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Karl Guthe Jansky

Karl Guthe Jansky (October 22, 1905 – February 14, 1950) was an American physicist and radio engineer who in April 1933 first announced his discovery of radio waves emanating from the Milky Way in the constellation Sagittarius. He is considered one of the founding figures of radio astronomy.

Early life
Karl Guthe Jansky was born 1905 in what was then the Territory of Oklahoma where his father, Cyril M. Jansky, was dean of the college of engineering at the University of Oklahoma at Norman. Cyril M. Jansky, born in Wisconsin of Czech immigrants, had started teaching at the age of sixteen. He was a teacher throughout his active life, retiring as professor of electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin. He was an engineer with a strong interest in physics, a trait passed on to his sons. Karl Jansky was named after Dr. Karl Eugen Guthe, a professor of physics at the University of Michigan who had been an important mentor to Cyril M. Jansky.

Karl Jansky's mother, born Nellie Moreau, was of French and English descent. Karl's brother Cyril Jansky Jr., who was ten years older, helped build some of the earliest radio transmitters in the country, including 9XM in Wisconsin (now WHA of Wisconsin Public Radio) and 9XI in Minnesota (now KUOM).

Karl Jansky attended college at the University of Wisconsin where he received his BS in physics in 1927. He stayed an extra year at Madison, completing all the graduate course work for a master's degree in physics except for the thesis. In July 1928 at age 22, he was able to join the Bell Telephone Laboratories, and because of a kidney condition he had since college (which eventually led to his early death), he was sent to the healthier environs of the field station in Holmdel, New Jersey. Bell Labs wanted to investigate atmospheric and ionospheric properties using "short waves" (wavelengths of about 10–20 meters) for use in trans-Atlantic radio telephone service. As a radio engineer, Jansky was assigned the job of investigating sources of static that might interfere with radio voice transmissions.

Radio astronomy

At Bell Telephone Laboratories, Jansky built a directional antenna designed to receive radio waves at a frequency of 20.5 MHz (wavelength about 14.6 meters). It had a diameter of approximately 100 ft. (30 meter) and stood 20 ft. (6 meter) tall. It was mounted on top of a turntable on a set of four Ford Model-T wheels, which allowed it to be rotated in the azimuthal direction, earning it the nickname "Jansky's merry-go-round" (the cost of which was later estimated to be less than $1000). By rotating the antenna, the direction of a received signal could be pinpointed. The intensity of the signal was recorded by an analog pen-and-paper recording system housed in a small shed to the side of the antenna.

After recording signals from all directions for several months, Jansky eventually categorized them into three types of static: nearby thunderstorms, distant thunderstorms, and a faint static or "hiss" of unknown origin. He spent over a year investigating the source of the third type of static. The location of maximum intensity rose and fell once a day, leading Jansky to initially surmise that he was detecting radiation from the Sun.

After a few months of following the signal, however, the point of maximum static moved away from the position of the Sun. Jansky also determined that the signal repeated on a cycle of 23 hours and 56 minutes. Jansky discussed the puzzling phenomena with his friend the astrophysicist Albert Melvin Skellett, who pointed out that the observed time between the signal peaks was the exact length of a sidereal day; the time it took for "fixed" astronomical objects, such as a star, to pass in front of the antenna every time the Earth rotated. By comparing his observations with optical astronomical maps, Jansky concluded that the radiation was coming from the Milky Way and was strongest (7:10 p.m. on September 16, 1932) in the direction of the center of the galaxy, in the constellation of Sagittarius.

Jansky announced his discovery at a meeting in Washington D.C. in April 1933 to a small audience who could not comprehend its significance. His discovery was widely publicized, appearing in the New York Times of May 5, 1933, and he was interviewed on a special NBC program on "Radio sounds from among the stars". In October 1933, his discovery was published in a journal article entitled "Electrical disturbances apparently of extraterrestrial origin" in the Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers.

If the radio sources were from the stars, the Sun should also be producing radio noise, but Jansky found that it did not. In the early 1930s, the Sun was at an inactive phase in its sunspot cycle. In 1935 Jansky made the suggestion that the strange radio signals may be produced from interstellar gas, in particular, by "thermal agitation of charged particles." Jansky accomplished these investigations while still in his twenties with a bachelor's degree in physics.

Jansky wanted to further investigate the Milky Way radio waves after 1935 (he called the radiation "Star Noise" in the thesis he submitted to earn his 1936 University of Wisconsin Masters degree), but he found little support from either astronomers, for whom it was completely foreign, or Bell Labs, which could not justify, during the Great Depression, the cost of research on a phenomenon that did not significantly affect trans-Atlantic communications systems.

Follow-up
Several scientists were interested in Jansky's discovery, but radio astronomy remained a dormant field for several years, due in part to Jansky's lack of formal training as an astronomer. His discovery had come in the midst of the Great Depression, and observatories were wary of taking on any new and potentially risky projects.

Two men who learned of Jansky's 1933 discovery were of great influence on the later development of the new study of radio astronomy: one was Grote Reber, a radio engineer who singlehandedly built a radio telescope in his Illinois back yard in 1937 and did the first systematic survey of astronomical radio waves. The second was John D. Kraus, who, after World War II, started a radio observatory at Ohio State University and wrote a textbook on radio astronomy, long considered a standard by radio astronomers.

"In 1930 essentially all that we knew about the heavens had come from what we could see or photograph. Karl Jansky changed all that. A universe of radio sounds to which mankind had been deaf since time immemorial now suddenly burst forth in full chorus. –John D. Krauss"

Death and legacy

Jansky was a resident of Little Silver, New Jersey, and died at age 44 in a Red Bank, New Jersey, hospital (now called Riverview Medical Center) due to a heart condition.

"Had Jansky not died at a very early age, he would undoubtedly have been awarded the Nobel Prize. His serendipitous discovery gave birth to a new branch of astronomy, radio astronomy. –William A. Imbriale"

In honor of Jansky, the unit used by radio astronomers for the spectral irradiance of radio sources is the jansky (1 Jy = 10−26 W⋅m−2⋅Hz−1). The crater Jansky on the Moon is also named after him. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) postdoctoral fellowship program is named after Karl Jansky. Additionally, NRAO awards the Jansky Prize annually in Jansky's honor. On January 10, 2012, the NRAO announced the Very Large Array (VLA), the radio telescope in Magdalena, New Mexico, would be renamed the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in honor of Karl Jansky's contribution to radio astronomy.

A full-scale replica of Jansky's original rotating telescope is located on the grounds of the Green Bank Observatory (38.43164°N, -79.81625°W, formerly an NRAO site) in Green Bank, West Virginia, near a reconstructed version of Grote Reber's 9-meter dish.

In 1998, the original site of Jansky's antenna (40.36514°N, -74.16358°W) at what is now the Bell Labs Holmdel Complex at 101 Crawfords Corner Road, Holmdel, New Jersey, was determined by Tony Tyson and Robert Wilson of Lucent Technologies (the successor of Bell Telephone Laboratories) and a monument and a plaque were placed there to honor the achievement. The monument is a stylized sculpture of the antenna and is oriented as Jansky's antenna was at 7:10 p.m. on September 16, 1932, at a moment of maximum signal caused by alignment with the center of our galaxy in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius.

Jansky noise is named after Jansky, and refers to high frequency static disturbances of cosmic origin. (Cosmic noise).

Asteroid 1932 Jansky is named after him, as is the lunar crater Jansky.

Selected writings

 * Reprinted 65 years later as along with an explanatory preface by W.A. Imbriale,.
 * Reprinted 65 years later as along with an explanatory preface by W.A. Imbriale,.
 * Reprinted 65 years later as along with an explanatory preface by W.A. Imbriale,.

title: Karl Guthe Jansky


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International Federation of the Phonographic Industry

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a non-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland and founded in Italy in 1933 by Francesco Braga. It operates a secretariat based in London, with regional offices in Brussels, Hong Kong, Miami, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Nairobi.

Function
IFPI's mission is to promote the value of recorded music, campaign for record producer rights, and expand the commercial uses of recorded music. Its services to members include a legal policy programme, litigation, content protection, sales reporting for the recorded music market, insight and analysis and work in the areas of performance rights, technology and trade.

Structure
IFPI is governed by its Main Board, a group including representatives from across the organisation's members (including major and independent record labels), representatives from certain IFPI National Groups and the organisation's CEO. There are also two regional boards (the IFPI Asia/Pacific Regional Board and IFPI Latin America Regional Board) which oversee regional matters.

In April 2024 IFPI announced that Victoria Oakley had been appointed as CEO, joining the organisation in June 2024. The previous CEO, Frances Moore, stepped down in December 2023. She had been appointed the chief executive with a term effective from 1 July 2010. She had replaced John Kennedy, who had headed the organisation since 2005 and was also one of the co-producers of Live Aid and Live8. Moore was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in 2021 for her services to the music industry.

Scope of influence
IFPI represents the recording industry worldwide; there are some 8,000 members across IFPI and its global network, operating in over 70 markets and some 70 local industry associations, affiliated music licensing companies and IFPI offices. According to its criteria, IFPI membership is open to "a legal entity or person which is either a producer of phonograms or music videos, copies of which are made available to the public in reasonable quantities", though the organisation does not define "reasonable quantities".

National groups and affiliate bodies include SNEP in France; BVMI in Germany; RIAJ in Japan; BPI in the UK; RIAA in the US; ARIA in Australia; Music Canada; AMPROFON in Mexico; Recorded Music New Zealand; Promusicae in Spain; FIMI in Italy and others. Record labels can be members of both their local industry body and IFPI.

History
Members of the international phonographic industry formed IFPI at the industry's first international congress in Rome, Italy, held from 10 to 14 November 1933. IFPI described its mission as representing "the interests of the recording industry worldwide in all fora" by promoting legislation and copyrights and "to protect the largely British-based recording industry" by promoting a global performance right in gramophone sound recordings.

Phonogram copyrights established
The IFPI lobbied at the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations of 1961, which established an international standard for the protection of sound recordings, live performances and broadcasts. This convention was opposed by trade groups representing authors and composers, who were concerned that establishing such "neighbouring rights" would undermine their own control over how their works were used and would result in prohibitively expensive licensing. Pressure from United States-based broadcasters who did not want to license the records they broadcast, among other factors, kept the United States from signing the convention; the United States would not recognise a separate sound recording copyright until 1971.

Phonogram copy protection efforts
In an effort to combat copyright violation, in 1971, the IFPI advocated for the Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of Their Phonograms (the Geneva Phonograms Convention), which 72 countries signed.

In 1986, the ISO established the International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) standard, ISO 3901. In 1989, the IFPI was designated the registration authority for ISRC codes. ISRC codes "enable the use of copyright protected recordings and works to be controlled; facilitate the distribution and collection of royalties (performances, private copying); and assist in the fight against piracy".

To further combat infringement of recorded works, the IFPI and the compact disc manufacturing industry introduced Source Identification (SID) codes in 1994. The SID codes are markings on optical discs such as compact discs (CD) and digital versatile discs (DVD) that identify the manufacturer, equipment, and master discs used to create each disc. There are two codes: the SID mastering code and the SID mould code. The SID mastering code identifies the manufacturing facility used to produce a master from which moulds are produced. The SID mould code identifies the plant where the disc was moulded (replicated). Since not all optical disc manufacturing facilities have the ability to both produce master discs and replicate discs, the SID mastering code and SID mould code on a given optical disc may or may not represent the same manufacturing facility.

SID codes follow a standard format consisting of the letters "IFPI" followed by four or five hexadecimal digits. A number prefaced with "L" is a "mastering code", a serial number taken from a pool assigned by Philips to the manufacturer. The mastering code identifies the Laser Beam Recorder (LBR) signal processor or mould that produced a particular stamper or a glass master disc from which moulds are produced. Non-"L" numbers are "mould codes", which identify the manufacturer that replicated the disc. Phillips assigns the first 2 or 3 digits of the mould code and the remaining digits are a serial number assigned by that plant to its moulds.

The Pirate Bay incidents
In mid-October 2007, after IFPI let the ifpi.com domain registration lapse, ownership of the ifpi.com domain was transferred to The Pirate Bay, a group which claimed it received the domain from an anonymous donor. The group set up a Website under the domain titled "International Federation of Pirates Interests", a replacement backronym for IFPI. Ownership of the domain was returned to IFPI in late November, when a WIPO arbitration panel concluded that "the Disputed Domain Name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark in which the [IFPI] has rights" and that the Pirate Bay's representative "registered and [was] using the Disputed Domain Name in bad faith" and failed to adequately rebut IFPI's contention that he "has no rights or a legitimate interest in the Disputed Domain Name". The organisation's website www.ifpi.org was unaffected during the dispute.

Milestones

 * 1996 – Platinum Europe Awards established
 * 2003 – Pro-Music established, a website with a directory of licensed music services in each country, supported by a cross-sector industry groups and set up and run by IFPI
 * 2004 – IFPI's Global Music Report first published (an annual publication; first edition called Online Music Report and subsequently renamed Digital Music Report in 2005. Rebranded to current name in 2016 and combined with separate publication Recording Industry in Numbers as combined report Global Music Report)
 * 2005 – IFPI instrumental in litigation against illegal file-sharing site Kazaa, which later became a licensed service
 * 2009 – coordinated music industry action against The Pirate Bay, resulting in a high-profile ruling against the site's operators
 * 2013 – IFPI's Global Recording Artist of the Year Award is established; a list of the world's top 10 most popular artists across a calendar year. The artist in the number one spot is presented with a physical award by IFPI.
 * 2015 – Launch of New Music Fridays, the global switch to all markets releasing music on a Friday, driven by a steering committee including IFPI
 * 2015 – IFPI led legal action against Russian site vKontakte which led to a Russian court ordering the service to stop its "large-scale infringement" and later saw the site become licensed in 2016
 * 2017 – IFPI co-ordinated legal action leading to the closure of the world's largest stream-ripping site, YouTubeMP3
 * 2019 – Changes to the European Copyright Directive—designed to great a fairer licensing environment for recorded music online—are adopted by the European Parliament, following a campaign by the creative industries, including IFPI
 * 2020 – A Sub-Saharan Africa IFPI regional office was opened in Nairobi, working across the region's 46 markets.
 * 2021 – IFPI opens first office in the MENA region in Abu Dhabi.
 * 2022 – A new Southeast Asia regional office opened in Singapore.
 * 2023 - IFPI launches four new Charts in the MENA region (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE and North Africa)
 * 2024 - The European Parliament adopts the landmark EU Artificial Intelligence Act, following a campaign by groups including IFPI

Certifications and awards
IFPI publishes six annual top-ten charts: the IPFI Global Recording Artist Chart, IFPI Global Single Chart, IFPI Global Album Chart, IFPI Global Album Sales Chart, the IFPI Global Vinyl Album Chart and (from 2023) the IFPI Global Streaming Album Chart.

Launched in January 2014, the IFPI Global Recording Artist Chart (sometimes called just the IFPI Global Artist Chart) was the first global chart to accurately capture the popularity of artists across streaming channels, alongside digital and physical album and singles sales. The independently verified chart includes sales of albums across digital, CD and vinyl formats; singles, both downloaded and physical; and streams across the calendar year. The chart includes all the music of each artist featured, not just one track or album. It uses album equivalent units to combine measurements of downloads, physical sales and streams.

The Top 10 Global Artist Chart is published each year, with the number-one artist being presented with a physical award, as the Global Recording Artist of the Year. The winners have been: One Direction in 2013, Taylor Swift in 2014, Adele in 2015, Drake in 2016, Ed Sheeran in 2017, Drake in 2018, Taylor Swift in 2019, BTS in 2020 and 2021, and Taylor Swift in 2022 and 2023.

IFPI also publishes a list of the top 10 best-performing global singles and albums each year. The most recent winners, for 2023, were Miley Cyrus' "Flowers" and Seventeen's FML respectively. In March 2022 IFPI launched the first Global Vinyl Album Chart (most recently topped by Taylor Swift's '1989 (Taylor's Version) ', announced in March 2024) and in March 2023 they introduced the IFPI Global Streaming Album Chart; Morgan Wallen's 'One Thing At A Time' most recently took the top spot in that chart. The latest IFPI Global Album Sales Chart saw Seventeen at No. 1 with 'FML', with the K-Pop band having also reached No. 1 on the overall Global Album Chart for 2023 with the same album.

Formerly, IFPI ran certifications called the IFPI Platinum Europe Awards and the IFPI Middle East Awards. The IFPI Platinum Europe Awards were founded in 1996. They are awarded for actual retail sales (as opposed to shipments) of one million albums, in one of the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom. The IFPI Middle East Awards were established in October 2009. They were awarded for sales in either Lebanon or the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In the Gulf Cooperation Council, gold certification was awarded for sales of 3,000 units and platinum for sales of 6,000 units. In Lebanon, gold certification was awarded for sales of 1,000 units and platinum for sales of 2,000 units.

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


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Jansky

The jansky (symbol Jy, plural janskys) is a non-SI unit of spectral flux density, or spectral irradiance, used especially in radio astronomy. It is equivalent to 10−26 watts per square metre per hertz.

The flux density or monochromatic flux, $W⋅m^{−2}⋅Hz^{−1}$, of a source is the integral of the spectral radiance, $erg⋅s^{−1}⋅cm^{−2}⋅Hz^{−1}$, over the source solid angle: $$S = \iint\limits_\text{source} B(\theta,\phi) \,\mathrm{d}\Omega.$$

The unit is named after pioneering US radio astronomer Karl Guthe Jansky and is defined as $1~\mathrm{Jy} = 10^{-26}~\mathrm{W}{\cdot}\mathrm{m^{-2}}{\cdot}\mathrm{Hz^{-1}}$ (SI) | 2 = $1~\mathrm{Jy} = 10^{-23}~\mathrm{erg}{\cdot}\mathrm{s^{-1}}{\cdot}\mathrm{cm^{-2}}{\cdot}\mathrm{Hz^{-1}}$ (cgs). Since the jansky is obtained by integrating over the whole source solid angle, it is most simply used to describe point sources; for example, the Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources (3C) reports results in janskys.
 * undefined

 * For extended sources, the surface brightness is often described with units of janskys per solid angle; for example, far-infrared (FIR) maps from the IRAS satellite are in megajanskys per steradian (MJy⋅sr−1).
 * Although extended sources at all wavelengths can be reported with these units, for radio-frequency maps, extended sources have traditionally been described in terms of a brightness temperature; for example the Haslam et al. 408 MHz all-sky continuum survey is reported in terms of a brightness temperature in kelvin.

Unit conversions
Jansky units are not a standard SI unit, so it may be necessary to convert the measurements made in the unit to the SI equivalent in terms of watts per square metre per hertz (W·m−2·Hz−1). However, other unit conversions are possible with respect to measuring this unit.

AB magnitude
The flux density in janskys can be converted to a magnitude basis, for suitable assumptions about the spectrum. For instance, converting an AB magnitude to a flux density in microjanskys is straightforward: $$S_v~[\mathrm{\mu}\text{Jy}] = 10^{6} \cdot 10^{23} \cdot 10^{-\tfrac{\text{AB} + 48.6}{2.5}} = 10^\tfrac{23.9 - \text{AB}}{2.5}.$$

dBW·m−2·Hz−1
The linear flux density in janskys can be converted to a decibel basis, suitable for use in fields of telecommunication and radio engineering.

1 jansky is equal to −260 dBW·m−2·Hz−1, or −230 dBm·m−2·Hz−1: $$\begin{align} P_{\text{dBW}\cdot\text{m}^{-2} \cdot \text{Hz}^{-1}} &= 10 \log_{10}\left(P_\text{Jy}\right) - 260, \\ P_{\text{dBm}\cdot\text{m}^{-2} \cdot \text{Hz}^{-1}} &= 10 \log_{10}\left(P_\text{Jy}\right) - 230. \end{align}$$

Temperature units
The spectral radiance in janskys per steradian can be converted to a brightness temperature, useful in radio and microwave astronomy.

Starting with Planck's law, we see $$B_{\nu} = \frac{2h\nu^3}{c^2}\frac{1}{e^{h\nu/kT}-1}.$$ This can be solved for temperature, giving $$T = \frac{h\nu}{k\ln\left (1+\frac{2h\nu^3}{B_\nu c^2}\right )}.$$ In the low-frequency, high-temperature regime, when $$h\nu \ll kT$$, we can use the asymptotic expression: $$T\sim \frac{h\nu}k\left(\frac{B_\nu c^2}{2h\nu^3}+\frac 12\right).$$

A less accurate form is $$T_b = \frac{B_{\nu}c^2}{2k\nu^2},$$ which can be derived from the Rayleigh–Jeans law $$B_{\nu} = \frac{2\nu^2 kT}{c^2}.$$

Usage
The flux to which the jansky refers can be in any form of radiant energy.

It was created for and is still most frequently used in reference to electromagnetic energy, especially in the context of radio astronomy.

The brightest astronomical radio sources have flux densities of the order of 1–100 janskys. For example, the Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources lists some 300 to 400 radio sources in the Northern Hemisphere brighter than 9 Jy at 159 MHz. This range makes the jansky a suitable unit for radio astronomy.

Gravitational waves also carry energy, so their flux density can also be expressed in terms of janskys. Typical signals on Earth are expected to be 1020 Jy or more. However, because of the poor coupling of gravitational waves to matter, such signals are difficult to detect.

When measuring broadband continuum emissions, where the energy is roughly evenly distributed across the detector bandwidth, the detected signal will increase in proportion to the bandwidth of the detector (as opposed to signals with bandwidth narrower than the detector bandpass). To calculate the flux density in janskys, the total power detected (in watts) is divided by the receiver collecting area (in square meters), and then divided by the detector bandwidth (in hertz). The flux density of astronomical sources is many orders of magnitude below 1 W·m−2·Hz−1, so the result is multiplied by 1026 to get a more appropriate unit for natural astrophysical phenomena.

The millijansky, mJy, was sometimes referred to as a milli-flux unit (mfu) in older astronomical literature.

Orders of magnitude
Note: Unless noted, all values are as seen from the Earth's surface.

title: Jansky


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Pediment

Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns. In ancient architecture, a wide and low triangular pediment (the side angles 12.5° to 16°) typically formed the top element of the portico of a Greek temple, a style continued in Roman temples. But large pediments were rare on other types of building before Renaissance architecture. For symmetric designs, it provides a center point and is often used to add grandness to entrances.

The cornice continues round the top of the pediment, as well as below it; the rising sides are often called the "raking cornice". The tympanum is the triangular area within the pediment, which is often decorated with a pedimental sculpture which may be freestanding or a relief sculpture. The tympanum may hold an inscription, or in modern times, a clock face.

The main variant shapes are the "segmental", "curved", or "arch" pediment, where the straight line triangle of the cornice is replaced by a curve making a segment of a circle, the broken pediment where the cornice has a gap at the apex, and the open pediment, with a gap in the cornice along the base. Both triangular and segmental pediments can have "broken" and "open" forms.

Pediments are found in ancient Greek architecture as early as 580 BC, in the archaic Temple of Artemis, Corfu, which was probably one of the first. Pediments return in Renaissance architecture and are then much used in later styles such as Baroque, Neoclassical, and Beaux-Arts architecture, which favoured the segmental variant.

Variant forms
A variant is the "segmental" or "arch" pediment, where the normal angular slopes of the cornice are replaced by one in the form of a segment of a circle, in the manner of a depressed arch. Both traditional and segmental pediments have "broken" and "open" forms. In the broken pediment the raking cornice is left open at the apex. The open pediment is open along the base, with a gap in the cornice for part or all of the space under the pediment.

All these forms were used in Hellenistic architecture, especially in Alexandria and the Middle East. The so-called "Treasury" or Al-Khazneh, a 1st-century rock-cut tomb in Petra, Jordan, is a famously extreme example, with not merely the pediment, but the whole entablature, very "broken" and retreating into the cliff face. Broken pediments where the gap is extremely wide in this way are often called "half-pediments".

They were adopted in Mannerist architecture, and applied to furniture designed by Thomas Chippendale. Another variant is the swan's neck pediment, a broken pediment with two S-shaped profiles resembling a swan's neck, typically volutes; this is mostly found in furniture rather than buildings. It was popular in American doorways from the 1760's onwards. Very often there is a vase-like ornament in the middle, between the volutes. Non-triangular variations of pediments are often found over doors, windows, niches, and porches.

Classical
The pediment is found in classical Greek temples, Etruscan, Roman, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassical, and Beaux-Arts architecture. Greek temples, normally rectangular in plan, generally had a pediment at each end, but Roman temples, and subsequent revivals, often had only one, in both cases across the whole width of the main front or facade. The rear of the typical Roman temple was a blank wall, usually without columns, but often a full pediment above. This effectively divorced the pediment from the columns beneath it in the original temple front ensemble, and thereafter it was no longer considered necessary for a pediment to be above columns.

The most famous example of the Greek scheme is the Parthenon, with two tympanums filled with large groups of sculpted figures. An extreme but very influential example of the Roman style is the Pantheon, Rome, where a portico with pediment fronts a circular temple.

In ancient Rome, the Renaissance, and later architectural revivals, small pediments are a non-structural element over windows, doors, and aediculae, protecting windows and openings from rain, as well as being decorative. From the 5th century pediments also might appear on tombs and later non-architectural objects such as sarcophagi.

In the Hellenistic period pediments became used for a wider range of buildings, and treated much more freely, especially outside Greece itself. Broken and open pediments are used in a way that is often described as "baroque". The large 2nd-century Market Gate of Miletus, now reconstructed in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, has a pediment that retreats in the centre, so appears both broken and open, a feature also seen at the Al-Khazneh (so-called "Treasury") tomb at Petra in modern Jordan. The broken pediments on each of the four sides of the Arch of Septimius Severus at Leptis Magna in Libya are very small elements, raking at an extremely steep angle, but not extending beyond the entablature for the columns below. There are two faces to each pediment, both carved, with one lying parallel to the wall of the monument, and the other at right angles to that.

The Arch of Augustus in Rimini, Italy (27 BC), an early imperial monument, suggests that at this stage provincial Roman architects were not well practiced in the classical vocabulary; the base of the pediment ends close to, but not over, the capitals of the columns. Here the whole temple front is decoration applied to a very solid wall, but the lack of respect for the conventions of Greek trabeated architecture remains rather disconcerting.

Conventional Roman pediments have a slightly steeper pitch than classical Greek ones, perhaps because they ended tiled roofs that received heavier rainfall.

Medieval
In Carolingian and Romanesque architecture pediments tended towards the equilateral triangle, and the enclosing cornice has little emphasis; they are often merely gable ends with some ornament. In Gothic architecture pediments with a much more acute angle at the top were used, especially over doorways and windows, but while the rising sides of the cornice is elaborate, the horizontal bottom element was typically not very distinct. Often there is a pointed arch underneath, and no bottom element at all. "Pediment" is typically not used for these; they are often called a "canopy". From the Renaissance onwards, some pediments no longer fitted the steeply pitched roofs and became freestanding, sometimes sloping in the opposite direction to the roof behind.

Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo
When classical-style low triangular pediments returned in Italian Renaissance architecture, they were initially mostly used to top a relatively flat facade, with engaged elements rather than freestanding porticos supported by columns. Leon Battista Alberti used them in this way in his churches: the Tempio Malatestiano (1450s, incomplete), Santa Maria Novella (to 1470), San Sebastiano in Mantua (unfinished by the 1470s), Sant'Andrea, Mantua (begun 1472), and Pienza Cathedral c. 1460), where the design was probably his. Here the cornice comes out and then retreats back, forming the top of pilasters with no capitals, a very unclassical note, which was to become much used.

In most of these Alberti followed classical precedent by having the pediment occupy the whole width of the facade, or at least that part that projects outwards. Santa Maria Novella and Sant'Agostino, Rome (1483, by Giacomo di Pietrasanta, perhaps designed by Alberti) were early examples of what was to become a very common scheme, where the pediment at the top of the facade was much less wide, forming a third zone above a middle zone that transitioned the width from that of the bottom. The giant curving volute or scroll used at the sides of the middle zone at Sant'Agostino was to be a very common feature over the next two centuries. As in Gothic architecture, this often reflected the shapes of the roofs behind, where the nave was higher than the side-aisles.

Sant'Agostino also has a low, squashed down pediment at the top of the full-width section. This theme was developed by Andrea Palladio in the next century. The main facade of his San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice (begun 1566) has "two interpenetrating temple fronts", a wider one being overlaid with a narrower and higher one, respectively following the roof lines of the aisles and nave. Several of Palladio's villas also introduced the pediment to country house architecture, which was to be become extremely common in English Palladian architecture. In cities, Palladio reserved the temple front for churches, but in the Baroque, and especially outside Italy, this distinction was abandoned.

The first use of pediments over windows in the Renaissance was on the Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni in Florence, completed in 1523 by Baccio d'Agnolo. Vasari says the innovation caused ridicule initially, but later came to be admired and widely adopted. Baccio was accused of turning a palazzo into a church. Three windows on each of three storeys (and the door) alternate regular and segmental pediments; there is no pediment at the top of the facade, just a large cornice, as was usual.

In St Peter's Basilica there is a conventional pediment over the main entrance, but the complicated facade stretches beyond it to both sides and above, and though large in absolute terms it makes a relatively small impression. Many later buildings used a temple front with pediment as a highlight of a much wider building. The St Peter's facade also has many small pedimented windows and aedicular niches, using a mixture of segmental, broken, and open pediments.

Variations using multiple pediments became very popular in Baroque architecture, and the central vertical line of church facades often ascended through several pediments of different sizes and shapes, in Rome five at the Church of the Gesù (Giacomo della Porta 1584) and six at Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio a Trevi (Martino Longhi the Younger, 1646), the top three folding into each other, using the same base line. This facade has been described as "a veritable symphony in repetitious pedimentry, bringing together a superimposed array of broken pediments, open pediments and arched pediments". The Gesù is the home church of the Jesuit order, who favoured this style, which was first seen in many cities around Europe in a new main Jesuit church.

From 1750 to Art Deco
Pediments became extremely common on the main facades of English country houses, and many across northern Europe; these might be placed over a porch with columns, or simply decorations to an essentially flat facade. In England, if there was any sculpture within the tympanum, it was often restricted to a coat of arms.

Neoclassical architecture returned to "purer" classical models mostly using conventional triangular pediments, often over a portico with columns. Large schemes of pedimental sculpture were used where the budget allowed. In 19th-century styles freer treatments returned, and large segmental pediments were especially popular in eclectic styles such as Beaux-Arts architecture, often overwhelmed by sculpture within, above, and to the sides.

Large pediments with columns, often called the "temple front", became widely used for important public buildings such as stock exchanges, reserve banks, law courts, legislatures, and museums, where an impression of solidity, reliability, and respectability was desired.

Postmodern reinterpretations

Postmodernism, a movement that questioned Modernism (the status quo after WW2), promoted the inclusion of elements of historic styles in new designs. An early text questioning Modernism was by architect Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966), in which he recommended a revival of the 'presence of the past' in architectural design. He tried to include in his own buildings qualities that he described as 'inclusion, inconsistency, compromise, accommodation, adaptation, superadjacency, equivalence, multiple focus, juxtaposition, or good and bad space.'

Venturi encouraged 'quotation', which means reusing elements of the past in new designs. Part manifesto, part architectural scrapbook accumulated over the previous decade, the book represented the vision for a new generation of architects and designers who had grown up with Modernism but who felt increasingly constrained by its perceived rigidities. Multiple Postmodern architects and designers put simplified reinterpretations of the pediment found in Classical decoration at the top of their creations. As with other elements and ornaments taken from styles of the pre-Modern past, they were in most cases highly simplified. Especially when it comes to office architecture, Postmodernism was only skin deep; the underlying structure was usually very similar, if not identical, to that of Modernist buildings.

In 1984 Philip Johnson designed what is now called 550 Madison Avenue in New York City (formerly known as the Sony Tower, Sony Plaza, and AT&T Building), a famous work of Post-Modern architecture, where a broken pediment at the top of a typical skyscraper wittily evokes a Thomas Chippendale-style tallboy at a massive scale. Marco Polo House in London (1989, now demolished) was similar.

title: Pediment


text:
Hammerwood Park

Hammerwood Park is a country house in Hammerwood, near East Grinstead, in East Sussex, England. It is a Grade I listed building. One of the first houses in England to be built in the Greek Revival architectural style, it was built in 1792 as the first independent work of Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Described by Nikolaus Pevsner as a 'demonstration of primeval force', the house was owned by Led Zeppelin from 1973 until 1982.

The site before 1792
The land previously comprised part of a previous estate known as The Bower, probably named after a family called Atte Boure, who are listed as paying tax to Edward I in the 1290s, a substantial landholding which included parts of the parishes of East Grinstead and Hartfield. Sometime during the 1500s the owners, the Botting family, founded an iron forge to the east of the ponds in the valley to the south of the current house (coordinates: 51.12664°N, 0.06021°W). The forge may have been in existence in 1558, when Hugh Botting left "two tons of yron" in his will; it was working in 1653 but ruined by 1664. The dam has been recorded as 200 m long.

In 1693, a part of the woodland adjoining the Ashdown Forest was felled to clear the grounds of the former house on the present site. The estate, which is thought to have been part of a medieval deer park, later passed to other families and in 1766 the owner paid window tax on forty-one windows, making the Bower the fifth largest out of the 150 taxable residences in East Grinstead. It seems likely that the present Bower House, a Tudor farmhouse in the village of Hammerwood, is of no direct relation. There existed a previous building on the site of what was to become Hammerwood Lodge; foundations and walls in the west of the central block of the current house have been dated to pre-1792, and it would seem likely that this was the principal dwelling of the Bower.

1790s: design and construction
In c. late 1791 or early 1792, John Sperling (1763–1851) is recorded by Christian Ignatius Latrobe as visiting architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, his brother, in London. Sperling, who already had a country seat at Dynes Hall, a 17th-century country house and 500-acre estate in Great Maplestead, Essex, came from a wealthy family which had made its fortune in the London fur trade after emigrating from Sweden. Only a year older than Latrobe, who was at that time a pupil of S. P. Cockerell, he commissioned Latrobe to design and build a new country house and hunting lodge, in the Germanic tradition of the Jagdschloss, on the site of the Bower. Sperling chose to name the new house Hammerwood Lodge at this point, probably as a romantic reference to the hammer used in the furnace of the iron forge which had existed in the area since the Middle Ages. Latrobe is thought to have supervised the construction from the autumn of 1792 onwards, its proximity to Ashdown House, his second commission (near Forest Row) allowing for the sharing of craftsmen and suppliers of building materials – and for Latrobe to supervise both coincidentally.

Trinder describes the design as comprising "a large, Palladian central block (corps de logis) accentuated by a giant order of shallow pilasters flanked by low arcaded wings terminated in tetrastyle porticoes, while an asymmetric service wing stretches toward the northeast, hidden behind the bulk of the house." Coadeware plaques of scenes derived from the Borghese Vase adorn both porticos, and the influence of the temples at Paestum, which Latrobe may have witnessed on during prior visit to Naples, and Delos has been noted by scholars. Nikolaus Pevsner also observed that the columns were "patently inspired by the then very recent work of such men as Ledoux and Brongniart".

In 1795, due to problems in obtaining payment for another project, Latrobe was faced with severe financial problems. When his wife, Lydia Sellon, having died in childbirth in November 1793, he is thought to have suffered a breakdown. Declared bankrupt and unable to pay some of his workmen, he emigrated to America on 25 November 1795. There is some doubt over whether Hammerwood was finished by this point; it is possible that the Sperlings supervised its completion in Latrobe's absence. However, the failure of a large investment in a Dublin distillery led the Sperlings to lose £70,000 (equivalent to approximately £5.9 million in 2021 pounds); the artist and diarist Joseph Farington reported that they and their partners 'overbuilt themselves at a vast expense'. Between 1798 and 1800, Sperling was compelled to give up both Hammerwood and his London home and to move back to his Dynes Hall estate.

1800–1921: Victorian estate
In c. 1801, Hammerwood was purchased by Magens Dorrien Magens (c. 1768–1849), a London merchant banker who served as a Tory MP for Carmarthen (for just six months in 1796; he was unseated after his opponent lodged a successful election petition) and later for Ludgershall, in Wiltshire, from 1804 to 1812. Upon his death in 1849 he left Hammerwood to his son, John Dorrien Magens, who as chairman of the board of the East Grinstead Railway Company (EGR) was responsible for the connection of East Grinstead to the railway system at Three Bridges in 1855. It would seem likely that extensions to the house, specifically to the north-east service wing, took place under the ownership of the Dorrien Magens family, and census records from the 1840s indicate at least ten indoor staff during the period. John Dorrien Magens sold Hammerwood to Oswald Augustus Smith (1826–1902; of Smith's Bank, later part of NatWest) in June 1864 for £37,250 (equating to approximately £3.3 million in 2021 pounds), of which £10,000 was for the timber. In 1865, the Smiths contracted S. S. Teulon with the intention of remodelling the house to their taste. Amongst other more subtle changes to the building, this included raising the attic over the central block to create a low third floor, whilst preserving Latrobe's façade. Work began on 8 May 1865; scholars Snadon and Fazio comment that "Teulon integrated his additions so carefully with the existing fabric that it is difficult at first glance to discern them".

Whilst maintaining the 2,000-acre estate of parkland, arable farmland and woods, Oswald Augustus also installed a gas system for the lighting of the house, and fully insulated the newly raised roof. Initially paying for a Chapel of Ease for the three local parishes of East Grinstead, Forest Row and Hartfield, in 1873, he provided for a village school for 100 children; in 1875 for the Vicarage; in 1880 for St Stephen's Church, Hammerwood, to the design of E. P. Loftus Brock, at the cost of £7,431, the first vicar being Rev. Clement Colby Woodland of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; in 1892 for the rebuilding of St Peter's Church, Holtye in memory of his late wife (Rose Sophia Vansittart, 1832–1892); in 1893 for the rebuilding of the Countess of Thanet's Almshouses on Holtye Common, and at the end of the 19th century for a new building for the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead. Additionally, much of the village of Hammerwood which exists today (the population of which reached a peak of 438 in 1891), and some of the houses to the east of the village of Ashurst Wood, were built during Smith's tenure as tied cottages for estate workers.

The Rev. George Ferris Whidborne (1845–1910) purchased Hammerwood from Oswald Augustus shortly before the latter's death. Impressed by the unusual and abundant wildlife, he moved his family from Dorset; the Whidbornes would live at Hammerwood from 1901 to 1921. His eldest son was killed in the First World War; all three were at different times awarded the MC.

In 1919, the prep school in Tunbridge Wells which the Whidborne children had attended burned down; St Andrew's moved to Hammerwood whilst new premises were found in Forest Row. Old boys remembered playing cricket against Ashdown House, by now a prep school, on the lawn at Hammerwood. However, in 1918 death duties had compelled Margaret Whidborne to sell 843 acres of the estate (almost half of the land). Three years later a further 1,300 acres of farms were sold, the house disposed of and the contents auctioned. Two floors of servants' quarters on the north-east service wing which had been added during the 19th century were demolished and, left with 320 acres of adjoining park and woodland, the name of the estate was changed to Hammerwood Park; its place as a focal point of local life began to decline.

1921–1982: decline and dereliction
In 1921, the remains of the estate – comprising the house and 329 acres of land – were taken up by Lt. Col. Stephen Hungerford Pollen CMG (1868–1935) after a career in the British Army, having been ADC to Lords Lansdowne and Elgin (respective Viceroys of India), winning medals for service in that country and South Africa, and serving in the Tirah Expedition in 1897. His family were the first residents to enjoy an electricity supply and water from the mains.

There remained a full complement of eleven or twelve – by differing accounts – indoor staff for the duration of the Pollens' time at Hammerwood, and he contributed the land, and a quarter of the building costs, for the building of the Hammerwood and Holtye Hall. It is a strange coincidence that one of Lt. Col. Pollen's ancestors, Richard Pollen, brother of Sir John Pollen, Bt., married the daughter of S. P. Cockerell, the architect under whom Latrobe studied. After the death of Lt. Col. Pollen in 1935, the Kirwan Taylor family bought Hammerwood; they were the owners when the Second World War broke out. Like many large houses, it was requisitioned for use by the armed forces, becoming home to 200 soldiers, including the cricketer Denis Compton, and a contingent from the Canadian Army. No. 660 Squadron RAF operated from an airstrip to the north of the park from November 1943, and the SOE flew Westland Lysanders from the same strip for a time. After the war, John Chattell (1931–2021) bought the estate, dividing the house into eleven apartments. However, dry and wet rot became increasingly problematic and the house uninhabitable; its listed building description, written after a visit in November 1953, already noted that it was 'empty and boarded up', and placed it at Grade II status; it was later upgraded to Grade I. In 1973, rock band Led Zeppelin bought Hammerwood at auction, intending to turn it into a recording studio and flats. Although the house did make an appearance at the beginning of the film The Song Remains the Same, their plans did not progress. Amid significant vandalism, three tonnes of lead were removed from the roof, compromising it in fourteen locations and allowing thousands of gallons of water to flow into the structure. The progression of the rot accelerated, leading the house to become increasingly structurally unsafe. Hammerwood was boarded up in 1976, and put on sale in 1978.

1982–present: restoration
Having been for sale for four years, the house was advertised in Country Life in June 1982, by this time in a very poor condition and including only c. 30 acres of overgrown gardens. In July 1982, it was purchased by David Pinnegar, with the intention of restoring and opening it to visitors. Although there was some bemusement at his age, the house opened to the public in April 1983. The restoration, much of which was undertaken by volunteers, won the Anne de Amodio award from the International Burgen Institute (now part of Europa Nostra) in 1984, and a silver medal from the Société d'Encouragement au Progrès in Paris in 1987. In his England's Thousand Best Houses (2003), Simon Jenkins would describe Mr Pinnegar as 'one of those eccentrics without whom half the houses in England would have vanished'.

In 1984, the house was given a rare copy of the Parthenon Frieze made by D. Brucciani & Co., which is displayed in the old kitchens, now known as the Elgin Room. The Great Storm of 1987 caused considerable damage, with No. 656 Squadron AAC assisting in a delivery of new roof lead in 1988 using a Westland Lynx, in an operation covered by Blue Peter. Except for a modest contribution by English Heritage and the Department of the Environment, private ownership restricted access to heritage grants; the restoration was instead funded almost entirely from visitors, costing more than £140,000 between 1982 and 1989, making it the largest private restoration project in Europe at the time. Works continued into the new millennium and a programme of rolling restoration is ongoing.

Hammerwood today
The house and gardens have been open to the public since 1983. Guided tours focus upon the historical context of the house, the ancient mythological and religious origins of the Greek Revival, connections with Freemasonry, the Agricultural Revolution, the Picturesque movement, and issues of interpretation of the Borghese Vase, scenes from which are transcribed in Coade stone plaques in the porticos, and the Parthenon Frieze. An extensive musical instrument collection is used for an annual programme of concerts, and the keyboards are tuned to an unequal temperament, upon which composers of the Classical and Romantic eras relied. The estate is used regularly as a film location for TV, feature films, fashion and photography. Films have included the 2007 horror movie Knife Edge, the 2010 film London Boulevard starring Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley, and work by Led Zeppelin, The Darkness, Victoria Beckham, Melanie C, and Cheryl Cole. It served as the setting for the 1998 narcotics documentary Sacred Weeds.

Hammerwood has also been used for fashion shoots and photography for Prada, John Lewis catalogues, Tim Walker for Vogue and editorials for other magazines (including, amongst others, Country Life). It served as the location for Beyoncé’s September 2018 Vogue cover shoot.

Park and gardens
Hammerwood is sited on a south-facing hill, commanding extensive views from the south-west to the south-east; its own southern façade looking across the valley to a stream where the iron forge which gave the estate its name once sat. A serpentine lake, artificially dammed from this steam apparently as part of the Sperlings' landscaping (not shown on a Gardner and Gream map of 1795 but visible on the OS drawing of 1808) sits at the bottom of the valley with open parkland on either side; views of distant hills continue for two or three miles beyond. Scholars Fazio and Snadon note Latrobe's 1794 reference to a 'very intimate' acquaintance with Humphry Repton (1752–1818), the English landscape designer, and suggest that many features of the Hammerwood landscape, including unobstructed views to the south which extend far further than the 1792 boundaries of the estate, align with Repton's ideas. The influence of Capability Brown has also been noted, and ring counts of oaks felled by the Great Storm of 1987 dated them to 1793 and 1796, suggesting that landscaping and replanting did indeed take place.

Additional formal terraces and informal ornamental gardens were made up in the 19th and 20th centuries, initially replacing the former sweep of parkland up to the frontage of the house shown on maps up to 1841. Oswald Augustus Smith (who purchased Hammerwood in 1864) was probably responsible for laying out the ornamental gardens to the east of the house. As the cousin of Augustus Smith (the founder of Tresco Abbey Gardens in the Isles of Scilly, where rhododendrons feature in the planting) he introduced them to Hammerwood and they remain today. The Smiths also planted the gardens with specimen trees and made up gravel paths through the bushes, shrubberies and woodland to the east (these are shown on the OS map of 1873). In 1927, a Yew Garden was introduced below the south terrace; it has been restored and is now a registered helicopter landing site. Until the mid-20th century, the parkland on the valley slopes to the south of the lakes was mainly wooded; it is now under arable cultivation, for which it was largely cleared of trees in the 1950s. A few scattered trees remain from the extensive pattern shown established on the map of 1808.

During the period of dereliction much of the garden (including kitchen gardens and greenhouses to the north) became severely overgrown, and the parkland was used as grazing land (with the Library employed as a grain store). Much of the ornamental garden to the south and east has been restored and replanted, with work done by volunteers from the National Trust Activities Group (NTAG) and the London Wildlife Trust (and, in the replanting of trees, by the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust, the Men of the Trees, the Countryside Commission and the South East Electricity Board after the Great Storm of 1987). Forming part of the High Weald AONB since October 1983, the parkland and gardens were given Grade II listed status in 1987.

Entrances and approaches
As part of the landscaping undertaken by Sperling and Latrobe in the 1790s, a long, winding drive extending from Ashurst Wood which approached the house from the south was laid. In his study of Hammerwood, Trinder suggests that from the perspective created by this approach the pilasters on the central block create an optical illusion which leads the house to look larger than it is due to the inclusion of temple fronts on the wings. He describes the joint endeavours of Sperling and Latrobe as "a collective ego trip on a small budget ... the house, although of modest size for the time, is designed to look huge." From the mid-19th century (probably coincidental with John Dorrien-Magens' development of the railway from East Grinstead), the southerly approach became less oft-used as the route from the railway town became more practical via the East Grinstead–Tunbridge Wells road (which was to become the B2110, and then the A264) and the lane thence through the village of Hammerwood.

The southerly approach fell almost entirely out of use as the house became derelict, and some of it was given over to farmland in the 20th century; more recently the drive has been obstructed by hedges along its length. The former entrance lodge, known as Dog Gate Lodge (coordinates: 51.1234°N, 0.04943°W), survives, together with the bridge (at the site of the earlier iron forge) which carried the drive over the feeder channel for the ornamental lake at the foot of the valley. The road leading east out of Ashurst Wood (now a dead end) is still called Hammerwood Road. There were also two secondary entrance drives to the house, from the north-west and north-east, now disused but shown on the tithe map of 1841.

title: Hammerwood Park


text:
Bonanza

Bonanza is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 12, 1959, to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 431 episodes, Bonanza is NBC's longest-running Western, the second-longest-running Western series on U.S. network television (behind CBS's Gunsmoke), and one of the longest-running, live-action American series. The show continues to air in syndication. The show is set in the 1860s and centers on the wealthy Cartwright family, who live in the vicinity of Virginia City, Nevada, bordering Lake Tahoe. The series initially starred Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker and Michael Landon and later featured (at various times) Guy Williams, David Canary, Mitch Vogel and Tim Matheson. The show is known for presenting pressing moral dilemmas.

The title "Bonanza" is a term used by miners in regard to a large vein or deposit of silver ore, from Spanish bonanza (rich ore body) and commonly refers to the 1859 revelation of the Comstock Lode of rich silver ore mines under the town of Virginia City, not far from the fictional Ponderosa Ranch that the Cartwright family operated. The show's theme song, also titled "Bonanza", became a hit song. Only instrumental renditions, without Ray Evans's lyrics, were used during the series's long run.

In 2002, Bonanza was ranked No. 43 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, and in 2013 TV Guide included it in its list of The 60 Greatest Dramas of All Time. The time period for the television series is roughly between 1861 (Season 1) and 1867 (Season 13) during and shortly after the American Civil War, coinciding with the period Nevada Territory became a U.S. state.

During the summer of 1972, NBC aired reruns of episodes from the 1967–1970 period in prime time on Tuesday evening under the title Ponderosa.

Premise
The show chronicles the weekly adventures of the Cartwright family, headed by the thrice-widowed patriarch Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene). He had three sons, each by a different wife: the eldest was the urbane architect Adam Cartwright (Pernell Roberts), who built the ranch house; the second was the warm and lovable giant Eric "Hoss" Cartwright (Dan Blocker); and the youngest was the hotheaded and impetuous Joseph, or "Little Joe" (Michael Landon). Through exposition and flashback episodes, the viewer learns that each wife was accorded a different ancestry: English, Swedish, and French Creole, respectively. The family's cook was Chinese immigrant Hop Sing (Victor Sen Yung).

The family lived on a thousand-square-mile (2,600 km2) ranch called the Ponderosa on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada opposite California on the edge of the Sierra Nevada range. The vast size of the Cartwrights' land was quietly revised to "half a million acres" (2,000 km2) on Lorne Greene's 1964 song, "Saga of the Ponderosa". The ranch name refers to the Pinus ponderosa (ponderosa pine), common in the West. The nearest town to the Ponderosa was Virginia City, where the Cartwrights would go to converse with Sheriff Roy Coffee (played by veteran actor Ray Teal), or his deputy Clem Foster (Bing Russell).

Bonanza was considered an atypical Western for its time, as the core of the storylines dealt less about the range but more with Ben and his three dissimilar sons, how they cared for one another, their neighbors and just causes.

"'You always saw stories about family on comedies or on an anthology, but Bonanza was the first series that was week-to-week about a family and the troubles it went through. Bonanza was a period drama that attempted to confront contemporary social issues. That was very difficult to do on television. Most shows that tried to do it failed because the sponsors didn't like it, and the networks were nervous about getting letters,' explains Stephen Battaglio, a senior editor for TV Guide magazine."

Cast
Though not familiar stars in 1959, the cast quickly became favorites of the first television generation. The order of billing at the beginning of the broadcast appeared to be shuffled randomly each week, with no relation whatsoever to the current episode featured that week.

Set and filming

The opening scene for the first season was shot at Lake Hemet, a reservoir in the San Jacinto Mountains, Riverside County, California, and later moved to Lake Tahoe. After moving to Lake Tahoe, the opening sequence with theme music was filmed on the east side of Lake Tahoe in Bourne's meadow near Round Hill, Nevada. During the first season extra horses were rented from the Idyllwild Stables in Idyllwild, also in the San Jacinto Mountains. The first Virginia City set was used on the show until 1970 and was located on a backlot at Paramount and featured in episodes of Have Gun – Will Travel, Mannix and The Brady Bunch. In the 1970 premiere episode of the 12th season titled "The Night Virginia City Died", Deputy Clem Foster's pyromaniac fiancée levels the town in a series of fires (reflecting a real 1875 fire that destroyed three-quarters of Virginia City). This allowed for a switch to the less expensive Warner studios from September 1970 through January 1973. The script was initially written for the departing David Canary's Candy, but was rewritten for actors Ray Teal (Sheriff Roy Coffee) and Bing Russell (Deputy Clem Foster), who rarely appeared together on the show.

The program's Nevada set, the Ponderosa Ranch house, was recreated in Incline Village, Nevada, in 1967, and remained a tourist attraction until its sale thirty-seven years later in September 2004.

It was partially filmed in Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks, California.

Costumes
From the third season on, the Cartwrights and nearly every other recurring character on the show wore the same clothing in almost every episode. The reason for this is twofold: it made duplication of wardrobe easier for stunt doubles (Hal Burton, Bob Miles, Bill Clark, Lyle Heisler, Ray Mazy) and it cut the cost of refilming action shots (such as riding clips in-between scenes), as previously shot stock footage could be reused. Below is a survey of costumes employed:

 * Ben Cartwright: Sandy shirt, tawny leather vest, gray pants, cream-colored hat, occasional green scarf.
 * Adam Cartwright: Black shirt, black or midnight blue pants, black hat. Elegant city wear. Cream-colored trail coat.
 * Hoss Cartwright: White shirt, brown suede vest, brown pants, large beige flat-brimmed, ten-gallon hat.
 * Little Joe Cartwright: Beige, light gray shirt, kelly-green jacket, tan pants, beige hat. Black leather gloves from 10th season on. In season 14, he and Greene occasionally wore different shirts and slacks, as the footage of them and the late Dan Blocker together could no longer be reused.
 * Candy Canaday: Crimson shirt, black pants, black leather vest, black hat, grey/ pale purple scarf.

It was not unusual for Little Joe Cartwright and Candy Canaday to appear shirtless in various scenes involving manual labor.

The horse saddles used by the Bonanza cast were made by the Bona Allen Company of Buford, Georgia.

Hair styles
In 1968, Blocker began wearing a toupee on the series, as he was approaching age 40 and his hair loss was becoming more evident. He joined the ranks of his fellow co-stars Roberts and Greene, both of whom had begun the series with hairpieces. (Greene wore his modest frontal piece in private life too, whereas Roberts preferred not wearing his, even to rehearsals/blocking.) Landon was the only original cast member who was wig-free throughout the series, as even Sen Yung wore an attached rattail- queue.

Music
Bonanza features a memorable theme song by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans that was orchestrated by David Rose and arranged by Billy May for the television series. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.

The Bonanza theme song opens with a blazing Ponderosa map and saddlebound Cartwrights. The melodic intro, emulating galloping horses, is one of the most recognized television scores. Variations of the theme were used for 12 seasons on the series. Although there were two official sets of lyrics (some country-western singers, avoiding royalties, substituted the copyright renditions with their own words), the series simply used an instrumental theme. Three of the cast members bellowed out the original lyrics, unaccompanied, at the close of the pilot (Pernell Roberts, the sole professional singer of the quartet, abstained and untethered the horse reins). Before the pilot aired (on September 12, 1959), the song sequence, deemed too campy, was edited out of the scene and instead the Cartwrights headed back to the ranch whooping and howling. In a 1964 song, the Livingston-Evans lyrics were revised by Lorne Greene with a more familial emphasis, "on this land we put our brand, Cartwright is the name, fortune smiled the day we filed the Ponderosa claim" ("Bonanza", Bear Family Boxed set, Disc #2). In 1968, a slightly revamped horn and percussion-heavy arrangement of the original score introduced the series, which was used until 1970. A new theme song, called "The Big Bonanza" was written in 1970 by episode scorer David Rose, and was used from 1970 to 1972. Action-shot pictorials of the cast replaced the galloping trio with the order of the actors rotating from episode to episode, resulting in Blocker or Landon often getting top billing over Greene. Finally, a faster rendition of the original music returned for the 14th and final season, along with action shots of the cast (sans Dan Blocker, who had died by this point).

Cancellation
In the fall of 1972, NBC moved Bonanza to Tuesday nights—where reruns from the 1967–1970 period had been broadcast the previous summer under the title The Ponderosa —opposite the All in the Family spinoff show, Maude, which was a virtual death sentence for the program. The scheduling change, as well as Dan Blocker's death in May 1972, resulted in plunging ratings for the show. David Canary returned to his former role of Candy (to offset Hoss' absence), and a new character named Griff King (played by Tim Matheson) was added in an attempt to lure younger viewers. Griff, in prison for nearly killing his abusive stepfather, was paroled into Ben's custody and given a job as a ranch hand. Several episodes were built around his character, one that Matheson never had a chance to fully develop before the show was abruptly cancelled in November 1972 (with the final episode airing January 16, 1973). Many fans, as well as both Landon and Greene, felt that the character of Hoss was essential, as he was a nurturing, empathetic soul who rounded out the all-male cast.

For 14 years, Bonanza was the premier Western on American television. Reruns of the series have aired on several cable networks such as TV Land, INSP, Family Channel, the Hallmark Channel and Great American Faith & Living.

Themes
Episodes ranged from high drama to broad comedy and addressed issues such as the environment, substance abuse, domestic violence, anti-war sentiment, and illegitimate births. The series sought to illustrate the cruelty of bigotry against Asians, African Americans,  Native Americans, Jews, Mormons, the disabled, and little people.

Bonanza is uniquely known for having addressed racism, not typically covered on American television during the time period, from a compassionate, humanitarian point-of-view.

Bigotry, including antisemitism, was the subject of the episode "Look to the Stars". A bigoted school teacher Mr. Norton (oblivious to his prejudice) routinely expels minority students. When he expels the brilliant Jewish student Albert Michelson, a scientific genius whose experiments on the streets of Virginia City often cause commotion, Ben Cartwright steps in and confronts Norton on his bigotry. Ashamed, the school teacher vows to reform. A coda to the episode reveals that Michelson went on to win the Nobel Prize for Physics.

In the episode "Enter Thomas Bowers", the Cartwright family helps the opera singer Thomas Bowers, an African-American freedman, after he encounters prejudice while in Virginia City to perform. Bowers winds up arrested as a fugitive slave. At the beginning of the episode, Adam is shown to be outraged at the Supreme Court's Dred Scott v. Sandford decision (placing the time as 1857), which he discusses with his father. According to David Dortort, sponsor General Motors was anxious about the episode. As producer, Dortort ensured that the episode re-aired during the summer rerun seasons, though two TV stations in the South refused to air it.

In the episode "The Wish", directed by Michael Landon, Hoss protects an African-American former slave's family when confronted with racism after the American Civil War. In "The Fear Merchants", discrimination against Chinese immigrants who attempt to assimilate in American society is addressed. "The Lonely Man" presents the controversial interracial marriage between the Cartwrights' longtime Chinese chef (Hop Sing) and a white woman (Missy).

Broadcast history and ratings
Initially, Bonanza aired on Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, opposite Dick Clark's Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show and John Gunther's High Road on ABC, and Perry Mason on CBS. Bonanza's initial ratings were respectable, often coming in behind Mason but ahead of the ABC lineup. Ironically, executives considered canceling the show before its premiere because of its high cost. NBC kept it because Bonanza was one of the first series to be filmed and broadcast in color, including scenes of picturesque Lake Tahoe, Nevada. NBC's corporate parent, Radio Corporation of America (RCA), used the show to spur sales of RCA-manufactured color television sets (RCA was also the primary sponsor of the series during its first two seasons).

For Season 3, NBC moved Bonanza to Sundays at 9:00 pm Eastern with new sponsor Chevrolet (replacing The Dinah Shore Chevy Show). The new time slot caused Bonanza to soar in the ratings, and it eventually reached number one by 1964, an honor it would keep until 1967. By 1970, Bonanza was the first series to appear in the Top Five list for nine consecutive seasons (a record that would stand for many years) and thus established itself as the most consistent strong-performing hit television series of the 1960s. Bonanza remained high on the Nielsen ratings until 1971, when it finally fell out of the Top Ten.

During the summer of 1972, NBC broadcast reruns of episodes of the show from the 1967–1970 era on Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. under the title Ponderosa while also rerunning more recent episodes on Sunday evenings in the show's normal time slot as Bonanza. In the fall of 1972, off-network episodes were released in broadcast syndication to local stations by NBC under the Ponderosa name. After the series was canceled in 1973, the syndicated reruns reverted to the Bonanza name.

Home media

A handful of early episodes have fallen into the public domain. These episodes have been released by several companies in different configurations, with substandard picture and sound quality, edited, and by legal necessity with the copyright-protected Evans–Livingston theme song replaced with generic western music.

In 1973, NBC sold its NBC Films syndication division, and with it the rights to the series, along with the rest of its pre-1973 library, to National Telefilm Associates, which changed its name to Republic Pictures in 1984. Republic would become part of the Spelling Entertainment organization in 1994 through Worldvision Enterprises. Select episodes ("The Best of Bonanza") were officially released in North America in 2003 on DVD through then-Republic video licensee Artisan Entertainment (which was later purchased by Lionsgate Home Entertainment). Republic (through CBS Media Ventures, which holds the television side of Republic's holdings) still retains the syndication distribution rights to the series. CBS Home Entertainment (under Paramount Home Media Distribution) is the official home video rights distributor at present.

Starting in September 2009, CBS Home Entertainment (distributed by Paramount) has to date released the first eleven seasons on DVD in Region 1. All episodes have been digitally remastered from original 35 mm film elements to yield the best picture and sound quality possible with current technology. CBSHE has released each season in two-volume sets (available together and separately). On May 23, 2023, the remaining seasons 12, 13 and 14 were released on DVD, as well as a box set of the complete series containing all 431 episodes on 112 DVDs.

In Region 2, AL!VE AG released the first seven seasons on DVD in Germany between 2008 and 2010. These releases are now out of print as AL!VE has lost the rights. In 2011, StudioCanal acquired the rights to the series and have begun re-releasing it on DVD, and all seasons have now been released but have not been remastered.

Episodes of the series have also been officially released as part-works on DVD in France and the United Kingdom.

Bonanza "the official first season" was released in Scandinavia during 2010. The first season is released in 4 volumes. The first two volumes were released on October 20, 2010, and the second two volumes on April 27, 2011.

Television movies
Bonanza was revived for a series of three made-for-television movies featuring the Cartwrights' children: Bonanza: The Next Generation (1988), Bonanza: The Return (1993) and Bonanza: Under Attack (1995). Michael Landon Jr. played Little Joe's son Benji while Gillian Greene, Lorne Greene's daughter, played a love interest. In the second movie, airing on NBC, a one-hour retrospective was done to introduce the drama. It was hosted by both Michael Landon Jr. and Dirk Blocker, who looks and sounds almost exactly like his father, Dan Blocker, albeit without his father's towering height. According to the magazine TV Guide, producer David Dortort told Blocker he was too old to play the Hoss scion, but gave him the role of an unrelated newspaper reporter. Clips of the younger Blocker's appearance and voice were heavily used in advertisements promoting the "second generation" theme, perhaps misleading audiences to believe that Blocker was playing Hoss' heir. Hoss' son Josh was born out of wedlock, as it is explained that Hoss drowned without knowing his fiancėe was pregnant. Such a storyline might have been problematic in the original series. (The Big Valley, however, had a major character in Heath, who was presented as illegitimate.) The Gunsmoke movies of the early 1990s employed a similar theme when Marshal Matt Dillon learned he had sired Michael Learned's character's daughter in a short-lived romance. The initial story was first introduced in 1973, when depiction of fornication courted protests, so CBS insisted their hero Matt have the encounter when he had amnesia. As was the style of television Westerns, gunfights played a major role in the movies which featured notoriously inaccurate shooting as well as unlimited ammunition.

Prequel
In 2001, there was an attempt to revive the Bonanza concept with a prequel, Ponderosa—not to be confused with the 1972 summer reruns under the same title —with a pilot directed by Simon Wincer and filmed in Australia. Covering the time when the Cartwrights first arrived at the Ponderosa, when Adam and Hoss were teenagers and Joe a little boy, the series lasted 20 episodes and featured less gunfire and brawling than the original. Bonanza creator David Dortort approved PAX TV (now Ion TV)'s decision to hire Beth Sullivan, formerly of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, which some believe gave the series more depth as well as a softer edge. The Hop Sing character is depicted not only as a cook but also a family counselor and herbal healer. The series takes place in Nevada Territory in 1849, which is actually an anachronism. The Nevada Territory did not split from the Utah Territory until 1861, meaning that until at least the 5th season (the episode "Enter Thomas Bowers" establishes that year as 1857), Bonanza is also set in what in real life would have been Utah Territory.

Bonanza merchandise
Bonanza has had a highly profitable merchandising history. Currently, Bonanza Ventures, Inc. grants merchandising and licensing rights worldwide. The original series has spawned several successful novelty western/folk albums from 1962 to 1965 including "Bonanza, Christmas on the Ponderosa" which charted at #35 on Billboard's Christmas Record album chart; three dozen Dell and Gold Key comic books from 1962 through 1970; a short-lived comic book adaptation by Dutch comics artist Hans G. Kresse between 1965 and 1966, Jim Beam Whiskey Ponderosa Ranch decanters 1964–1966; a series of "Big-Little" books from 1966 to 1969; Revel Bonanza model character sets from 1966 to 1968; a chain of Bonanza and Ponderosa steakhouses from 1963–present; the Lake Tahoe-based "Ponderosa" theme park from 1967 to 2004; a line of American Character action figures in 1966–1967; Aladdin lunch buckets and thermos bottles in 1966–1968; View Master slide sets in 1964, 1971; Ponderosa tin cups from 1967 to 2004; a series of Hamilton collector plates in 1989–1990; and most recently, Breyer Fiftieth Anniversary Ponderosa Stable sets, with horses and Cartwright figures in 2009–2011.

Fourteen Bonanza novels have been published:
 * Bonanza: A Novel by Noel Loomis (1960);
 * Bonanza: One Man With Courage by Thomas Thompson (1966);
 * Bonanza: Killer Lion by Steve Frazee (1966);
 * Bonanza: Treachery Trail by Harry Whittington (1968);
 * Winter Grass by Dean Owen (1968);
 * Ponderosa Kill by Dean Owen (1968);
 * The Pioneer Spirit by Stephen Calder (1988);
 * The Ponderosa Empire by Stephen Calder (1991);
 * Bonanza: The High Steel Hazard by Stephen Calder (1993);
 * Journey of the Horse by Stephen Calder (1993);
 * The Money Hole by Stephen Calder (1993);
 * The Trail to Timberline by Stephen Calder (1994);
 * Bonanza: Felling of the Sons by Monette L. Bebow-Reinhard (2005),
 * Bonanza: Mystic Fire by Monette L. Bebow-Reinhard (2009).

There is also a collection of Bonanza stories: The Best of Bonanza World: A Book of Favorite Stories, published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (2012), and in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Whitman Books published several hardcover novels aimed at young readers, such as Killer Lion by Steve Frazer (1966). Bonanza Gold (2003–2009), a quarterly magazine, featured detailed information about the show, including interviews with guest actors and other production personnel, articles about historical events and people depicted in the series, fan club information and fan fiction. All 14 seasons of the show (as of 5/2023) are available on DVD, as well as 31 non-successive public-domain episodes (without original theme music). The public domain episodes consist of the last 14 episodes of season one, and the first 17 episodes of season two. Additionally, the prequel series, The Ponderosa, as well as the three sequel movies (see below), are all available on DVD.

Legacy
In the TV series Maverick episode "Three Queens Full", Bart (Jack Kelly) is blackmailed by Joe Wheelwright (Jim Backus), owner of the Subrosa ranch, into escorting mail order brides for Wheelwright's three sons Aaron, Moose and Small Paul.

General bibliography

 * Bonanza: A Viewers Guide to the TV Legend by David Greenland. 167 pages. Publisher: Crosslines Inc (June 1997). ISBN 978-0-9640338-2-5.
 * A Reference Guide to Television's Bonanza: Episodes, Personnel, and Broadcast History by Bruce R. Leiby and Linda F. Leiby. 384 pages. Publisher: McFarland (March 1, 2005). ISBN 978-0-7864-2268-5.
 * Bonanza: The Definitive Ponderosa Companion by Melany Shapiro. 176 pages. Publisher: Cyclone Books; illustrated edition (September 1997). ISBN 978-1-890723-18-7.

title: Bonanza


text:
Surat Thani province

Surat Thani (สุราษฎร์ธานี, ), often shortened to Surat, is the largest of the southern provinces (changwat) of Thailand. It lies on the western shore of the Gulf of Thailand. Surat Thani means 'city of good people', a title given to the city by King Vajiravudh (Rama VI); Surat Thani is therefore the sole province in Southern Thailand for which the native name is in the Central Thai language.

Geography
Surat Thani Province, located in Thailand, is bordered by the provinces of Chumphon to the north, Nakhon Si Thammarat to the east, Krabi to the south, Phang Nga to the southwest, and Ranong to the northwest.

The geographic landscape of Surat Thani is diverse. The central region of the province is dominated by the coastal plain of the Tapi River, characterized by a mix of grassland, rubber trees, palm oil trees, and coconut plantations. To the west lie the limestone mountains of the Phuket range, largely enveloped in forest, home to the renowned Khao Sok National Park. The eastern part of the province sees the commencement of the Nakhon Si Thammarat (or Bantat) mountain range, a portion of which is preserved within Tai Rom Yen National Park. The total forest area in Surat Thani is approximately 3,764 km2, accounting for 28.8 percent of the province's area.

Several islands in the Gulf of Thailand are part of Surat Thani, including popular tourist destinations such as Ko Samui, Ko Pha Ngan and Ko Tao, as well as the Ko Ang Thong Marine National Park.

The province is also defined by its main waterways, the Tapi River and the Phum Duang River, which converge near the town of Tha Kham before emptying into Bandon Bay. The delta formed by these rivers, known locally as Nai Bang (ในบาง), is situated directly north of Surat Thani city. This delta features a network of channels interspersed with small islands, predominantly covered by mangroves and orchards.

National parks
There are a total of eight national parks, six of which are in region 4 (Surat Thani) and Hat Khanom–Mu Ko Thale Tai and Namtok Si Khit are in region 5 (Nakhon Si Thammarat) of Thailand's protected areas.
 * Khao Sok National Park, 739 km2
 * Kaeng Krung National Park, 541 km2
 * Tai Rom Yen National Park, 425 km2
 * Khlong Phanom National Park, 410 km2
 * Hat Khanom–Mu Ko Thale Tai National Park, 312 km2
 * Namtok Si Khit National Park, 145 km2
 * Mu Ko Ang Thong National Park, 102 km2
 * Than Sadet–Ko Pha-ngan National Park, 43 km2

Wildlife sanctuaries
There are two wildlife sanctuaries, along with five other wildlife sanctuaries, make up region 4 (Surat Thani) of Thailand's protected areas.
 * Khlong Saeng Wildlife Sanctuary, 1155 km2
 * Khlong Yan Wildlife Sanctuary, 488 km2

History
The region of Surat Thani has a long history of human habitation, dating back to prehistoric times. It was initially inhabited by indigenous Semang and Malayan tribes. In the 3rd century, the area came under the influence of the Srivijaya kingdom, a powerful entity that controlled much of the Malay Peninsula until the 13th century. The city of Chaiya, located in modern-day Surat Thani, is home to several archaeological ruins from the Srivijaya period, indicating its historical significance. There is a belief among some Thai historians that Chaiya may have served as a regional, or possibly even the primary capital of the Srivijaya kingdom, although this assertion remains a subject of scholarly debate. Another notable settlement from this era was Wiang Sa, which also played a significant role during the time of Srivijaya's dominance.

Following the decline of the Srivijaya kingdom, the region was partitioned into the cities (mueang) of Chaiya, Thatong (present-day Kanchanadit), and Khirirat Nikhom. Chaiya was governed directly from the Thai capital, whereas Thatong and Khirirat Nikhom came under the jurisdiction of the Nakhon Si Thammarat Kingdom. In 1899, these cities were amalgamated to form a single province named Chaiya.

In 1915, significant administrative changes occurred. The capital city of the Monthon Chumphon was relocated the city from Chaiya to Bandon. During a visit by King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) on 29 July 1915, Bandon was renamed Surat Thani, a change possibly inspired by the major port city of Surat in Gujarat, India. Concurrently, the Monthon was also renamed Surat. In 1926, this Monthon was abolished and integrated into Monthon Nakhon Si Thammarat. Following the dissolution of the monthon system in 1933, Surat Thani was established as a first-level administrative division, gaining the status of a province.

The administrative headquarters of Surat Thani Province were originally housed in a building located in Tha Kham, within the Phunphin District. Before World War II, the administrative center was relocated to the city of Surat Thani, situated along the Tapi River. This river shares its name with the Tapi River in Surat, located in the southern region of Gujarat, India.

During the Japanese invasion of Thailand on 8 December 1941, the administrative building in Surat Thani was destroyed amidst the conflict that engulfed the city. The building was eventually reconstructed in 1954. However, on 19 March 1982, the building was targeted in a bombing by communist insurgents, resulting in its destruction and the tragic loss of five lives.

Following this incident, a new provincial administration building was constructed at a different location, south of the city center. The site of the former provincial hall has since been repurposed and now hosts the city pillar shrine (Lak Mueang). This third and current administrative building continues to serve as the provincial government's headquarters.

Symbols
The provincial seal of Surat Thani prominently features the pagoda of Wat Phra Borommathat Chaiya, a historic structure believed to have been constructed approximately 1,200 years ago. The design of the provincial flag incorporates the image of this pagoda, set against a background divided horizontally with orange on the top half and yellow on the bottom.

Surat Thani's provincial flower is the bua phut (Rafflesia kerrii), noted for being a parasitic plant that produces some of the largest flowers among all plant species. The provincial tree is identified as the ton kiam (Cotylelobium melanoxylon). The Rafflesia flower, can be found in Khao Sok National Park in Surat Thani.

The slogan of the province is "เมืองร้อยเกาะ เงาะอร่อย หอยใหญ่ ไข่แดง แหล่งธรรมะ" (Mueang roi ko, ngo aroi, hoi yai, khai daeng, laeng thamma), which translates to "city of 100 islands, delicious rambutan, big shells, red eggs, the center of Buddhism". This slogan reflects several unique aspects of the province: its numerous islands, the local specialty of tasty rambutan fruits, the abundance of large shellfish, notably oysters, and the cultural significance of salted duck eggs known locally as "red eggs". The reference to the "center of Buddhism" highlights important religious sites within the province, including Wat Phra Borommathat Chaiya and Suan Mokkhaphalaram.

Provincial government
The province is divided into 19 districts (amphoes), which are further divided into 131 subdistricts (tambons) and 1,028 villages (mubans).

Local government
As of 26 November 2019 there are: one Surat Thani Provincial Administration Organisation (ongkan borihan suan changwat) and 40 municipal (thesaban) areas in the province. Surat Thani and Ko Samui have city (thesaban nakhon) status. Tha Kham, Na San and Don Sak have town (thesaban mueang) status. Further 35 subdistrict municipalities (thesaban tambon). The non-municipal areas are administered by 97 Subdistrict Administrative Organisations - SAO (ongkan borihan suan tambon). For national elections, the province is divided into two constituencies, each eligible to elect three members of parliament.

Economy
According to the 2008 census, Surat Thani Province recorded a Gross Provincial Product (GPP) of 132,637.3 million baht (approximately US$4,019.31 million). The GPP per capita was reported to be 134,427 baht (around US$4,073.54). This marked an increase from the 2007 census, where the GPP was 122,398 million baht (US$3,599.94 million) and the GPP per capita was 125,651 baht (US$3,695.62). These figures indicate a GPP growth rate of 8.37 percent and a per capita growth rate of 6.98 percent.

Agriculture plays a significant role in Surat Thani's economy. The province is noted for its production of coconuts and rambutan. In the case of coconuts, they are often harvested by specially trained monkeys, predominantly pig-tailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina). The most renowned training center for these monkeys was established by the late Somporn Saekhow. Rambutan cultivation in Surat Thani traces its roots back to 1926, initiated by Chinese Malay Mr. K. Vong in the Ban Na San District. The province celebrates its rambutan production with an annual fair held in early August, featuring a parade of elaborately decorated floats on the Tapi River. Additionally, rubber tree plantations are widespread throughout Surat Thani, contributing to its agricultural output.

Surat Thani Province is renowned for its unique local products, notably the hand-woven silk cloth originating from the coastal village of Phum Riang in the Chaiya District. This district is also celebrated for producing red eggs, a regional delicacy. For this specialty, ducks are fed a diet of crabs and fish, and their eggs are subsequently preserved in a mixture of soil and salt, lending them a distinctive flavor and color.

Tourism plays a pivotal role in the economy of Surat Thani. In 2018, the province generated a significant revenue of 64 billion baht from tourism activities. This figure represented 63 percent of the total tourism income for Surat Thani, with a substantial portion attributable to its island destinations. These include popular tourist spots such as Ko Samui, Ko Pha Ngan, Ko Tao, and Mu Ko Ang Thong National Park, which are major contributors to the province's tourism sector.

Human achievement index 2022
Since 2003, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Thailand has tracked progress on human development at sub-national level using the Human achievement index (HAI), a composite index covering all the eight key areas of human development. National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) has taken over this task since 2017.

National parks

 * Mu Ko Ang Thong National Park is a marine national park in the Gulf of Thailand. It covers 42 islands and a total area of 102 km2, of which about 50 km2 are land and the rest is water. The park was established on 12 November 1980. The northern tip of Ko Phaluai is also part of the marine park. There is a ranger station, bungalows, a shop, and a restaurant at Ao Phi Beach on Ko Wua Talap.
 * Khao Sok National Park is the largest area of virgin forest in southern Thailand and is a remnant of rain forest which is older and more diverse than the Amazon rain forest.

title: Surat Thani province