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Whitsun

Whitsun (also Whitsunday or Whit Sunday) is the name used in Britain, and other countries among Anglicans and Methodists, for the Christian holy day of Pentecost. It falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter and commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ's disciples (as described in Acts 2). Whitsuntide, the week following Whitsunday, was one of three holiday weeks for the medieval villein; on most manors he was free from service on the lord's demesne this week, which marked a pause in the agricultural year. Whit Monday, the day after Whitsun, remained a holiday in Britain until 1971 when, with effect from 1972, the ruling Conservative Government decided to permanently replace it, following a five-year trial period, with a Spring Bank Holiday on the last Monday in May. Whit had been the occasion for many varied forms of celebration, and was of significant cultural importance. It was a custom for children to receive a new set of clothes, even among the poorest families, a tradition which continued well into the 20th century.

In the North West of England, church and chapel parades called whit walks still take place at this time (sometimes on Whit Friday, the Friday after Whitsun). Typically, the parades include brass bands and choirs; girls attending are dressed in white. Traditionally, Whit fairs (sometimes called Whitsun ales ) took place. Other customs, such as Morris dancing, were associated with Whitsun, although in most cases they have been transferred to the Spring bank holiday. Whaddon, Cambridgeshire, has its own Whitsun tradition of singing a unique song around the village before and on Whit Sunday itself.

Etymology
The name is a contraction of "White Sunday", attested in "the Holy Ghost, whom thou didst send on Whit-sunday" in the Old English homilies, and parallel to the mention of hwitmonedei in the early 13th-century Ancrene Riwle. Walter William Skeat noted that the Anglo-Saxon word also appears in Icelandic hvitasunnu-dagr, but that in English the feast was called Pentecoste until after the Norman Conquest, when white (hwitte) began to be confused with wit or understanding. According to one interpretation, the name derives from the white garments worn by catechumens, those expecting to be baptised on that Sunday. Moreover, in England white vestments, rather than the more usual red, were traditional for the day and its octave. A different tradition is that of the young women of the parish all coming to church or chapel in new white dresses on that day. However, Augustinian canon John Mirk (c. 1382–1414), of Lilleshall Abbey, Shropshire, had another interpretation:

Goode men and woymen, as ȝe knowen wele all, þys day ys called Whitsonday, for bycause þat þe Holy Gost as þys day broȝt wyt and wysdome ynto all Cristes dyscyples.

Thus, he thought the root of the word was "wit" (formerly spelt "wyt" or "wytte") and Pentecost was so-called to signify the outpouring of the wisdom of the Holy Ghost on Christ's disciples.

The following day is Whit Monday, a name coined to supersede the form Monday in Whitsun-week used by John Wycliffe and others. The week following Whit Sunday is known as "Whitsuntide" or "Whit week".

History
As the first holiday of the summer, Whitsun was one of the favourite times in the traditional calendar, and Whit Sunday, or the following week, was a time for celebration. This took the form of fêtes, fairs, pageants and parades, with Whitsun ales and Morris dancing in the south of England and Whit walks, Club Days and wakes in the north. A poster advertising the Whitsun festivities at Sunbury, Middlesex in 1778 listed the following attractions: On Whit Monday, in the morning, will be a punting match...The first boat that comes in to receive a guinea...In the afternoon a gold-laced hat, worth 30s. to be cudgell'd for... On Whit Tuesday, in the morning, a fine Holland smock and ribbons, to be run for by girls and young women. And in the afternoon six pairs of buckskin gloves to be wrestled for.

In Manchester during the 17th century the nearby Kersal Moor Whit races were the great event of the year when large numbers of people turned the area into a giant fairground for several days. With the coming of industrialisation it became convenient to close down whole towns for a week in order to clean and maintain the machinery in the mills and factories. The week of closure, or wakes week, was often held at Whitsuntide. A report in John Harlan and T.T. Wilkinson's Lancashire Folk lore (1882) reads: It is customary for the cotton mills etc., to close for Whitsuntide week to give the hands a holiday; the men going to the races etc. and the women visiting Manchester on Whit-Saturday, thronging the markets, the Royal Exchange and the Infirmary Esplanade, and other public places: And gazing in at the shop windows, whence this day is usually called 'Gaping Sunday'.

Whit Monday was officially recognised as a bank holiday in the UK in 1871, but lost this status in 1972 when the fixed Spring Bank Holiday was created.

In literature

 * 1485: Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur has the Knights of the Round Table witness a divine vision of the Holy Grail on a Whitsunday, prompting their quest to find its true location.
 * 1607: Thomas Middleton refers to "the Whitsun holy-days" in Michaelmas Term (IV.i.73).
 * 1611: In Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale Perdita imagines that she plays "as I have seen them do / In Whitsun pastorals" (IV.iv.133-34).
 * 1617: James I's Declaration of Sports encouraged "Whitsun ales", among other things, as soon as church was over on a Sunday.
 * 1633: George Herbert wrote a poem called "Whitsunday", first published in The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations.
 * 1759-67: Laurence Sterne's novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman contains several allusions to Whitsuntide.
 * 1785: Samuel Johnson records in his Prayers and Meditations that "Between Easter and Whitsun-tide [1773 . . . he] attempted to learn the Low Dutch language." James Boswell reproduces the remark in his Life of Samuel Johnson (1791).
 * 1787: The Whitsun Donative was an anonymous satirical pamphlet inspired by Sterne's Tristram Shandy.
 * 1844: Whitsun is central to religious life in Swiss author Jeremias Gotthelf's novel Money and Spirit.
 * 1849: Charlotte Brontë's novel Shirley contains an episode set against a Whitsun-tide procession in which Anglican parishioners are confronted by dissenters.
 * 1853: Charles Dickens sets a scene in the life of King Edward I on "one Friday in Whitsun week" in A Child's History of England.
 * 1853: Christina Rossetti wrote a poem called "Whitsun Eve", published posthumously in 1896.
 * 1861: George Eliot mentioned Whitsun in her novel Silas Marner.
 * 1875: Charles Dickens's posthumous collection The Uncommercial Traveller includes (in Chapter 21) a reflection on "one day in the Whitsun week last past".
 * 1875: In Anthony Trollope's book The Way We Live Now many of the aristocrats leave London and travel to their country estates, or those of their acquaintances, for the week of Whitsuntide.
 * 1896: H. G. Wells refers to Whitsun in "The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham", later included in The Country of the Blind and Other Stories.
 * 1897: In H. G. Wells's The Invisible Man, important events take place around Whit Monday and subsequent days.
 * 1911: The short story "The Wrong Shape" in G. K. Chesterton's The Innocence of Father Brown takes place in Whitsuntide.
 * 1916: James Joyce's novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man contains reference (in Chapter 2) to a Whitsuntide play at Stephen Dedalus's school, Belvedere College.
 * 1922: James Joyce's novel Ulysses contains four references to Whit Monday. Leopold Bloom is stung by a bee on Whitmonday, 23 May 1904.
 * 1932: Agatha Christie's short story "Ingots of Gold" references Whitsuntide and Whit Monday as clues in solving the crime.
 * 1936: In Gladys Mitchell's Mrs Bradley detective novel Dead Men's Morris (Michael Joseph, 1936, reprinted 1986) the story of the murders of an Oxfordshire solicitor and his rival, a landowner, begins on Christmas Eve, and reaches its climax with a Morris dance performance on Whit-Monday.
 * 1938: In Graham Greene's Brighton Rock, Hale is murdered on Whitsun, kicking off events in the novel.
 * 1943: Kathleen Raine's poem "Whitsuntide 1942" provides the title for her first poetry collection, Stone and Flower, by referencing 'the world / of stone and flower that compels my thought... what nerve have I, beloved Lord, what sense / to know the holy presence of my God?'
 * 1950: The autobiographical novel A Voice Through a Cloud by Denton Welch concerns the author's near-fatal bike accident and its aftermath, which occurred on a Whitsun holiday.
 * 1957: Enid Blyton's Five Go to Billycock Hill is a novel in the Famous Five series of children's books set during a camping holiday at Whitsun.
 * 1961: Sylvia Plath wrote a poem called "Whitsun", published posthumously in 1971.
 * 1964: The Whitsun Weddings is a poem and the title of a collection by Philip Larkin.
 * 1965: "Whitsunday in Kirchstetten" is a poem by W. H. Auden, from his collection About the House.
 * 1973: Thomas Pynchon refers to Whitsun in his novel Gravity's Rainbow (section 2, 20).
 * 2010: In Washington: A Life, a 2010 biography by Ron Chernow, George Washington is said to have included a drinking allowance in an employment contract with one of his gardeners, allowing "two dollars at Whitsuntide to be drunk four days and four nights" (p. 135).
 * 2011: Several episodes in author Jeff Wheeler's Muirwood Trilogy revolve around Whitsunday and its significance and impact on Muirwood's inhabitants.
 * 2022: Whitsun is mentioned in Gillian McAllister's "Wrong Place Wrong Time"

In film

 * 1942: The Second World War film Went the Day Well? depicts the fictional takeover of an English village by German soldiers over Whitsun weekend.
 * 1995: P.R.O.B.E: The Devil of Winterborne takes place over the Whitsun holiday.

title: Whitsun


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Henry Fox Talbot

William Henry Fox Talbot FRS FRSE FRAS (11 February 1800 – 17 September 1877) was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries. His work in the 1840s on photomechanical reproduction led to the creation of the photoglyphic engraving process, the precursor to photogravure. He was the holder of a controversial patent that affected the early development of commercial photography in Britain. He was also a noted photographer who contributed to the development of photography as an artistic medium. He published The Pencil of Nature (1844–1846), which was illustrated with original salted paper prints from his calotype negatives and made some important early photographs of Oxford, Paris, Reading, and York.

A polymath, Talbot was elected to the Royal Society in 1831 for his work on the integral calculus, and researched in optics, chemistry, electricity and other subjects such as etymology, the decipherment of cuneiform, and ancient history.

Early life
Talbot was born in Melbury House in Dorset and was the only child of William Davenport Talbot, of Lacock Abbey, near Chippenham, Wiltshire, and his wife Lady Elisabeth Fox Strangways, daughter of the 2nd Earl of Ilchester. His governess was Agnes Porter who had also educated his mother. Talbot was educated at Rottingdean, Harrow School and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was awarded the Porson Prize in Classics in 1820, and graduated as twelfth wrangler in 1821. From 1822 to 1872, he communicated papers to the Royal Society, many of them on mathematical subjects. At an early period, he began optical research, which later bore fruit in connection with photography. To the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal in 1826 he contributed a paper on "Some Experiments on Coloured Flame"; to the Quarterly Journal of Science in 1827 a paper on "Monochromatic Light"; and to the Philosophical Magazine papers on chemical subjects, including one on "Chemical Changes of Colour".

Photographic inventions

Talbot invented a process for creating reasonably light-fast and permanent photographs that was the first made available to the public; however, his was neither the first such process invented nor the first one publicly announced.

Shortly after Louis Daguerre's invention of the daguerreotype was announced in early January 1839, without details, Talbot asserted priority of invention based on experiments he had begun in early 1834. At a Friday Evening Discourse at the Royal Institution on 25 January 1839, Talbot exhibited several paper photographs he had made in 1835. Within a fortnight, he communicated the general nature of his process to the Royal Society, followed by more complete details a few weeks later. Daguerre did not publicly reveal any useful details until mid-August, although by the spring it had become clear that his process and Talbot's were very different.

Talbot's early "salted paper" or "photogenic drawing" process, used writing paper bathed in a weak solution of ordinary table salt (sodium chloride), dried, then brushed on one side with a strong solution of silver nitrate, which created a tenacious coating of very light-sensitive silver chloride that darkened where it was exposed to light. Whether used to create shadow image photograms by placing objects on it and setting it out in the sunlight, or to capture the dim images formed by a lens in a camera, it was a "printing out" process, meaning that the exposure had to continue until the desired degree of darkening had been produced. In the case of camera images, that could require an exposure of an hour or two if something more than a silhouette of objects against a bright sky was wanted. Earlier experimenters such as Thomas Wedgwood and Nicéphore Niépce had captured shadows and camera images with silver salts years before, but they could find no way to prevent their photographs from fatally darkening all over when exposed to daylight. Talbot devised several ways of chemically stabilizing his results, making them sufficiently insensitive to further exposure that direct sunlight could be used to print the negative image produced in the camera onto another sheet of salted paper, creating a positive.

The Calotype

The "calotype", or "talbotype", was a "developing out" process, Talbot's improvement of his earlier photogenic drawing process by the use of a different silver salt (silver iodide instead of silver chloride) and a developing agent (gallic acid and silver nitrate) to bring out an invisibly slight "latent" image on the exposed paper. This reduced the required exposure time in the camera to only a minute or two for subjects in bright sunlight. The translucent calotype negative made it possible to produce as many positive prints as desired by simple contact printing, whereas the daguerreotype was an opaque direct positive that could be reproduced only by being copied with a camera. On the other hand, the calotype, despite waxing of the negative to make the image clearer, still was not pin-sharp like the metallic daguerreotype, because the paper fibres blurred the printed image. The simpler salted paper process was normally used when making prints from calotype negatives.

Talbot announced his calotype process in 1841, and in August he licensed Henry Collen, the miniature painter, as the first professional calotypist. The most celebrated practitioners of the process were Hill & Adamson. Another notable calotypist was Levett Landon Boscawen Ibbetson.

In 1842, Talbot received the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society for his photographic discoveries.

In 1852, Talbot discovered that gelatine treated with potassium dichromate, a sensitiser introduced by Mungo Ponton in 1839, is made less soluble by exposure to light. This later provided the basis for the important carbon printing process and related technologies. Dichromated gelatine is still used for some laser holography.

Talbot's later photographic work was concentrated on photomechanical reproduction methods. In addition to making the mass reproduction of photographic images more practical and much less expensive, rendering a photograph into ink on paper, known to be permanent on a scale of hundreds if not thousands of years, was clearly one sure way to avoid the problems with fading that had soon become apparent in early types of silver image paper prints. Talbot created the photoglyphic (or "photoglyptic") engraving process, later perfected by others as the photogravure process.

Patenting controversy

Daguerre's work on his process had commenced at about the same time as Talbot's earliest work on his salted paper process. In 1839, Daguerre's agent applied for English and Scottish patents only a matter of days before France, having granted Daguerre a pension for it, declared his invention "free to the world." The United Kingdom, along with the British Empire, therefore became the only places where a licence was legally required to make and sell daguerreotypes. This exception is now usually regarded as both an expression of old national animosities, still smouldering just 24 years after Waterloo, and a reaction to Talbot's patent. Talbot never attempted to patent any part of his printed-out silver chloride "photogenic drawing" process and his calotype patent was not registered in Scotland.

In February 1841, Talbot obtained an English patent for his developed-out calotype process. At first, he sold individual patent licences for £20 each; later, he lowered the fee for amateur use to £4. Professional photographers, however, had to pay up to £300 annually. In a business climate where many patent holders were attacked for enforcing their rights, and an academic world that viewed the patenting of new discoveries as a hindrance to scientific freedom and further progress, Talbot's behaviour was widely criticised. On the other hand, many scientists supported his patent and they gave expert evidence in later trials. In addition, the calotype method was free for scientific uses, an area that Talbot himself pioneered, such as photomicrography. One reason Talbot later gave for vigorously enforcing his rights was that he had spent, according to his own reckoning, about £5,000 on his various photographic endeavours over the years and wanted to at least recoup his expenses.

In 1844, Talbot helped set up an establishment in Russell Terrace (now Baker Street), Reading, for mass-producing salted paper prints from his calotype negatives. The Reading Establishment, as it was known, also offered services to the public, making prints from others' negatives, copying artwork and documents, and taking portraits at its studio. The enterprise was not a success.

In 1851, the year of Daguerre's death, Frederick Scott Archer publicised the wet collodion process, which made it practical to use glass instead of paper as the support for making the camera negative. The lack of detail often criticised in prints made from calotype negatives was overcome, and sharp images, comparable in detail to daguerreotypes, could finally be provided by convenient paper prints. The collodion process soon replaced the calotype in commercial use, and by the end of the decade, the daguerreotype was virtually extinct as well.

Asserting a very broad interpretation of his patent rights, Talbot declared that anyone using the collodion process would still need to get a calotype licence.

In August 1852, The Times published an open letter by Lord Rosse, the president of the Royal Society, and Charles Lock Eastlake, the president of the Royal Academy, who called on Talbot to relieve the patent pressure that was perceived as stifling the development of photography. Talbot agreed to waive licensing fees for amateurs, but he continued to pursue professional portrait photographers, having filed several lawsuits.

In 1854, Talbot applied for an extension of the 14-year patent. At that time, one of his lawsuits, against photographer Martin Laroche, was heard in court. The Talbot v. Laroche case proved to be pivotal. Laroche's side argued that the patent was invalid, as a similar process had been invented earlier by Joseph Reade, and that using the collodion process did not infringe the calotype patent in any case, because of significant differences between the two processes. In the verdict, the jury upheld the calotype patent but agreed that Laroche was not infringing upon it by using the collodion process. Disappointed by the outcome, Talbot chose not to extend his patent.

1844 calotype of Thomas Moore and the Talbot household
Talbot was a friend and neighbour in Wiltshire of the famed Irish poet and writer Thomas Moore. Dated April 1844, Talbot made a calotype of Moore as a visitor standing with members of his own household.

The distinctive curls identify Talbot's half sister Henrietta Horatia Fielding standing to his left. Eliza Frayland, the nursemaid at the far left, had come into the family's employ with the birth of Charles Henry Talbot in 1842. Arranged in the front are Matilda Caroline (later Gilchrist-Clark, age 5); Ela Theresa (age 9); Rosamond Constance Talbot (age 7). The woman at the right is possibly Moore's wife Bessy.

Moore took an early interest in Talbot's photogenic drawings. Talbot, in turn, took images of Moore's hand-written poetry possibly for inclusion in facsimile in an edition of The Pencil of Nature.

Spectroscopic and optical investigations

Talbot was one of the earliest researchers into the field of spectral analysis. He showed that the spectrum of each of the chemical elements was unique and that it was possible to identify the chemical elements from their spectra. Such analysis was to become important in examining the light from distant stars, and hence inferring their atomic composition. He also investigated the polarization of light using tourmaline crystals and iceland spar or calcite crystals, and pioneered the design and use of the polarizing microscope, now widely used by geologists for examining thin rock sections to identify minerals within them.

Talbot allowed free use of the calotype process for scientific applications, and he himself published the first known photomicrograph of a mineral crystal. Another photomicrograph shows insect wings as seen in the "solar microscope" he and others developed for projecting images onto a large screen of tiny objects using sunlight as a light source. The large projections could then be photographed by exposure to sensitized paper. He studied the diffraction of light using gratings and discovered a new phenomenon, now known as the Talbot effect.

Talbot was very keen on applying the calotype method to recording natural phenomena, such as plants for example, as well as buildings and landscapes. The calotype technique was offered free by Talbot for scientific and amateur use. He was aware that the visible spectrum comprised a very small part of what we now know as electromagnetic radiation, and that powerful and invisible light beyond the violet was capable of inducing chemical effects, a type of radiation we now call ultra-violet radiation.

Other activities
Talbot was active in politics, being a moderate Reformer who generally supported the Whig Ministers. He served as member of parliament for Chippenham between 1832 and 1835 when he retired from parliament. He also held the office of High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1840.

While engaged in his scientific researches, Talbot devoted much time to archaeology. He had a 20-year involvement in the field of Assyriology, the study of the history, archaeology and culture of Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). With Henry Rawlinson and Edward Hincks he shares the honour of having been one of the first decipherers of the cuneiform inscriptions of Nineveh. He published Hermes, or Classical and Antiquarian Researches (1838–39), and Illustrations of the Antiquity of the Book of Genesis (1839). He was also the author of English Etymologies (1846).

Selected works

 * Hermes, or Classical and Antiquarian Researches (1838–39)
 * Illustrations of the Antiquity of the Book of Genesis (1839)
 * The Pencil of Nature (1844–46)
 * Sun pictures in Scotland (1845)
 * Loch Katrine (c. 1845) Salt print from calotype negative | 8x9 in. Birmingham Museum of Art
 * English Etymologies (1846)

Posthumous recognition
In 1966 Talbot was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum.

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

title: Henry Fox Talbot


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GBP (disambiguation)

GBP is the ISO 4217 currency code for the pound sterling, the British currency.

GBP may also refer to:

Science and technology

 * Gain-bandwidth product, an audio amplification measurement
 * Game Boy Player, a Nintendo GameCube to television connector
 * Game Boy Pocket, a portable gaming console by Nintendo
 * Gastric bypass procedure, a medical operation for obesity
 * Generalized belief propagation, an algorithm in graph theory
 * Gigabase pairs, a unit for quantifying DNA
 * Ginger beer plant, a culture of yeast and bacteria used to produce the drink
 * Guanylate-binding protein
 * An alias for HADHA, an enzyme

Organizations

 * Golden Broadcast Professionals, a Philippines-based broadcasting company
 * Green Bay Packers, a football team in the NFL
 * Güç Birliği Partisi (Power Union Party), a Turkish political party

title: GBP (disambiguation)


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Carbon group

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Legend
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The carbon group is a periodic table group consisting of carbon (C), silicon (Si), germanium (Ge), tin (Sn), lead (Pb), and flerovium (Fl). It lies within the p-block.

In modern IUPAC notation, it is called group 14. In the field of semiconductor physics, it is still universally called group IV. The group is also known as the tetrels (from the Greek word tetra, which means four), stemming from the Roman numeral IV in the group names, or (not coincidentally) from the fact that these elements have four valence electrons (see below). They are also known as the crystallogens or adamantogens.

Chemical
Like other groups, the members of this family show patterns in electron configuration, especially in the outermost shells, resulting in trends in chemical behavior:

Each of the elements in this group has 4 electrons in its outer shell. An isolated, neutral group 14 atom has the s2 p2 configuration in the ground state. These elements, especially carbon and silicon, have a strong propensity for covalent bonding, which usually brings the outer shell to eight electrons. Bonds in these elements often lead to hybridisation where distinct s and p characters of the orbitals are erased. For single bonds, a typical arrangement has four pairs of sp3 electrons, although other cases exist too, such as three sp2 pairs in graphene and graphite. Double bonds are characteristic for carbon (alkenes, ...); the same for π-systems in general. The tendency to lose electrons increases as the size of the atom increases, as it does with increasing atomic number. Carbon alone forms negative ions, in the form of carbide (C4−) ions. Silicon and germanium, both metalloids, each can form +4 ions. Tin and lead both are metals, while flerovium is a synthetic, radioactive (its half life is very short, only 1.9 seconds) element that may have a few noble gas-like properties, though it is still most likely a post-transition metal. Tin and lead are both capable of forming +2 ions. Although tin is chemically a metal, its α allotrope looks more like germanium than like a metal and it is a poor electric conductor.

Among main group (groups 1,2, 13–17) alkyl derivatives QRn, where n is the standard bonding number for Q (see lambda convention), the group 14 derivatives QR4 are notable in being electron-precise: they are neither electron-deficient (having fewer electrons than an octet and tending to be Lewis acidic at Q and usually existing as oligomeric clusters or adducts with Lewis bases) nor electron-excessive (having lone pair(s) at Q and tending to be Lewis basic at Q). As a result, the group 14 alkyls have low chemical reactivity relative to the alkyl derivatives of other groups. In the case of carbon, the high bond dissociation energy of the C–C bond and lack of electronegativity difference between the central atom and the alkyl ligands render the saturated alkyl derivatives, the alkanes, particularly inert.

Carbon forms tetrahalides with all the halogens. Carbon also forms many oxides such as carbon monoxide, carbon suboxide, and carbon dioxide. Carbon forms disulfides and diselenides.

Silicon forms several hydrides; two of them are SiH4 and Si2H6. Silicon forms tetrahalides with fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine. Silicon also forms a dioxide and a disulfide. Silicon nitride has the formula Si3N4.

Germanium forms five hydrides. The first two germanium hydrides are GeH4 and Ge2H6. Germanium forms tetrahalides with all halogens except astatine and forms dihalides with all halogens except bromine and astatine. Germanium bonds to all natural single chalcogens except polonium, and forms dioxides, disulfides, and diselenides. Germanium nitride has the formula Ge3N4.

Tin forms two hydrides: SnH4 and Sn2H6. Tin forms dihalides and tetrahalides with all halogens except astatine. Tin forms chalcogenides with one of each naturally occurring chalcogen except polonium, and forms chalcogenides with two of each naturally occurring chalcogen except polonium and tellurium.

Lead forms one hydride, which has the formula PbH4. Lead forms dihalides and tetrahalides with fluorine and chlorine, and forms a dibromide and diiodide, although the tetrabromide and tetraiodide of lead are unstable. Lead forms four oxides, a sulfide, a selenide, and a telluride.

There are no known compounds of flerovium.

Physical
The boiling points of the carbon group tend to get lower with the heavier elements. Carbon, the lightest carbon group element, sublimes at 3825 °C. Silicon's boiling point is 3265 °C, germanium's is 2833 °C, tin's is 2602 °C, and lead's is 1749 °C. Flerovium is predicted boil in -60 °C. The melting points of the carbon group elements have roughly the same trend as their boiling points. Silicon melts at 1414 °C, germanium melts at 939 °C, tin melts at 232 °C, and lead melts at 328 °C.

Carbon's crystal structure is hexagonal; at high pressures and temperatures it forms diamond (see below). Silicon and germanium have diamond cubic crystal structures, as does tin at low temperatures (below 13.2 °C). Tin at room temperature has a tetragonal crystal structure. Lead has a face-centered cubic crystal structure.

The densities of the carbon group elements tend to increase with increasing atomic number. Carbon has a density of 2.26 grams per cubic centimeter, silicon has a density of 2.33 grams per cubic centimeter, germanium has a density of 5.32 grams per cubic centimeter. Tin has a density of 7.26 grams per cubic centimeter, and lead has a density of 11.3 grams per cubic centimeter.

The atomic radii of the carbon group elements tend to increase with increasing atomic number. Carbon's atomic radius is 77 picometers, silicon's is 118 picometers, germanium's is 123 picometers, tin's is 141 picometers, and lead's is 175 picometers.

Allotropes
Carbon has multiple allotropes. The most common is graphite, which is carbon in the form of stacked sheets. Another form of carbon is diamond, but this is relatively rare. Amorphous carbon is a third allotrope of carbon; it is a component of soot. Another allotrope of carbon is a fullerene, which has the form of sheets of carbon atoms folded into a sphere. A fifth allotrope of carbon, discovered in 2003, is called graphene, and is in the form of a layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb-shaped formation.

Silicon has two known allotropes that exist at room temperature. These allotropes are known as the amorphous and the crystalline allotropes. The amorphous allotrope is a brown powder. The crystalline allotrope is gray and has a metallic luster.

Tin has two allotropes: α-tin, also known as gray tin, and β-tin. Tin is typically found in the β-tin form, a silvery metal. However, at standard pressure, β-tin converts to α-tin, a gray powder, at temperatures below 13.2 C. This can cause tin objects in cold temperatures to crumble to gray powder in a process known as tin pest or tin rot.

Nuclear
At least two of the carbon group elements (tin and lead) have magic nuclei, meaning that these elements are more common and more stable than elements that do not have a magic nucleus.

Isotopes
There are 15 known isotopes of carbon. Of these, three are naturally occurring. The most common is stable carbon-12, followed by stable carbon-13. Carbon-14 is a natural radioactive isotope with a half-life of 5,730 years.

23 isotopes of silicon have been discovered. Five of these are naturally occurring. The most common is stable silicon-28, followed by stable silicon-29 and stable silicon-30. Silicon-32 is a radioactive isotope that occurs naturally as a result of radioactive decay of actinides, and via spallation in the upper atmosphere. Silicon-34 also occurs naturally as the result of radioactive decay of actinides.

32 isotopes of germanium have been discovered. Five of these are naturally occurring. The most common is the stable isotope germanium-74, followed by the stable isotope germanium-72, the stable isotope germanium-70, and the stable isotope germanium-73. The isotope germanium-76 is a primordial radioisotope.

40 isotopes of tin have been discovered. 14 of these occur in nature. The most common is tin-120, followed by tin-118, tin-116, tin-119, tin-117, tin-124, tin-122, tin-112, and tin-114: all of these are stable. Tin also has four radioisotopes that occur as the result of the radioactive decay of uranium. These isotopes are tin-121, tin-123, tin-125, and tin-126.

38 isotopes of lead have been discovered. 9 of these are naturally occurring. The most common isotope is lead-208, followed by lead-206, lead-207, and lead-204: all of these are stable. 5 isotopes of lead occur from the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium. These isotopes are lead-209, lead-210, lead-211, lead-212 and lead-214.

6 isotopes of flerovium (flerovium-284, flerovium-285, flerovium-286, flerovium-287, flerovium-288, and flerovium-289) have been discovered. None of these are naturally occurring. Flerovium's most stable isotope is flerovium-289, which has a half-life of 2.6 seconds.

Occurrence
Carbon accumulates as the result of stellar fusion in most stars, even small ones. Carbon is present in the Earth's crust in concentrations of 480 parts per million, and is present in seawater at concentrations of 28 parts per million. Carbon is present in the atmosphere in the form of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane. Carbon is a key constituent of carbonate minerals, and is in hydrogen carbonate, which is common in seawater. Carbon forms 22.8% of a typical human.

Silicon is present in the Earth's crust at concentrations of 28%, making it the second most abundant element there. Silicon's concentration in seawater can vary from 30 parts per billion on the surface of the ocean to 2000 parts per billion deeper down. Silicon dust occurs in trace amounts in Earth's atmosphere. Silicate minerals are the most common type of mineral on earth. Silicon makes up 14.3 parts per million of the human body on average. Only the largest stars produce silicon via stellar fusion.

Germanium makes up 2 parts per million of the Earth's crust, making it the 52nd most abundant element there. On average, germanium makes up 1 part per million of soil. Germanium makes up 0.5 parts per trillion of seawater. Organogermanium compounds are also found in seawater. Germanium occurs in the human body at concentrations of 71.4 parts per billion. Germanium has been found to exist in some very faraway stars.

Tin makes up 2 parts per million of the Earth's crust, making it the 49th most abundant element there. On average, tin makes up 1 part per million of soil. Tin exists in seawater at concentrations of 4 parts per trillion. Tin makes up 428 parts per billion of the human body. Tin(IV) oxide occurs at concentrations of 0.1 to 300 parts per million in soils. Tin also occurs in concentrations of one part per thousand in igneous rocks.

Lead makes up 14 parts per million of the Earth's crust, making it the 36th most abundant element there. On average, lead makes up 23 parts per million of soil, but the concentration can reach 20000 parts per million (2 percent) near old lead mines. Lead exists in seawater at concentrations of 2 parts per trillion. Lead makes up 1.7 parts per million of the human body by weight. Human activity releases more lead into the environment than any other metal.

Flerovium doesn't occur in nature at all, so it only exists in particle accelerators with a few atoms at a time.

Discoveries and uses in antiquity
Carbon, tin, and lead are a few of the elements well known in the ancient world, together with sulfur, iron, copper, mercury, silver, and gold.

Silicon as silica in the form of rock crystal was familiar to the predynastic Egyptians, who used it for beads and small vases; to the early Chinese; and probably to many others of the ancients. The manufacture of glass containing silica was carried out both by the Egyptians – at least as early as 1500 BCE – and by the Phoenicians. Many of the naturally occurring compounds or silicate minerals were used in various kinds of mortar for construction of dwellings by the earliest people.

The origins of tin seem to be lost in history. It appears that bronzes, which are alloys of copper and tin, were used by prehistoric man some time before the pure metal was isolated. Bronzes were common in early Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, Egypt, Crete, Israel, and Peru. Much of the tin used by the early Mediterranean peoples apparently came from the Scilly Isles and Cornwall in the British Isles, where mining of the metal dates from about 300–200 BCE. Tin mines were operating in both the Inca and Aztec areas of South and Central America before the Spanish conquest.

Lead is mentioned often in early Biblical accounts. The Babylonians used the metal as plates on which to record inscriptions. The Romans used it for tablets, water pipes, coins, and even cooking utensils; indeed, as a result of the last use, lead poisoning was recognized in the time of Augustus Caesar. The compound known as white lead was apparently prepared as a decorative pigment at least as early as 200 BCE.

Modern discoveries
Amorphous elemental silicon was first obtained pure in 1824 by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius; impure silicon had already been obtained in 1811. Crystalline elemental silicon was not prepared until 1854, when it was obtained as a product of electrolysis.

Germanium is one of three elements the existence of which was predicted in 1869 by the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev when he first devised his periodic table. However, the element was not actually discovered for some time. In September 1885, a miner discovered a mineral sample in a silver mine and gave it to the mine manager, who determined that it was a new mineral and sent the mineral to Clemens A. Winkler. Winkler realized that the sample was 75% silver, 18% sulfur, and 7% of an undiscovered element. After several months, Winkler isolated the element and determined that it was element 32.

The first attempt to discover flerovium (then referred to as "element 114") was in 1969, at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, but it was unsuccessful. In 1977, researchers at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research bombarded plutonium-244 atoms with calcium-48, but were again unsuccessful. This nuclear reaction was repeated in 1998, this time successfully.

Etymologies

 * Carbon comes from the Latin word carbo, meaning "charcoal".
 * Silicon comes from the Latin word silex (or silicis), meaning "flint".
 * Germanium comes from the Latin word Germania, the Latin name for Germany, which is the country where germanium was discovered.
 * Stannum comes from the Latin word stannum, meaning "tin", from or related to Celtic staen.
 * - The common name for stannum in English is tin, inherited directly from Old English. Possibly of common origin with stannum and staen.

 * Plumbum comes from the Latin word plumbum meaning lead.
 * - The common name for plumbum in English is lead, inherited directly from Old English.

 * Flerovium was named after Georgy Flyorov and his Institute.

Applications
Carbon is most commonly used in its amorphous form. In this form, carbon is used for steelmaking, as carbon black, as a filling in tires, in respirators, and as activated charcoal. Carbon is also used in the form of graphite is commonly used as the lead in pencils. Diamond, another form of carbon, is commonly used in jewelry. Carbon fibers are used in numerous applications, such as satellite struts, because the fibers are highly strong yet elastic.

Silicon dioxide has a wide variety of applications, including toothpaste, construction fillers, and silica is a major component of glass. 50% of pure silicon is devoted to the manufacture of metal alloys. 45% of silicon is devoted to the manufacture of silicones. Silicon is also commonly used in semiconductors since the 1950s.

Germanium was used in semiconductors until the 1950s, when it was replaced by silicon. Radiation detectors contain germanium. Germanium dioxide is used in fiber optics and wide-angle camera lenses. A small amount of germanium mixed with silver can make silver tarnish-proof. The resulting alloy is known as argentium.

Solder is the most important use of tin; 50% of all tin produced goes into this application. 20% of all tin produced is used in tin plate. 20% of tin is also used by the chemical industry. Tin is also a constituent of numerous alloys, including pewter. Tin (IV) oxide has been commonly used in ceramics for thousands of years. Cobalt stannate is a tin compound which is used as a cerulean blue pigment.

80% of all lead produced goes into lead–acid batteries. Other applications for lead include weights, pigments, and shielding against radioactive materials. Lead was historically used in gasoline in the form of tetraethyllead, but this application has been discontinued due to concerns of toxicity.

Production
Carbon's allotrope diamond is produced mostly by Russia, Botswana, Congo, Canada, and South Africa, India. 80% of all synthetic diamonds are produced by Russia. China produces 70% of the world's graphite. Other graphite-mining countries are Brazil, Canada, and Mexico.

Silicon can be produced by heating silica with carbon.

There are some germanium ores, such as germanite, but these are not mined on account of being rare. Instead, germanium is extracted from the ores of metals such as zinc. In Russia and China, germanium is also separated from coal deposits. Germanium-containing ores are first treated with chlorine to form germanium tetrachloride, which is mixed with hydrogen gas. Then the germanium is further refined by zone refining. Roughly 140 metric tons of germanium are produced each year.

Mines output 300,000 metric tons of tin each year. China, Indonesia, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil are the main producers of tin. The method by which tin is produced is to heat the tin mineral cassiterite (SnO2) with coke.

The most commonly mined lead ore is galena (lead sulfide). 4 million metric tons of lead are newly mined each year, mostly in China, Australia, the United States, and Peru. The ores are mixed with coke and limestone and roasted to produce pure lead. Most lead is recycled from lead batteries. The total amount of lead ever mined by humans amounts to 350 million metric tons.

Biological role
Carbon is a key element to all known life. It is in all organic compounds, for example, DNA, steroids, and proteins. Carbon's importance to life is primarily due to its ability to form numerous bonds with other elements. There are 16 kilograms of carbon in a typical 70-kilogram human.

Silicon-based life's feasibility is commonly discussed. However, it is less able than carbon to form elaborate rings and chains. Silicon in the form of silicon dioxide is used by diatoms and sea sponges to form their cell walls and skeletons. Silicon is essential for bone growth in chickens and rats and may also be essential in humans. Humans consume on average between 20 and 1200 milligrams of silicon per day, mostly from cereals. There is 1 gram of silicon in a typical 70-kilogram human.

A biological role for germanium is not known, although it does stimulate metabolism. In 1980, germanium was reported by Kazuhiko Asai to benefit health, but the claim has not been proven. Some plants take up germanium from the soil in the form of germanium oxide. These plants, which include grains and vegetables contain roughly 0.05 parts per million of germanium. The estimated human intake of germanium is 1 milligram per day. There are 5 milligrams of germanium in a typical 70-kilogram human.

Tin has been shown to be essential for proper growth in rats, but there is, as of 2013, no evidence to indicate that humans need tin in their diet. Plants do not require tin. However, plants do collect tin in their roots. Wheat and maize contain seven and three parts per million respectively. However, the level of tin in plants can reach 2000 parts per million if the plants are near a tin smelter. On average, humans consume 0.3 milligrams of tin per day. There are 30 milligrams of tin in a typical 70-kilogram human.

Lead has no known biological role, and is in fact highly toxic, but some microbes are able to survive in lead-contaminated environments. Some plants, such as cucumbers contain up to tens of parts per million of lead. There are 120 milligrams of lead in a typical 70-kilogram human.

Flerovium has no biological role and instead is found and made only in particle accelerators.

Toxicity
Elemental carbon is not generally toxic, but many of its compounds are, such as carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide. However, carbon dust can be dangerous because it lodges in the lungs in a manner similar to asbestos.

Silicon minerals are not typically poisonous. However, silicon dioxide dust, such as that emitted by volcanoes can cause adverse health effects if it enters the lungs.

Germanium can interfere with such enzymes as lactate and alcohol dehydrogenase. Organic germanium compounds are more toxic than inorganic germanium compounds. Germanium has a low degree of oral toxicity in animals. Severe germanium poisoning can cause death by respiratory paralysis.

Some tin compounds are toxic to ingest, but most inorganic compounds of tin are considered nontoxic. Organic tin compounds, such as trimethyl tin and triethyl tin are highly toxic, and can disrupt metabolic processes inside cells.

Lead and its compounds, such as lead acetates are highly toxic. Lead poisoning can cause headaches, stomach pain, constipation, and gout.

Flerovium is too radioactive to test if its toxic or not although its high radioactivity alone would be toxic.

title: Carbon group


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Perry

Perry or pear cider is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally in England, particularly Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire, parts of South Wales and France, especially Normandy and Anjou, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Fruit
Perry pears are thought to be descended from wild hybrids, known as wildings, between the cultivated pear Pyrus communis subsp. communis and the now-rare wild pear Pyrus communis subsp. pyraster. The cultivated pear P. communis was brought to northern Europe by the Romans. In the fourth century CE Saint Jerome referred to perry as piracium. Wild pear hybrids were, over time, selected locally for desirable qualities and by the 1800s, many regional varieties had been identified.

The majority of perry pear varieties in the UK originate from the counties of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire in the west of England; perry from these counties made from traditional recipes now forms a European Union Protected Geographical Indication. Of these perry pear varieties, most originate in parishes around May Hill on the Gloucestershire/Herefordshire border. The standard reference work on perry pears was published in 1963 by the Long Ashton Research Station; since then, many varieties have become critically endangered or lost. Over 100 varieties, known by over 200 local names, were in Gloucestershire alone. These local pears are particularly known for their picturesque names, such as the various "Huffcap" varieties ('Hendre Huffcap', 'Red Huffcap', 'Black Huffcap', all having an elliptical shape), those named for the effects of their product ('Merrylegs', 'Mumblehead'), pears commemorating an individual ('Stinking Bishop', named for the man who first grew it, or 'Judge Amphlett', named for Assizes court judge Richard Amphlett), or those named for the place they grew ('Hartpury Green', 'Bosbury Scarlet', 'Bartestree Squash'). The perry makers of Normandy grew their own distinctive varieties such as Plant de Blanc, Antricotin and Fausset; the perry of Domfront, which has been recognised with AOC status since 2002 and PDO status since 2006, must be made with a minimum of 40% Plant de Blanc.

Pear cultivars used for perry-making tend to be small in size, turbinate or pyriform in shape, and too astringent for culinary use. Specific perry pear cultivars are regularly used to make single-variety perries; this was formerly the usual practice in traditional perry making, meaning that in the past, each parish would have produced its own characteristic and distinctive perries due to the very restricted distribution of many varieties. Blended perries, made from the juices of several varieties, were traditionally disregarded as they tended to throw a haze, though in modern commercial production, this is overcome with filtration and use of a centrifuge.

Good perry pears should have higher concentrations of tannins, acids, and other phenolic compounds. Some of the pears considered to produce consistently excellent perry include the 'Barland', 'Brandy', 'Thorn,' and 'Yellow Huffcap' cultivars. Compared to cider apples, perry pears have fewer volatile components and consequently fewer aromatics in the finished product. Their tannin profile is very different from that of cider apples, with a predominance of astringent over bitter flavours. They do, however, contain a high concentration of deca-2,4-dienoate, a group of esters that affords them their prominent pear aroma. Another important attribute of perry pears that distinguishes them from cider apples is their relatively higher content ratio of sorbitol to other sugars, such as fructose. Because sorbitol is not readily fermented by yeast, it is not converted to ethanol, so perry tends to have more residual sugar than cider produced from the fermentation of apples. In addition to producing a sweeter beverage, sorbitol also contributes to increased body and a softer mouthfeel in the finished perry. Compared to apples, pear pressing is made more difficult by the additional presence of specialized cells known as sclereids, which have thick cell walls that provide extra support and strength to the pear tissue. Because of this inherent perry pear attribute, the addition of enzymes and pressing aids is a commonly used practice for improving perry production.

Orchard management and harvesting

While cultivation of pears has been to some extent modernised, they remain a difficult crop to grow. Perry pear trees can live to a great age, and can be fully productive for 250 years. Pear trees, both domestic and perry varieties, grow incredibly slowly, taking up to, if not over, a decade before they bear enough fruit for harvest. They also grow to a considerable height and can have very large canopies; the largest recorded, a tree at Holme Lacy, which still partly survives, covered three-quarters of an acre and yielded a crop of 5–7 tons in 1790. Given the long maturing period of pear trees, they can be difficult to manage against diseases. Their size makes it difficult to apply pesticides, which makes preventing fire blight, a disease caused by the bacterium Erwinia amylovora that pears are even more susceptible to than cider apples, quite challenging. These difficulties, along with demand for perry pears having (until recently) taken a decline, have prompted a national collection of perry pear cultivars to be gathered, housed, and cared for at the Three Counties Agricultural Showground at Malvern in Worcestershire, to maintain genetic resources, which has now become the National Perry Pear Centre at Hartpury. Similar germplasm repositories can be found at the National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Corvallis, Oregon.

Also, key differences between cider and perry production exist in the harvesting and growing processes. Perry trees famously take more time to mature than cider trees. While cider trees may come to bear fruit in three to five years, traditionally managed perry trees typically take much longer, so much so that people say that one plants "pears for your heirs".

Even when fully grown, pear trees bear less fruit than apples, which is one reason that perry is less common than cider. When time to harvest comes, pears should be picked before they are ripe and then left to ripen indoors, while apples should be allowed to ripen on the tree. Both apples and pears suffer from fire blight, which can devastate entire orchards, but pears are also susceptible to pear psylla (also known as Psylla pyri). These insects kill the entire pear tree and are very resistant to insecticides, making them a severe problem for pear orchards. Another added complication is that while apples are often harvested mechanically, pears must be harvested by hand, greatly increasing the time and cost of harvesting.

Perry-making technique
Traditional perry making is broadly similar to traditional cider making, in that the fruit is picked, crushed, and pressed to extract the juice, which is then fermented using the wild yeasts found on the fruit's skin. Traditional perry making employed querns and a rack and cloth press, in which the pulp is wrapped in cloth before being squeezed with a press. Modern perry production can use a belt press, which is much more efficient for pressing fruit. It works by sending the fruit down a conveyor belt, on which it is then pressed by rollers. The principal differences between perry and cider production are that pears must be left for a period to mature after picking, and the pomace must be left to stand after initial crushing to lose tannins, a process analogous to wine maceration. Additionally, because of the variation in hardness of the fruit, determining if a pear is ready for pressing than an apple can be more difficult. Also, key chemical compositional differences occur between apples and pears; these factors play a crucial role in prefermentation and fermentation decisions for perry production.

Compared to most apples, pears tend to have more sugar and total phenolic compounds. The main sugars in perry pears are glucose (192 –284 mg/L), xylose (140–176 mg/g), and galacturonic acid (108–118 mg/g). Types of sugar that are present in the juice play an important role in yeast activity and determine the success of fermentation. Unlike the juice of apples, pear juice contains significant quantities of unfermentable sugar alcohols, particularly sorbitol. The presence of sorbitol can give perry a residual sweetness, in addition to a mild laxative effect. Pear juices contain rather low levels of amino acids, sources of nitrogen such as aspargine, aspartic acid and glutamic acid.

After initial fermentation, many perries go through malolactic fermentation. On average, compared to apples, pears have higher levels of titrable acidity, most of it being citric acid. In environments with high levels of malic acid, such as grape must in winemaking, malolactic fermentation bacteria convert malic acid to lactic acid, reducing the perception of acidity and increasing complexity of flavour. However, if high levels of citric acid are present, as in pear pomace, malolactic fermentation bacteria catabolise citric acid to acetic acid and oxaloacetic acid, instead of lactic acid. This results in a floral, citrus-like aroma in the final product, lacking the diacethyl odour typical for most products that have undergone a malolactic fermentation.

History
The earliest known reference to fermented alcoholic drinks being made from pears is found in Pliny. Perry making seems to have become well established in what is today France following the collapse of the Roman empire; references to perry making in England do not appear before the Norman conquest. In the medieval period, France retained its association with pear growing, and the majority of pears consumed in England were in fact imported from France.

By the 16th and 17th centuries, however, perry making had become well established in the west of England, where the climate and soil were especially suitable for pear cultivation. In the three counties of Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, and Herefordshire in particular, as well as in Monmouthshire across the Welsh border, perry pears grew well in conditions where cider apple trees would not. Smaller amounts were also produced in other cider-producing areas, such as Somerset. Perry may have grown in popularity after the English Civil War, when the large numbers of soldiers billeted in the Three Counties became acquainted with it, and reached a zenith of popularity during the 18th century, when intermittent conflicts with France made the importing of wine difficult. Many farms and estates had their own orchards, and many varieties of pears developed that were unique to particular parishes or villages.

Whereas perry in England remained an overwhelmingly dry, still drink served from the cask, Normandy perry (poiré) developed a bottle-fermented, sparkling style with a good deal of sweetness.

Modern commercial perries
The production of traditional perry began to decline during the 20th century, in part due to changing farming practices– perry pears could be difficult and labour-intensive to crop, and orchards took many years to mature. The industry was, however, to a certain degree revived by modern commercial perry-making techniques, developed by Francis Showering of the firm Showerings of Shepton Mallet, Somerset, in the creation of their sparkling branded perry Babycham. Babycham, the first mass-produced branded perry, was developed by Showering from application of the Long Ashton Institute's research, and was formerly produced from authentic perry pears, though today it is produced from concentrate, the firm's pear orchards having now been dug up. Aimed at the female drinker at a time when wine was not commonly available in UK pubs, Babycham was sold in miniature Champagne-style bottles; the drink was for many years a strong seller and made a fortune for the Showering family. A competing brand of commercial perry, Lambrini, is manufactured in Liverpool by Halewood International. The Irish drinks company Cantrell and Cochrane, Plc, more famous for its Magners and Bulmers ciders, launched a similar light perry, Ritz, in 1986.

Like commercial lager and commercial cider, commercial perry is highly standardised, and today often contains large quantities of cereal adjuncts such as corn syrup or invert sugar. It is also generally of lower strength, and sweeter, than traditional perry, and is artificially carbonated to give a sparkling finish. Unlike traditional perry, its manufacture guarantees a consistent product; the nature of perry pears means producing traditional perry in commercial quantities is very difficult. Traditional perry was overwhelmingly a drink made on farms for home consumption, or to sell in small quantities either at the farm gate or to local inns.

Decline and revival of traditional perry
Both English perry making and the orchards that supplied it suffered a catastrophic decline in the second half of the 20th century as a result of changing tastes and agricultural practices (in South Gloucestershire alone, an estimated 90% of orchards were lost in the last 75 years). Many pear orchards were also lost to fire blight in the 1970s and 1980s. Along with the clearing of orchards, the decline of day labouring on farms meant that the manpower that was once devoted to harvest perry pears – as well as its traditional consumers – disappeared. It also lost popularity due to makers turning to dessert or general-purpose pears in its manufacture rather than perry pears, resulting in a thin and tasteless product. In the UK, before 2007, the small amounts of traditional perry still produced were mainly consumed by people living in farming communities.

However, perry (often marketed under the name "pear cider", see below) has increased in popularity in very recent times, with around 2.5 million British consumers purchasing it in one year. In addition, various organisations have been actively seeking out old perry pear trees and orchards and rediscovering lost varieties, many of which now exist only as single trees on isolated farms. For example, the Welsh Cider Society rediscovered the old Monmouthshire varieties 'Burgundy' and the 'Potato Pear', as well as a number of further types unrecorded up to that point.

Naming controversy
Pear cider has been used as an alternative name for alcoholic drinks containing pear juice, in preference to the term perry. The term has been dated to 1995, when Brothers Cider found that nobody at Glastonbury Festival understood what perry was; they began telling customers that it was 'like cider, but made from pears'.

In the UK the new name has caused controversy. The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) defines perry and pear cider as different drinks, stating that 'pear cider' as made by the large industrial cidermakers is a pear-flavoured drink, or more specifically a cider-style drink flavoured with pear concentrate, whereas 'perry' should be made by traditional methods from perry pears only. The National Association of Cider Makers maintain that the terms perry and pear cider are interchangeable, and its rules specify that perry or pear cider may contain no more than 25% apple juice.

title: Perry