) in Berlin. He went to Italy and became acquainted with Richard Wagner in Naples. Wagner invited him to join him in Bayreuth, and during 1880 and 1881 Humperdinck assisted in the production of "Parsifal". He also served as music tutor to Wagner's son, Siegfried.  After winning another prize, Humperdinck traveled through Italy, France, and Spain and spent two years teaching at the Gran Teatre del Liceu Conservatory in Barcelona. In 1887, he returned to Cologne. He was appointed professor at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt in 1890 and also teacher of harmony at Julius Stockhausen's Vocal School. By this time he had composed several works for chorus and a "Humoreske" for small orchestra, which enjoyed a vogue in Germany.

"Hänsel und Gretel".

Humperdinck's reputation rests chiefly on his opera "Hänsel und Gretel", on which he began work in Frankfurt in 1890. He first composed four songs to accompany a puppet show his nieces were giving at home. Then, using a libretto by his sister Adelheid Wette rather loosely based on the version of the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, he composed a singspiel of 16 songs with piano accompaniment and connecting dialogue. By January 1891 he had begun working on a complete orchestration.  The opera premiered in Weimar on 23 December 1893, under the baton of Richard Strauss. With its highly original synthesis of Wagnerian techniques and traditional German folk songs, "Hansel and Gretel" was an instant and overwhelming success.  "Hansel and Gretel" has always been Humperdinck's most popular work. In 1923 the Royal Opera House (London) chose it for their first complete radio opera broadcast. Eight years later, it was the first opera transmitted live from the Metropolitan Opera (New York).

Later career.

In 1896, Kaiser Wilhelm II made Humperdinck a Professor and he went to live at Boppard. Four years later, however, he went to Berlin where he was appointed head of a Meister-Schule of composition. His students included the Basque composer Andrés Isasi. Among his other stage works are:  While composing those works, Humperdinck held various teaching positions of distinction and collaborated in the theater, providing incidental music for a number of Max Reinhardt's productions in Berlin, for example, for Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" in 1905.  Although recognized as a disciple of Wagner rather than an innovator, Humperdinck was nevertheless the first composer to use Sprechgesang—a vocal technique halfway between singing and speaking—in his melodrama "Königskinder" (1897).  In 1914, Humperdinck seems to have applied for the post of director of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Australia, but with the outbreak of World War I it became unthinkable for a German to hold that position, and the job went instead to Belgium's Henri Verbrugghen. Also in 1914, Humperdinck signed the Manifesto of the Ninety-Three, declaring support for German military actions during early World War I.  On 5 January 1912 Humperdinck suffered a severe stroke. Although he recovered, his left hand remained permanently paralyzed. He continued to compose, completing "Gaudeamus" with the help of his son, Wolfram, in 1918. On 26 September 1921 Humperdinck attended a performance of Carl Maria von Weber's "Der Freischütz" in Neustrelitz, Wolfram's first effort as a stage director. He suffered a heart attack during the performance and died the next day from a second heart attack. The Berlin State Opera performed "Hansel and Gretel" in his memory a few weeks later. He was buried at the in Stahnsdorf near Berlin.  For a list of Humperdinck's pupils, see.  In 1965, British singer Arnold Dorsey named himself after the composer.  The main belt asteroid 9913 Humperdinck, discovered in 1977, was named after the composer.

Engelbert Humperdinck (; 1 September 1854 – 27 September 1921) was a German composer, who wrote the opera "Hansel and Gretel".


History.

Before commercial wall plugs, fixings were made to brick or masonry walls by chiselling a groove into a soft mortar joint, hammering in a crude wooden plug and then attaching to the wooden plug. This was time consuming and required a large hole, thus more patching of the wall afterwards. It also limited the holes' location to the mortar joints.  The original wall plug was invented by John Joseph Rawlings in 1911, and marketed under the name "Rawlplug". These plugs became popular after the First World War, when a demand for retro-fitting existing buildings with new electric lighting coincided with a shortage of labour, encouraging many new labour-saving innovations in the building trade. Rawlplug gained their prominence from their adoption in the British Museum.  Early wall plugs were thick-walled fibre tubes, made of parallel strings bonded with glue. The Rawlings brothers conducted thousand of trials using many diverse materials in their search for the perfect plug. Among the many solutions tested were plugs made of lead, zinc, natural and synthetic rubber, hemp fibres, glass, wood, and paper. They imported Indian jute as it possessed natural resistance to the effects of humidity and for particularly damp conditions they developed a range of white bronze plugs. Most current brands are plastic, first designed in 1958 by German inventor Artur Fischer, known as the Fischer Wall Plug.  Other varieties of wall plug are mechanical anchors for heavy duty loads and hollow wall fixings for fixing to plasterboard. The first mechanical anchor, the Rawlbolt, was designed in the 1930s by the Rawlplug company and the first fixing for hollow walls was the Toggle Bolt, which was also designed by Rawlplug in 1941.

Split-ribbed anchor.

Nowadays, one of the most common designs for light loads is the split-ribbed plastic anchor. It consist of two halves that increase their separation (split) as the screw penetrates between them. As its name suggests, this type of anchor also has ribs on the outside to prevent the anchor from slipping out of the hole as the screw is driven in. This type of anchor is also known as a "conical screw anchor".

Fibre and resin mixes.

On crumbling walls it may be difficult to drill a clean hole, or the force of the expanding plug may be enough to cause cracking. In these cases, a hardening liquid or putty mixture may be used instead.  One of the first of these mixtures was produced by Rawlplug and was composed of dry white asbestos fibres, sold loose in a tin. The user wetted some into a ball (usually by spitting on them) and pushed this plug of putty into the hole. A small tamper and spike was supplied with the kit. This putty worked very well, but the hazard of the asbestos fibres means that the product is no longer available. However, another way to fix wall plugs is accomplished by the application of a cotton woven pad which has been impregnated with a special formulated gypsum to bond into the wall. The pad is wetted and wrapped around the wall plug, and the two are inserted into the hole; after a short time it hardens and a strong bond is achieved and the wall fitting can be applied. It is used in combination with wall plugs in masonry, ceramic, wood and plasterboard walls.  Modern resin mixtures are based on polyester resins. Apart from their use in construction, they're also used in climbing.

Hollow walls.

There are special fasteners for hollow walls such as plasterboard partitions, which are not thick enough to take wall plugs. The fasteners have toggle arms, which either drop into place or expand within the cavity, and a fixing screw which is threaded through them.

Expansion anchors.

These are often called "lead anchors" or "plastic anchors", and are used as follows:

Other types.

Anchors designed especially for fastening to hollow walls, include toggle bolts and molly bolts. These wall anchors are also known by other names, such as, "tacos", drywall hangers, expansion nuts, etc.

A wall plug (UK English), also known as an anchor (US) or "Rawlplug" (UK), is a fibre or plastic (originally wood) insert used to enable the attachment of a screw in material that is porous or brittle or that would otherwise not support the weight of the object attached with the screw. It is a type of anchor that, for example, allows screws to be fitted into masonry walls.


Biography.

Early life.

Gabin was born Jean-Alexis Moncorgé in Paris, the son of Madeleine Petit and Ferdinand Moncorgé, a cafe owner and cabaret entertainer whose stage name was Gabin, which is a first name in French. He grew up in the village of Mériel in the Seine-et-Oise (now Val-d'Oise) département, about 22 mi (35 km) north of Paris. He attended the Lycée Janson de Sailly. Gabin left school early, and worked as a laborer until the age of 19 when he entered show business with a bit part in a Folies Bergères production. He continued performing in a variety of minor roles before going into the military.

Career.

Early days.

After completing his military service in the Fusiliers marins, he returned to the entertainment business, working under the stage name of Jean Gabin at whatever was offered in the Parisian music halls and operettas, imitating the singing style of Maurice Chevalier, which was the rage at the time. He was part of a troupe that toured South America, and upon returning to France found work at the Moulin Rouge. His performances started getting noticed, and better stage roles came along that led to parts in two silent films in 1928.  Two years later Gabin made the transition to sound films in a 1930 Pathé Frères production, "". Playing secondary roles, he made more than a dozen films over the next four years, including films directed by Maurice and Jacques Tourneur. But he only gained real recognition for his performance in "Maria Chapdelaine", a 1934 production directed by Julien Duvivier. He was then cast as a romantic hero in the 1936 war drama "La Bandera"; this second Duvivier-directed film established him as a major star. The next year he teamed up with Duvivier again in the highly successful "Pépé le Moko". Its popularity brought Gabin international recognition. That same year he starred in Jean Renoir's "La Grande Illusion", an antiwar film that ran at a New York City theatre for an unprecedented six months. This was followed by another of Renoir's major works, "La Bête Humaine" ("The Human Beast"), a film noir tragedy based on the novel by Émile Zola and starring Gabin and Simone Simon, as well as "Le Quai Des Brumes" ("Port of Shadows"), one of director Marcel Carné's classics of poetic realism. He divorced his second wife in 1939.

Hollywood.

In the late 1930s Gabin was flooded with offers from Hollywood, but turned them all down until the outbreak of World War II. After the German occupation of France in 1940, he joined Renoir and Duvivier in the United States. During his time in Hollywood, Gabin began a romance with actress Marlene Dietrich that lasted until 1948. His films in America—"Moontide" (1942) and "The Impostor" (1944), the latter with Duvivier—were not successful.

World War II action.

Undaunted, Gabin joined General Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces and earned the Médaille militaire and a Croix de guerre for his wartime valor fighting with the Allies in North Africa. Following D-Day, Gabin was part of the French 2nd armoured division that liberated Paris.

Career slump.

In 1945 Carné chose Gabin to star in the film "Gates of the Night" with Dietrich as his co-star. She disliked the screenplay and feared her German accent would not go over well with postwar French audiences. When she withdrew from the project, Gabin followed suit, leading to a falling out with Carné. He found a French producer and director willing to cast him and Dietrich together, but the film, "Martin Roumagnac", was not a success and their personal relationship soon ended. In 1948 Gabin starred in René Clément's poetic realist film "The Walls of Malapaga" (), which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Picture but garnered little recognition for Gabin. In 1949 he starred in his only role in legitimate theatre in Henri Bernstein's "La Soif". It ran in Paris for six months, with Gabin critically praised as "a first-rate stage actor." Despite this recognition, his subsequent films did not do well at the French box office, and the next five years brought repeated failures.

Comeback.

Gabin's career seemed headed for oblivion until the 1954 film "Touchez pas au grisbi" ("Don't Touch the Loot"), directed by Jacques Becker, earned him critical acclaim. The film was very profitable internationally. He then worked once again with Renoir in "French Cancan", with María Félix and Françoise Arnoul. Gabin played Georges Simenon's detective Jules Maigret in three films in 1958, 1959 and 1963. Over the next 20 years, he made almost 50 more films, most of them very successful commercially and critically, including many for Gafer Films, his production partnership with fellow actor Fernandel. His co-stars included such leading figures of postwar cinema as Brigitte Bardot ("En cas de malheur"), Alain Delon ("Le Clan des Siciliens", "Mélodie en sous-sol" and "Deux hommes dans la ville"), Jean-Paul Belmondo ("Un singe en hiver") and Louis de Funès ("Le Tatoué").

Death.

Gabin died of leukaemia at the American Hospital of Paris, in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. His body was cremated, and—with full military honours—his ashes were scattered at sea from a military ship.  Joseph Harriss: "Jean Gabin: The Actor Who Was France." McFarland, Jefferson, NC 2018

Jean Gabin (; 17 May 190415 November 1976) was a French actor and sometime singer. Considered a key figure in French cinema, he starred in several classic films including "Pépé le Moko" (1937), "La grande illusion" (1937), "Le Quai des brumes" (1938), "La bête humaine" (1938), "Le jour se lève" (1939), and "Le plaisir" (1952). Gabin was made a member of the Légion d'honneur in recognition of the important role he played in French cinema.


Geography.

The island is located about southwest of Rhodes, in the part of the Mediterranean which is called the "Carpathian Sea" (). The Sea of Crete, a sub-basin of the Mediterranean Sea, has its eastern limit defined by the island of Karpathos. Karpathos' highest point is Mt. Lastos, at. Karpathos comprises 10 villages. Pigadia (official name "Karpathos"), the capital and main port of the island, is located in the southeast of the island. The capital is surrounded by the villages of Menetes, Arkasa, Aperi, Volada, Othos, and Pyles. In the north Mesochori, Spoa and Olympos. There are two ports, in Karpathos and in the north of the island next to Olympos named Diafani.  The island Saria was once united with Karpathos, but an earthquake divided them. Saria preserves many important antiquities.

Climate.

The weather station of Karpathos alongside Ierapetra holds Greece's highest annual mean temperature, (1950–1960, 1970–1975).

Municipality.

The present municipality Karpathos was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 2 former municipalities, that became municipal units:  The municipality has an area of 324.800 km, the municipal unit 219.924 km.

History.

The island of Karpathos was in both ancient and medieval times closely connected with Rhodes. Its current name is mentioned, with a slight shift of one letter, in Homer's "Iliad" as Krapathos (). Apollonius of Rhodes, in his epic "Argonautica", made it a port of call for the Argonauts travelling between Libya and Crete (). The island is also mentioned by Diodorus who claims it was a colony of the Dorians, Pomponius Mela, Pliny the Elder, and Strabo.  The Karpathians sided with Sparta in the Peloponnesian War in 431 BCE and lost their independence to Rhodes in 400 BCE. In 42 BCE, the island fell to Rome. After the division of the Roman Empire in 395 CE, the island became part of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.  Of its Christian bishops, the names are known of Olympius, who was a supporter of Nestorius, Zoticus (in 518), Mennas (in 553), Ioannes, Leo (in 787), and Philippus (in 879). In the 14th century, the island was a see of the Latin Church, four of whose bishops bore the name Nicolaus. No longer a residential bishopric, Karpathos (in Latin Carpathus) is today listed by the Catholic Church as an archiepiscopal titular see.  In 1304, Karpathos was given as fief to the Genoese corsairs Andrea and Lodovico Moresco, but in 1306 it fell to Andrea Cornaro, a member of the Venetian Cornaro family. The Cornaro controlled Karpathos until 1538, when it passed into the possession of the Ottoman Turks.  During the Greek War of Independence from 1821 to 1822, the island rebelled, but afterwards it fell again under the Ottoman rule. In 1835, Sultan Mahmud II conceded to the island the privilege of the "maktu" tax system; that is, the tax was calculated as an annual lump sum, and not on an household basis. The Ottoman rule ended on 12 May 1912, when the Italians occupied the island and the rest of the Dodecanese, during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-12. On that day, sailors from the "Regia Marina" battleship "Vittorio Emanuele" and the destroyer "Alpino" landed in Karpathos. With the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), Karpathos joined the other islands of the Dodecanese in the Italian possession of the Italian Aegean Islands, and was ceded by Italy to Greece with the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947. The island formally joined the Kingdom of Greece on 7 March 1948, together with the other Dodecanese islands.  In the late 1940s and 1950s, due to the economic problems after World War II, a number of Karpathians emigrated to the U.S. eastern seaboard cities;. Karpathos today has a significant Greek-American constituency who have returned to their island and invested heavily. Inhabitants of the mountains to the north are more traditional.

Transportation.

Karpathos Island National Airport, with its relatively large runway, is located on the south side (Afiartis area). Karpathos is connected to neighboring islands and to the mainland via ferries and airplanes. The ferries provide transport to and from Piraeus (via Crete and Rhodes). Scheduled domestic flights connect the island with Rhodes, Kasos, Crete and Athens daily. Additionally, charter flights from various European cities are frequently scheduled during the high season (April–October).  Within the island, cars are the preferred mode of transportation. The port, the airport, the main villages and other popular locations are connected by an adequate system of municipal roads, most of which are paved. During the summer months, small private boats depart from Pigadia to various locations daily, including Olympos (via Diafani) and some inaccessible beaches. Fixed-rate taxis ("agoraia") and municipal buses are also available all year long.

Population.

The island's 2011 census population was 6,226 inhabitants. This number more than doubles in the summer months as many Karpathian expatriates come to the island for their vacation with their families. Also, taking into consideration the number of tourists that visit, there can be up to 20,000 people on the island during the summer months. The population density is greatest during the 15th of August due to the Panagias festival (Assumption of Mary), which is considered the most important festival on the island. Individuals travel from around the world to attend the festival and view the many traditions that still remain on the island.

Beaches.

The beaches of Karpathos island can be divided into four large groups: the beaches on the east coast are smaller and gravelly but without wind; the beaches of the southern part of the island, near the airport, area made of fine white sand; the sandy beach on the west coast are the most exposed to the Meltemi and they are only available in low wind conditions; the beaches of the north of the island, accessible only by sea and partly by a jeep.

Karpathos (, ), also Carpathos, is the second largest of the Greek Dodecanese islands, in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Together with the neighboring smaller Saria Island it forms the municipality of Karpathos, which is part of the Karpathos regional unit. Because of its remote location, Karpathos has preserved many peculiarities of dress, customs and dialect, the last resembling those of Crete and Cyprus. The island has also been called Carpathus in Latin and Scarpanto in Italian.


History.

Whist is a descendant of the 16th-century game of "trump" or "ruff". Whist replaced the popular variant of "trump" known as ruff and honours. The game takes its name from the 17th-century "whist" (or "wist") meaning "quiet", "silent", "attentive", which is the root of the modern "wistful".  According to Daines Barrington, whist was first played on scientific principles by a party of gentlemen who frequented the Crown Coffee House in Bedford Row, London, around 1728. Edmond Hoyle, suspected to be a member of this group, began to tutor wealthy young gentlemen in the game and published "A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist" in 1742. It became the standard text and rules for the game for the next hundred years.  In 1862 Henry Jones, writing under the pseudonym "Cavendish", published "The Principles of Whist Stated and Explained, and Its Practice Illustrated on an Original System, by Means of Hands Played Completely Through", which became the standard text. Many subsequent editions and enlargements of this work were published using the simpler title "Cavendish On Whist". By this time whist was governed by elaborate and rigid rules covering the laws of the game, etiquette and play which took time to study and master.  In the 1890s, a variant known as bridge whist became popular which eventually evolved into contract bridge. The traditional game of whist survives at social events called "whist drives". There are many modern variants of whist played for fun.

Rules.

A standard 52-card pack is used. The cards in each suit rank from highest to lowest: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. Whist is played by four players, who play in two partnerships with the partners sitting opposite each other. Players draw cards to determine dealer and partners, with the two highest playing against the lowest two, who have seating rights. To comment on the cards in any way is strictly against the rules. One may not comment upon the hand one was dealt nor about one's good fortune or bad fortune. One may not signal to one's partner.

Shuffling and dealing.

The cards can be shuffled by any player, though usually the player to dealer's left. The dealer has the right to shuffle last if they wish. To speed up dealing, a second pack can be shuffled by the dealer's partner during the deal and then placed to the right ready for the next hand. The cards are cut by the player on dealer's right before dealing. The dealer deals out all the cards, one at a time, face down, so that each player has thirteen cards. The final card, which belongs to the dealer, is turned face up to indicate which suit is trumps. The turned-up trump card remains face up on the table until it is the dealer's turn to play to the first trick, at which point the dealer may pick up the card and place it in their hand. The deal advances clockwise.

Play.

The player to the dealer's left leads to the first trick. They may lead any card in their hand. The other players, in clockwise order, each play a card to the trick and must follow suit by playing a card of the suit led if they have one. A player with no card of the suit led may play any card, either discarding or trumping. The trick is won by the highest card of the suit led, unless a trump is played, in which case the highest trump wins. The winner of the trick leads the next trick.  Play continues until all thirteen tricks are played, at which point the score is recorded. If no team has enough points to win the game, another hand is played.  Part of the skill involved in the game is one's ability to remember what cards have been played and reason out what cards remain. Therefore, once each trick is played, its cards are turned face down and kept in a stack of four near the player who won the trick. Before the next trick starts, a player may ask to review the cards from the last trick only. Once the lead card is played, however, no previously played cards can be reviewed by anyone.

Scoring.

After all tricks have been played, the side which won more tricks scores 1 point for each trick won in excess of 6. When all four players are experienced, it is unusual for the score for a single hand to be higher than two. A game is over when one team reaches a score of five. There are so-called "Hotel Rules" variations where other numbers are agreed to be played to in advance such as "American" and "Long", where the games are played to seven and nine respectively. The "Long" version is normally combined with "Honours."  In longer variations of the game, those games where the winning score is not the standard 5 points, honours are points that are claimed at the end of each hand. Honours add nothing to the play of a hand. Honours serve only as an element of luck that speeds up games, and they are often omitted. Serious players disdain honours because it greatly increases the element of chance. A team that was dealt the top four cards (A, K, Q, J) in the trump suit collects 4 bonus points; if they hold three of the four honours between them they score 2 bonus points. Tricks are scored before honours. Honour points can never be used for the last point of a game. For example: a game is being played to 9 points. The score is tied at 6. A hand is played and the winner of that hand took seven tricks and claimed honours. That team would receive 1 point for the 7th trick and only 1 point for honours. The score would then be 8 to 6.

List of variations.

The name "whist" has become attached to a wide variety of games based on classic whist, but often with some kind of bidding added, for example:

Whist drive.

A whist drive is a social event at which progressive games of whist are played across a number of tables which are numbered or ordered into a sequence.  In it the winning (or sometimes losing, dependent on the local custom) pair of a hand "progress" around the room, i.e. one person moves up the table sequence and one person moves down. On arriving at the new table, the next hand is played.  By convention the pair who sits has shuffled and deals after the arriving pair has cut the pack.  A progressive whist drive is normally 24 hands, with each hand being a different trump. Trumps normally follow the sequence: hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades.  Sometimes a break for refreshments is taken after 12 hands.  Whist has long been noted for its influence upon what is termed the calculating power; and men of the highest order of intellect have been known to take an apparently unaccountable delight in it, [...]" His only pastime was reading the papers and playing whist. He frequently won at this quiet game, so very appropriate to his nature;[...]"

Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the rules are simple, there is scope for scientific play.


Definitions.

A subgroup of a group is called a normal subgroup of if it is invariant under conjugation; that is, the conjugation of an element of by an element of is always in. The usual notation for this relation is formula_1, and the definition may be written in symbols as formula_3

Equivalent conditions.

For any subgroup of, the following conditions are equivalent to being a normal subgroup of. Therefore, any one of them may be taken as the definition:

Properties.

Lattice of normal subgroups.

Given two normal subgroups, and, of, their intersection formula_19and their product formula_20 are also normal subgroups of.  The normal subgroups of form a lattice under subset inclusion with least element,, and greatest element,. The meet of two normal subgroups, and, in this lattice is their intersection and the join is their product.  The lattice is complete and modular.

Normal subgroups, quotient groups and homomorphisms.

If is a normal subgroup, we can define a multiplication on cosets as follows:formula_21This relation defines a mapping formula_22. To show that this mapping is well-defined, one needs to prove that the choice of representative elements formula_23 does not affect the result. To this end, consider some other representative elements formula_24. Then there are formula_25 such that formula_26. It follows that formula_27where we also used the fact that formula_28 is a "normal" subgroup, and therefore there is formula_29 such that formula_30. This proves that this product is a well-defined mapping between cosets.  With this operation, the set of cosets is itself a group, called the quotient group and denoted with. There is a natural homomorphism,, given by. This homomorphism maps formula_28 into the identity element of, which is the coset, that is, formula_32.  In general, a group homomorphism, sends subgroups of to subgroups of. Also, the preimage of any subgroup of is a subgroup of. We call the preimage of the trivial group in the kernel of the homomorphism and denote it by. As it turns out, the kernel is always normal and the image of,, is always isomorphic to (the first isomorphism theorem). In fact, this correspondence is a bijection between the set of all quotient groups of,, and the set of all homomorphic images of (up to isomorphism). It is also easy to see that the kernel of the quotient map,, is itself, so the normal subgroups are precisely the kernels of homomorphisms with domain.

In abstract algebra, a normal subgroup is a subgroup that is invariant under conjugation by members of the group of which it is a part. In other words, a subgroup of the group is normal in if and only if for all and. The usual notation for this relation is formula_1.


History.

In August 843, after three years of civil war following the death of emperor Louis the Pious on 20 June 840, the Treaty of Verdun was signed by his three sons and heirs. The division of lands was largely based on the Meuse, Scheldt, Saone and Rhone rivers. While the eldest son Lothair I kept the imperial title and the kingdom of Middle Francia, Charles the Bald received West Francia and Louis the German received the eastern portion of mostly Germanic-speaking lands: the Duchy of Saxony, Austrasia, Alamannia, the Duchy of Bavaria, and the March of Carinthia.  The contemporary East Frankish "Annales Fuldenses" describes the kingdom being "divided in three" and Louis "acceding to the eastern part". The West Frankish "Annales Bertiniani" describe the extent of Louis's lands: "at the assigning of portions, Louis obtained all the land beyond the Rhine river, but on this side of the Rhine also the cities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz with their counties". The kingdom of West Francia went to Louis's younger half-brother Charles the Bald, and between their realms a kingdom of Middle Francia, incorporating Italy, was given to their elder brother, the Emperor Lothair I.  While Eastern Francia contained about a third of the traditional Frankish heartland of Austrasia, the rest consisted mostly of lands annexed to the Frankish empire between the fifth and the eighth century. These included the duchies of Alamannia, Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia, as well as the northern and eastern marches with the Danes and Slavs. The contemporary chronicler Regino of Prüm wrote that the "different people" ("diversae nationes populorum") of East Francia, mostly Germanic- and Slavic-speaking, could be "distinguished from each other by race, customs, language and laws" ("genere moribus lingua legibus").  In 869 Lotharingia was divided between West and East Francia under the Treaty of Meersen. The short lived Middle Francia turned out to be the theatre of Franco-German wars up until the 20th century. All the Frankish lands were briefly reunited by Charles the Fat, but in 888 he was deposed by nobles and in East Francia Arnulf of Carinthia was elected king. The increasing weakness of royal power in East Francia meant that dukes of Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia, Saxony and Lotharingia turned from appointed nobles into hereditary rulers of their territories. Kings increasingly had to deal with regional rebellions.  In 911 Saxon, Franconian, Bavarian and Swabian nobles no longer followed the tradition of electing someone from the Carolingian dynasty as a king to rule over them and on 10 November, 911 elected one of their own as the new king. Because Conrad I was one of the dukes, he found it very hard to establish his authority over them. Duke Henry of Saxony was in rebellion against Conrad I until 915 and struggle against Arnulf, Duke of Bavaria cost Conrad I his life. On his deathbed Conrad I chose Henry of Saxony as the most capable successor. This kingship changed from Franks to Saxons, who had suffered greatly during the conquests of Charlemagne. Henry, who was elected to kingship by only Saxons and Franconians at Fritzlar, had to subdue other dukes and concentrated on creating a state apparatus which was fully utilized by his son and successor Otto I. By his death in July 936 Henry had prevented collapse of royal power as was happening in West Francia and left a much stronger kingdom to his successor Otto I. After Otto I was crowned as the Emperor in Rome in 962 the era of the Holy Roman Empire began.

Terminology.

The term "orientalis Francia" originally referred to Franconia and "orientales Franci" to its inhabitants, the ethnic Franks living east of the Rhine. The use of the term in a broader sense, to refer to the eastern kingdom, was an innovation of Louis the German's court. Since eastern Francia could be identified with old Austrasia, the Frankish heartland, Louis's choice of terminology hints at his ambitions. Under his grandson, Arnulf of Carinthia, the terminology was largely dropped and the kingdom, when it was referred to by name, was simply "Francia".  When it was necessary, as in the Treaty of Bonn (921) with the West Franks, the "eastern" qualifier appeared. Henry I refers to himself as "rex Francorum orientalium", "king of the East Franks", in the treaty. By the 12th century, the historian Otto of Freising, in using the Carolingian terminology, had to explain that the "eastern kingdom of the Franks" ("orientale Francorum regnum") was "now called the kingdom of the Germans" ("regnum Teutonicorum").

Kingship.

The regalia of the Carolingian empire had been divided by Louis the Pious on his deathbed between his two faithful sons, Charles the Bald and Lothair. Louis the German, then in rebellion, received nothing of the crown jewels or liturgical books associated with Carolingian kingship. Thus the symbols and rituals of East Frankish kingship were created from scratch.  From an early date the East Frankish kingdom had a more formalised notion of royal election than West Francia. Around 900, a liturgy ("ordo") for the coronation of a king, called the early German "ordo", was written for a private audience. It required the coronator to ask the "designated prince" ("princeps designatus") whether he was willing to defend the church and the people and then to turn and ask the people whether they were willing to be subject to the prince and obey his laws. The latter then shouted, ""Fiat", "fiat"!" (Let it be done!), an act that later became known as "Recognition". This is the earliest known coronation "ordo" with a Recognition in it, and it was subsequently incorporated in the influential Pontificale Romano-Germanicum.  In June 888, King Arnulf of Carinthia convened a council at Mainz. In attendance were the three archbishops of the East Frankish kingdom—Wilbert of Cologne, Liutbert of Mainz and Ratbod of Trier—and the West Frankish archbishops of Reims (Fulk) and Rouen (John I) along with the bishops of Beauvais and Noyon. According to Walter Ullmann, the presence of the West Franks was on account of the "barren ecclesiastical thought" of the East, and the council proceeded to adopt West Frankish ideas of royal sacrality and anointing. It was "the first phase in the process of assimilation of the two halves of the Carolingian inheritance". In another church council at Tribur in 895, the prelates declared that Arnulf was chosen by God and not by men and Arnulf in turn swore to defend the church and its privileges from all its enemies. When Arnulf died in 899, his minor son, Louis IV, was crowned, but not anointed, and placed under the tutelage of Archbishop Hatto I of Mainz. Louis's coronation was the first in German history. When Louis died in late September 911, Duke Conrad I, then the Duke of Franconia, was elected to replace him on 10 November and he became the first German king to receive unction.

Church.

The three basic services monasteries could owe to the sovereign in the Frankish realms were military service, an annual donation of money or work, and prayers for the royal family and the kingdom. Collectively, these were known by the technical term "servitium regis" ("king's service"). According to the evidence of the "Notitia de servitio monasteriorum", a list of monasteries and the services they owed drawn up around 817, the burden of military and monetary service was more severe in west Francia than in east Francia. Only four monasteries listed as "beyond the Rhine" ("ultra Rhenum") owed these services: Lorsch, Schuttern, Mondsee and Tegernsee.

East Francia (Latin: "Francia orientalis") or the Kingdom of the East Franks ("regnum Francorum orientalium") was a precursor of the Holy Roman Empire. A successor state of Charlemagne's empire, it was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty until 911. It was created through the Treaty of Verdun (843) which divided the former empire into three kingdoms.


Background.

The Imperial cult of ancient Rome identified emperors and some members of their families with the divinely sanctioned authority (auctoritas) of the Roman State. Throughout history, monarchs and other heads of state were often held in enormous reverence and imputed super-human qualities. Through the principle of the divine right of kings, in medieval Europe for example, rulers were said to hold office by the will of God. Ancient Egypt, Imperial Japan, the Inca, the Aztecs, Tibet, Siam (now Thailand), and the Roman Empire are especially noted for redefining monarchs as "god-kings".  The spread of democratic and secular ideas in Europe and North America in the 18th and 19th centuries made it increasingly difficult for monarchs to preserve this aura. However, the subsequent development of mass media, such as radio, enabled political leaders to project a positive image of themselves onto the masses as never before. It was from these circumstances in the 20th century that the most notorious personality cults arose. Often these cults are a form of political religion.  The term "cult of personality" probably appeared in English around 1800–1850, along with the French and German use. At first it had no political connotations but was instead closely related to the Romantic "cult of genius". The political use of the phrase came first in a letter from Karl Marx to German political worker, Wilhelm Blos, 10 November 1877:

Characteristics.

There are various views about what constitutes a cult of personality in a leader. Historian Jan Plamper has written that modern-day personality cults display five characteristics that set them apart from "their predecessors": The cults are secular and "anchored in popular sovereignty"; their objects are all males; they target the entire population, not only the well-to-do or just the ruling class; they use mass media; and they exist where the mass media can be controlled enough to inhibit the introduction of "rival cults".  In his 2013 paper, "What is character and why it really does matter", Thomas A. Wright states, "The cult of personality phenomenon refers to the idealized, even god-like, public image of an individual consciously shaped and molded through constant propaganda and media exposure. As a result, one is able to manipulate others based entirely on the influence of public personality...the cult of personality perspective focuses on the often shallow, external images that many public figures cultivate to create an idealized and heroic image."  Adrian Teodor Popan defines cult of personality as a "quantitatively exaggerated and qualitatively extravagant public demonstration of praise of the leader". He also identifies three causal "necessary, but not sufficient, structural conditions, and a path dependent chain of events which, together, lead to the cult formation: a particular combination of patrimonialism and clientelism, lack of dissidence, and systematic falsification pervading the society’s culture."

The role of mass media.

The mass media have played an instrumental role in forging national leaders' cults of personality.  Thomas A. Wright in 2013 reported that "It is becoming evident that the charismatic leader, especially in politics, has increasingly become the product of media and self-exposure." And, focusing on the media in the United States, Robert N. Bellah adds that, "It is hard to determine the extent to which the media reflect the cult of personality in American politics and to what extent they have created it. Surely they did not create it all alone, but just as surely they have contributed to it. In any case, American politics is dominated by the personalities of political leaders to an extent rare in the modern world...in the personalised politics of recent years the "charisma" of the leader may be almost entirely a product of media exposure."

Purpose.

Often, a single leader became associated with this revolutionary transformation and came to be treated as a benevolent "guide" for the nation without whom the transformation to a better future could not occur. This has been generally the justification for personality cults that arose in totalitarian societies, such as those of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong. The admiration for Mao Zedong has remained widespread in China. In December 2013, a "Global Times" poll revealed that over 85% of Chinese viewed Mao's achievements as outweighing his mistakes. Jan Plamper argues while Napoleon III made some innovations it was Benito Mussolini in Italy in the 1920s who originated the model of dictator-as-cult-figure that was emulated by Hitler, Stalin and the others, using the propaganda powers of a totalitarian state.  Pierre du Bois argues that the Stalin cult was elaborately constructed to legitimize his rule. Many deliberate distortions and falsehoods were used. The Kremlin refused access to archival records that might reveal the truth, and key documents were destroyed. Photographs were altered and documents were invented. People who knew Stalin were forced to provide "official" accounts to meet the ideological demands of the cult, especially as Stalin himself presented it in 1938 in "Short Course on the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)", which became the official history.  Historian David L. Hoffmann states "The Stalin cult was a central element of Stalinism, and as such it was one of the most salient features of Soviet rule...Many scholars of Stalinism cite the cult as integral to Stalin's power or as evidence of Stalin's megalomania."  In Latin America, Cas Mudde and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser link the "cult of the leader" to the concept of the "caudillo", a strong leader "who exercises a power that is independent of any office and free of any constraint." These populist strongmen are portrayed as "masculine and potentially violent" and enhance their authority through the use of the cult of personality. Mudde and Kaltwasser trace the linkage back to Juan Peron of Argentina.

References.

Notes Bibliography  Further reading

A cult of personality, or cult of the leader, arises when a country's regime – or, more rarely, an individual – uses the techniques of mass media, propaganda, the big lie, spectacle, the arts, patriotism, and government-organized demonstrations and rallies to create an idealized, heroic, and worshipful image of a leader, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. A cult of personality is similar to apotheosis, except that it is established by modern social engineering techniques, usually by the state or the party in one-party states and dominant-party states. It is often seen in totalitarian or authoritarian countries.


Location.

Freising is the oldest town between Regensburg and Bolzano and located in Upper Bavaria north of Munich, near Munich International Airport, on the Isar river. There are two hills, the cathedral hill with the bishop's castle and Freising cathedral, and Weihenstephan Hill with Weihenstephan Abbey, the oldest working brewery in the world. It was also the first recorded place of a European tornado. The city is 448 meters above sea level.

Cultural significance.

Freising is one of the oldest settlements in Bavaria, becoming a major religious centre in the early Middle Ages. It is the centre of an important diocese. Some important historical documents were created between 900 and 1200 in its monastery:  The above and other scripts from that time can be found in the "Bayerische Staatsbibliothek" (Bavarian State Library) in Munich.

History.

Even though archaeological finds show that the area was settled in the Bronze Age, no proof has been found yet to suggest a continuous settlement until the 8th century AD "Frigisinga". Saint Corbinian settled at a shrine that already existed at Freising in 724. He was the forerunner of the diocese of Freising, established after his death by Saint Boniface. According to his "Vita" by Bishop Arbeo he ordered a bear to carry his luggage over the Alps after it had killed his packhorse. The saddled bear is still the symbol of the city, displayed in the coat of arms. Though the seat of the diocese was moved to Munich in 1821, including the elevation to an arch-diocese, Freising has remained the seat of diocese administration until today.  Between 764-783, Bishop Arbeo founded a library and scriptorium at the abbey. The settlement started to become a religious centre.  The earliest recorded tornado in Europe struck Freising in 788.  The mortal remains of Pope Alexander I are said to have been transferred to Freising in 834.  In 996, Freising received city rights from Emperor Otto III. However, after the "(...) destruction of the episcopal bridge, custom houses, mint, and salt works near Oberföhring by Duke Henry the Lion, who transferred the custom houses and bridge site to the upper part of Oberföhring, placing them in the village of Munich on the Isar" (Lins, Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913) in 1158, Freising started to lose its economic significance. In 1159, the romanesque cathedral was constructed (with a notable animal column in the crypt).  In the secularization of 1803, the Roman Catholic Church lost most of its properties and authority over the city.

Education.

Schools include:  Universities include:

Twin towns.

Freising is twinned with:

Freising () is a town in Bavaria, Germany, and the capital of the Freising "Landkreis" (district), with a population of about 50,000.


Changes to the classification.

Within each category, the various châteaux are ranked in order of quality and only twice since the 1855 classification has there been a change: first when in 1856 Cantemerle was added as a fifth growth (having either been originally omitted by oversight or added as an afterthought, depending on which of the conflicting accounts is correct) and, more significantly, in 1973, when Château Mouton Rothschild was elevated from a second growth to a first growth vineyard after decades of intense lobbying by the powerful Philippe de Rothschild. A third, but less known "change", is the removal of Château Dubignon, a third growth from Margaux that was absorbed into the estate Château Malescot St. Exupéry.  A superficial change is that since 1855, when only five of the estates were styled with the word "château" in their name, most Bordeaux wine estates now use this nomenclature.

Critique.

As a classification of châteaux, the actual vineyards owned by some wineries have expanded, shrunk and been divided without any reclassification, and considerable plots of valued "terroir" have changed ownership. Indeed, it is a peculiarity of Bordeaux that as long as a vineyard parcel lies within the boundaries of the wine commune, it is eligible to be used by any chateau, independent of the quality of the parcel itself.  Many wine critics have argued that the 1855 Classification became outdated and does not provide an accurate guide to the quality of the wines being made on each estate. Several proposals have been made for changes to the classification, and a bid for a revision was unsuccessfully attempted in 1960. Alexis Lichine, a member of the 1960 revision panel, launched a campaign to implement changes that lasted over thirty years, in the process publishing several editions of his own unofficial classification and the "Alexis Lichine's Guide to the Wines and Vineyards of France", in which he devoted a chapter to the subject. In support of his argument, Lichine cited the case of Chateau Lynch-Bages, the Pauillac Fifth Growth that, through good management and by patiently collecting the best parcels as they come on the market, makes wine that in his view are worthy of a much higher classification. Conversely, poor management can result in a significant decline in quality, as the example of Chateau Margaux shows—the wines it made in the 1960s and 1970s are widely regarded as far below what's expected of a First Growth. Other critics have followed a similar suit, including Robert Parker who published a top 100 Bordeaux estates in 1985 and "L'histoire de la vigne & du vin" () by Bernard and Henri Enjalbert in 1989, as well as efforts made by Clive Coates (MW) and David Peppercorn (MW). Ultimately nothing has come of them; the likely negative impact on prices for any downgraded châteaux and the 1855 establishment's political muscle are considered among the reasons.  In March 2009, the British wine exchange Liv-ex released The Liv-ex Bordeaux Classification, a modern re-calculation of the 1855 classification, with an aim to apply the original method to the contemporary economical context.  Many of the leading estates from the Médoc appellation that were not included in the 1855 classification are classified as "Cru Bourgeois", a classification system that has been updated on a regular basis since 1932, banned in 2007, but reinstated in 2010.

The Médoc Classification of 1855.

In French "Les Grands Crus classés en 1855". The estates are listed with their commune (village), and their AOC in parenthesis, if different from the commune. The 19th-century names appear as listed by the brokers on April 18, 1855, followed by the modern names, as the use of "second cru" for red wines and "deuxième cru" for white wines.

The White Wines of the Gironde.

[Barsac estates may be labelled with the appellation Barsac or Sauternes.]

Notes and references.

a. The only classified estate situated in Graves rather than Médoc. b. Listed as Second Growth in 1855, elevated to First Growth in 1973. c. Dissolved in 1960. d. Added in 1856.

The Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 resulted from the 1855 Exposition Universelle de Paris, when Emperor Napoleon III requested a classification system for France's best Bordeaux wines that were to be on display for visitors from around the world. Brokers from the wine industry ranked the wines according to a château's reputation and trading price, which at that time was directly related to quality.


Plot.

Athamas the Minyan, a founder of Halos in Thessaly but also king of the city of Orchomenus in Boeotia (a region of southeastern Greece), took the goddess Nephele as his first wife. They had two children, the boy Phrixus (whose name means "curly," as in the texture of the ram's fleece) and the girl Helle. Later Athamas became enamored of and married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus. When Nephele left in anger, drought came upon the land.  Ino was jealous of her stepchildren and plotted their deaths; in some versions, she persuaded Athamas that sacrificing Phrixus was the only way to end the drought. Nephele, or her spirit, appeared to the children with a winged ram whose fleece was of gold. The ram had been sired by Poseidon in his primitive ram-form upon Theophane, a nymph and the granddaughter of Helios, the sun-god. According to Hyginus, Poseidon carried Theophane to an island where he made her into a ewe, so that he could have his way with her among the flocks. There Theophane's other suitors could not distinguish the ram-god and his consort.  Nepheles' children escaped on the yellow ram over the sea, but Helle fell off and drowned in the strait now named after her, the Hellespont. The ram spoke to Phrixus, encouraging him, and took the boy safely to Colchis (modern-day Georgia), on the easternmost shore of the Euxine (Black) Sea.  There Phrixus sacrificed the winged ram to Poseidon, essentially returning him to the god. The ram became the constellation Aries.  Phrixus settled in the house of Aeetes, son of Helios the sun god. He hung the Golden Fleece preserved from the sacrifice of the ram on an oak in a grove sacred to Ares, the god of war and one of the Twelve Olympians. The golden fleece was defended by bulls with hoofs of brass and breath of fire. It was also guarded by a never sleeping dragon with teeth which could become soldiers when planted in the ground. The dragon was at the foot of the tree on which the fleece was placed.

Evolution of plot.

Pindar employed the quest for the Golden Fleece in his Fourth Pythian Ode (written in 462 BC), though the fleece is not in the foreground. When Aeetes challenges Jason to yoke the fire-breathing bulls, the fleece is the prize: "Let the King do this, the captain of the ship! Let him do this, I say, and have for his own the immortal coverlet, the fleece, glowing with matted skeins of gold".  In later versions of the story, the ram is said to have been the offspring of the sea god Poseidon and Themisto (less often, Nephele or Theophane). The classic telling is the "Argonautica" of Apollonius of Rhodes, composed in the mid-third century BC Alexandria, recasting early sources that have not survived. Another, much less-known Argonautica, using the same body of myth, was composed in Latin by Valerius Flaccus during the time of Vespasian.  Where the written sources fail, through accidents of history, sometimes the continuity of a mythic tradition can be found among the vase-painters. The story of the Golden Fleece appeared to have little resonance for Athenians of the Classic age, for only two representations of it on Attic-painted wares of the fifth century have been identified: a "krater" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a "kylix" in the Vatican collections. In the "kylix" painted by Douris, ca 480-470, Jason is being disgorged from the mouth of the dragon, a detail that does not fit easily into the literary sources; behind the dragon, the fleece hangs from an apple tree. Jason's helper in the Athenian vase-paintings is not Medea— who had a history in Athens as the opponent of Theseus— but Athena.

Interpretations.

The very early origin of the myth in preliterate times means that during the more than a millennium when it was to some degree part of the fabric of culture, its perceived significance likely passed through numerous developments.  Several euhemeristic attempts to interpret the Golden Fleece "realistically" as reflecting some physical cultural object or alleged historical practice have been made. For example, in the 20th century, some scholars suggested that the story of the Golden Fleece signified the bringing of sheep husbandry to Greece from the east; in other readings, scholars theorized it referred to golden grain, or to the sun. A more widespread interpretation relates the myth of the fleece to a method of washing gold from streams, which was well attested (but only from c. 5th century BC) in the region of Georgia to the east of the Black Sea. Sheep fleeces, sometimes stretched over a wooden frame, would be submerged in the stream, and gold flecks borne down from upstream placer deposits would collect in them. The fleeces would be hung in trees to dry before the gold was shaken or combed out. Alternatively, the fleeces would be used on washing tables in alluvial mining of gold or on washing tables at deep gold mines. Judging by the very early gold objects from a range of cultures, washing for gold is a very old human activity.  Strabo describes the way in which gold could be washed: "It is said that in their country gold is carried down by the mountain torrents, and that the barbarians obtain it by means of perforated troughs and fleecy skins, and that this is the origin of the myth of the golden fleece—unless they call them Iberians, by the same name as the western Iberians, from the gold mines in both countries."  Another interpretation is based on the references in some versions to purple or purple-dyed cloth. The purple dye extracted from the purple dye murex snail and related species was highly prized in ancient times. Clothing made of cloth dyed with Tyrian purple was a mark of great wealth and high station (hence the phrase "royal purple"). The association of gold with purple is natural and occurs frequently in literature.

Main theories.

Jason attempts to put the serpent guarding the golden fleece to sleep. The snake is coiled around a column at the base of which is a ram and on top of which is a bird.  The following are the chief among the various interpretations of the fleece, with notes on sources and major critical discussions:

In Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece (, "Chrysómallo déras") is the fleece of the golden-woolled, winged ram, Chrysomallos, which was held in Colchis. The fleece is a symbol of authority and kingship.


Life and work.

Jaroslav Heyrovský was born in Prague on December 20, 1890, the fifth child of Leopold Heyrovský, Professor of Roman Law at the Charles University in Prague, and his wife Clara, née Hanl von Kirchtreu. He obtained his early education at secondary school until 1909 when he began his study of chemistry, physics, and mathematics at the Charles University in Prague. From 1910 to 1914 he continued his studies at University College London, under Professors Sir William Ramsay, W. C. McC. Lewis, and F. G. Donnan, taking his B.Sc. degree in 1913. He was particularly interested in working with Professor Donnan, on electrochemistry.  During the First World War Heyrovský worked in a military hospital as a dispensing chemist and radiologist, which enabled him to continue his studies and to take his Ph.D. degree in Prague in 1918 and D.Sc. in London in 1921.  Heyrovský started his university career as assistant to Professor B. Brauner in the Institute of Analytical Chemistry of the Charles University, Prague; he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1922 and in 1926 he became the University's first Professor of Physical Chemistry.  Heyrovský's invention of the polarographic method dates from 1922 and he concentrated his whole further scientific activity on the development of this new branch of electrochemistry. He formed a school of Czech polarographers in the University, and was himself in the forefront of polarographic research. In 1950 Heyrovský was appointed Director of the newly established Polarographic Institute which has since been incorporated into the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences since 1952.  In 1926 Professor Heyrovský married Marie (Mary) Koranová, and the couple had two children, a daughter, Jitka, and a son, Michael.  Jaroslav Heyrovský died on March 27, 1967. He was interred in the Vyšehrad cemetery in Prague.

Honors, awards, legacy.

Many universities and seats of learning honored Heyrovský. He was elected Fellow of University College, London, in 1927, and received honorary doctorates from the Technical University, Dresden in 1955, the University of Warsaw in 1956, the University Aix-Marseille in 1959, and the University of Paris in 1960. He was granted honorary membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1933; in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1955; the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, in 1955; the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, in 1962; was elected Corresponding Member of the German Academy of Sciences, Berlin, in 1955; member of the German Academy of Natural Scientists, Leopoldina (Halle-Saale) in 1956; Foreign Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences, Copenhagen, in 1962; Vice-President of the International Union of Physics from 1951 to 1957; President and first honorary member of the Polarographic Society, London; honorary member of the Polarographic Society of Japan; honorary member of the Chemical Societies of Czechoslovakia, Austria, Poland, England and India. In 1965, Heyrovský was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1965.  In Czechoslovakia Heyrovský was awarded the State Prize, First Grade, in 1951, and in 1955 the Order of the Czechoslovak Republic.  Heyrovský lectured on polarography in the United States in 1933, the USSR in 1934, England in 1946, Sweden in 1947, the People's Republic of China in 1958, and in U.A.R. (Egypt) in 1960 and 1961.  The crater Heyrovský on the Moon is named in his honour.

Jaroslav Heyrovský () (December 20, 1890 – March 27, 1967) was a Czech chemist and inventor. Heyrovský was the inventor of the polarographic method, father of the electroanalytical method, and recipient of the Nobel Prize in 1959 for his discovery and development of the polarographic methods of analysis. His main field of work was polarography.


Founding history.

The ITTF was founded in 1926 by William Henry Lawes of Wymondham, the nine founding members being Austria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, England, Germany, Hungary, India, Sweden and Wales. The first international tournament was held in January 1926 in Berlin while the first World Table Tennis Championships was held in December 1926 in London.  Toward the end of 2000, the ITTF instituted several rules changes aimed at making table tennis more viable as a televised spectator sport. The older 38 mm balls were officially replaced by 40 mm balls. This increased the ball's air resistance and effectively slowed down the game.  On 29 February 2008, the ITTF announced several rules changes after an ITTF Executive Meeting in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China with regards to a player's eligibility to play for a new association. The new ruling is to encourage associations to develop their own players.  The headquarters of the ITTF is in Lausanne, Switzerland. The previous president of the ITTF was Adham Sharara from Canada; the current president since 2014 is Thomas Weikert from Germany.

Membership.

Continental Federations.

The ITTF recognises six continental federations. Each continental federation has a president as its top official and owns its constitution. The following are recognised federations:

National Federations.

There are currently 226 member associations within the ITTF.

Organisational Structure.

All member associations of the ITTF attend annual general meeting (AGM). Agendas on changes of the constitution, laws of table tennis, applications for membership etc. are discussed and finalised through votes. Also, the president of ITTF, 8 executive vice-presidents, and 32 or less continental representatives are elected at an AGM, serving for a four-year term. The president, executive vice-presidents, and the chairman of the athletes' commission compose executive committee.  The executive committee, continental representatives and presidents of the six continental federations or their appointees compose the board of directors (Board). The Board manages the work of the ITTF between AGMs. Several committees, commissions, working groups or panels work under the constitution of ITTF or under the Board.

Role in diplomacy.

Unlike the organisations for more popular sports, the ITTF tends to recognise teams from generally unrecognised governing bodies for disputed territory. For example, it currently recognises the Table Tennis Federation of Kosovo even though Kosovo is excluded from most other sports. It recognised the People's Republic of China in 1953 and allowed some basic diplomacy which lead to an opening for U.S. President Richard Nixon, called "Ping Pong Diplomacy", in the early 1970s.

Rules.

Player eligibility.

For ITTF World Title events, a player is eligible to play for his association by registering with the ITTF. If the player chooses to play for a new association, he shall register with the ITTF, through the new association.

Service and point system.

The table tennis point system was reduced from a 21 to an 11-point scoring system in 2001. A game shall be won by the player or pair first scoring 11 points unless both players or pairs score 10 points, when the game shall be won by the first player or pair subsequently gaining a lead of 2 points. This was intended to make games more fast-paced and exciting. The ITTF also changed the rules on service to prevent a player from hiding the ball during service, in order to increase the average length of rallies and to reduce the server's advantage. Today, the game changes from time to time mainly to improve on the excitement for television viewers.

Speed glue ban.

In 2007, ITTF's board of directors in Zagreb decided to implement the VOC-free glue rule at Junior events, starting from 1 January 2008, as a transitional period before the full implementation of the VOC ban on 1 September 2008.  As of 1 January 2009, all speed glue was to have been banned.

Contests.

Conventions: MT/WT: Men's/Women's Teams; MS/WS: Men's/Women's Singles; MD/WD: Men's/Women's Doubles; XD: Mixed Doubles

ITTF World Ranking.

The ITTF maintains an official World Ranking list based on players' results in tournaments throughout the year.  The tables below show the current ITTF World Ranking for men ibrahim shaik

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is the governing body for all national table tennis associations. The role of the ITTF includes overseeing rules and regulations and seeking technological improvement for the sport of table tennis. The ITTF is responsible for the organization of numerous international competitions, including the World Table Tennis Championships that has continued since 1926.


Early life and education.

Born into the Kotzebue family of Brandenburgish origin, originating in Kossebau in Altmark, he was the second son of writer and diplomat August von Kotzebue and his wife, he was born in Reval (now Tallinn, Estonia), then part of the Russian Empire. After attending the Saint Petersburg school of cadets, he accompanied Adam Johann von Krusenstern on his voyage of 1803–1806.

Naval career.

On promotion to lieutenant, Kotzebue was placed in command of an expedition, fitted out at the expense of the imperial chancellor, Count Nikolay Rumyantsev, in the brig "Rurik". In this vessel, with only twenty-seven men, including the naturalists Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz and Adelbert von Chamisso, and the artist Louis Choris, Kotzebue set out on July 30, 1815 to find a passage across the Arctic Ocean and explore the less-known parts of Oceania.  Proceeding via Cape Horn, he discovered the Romanzov Islands, Rurik Islands and Krusenstern Islands (today Tikehau), then made for Kamchatka. In the middle of July he proceeded northward, coasting along the north-west coast of North America, and discovering and naming Kotzebue Sound or Gulf and Cape Krusenstern in the remote Chukchi Sea.  Returning by the coast of Asia, he again sailed to the south, sojourned for three weeks at the Sandwich Islands, and on January 1, 1817 discovered New Year Island. After further cruising in the Pacific Ocean, he proceeded north. Severe illness compelled him to return to Europe, and he reached the Neva River in Russia on August 3, 1818, bringing home a large collection of previously unknown plants and new ethnological information.  In 1823 Kotzebue, now a captain, was entrusted with the command of an expedition of two ships of war, the main object of which was to take reinforcements to Kamchatka. A staff of scientists on board the Russian sailing sloop "Enterprise" collected much valuable information and material in geography, ethnography and natural history. The expedition, proceeding by Cape Horn, visited the Radak and Society Islands, and reached Petropavlovsk in July 1824. Many positions along the coast were rectified, the Navigator islands visited, and several discoveries made. The expedition returned by the Marianas, Philippines, New Caledonia and the Hawaiian Islands, reaching Kronstadt on July 10, 1826.  Both of Kotzebue's narratives: "A Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea and Bering’s Straits for the Purpose of exploring a North-East Passage, undertaken in the Years 1815–1818" (3 vols. 1821), and "A New Voyage Round the World in the Years 1823–1826" (1830), have been translated into English.  In the last years of his life, Kotzebue lived at the Triigi Manor near Kose. He died in Reval (now Tallinn) in 1846. He was buried in the Kose churchyard approx. 30 km from Tallinn, and the gravesite is marked by an imposing monument.

Otto von Kotzebue (, tr. ; – ) was a Russian officer and navigator in the Imperial Russian Navy. He was born in Reval. He was known for his explorations of Oceania.


Life and work.

Gustav Kirchhoff was born on 12 March 1824 in Königsberg, Prussia, the son of Friedrich Kirchhoff, a lawyer, and Johanna Henriette Wittke. His family were Lutherans in the Evangelical Church of Prussia. He graduated from the Albertus University of Königsberg in 1847 where he attended the mathematico-physical seminar directed by Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, Franz Ernst Neumann and Friedrich Julius Richelot. In the same year, he moved to Berlin, where he stayed until he received a professorship at Breslau. Later, in 1857, he married Clara Richelot, the daughter of his mathematics professor Richelot. The couple had five children. Clara died in 1869. He married Luise Brömmel in 1872. Kirchhoff formulated his circuit laws, which are now ubiquitous in electrical engineering, in 1845, while still a student. He completed this study as a seminar exercise; it later became his doctoral dissertation. He was called to the University of Heidelberg in 1854, where he collaborated in spectroscopic work with Robert Bunsen. In 1857 he calculated that an electric signal in a resistanceless wire travels along the wire at the speed of light. He proposed his law of thermal radiation in 1859, and gave a proof in 1861. Together Kirchhoff and Bunsen invented the spectroscope, which Kirchhoff used to pioneer the identification of the elements in the Sun, showing in 1859 that the Sun contains sodium. He and Bunsen discovered caesium and rubidium in 1861. At Heidelberg he ran a mathematico-physical seminar, modelled on Neumann's, with the mathematician Leo Koenigsberger. Among those who attended this seminar were Arthur Schuster and Sofia Kovalevskaya.  He contributed greatly to the field of spectroscopy by formalizing three laws that describe the spectral composition of light emitted by incandescent objects, building substantially on the discoveries of David Alter and Anders Jonas Ångström (see also: spectrum analysis). In 1862 he was awarded the Rumford Medal for his researches on the fixed lines of the solar spectrum, and on the inversion of the bright lines in the spectra of artificial light. In 1875 Kirchhoff accepted the first chair specifically dedicated to theoretical physics at Berlin.  He also contributed to optics, carefully solving the wave equation to provide a solid foundation for Huygens' principle (and correct it in the process).  In 1884 he became foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.  Kirchhoff died in 1887, and was buried in the St Matthäus Kirchhof Cemetery in Schöneberg, Berlin (just a few meters from the graves of the Brothers Grimm). Leopold Kronecker is buried in the same cemetery.

Kirchhoff's circuit laws.

Kirchhoff's first law is that the algebraic sum of currents in a network of conductors meeting at a point (or node) is zero. The second law is that in a closed circuit, the directed sums of the voltages in a closed system is zero.

Kirchhoff's three laws of spectroscopy.

Kirchhoff did not know about the existence of energy levels in atoms. The existence of discrete spectral lines was later explained by the Bohr model of the atom, which helped lead to quantum mechanics.

Kirchhoff's law of thermochemistry.

Kirchhoff showed in 1858 that, in thermochemistry, the variation of the heat of a chemical reaction is given by the difference in heat capacity between products and reactants:  Integration of this equation permits the evaluation of the heat of reaction at one temperature from measurements at another temperature.

Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (; 12 March 1824 – 17 October 1887) was a German physicist who contributed to the fundamental understanding of electrical circuits, spectroscopy, and the emission of black-body radiation by heated objects.


Attacking and defending pieces.

A piece is said to "attack" (or threaten) an opponent's piece if, in the next move, it could capture that piece. A piece is said to "defend" (or protect) a piece of the defender's color if, in case the defended piece were taken by the opponent, the defender could immediately recapture. Attacking a piece usually, but not always (see Sacrifice), forces the opponent to respond if the attacked piece is undefended, or if the attacking piece is of lower value than the one attacked.  When the piece attacked is a king, then a player has exactly three options:  When the piece attacked is not a king, a player has more options:

Gaining material.

When a player is able to capture the opponent's piece(s) without losing any of their own (or losing a piece of lesser value), the player is said to have "won "; i.e., the opponent will have fewer (or less valuable) pieces remaining on the board. The goal of each basic tactic is to win material. At the professional level, often the mere threat of material loss (i.e., an anticipated tactic) induces the opponent to pursue an alternative line. In amateur games, however, tactics often come to full fruition – unforeseen by the opponent and resulting in material gain and a corresponding, perhaps decisive, advantage. Material gain can be achieved by several different types of tactics.

Discovered attack.

A "discovered attack" is a move which allows an attack by another piece. A piece is moved away so as to allow the attack of a friendly bishop, rook or queen on an enemy piece. If the attacked piece is the king, the situation is referred to as a "discovered check". Discovered attacks are powerful since the moved piece may be able to pose a second threat.  A special case of a discovered check is a "double check", where both the piece being unmasked and the piece being moved attack the enemy king. A double check always forces the opponent to move the king, since it is impossible to defend attacks from two directions in any other way.

Fork.

A "fork" is a move that uses one piece to attack two or more of the opponent's pieces simultaneously, with the aim to achieve material advantage, since the opponent can counter only one of the threats. Knights are often used for forks, with their unique moving and jumping ability. A common situation is a knight played to c2 or c7, threatening both the enemy rook and king. Such forks checking a king are particularly effective, because the opponent is forced by the rules of chess to immediately remove the check to his king. The opponent cannot choose to defend the other piece, or use a "zwischenzug" to complicate the situation. Pawns can also be effective in forking. By moving a pawn forward, it can attack two pieces—one diagonally to the left, and another diagonally to the right.  The queen is also an excellent forking piece, since she can move in eight different directions. However, a queen fork is only useful if both pieces are undefended, or if one is undefended and the other is the enemy's king. The queen is the most valuable attacking piece, so it is usually not profitable for her to capture a defended piece.  Fork attacks can be either "relative" (meaning the attacked pieces comprise pawn[s], knight[s], bishop[s], rook[s], or queen[s]), or "absolute" (one of the attacked pieces is the enemy king, in check). The targets of a fork do not have to be pieces, although this is known as a "double attack". One or more of the targets can be a mate threat (for example, forking a loose knight and setting up a battery of queen and bishop that creates a mate threat as well) or implied threat (for example, a knight move that forks a loose bishop and also threatens to fork enemy queen and rook).

Pin.

A "pin" is a move that inhibits an opponent piece from moving, because doing so would expose a more valuable (or vulnerable) piece behind it. Only bishops, rooks, and queens can perform a pin, since they can move more than one square in a straight line. If the pinned piece cannot move because doing so would produce check, the pin is called "absolute". If moving the pinned piece would expose a non-king piece, the pin is called "relative".

Skewer.

A "skewer" is a move which attacks two pieces in a line, similar to a pin, except that the enemy piece of greater value is in front of the piece of lesser value. After the more valuable piece moves away, the lesser piece can be captured. Like pins, only queens, rooks, and bishops can perform the skewer, and skewer attacks can be either "absolute" (the more valuable piece in front is the king, in check) or "relative" (the piece in front is a non-king piece).

Pawns.

Pawns are the least valuable chess piece, so are often used to capture defended pieces. A single pawn typically forces a more powerful piece, such as a rook or a knight, to retreat. The ability to fork two enemy pieces by advancing a pawn is often a threat. Or a simple pawn move can reveal a discovered attack. When pawns are arranged on a diagonal, with each pawn guarded by the pawn behind it, they form a wall or "" protecting any friendly pieces behind them. A weak pawn structure, with unprotected or isolated pawns ahead of more valuable pieces, can be a decisive weakness. A pawn that has advanced all the way to the opposite side of the board is promoted to any other piece except a king.

Sacrifices.

A "sacrifice" of some material is often necessary to throw the opponent's position out of balance, potentially gaining positional advantage. The sacrificed material is sometimes later offset with a consequent material gain. Pawn sacrifices in the opening are known as gambits; they are usually not intended for material gain, but rather to achieve a more active position.  Direct attacks against the enemy king are often started by sacrifices. A common example is sacrificing a bishop on h2 or h7, checking the king, who usually must take the bishop. This allows the queen and knight to develop a fulminant attack.

Zugzwang.

"Zugzwang" (German for the "compulsion to move") occurs when a player is forced to make an undesirable move. The player is put at a disadvantage because he would prefer to pass and make no move, but a move has to be made, all of which weaken his position. Situations involving zugzwang occur uncommonly, but when they do occur, it is almost always in the endgame, where there are fewer choices of available moves.

Zwischenzug.

"Zwischenzug" (German for "intermediate move") is a common tactic in which a player under threat, instead of directly countering, introduces an even more devastating threat. The tactic often involves a new attack against the opponent's queen or king. The opponent then may be forced to address the new threat, abandoning the earlier attack.  The concept of a zwischenzug is often listed as a tactic, but might properly be called a counter-tactic instead. The effect of a zwischenzug is to change the status quo before a tactic can come to fruition. The near ubiquity of the zwischenzug makes long combinations all the more rare and impressive.

In chess, a tactic refers to a sequence of moves that limits the opponent's options and may result in tangible gain. Tactics are usually contrasted with strategy, in which advantages take longer to be realized, and the opponent is less constrained in responding.


Biography.

Vincenzo Coronelli was born, probably in Venice, on August 16, 1650, the fifth child of a Venetian tailor named Maffio Coronelli. At ten, young Vincenzo was sent to the city of Ravenna and was apprenticed to a xylographer. In 1663 he was accepted into the Conventual Franciscans, becoming a novice in 1665. At age sixteen he published the first of his one hundred forty separate works. In 1671 he entered the Convent of Saint Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice, and in 1672 Coronelli was sent by the order to the College of Saint Bonaventura and Saints Apostoli in Rome where he earned his doctor’s degree in theology in 1674. He excelled in the study of both astronomy and Euclid. A little before 1678, Coronelli began working as a geographer and was commissioned to make a set of terrestrial and celestial globes for Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma. Each finely crafted globe was five feet in diameter (c. 175 cm) and so impressed the Duke that he made Coronelli his theologian. Coronelli's renown as a theologian grew and in 1699 he was appointed Father General of the Franciscan order.  The International Coronelli Society for the Study of Globes, founded 1952 in Vienna, is named in Coronelli's honor.

Globes for Louis XIV.

Cardinal César d'Estrées, friend and adviser to Louis XIV and ambassador to Rome, saw the Duke of Parma’s globes and invited Coronelli to Paris in 1681 to construct a pair of globes for the Most Christian King. Coronelli moved to the French capital in 1681, where he lived for two years. Each globe was composed of spindles of bent timber about ten feet long and four inches broad at the equator. This wood was then coated with a layer of plaster about an inch thick and covered in a layer of strong unfinished fabric. This was then wrapped in a quarter-inch layer of two very fine fabrics which provided backing for the painted information of the globes. These globes, measuring 384 cm in diameter and weighing approximately 2 tons, are displayed in the Bibliothèque nationale François Mitterrand in Paris. The globes depicted the latest information of French explorations in North America, particularly the expeditions of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.

The Bergamo Globes.

The request for "Globes" started as a private princely commission from a highdemanding class, mostly concentrated in the northern and central Europe courts. The art of coated cards globes with terrestrial or celestial, handwritten and often finely decorated originated in Italy. Coronelli was among the initiators of this art. The most famous Coronelli ‘s globes are divided into 2 groups: the first one includes the Globes manufactured for Parma’s Duke and for Louis XIV, which are unique for top quality; the second one includes those built since 1688, as result of a well known experience. Indeed, the quality of globes made for Louis XIV created the "request" for other Coronelli's globes. Their reputation was so wide that provoked the request from the highest class and institution, desiring to adorn their libraries with these elements not only for scientific use but also as artistic element. By this intent the two globes that we admire today in the Salone Furietti of Angelo Mai Library arrived in Bergamo. The history of the two globes is closely tied to cultural events and policies that have affected the city of Bergamo in the last 500 years. In fact the two Coronelli globes came to Bergamo in 1692, when Angelo Finardi, man of letter and Augustinian friar was librarian at the St. Augustine monastery. He charged a man to buy them in Venice just with the purpose of equipping the monastery library with essential tools to culture. In 1797, the St. Augustine monastery was suppressed, both the globes met with the confiscations of Napoleonic laws and were on the way to be brought to Paris and gathered with the Versailles globes. Nevertheless, thanks to the noble Giovanni Battista Vertova who hidden the two globes in his home in 1834 they were donated by his son Andrea to the Bergamo Library.

Current locations of 110cm globes.

Other 110cm diameter Coronelli globes are at

Later life.

Coronelli worked in various European countries in the following years, before permanently returning to Venice in 1705. Here he started his own cosmographical project and published the volumes of "Atlante Veneto". In his home city he founded the very first geographical society, the Accademia Cosmografica degli Argonauti. He also held the position of Cosmographer of the Republic of Venice. Later six volumes of the "Biblioteca Universale Sacro-Profana" were published by Coronelli. This was a kind of encyclopedia, its compiled entries ordered alphabetically.  Coronelli died at the age of 68 in Venice, having created hundreds of maps in his lifetime.

Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (August 16, 1650 – December 9, 1718) was an Italian Franciscan friar, cosmographer, cartographer, publisher, and encyclopedist known in particular for his atlases and globes. He spent most of his life in Venice.


Historical mining terminology.

Before the mid-19th century, the terms "slate", "shale" and "schist" were not sharply distinguished. In the context of underground coal mining in the United States, the term slate was commonly used to refer to shale well into the 20th century. For example, "roof slate" referred to shale above a coal seam, and "draw slate" referred to shale that fell from the mine roof as the coal was removed.

Mineral composition.

Slate is mainly composed of the minerals quartz and muscovite or illite, often along with biotite, chlorite, hematite, and pyrite and, less frequently apatite, graphite, kaolinite, magnetite, tourmaline, or zircon as well as feldspar. Occasionally, as in the purple slates of North Wales, ferrous reduction spheres form around iron nuclei, leaving a light green spotted texture. These spheres are sometimes deformed by a subsequent applied stress field to ovoids, which appear as ellipses when viewed on a cleavage plane of the specimen.

Uses.

Slate in buildings.

Slate can be made into roofing slates, a type of roof shingle, or more specifically a type of roof tile, which are installed by a slater. Slate has two lines of breakability – cleavage and grain – which make it possible to split the stone into thin sheets. When broken, slate retains a natural appearance while remaining relatively flat and easy to stack. A series of "slate booms" occurred in Europe from the 1870s until the First World War following improvements in railway, road and waterway transportation systems.  Slate is particularly suitable as a roofing material as it has an extremely low water absorption index of less than 0.4%, making the material waterproof. In fact, this natural slate, which requires only minimal processing, has the lowest embodied energy of all roofing materials. Natural slate is used by building professionals as a result of its beauty and durability. Slate is incredibly durable and can last several hundred years, often with little or no maintenance. Its low water absorption makes it very resistant to frost damage and breakage due to freezing. Natural slate is also fire resistant and energy efficient. Slate roof tiles are usually fixed (fastened) either with nails, or with hooks as is common with Spanish slate. In the UK, fixing is typically with double nails onto timber battens (England and Wales) or nailed directly onto timber sarking boards (Scotland and Northern Ireland). Nails were traditionally of copper, although there are modern alloy and stainless steel alternatives. Both these methods, if used properly, provide a long-lasting weathertight roof with a lifespan of around 80–100 years.  Some mainland European slate suppliers suggest that using hook fixing means that:  The metal hooks are, however, visible and may be unsuitable for historic properties.  Slate tiles are often used for interior and exterior flooring, stairs, walkways and wall cladding. Tiles are installed and set on mortar and grouted along the edges. Chemical sealants are often used on tiles to improve durability and appearance, increase stain resistance, reduce efflorescence, and increase or reduce surface smoothness. Tiles are often sold gauged, meaning that the back surface is ground for ease of installation. Slate flooring can be slippery when used in external locations subject to rain. Slate tiles were used in 19th century UK building construction (apart from roofs) and in slate quarrying areas such as Blaenau Ffestiniog and Bethesda, Wales there are still many buildings wholly constructed of slate. Slates can also be set into walls to provide a rudimentary damp-proof membrane. Small offcuts are used as shims to level floor joists. In areas where slate is plentiful it is also used in pieces of various sizes for building walls and hedges, sometimes combined with other kinds of stone. In modern homes slate is often used as table coasters.

Other uses.

Because it is a good electrical insulator and fireproof, it was used to construct early-20th-century electric switchboards and relay controls for large electric motors. Fine slate can also be used as a whetstone to hone knives.  Due to its thermal stability and chemical inertness, slate has been used for laboratory bench tops and for billiard table tops. In 18th- and 19th-century schools, slate was extensively used for blackboards and individual writing slates, for which slate or chalk pencils were used.  In areas where it is available, high-quality slate is used for tombstones and commemorative tablets. In some cases slate was used by the ancient Maya civilization to fashion stelae.  Slate was the traditional material of choice for black Go stones in Japan. It is now considered to be a luxury.

Slate extraction.

Europe.

Most slate in Europe today comes from Spain, the world's largest producer and exporter of natural slate, and 90 percent of Europe's natural slate used for roofing originates from the slate industry there.  Lesser slate-producing regions in Europe include Wales (with a museum at Llanberis), Cornwall (famously the village of Delabole), Cumbria (see Burlington Slate Quarries, Honister Slate Mine and Skiddaw Slate) and, formerly in the West Highlands of Scotland, around Ballachulish and the Slate Islands in the United Kingdom. Parts of France (Anjou, Loire Valley, Ardennes, Brittany, Savoie) and Belgium (Ardennes), Liguria in northern Italy, especially between the town of Lavagna (which means "chalkboard" in Italian) and Fontanabuona valley; Portugal especially around Valongo in the north of the country.  Germany's Moselle River region, Hunsrück (with a former mine open as a museum at Fell), Eifel, Westerwald, Thuringia and north Bavaria; and Alta, Norway (actually schist, not a true slate). Some of the slate from Wales and Cumbria is colored slate (non-blue): purple and formerly green in Wales and green in Cumbria.

Americas.

Slate is abundant in Brazil, the world's second-biggest producer of slate, around Papagaios in Minas Gerais, which extracts 95 percent of Brazil's slate. However, not all "slate" products from Brazil are entitled to bear the CE mark.  Slate is produced on the east coast of Newfoundland, in Eastern Pennsylvania, Buckingham County, Virginia, and the Slate Valley of Vermont and New York, where colored slate is mined in the Granville, New York area. Pennsylvania slate is widely used in the manufacture of turkey calls used for hunting turkeys in the U.S. The tones produced from the slate (when scratched with various species of wood strikers) imitates almost exactly the calls of all four species of wild turkey in North America: eastern, Rio Grande, Osceola and Merriam's.  A major slating operation existed in Monson, Maine during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where the slate is usually dark purple to blackish, and many local structures are still roofed with slate tiles. The roof of St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York was made of Monson slate, as is the headstone of John F. Kennedy.  Slate is found in the Arctic, and was used by Inuit to make the blades for ulus.

Asia.

China has vast slate deposits; in recent years its export of finished and unfinished slate has increased. It has slate in various colors.

Australia.

Deposits of slate exist throughout the Australian continent, with large reserves quarried in the Adelaide Hills (Willunga and Kanmantoo) and the Mid North (Mintaro and Spalding).

Fossils.

Because slate was formed in low heat and pressure, compared to a number of other metamorphic rocks, some fossils can be found in slate; sometimes even microscopic remains of delicate organisms can be found in slate.

Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. Foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering, but instead is in planes perpendicular to the direction of metamorphic compression.


Early life.

Conrad was the son of duke Conrad of Thuringia (called "the Elder") and his wife Glismut, probably related to Ota, wife of the Carolingian emperor Arnulf of Carinthia and mother of Louis the Child. The Conradines, counts in the Franconian Lahngau region, had been loyal supporters of the Carolingians. At the same time, they competed vigorously for predominance in Franconia with the sons of the Babenbergian duke Henry of Franconia at Bamberg Castle. In 906 the two parties battled each other near Fritzlar. Conrad the Elder was killed, as were two of the three Babenberg brothers. King Louis the Child then took the Conradines' side and the third Babenbergian brother Adalbert was arrested and executed shortly thereafter, despite a promise of safe conduct by the king's chancellor, Archbishop Hatto I of Mainz. Conrad then became the undisputed duke of all Franconia. Nevertheless, he failed in his attempts to extend the rule of Conradines over the western Lotharingia after the death of his uncle, duke Gebhard.

Rule.

After the death of Louis the Child, Conrad was elected king of East Francia on 10 November 911 at Forchheim by the rulers of Saxony, Swabia and Bavaria. The dukes prevented the succession to the throne of Louis' Carolingian relative Charles the Simple, king of West Francia. They chose the Conradine scion, who was maternally related to the late king. Only Conrad's rival, Reginar, duke of Lotharingia refused to give him his allegiance and joined West Francia.  Exactly because Conrad I was one of the dukes, he found it very hard to establish his authority over them. Duke Henry of Saxony was in rebellion against Conrad I until 915 and the struggle against Arnulf, Duke of Bavaria cost Conrad I his life. Burchard II, Duke of Swabia demanded and received more autonomy. Arnulf of Bavaria called on Magyars for assistance in his uprising, and when defeated, fled to Magyar lands. For this he was condemned to death as a traitor, but the powerful duke managed to avoid execution.  In 913 Conrad I married the sister of the Swabian count Erchanger, grandson of king Louis the German. Cunigunde, widow of Liutpold and mother of Duke Arnulf of Bavaria, gave him two children: Cunigunda and Herman, both born in 913.  In 913 Erchanger revolted against Conrad I. In 914 He captured Solomon III, Bishop of Constance, who was Conrad’s chief counselor. Erchanger was exiled but still managed to defeat royal army in a battle near Lake Constance. He was finally arrested for treason in assembly of nobles at Hohenaltheim in Swabia and on 21 January 917 was executed together with his brother Berthold.  Conrad's reign was a continuous and generally unsuccessful struggle to uphold the power of king against the growing power of the local dukes. His military campaigns against Charles the Simple to regain Lotharingia and the Imperial city of Aachen were failures. Archbishop Ratbod of Trier even became West Frankish chancellor in 913. Conrad's realm was also exposed to the continuous raids of the Magyars since the disastrous defeat of the Bavarian forces at the 907 Battle of Pressburg, leading to a considerable decline in his authority. His attempt to mobilize the East Frankish episcopate led by Archbishop Unni of Bremen to his cause at the 916 synod of Hohenaltheim was not enough to compensate other failures. After several clashes, Conrad at least was able to come to terms with duke Henry of Saxony. The restless Swabian dukes Erchanger (executed in 917) and Burchard II were a continuous threat, as was Arnulf, Duke of Bavaria.  Severely injured at one of his battles with Arnulf, Conrad died on 23 December 918 at his residence in Weilburg Castle. He was buried in Fulda Cathedral.  According to the "Res gestae saxonicae" by the chronicler Widukind of Corvey, Conrad on his deathbed persuaded his younger brother Eberhard of Franconia to offer the royal crown to Henry the Fowler, the duke of Saxony and one of his principal opponents, since he considered Henry to be the only duke capable of holding the kingdom together in the face of internal rivalries among the dukes and the continuous Magyar raids. It was not until May 919, when Eberhard and the other Frankish nobles accepted Conrad's advice, and Henry was elected king as Henry I at the Reichstag of Fritzlar. Kingship now changed from Franks to Saxons, who had suffered greatly during the conquests of Charlemagne and were proud of their identity.  Eberhard succeeded Conrad as duke of Franconia. He was killed in 939 at the Battle of Andernach during his rebellion against emperor Otto I, whereafter the duchy of Franconia became a direct Imperial possession of the Ottonian dynasty until 1024.

Sources.

Conrad I (; c. 881 – 23 December 918), called the Younger, was the king of East Francia from 911 to 918. He was the first king not of the Carolingian dynasty, the first to be elected by the nobility and the first to be anointed. He was chosen as the king by the rulers of the East Frankish stem duchies after the death of young king Louis the Child. Ethnically Frankish, prior to this election he had ruled the Duchy of Franconia from 906.