text:
User talk:ClaudeMuncey

old discussions
I responded to your note on my talk page. Cheers! --maveric149, Saturday, April 27, 2002

Hi, I have introduced a proposal for a WikiProject Protected Areas. That was before I read the talk:National park page. You have some good ideas there which can also be used in the project. It's rather theoretical for the moment, but I have written a few testcases (see links on the project page). When you have the time could you have a look at it, and let me know what you think of it? Thanks! -- Guy

I know you'll probably never come back to read this, but good job on Half Dome! -Smack 18:00 1 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Try and drop in more than once a year. The WikiProject Protected Areas could do with rejuvenating Tiles 08:25, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

You posted this on Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions at some point:
 * A truly minor issue about ship naming -- Is there a technical reason for a hyphen between the hull type and hull number for US naval ships -- that is not standard US naval usage as shown in the US naval register http://www.nvr.navy.mil ClaudeMuncey

This is just a very common error (much like people writing "the HMS Royal Oak" or somesuch). It would be a pretty huge project to fix them all, though... Tkinias 03:37, 19 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Article Licensing
Hi, I've started a drive to get users to multi-license all of their contributions that they've made to either (1) all U.S. state, county, and city articles or (2) all articles, using the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC-by-sa) v1.0 and v2.0 Licenses or into the public domain if they prefer. The CC-by-sa license is a true free documentation license that is similar to Wikipedia's license, the GFDL, but it allows other projects, such as WikiTravel, to use our articles. Since you are among the top 2000 Wikipedians by edits, I was wondering if you would be willing to multi-license all of your contributions or at minimum those on the geographic articles. Over 90% of people asked have agreed. For More Information:
 * Multi-Licensing FAQ - Lots of questions answered
 * Multi-Licensing Guide
 * Free the Rambot Articles Project

To allow us to track those users who muli-license their contributions, many users copy and paste the " " template into their user page, but there are other options at Template messages/User namespace. The following examples could also copied and pasted into your user page:

 * Option 1
 * I agree to multi-license all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:

OR
 * Option 2
 * I agree to multi-license all my contributions to any U.S. state, county, or city article as described below:

Or if you wanted to place your work into the public domain, you could replace " " with "  ". If you only prefer using the GFDL, I would like to know that too. Please let me know what you think at my talk page. It's important to know either way so no one keeps asking. -- Ram-Man (comment| talk)

Hope your back
The parks articles need more workers. I thought I would mention my article Protected areas of Michigan which is quite a bit different in approach from your Protected areas of California. Rmhermen 14:55, Mar 29, 2005 (UTC)

Saints Wikiproject
I noted that you have been contributing to articles about saints. I invite you to join the WikiProject Saints.

I also invite you to join the discussion on prayers and infoboxes here: Prayers_are_NPOV.

Thanks! --evrik 17:45, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

Wikiproject Catholicism Assessment
Hello, fellow WikiProject Catholicism member. The project has recently begun work on assessing articles relating to Catholicism, and you are invited to comment and participate. The subpage for this assessment is located here. Thank you. — Mi ra  07:32, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Move Roman Catholic Church to Catholic Church
There is a vote at Talk:Roman Catholic Church: A Vote on the Title of this Article on moving Roman Catholic Church to Catholic Church. You are invited to review it. --WikiCats 04:01, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Diocesan Infobox
To the creators of Diocesan/Archdiocesan articles

I have proposed at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Catholicism an infobox for Catholic Dioceses. I have not gotten any feedback on this proposal, so I’m culling feedback, advice, corrections, etc. for this. If you have the time, would you check out User:SkierRMH/Diocese_Infobox and give me some feedback! Thanks much!!

Editors needed to stifle purging of pro-life material
Hi, we desperately need some experienced editors willing to jump into the discussion page at post-abortion syndrome -- and bring some friends.

A group of editors have openly discussed "viligent" "purging" of information from peer reviewed sources which support the "controversial" idea that women who have abortions may suffer subsequent emotional problems. Though I have lots of expertise in the area, the "abortion is benign crowd and anyone who disagrees is untrustworthy" are in a revert war with me. I need more voices in there to remind them that deleting peer reviewed material goes against Wikpedia policy. I'd appreciate you adding post-abortion syndrome to your watch page and some periodic comments of support.

One of their common tactics, remove all facts that go against their position insisting there isn't "consensus" that they are reliable and should be added...even if from peer reviewed sources! I need people to support my edits--in a field in which I am long on expertise and they are long on bias.--Strider12 (talk) 04:14, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

National parks of Northern Ireland
A proposed deletion template has been added to the article National parks of Northern Ireland, suggesting that it be deleted according to the proposed deletion process. All contributions are appreciated, but this article may not satisfy Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion, and the deletion notice should explain why (see also "What Wikipedia is not" and Wikipedia's deletion policy). You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the  notice, but please explain why you disagree with the proposed deletion in your edit summary or on its talk page. Also, please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Even though removing the deletion notice will prevent deletion through the proposed deletion process, the article may still be deleted if it matches any of the speedy deletion criteria or it can be sent to Articles for Deletion, where it may be deleted if consensus to delete is reached. If you agree with the deletion of the article, and you are the only person who has made substantial edits to the page, please add  to the top of National parks of Northern Ireland. Brown HairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 04:06, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Spanish-language mass
Thanks for your note on the St. Finbar talk page. The source that I based the comments on (from the Los Angeles Times) indicated that St. Finbar's was one of the first Catholic churches in California to offer Spanish-language Mass, when it began doing so in the early 1990s, and that it was a highly controversial move. You mentioned that there were Spanish-language Masses offered decades earlier, and I was wondering if you could direct me to a source to help provide clearer information. I grew up in the post-Vatican II era and therefore assumed that all Masses in the era of Spanish rule and in the time of Archbishop Cantwell (1917-1947) were offered in the Latin language. By the way, I have been starting pages in the last couple weeks for some of the most important, notable parishes in the L.A. Archdiocese (e.g., St. Andrew's Catholic Church, Pasadena, St. Charles Borromeo Church (North Hollywood), St. Monica Catholic Church, Santa Monica, St. Robert Bellarmine Catholic Church, St. Augustine Catholic Church, Culver City, and would welcome any comments or information you might care to offer.Cbl62 (talk) 05:33, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

 * Consider, as an example, St. Joseph the Worker in the San Fernando Valley, not to far down the road from St. Finbar's, which lists a first Spanish Mass in 1982.  (http://www.sjwchurch.com/SJWHistory/firsts.htm) as far as the Spanish language parishes established in the 1920's and 1930's, I am sure that Latin was the liturgical language at the time.  But what language do you think it's likely they shifted to under the post-Vatican II liturgical changes?  ClaudeMuncey (talk) 14:24, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

WikiProject Christianity
Hello !

You are receiving this invitation because you are a member of one of the related Christianity Projects and I thought that you might be interested in this project also - Tinucherian (talk) 06:42, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

GA reassessment of Catholic social teaching
I have conducted a reassessment of the above article as part of the GA Sweeps process. I have found some concerns which you can see at Talk:Catholic social teaching/GA1. I have placed the article on hold for seven days. Jezhotwells (talk) 21:47, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

Ichthus: January 2012
 In this issue...

- Ichthus is published by WikiProject Christianity For submissions and subscriptions contact the Newsroom
 * From the Editor
 * What are You doing For Lent?
 * Fun and Exciting Contest Launched
 * Spotlight on WikiProject Catholicism

Your user page
Hello, I found your user page while doing some wikiarchaeology. . I have restored all of its earliest surviving revisions from old copies of the Wikipedia database, so they are available to everyone now. Hope you don't mind. Graham 87 06:30, 25 June 2013 (UTC)

Feast day listed at Redirects for discussion
I have asked for a discussion to address the redirect Feast day. You might want to participate in the redirect discussion. You are receiving this message because you are a member of WikiProject Catholicism and/or WikiProject Saints --Jayarathina (talk) 12:32, 16 November 2013 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:51, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

A page you started (Mexican War) has been reviewed!
Thanks for creating Mexican War, ClaudeMuncey!

Wikipedia editor SamHolt6 just reviewed your page, and wrote this note for you:

"Reviewed"

To reply, leave a comment on SamHolt6's talk page.

Learn more about page curation.

SamHolt6 (talk) 02:09, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

Invitation to join the Fifteen Year Society
Dear ,

I'd like to extend a cordial invitation to you to join the Fifteen Year Society, an informal group for editors who've been participating in the Wikipedia project for fifteen years or more.

Best regards, Urhixidur (talk) 16:50, 6 June 2019 (UTC)

title: User talk:ClaudeMuncey


text:
Conformal map

In mathematics, a conformal map is a function that locally preserves angles, but not necessarily lengths.

More formally, let $$U$$ and $$V$$ be open subsets of $$\mathbb{R}^n$$. A function $$f:U\to V$$ is called conformal (or angle-preserving) at a point $$u_0\in U$$ if it preserves angles between directed curves through $$u_0$$, as well as preserving orientation. Conformal maps preserve both angles and the shapes of infinitesimally small figures, but not necessarily their size or curvature.

The conformal property may be described in terms of the Jacobian derivative matrix of a coordinate transformation. The transformation is conformal whenever the Jacobian at each point is a positive scalar times a rotation matrix (orthogonal with determinant one). Some authors define conformality to include orientation-reversing mappings whose Jacobians can be written as any scalar times any orthogonal matrix.

For mappings in two dimensions, the (orientation-preserving) conformal mappings are precisely the locally invertible complex analytic functions. In three and higher dimensions, Liouville's theorem sharply limits the conformal mappings to a few types.

The notion of conformality generalizes in a natural way to maps between Riemannian or semi-Riemannian manifolds.

In two dimensions
If $$U$$ is an open subset of the complex plane $$\mathbb{C}$$, then a function $$f:U\to\mathbb{C}$$ is conformal if and only if it is holomorphic and its derivative is everywhere non-zero on $$U$$. If $$f$$ is antiholomorphic (conjugate to a holomorphic function), it preserves angles but reverses their orientation.

In the literature, there is another definition of conformal: a mapping $$f$$ which is one-to-one and holomorphic on an open set in the plane. The open mapping theorem forces the inverse function (defined on the image of $$f$$) to be holomorphic. Thus, under this definition, a map is conformal if and only if it is biholomorphic. The two definitions for conformal maps are not equivalent. Being one-to-one and holomorphic implies having a non-zero derivative. In fact, we have the following relation, the inverse function theorem:
 * $$(f^{-1}(z_0))'=\frac{1}{f'(z_0)}$$

where $$z_0 \in \mathbb{C}$$. However, the exponential function is a holomorphic function with a nonzero derivative, but is not one-to-one since it is periodic.

The Riemann mapping theorem, one of the profound results of complex analysis, states that any non-empty open simply connected proper subset of $$\mathbb{C}$$ admits a bijective conformal map to the open unit disk in $$\mathbb{C}$$. Informally, this means that any blob can be transformed into a perfect circle by some conformal map.

Global conformal maps on the Riemann sphere
A map of the Riemann sphere onto itself is conformal if and only if it is a Möbius transformation.

The complex conjugate of a Möbius transformation preserves angles, but reverses the orientation. For example, circle inversions.

Conformality with respect to three types of angles
In plane geometry there are three types of angles that may be preserved in a conformal map. Each is hosted by its own real algebra, ordinary complex numbers, split-complex numbers, and dual numbers. The conformal maps are described by linear fractional transformations in each case.

Riemannian geometry
In Riemannian geometry, two Riemannian metrics $$g$$ and $$h$$ on a smooth manifold $$M$$ are called conformally equivalent if $$ g = u h $$ for some positive function $$u$$ on $$M$$. The function $$u$$ is called the conformal factor.

A diffeomorphism between two Riemannian manifolds is called a conformal map if the pulled back metric is conformally equivalent to the original one. For example, stereographic projection of a sphere onto the plane augmented with a point at infinity is a conformal map.

One can also define a conformal structure on a smooth manifold, as a class of conformally equivalent Riemannian metrics.

Euclidean space
A classical theorem of Joseph Liouville shows that there are far fewer conformal maps in higher dimensions than in two dimensions. Any conformal map from an open subset of Euclidean space into the same Euclidean space of dimension three or greater can be composed from three types of transformations: a homothety, an isometry, and a special conformal transformation. For linear transformations, a conformal map may only be composed of homothety and isometry, and is called a conformal linear transformation.

Applications
Applications of conformal mapping exist in aerospace engineering, in biomedical sciences (including brain mapping and genetic mapping  ), in applied math (for geodesics and in geometry ), in earth sciences (including geophysics, geography, and cartography), in engineering, and in electronics.

Cartography
In cartography, several named map projections, including the Mercator projection and the stereographic projection are conformal. The preservation of compass directions makes them useful in marine navigation.

Physics and engineering
Conformal mappings are invaluable for solving problems in engineering and physics that can be expressed in terms of functions of a complex variable yet exhibit inconvenient geometries. By choosing an appropriate mapping, the analyst can transform the inconvenient geometry into a much more convenient one. For example, one may wish to calculate the electric field, $$E(z)$$, arising from a point charge located near the corner of two conducting planes separated by a certain angle (where $$z$$ is the complex coordinate of a point in 2-space). This problem per se is quite clumsy to solve in closed form. However, by employing a very simple conformal mapping, the inconvenient angle is mapped to one of precisely $$\pi$$ radians, meaning that the corner of two planes is transformed to a straight line. In this new domain, the problem (that of calculating the electric field impressed by a point charge located near a conducting wall) is quite easy to solve. The solution is obtained in this domain, $$E(w)$$, and then mapped back to the original domain by noting that $$w$$ was obtained as a function (viz., the composition of $$E$$ and $$w$$) of $$z$$, whence $$E(w)$$ can be viewed as $$E(w(z))$$, which is a function of $$z$$, the original coordinate basis. Note that this application is not a contradiction to the fact that conformal mappings preserve angles, they do so only for points in the interior of their domain, and not at the boundary. Another example is the application of conformal mapping technique for solving the boundary value problem of liquid sloshing in tanks.

If a function is harmonic (that is, it satisfies Laplace's equation $$\nabla^2 f=0$$) over a plane domain (which is two-dimensional), and is transformed via a conformal map to another plane domain, the transformation is also harmonic. For this reason, any function which is defined by a potential can be transformed by a conformal map and still remain governed by a potential. Examples in physics of equations defined by a potential include the electromagnetic field, the gravitational field, and, in fluid dynamics, potential flow, which is an approximation to fluid flow assuming constant density, zero viscosity, and irrotational flow. One example of a fluid dynamic application of a conformal map is the Joukowsky transform that can be used to examine the field of flow around a Joukowsky airfoil.

Conformal maps are also valuable in solving nonlinear partial differential equations in some specific geometries. Such analytic solutions provide a useful check on the accuracy of numerical simulations of the governing equation. For example, in the case of very viscous free-surface flow around a semi-infinite wall, the domain can be mapped to a half-plane in which the solution is one-dimensional and straightforward to calculate.

For discrete systems, Noury and Yang presented a way to convert discrete systems root locus into continuous root locus through a well-know conformal mapping in geometry (aka inversion mapping).

Maxwell's equations
Maxwell's equations are preserved by Lorentz transformations which form a group including circular and hyperbolic rotations. The latter are sometimes called Lorentz boosts to distinguish them from circular rotations. All these transformations are conformal since hyperbolic rotations preserve hyperbolic angle, (called rapidity) and the other rotations preserve circular angle. The introduction of translations in the Poincaré group again preserves angles.

A larger group of conformal maps for relating solutions of Maxwell's equations was identified by Ebenezer Cunningham (1908) and Harry Bateman (1910). Their training at Cambridge University had given them facility with the method of image charges and associated methods of images for spheres and inversion. As recounted by Andrew Warwick (2003) Masters of Theory:

 * Each four-dimensional solution could be inverted in a four-dimensional hyper-sphere of pseudo-radius $$K$$ in order to produce a new solution.

Warwick highlights this "new theorem of relativity" as a Cambridge response to Einstein, and as founded on exercises using the method of inversion, such as found in James Hopwood Jeans textbook Mathematical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism.

General relativity
In general relativity, conformal maps are the simplest and thus most common type of causal transformations. Physically, these describe different universes in which all the same events and interactions are still (causally) possible, but a new additional force is necessary to affect this (that is, replication of all the same trajectories would necessitate departures from geodesic motion because the metric tensor is different). It is often used to try to make models amenable to extension beyond curvature singularities, for example to permit description of the universe even before the Big Bang.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Conformal map


text:
James J. Hill

James Jerome Hill (September 16, 1838 – May 29, 1916) was a Canadian-American railroad director. He was the chief executive officer of a family of lines headed by the Great Northern Railway, which served a substantial area of the Upper Midwest, the northern Great Plains, and the Pacific Northwest in the United States. Because of the size of this region and the economic dominance exerted by the Hill lines, Hill became known during his lifetime as "The Empire Builder", and died in 1916 with a fortune of about 63 million dollars. His former home, James J. Hill House, is now a museum in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Childhood and youth
James J. Hill was born September 16, 1838, in Eramosa Township, Upper Canada (now Ontario) to James Hill Jr. and Ann Dunbar. A childhood accident with a bow and arrow blinded him in the right eye. He had nine years of formal schooling. He attended the Rockwood Academy for a short while, where the head gave him free tuition. He was forced to leave school in 1852 due to the death of his father. By the time he had finished, he was adept at math, land surveying, and English. His particular talents for English and mathematics would be helpful in his career. After working as a clerk in Kentucky (during which he learned bookkeeping), Hill decided to permanently move to the United States and settled in St. Paul, Minnesota, at the age of 18. His first job in St. Paul was with a steamboat company, where he worked as a bookkeeper. By 1860, he was working for wholesale grocers, for whom he handled freight transfers, especially dealing with railroads and steamboats. Through this work, he learned all aspects of the freight and transportation business. During this period, Hill began to work for himself for the first time. During the winter months when the Mississippi River was frozen and steamboats could not run, Hill started bidding on other contracts and won several.

Young businessman
Because of his previous experiences in shipping and fuel supply, Hill was able to enter both the coal and steamboat businesses. In 1870, he and his partners started the Red River Transportation Company, which offered steam boat transportation between St. Paul and Winnipeg. By 1879 he had a local monopoly by merging with Norman Kittson. In 1867, Hill entered the coal business, and by 1879 it had expanded five times over, giving Hill a local monopoly in the anthracite coal business. During this same period, Hill also entered into banking and quickly managed to become member of several major banks' boards of directors. He also bought out bankrupt businesses, built them up again, and then resold them—often gaining a substantial profit. Hill noted that the secret to his success was "work, hard work, intelligent work, and then more work."

Entry into Gilded Era railroading
During the Panic of 1873, a number of railroads, including the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (StP&P), had gone bankrupt. The StP&P in particular was caught in an almost hopeless legal muddle. For James Hill it was a golden opportunity. For three years, Hill researched the StP&P and finally concluded that it would be possible to make a good deal of money off the StP&P, provided that the initial capital could be found. Hill teamed up with Norman Kittson (the man he had merged steamboat businesses with), Donald Smith, George Stephen and John Stewart Kennedy. Together they not only bought the railroad, they also vastly expanded it by bargaining for trackage rights with the Northern Pacific Railway. In May 1879, the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba Railway Co. (StPM&M) formed—with James J. Hill as general manager. His first goal was to expand and upgrade even more.

Hill was a hands-on, detail-obsessed manager. A Canadian himself of Scotch-Irish Protestant ancestry, he brought in many men with the same background into high management. He wanted people to settle along his rail lines, so he sold homesteads to immigrants while transporting them to their new homes using his rail lines. When he was looking for the best path for one of his tracks to take, he went on horseback and scouted it personally. Under his management, StPM&M prospered. In 1880, its net worth was $728,000 (equal to $ today); in 1885 it was $25,000,000, equal to $ today.

One of his challenges at this point was the avoidance of federal action against railroads. If the federal government believed that the railroads were making too much profit, they might see this as an opportunity to force lowering of the railway tariff rates. Hill avoided this by investing a large portion of the railroad's profit back into the railroad itself—and charged those investments to operating expense. It was at this point that Hill went from general manager to the official president of StPM&M, and thereafter decided to expand the rail lines.

"Empire Builder"
Between 1883 and 1889, Hill built his railroads across Minnesota, into Wisconsin, and across North Dakota to Montana.

When there was not enough industry in the areas Hill was building, Hill brought the industry in, often by buying out a company and placing plants along his railroad lines. By 1889, Hill decided that his future lay in expanding into a transcontinental railroad.

"What we want," Hill is quoted as saying, "is the best possible line, shortest distance, lowest grades, and least curvature we can build. We do not care enough for Rocky Mountains scenery to spend a large sum of money developing it." Hill got what he wanted, and in January 1893 his Great Northern Railway, running from St. Paul, Minnesota to Seattle, Washington — a distance of more than 1700 mi — was completed. The Great Northern was the first transcontinental built without public money and just a few land grants, and was one of the few transcontinental railroads not to go bankrupt.

Hill chose to build his railroad north of the competing Northern Pacific line, which had reached the Pacific Northwest over much more difficult terrain with more bridges, steeper grades, and tunnelling. Hill did much of the route planning himself, travelling over proposed routes on horseback. The key to the Great Northern line was Hill's use of the previously unmapped Marias Pass. The pass had initially been described by Lewis and Clark in 1805, but no one since had been able to find it so Hill hired Santiago Jameson to search it out. Jameson discovered the pass 1889 and it shortened the Great Northern's route by almost one hundred miles. The pass had been discovered by John Frank Stevens, principal engineer of the Great Northern Railway, in December 1889, and offered an easier route across the Rockies than that taken by the Northern Pacific.

The Great Northern reached Seattle on January 7, 1893.

In 1898 Hill purchased control of large parts of the Mesabi Range iron mining district in Minnesota, along with its rail lines. The Great Northern began large-scale shipment of ore to the steel mills of the Midwest.

Settlements
The Great Northern energetically promoted settlement along its lines in North Dakota and Montana, especially by Germans and Scandinavians from Europe. The Great Northern bought its lands from the federal government—it received no land grants—and resold them to farmers at cheap prices. It operated agencies in Germany and Scandinavia that promoted its lands, and brought families over at low cost. Hill also invested in founding schools and churches for these communities and promoted a variety of progressive techniques to ensure they prospered. This "Dakota Boom" peaked in 1882 as 42,000 immigrants, largely from northern Europe, poured into the Red River Valley running through the region. The rapidly increasing settlement in North Dakota's Red River Valley along the Minnesota border between 1871 and 1890 was a major example of large-scale "bonanza" farming.[8][9][10]

Hill Lines in the 1890s
Six months after the railroad reached Seattle came the deep nationwide depression called the Panic of 1893. Hill's leadership became a case study in the successful management of a capital-intensive business during the economic downturn. In order to ensure that he did not lose his patronage during the crisis, Hill lowered rail tariff shipping rates for farmers and gave credit to many of the businesses he owned so they could continue paying their workers and starting a "10 dollar trip" (equal to $ today) for immigrants. He also took strong measures to economize—in just one year, Hill cut the railway's expense of carrying a ton of freight by 13%. Because of these measures, Hill not only stayed in business, but also increased the net worth of his railroad by nearly $10,000,000 (equal to $ today). Meanwhile, nearly every other transcontinental railroad went bankrupt. His ability to ride out the depression garnered him fame and admiration. Hill saved money by repeatedly cutting wages, made possible by a time of deflation when prices were falling generally.

In 1893, Hill began the process of looking for a source of labor other than Chinese workers. For a brief period of time, he hired Italian and Greek laborers, but company officials were not satisfied with their performance. Hill sent emissaries to the Pacific who found that Japan had the most potential in the market of "Oriental Trade," and he decided to capitalize on this opportunity.

In this time he also began to focus his energies on securing trade with Asian countries. He offered Japanese Industrialists Southern cotton and would even ship it for free if they would compare it with the short staple cotton they were using with the promise of a refund if they were dissatisfied, which they were not. With these friendly relations established, Hill managed to secure the industrializing Japanese order for 15,000 tons of rails against competition from England and Belgium. From 1886 to 1905, American exports to Japan leapt from $7.7 million a year (equal to $ today) to $51.7 million, equal to $ today.

Leonard says that after 1900 Hill exhibited poor business judgment regarding one Canadian subsidiary, the Vancouver, Westminster and Yukon Railway Company (VW&Y). He ousted its president John Hendry, thereby worsening the problems, prolonging the delays, and adding to the costs of taking over the VW&Y. Hill's top aides were careless about details, bookkeeping, correspondence, and reports.

The Northern Pacific and the "short squeeze" of 1901
With 1901 and the start of the new century, James Hill now had control of both the Great Northern Railway, and the Northern Pacific (which he had obtained with the help of his friend J. P. Morgan, when that railroad went bankrupt in the depression of the mid-1890s). Hill also wanted control of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad because of its Midwestern lines and access to Chicago. The Union Pacific Railroad was the biggest competitor of Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railroads. Although Great Northern and Northern Pacific were backed by J. P. Morgan and James J. Hill, the Union Pacific was backed not only by its president, Edward H. Harriman, but by the extremely powerful William Rockefeller and Jacob Schiff.

Quietly, Harriman began buying stock in Northern Pacific with the intention of gaining control of Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy. He was within 40,000 shares of control when Hill learned of Harriman's activities and quickly contacted J. P. Morgan, who ordered his men to buy everything they could get their hands on.

The result was chaos on Wall Street. Northern Pacific stock was forced up to $1,000 per share. Many speculators, who had sold Northern Pacific "short" in the anticipation of a drop in the railroad's price, faced ruin. The threat of a real economic panic loomed. Neither side could win a distinct advantage, and the parties soon realized that a truce would have to be called. The winners of that truce were Hill and Morgan, who immediately formed the Northern Securities Company with the aim of tying together their three major rail lines. As the Hill-Morgan alliance formed the Northern Securities Company, Theodore Roosevelt became president and turned his energies against the great trusts that were monopolizing trade.

The Hill Lines survive the trust-busting era
Roosevelt sent his Justice Department to sue the Northern Securities Company in 1902. The Supreme Court in 1904 ordered it to be dissolved as a monopoly. (Ironically, the Burlington Route, Northern Pacific, and Great Northern would later merge in 1970 to form the Burlington Northern Railroad.) This ended Hill's ability to maintain competitive rates in Asian countries and in the subsequent two years American trade with Japan and China dropped 40% (or $41 million). Hill moved on without the benefit of a central company, and acquired the Colorado and Southern Railway lines into Texas. He also built the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway. By the time of his death in 1916, James J. Hill was worth more than $63 million, equivalent to $ today, and over $200 million in related assets. When his estate was divided his widow received over $16 million, and each of his children received almost $4 million; $1.5 million was paid in income and inheritance taxes.

The Great Northern Railway and the Northern Pacific tried to merge four times, in 1896, 1901, 1927, and 1955. This last attempt lasted from 1955 until final Supreme Court approval and merger in March 1970, which created the Burlington Northern Railroad. In 1995, Burlington Northern merged with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to become the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway.

Family life
In 1867, James J. Hill married Mary Theresa Mehegan, a Roman Catholic (born 1846, New York City); they had ten children:

 * 1) Mary Frances "Mamie" (Hill) Hill (1869–1947), who married Samuel Hill of Washington D.C. and Seattle. Samuel Hill was an executive at the Great Northern Railway when he married Mary Hill.
 * 2) James Norman "Jimmy" Hill (1870–1932) of New York City, married socialite Marguerite Sawyer. His family did not attend the wedding reportedly owing to Marguerite's status as a divorcee.
 * 3) Louis Warren Hill (1872–1948) of St. Paul, Minnesota, who was named president of the GN in 1907 and board chairman in 1912. He married Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor.
 * 4) Clara Anne (Hill) Lindley (1873–1947), who married E. C. Lindley of St. Paul, Minnesota, who was vice-president, counsel general, and a member of the board of directors of the Great Northern Railway.
 * 5) Katherine Theresa Hill (1875–1876; died in infancy)
 * 6) Charlotte Elizabeth (Hill) Slade (1877–1923), who married George T. Slade of New York City and St. Paul, Minnesota. George T. Slade was an executive at The Great Northern Railway and Yale classmate of Louis W. Hill.
 * 7) Ruth (Hill) Beard (1879–1959), who married Anson McCook Beard of New York City.
 * 8) Rachel (Hill) Boeckmann (1881–1967), who married Egil Boeckmann of St. Paul, Minnesota.
 * 9) Gertrude (Hill) Gavin (1883–1961), who married Michael Gavin of New York City.
 * 10) Walter Jerome Hill (1885–1944) of St. Paul, Minnesota. Walthill, Nebraska, was named for Walter.

Death
By early 1916, Hill began pouring more attention into philanthropy, donating thousands of dollars to various institutions as he privately struggled with a variety of increasingly painful ailments. His condition deteriorated quickly in mid-May, but even with the help of many respected doctors he was beyond saving. After falling into a coma, he died in his home in St. Paul, Minnesota, on May 29, 1916.[14] Mary Theresa Hill died in 1922 and was buried next to her husband by the shore of Pleasant Lake on their North Oaks farm.

Hill's legacy
"Give me Swedes, snuff and whiskey, and I'll build a railroad through hell."

Politically, Hill was a conservative Bourbon Democrat. The Democratic Party's continued enchantment with the populist William Jennings Bryan led Hill to support Republican presidential candidates William McKinley (1896 and 1900), Theodore Roosevelt (1904), and William Howard Taft (1908 and 1912). Hill was a supporter of free trade and was one of the few supporters of free trade with Canada.

In St. Paul, the city's main library building and the adjoining Hill Business Library were funded by him. In addition, he donated to numerous schools, including the Saint Paul Seminary. Hill was a member of the Jekyll Island Club (aka The Millionaires Club) on Jekyll Island, Georgia, along with J. P. Morgan and William Rockefeller.

In 1891, after three years of building, construction was completed on Hill's new family home at 240 Summit Avenue in St. Paul. Over 400 workers labored on the project. Built at a cost of $930,000 and with 36000 sqft, the James J. Hill House was among the city's largest. As with his business dealings, Hill supervised the construction and design himself, hiring and firing several architects in the process. The house has many early electrical and mechanical systems that predate widespread adoption in modern domestic structures.

Upon completion of the Summit Avenue residence, Hill had the family's old house, which he had constructed in 1878, razed. After the death of Hill's wife in 1921, the house was donated to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. It was obtained by the Minnesota Historical Society in 1978 and today is operated as a museum and gallery.

Though a Protestant, Hill maintained a strong philanthropic relationship with the Catholic Church in St. Paul and throughout the northwest. Hill's historic home is located next to the cathedral, largely due to the special relationship Hill's wife, a practicing Catholic, had with the Diocese. The Hills maintained close ties with Archbishop John Ireland, and Hill was a major contributor to the Saint Paul Seminary, Macalester College, Hamline University, the University of St. Thomas, Carleton College, and other educational, religious and charitable organizations. He was the first major donor to the Marquette University School of Medicine.

In order to generate business for his railroad, Hill encouraged European immigrants to settle along his line, often paying for Russian and Scandinavian settlers to travel from Europe. To promote settlement and revenue for his rail business, Hill experimented with agriculture and worked to hybridize Russian wheat for Dakota soil and weather conditions. He also ran model experimental farms in Minnesota, such as North Oaks, to develop superior livestock and crop yields for the settlers locating near his railroads.

An enthusiastic conservationist, Hill was invited by President Theodore Roosevelt to a governors' conference on conservation of natural resources, and later appointed to a lands commission.

Drawing on his experience in the development of Minnesota's Iron Range, Hill was, during 1911–1912, in close contact with Gaspard Farrer of Baring Brothers & Company of London regarding the formation of the Brazilian Iron Ore Company to tap that nation's rich mineral deposits.

Near the end of his life, Hill played what a recent biographer, Albro Martin, called his "last and greatest role." After the first punishing year of World War I, the Allied Powers desperately needed financial support to continue the war effort. To that end, Hill was a major figure in the effort launched by J.P. Morgan to float the Anglo-French Bond drive of 1915, which allowed the Allies to purchase much-needed foodstuffs and other supplies. In September 1915, the first public loan, the $500,000,000 Anglo-French loan, was floated after negotiations with the Anglo-French Financial Commission. Concomitantly, the resulting trade in munitions with England and France carried the United States from a depression in 1914 to boom years in 1915 and 1916.

Hillsboro, North Dakota; Hill County, Montana; and Hillyard, Washington (now a neighborhood of Spokane), are named for him. Jim Hill Mountain near Stevens Pass in the Cascade Range is named after him, also. The introduced crop weed in Western US wheat-growing areas Sisymbrium altissimum also has a common name "Jim Hill Mustard", after the belief by farmers that it was spread from contaminated seed leaking out of railway stock along the railroads he controlled.

In 1929, the Great Northern Railway inaugurated a long-distance passenger train extending from Chicago to Seattle, and named it the Empire Builder in his honor. The train served as Great Northern's flagship train, and is still operated today by Amtrak. using former Great Northern tracks west of St. Paul. The James J. Hill House in St. Paul, is a National Historic Landmark.

In 1887, the Great Northern's first company headquarters building was constructed in St. Paul. It was designed by James Brodie, who also built the Hill house on Summit Avenue. The 1887 building was converted between 2000 and 2004 to a 53 unit condo in the Historic Lowertown District of St. Paul. Hill had seen the devastation done downtown by the Great Chicago Fire. As a result, one feature Hill integrated into the construction of the 1887 company headquarters (the Great Northern General Office Building) was barrel-vaulted ceilings constructed of brick and railroad steel rails that held up a layer of sand several inches deep. The theory was that if a fire broke out and the ceiling caved in, the sand would drop and retard or suppress the fire.

Hill was intimately involved in the planning and construction (1914–1916) of a new company headquarters in St. Paul (to be known as the Great Northern Office Building), which was to house the corporate staffs of the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific and Hill's banking enterprises. The 14-story building cost $14 million to construct.

Hill's heirs established the James J. Hill Reference Library in St. Paul, which is considered by the Small Business Administration the premier source for publicly accessible practical business information in the United States, and many SBA programs rely on the Hill Library's HillSearch service to provide business information resources to small businesses nationwide. The Hill Library has developed numerous online programs and now serves millions of small business owners worldwide.

In The Great Gatsby, Hill is the man whom Gatsby's father says Gatsby would have equalled if he had lived long enough.

Hill and his railway are mentioned in the Harry McClintock song "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum."

In 1959, Hill High in St. Paul, Minnesota, was established as a school from the funds set aside from Hill's wife for education. The school, which was all-male, consolidated in 1971 with the all-female Archbishop Murray School to form Hill-Murray School in Maplewood, Minnesota.

Hill Capital is a venture capital fund established in 2016 "aligned with James J. Hill's belief in the cooperation of the production, distribution and exchange of wealth as outlined in his writings". The Hill library owns 75 shares. As of September 2016, the fund is not yet closed.

In 1958, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

A bust of Hill is located on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, Washington. It is currently situated in front of More Hall, which is adjacent to the former on campus nuclear reactor building.

title: James J. Hill


text:
Ford Madox Ford

Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ; 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals The English Review and The Transatlantic Review were important in the development of early 20th-century English and American literature.

Ford is now remembered for his novels The Good Soldier (1915), the Parade's End tetralogy (1924–1928) and The Fifth Queen trilogy (1906–1908). The Good Soldier is frequently included among the great literature of the 20th century, including the Modern Library 100 Best Novels, The Observer′s "100 Greatest Novels of All Time", and The Guardian′s "1000 novels everyone must read".

Early life
Ford was born in Merton in Surrey to Catherine Madox Brown and Francis Hueffer, the eldest of three; his brother was Oliver Madox Hueffer and his sister was Juliet Hueffer, the wife of David Soskice and mother of Frank Soskice. Ford's father, who became a music critic for The Times, was German and his mother English. His paternal grandfather Johann Hermann Hüffer was first to publish Westphalian poet and author Annette von Droste-Hülshoff. He was named after his maternal grandfather, the Pre-Raphaelite painter Ford Madox Brown, whose biography he would eventually write. His mother's older half-sister was Lucy Madox Brown, the wife of William Michael Rossetti and mother of Olivia Rossetti Agresti.

In 1889, after the death of their father, Ford and Oliver went to live with their grandfather in London. Ford attended the University College School in London, but never studied at university. In November 1892, at 18, he became a Catholic, "very much at the encouragement of some Hueffer relatives, but partly (he confessed) galled by the 'militant atheism and anarchism' of his English cousins."

Personal life
In 1894, Ford eloped with his school girlfriend Elsie Martindale. The couple were married in Gloucester and moved to Bonnington in Kent. In 1901, they moved to Winchelsea. They had two daughters, Christina (born 1897) and Katharine (born 1900). Ford's neighbours in Winchelsea included the authors Joseph Conrad, Stephen Crane, W. H. Hudson, Henry James in nearby Rye, and H. G. Wells.

In 1904, Ford suffered an agoraphobic breakdown due to financial and marital problems. He went to Germany to spend time with family there and undergo treatments.

In 1909, Ford left his wife and set up home with English writer Isobel Violet Hunt, with whom he published the literary magazine The English Review. Ford's wife refused to divorce him and he attempted to become a German citizen to obtain a divorce in Germany. This was unsuccessful. A reference in an illustrated paper to Violet Hunt as "Mrs. Ford Madox Hueffer" gave rise to a successful libel action being brought by Mrs. Elsie Hueffer in 1913. Ford's relationship with Hunt did not survive the First World War.

Ford used the name of Ford Madox Hueffer, but changed it to Ford Madox Ford after World War I in 1919, partly to fulfil the terms of a small legacy, partly "because a Teutonic name is in these days disagreeable", and possibly to avoid further lawsuits from Elsie in the event of his new companion, Stella, being referred to as "Mrs Hueffer".

Between 1918 and 1927, he lived with Stella Bowen, an Australian artist 20 years his junior. In 1920, Ford and Bowen had a daughter, Julia Madox Ford.

In the summer of 1927, The New York Times reported that Ford had converted a mill building in Avignon, France into a home and workshop that he called "Le Vieux Moulin". The article implied that Ford was reunited with his wife at this point.

In the early 1930s, Ford established a relationship with Janice Biala, a Polish-born artist from New York, who illustrated several of Ford's later books. This relationship lasted until the late 1930s.

Ford spent the last years of his life teaching at Olivet College in Olivet, Michigan, US. He was taken ill in Honfleur, France, in June 1939 and died shortly afterward in Deauville at the age of 65.

Literary life
One of Ford's most famous works is the novel The Good Soldier (1915). Set just before World War I, The Good Soldier chronicles the tragic expatriate lives of two "perfect couples", one British and one American, using intricate flashbacks. In the "Dedicatory Letter to Stella Ford" that prefaces the novel, Ford reports that a friend pronounced The Good Soldier "the finest French novel in the English language!" Ford pronounced himself a "Tory mad about historic continuity" and believed the novelist's function was to serve as the historian of his own time. However, he was dismissive of the Conservative Party, referring to it as "the Stupid Party."

Ford was involved in British war propaganda after the beginning of World War I. He worked for the War Propaganda Bureau, managed by C. F. G. Masterman, along with Arnold Bennett, G. K. Chesterton, John Galsworthy, Hilaire Belloc and Gilbert Murray. Ford wrote two propaganda books for Masterman; When Blood is Their Argument: An Analysis of Prussian Culture (1915), with the help of Richard Aldington, and Between St Dennis and St George: A Sketch of Three Civilizations (1915).

After writing the two propaganda books, Ford enlisted at 41 years of age into the Welsh Regiment of the British Army on 30 July 1915. He was sent to France. Ford's combat experiences and his previous propaganda activities inspired his tetralogy Parade's End (1924–1928), set in England and on the Western Front before, during and after World War I.

Ford wrote dozens of novels as well as essays, poetry, memoirs and literary criticism. He collaborated with Joseph Conrad on three novels, The Inheritors (1901), Romance (1903) and The Nature of a Crime (1924, although written much earlier). During the three to five years after this direct collaboration, Ford's best known achievement was The Fifth Queen trilogy (1906–1908), historical novels based on the life of Catherine Howard, which Conrad termed, at the time, "the swan song of historical romance." Ford's poem Antwerp (1915) was praised by T. S. Eliot as "the only good poem I have met with on the subject of the war".

Ford's novel Ladies Whose Bright Eyes (1911, extensively revised in 1935) is a Time travel novel, like Twain's classic A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, only dramatising the difficulties, not the rewards, of such idealised situations.

When the Spanish Civil War broke out, Ford took the side of the left Republican faction, declaring: "I am unhesitatingly for the existing Spanish Government and against Franco's attempt—on every ground of feeling and reason...Mr Franco wishes to establish a government resting on the arms of Moors, Germans, Italians. Its success must be contrary to world conscience." His opinion of Mussolini and Hitler was likewise negative, and he offered to sign a manifesto against Nazism.

Promotion of literature
In 1908, Ford founded The English Review. Ford published works by Thomas Hardy, H. G. Wells, Joseph Conrad, Henry James, May Sinclair, John Galsworthy and W. B. Yeats; and debuted works of Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis, D. H. Lawrence and Norman Douglas. Ezra Pound and other Modernist poets in London in the teens particularly valued Ford's poetry as exemplifying treatment of modern subjects in contemporary diction. In 1924, he founded The Transatlantic Review, a journal with great influence on modern literature. Staying with the artistic community in the Latin Quarter of Paris, Ford befriended James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and Jean Rhys, all of whom he would publish (Ford was the model for the character Braddocks in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises ). Basil Bunting worked as Ford's assistant on the magazine.

As a critic, Ford is known for remarking "Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you." George Seldes, in his book Witness to a Century, describes Ford ("probably in 1932") recalling his writing collaboration with Joseph Conrad, and the lack of acknowledgment by publishers of his status as co-author. Seldes recounts Ford's disappointment with Hemingway: "'and he disowns me now that he has become better known than I am.' Tears now came to Ford's eyes." Ford says, "I helped Joseph Conrad, I helped Hemingway. I helped a dozen, a score of writers, and many of them have beaten me. I'm now an old man and I'll die without making a name like Hemingway." Seldes observes, "At this climax Ford began to sob. Then he began to cry."

Hemingway devoted a chapter of his Parisian memoir A Moveable Feast to an encounter with Ford at a café in Paris during the early 1920s. He describes Ford "as upright as an ambulatory, well clothed, up-ended hogshead."

During a later sojourn in the United States, Ford was involved with Allen Tate, Caroline Gordon, Katherine Anne Porter and Robert Lowell (who was then a student). Ford was always a champion of new literature and literary experimentation. In 1929, he published The English Novel: From the Earliest Days to the Death of Joseph Conrad, a brisk and accessible overview of the history of English novels. He had an affair with Jean Rhys, which ended acrimoniously, which Rhys fictionalised in her novel Quartet.

Reception
Ford is best remembered for his novels The Good Soldier (1915), the Parade's End tetralogy (1924–1928) and The Fifth Queen trilogy (1906–1908). The Good Soldier is frequently included among the great literature of the 20th century, including the Modern Library 100 Best Novels, The Observer′s "100 Greatest Novels of All Time", and The Guardian′s "1000 novels everyone must read". The Parade's End tetralogy was made into an acclaimed BBC/HBO 5 part TV series in 2012, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and scripted by Tom Stoppard.

Anthony Burgess described Ford as the "greatest British novelist" of the 20th century. Graham Greene was also a great admirer, and more recently Julian Barnes who has written essays about Ford and his work. Professor Max Saunders is the author of an authoritative biography of Ford, published in two volumes by Oxford University Press in 1996, followed up by a single volume focusing on two of Ford's novels, The Good Soldier (1915), the Parade's End tetralogy (1924–1928), in 2023. Saunders has also edited some of Ford's oeuvre reissued by the Carcanet Press.

Selected works

 * The Shifting of the Fire, as H Ford Hueffer, Unwin, 1892.
 * The Questions at the Well as Fenil Haig,1893
 * The Brown Owl, as H Ford Hueffer, Unwin, 1892.
 * The Queen Who Flew: A Fairy Tale, Bliss Sands & Foster, 1894.
 * Ford Madox Brown : a record of his life and work, as H Ford Hueffer, Longmans, Green, 1896.
 * The Cinque Ports, Blackwood, 1900.
 * The Inheritors: An Extravagant Story, Joseph Conrad and Ford M. Hueffer, Heinemann, 1901.
 * Rossetti, Duckworth, [1902].
 * Romance, Joseph Conrad and Ford M. Hueffer, Smith Elder, 1903.
 * The Benefactor, Langham, 1905.
 * The Soul of London. A Survey of the Modern City, Alston Rivers, 1905.
 * The Heart of the Country. A Survey of a Modern Land, Alston Rivers, 1906.
 * The Fifth Queen (Part One of The Fifth Queen trilogy), Alston Rivers, 1906.
 * Privy Seal (Part Two of The Fifth Queen trilogy), Alston Rivers, 1907.
 * The Spirit of the People. An Analysis of the English Mind, Alston Rivers, 1907.
 * An English Girl, Methuen, 1907.
 * The Fifth Queen Crowned (Part Three of The Fifth Queen trilogy), Nash, 1908.
 * Mr Apollo, Methuen, 1908.
 * The Half Moon, Nash, 1909.
 * A Call, Chatto, 1910.
 * The Portrait, Methuen, 1910.
 * The Critical Attitude, as Ford Madox Hueffer, Duckworth 1911.
 * The Simple Life Limited, as Daniel Chaucer, Lane, 1911.
 * Ladies Whose Bright Eyes, Constable, 1911 (extensively revised in 1935).
 * The Panel: A Sheer Comedy, Constable, 1912 (published in the U.S. as Ring for Nancy: A Sheer Comedy).
 * The New Humpty Dumpty, as Daniel Chaucer, Lane, 1912.
 * Henry James, Secker, 1913.
 * Mr Fleight, Latimer, 1913.
 * The Young Lovell, Chatto, 1913.
 * Antwerp (eight-page poem), The Poetry Bookshop, 1915.
 * Henry James, A Critical Study (1915).
 * Between St Dennis and St George, Hodder, 1915.
 * The Good Soldier, Lane, 1915.
 * Zeppelin Nights, with Violet Hunt, Lane, 1915.
 * The Marsden Case, Duckworth, 1923.
 * Women and Men, Paris, 1923.
 * Mr Bosphorous, Duckworth, 1923.
 * The Nature of a Crime, with Joseph Conrad, Duckworth, 1924.
 * Joseph Conrad, A Personal Remembrance, Little, Brown and Company, 1924.
 * Some Do Not . . ., (First in Parade's End tetralogy) Duckworth, 1924.
 * No More Parades, Duckworth, 1925.
 * A Man Could Stand Up --, Duckworth, 1926.
 * '' A Mirror To France. Duckworth. 1926
 * New York is Not America, Duckworth, 1927.
 * New York Essays, Rudge, 1927.
 * New Poems, Rudge, 1927.
 * Last Post, (Fourth in Parade's End tetralogy) Duckworth, 1928.
 * A Little Less Than Gods, Duckworth, [1928].
 * No Enemy, Macaulay, 1929.
 * The English Novel: From the Earliest Days to the Death of Joseph Conrad (One Hour Series), Lippincott, 1929; Constable, 1930.
 * Return to Yesterday, Liveright, 1932.
 * When the Wicked Man, Cape, 1932.
 * The Rash Act, Cape, 1933.
 * It Was the Nightingale, Lippincott, 1933.
 * Henry for Hugh, Lippincott, 1934.
 * Provence, Unwin, 1935.
 * Ladies Whose Bright Eyes (revised version), 1935
 * Portraits from Life: Memories and Criticism of Henry James, Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy, H.G. Wells, Stephen Crane, D.H. Lawrence, John Galsworthy, Ivan Turgenev, W.H. Hudson, Theodore Dreiser, A.C. Swinburne, Houghton Mifflin Company Boston, 1937.
 * Great Trade Route, OUP, 1937.
 * Vive Le Roy, Unwin, 1937.
 * The March of Literature, Dial, 1938.
 * Selected Poems, Randall, 1971.
 * Your Mirror to My Times, Holt, 1971.
 * A History of Our Own Times, Indiana University Press, 1988.

title: Ford Madox Ford


text:
Talk:Barbed wire

Untitled
I'm not too sure about my phrasing of "Farmers" to include homesteaders, nesters, and ranchers using enclosed ranges. See here for more info:

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/FF/auf1.html

Ben Brumfield

- By "soft spans" do you mean "short spans"? -phma

I thought Lucien B. Smith invented it? i ave a book in fornt of me saying he did.

Type of Post
In the western United States we often use Incense Cedar (pseudosuga taxifolia)for fence post material. In particular, we use the core of the tree and receive the benifit of the toxic quality of the wood to repel inscects.

Regards, Edwin Dyer

historiacally native tress, such as poplar were used in Canada, softwoods are perferable though, ceder and spruce are common. In Montana expence of wood has lead to the use of steel posts.

Brett Knoss

Barbed wire in professional wrestling
Probably doesn't belong in the article. It probably needs to be a part of an article about professioanl wrestling instread. Pschemp | Talk 16:37, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

I saw the match in question on PPV and I can say with confidence that JBL did indeed 'test' the barbwire with his forearm (he wasn't actually cut I don't think) with a scared look on his face (probably all kayfabed even though the barbwire was real)

Identity of demonstrator
''Pete McManus is said to have demonstrated barbed-wire in Alamo Square, San Antonio, Texas in 1876. The demonstration showing cattle restrained by the new kind of fencing was followed immediately by invitations to the Menger Hotel to place orders. Within 25 years, nearly all of the open range had been fenced in under private ownership.''
 * Various web bios of John "Bet-a-million" Gates say he is the one who, as a saleman for Glidden's barbed wire, set up the pen. I'm thinking "Pete McManus" is not the correct name here. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by StanZegel (talk • contribs) 14:16, 5 February 2006  (UTC)

Fencing humans
During the Soviet-Afghan War, the accommodation of Afghan refugees into Pakistan was controlled in Pakistan's largest province, Balochistan, under General Rahimuddin Khan, by making the refugees stay for controlled durations in barbed wire camps.

The sentence above needs a reference supplied before inclusion in the article. It is not a unique example, we just need to be more careful about specfiing the source of our additions. --Blainster 20:29, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Ellwood
You cannot really discuss barbed wire without mentioning, Isaac L. Ellwood and probably Jacob Haish. Glidden and Ellwood partnered on the barbed wire venture because they both held patents on it, I am not entirely sure how Haish was involved, but he was.
 * Haish's patent is linked at the end of the article. More detail might take some digging. --Blainster 22:07, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Also I think this article could use some reorganization, maybe some different subheads and some text moved around, what do you folks think? A mcmurray 17:49, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

 * It is difficult to comment without knowing what you have in mind re: organizing. How would you respond if someone else asked the same question? Either explain what you want to do if you think it's a big change, or just be bold and take a stab at it.  --Blainster 22:07, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

 * A history section describing the development in the DeKalb area would be good to add, with the contributions of Rose, Haish, Ellwood, and Glidden. --Blainster 16:33, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

 * Didn't mean to fall off on this one, just got occupied with other tasks. I will try to do a review of the article soon and post a to do list or something, maybe an improvement drive is warranted, considering the importance of barbed wire.A mcmurray 22:49, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Military usage
Somehow the importance of barbed wire, razor wire, and concertina wire in military usage seems not to be reflected in the article. It was particularly important in the Trench warfare of World War I. LeadSongDog come howl  17:57, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

Human Bridges
I'm removing this as it lacks any source. It falls in the category of "things likely to be challenged," and so I'm removing it outright rather than tagging.

I think it may be a reference to exceptional behavior at e.g. Cowra and the Golan Heights, but it's very definitely not standard behavior, much less something soldiers are trained to do.

 * Been there, done that. British Army cadets, 1970s. I've restored it as it needs citation, but it's not as outlandish as all that.
 * The trick is thick clothing, and not moving at all sideways. You also can't get up easily afterwards (without causing entanglement), so it's best to have comrades lift you clear. Andy Dingley (talk) 19:48, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

 * I stand corrected, thank you. Unfortunately I don't know where to find a citation either. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.173.63.60 (talk) 03:29, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Installation
I think this sentence needs some amendment: "If an 8" post is * feet in length is driven four feet into the ground the brace post assembly can be omitted." I'm not really sure what is intended here. If it is just my obtuseness, I apologise in advance. Dawright12 (talk) 12:50, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

 * I think what is meant is that if a corner post is driven deeply enough into the ground it does not need bracing. However, the phrase is not only garbled but plain wrong: it would only work in very hard ground, and only while the post retains its full strength.  Either it will pull over, or the post will snap when it begins to soften.  A strut or guy means it will stay up very much longer, because it does not rely on the strength of the ground nor the rigidity of the post.  An unbraced post can only really be used for very shallow corners of 5 degrees or perhaps 10 at a pinch.  I have one fence with a corner post made of a telegraph pole 11 feet long and 10 inches wide, driven 8 feet into the ground – and it still needs struts... I've removed the sentence.  Richard New Forest (talk) 21:49, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Bans
Use is banned for animal fences at least in some countries, for safety and animal welfare reasons. Finland at least, can't say for others. Pitke (talk) 18:51, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

 * Not in the USA, Not sure the laws back east, but it's actually the only "legal" wire fence allowed in Montana, technically (rail fences also being legal, but stuff like high tensile smooth wire is a legal gray area here). Which, as a horse owner, drives me nuts -- my neighbor keeps insisting that I should rip out my smooth wire and electric and replace it with barbed wire.  Yeah, right!  =:-O   Montanabw (talk) 21:06, 27 August 2012 (UTC)

BBC Radio documentary
Hi all. I don't know much about editing Wikipedia, or whether radio documentaries count as a source, but the documentary of the week on the BBC website this week (radio, unlike TV, should be available in all countries) is called The Devil's Rope, and might be helpful as another reference source for the article... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.100.45.182 (talk) 22:44, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Barbed wire. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20080212162858/http://www.bmj.com:80/cgi/content/full/324/7333/317 to http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7333/317

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 16:27, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

title: Talk:Barbed wire


text:
Sequoiadendron giganteum

Sequoiadendron giganteum, also known as the giant sequoia, giant redwood or Sierra redwood is a coniferous tree, classified in the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae. Giant sequoia specimens are the most massive trees on Earth. They are native to the groves on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California but are grown around the world.

The giant sequoia is listed as an endangered species by the IUCN with fewer than 80,000 remaining in its native California. The tree was introduced to the U.K in 1853 and now there are around 5,000 mature trees.

The giant sequoia grow to an average height of 50–85 m (164–279 ft) with trunk diameters ranging from 6–8 m (20–26 ft). Record trees have been measured at 94.8 m (311 ft) tall. The specimen known to have the greatest diameter at breast height is the General Grant tree at 8.8 m (28.9 ft). Giant sequoias are among the oldest living organisms on Earth. The oldest known giant sequoia is 3,200–3,266 years old.

Wood from mature giant sequoias is fibrous and brittle; trees would often shatter after they were felled. The wood was unsuitable for construction and instead used for fence posts or match sticks. The giant sequoia is a very popular ornamental tree in many parts of the world. A potential hypothesis for the species name, is in honor of the Cherokee Chief Sequoyah, however there are no surviving records of why the species was named as such.

Etymology
The etymology of the genus name has been presumed—initially in The Yosemite Book by Josiah Whitney in 1868 —to be in honor of Sequoyah (1767–1843), who was the inventor of the Cherokee syllabary. An etymological study published in 2012 concluded that Austrian Stephen L. Endlicher is responsible for the name. A linguist and botanist, Endlicher corresponded with experts in the Cherokee language including Sequoyah, whom he admired. He also realized that coincidentally the genus could be described in Latin as sequi (meaning to follow) because the number of seeds per cone in the newly classified genus aligned in mathematical sequence with the other four genera in the suborder. Endlicher thus coined the name "Sequoia" as both a description of the tree's genus and an honor to the indigenous man he admired.

Description
Giant sequoia specimens are the most massive individual trees in the world. They grow to an average height of 50 – with trunk diameters ranging from 6 –. Record trees have been measured at 94.8 m tall. Trunk diameters of 17 m have been claimed via research figures taken out of context. The specimen known to have the greatest diameter at breast height is the General Grant tree at 8.8 m. Between 2014 and 2016, it is claimed that specimens of coast redwood were found to have greater trunk diameters than all known giant sequoias - though this has not been independently verified or affirmed in any academic literature. The trunks of coast redwoods taper at lower heights than those of giant sequoias which have more columnar trunks that maintain larger diameters to greater heights.

The oldest known giant sequoia is 3,200–3,266 years old based on dendrochronology. That tree has been verified to have the fourth-largest lifespan of any tree, after individuals of Great Basin bristlecone pine and alerce. Giant sequoia bark is fibrous, furrowed, and may be 90 cm thick at the base of the columnar trunk. The sap contains tannic acid, which provides significant protection from fire damage. The leaves are evergreen, awl-shaped, 3 - 6 mm long, and arranged spirally on the shoots.

The giant sequoia regenerates by seed. The seed cones are 4 - 7 cm long and mature in 18–20 months, though they typically remain green and closed for as long as 20 years. Each cone has 30–50 spirally arranged scales, with several seeds on each scale, giving an average of 230 seeds per cone. Seeds are dark brown, 4 - 5 mm long, and 1 mm broad, with a 1 mm wide, yellow-brown wing along each side. Some seeds shed when the cone scales shrink during hot weather in late summer, but most are liberated by insect damage or when the cone dries from the heat of fire. Young trees start to bear cones after 12 years.

Trees may produce sprouts from their stumps subsequent to injury, until about 20 years old; however, shoots do not form on the stumps of mature trees as they do on coast redwoods. Giant sequoias of all ages may sprout from their boles when branches are lost to fire or breakage.

A large tree may have as many as 11,000 cones. Cone production is greatest in the upper portion of the canopy. A mature giant sequoia disperses an estimated 300–400 thousand seeds annually. The winged seeds may fly as far as 180 m from the parent tree.

Lower branches die readily from being shaded, but trees younger than 100 years retain most of their dead branches. Trunks of mature trees in groves are generally free of branches to a height of 20 - 50 m, but solitary trees retain lower branches.

Distribution
The natural distribution of giant sequoias is restricted to a limited area of the western Sierra Nevada, California. As a paleoendemic species, they occur in scattered groves, with a total of 81 groves (see list of sequoia groves for a full inventory), comprising a total area of only 144.16 km2. Nowhere does it grow in pure stands, although in a few small areas, stands do approach a pure condition. The northern two-thirds of its range, from the American River in Placer County southward to the Kings River, has only eight disjunct groves. The remaining southern groves are concentrated between the Kings River and the Deer Creek Grove in southern Tulare County. Groves range in size from 12.4 km2 with 20,000 mature trees, to small groves with only six living trees. Many are protected in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and Giant Sequoia National Monument.

The giant sequoia is usually found in a humid climate characterized by dry summers and snowy winters. Most giant sequoia groves are on granitic-based residual and alluvial soils. The elevation of the giant sequoia groves generally ranges from 1400 - 2000 m in the north, to 1700 - 2150 m to the south. Giant sequoias generally occur on the south-facing sides of northern mountains, and on the northern faces of more southerly slopes.

High levels of reproduction are not necessary to maintain the present population levels. Few groves, however, have sufficient young trees to maintain the present density of mature giant sequoias for the future. The majority of giant sequoia groves are currently undergoing a gradual decline in density since European settlement.

Pre-historic range
While the present day distribution of this species is limited to a small area of California, it was once much more widely distributed in prehistoric times, and was a reasonably common species in North American and Eurasian coniferous forests until its range was greatly reduced by the last ice age. Older fossil specimens reliably identified as giant sequoia have been found in Cretaceous era sediments from a number of sites in North America and Europe, and even as far afield as New Zealand and Australia.

Artificial groves
In 1974, a group of giant sequoias was planted by the United States Forest Service in the San Jacinto Mountains of Southern California in the immediate aftermath of a wildfire that left the landscape barren. The giant sequoias were rediscovered in 2008 by botanist Rudolf Schmid and his daughter Mena Schmidt while hiking on Black Mountain Trail through Hall Canyon. Black Mountain Grove is home to over 150 giant sequoias, some of which stand over 6.1 m tall. This grove is not to be confused with the Black Mountain Grove in the southern Sierra. Nearby Lake Fulmor Grove is home to seven giant sequoias, the largest of which is 20 m tall. The two groves are located approximately 175 mi southeast of the southernmost naturally occurring giant sequoia grove, Deer Creek Grove.

It was later discovered that the United States Forest Service had planted giant sequoias across Southern California. However, the giant sequoias of Black Mountain Grove and nearby Lake Fulmor Grove are the only ones known to be reproducing and propagating free of human intervention. The conditions of the San Jacinto Mountains mimic those of the Sierra Nevada, allowing the trees to naturally propagate throughout the canyon.

Ecology

Giant sequoias are in many ways adapted to forest fires. Their bark is unusually fire resistant, and their cones will normally open immediately after a fire. Giant sequoias are a pioneer species, and are having difficulty reproducing in their original habitat (and very rarely reproduce in cultivation) due to the seeds only being able to grow successfully in full sun and in mineral-rich soils, free from competing vegetation. Although the seeds can germinate in moist needle humus in the spring, these seedlings will die as the duff dries in the summer. They therefore require periodic wildfire to clear competing vegetation and soil humus before successful regeneration can occur. Without fire, shade-loving species will crowd out young sequoia seedlings, and sequoia seeds will not germinate. These trees require large amounts of water and are often concentrated near streams. Their growth is dependent on soil moisture. Squirrels, chipmunks, finches and sparrows consume the freshly sprouted seedlings, preventing their growth.

Fires also bring hot air high into the canopy via convection, which in turn dries and opens the cones. The subsequent release of large quantities of seeds coincides with the optimal postfire seedbed conditions. Loose ground ash may also act as a cover to protect the fallen seeds from ultraviolet radiation damage. Due to fire suppression efforts and livestock grazing during the early and mid-20th century, low-intensity fires no longer occurred naturally in many groves, and still do not occur in some groves today. The suppression of fires leads to ground fuel build-up and the dense growth of fire-sensitive white fir, which increases the risk of more intense fires that can use the firs as ladders to threaten mature giant sequoia crowns. Natural fires may also be important in keeping carpenter ants in check. In 1970, the National Park Service began controlled burns of its groves to correct these problems. Current policies also allow natural fires to burn. One of these untamed burns severely damaged the second-largest tree in the world, the Washington tree, in September 2003, 45 days after the fire started. This damage made it unable to withstand the snowstorm of January 2005, leading to the collapse of over half the trunk.

In addition to fire, two animal agents also assist giant sequoia seed release. The more significant of the two is a longhorn beetle (Phymatodes nitidus) that lays eggs on the cones, into which the larvae then bore holes. Reduction of the vascular water supply to the cone scales allows the cones to dry and open for the seeds to fall. Cones damaged by the beetles during the summer will slowly open over the next several months. Some research indicates many cones, particularly higher in the crowns, may need to be partially dried by beetle damage before fire can fully open them. The other agent is the Douglas squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasi) that gnaws on the fleshy green scales of younger cones. The squirrels are active year-round, and some seeds are dislodged and dropped as the cone is eaten.

More than 30 identified species of bird have been observed living in giant sequoia groves.

Genome
The genome of the giant sequoia was published in 2020. The size of the giant sequoia genome is 8.125 Gbp (8.125 billion base pairs) which were assembled into eleven chromosome-scale scaffolds, the largest of any organism at the time of publication.

This is the first genome sequenced in the Cupressaceae family, and it provides insights into disease resistance and survival for this robust species on a genetic basis. The genome was found to contain over 900 complete or partial predicted NLR genes used by plants to prevent the spread of infection by microbial pathogens.

The genome sequence was extracted from a single fertilized seed harvested from a 1,360-year-old tree specimen in Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park identified as SEGI 21. It was sequenced over a three-year period by researchers at University of California, Davis, Johns Hopkins University, University of Connecticut, and Northern Arizona University and was supported by grants from Save the Redwoods League and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture as part of a species conservation, restoration and management effort.

Discovery and naming
The giant sequoia was well known to Native American tribes living in its area. Native American names for the species include wawona, toos-pung-ish and hea-mi-withic, the latter two in the language of the Tule River Tribe.

The first reference to the giant sequoia by Europeans is in 1833, in the diary of the explorer J. K. Leonard; the reference does not mention any locality, but his route would have taken him through the Calaveras Grove. Leonard's observation was not publicized. The next European to see the species was John M. Wooster, who carved his initials in the bark of the 'Hercules' tree in the Calaveras Grove in 1850; again, this observation received no publicity. Much more publicity was given to the "discovery" by Augustus T. Dowd of the Calaveras Grove in 1852, and this is commonly cited as the species' discovery by non-natives. The tree found by Dowd, christened the 'Discovery Tree', was felled in 1853.

The first scientific naming of the species was by John Lindley in December 1853, who named it Wellingtonia gigantea, without realizing this was an invalid name under the botanical code as the name Wellingtonia had already been used earlier for another unrelated plant (Wellingtonia arnottiana in the family Sabiaceae). The name "Wellingtonia" has persisted in England as a common name. The following year, Joseph Decaisne transferred it to the same genus as the coast redwood, naming it Sequoia gigantea, but again this name was invalid, having been applied earlier (in 1847, by Endlicher) to the coast redwood. The name Washingtonia californica was also applied to it by Winslow in 1854, though this too is invalid, belonging to the palm genus Washingtonia.

In 1907, it was placed by Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze in the otherwise fossil genus Steinhauera, but doubt as to whether the giant sequoia is related to the fossil originally so named makes this name invalid.

The nomenclatural oversights were finally corrected in 1939 by John Theodore Buchholz, who also pointed out the giant sequoia is distinct from the coast redwood at the genus level and coined the name Sequoiadendron giganteum for it.

The etymology of the genus name has been presumed—initially in The Yosemite Book by Josiah Whitney in 1868 —to be in honor of Sequoyah (1767–1843), who was the inventor of the Cherokee syllabary. An etymological study published in 2012, however, concluded that the name was more likely to have originated from the Latin sequi (meaning to follow) since the number of seeds per cone in the newly classified genus fell in mathematical sequence with the other four genera in the suborder.

John Muir wrote of the species in about 1870: "Do behold the King in his glory, King Sequoia! Behold! Behold! seems all I can say. Some time ago I left all for Sequoia and have been and am at his feet, fasting and praying for light, for is he not the greatest light in the woods, in the world? Where are such columns of sunshine, tangible, accessible, terrestrialized?'

Uses
Wood from mature giant sequoias is highly resistant to decay, but due to being fibrous and brittle, it is generally unsuitable for construction. From the 1880s through the 1920s, logging took place in many groves in spite of marginal commercial returns. The Hume-Bennett Lumber Company was the last to harvest giant sequoia, going out of business in 1924. Due to their weight and brittleness, trees would often shatter when they hit the ground, wasting much of the wood. Loggers attempted to cushion the impact by digging trenches and filling them with branches. Still, as little as 50% of the timber is estimated to have made it from groves to the mill. The wood was used mainly for shingles and fence posts, or even for matchsticks.

Pictures of the once majestic trees broken and abandoned in formerly pristine groves, and the thought of the giants put to such modest use, spurred the public outcry that caused most of the groves to be preserved as protected land. The public can visit an example of 1880s clear-cutting at Big Stump Grove near General Grant Grove. As late as the 1980s, some immature trees were logged in Sequoia National Forest, publicity of which helped lead to the creation of Giant Sequoia National Monument.

The wood from immature trees is less brittle, with recent tests on young plantation-grown trees showing it similar to coast redwood wood in quality. This is resulting in some interest in cultivating giant sequoia as a very high-yielding timber crop tree, both in California and also in parts of western Europe, where it may grow more efficiently than coast redwoods. In the northwest United States, some entrepreneurs have also begun growing giant sequoias for Christmas trees. Besides these attempts at tree farming, the principal economic uses for giant sequoia today are tourism and horticulture.

Threats
Formerly exploited by logging, sequoias are now threatened by both a combination of fire and fire suppression, along with drought. Fire suppression promotes the excessive growth of smaller trees such as fir, which can dry out in droughts, and serve as a fuel load for devastating crown fires fueled by strong winds, which can kill large amounts of sequoias. One such fire, the Castle Fire of 2020, is thought to have wiped out almost 10–14% of the species' whole population, or 7500–10,600 mature trees, including potentially the King Arthur Tree, the 10th tallest known individual. 3 to 5% more, or 2,261–3,637 sequoias, are thought to have died during the KNP Complex and Windy Fire in 2021, with a combined total of 13–19%. The most effective remedy for these impacts is heavy prescribed burning, which will need to be multiplied by 30 times current burning practices in order to ensure heathy sequoia groves.

Around the world
Giant sequoia is a very popular ornamental tree in many areas. It is successfully grown in most of western and southern Europe, the Pacific Northwest of North America, north to southwest British Columbia, the southern United States, southeast Australia, New Zealand and central-southern Chile. It is also grown, though less successfully, in parts of eastern North America.

Trees can withstand temperatures of −31 °C (−25 °F) or colder for short periods of time, provided the ground around the roots is insulated with either heavy snow or mulch. Outside its natural range, the foliage can suffer from damaging windburn.

A wide range of horticultural varieties have been selected, especially in Europe, including blue, compact blue, powder blue, hazel smith, pendulumor weepingvarieties, and grafted cultivars.

France
The tallest giant sequoia ever measured outside of the United States is a specimen planted near Ribeauvillé in France in 1856 and measured in 2014 at a height between 57.7 m and 58.1 m at age 158 years.

United Kingdom
The giant sequoia was first brought into cultivation in Britain in 1853 by the horticulturist Patrick Matthew of Perthshire from seeds sent by his botanist son John in California. A much larger shipment of seed collected from the Calaveras Grove by William Lobb, acting for the Veitch Nursery near Exeter, arrived in England in December 1853; seed from this batch was widely distributed throughout Europe.

Growth in Britain is very fast, with the tallest tree, at Benmore in southwest Scotland, reaching 56.4 m in 2014 at age 150 years, and several others from 50 - 53 m tall; the stoutest is around 12 m in girth and 4 m in diameter, in Perthshire. The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, and in their second campus at Wakehurst, contain multiple large specimens of the species. Biddulph Grange Garden in Staffordshire holds a fine collection of both Sequoiadendron giganteum and Sequoia sempervirens (coast redwood). The General Sherman of California has a volume of 1489 m3; by way of comparison, the largest giant sequoias in Great Britain have volumes no greater than 90 - 100 m3, one example being the 90 m3 specimen in the New Forest.

Sequoiadendron giganteum has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

An avenue of 218 giant sequoias was planted in 1865 near the town of Camberley, Surrey, England. The trees have since been surrounded by modern real estate development.

In 2024, there were an estimated 5,000 mature sequoias in the UK, and up to 500,000 Sequoiadendron giganteum and Sequoia sempervirens that are not mature. Growing conditions are generally more conducive than in their native range in the US though they do not propagate naturally. The number of sequoiadendrons in the U.K. may now exceed the number in wild groves in California. Public acceptance of, and enthusiasm for, planting non-native trees in the U.K. is in part attributable to severe losses of native tree species in Europe during the Pleistocene advances of glacial ice — including both genera of redwoods that survived only in the western United States.

Germany
Probably the oldest sequoia in Germany and possibly of continental Europe was planted in 1852 as a gift of the Royal Family of England to the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in a park near Bensheim. In 2015 it reached a height of 44.35 metres and a circumfereence of 5.94 metres and is praised for its beauty. It is also the largest seqoia in Germany.

King William I of Württemberg (1816–1864) imported seeds shortly before his death. In the greenhouses of the Wilhelma in Stuttgart grew between 5000 to 8000 seedlings. Thirty-five of those trees are still present in the Wilhelma. The seedlings got distributed to the whole country of Württemberg and elsewhere and planted on different soils, under various conditions and elevations for a long-time evaluation to find out if they are suitable for forestry. At least 135 of them still can be traced back to these seedlings.

Since then the tree is well established as ornamental tree in public parks and cemeteries, but also on private properties and can be found planted in small groups in the woods.

Two members of the German Dendrology Society, E. J. Martin and Illa Martin, introduced the giant sequoia into German forestry at the Sequoiafarm Kaldenkirchen in 1952.

Italy
Numerous giant sequoia were planted in Italy from 1860 through 1905. Several regions contain specimens that range from 40 to 48 m in height. The largest tree is in Roccavione, in the Piedmont, with a basal circumference of 16 m. One notable tree survived a 200 m tall flood wave in 1963 that was caused by a landslide at Vajont Dam. There are numerous giant sequoia in parks and reserves.

Growth rates in some areas of Europe are remarkable. One young tree in Italy reached 22 m tall and 88 cm trunk diameter in 17 years.

Northern and Central Europe
Growth further northeast in Europe is limited by winter cold. In Denmark, where extreme winters can reach -32 C, the largest tree was 35 m tall and 1.7 m diameter in 1976 and is bigger today. One in Poland has purportedly survived temperatures down to -37 C with heavy snow cover.

Twenty-nine giant sequoias, measuring around 30 m in height, grow in Belgrade's municipality of Lazarevac in Serbia.

The oldest Sequoiadendron in the Czech Republic, at 44 m, grows in Ratměřice u Votic castle garden.

United States and Canada
Giant sequoias are grown successfully in the Pacific Northwest and southern US, and less successfully in eastern North America. Giant sequoia cultivation is very successful in the Pacific Northwest from western Oregon north to southwest British Columbia, with fast growth rates. In Washington and Oregon, it is common to find giant sequoias that have been successfully planted in both urban and rural areas. There are hundreds of sequoias planted on the Olympic Peninsula over the last 100 years and farms that have 50 or more planted 40 years ago or longer.

In Seattle, a 100 ft sequoia stands as a prominent landmark at the entrance to Seattle's downtown retail core. Other large specimens exceeding 90 ft are located on the University of Washington and Seattle University campuses, in the Evergreen Washelli Memorial Park cemetery, and in the Leschi, Madrona, and Magnolia neighborhoods.

In the northeastern US there has been some limited success in growing the species, but growth is much slower there, and it is prone to Cercospora and Kabatina fungal diseases due to the hot, humid summer climate there. A tree at Blithewold Gardens, in Bristol, Rhode Island, is reported to be 27 m tall, reportedly the tallest in the New England states. The tree at the Tyler Arboretum in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, at 29.1 m may be the tallest in the northeast. Specimens also grow in the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Massachusetts (planted 1972, 18 m tall in 1998), at Longwood Gardens near Wilmington, Delaware, in the New Jersey State Botanical Garden at Skylands in Ringwood State Park, Ringwood, New Jersey, and in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Private plantings of giant sequoias around the Middle Atlantic States are not uncommon, and other publicly accessible specimens can be visited at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. A few trees have been established in Colorado as well. Additionally, numerous sequoias have been planted with success in the state of Michigan.

A cold-tolerant cultivar 'Hazel Smith' selected in about 1960 is proving more successful in the northeastern US. This clone was the sole survivor of several hundred seedlings grown at a nursery in New Jersey. The U.S. National Arboretum has a specimen grown from a cutting in 1970 that can be seen in the Gotelli Conifer Collection.

Since its last assessment as an endangered species in 2011, it was estimated that another 13–19% of the population (or 9,761–13,637 mature trees) were destroyed during the Castle Fire of 2020 and the KNP Complex & Windy Fire in 2021, events attributed to fire suppression and drought. Prescribed burns to reduce available fuel load may be crucial for saving the species.

As of 2021, there are approximately 60,000 living in its native California.

Australia
The Ballarat Botanical Gardens contain a significant collection, many of them about 150 years old. Jubilee Park and the Hepburn Mineral Springs Reserve in Daylesford, Cook Park in Orange, New South Wales and Carisbrook's Deep Creek park in Victoria both have specimens. Jamieson Township in the Victorian high country has two specimens which were planted in the early 1860s.

In Tasmania, specimens can be seen in private and public gardens, as sequoias were popular in the mid-Victorian era. The Westbury Village Green has mature specimens with more in Deloraine. The Tasmanian Arboretum contains both Sequoiadendron giganteum and Sequoia sempervirens specimens.

The Pialligo Redwood Forest consists of 3,000 surviving redwood specimens, of 122,000 planted, 500 meters east of the Canberra Airport. The forest was laid out by the city's designer Walter Burley Griffin, though the city's arborist, Thomas Charles Weston, advised against it. The National Arboretum Canberra began a grove of Sequoiadendron giganteum in 2008. They also grow in the abandoned arboretum at Mount Banda Banda in New South Wales.

New Zealand
Several impressive specimens of Sequoiadendron giganteum can be found in the South Island of New Zealand. Notable examples include a set of trees in a public park of Picton, as well as robust specimens in the public and botanical parks of Christchurch and Queenstown. There are also several in private gardens in Wānaka. Other locations in Christchurch and nearby include a number of mature trees at the Riccarton Park Racecourse, three large trees on the roadside bordering private properties on Clyde Road, near Wai-Iti Terrace—these are at least 150 years old. The suburb of ‘Redwood’ is named after a 160 years old Giant Redwood tree in the grounds of a local hotel. At St James Church, Harewood, is a protected very large specimen believed to be about 160 years old. A grove of about sixteen Redwood trees of varying ages is in Sheldon Park in the Belfast, New Zealand suburb. Some of these trees are in poor condition because of indifferent care. There is also a very large tree at Rangiora High School, which was planted for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee and is thus over 130 years old.

Largest by trunk volume

As of 2009, the top ten largest giant sequoias sorted by volume of their trunks are:
 * The General Sherman tree is estimated to weigh about 2100 tonnes.
 * The Washington Tree was previously arguably the second largest tree with a volume of 47850 cuft (although the upper half of its trunk was hollow, making the calculated volume debatable), but after losing the hollow upper half of its trunk in January 2005 following a fire, it is no longer of great size.
 * The largest giant sequoia ever recorded was the Father of the Forest from Calaveras Grove, an exceedingly massive tree which fell many centuries ago in the North Grove. Reportedly, the tree was once over 435 ft tall, and 110 ft in circumference, with a minimum height of 365 feet. Now, what is left of the tree is a popular tourist attraction.

Tallest

 * Redwood – Redwood Mountain Grove – 311 ft
 * tallest outside the United States: specimen near Ribeauvillé, France, measured in 2014 at a height of 58 m at age 158 years.

Oldest

 * Muir Snag – Converse Basin Grove – more than 3500 years

Greatest girth

 * Waterfall Tree – Alder Creek Grove – 155 ft – tree with enormous basal buttress on very steep ground.

Greatest base diameter

 * Waterfall Tree – Alder Creek Grove – 69 ft – tree with enormous basal buttress on very steep ground.
 * Tunnel Tree – Atwell Mill Grove – 57 ft – tree with a huge flared base that has burned all the way through.

Greatest mean diameter at breast height

 * General Grant – General Grant Grove – 29 ft

Largest limb

 * Arm Tree – Atwell Mill, East Fork Grove – 13 ft in diameter

Thickest bark

 * 3 ft or more

title: Sequoiadendron giganteum