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Orange S.A.

Orange S.A., formerly known as France Télécom S.A. (france telecom) is a French multinational telecommunications company. It has 266 million customers worldwide and employs about 89,000 people or more in France and 59,000 people worldwide. In 2023, the group had a revenue of approximately €43 billion. The company's head office is located in Issy-les-Moulineaux, in the southwestern suburban area of Paris City.

Orange has been the company's main brand for mobile, landline, internet and Internet Protocol television (IPTV) services since 2006. The Orange brand originated in the United Kingdom in 1994 after Hutchison Whampoa acquired a controlling stake in Microtel Communications: that company became a subsidiary of Mannesmann in 1999 and then was acquired by France Télécom in 2000. On 1 July 2013 France Télécom was rebranded to Orange.

Nationalised service (1878–1980s)
In 1792, under the French Revolution, the first communication network was developed to enable the rapid transmission of information in a warring and unsafe country. That was the optical telegraphy network of Claude Chappe.

In 1878, after the invention of the electrical telegraph and then the invention of the telephone, the French State created a Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs. Telephone services were nationalized and added to the ministry in 1889. However, it was not until 1923 that the second 'T' (for 'telephones') appeared and the department of P&T (Posts and Telegraphs) became PTT.

In 1941, a General Direction of Telecommunications was created within this ministry. Then, in 1944, the National Centre of Telecommunications Studies (CNET) was created to develop the telecommunications industry in France.

In the 1970s, France attempted to make up for its delay in developing communications infrastructure, compared to other countries, by launching the programme "Delta LP" (increasing the main lines). It was at that time that the majority of the local loop was built (that is all the cables linking the users to the operator). Moreover, with the help of French manufacturers, digital switching -- Minitel and the GSM standard—were invented by engineers and CNET researchers.

In 1982, Telecom introduced Minitel online ordering for its customers.

Creation of France Télécom (1988–1997)
Until 1988, France Télécom was known as the direction générale des Télécommunications, a division of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. It became autonomous in 1990. This was in response to a European directive, aimed at making competition mandatory in public services from 1 January 1998. The 2 July 1990 Bill changed France Télécom into an operator of public law, with Marcel Roulet as the first Chairman. Since then, the company has had a separate body corporate from the State and acquired financial autonomy. It was privatized by Lionel Jospin's Plural Left government starting on 1 January 1998. The French government, both directly and through its holding company ERAP, continues to hold a stake of almost 27% in the company. In addition, The French government's role in naming the CEO. In September 1995, Michel Bon was appointed to run France Télécom Group.

'Roaring Nineties' (1997–2000)
In 1997, the capital of the new public company was successfully floated whereas the dot-com bubble phenomenon made the stock exchanges bullish. A second share offering occurred in 1998. France Télécom got behind in the internationalization launched by its international competitors such as Vodafone, thus, it started looking for targets at the highest speculation rate of the dot-com bubble. Moreover, its alliance with Deutsche Telekom based on a reciprocal capital contribution of 2% broke off when Deutsche Telekom announced that they were planning to do business with Telecom Italia without letting the French know; even if this project ended up failing.

Acquisition of Orange and privatisation
In July 1991, Hutchison Telecom, a UK subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, acquired a controlling stake in Microtel Communications Ltd, who by then had acquired a licence to develop a mobile network in the United Kingdom. Hutchison renamed Microtel to Orange Personal Communications Services Ltd, and on 28 April 1994 the Orange brand was launched in the UK mobile phone market. A holding company structure was adopted in 1995 with the establishment of Orange plc. In April 1996, Orange went public and floated on the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, majority-owned by Hutchison (48.22%), followed by BAe (21.1%). In June 1996, it became the youngest company to enter the FTSE 100, valued at £2.4 billion.

In October 1999, the German conglomerate Mannesmann AG acquired Orange for a price equivalent to €7,900 per customer, i.e. US$33bn. Mannesmann's acquisition of Orange triggered Vodafone to make a hostile takeover bid for Mannesmann. Shortly thereafter, in February 2000, Vodafone acquired Mannesmann for US$183 billion, and decided to divest Orange because EU regulations would not allow it to hold two mobile licences.

In August 2000, France Télécom bought Orange plc from Vodafone for a total estimated cost of €39.7 bn. At the time, France Télécom also bought stakes in several other international firms (GlobalOne, Equant, Internet Telecom, Freeserve, EresMas, NTL and Mobilcom), of which some have since been sold back. Through this process, France Télécom became the fourth-biggest global operator. The mobile telephone operations of Orange plc were merged with the majority of the mobile operations of France Télécom, forming the new group Orange S.A.

On 13 February 2001, Orange S.A. was listed on the Euronext Paris stock exchange with an initial public offering of 95 Euros per share, with a secondary listing in London. In May 2001, Orange S.A. was listed on the CAC 40, the benchmark stock market index of the top 40 French companies in terms of market capitalisation.

In June 2001, the France Telecom Mobile brands Itinéris, OLA, and Mobicarte were replaced by the Orange brand. On 21 November 2003, France Telecom withdrew the 13.7% of Orange's shares traded on the Paris stock exchange.

On 2 October 2002, the CEO, Thierry Breton was given the task of turning the company around after the company became crippled by debt following the drop of the company's stock price. On 30 September 2002, the company's stock price was €6.94, down from €219 on 2 March 2000. France Télécom was the second most indebted company worldwide in terms of short-term liabilities. The company obtained 15bn of debt adjustment that needed to be borne by banks and investors, another 15bn as a capital increase from the French State since it was still the majority shareholder, and an additional 15bn in cash from internal savings. On 25 February 2005, Thierry Breton was appointed Minister of Finance and Industry and Didier Lombard, who had been head of the firm's new technologies division, replaced him as CEO.

NeXT scheme and rebranding to Orange (2006–present)

The NeXT scheme was the recovery plan for France Télécom which aimed at, among other things, reducing costs, especially wage costs, carrying on a converging policy for its products and services, and grouping together all the brands under a single brand, except for the activities dealing with fixed-line telephone which would stay under the designation 'France Télécom'. Consequently, this led to the disappearance of a number of brands.

From 1 June 2006, France Télécom tried to commercialize all its products under a single worldwide brand, becoming the sole brand of the France Telecom group for Internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries in which Orange operated. Orange Business Services became the brand for all its business services offerings worldwide, replacing the Equant brand. In June 2007, Orange and Mid Europa Partners acquired Austrian mobile network company One, re-branding it as Orange Austria. In 2012, it was sold to Hutchison 3G and the Orange Austria brand was terminated.

In November 2008, Orange launched five Orange Cinema Series channels. To do so, Orange bought the exclusive rights from Warner Bros. for first runs of all new films, previously held by TPS Star (a subsidiary of the Canal+ Group), as well as all films in its catalogue and rights to the film catalogues of Gaumont, HBO and MGM. Orange also secured exclusive rights to broadcast Saturday evening Ligue 1 football matches from the French Football Federation. Free accused Orange of tied-selling as the Orange channels were only available to its subscribers. In June 2008, the firm abandoned a €27 billion bid for Swedish operator TeliaSonera after the two companies failed to agree terms.

In 2008, Orange was given permission from Apple to sell the iPhone in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and Orange's African markets. On 8 September 2009, Orange and T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom announced they were in advanced talks to merge their UK operations to create the largest mobile operator with 37% of the market. Both T-Mobile and Orange brands were kept due to differences in their targeted markets. T-Mobile remained the budget-conscious offering and Orange the premium one, although there was some overlap as of February 2011.

On 5 April 2009, Orange won an Arbitration Court case against Orascom Telecom, forcing Orascom to transfer its stake in Mobinil to Orange at a price of per Mobinil share. On 28 October 2009, Orange changed the name of its Luxembourgish telecommunication company VOXMobile to Orange. On 5 November 2009, Orange Armenia launched telecommunication services in Armenia. On 11 December 2009, Egypt's regulator approved an offer from a unit of France Telecom (Orange) to buy Mobinil. In 2010, Orange's CEO, Didier Lombard, was replaced by Stéphane Richard. The company was also reorganised internally, most notably with the arrival of former Culture Minister Christine Albanel as head of communications for the group. In mid-April 2010, Orange UK announced that it would outsource the management of its broadband network to BT. This announcement was greeted positively by broadband commentators, who felt that the move was likely to improve Orange's broadband quality and customer services.

On 2 March 2012, Didier Lombard, who remained special advisor to Stéphane Richard, left the company. His departure was shadowed by controversy over his stock options: he was suspected of having stayed with the company longer to wait for the France Telecom share to recover and then exercise his stock option. The share was trading at around €16, whereas his stock options were at €23. On 3 February 2012, Hutchison Whampoa announced that it would buy Orange Austria for US$1.7 billion. The deal closed on 3 January 2013, and the Orange brand was phased out on 19 August 2013, when its operations were merged into 3. In March 2012, France Télécom bought 93.9% of Mobinil, an Egyptian mobile operator, from Naguib Sawiris's Orascom Telecom Media and Technology (OTMT) in an effort to double its revenue in MENA by 2015. On 28 May 2013 at the Annual Shareholders' Meeting, shareholders approved changing the name of the group to Orange S.A. This became effective on 1 July 2013. In September 2014, Orange agreed a deal to acquire Spanish firm Jazztel for a fee of around €3.4 billion.

As of October 2018, Orange has teamed up with Google in order to install a transatlantic undersea cable, Dunant, to share data between the United States and France at faster speeds. Planned to begin operation in 2020, the fiber-based cable has a design capacity of 250 terabits per second (Tbit/s) and will span approximately 6600 kilometers in length.

in July 2020, Orange launched a satellite-based home broadband service utilising the Eutelsat Konnect satellite.

Shareholders
The major shareholders of Orange are the state of France through Agence des participations de l'État and Banque publique d'investissement (replacing Fonds stratégique d'investissement) for 23.04%. As of mid-2013, Orange employees owned 4.81%, and the company itself owned 0.58%.

Mobile

Orange is the sole brand used in the marketing of the company's mobile offers; the Itineris, Ola and Mobicarte brands have been combined since 2001, and Mobicarte became a special prepaid calling offer. Orange has 150 million mobile customers worldwide, 17.9% of whom are in France. Orange France is the leading mobile telecommunications operator in France, with a market share of 45.38%

The Orange brand name was licensed to a number of operators which Orange S.A. did not own, these include:

Landline and Internet
Orange took over the landline and Internet businesses of France Telecom and Wanadoo in 2006. Since then, Orange is the sole brand of France Telecom for landline and Internet services worldwide, with a few exceptions, such as Mobistar in Belgium and TPSA in Poland. Orange's triple-play broadband Internet offers are supplied through the Livebox. Orange has 13.7 million broadband ADSL customers worldwide, 67% of whom are in France40.

The Livebox is the ADSL modem supplied to Orange's ADSL and FTTH customers in France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain and Tunisia, and to WiMAX customers in Cameroon. It serves as a bridge between the Internet access and the home network through several communication interfaces (Bluetooth, Ethernet, Wi-Fi). The Livebox has evolved over time. The Livebox 1.0 was replaced by version 1.1, the Mini Livebox, followed by the Livebox 2.0. The newest version was scheduled to be rolled out in 2012. The Livebox is offered on a monthly contract for €3 per month or for purchase for €59. The Number of Liveboxes rented in 2008,this statistic reflects Orange's significant market penetration and growth in the broadband internet sector. With 7.3 million Liveboxes rented out, Orange experienced a notable 12.3% increase in just one year.

Broadcasting
Beginning in 2003, Orange's strategy has centred on the acquisition, creation and diffusion of content. This starts with the creation of MaLigne.tv in 2003, later renamed Orange TV, an ADSL television access service and a video-on-demand service. In 2004, Orange organized a television access service for mobile phones. In 2007, Orange created and, in 2008, entered into a partnership with France Televisions to broadcast pre-recorded programming from the public national television and to roll out themed channels for sports, cinema and television series. Orange dubbed the strategy Content Everywhere in 2008, announcing it simultaneously with the launch of the Orange cinema series television channels and aimed to offer customers access to all content available through Orange's services, anywhere and from any device.

OCS
Orange Cinema Series is launched 13 November 2008, along with Orange Sport; it comprises five channels devoted to movies (Orange Ciné Max, Ciné Happy, Ciné Choc, Ciné Novo, Ciné Géant). The channels primarily show films from the Warner Bros. and HBO catalogues. Orange installs additional VOD services on its channels, allowing viewers to watch programmes broadcast in the previous 30 days whenever they like, as well as supplementary programmes from the previous month.

Orange Sport
Orange Sport is launched 13 November 2008. Orange secures the broadcast rights for the Saturday evening lineup of Ligue 1 matches from season 2008/2009 to season 2011/2012, and the rights to home matches of eight Serie A clubs (Sampdoria, Atalanta, Chievo, Reggina, Siena, Palermo, Udinese and Napoli). The acquisition of these rights marks the start of competition for sports programs with the Canal+ group.

Video on demand
Orange offers services for video on demand access using the Orange decoder, a computer or a mobile phone. Orange offers free programming from the catalogues of available works of France Television, M6 and TF1 for one week after their initial broadcast.

Online entertainment
In 1997, France Telecom created Goa, an online entertainment subsidiary. The site is launched as a platform for players of massively multiplayer online games. In 2002, Goa acquires the operating license for Dark Age of Camelot. In 2007 Goa ceases to be a subsidiary and is merged into Orange. In 2009 Orange refocuses Goa.com on online entertainment and gradually ceases to operate massively multiplayer online games. In August 2010, goa.com disappears to become the Orange Jeux portal.

Music

 * Created by Orange in 2008, Liveradio is a free, live, on-demand IP radio streaming service. Users gain access through this service to more than 10,000 FM and web radio stations and 11,000 podcasts from 100 countries.

Subsidiaries, joint ventures and holdings

Orange is a communications access provider offering customers access through multiple platforms. The four key platforms Orange operates are:
 * 1) fixed line telephone, mainly in France and Poland.
 * 2) broadband access.
 * 3) mobile phone telephony.
 * 4) most recently, IPTV, though currently only in France, Spain, Poland and Slovakia, known as Orange TV.

France Télécom merged the different internal divisions managing each platform and now all operate under the Orange brand.

Orange Business
Orange is present in the U.S. through its Orange Business division and its venture capital historical partner Innovacom as well as two R&D labs: one in Boston, Massachusetts and the other in South San Francisco, California.

OpenTransit is Orange's backbone network. It covers Europe, the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, and loops back to Paris.

BT Group
Orange and Deutsche Telekom merged their UK businesses in 2010 to form a joint venture branded as EE. In December 2014, Orange were in talks with BT Group regarding the acquisition of EE for an estimated £12.5bn. On 5 February 2015, it was announced that BT would be acquiring EE in a £12.5bn deal, in which Orange S.A would take a 4% stake in the BT Group. The acquisition of EE was completed 29 January 2016.

Globecast
Globecast is a provider of managed services for the media and broadcast industry, such as TV channel distribution via satellite and Internet, live event production, contribution and distribution services, channel content preparation and playout. GlobeCast World TV was a brand by Globecast for its north-american direct-to-home satellite broadcast of international channels. In 2012, Globecast also began launching a direct-to-consumer OTT IPTV service called MyGlobeTV in the United States using NetGem set top boxes. The MyGlobeTV service was discontinued In December 2013.

Viaccess Orca
Viaccess Orca is a provider of IPTV and OTT TV service platforms and security services. It is headquartered in Paris La Defense. Viaccess-orca acquired Squadeo company in 2017 and is able to supply video secured player. Viaccess Orca is also involved in content tracking over internet, providing anti-piracy services.

Orange Labs
Orange Labs (formerly France Télécom R&D) is the research and development division of Orange. This division was derived from different previous entities, such as CNET (Centre national d'études des télécommunications) created in 1944, the CCETT created in 1972, as well as other entities. In 2007, France Télécom R&D became known as Orange Labs, a global network of R&D entities.

CCETT/France Télécom R&D contributed to various international standards, such as ISO/IEC MPEG and JPEG standards or DAB and DVB standards. CCETT, IRT and Philips developed a digital audio two-channel compression system known as Musicam or MPEG Audio Layer II (Emmy Award in Engineering 2000).

In 2010, Orange devoted 1.9% of its revenue, or €845 million, to research and development. Since January 2007 Orange has unified its research laboratories and technocentres in the Orange Labs network. Orange held a portfolio of 7,892 patents, 327 which were filed in 2010. Orange employs 3,700 people in research and development per year throughout the organisation, including more than 200 doctoral candidates and post-doctorates. Orange's research and development is based on partnerships with industry, suppliers and operators, universities and schools, academic institutes and research programs such as the following:

Two types of infrastructure coexist in Orange's research and development: the research laboratories and the technocentres. The latter are responsible for Orange innovations and consist of multidisciplinary teams of researchers, engineers, and marketing and sales personnel.

Cityvox
Cityvox is a network of websites with local content (restaurants, cultural happenings, etc.) created in 1999. Orange purchased the network site in 2008.

Deezer
In late August 2010 Orange acquired an 11% share in the streaming site Deezer. With this acquisition, the operator offered its subscribers a new "Deezer Premium" option: paid streaming music service with no advertising and 7 million titles. In 2016 Orange sold Deezer to Access Industries, the parent of Warner Music Group.

Dailymotion
On 25 January 2011 Orange announced the acquisition of 49% of Dailymotion, a French online video platform, at a cost of €58.8 million. The group also secured an option to acquire all of the shares in the platform in 2013. This is indicative of a new strategy by Orange, which seeks to offer a full range of multi-screen video to its subscribers. In 2015 Vivendi acquired 90% of Dailymotion.

Studio 37
Created in 2007 co-produces and acquires films, unlike the Canal+ Group's StudioCanal. The producer Frédérique Dumas starts the studio, which has an initial budget of 30 million Euros. For its growth, Orange negotiates exclusivity agreements with Warner, HBO, Fidélité Films and Gaumont, ensuring a stream of films for its TV Orange Cinema Series package. In 2011, Studio 37 co-produced The Artist which went on to win best picture and four further awards at the 84th Academy Awards. This makes it the first silent film to win an award since the original ceremony in 1929.

Cloudwatt
Cloudwatt is a cloud services provider set up in 2012 by Orange (44%), the French government through Caisse des Dépôts (33%) and Thales (22%). In March 2015, Orange acquired all remaining shares of Cloudwatt to strengthen its enterprise cloud services offering.

Aire
In January 2019 Orange acquired a minority shareholding in Aire Labs, a credit data platform in the UK.

SecureData
In February 2019 Orange acquired UK cybersecurity provider SecureData for an undisclosed sum, merging it with Orange Cyberdefense Division.

SecureLink
Orange acquired SecureLink, a Netherlands-based cybersecurity company, in 2019 for €515 million.

SUMA Movil
In November 2019 Orange España, a subsidiary of Orange, acquired SUMA Móvil Spain from Grupo-Ingenium for an undisclosed sum.

Telekom Romania
In early August 2020 Orange reached an agreement with the Ministry of Communications and Information Society (MCSI) to purchase Telekom Romania and establish a new telecommunications entity. As part of this agreement, the Romanian government would own a 20% stake in the new entity, and Orange would take over fixed operations. The MCSI had first entered talks to sell Telekom Romania in September 2019, when Deutsche Telekom announced that it was prepared to sell its stake in Telekom Romania to Orange.

Future4care
In June 2021, Orange partners with Sanofi, Capgemini and Generali to launch Future4care. This all-European start-up accelerator will help develop upcoming companies focused on digital health.

Staff suicides
Between January 2008 and April 2011, more than 60 France Télécom employees died by suicide, some leaving notes blaming stress and misery at work. In October 2009, the wave of suicides led former Deputy CEO Louis-Pierre Wenes to resign under trade union pressure, to be replaced by Stéphane Richard. Faced with multiple suicides of employees, the company promoted Stéphane Richard to the chief executive officer on 1 February 2010, while Didier Lombard remained as chairman.

The suicide rate among France Télécom's 102,000 domestic employees was 15.3 per year in that year, compared with an average of 14.7 suicides per 100,000 in the overall French population.

Following an investigation, the Inspection du travail (Labour Inspection) told the labour union Sud-PTT that the work organisation at France Télécom "was conducive to generating suffering at work" and "health risks" for employees. An investigation was conducted by the audit firm Technologia at the request of France Télécom's management. Of the 102,843 employees in the group's parent company, 80,080 responded, i.e. a response rate of 77.9%. The fact-finding report revealed a "very poor general feeling", "strained physical and mental health", and a "tense and even violent working environment" for some categories of personnel. Working conditions were deemed difficult, mainly for personnel in charge of sales and customer interventions. Given heavy media coverage, these findings were the source of major contention about working conditions.

On 20 December 2019, former CEO Didier Lombard and Orange were found guilty of moral harassment towards their employees.

Access to some sites limited
In 2011, following complaints by Internet users, Megaupload accused Orange of not providing sufficient connectivity to its site, thus severely limiting throughput from France, an allegation Orange denied.

Accusations of false advertising in France
In November 2009, three users lodged a complaint against Orange for false advertising concerning its "Unlimited 3G Key" service. These customers criticised the operator for the misleading way in which this service is presented, since it isn't in fact unlimited. While it is true that there is no time limit, the user cannot download more than 1 gigabyte per month, thus limiting browsing. Unaware of this, the three plaintiffs browsed beyond plan limits and had to pay additional fees as a result.

Corruption in Tunisia
In March 2011, the information website OWNI uncovered a questionable financial deal that enabled the Orange group to acquire a 3G license.

Anticompetitive practices in French overseas departments
On 28 July 2011, the Competition Authority fined France Télécom €27.6 million for having improperly impeded the development of new competing operators in the French overseas departments (primarily Réunion).

France Télécom used its dominant position, resulting in particular from its former monopoly, to take unfair advantage of its competitors.

The practices identified by the Authority were:
 * excessive rate levels
 * as operators of the quasi-totality of the telecommunication infrastructure local loops, making use of the data which they have access to, France Télécom has targeted former subscribers who had switched to a competitor, in order to win them back, offering them specific deals.
 * margin squeeze on broadband Internet offers
 * maintaining call barring services inconsistent with the prior selection of an alternative operator

SMS and MMS propagation of 1 January 2011 in France
On 1 January 2011, Orange users' SMS and MMS were sent and billed multiple times. The operator agreed to reimburse the excess costs to consumers, explaining that the error came from a "third party operator" (which turned out to be Bouygues Telecom), said not to have sent acknowledgements, which caused the messages to be resent. A computer problem at the Bouygues platform was blamed. During the night of 31 December 2010 to 1 January 2011, more than 930 million text messages were exchanged in France (for the three operators combined), setting a new record compared with the peaks of the previous years.

Controversies in UK regarding the quality of service
On 21 March 2007 Watchdog, a television series by the BBC focusing on consumer protection, published the results from a broadband survey they held. According to the survey Orange is the worst ISP in the UK. 68% of Orange customers that took part in the survey said they were unsatisfied with Orange's customer service, it was voted as the most unreliable broadband provider, and it had the highest number of dissatisfied customers. Two thirds of Orange customers experienced problems cancelling their Orange broadband.

In response to the problems with Orange UK broadband and 3G broadband during March 2009 and April 2009 the 3G data network has been upgraded to 3.5G and increased signal coverage. This new network can be seen in action on many mobile phones which display network for instance the Nokia N95, when the phone detects the higher speed. The Orange UK mobile broadband USB adapter works with the new network. The 3G networks for all telecommunication suppliers still struggle to get the throughput that was originally advertised when these networks were announced. The UK Telecoms Regulator has reported on the challenges for all suppliers.

A consumer organisation forum web site known as OrangeProblems.co.uk focuses on the poor level of service provided by Orange Broadband in the UK. Initially set up as WanadooProblems.co.uk, the site focuses on the infamous Orange local loop unbundling and poor customer service but covers a wider range of Orange operations such as lost email, significantly delayed SMTP and outages, suspicions of eavesdropping, et al.

Orange Mobile has been criticised during a Channel 4 News investigation for a lack of security which potentially exposed customer records to fraud.

In August 2007 Orange was criticised for summarily deleting email accounts tied to old Freeserve and Wanadoo 'pay as you go' dial-up accounts with no warning.

In August 2008, after well publicised problems with iPhone 3G performances, customers compared their download speed and discovered that Orange in France was capping 3G download bandwidth. Orange admitted capping to 384 kbit/s, well below the theoretical 7.2 Mbit/s provided by the iPhone. Orange uncapped 3G and 3G+ by mid-September 2008.

Accusations of antisemitism and calls for boycott
The French chairman and CEO of the Orange telecommunications company, Stéphane Richard said in Cairo regarding his company operations in Israel, "Believe me, I would cancel the contract tomorrow if I could. We want to end this and to fix this; we don't want it." Later, Orange announced its desire to discontinue use of its popular brand name by its Israeli operator Partner Communications Company. The president of the State of Israel Reuven Rivlin said in response "Just yesterday Israel faced attacks from anti-Israel and anti-Semitic bodies, who have chosen to delegitimize the state of Israel, and to launch rockets at us from the Gaza Strip. We must face these challenges together, right and left," Rivlin said.

Israeli culture minister Miri Regev said, "I call on Jews of France and the world to disconnect from Orange unless Stéphane Richard takes back his words. The time has come for them to understand that Jews in the world and sane voices that oppose anti-Semitism and racism also have power." The statement on the company's website announced in response that "The Orange Group is a telecoms operator and as such its primary concern is to defend and promote the value of its brand in markets in which it is present," the statement began. "The Group does not engage in any kind of political debate under any circumstance." Later, Richard visited Israel to clarify his remarks. He met Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu and former president, Shimon Peres. Richard told both Netanyahu and Peres that Orange has not and will not support anti-Israel boycott efforts, and insisted that its announced decision to abrogate its relationship with Partner was purely commercial and not political.

On 30 June 2015, Orange and Partner announced a change to their 10-year licensing agreement. Orange paid Partner €40 million to add an opt out clause to the contract, with which Partner conducted a market survey which is determine the best course of action moving forward. In the first year only Partner can opt out, with either party being able to opt out in the second year. Regardless of which party opts to exercise the out clause, Orange will pay Partner an additional €50 million to end the arrangement. Orange stated that the money paid to Partner was purely for re-branding purposes and affirmed their previous statement that their wish to leave Israel is based on desire to discontinue license agreements and maintain only subsidiaries that they control, rather than a boycott. Orange would make the relevant payments over the course of two years and charge it to their books as a mix of marketing, sales, customer services and related expenses. As part of the agreement Orange's research and development activities within Israel would transition to the Orange name, but would be restricted from entering the telecommunications services market.

In September 2015, Orange reaffirmed their commitment to Israel with an investment in Hola, a video distribution network.

In February 2016, Orange and Partner decided to terminate their agreement. As a result, rebranding has resulted in Orange Israel becoming part of Partner.

Overview of governance
Governance of the Orange group is centered in its board of directors, executive committee and three committees that steer Orange's strategy:
 * Audit Committee: Created in 1997, the Audit Committee comprises three members appointed for indefinite terms by the board of directors on the recommendation of the Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility Committee.
 * Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility Committee: Created in 2010, it comprises at least three members appointed by the board of directors on the recommendation of its chairman. Its remit is to examine the main risks and opportunities in relation with the environment, Orange's policies concerning industrial, the publication of societal and environmental information, and the main orientations of its corporate social responsibility policy.
 * Strategy Committee: Created in 2003, the Strategy Committee comprises at least three members appointed by the board of directors on the recommendation of its chairman. The latter chairs the committee. It examines the group's international development strategic and the strategic mid-term guidelines.

Chairmen

 * 2005: Didier Lombard
 * 2010-2021: Stéphane Richard

Chief executive officers
The company is headed either by the chairman of the board of directors, whose title in that case is the chairman and chief executive officer, or by another person appointed by the board of directors and given the title of chief executive officer.

Board of directors
The Orange group is governed by a board of directors composed of a minimum of twelve members and a maximum of twenty-two members, divided as follows: three are appointed by the French State, three are elected by the employees, one is elected by the shareholders and represents employee shareholders, the fifteen other members are appointed by the shareholders. The board members serve for a term of four years. In 2011, the board of directors was composed of 15 members:

Executive committee
The executive committee reports to the chairman and CEO. Its purpose is to coordinate the implementation of Orange's strategic orientations and to oversee the achievement of operational, social, technical and financial resource allocation objectives. It comprises fifteen members.

Head office
Orange's head office, since 2012, is based at 78, Rue Olivier de Serres in the 15th arrondissement of Paris.

The company's former head office was based at 6, Place d'Alleray in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. The building was the head office from 1998 until 2012. Eight hundred employees worked at the site.

Orange Foundation
In 1987 France Telecom established the France Telecom Foundation. On 16 January 2007, the foundation changed its name to Orange Foundation. In 1990 France Telecom Foundation received the top award for corporate philanthropy from ADMICAL. In 1995 France Telecom Foundation received the top award for solidarity from ADMICAL. The board of directors of Orange Foundation consists of representatives of Orange, independent personalities and employee representatives. Its purpose is to support projects related to health, particularly autism; education, particularly schooling for girls in developing countries; and culture, particularly group vocal music. Projects supported by Orange Foundation are chosen by committees of experts devoted to each major theme. The Foundation has been involved in 300 to 400 projects per year since 1987. The Foundation works with international NGOs and local associations involved in long-term projects in countries in which Orange is based for better follow-up of these projects.

Sponsorship
From 2000 to 2002, Orange was a major sponsor of British Formula One team Arrows.

Orange was the sponsor for UEFA Euro 2012 and UEFA Euro 2016.

The company was the official jersey sponsor of the national basketball teams of the Central African Republic and Senegal at the 2015 FIBA Africa Championship.

Orange was the kit sponsor of the French association football club Olympique de Marseille for the 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons.

The company became a sponsor of esports organization Team Vitality in 2018.

title: Orange S.A.


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List of mathematical functions

In mathematics, some functions or groups of functions are important enough to deserve their own names. This is a listing of articles which explain some of these functions in more detail. There is a large theory of special functions which developed out of statistics and mathematical physics. A modern, abstract point of view contrasts large function spaces, which are infinite-dimensional and within which most functions are 'anonymous', with special functions picked out by properties such as symmetry, or relationship to harmonic analysis and group representations.

See also List of types of functions

Elementary functions
Elementary functions are functions built from basic operations (e.g. addition, exponentials, logarithms...)

Algebraic functions
Algebraic functions are functions that can be expressed as the solution of a polynomial equation with integer coefficients.
 * Polynomials: Can be generated solely by addition, multiplication, and raising to the power of a positive integer.
 * Constant function: polynomial of degree zero, graph is a horizontal straight line
 * Linear function: First degree polynomial, graph is a straight line.
 * Quadratic function: Second degree polynomial, graph is a parabola.
 * Cubic function: Third degree polynomial.
 * Quartic function: Fourth degree polynomial.
 * Quintic function: Fifth degree polynomial.
 * Rational functions: A ratio of two polynomials.
 * nth root
 * Square root: Yields a number whose square is the given one.
 * Cube root: Yields a number whose cube is the given one.

Elementary transcendental functions
Transcendental functions are functions that are not algebraic.
 * Exponential function: raises a fixed number to a variable power.
 * Hyperbolic functions: formally similar to the trigonometric functions.
 * Inverse hyperbolic functions: inverses of the hyperbolic functions, analogous to the inverse circular functions.

 * Logarithms: the inverses of exponential functions; useful to solve equations involving exponentials.
 * Natural logarithm
 * Common logarithm
 * Binary logarithm
 * Power functions: raise a variable number to a fixed power; also known as Allometric functions; note: if the power is a rational number it is not strictly a transcendental function.
 * Periodic functions
 * Trigonometric functions: sine, cosine, tangent, cotangent, secant, cosecant, exsecant, excosecant, versine, coversine, vercosine, covercosine, haversine, hacoversine, havercosine, hacovercosine, Inverse trigonometric functions etc.; used in geometry and to describe periodic phenomena. See also Gudermannian function.

Piecewise special functions
• Indicator function: maps x to either 1 or 0, depending on whether or not x belongs to some subset.

• Step function: A finite linear combination of indicator functions of half-open intervals.

• * Heaviside step function: 0 for negative arguments and 1 for positive arguments. The integral of the Dirac delta function.

• Sawtooth wave

• Square wave

• Triangle wave

• Rectangular function

• Floor function: Largest integer less than or equal to a given number.

• Ceiling function: Smallest integer larger than or equal to a given number.

• Sign function: Returns only the sign of a number, as +1 or −1.

• Absolute value: distance to the origin (zero point)

Arithmetic functions

 * Sigma function: Sums of powers of divisors of a given natural number.
 * Euler's totient function: Number of numbers coprime to (and not bigger than) a given one.
 * Prime-counting function: Number of primes less than or equal to a given number.
 * Partition function: Order-independent count of ways to write a given positive integer as a sum of positive integers.
 * Möbius μ function: Sum of the nth primitive roots of unity, it depends on the prime factorization of n.
 * Prime omega functions
 * Chebyshev functions
 * Liouville function, λ(n) = (–1)Ω(n)
 * Von Mangoldt function, Λ(n) = log p if n is a positive power of the prime p
 * Carmichael function

Antiderivatives of elementary functions

 * Logarithmic integral function: Integral of the reciprocal of the logarithm, important in the prime number theorem.
 * Exponential integral
 * Trigonometric integral: Including Sine Integral and Cosine Integral
 * Inverse tangent integral
 * Error function: An integral important for normal random variables.
 * Fresnel integral: related to the error function; used in optics.
 * Dawson function: occurs in probability.
 * Faddeeva function

Gamma and related functions

 * Gamma function: A generalization of the factorial function.
 * Barnes G-function
 * Beta function: Corresponding binomial coefficient analogue.
 * Digamma function, Polygamma function
 * Incomplete beta function
 * Incomplete gamma function
 * K-function
 * Multivariate gamma function: A generalization of the Gamma function useful in multivariate statistics.
 * Student's t-distribution
 * Pi function $$\Pi(z) = z \Gamma(z) = (z)!$$

Elliptic and related functions
• Elliptic integrals: Arising from the path length of ellipses; important in many applications. Alternate notations include:

• * Carlson symmetric form

• * Legendre form

• Nome

• Quarter period

• Elliptic functions: The inverses of elliptic integrals; used to model double-periodic phenomena.

• *Jacobi's elliptic functions

• *Weierstrass's elliptic functions

• *Lemniscate elliptic functions

• Theta functions

• Neville theta functions

• Modular lambda function

• Closely related are the modular forms, which include

• * J-invariant

• * Dedekind eta function

Bessel and related functions
• Airy function

• Bessel functions: Defined by a differential equation; useful in astronomy, electromagnetism, and mechanics.

• Bessel–Clifford function

• Kelvin functions

• Legendre function: From the theory of spherical harmonics.

• Scorer's function

• Sinc function

• Hermite polynomials

• Laguerre polynomials

• Chebyshev polynomials

• Synchrotron function

Riemann zeta and related functions
• Riemann zeta function: A special case of Dirichlet series.

• Riemann Xi function

• Dirichlet eta function: An allied function.

• Dirichlet beta function

• Dirichlet L-function

• Hurwitz zeta function

• Legendre chi function

• Lerch transcendent

• Polylogarithm and related functions:

• * Incomplete polylogarithm

• * Clausen function

• * Complete Fermi–Dirac integral, an alternate form of the polylogarithm.

• * Dilogarithm

• * Incomplete Fermi–Dirac integral

• * Kummer's function

• Riesz function

Hypergeometric and related functions

 * Hypergeometric functions: Versatile family of power series.
 * Confluent hypergeometric function
 * Associated Legendre functions
 * Meijer G-function
 * Fox H-function

Iterated exponential and related functions

 * Hyper operators
 * Iterated logarithm
 * Pentation
 * Super-logarithms
 * Tetration

Other standard special functions

 * Lambert W function: Inverse of f(w) = w exp(w).
 * Lamé function
 * Mathieu function
 * Mittag-Leffler function
 * Painlevé transcendents
 * Parabolic cylinder function
 * Arithmetic–geometric mean

Miscellaneous functions

 * Ackermann function: in the theory of computation, a computable function that is not primitive recursive.
 * Dirac delta function: everywhere zero except for x = 0; total integral is 1. Not a function but a distribution, but sometimes informally referred to as a function, particularly by physicists and engineers.
 * Dirichlet function: is an indicator function that matches 1 to rational numbers and 0 to irrationals. It is nowhere continuous.
 * Thomae's function: is a function that is continuous at all irrational numbers and discontinuous at all rational numbers. It is also a modification of Dirichlet function and sometimes called Riemann function.
 * Kronecker delta function: is a function of two variables, usually integers, which is 1 if they are equal, and 0 otherwise.
 * Minkowski's question mark function: Derivatives vanish on the rationals.
 * Weierstrass function: is an example of continuous function that is nowhere differentiable

title: List of mathematical functions


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Fairy

A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, and French folklore), a form of spirit, often with metaphysical, supernatural, or preternatural qualities.

Myths and stories about fairies do not have a single origin, but are rather a collection of folk beliefs from disparate sources. Various folk theories about the origins of fairies include casting them as either demoted angels or demons in a Christian tradition, as deities in Pagan belief systems, as spirits of the dead, as prehistoric precursors to humans, or as spirits of nature.

The label of fairy has at times applied only to specific magical creatures with human appearance, magical powers, and a penchant for trickery. At other times it has been used to describe any magical creature, such as goblins and gnomes. Fairy has at times been used as an adjective, with a meaning equivalent to "enchanted" or "magical". It is also used as a name for the place these beings come from, the land of Fairy.

A recurring motif of legends about fairies is the need to ward off fairies using protective charms. Common examples of such charms include church bells, wearing clothing inside out, four-leaf clover, and food. Fairies were also sometimes thought to haunt specific locations, and to lead travelers astray using will-o'-the-wisps. Before the advent of modern medicine, fairies were often blamed for sickness, particularly tuberculosis and birth deformities.

In addition to their folkloric origins, fairies were a common feature of Renaissance literature and Romantic art, and were especially popular in the United Kingdom during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. The Celtic Revival also saw fairies established as a canonical part of Celtic cultural heritage.

Etymology
The English fairy derives from the Early Modern English faerie, meaning 'realm of the fays'. Faerie, in turn, derives from the Old French form faierie, a derivation from faie (from Vulgar Latin fata, 'the fates'), with the abstract noun suffix.

In Old French romance, a faie or fee was a woman skilled in magic, and who knew the power and virtue of words, of stones, and of herbs.

Fairy was used to represent: an illusion or enchantment; the land of the Faes; collectively the inhabitants thereof; an individual such as a fairy knight. Faie became Modern English fay, while faierie became fairy, but this spelling almost exclusively refers to one individual (the same meaning as fay). In the sense of 'land where fairies dwell', archaic spellings faery and faerie are still in use.

Latinate fae, from which fairy derives, is distinct from English (from Old English fǣġe), which means 'fated to die'. However, this unrelated Germanic word fey may have been influenced by Old French fae (fay or fairy) as the meaning had shifted slightly to 'fated' from the earlier 'doomed' or 'accursed'.

Various folklore traditions refer to fairies euphemistically as wee folk, good folk, people of peace, fair folk (Welsh: Tylwyth Teg), etc.

Historical development
The term fairy is sometimes used to describe any magical creature, including goblins and gnomes, while at other times, the term describes only a specific type of ethereal creature or sprite.

Explanations for the origins of fairies range from Persian mythology to the folklore of the Brythonic (Bretons, Welsh, Cornish), Gaelic (Irish, Scots, Manx), and Germanic peoples, and from the pages of Middle French medieval romances.

According to some historians, such as Barthélemy d'Herbelot, fairies were adopted from and influenced by the peris of Persian mythology. Peris were angelic beings that were mentioned in antiquity in pre-Islamic Persia as early as the Achaemenid Empire. Peris were later described in various Persian works in great detail such as the Shahnameh by Ferdowsi. A peri was illustrated to be fair, beautiful, and extravagant nature spirits that were supported by wings. This may have influenced migratory Germanic and Eurasian settlers into Europe, or been transmitted during early exchanges. The similarities could also be attributed to a shared Proto-Indo-European mythology.

In the Middle Ages, fairie was used adjectivally, meaning "enchanted" (as in fairie knight, fairie queene), but also became a generic term for various "enchanted" creatures during the Late Middle English period. Literature of the Elizabethan era conflated elves with the fairies of Romance culture, rendering these terms somewhat interchangeable. The modern concept of "fairy" in the narrower sense is unique to English folklore, later made diminutive in accordance with prevailing tastes of the Victorian era, as in "fairy tales" for children.

The Victorian era and Edwardian era saw a heightened increase of interest in fairies. The Celtic Revival cast fairies as part of Ireland's cultural heritage. Carole Silver and others suggested this fascination of English antiquarians arose from a reaction to greater industrialization and loss of older folk ways.

Descriptions

Fairies are generally described as human in appearance and having magical powers. Diminutive fairies of various kinds have been reported through centuries, ranging from quite tiny to the size of a human. These small sizes could be magically assumed, rather than constant. Some smaller fairies could expand their figures to imitate humans. On Orkney, fairies were described as short in stature, dressed in dark grey, and sometimes seen in armour. In some folklore, fairies have green eyes. Some depictions of fairies show them with footwear, others as barefoot. Wings, while common in Victorian and later artworks, are rare in folklore; fairies flew by means of magic, sometimes perched on ragwort stems or the backs of birds. Modern illustrations often include dragonfly or butterfly wings.

Origins
Early modern fairies does not derive from a single origin; the term is a conflation of disparate elements from folk belief sources, influenced by literature and speculation. In folklore of Ireland, the mythic aes sídhe, or 'people of the fairy hills', have come to a modern meaning somewhat inclusive of fairies. The Scandinavian elves also served as an influence. Folklorists and mythologists have variously depicted fairies as: the unworthy dead, the children of Eve, a kind of demon, a species independent of humans, an older race of humans, and fallen angels. The folkloristic or mythological elements combine Celtic, Germanic and Greco-Roman elements. Folklorists have suggested that 'fairies' arose from various earlier beliefs, which lost currency with the advent of Christianity. These disparate explanations are not necessarily incompatible, as 'fairies' may be traced to multiple sources.

Demoted angels
A Christian tenet held that fairies were a class of "demoted" angels. One story described a group of angels revolting, and God ordering the gates of heaven shut; those still in heaven remained angels, those in hell became demons, and those caught in between became fairies. Others wrote that some angels, not being godly enough, yet not evil enough for hell, were thrown out of heaven. This concept may explain the tradition of paying a "teind" or tithe to hell; as fallen angels, although not quite devils, they could be viewed as subjects of Satan.

King James I, in his dissertation Daemonologie, stated the term "faries" referred to illusory spirits (demonic entities) that prophesied to, consorted with, and transported the individuals they served; in medieval times, a witch or sorcerer who had a pact with a familiar spirit might receive these services.

In England's Theosophist circles of the 19th century, a belief in the "angelic" nature of fairies was reported. Entities referred to as Devas were said to guide many processes of nature, such as evolution of organisms, growth of plants, etc., many of which resided inside the Sun (Solar Angels). The more Earthbound Devas included nature spirits, elementals, and fairies, which were described as appearing in the form of colored flames, roughly the size of a human.

Arthur Conan Doyle, in his 1922 book The Coming of the Fairies; The Theosophic View of Fairies, reported that eminent theosophist E. L. Gardner had likened fairies to butterflies, whose function was to provide an essential link between the energy of the sun and the plants of Earth, describing them as having no clean-cut shape ... small, hazy, and somewhat luminous clouds of colour with a brighter sparkish nucleus. "That growth of a plant which we regard as the customary and inevitable result of associating the three factors of sun, seed, and soil would never take place if the fairy builders were absent."

For a similar concept in Persian mythology, see Peri.

Demoted pagan deities
At one time it was thought that fairies were originally worshiped as deities, such as nymphs and tree spirits, and with the burgeoning predominance of the Christian Church, reverence for these deities carried on, but in a dwindling state of perceived power. Many deprecated deities of older folklore and myth were repurposed as fairies in Victorian fiction (See the works of W. B. Yeats for examples).

Fairies as demons
A recorded Christian belief of the 17th century cast all fairies as demons. This perspective grew more popular with the rise of Puritanism among the Reformed Church of England (See: Anglicanism). The hobgoblin, once a friendly household spirit, became classed as a wicked goblin. Dealing with fairies was considered a form of witchcraft, and punished as such. In William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Oberon, king of the faeries, states that neither he nor his court fear the church bells, which the author and Christian apologist C. S. Lewis cast as a politic disassociation from faeries although Lewis makes it clear that he himself does not consider fairies to be demons in his chapter on the topic ("The Longaevi" or "long-livers") from The Discarded Image. In an era of intellectual and religious upheaval, some Victorian reappraisals of mythology cast deities in general as metaphors for natural events, which was later refuted by other authors (See: The Triumph of the Moon, by Ronald Hutton). This contentious environment of thought contributed to the modern meaning of 'fairies'.

Spirits of the dead
One belief held that fairies were spirits of the dead. This derived from many factors common in various folklore and myths: same or similar tales of both ghosts and fairies; the Irish sídhe, origin of their term for fairies, were ancient burial mounds; deemed dangerous to eat food in Fairyland and Hades; the dead and fairies depicted as living underground. Diane Purkiss observed an equating of fairies with the untimely dead who left "unfinished lives". One tale recounted a man caught by the fairies, who found that whenever he looked steadily at a fairy, it appeared as a dead neighbor of his. This theory was among the more common traditions related, although many informants also expressed doubts.

Hidden people

There is an outdated theory that fairy folklore evolved from folk memories of a prehistoric race: newcomers superseded a body of earlier human or humanoid peoples, and the memories of this defeated race developed into modern conceptions of fairies. Proponents find support in the tradition of cold iron as a charm against fairies, viewed as a cultural memory of invaders with iron weapons displacing peoples who had just stone, bone, wood, etc., at their disposal, and were easily defeated. 19th-century archaeologists uncovered underground rooms in the Orkney islands that resembled the Elfland described in Childe Rowland, which lent additional support. In folklore, flint arrowheads from the Stone Age were attributed to the fairies as "elfshot", while their green clothing and underground homes spoke to a need for camouflage and covert shelter from hostile humans, their magic a necessary skill for combating those with superior weaponry. In a Victorian tenet of evolution, mythic cannibalism among ogres was attributed to memories of more savage races, practising alongside "superior" races of more refined sensibilities. The most important modern proponent of the 'hidden people' theory was the Scottish folklorist and antiquarian David MacRitchie.

Elementals
A theory that fairies, et al., were intelligent species, distinct from humans and angels. An alchemist, Paracelsus, classed gnomes and sylphs as elementals, meaning magical entities who personify a particular force of nature, and exert powers over these forces. Folklore accounts have described fairies as "spirits of the air".

Characteristics
Much folklore of fairies involves methods of protecting oneself from their malice, by means such as cold iron, charms (see amulet, talisman) of rowan trees or various herbs, or simply shunning locations "known" to be theirs, ergo avoiding offending any fairies. Less harmful pranks ascribed to fairies include: tangling the hair of sleepers into fairy-locks (aka elf-locks), stealing small items, and leading a traveler astray. More dangerous behaviors were also attributed to fairies; any form of sudden death might have stemmed from a fairy kidnapping, the evident corpse a magical replica of wood. Consumption (tuberculosis) was sometimes blamed on fairies who forced young men and women to dance at revels every night, causing them to waste away from lack of rest. Rowan trees were considered sacred to fairies, and a charm tree to protect one's home.

Classifications
Various folklorists have proposed classification systems for fairies. Using terms popularized by W. B. Yeats, trooping fairies are those who appear in groups and might form settlements, as opposed to solitary fairies, who do not live or associate with others of their kind. In this context, the term fairy is usually held in a wider sense, including various similar beings, such as dwarves and elves of Germanic folklore.

In Scottish folklore, fairies are divided into the Seelie Court (more beneficently inclined, but still dangerous), and the Unseelie Court (more malicious). While fairies of the Seelie Court enjoyed playing generally harmless pranks on humans, those of the Unseelie Court often brought harm to humans for entertainment. Both could be dangerous to humans if offended.

Some scholars have cautioned against the overuse of dividing fairies into types. British folklore historian Simon Young noted that classification varies widely from researcher to researcher, and pointed out that it does not necessarily reflect old beliefs, since "those people living hundreds of years ago did not structure their experience as we do."

Changelings
A considerable amount of lore about fairies revolves around changelings, fairies left in the place of stolen humans. In particular, folklore describes how to prevent the fairies from stealing babies and substituting changelings, and abducting older people as well. The theme of the swapped child is common in medieval literature and reflects concern over infants thought to be afflicted with unexplained diseases, disorders, or developmental disabilities. In pre-industrial Europe, a peasant family's subsistence frequently depended upon the productive labor of each member, and a person who was a permanent drain on the family's scarce resources could pose a threat to the survival of the entire family.

Protective charms
In terms of protective charms, wearing clothing inside out, church bells, St. John's wort, and four-leaf clovers are regarded as effective. In Newfoundland folklore, the most popular type of fairy protection is bread, varying from stale bread to hard tack or a slice of fresh homemade bread. Bread is associated with the home and the hearth, as well as with industry and the taming of nature, and as such, seems to be disliked by some types of fairies. On the other hand, in much of the Celtic folklore, baked goods are a traditional offering to the folk, as are cream and butter. "The prototype of food, and therefore a symbol of life, bread was one of the commonest protections against fairies. Before going out into a fairy-haunted place, it was customary to put a piece of dry bread in one's pocket." In County Wexford, Ireland, in 1882, it was reported that: "if an infant is carried out after dark a piece of bread is wrapped in its bib or dress, and this protects it from any witchcraft or evil."

Bells also have an ambiguous role; while they protect against fairies, the fairies riding on horseback — such as the fairy queen — often have bells on their harness. This may be a distinguishing trait between the Seelie Court from the Unseelie Court, such that fairies use them to protect themselves from more wicked members of their race. Another ambiguous piece of folklore revolves about poultry: a cock's crow drove away fairies, but other tales recount fairies keeping poultry.

While many fairies will confuse travelers on the path, the will-o'-the-wisp can be avoided by not following it. Certain locations, known to be haunts of fairies, are to be avoided; C. S. Lewis reported hearing of a cottage more feared for its reported fairies than its reported ghost. In particular, digging in fairy hills was unwise. Paths that the fairies travel are also wise to avoid. Home-owners have knocked corners from houses because the corner blocked the fairy path, and cottages have been built with the front and back doors in line, so that the owners could, in need, leave them both open and let the fairies troop through all night. Locations such as fairy forts were left undisturbed; even cutting brush on fairy forts was reputed to be the death of those who performed the act. Fairy trees, such as thorn trees, were dangerous to chop down; one such tree was left alone in Scotland, though it prevented a road from being widened for seventy years.

Other actions were believed to offend fairies. Brownies were known to be driven off by being given clothing, though some folktales recounted that they were offended by the inferior quality of the garments given, and others merely stated it, some even recounting that the brownie was delighted with the gift and left with it. Other brownies left households or farms because they heard a complaint, or a compliment. People who saw the fairies were advised not to look closely, because they resented infringements on their privacy. The need to not offend them could lead to problems: one farmer found that fairies threshed his corn, but the threshing continued after all his corn was gone, and he concluded that they were stealing from his neighbors, leaving him the choice between offending them, dangerous in itself, and profiting by the theft.

Millers were thought by the Scots to be "no canny", owing to their ability to control the forces of nature, such as fire in the kiln, water in the burn, and for being able to set machinery a-whirring. Superstitious communities sometimes believed that the miller must be in league with the fairies. In Scotland, fairies were often mischievous and to be feared. No one dared to set foot in the mill or kiln at night, as it was known that the fairies brought their corn to be milled after dark. So long as the locals believed this, the miller could sleep secure in the knowledge that his stores were not being robbed. John Fraser, the miller of Whitehill, claimed to have hidden and watched the fairies trying unsuccessfully to work the mill. He said he decided to come out of hiding and help them, upon which one of the fairy women gave him a gowpen (double handful of meal) and told him to put it in his empty girnal (store), saying that the store would remain full for a long time, no matter how much he took out.

It is also believed that to know the name of a particular fairy, a person could summon it and force it to do their bidding. The name could be used as an insult towards the fairy in question, but it could also rather contradictorily be used to grant powers and gifts to the user.

Before the advent of modern medicine, many physiological conditions were untreatable and when children were born with abnormalities, it was common to blame the fairies.

Legends
Sometimes fairies are described as assuming the guise of an animal. In Scotland, it was peculiar to the fairy women to assume the shape of deer; while witches became mice, hares, cats, gulls, or black sheep. In "The Legend of Knockshigowna", in order to frighten a farmer who pastured his herd on fairy ground, a fairy queen took on the appearance of a great horse, with the wings of an eagle, and a tail like a dragon, hissing loud and spitting fire. Then she would change into a little man lame of a leg, with a bull's head, and a lambent flame playing round it.

In the 19th-century Child ballad "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight", the elf-knight is a Bluebeard figure, and Isabel must trick and kill him to preserve her life. The child ballad "Tam Lin" reveals that the title character, though living among the fairies and having fairy powers, was, in fact, an "earthly knight" and though his life was pleasant now, he feared that the fairies would pay him as their teind (tithe) to hell.

"Sir Orfeo" tells how Sir Orfeo's wife was kidnapped by the King of Faerie and only by trickery and an excellent harping ability was he able to win her back. "Sir Degare" narrates the tale of a woman overcome by her fairy lover, who in later versions of the story is unmasked as a mortal. "Thomas the Rhymer" shows Thomas escaping with less difficulty, but he spends seven years in Elfland. Oisín is harmed not by his stay in Faerie but by his return; when he dismounts, the three centuries that have passed catch up with him, reducing him to an aged man. King Herla (O.E. "Herla cyning"), originally a guise of Woden but later Christianised as a king in a tale by Walter Map, was said, by Map, to have visited a dwarf's underground mansion and returned three centuries later; although only some of his men crumbled to dust on dismounting, Herla and his men who did not dismount were trapped on horseback, this being one account of the origin of the Wild Hunt of European folklore.

A common feature of the fairies is the use of magic to disguise their appearance. Fairy gold is notoriously unreliable, appearing as gold when paid but soon thereafter revealing itself to be leaves, gorse blossoms, gingerbread cakes, or a variety of other comparatively worthless things.

These illusions are also implicit in the tales of fairy ointment. Many tales from Northern Europe tell of a mortal woman summoned to attend a fairy birth — sometimes attending a mortal, kidnapped woman's childbed. Invariably, the woman is given something for the child's eyes, usually an ointment; through mischance, or sometimes curiosity, she uses it on one or both of her own eyes. At that point, she sees where she is; one midwife realizes that she was not attending a great lady in a fine house but her own runaway maid-servant in a wretched cave. She escapes without making her ability known but sooner or later betrays that she can see the fairies. She is invariably blinded in that eye or in both if she used the ointment on both.

There have been claims by people in the past, like William Blake, to have seen fairy funerals. Allan Cunningham in his Lives of Eminent British Painters records that William Blake claimed to have seen a fairy funeral: 'Did you ever see a fairy's funeral, madam?' said Blake to a lady who happened to sit next to him. 'Never, sir!' said the lady. 'I have,' said Blake, 'but not before last night.' And he went on to tell how, in his garden, he had seen 'a procession of creatures of the size and colour of green and grey grasshoppers, bearing a body laid out on a rose-leaf, which they buried with songs, and then disappeared.' They are believed to be an omen of death.

Tuatha Dé Danann
The Tuatha Dé Danann are a race of supernaturally-gifted people in Irish mythology. They are thought to represent the main deities of pre-Christian Ireland. Many of the Irish modern tales of the Tuatha Dé Danann refer to these beings as fairies, though in more ancient times they were regarded as goddesses and gods. The Tuatha Dé Danann were spoken of as having come from islands in the north of the world or, in other sources, from the sky. After being victorious in a series of battles with other otherworldly beings, and then being defeated by the ancestors of the current Irish people, they were said to have withdrawn to the sídhe (fairy mounds), where they lived on in popular imagination as "fairies".

They are associated with several Otherworld realms including Mag Mell ('the Pleasant Plain'), Emain Ablach ('the place of apples'), and Tir na nÓg ('the Land of Youth').

Aos Sí
The aos sí is the Irish term for a supernatural race in Irish, comparable to the fairies or elves. They are variously said to be ancestors, the spirits of nature, or goddesses and gods. A common theme found among the Celtic nations describes a race of people who had been driven out by invading humans. In old Celtic fairy lore the Aos Sí ('people of the fairy mounds') are immortals living in the ancient barrows and cairns. The Irish banshee (Irish Gaelic bean sí, previously bean sídhe, 'woman of the fairy mound') is sometimes described as a ghost.

Scottish Sìthe
In the 1691 The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies, Reverend Robert Kirk, minister of the Parish of Aberfoyle, Stirling, Scotland, wrote:

These Siths or Fairies they call Sleagh Maith or the Good People...are said to be of middle nature between Man and Angel, as were Daemons thought to be of old; of intelligent fluidous Spirits, and light changeable bodies (lyke those called Astral) somewhat of the nature of a condensed cloud, and best seen in twilight. These bodies be so pliable through the sublety of Spirits that agitate them, that they can make them appear or disappear at pleasure

In literature

The word fairy was used to describe an individual inhabitant of Faerie before the time of Chaucer.

Fairies appeared in medieval romances as one of the beings that a knight errant might encounter. A fairy lady appeared to Sir Launfal and demanded his love; like the fairy bride of ordinary folklore, she imposed a prohibition on him that in time he violated. Sir Orfeo's wife was carried off by the King of Faerie. Huon of Bordeaux is aided by King Oberon. These fairy characters dwindled in number as the medieval era progressed; the figures became wizards and enchantresses.

The oldest fairies on record in England were first described by the historian Gervase of Tilbury in the 13th century.

In the 1485 book Le Morte d'Arthur, Morgan le Fay, whose connection to the realm of Faerie is implied in her name, is a woman whose magic powers stem from study. While somewhat diminished with time, fairies never completely vanished from the tradition. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a 14th-century tale, but the Green Knight himself is an otherworldly being. Edmund Spenser featured fairies in his 1590 book The Faerie Queene. In many works of fiction, fairies are freely mixed with the nymphs and satyrs of classical tradition, while in others (e.g., Lamia), they were seen as displacing the Classical beings. 15th-century poet and monk John Lydgate wrote that King Arthur was crowned in "the land of the fairy" and taken in his death by four fairy queens, to Avalon, where he lies under a "fairy hill" until he is needed again.

Fairies appear as significant characters in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is set simultaneously in the woodland and in the realm of Fairyland, under the light of the Moon and in which a disturbance of nature caused by a fairy dispute creates tension underlying the plot and informing the actions of the characters. According to Maurice Hunt, Chair of the English Department at Baylor University, the blurring of the identities of fantasy and reality makes possible "that pleasing, narcotic dreaminess associated with the fairies of the play".

Shakespeare's contemporary Michael Drayton features fairies in his Nimphidia, and from these stem Alexander Pope's sylphs of the 1712 poem The Rape of the Lock. In the mid-17th century the French literary style précieuses took up the oral tradition of such tales to write fairy tales, and Madame d'Aulnoy invented the term contes de fée ('fairy tale'). While the tales told by the précieuses included many fairies, they were less common in other countries' tales; indeed, the Brothers Grimm included fairies in their first edition but decided this was not authentically German and altered the language in later editions, changing each Fee ("fairy") to an enchantress or wise woman. J. R. R. Tolkien described these tales as taking place in the land of Faerie. Additionally, not all folktales that feature fairies are generally categorized as fairy tales.

The modern depiction of fairies was shaped in the literature of Romanticism during the Victorian era. Writers such as Walter Scott and James Hogg were inspired by folklore which featured fairies, such as the Border ballads. This era saw an increase in the popularity of collecting fairy folklore and an increase in the creation of original works with fairy characters. In Rudyard Kipling's 1906 book of short stories and poems, Puck of Pook's Hill, Puck holds to scorn the moralizing fairies of other Victorian works. The period also saw a revival of older themes in fantasy literature, such as C.S. Lewis's Narnia books, which, while featuring many such classical beings as fauns and dryads, mingles them freely with hags, giants, and other creatures of the folkloric fairy tradition. Victorian flower fairies were popularized in part by Queen Mary's keen interest in fairy art and by British illustrator and poet Cicely Mary Barker's series of eight books published in 1923 through 1948. Imagery of fairies in literature became prettier and smaller as time progressed. Andrew Lang, complaining of "the fairies of polyanthuses and gardenias and apple blossoms" in the introduction to The Lilac Fairy Book (1910), observed that: "These fairies try to be funny, and fail; or they try to preach, and succeed."

A story of the origin of fairies appears in a chapter about Peter Pan in J. M. Barrie's 1902 novel The Little White Bird, and was incorporated into his later works about the character. Barrie wrote: "When the first baby laughed for the first time, his laugh broke into a million pieces, and they all went skipping about. That was the beginning of fairies." Fairies are seen in Neverland, in Peter and Wendy, the 1911 novel version of J. M. Barrie's famous Peter Pan stories, and its character Tinker Bell has become a pop culture icon. When Peter Pan is guarding Wendy from pirates, the story says: "After a time he fell asleep, and some unsteady fairies had to climb over him on their way home from an orgy. Any of the other boys obstructing the fairy path at night they would have mischiefed, but they just tweaked Peter's nose and passed on."

In visual art
Images of fairies have appeared as illustrations, often in books of fairy tales, as well as in photographic media and sculpture. Some artists known for their depictions of fairies include Cicely Mary Barker, Amy Brown, David Delamare, Meredith Dillman, Gustave Doré, Brian Froud, Warwick Goble, Jasmine Becket-Griffith, Rebecca Guay, Florence Harrison, Alan Lee, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, Myrea Pettit, Arthur Rackham, Suza Scalora, and Nene Thomas.

The Fairy Doors of Ann Arbor, MI are small doors installed into local buildings. Local children believe these are the front doors of fairy houses, and in some cases, small furniture, dishes, and various other things can be seen beyond the doors.

The Victorian era was particularly noted for fairy paintings. The Victorian painter Richard Dadd created paintings of fairy-folk with a sinister and malign tone. Other Victorian artists who depicted fairies include John Anster Fitzgerald, John Atkinson Grimshaw, Daniel Maclise, and Joseph Noel Paton. Interest in fairy-themed art enjoyed a brief renaissance following the publication of the Cottingley Fairies photographs in 1920, and a number of artists turned to painting fairy themes.

Christian belief in fairies
Most Christians have been negative or skeptical regarding creatures such as fairies or nature spirits, but a minority of Christian thinkers have advocated for the reality of fairies in positive terms. One early example is Origen of Alexandria in Contra Celsum (8.31) from about the year 248:

"We indeed also maintain with regard not only to the fruits of the earth, but to every flowing stream and every breath of air that the ground brings forth those things which are said to grow up naturally — that the water springs in fountains, and refreshes the earth with running streams — that the air is kept pure, and supports the life of those who breathe it, only in consequence of the agency and control of certain beings whom we may call invisible husbandmen and guardians; but we deny that those invisible agents are demons."

About a century later (c. 335), Athanasius of Alexandria gives an exclusively negative assessment of these same creatures (On the Incarnation 8.47) as simply "demons ...taking up their abode in springs or rivers or trees or stones and imposing upon simple people by their frauds." While such negative or skeptical ideas remained the majority positions for Christians, some exceptions can be found such as the Scottish minister Robert Kirk who wrote The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies in the later seventeenth century (1893).

In the modern era, C. S. Lewis writes about the possibility of fairies being real in "The Longaevi" (the "Long-livers" or "Long Lived Ones") in his book The Discarded Image. Lewis also shared this account of comments by J. R. R. Tolkien within a letter to Arthur Greeves (22 June 1930):

"Tolkien once remarked to me that the feeling about home must have been quite different in the days when a family had fed on the produce of the same few miles of country for six generations, and that perhaps this was why they saw nymphs in the fountains and dryads in the woods – they were not mistaken for there was in a sense a real (not metaphorical) connection between them and the countryside. What had been earth and air and later corn, and later still bread, really was in them. We of course who live on a standardised international diet (you may have had Canadian flour, English meat, Scotch oatmeal, African oranges, & Australian wine to day) are really artificial beings and have no connection (save in sentiment) with any place on earth. We are synthetic men, uprooted. The strength of the hills is not ours."

Tolkien shares more about the possible reality of fairies in a manuscript published posthumously:

"If Fairies really exist—independently of Men—then very few of our 'Fairy-stories' have any relation to them... They are a quite separate creation living in another mode. They appear to us in human form (with hands, faces, voices and language similar to our own): this may be their real form and their difference reside in something other than form, or it may be (probably is) only the way in which their presence affects us. Rabbits and eagles may be aware of them quite otherwise. For lack of a better word they may be called spirits, daemons: inherent powers of the created world, deriving more directly and 'earlier' (in terrestrial history) from the creating will of God, but nonetheless created."

Christian theologians John Milbank and David Bentley Hart have spoken and written about the real existence of fairies      as has the Christian philosopher Stephen R. L. Clark. Hart was a 2015 Templeton Fellow at the University of Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study and has published the most on this topic including references in multiple interviews and books, especially Roland in Moonlight. For example, Hart has written:

"Of course mermaids exist. Or, to be more precise, of course water spirits and magical marine beings of every kind are real and numerous and, in certain circumstances, somewhat dangerous. ...The modern reports of real encounters with mermaids or other water-spirits, such as two from Zimbabwe, one from South Africa, three from northeastern India, and so on ...are so ingenuous, well-attested, and credible that only a brute would refuse to believe them [and] there is a real moral imperative in not dismissing such tales as lies or delusions."

General

 * Apsaras
 * Dökkálfar and Ljósálfar
 * Fairy godmother
 * Fairy Investigation Society
 * Fairy ring § Cultural references
 * Gnome
 * Goblin
 * Houri
 * Jinn
 * Kami
 * Leprechaun
 * Mimi
 * Nereid
 * Nûñnë'hï
 * Nymph
 * Peri
 * Paristan
 * Rå
 * Shedim
 * Tooth fairy
 * Xian
 * Vila
 * Will-o'-the-wisp
 * Yakshini

Popular culture

 * Donas de fuera – Sicilian fairy-like folklore and witch trials
 * List of fairy and sprite characters
 * Artemis Fowl, book series
 * Carnival Row, TV series
 * The Chronicles of Prydain, book series
 * Disney Fairies, multimedia franchise
 * The Dresden Files, book series
 * The Fairly OddParents, animated TV series
 * Lost Girl, TV series
 * Rainbow Magic, book series
 * Smile PreCure!, anime
 * The Spiderwick Chronicles, book series
 * Supernatural, TV series
 * True Blood, TV series
 * Winx Club, animated TV series

title: Fairy


text:
Luxembourgish euro coins

Luxembourgish euro coins feature three different designs, though they all contain the portrait or effigy of Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg. The designs, by Yvette Gastauer-Claire, also contain the 12 stars of the EU flag, the year of imprint and the name of the country in the Luxembourgish language: Lëtzebuerg.

The Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg appears on the coins facing to the left. He was not featured on the Luxembourg franc as he only became Grand Duke in 2000 following the abdication of his father, Jean. Jean's portrait on the francs showed him facing to the right, and it is common in a number of countries for successive monarchs to alternate the direction they faced on coins. Other euro coins issued by member states which are monarchies show their monarchs facing to the left, in common with the effigy on their legacy currencies.

Luxembourg euro design
For images of the common side and a detailed description of the coins, see euro coins.

Mints
2002-2004: Royal Dutch Mint (Netherlands) 2005-2006: Mint of Finland 2007-2008: Paris Mint (France) 2009-2018: Royal Dutch Mint (Netherlands)

title: Luxembourgish euro coins


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Portuguese euro coins

Portuguese euro coins show three different designs for each of the three series of coins. However, they are quite similar in that all contain old Portuguese royal mints and seals within a circle of seven castles and five escutcheons with silver bezants (all similar to what can be seen in the coat of arms and flag of Portugal) and the word "Portugal". Also featured in the designs, all done by Vítor Manuel Fernandes dos Santos, are the 12 stars of the EU and the year of minting.

title: Portuguese euro coins


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Essex County, New York

Essex County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 37,381. Its county seat is the hamlet of Elizabethtown. Its name is from the English county of Essex. Essex is one of only 2 counties that are entirely within the Adirondack Park, the other being Hamilton County. The county is part of the North Country region of the state.

History
When counties were established in the state of New York in 1683, the present Essex County was part of Albany County. This was an enormous county, including the northern part of New York state as well as all of the present state of Vermont and, in theory, extending westward to the Pacific Ocean. This county was reduced in size on July 3, 1766, by the creation of Cumberland County, and further on March 16, 1770, by the creation of Gloucester County, both containing territory now in Vermont. On March 12, 1772, what was left of Albany County was split into three parts, one remaining under the name Albany County. One of the other pieces, Charlotte County, contained the eastern portion.

In 1784, the name "Charlotte County" was changed to Washington County to honor George Washington, the American Revolutionary War general and later President of the United States of America.

In 1788, Clinton County was split off from Washington County. This was a much larger area than the present Clinton County, including several other counties or county parts of the present New York state (near Clunes).

Essex County was split from Clinton County in 1799.

Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1916 sqmi, of which 1794 sqmi is land and 122 sqmi (6.4%) is water. It is the second-largest county in New York by land area and third-largest by total area.

Essex County is in the northeastern part of New York state, just west of Vermont along the eastern boundary of the state. The eastern boundary of Essex County is Lake Champlain, which serves as the New York – Vermont border at an elevation of just under 100 ft. The highest natural point in New York, Mount Marcy at 5,344 ft, is in the town of Keene.

The Ausable River forms a partial northern boundary for the county.

2000 census
As of the census of 2000, there were 38,851 people, 15,028 households, and 9,828 families residing in the county. The population density was 22 /mi2. There were 23,115 housing units at an average density of 13 /mi2. The racial makeup of the county was 94.84% White, 2.81% Black or African American, 0.31% Native American, 0.41% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 0.69% from other races, and 0.86% from two or more races; 2.19% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Of the population, 22.0% were of French, 16.3% Irish, 13.0% English, 8.6% German, 7.1% American and 6.2% Italian ancestry; 95.2% spoke English, 2.2% Spanish, and 1.3% French as their first language.

There were 15,028 households, out of which 29.20% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.20% were married couples living together, 8.90% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.60% were non-families. 28.30% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 2.93.

In the county, the population was spread out, with 22.80% under the age of 18, 6.90% from 18 to 24, 29.80% from 25 to 44, 24.50% from 45 to 64, and 16.00% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 107.60 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 108.60 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $34,823, and the median income for a family was $41,927. Males had a median income of $30,952 versus $22,205 for females. The per capita income for the county was $18,194. Of the population, 11.60% of individuals, 7.80% of families, 14.50% of those under the age of 18, and 8.60% of those 65 and older, were living below the poverty line.

Private schools

 * Mountain Lake Academy
 * National Sports Academy
 * North Country School
 * Northwood School
 * St. Agnes School
 * St. Mary's School

Higher education

 * North Country Community College

Airports
The following public use airports are located in the county:
 * Lake Placid Airport (LKP) – Lake Placid
 * Marcy Field (1I1) – Keene
 * Schroon Lake Airport (4B7) – Schroon Lake
 * Ticonderoga Municipal Airport (4B6) – Ticonderoga

Bus
Essex County Public Transportation operates several accessible bus routes connecting the county's major communities. Between scheduled stops, riders may flag down buses or request to be let off almost anywhere. Riders may also request minor route deviations for a small fee with advanced notice. Fares generally cost a few dollars or less.

In 2020 and 2021, bus service was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Routes
The Champlain North route operates from Elizabethtown north to Wadhams, Whallonsburg, Essex, Willsboro, and to Keeseville, where riders may connect to Clinton County Public Transit bus routes.

The Champlain South route operates from Elizabethtown south to Westport, Mineville, Witherbee, Port Henry, Crown Point, and Ticonderoga. The service partially follows New York State Route 9N. Riders can connect to Amtrak's Adirondack train at Westport station for service to New York City and Montreal.

The Mountain Valley Shuttle operates from Elizabethtown west to Keene, Jay, Au Sable, Wilmington, and Lake Placid. Riders may connect to Clinton County Public Transit bus routes in Au Sable.

The Cascade Express route operates from Elizabethtown west to Keene, North Elba, Lake Placid, and Saranac Lake.

The Lake Placid XPRSS route operates within the village of Lake Placid. The bus is fare-free and supports tourism.

Rail
Amtrak's Adirondack service travels through Essex County once a day in each direction on its route between New York City and Montreal, stopping in Ticonderoga, Port Henry, Westport and Port Kent (seasonal). Amtrak also offers Thruway Motorcoach service connecting Lake Placid with Westport station.

The service was temporarily suspended from March 2020 through early April 2023 due to the closure of the Canadian/American border in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and related logistical challenges.

Larger settlements
† - County Seat

‡ - Not Wholly in this County

Towns

 * Chesterfield
 * Crown Point
 * Elizabethtown
 * Essex
 * Jay
 * Keene
 * Lewis
 * Minerva
 * Moriah
 * Newcomb
 * North Elba
 * North Hudson
 * Schroon
 * St. Armand
 * Ticonderoga
 * Westport
 * Willsboro
 * Wilmington

Hamlets

 * Bloomingdale
 * North Pole
 * Olmstedville
 * Port Kent
 * Ray Brook
 * Wadhams

Villages

 * Lake Placid

Politics
Essex County is a swing county, having voted for the nationwide winner in every election beginning in 1980 with the exception of 1992. It voted for George W. Bush in the 2000 and 2004 elections, switched to Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and then flipped to Donald Trump in 2016, then to Joe Biden in 2020. Before 1996, however, Essex, like most of the North Country, was powerfully Republican. Until Bill Clinton won it in 1996, it had voted for a Democratic presidential candidate only once since the Civil War, when Barry Goldwater lost every county in New York State in 1964.

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Notable people

 * John Brown (1800–1859), an abolitionist who owned a farm in North Elba. His sons John Jr., Watson, and Owen all lived, when young, on their father's farm.
 * Sophie Clarke (born 1989), winner of Survivor: South Pacific, from Willsboro.
 * Vincent Colyer (1825–1888), was a successful American artist and humanitarian who worked to help freedmen and Native Americans; he was born in Bloomingdale.
 * Henry Debosnys (1836–1883), Portuguese-born wife murderer and cryptographer
 * Francis Donnelly of Olmstedville (1903–1980), at the time of his death in 1980 was the longest continually serving town elected official in the United States, having served as the Town of Minerva Supervisor and as that town's representative at the county level for 46 years
 * Carlton Foster (1826–1901), Wisconsin lumberman, Wisconsin state legislator, and mayor of Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
 * Robert Garrow, serial killer in the Syracuse area in the 1970s. He grew up in Moriah.
 * Ben Goldwasser (born 1983), keyboardist for psychedelic rock band MGMT. He grew up in Westport.
 * Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born 1985), known professionally as Lana Del Rey, grew up in the town of Lake Placid.
 * Inez Milholland (1886–1916), leader in the women's suffrage movement, is buried in Lewis Cemetery. Her family had a summer home in Westport, which is now the Meadowmount School of Music.
 * Solomon Northup (1808 – c. 1863), born in Minerva as a free man, he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. Regaining freedom in 1853, he published his memoir that year, became nationally known and lectured on the abolitionist circuit. He became an inspiration for the 2013 film 12 Years a Slave.
 * Johnny Podres (1932–2008), pitcher for Brooklyn Dodgers and 1955 World Series MVP, was born in Witherbee.
 * Tom Tyler, silent film star, originally from Mineville.
 * Eli Winch (1848–1938), born in the town of Wilmington, a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly and manufacturer.

title: Essex County, New York


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Crestones

The Crestones are a group of four 14,000 ft peaks (fourteeners) in the Sangre de Cristo Range above Crestone, central southern Colorado, comprising:
 * 1) Crestone Peak (14,294 ft )
 * 2) Crestone Needle (14,197 ft )
 * 3) Kit Carson Mountain (14,165 ft )
 * 4) Humboldt Peak (14,064 ft )

Snow is usually mostly melted by early July. Climbers can expect afternoon rain, hail, and lightning from the seasonal monsoon in late July and August.

Climbing

 * Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle are rock scrambles (Class 3) with some exposure.
 * Kit Carson Mountain is a walk-up (Class 2), but only if the correct route is carefully followed; it has claimed more lives than Crestone Peak or Crestone Needle. Challenger Point (14,081 ft ) and Columbia Point (13980 ft) are sub-peaks of Kit Carson Mountain.
 * Humboldt Peak is the easiest of the four, with a straightforward walk-up route. Sometimes Humboldt is not included in the term "The Crestones."

Broken Hand Peak, 13573 ft, southeast of Crestone Needle, is included within the official name "Crestone Peaks". Mount Adams (13,931 ft ) is a notable peak just to the north of the Crestones, and is quite rugged.

Note that Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle are somewhat more technical climbs than many Colorado fourteeners; caution is advised. About one person per year is killed on the Crestones; occasionally they are skilled mountaineers.

title: Crestones