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Keeping Up Appearances

Keeping Up Appearances is a British sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke. It originally aired on BBC1 from 1990 to 1995. The central character is an eccentric and snobbish middle class social climber, Hyacinth Bucket (Patricia Routledge), who insists that her surname is pronounced "Bouquet". The show consisted of five series and 44 episodes, four of which were Christmas specials. Production ended in 1995 after Routledge decided to move on to other projects. All 44 episodes have since been released on video, DVD and streaming media, and are regularly repeated on television networks throughout the world.

The sitcom follows Hyacinth in her attempts to prove her social superiority, and to gain standing with those she considers upper class. Her attempts are constantly hampered by her lower class extended family, whom she is desperate to hide. Much of the humour comes from the conflict between Hyacinth's vision of herself and the reality of her underclass background. In each episode, she lands in a farcical situation as she battles to protect her social credibility.

Keeping Up Appearances was an immense success in the UK, and also captured large audiences in the US, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. By February 2016, it had been sold nearly a thousand times to overseas broadcasters, making it BBC Worldwide's most exported television programme ever. In a 2004 BBC poll it placed 12th in Britain's Best Sitcom. In a 2001 Channel 4 poll, Hyacinth was ranked 52nd on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters. The show has been syndicated on Gold and Drama in the UK, on PBS member stations in the United States and on 7TWO and 9Gem in Australia.

Premise
Hyacinth Bucket (Patricia Routledge) – who insists her surname is pronounced Bouquet (although her husband Richard has said, "It was always 'Bucket' until I met you!") – is an overbearing, social-climbing snob, originally from a lower-class background, whose main mission in life is to impress others with her refinement and pretended affluence.

She is terrified that her background will be revealed, and goes to great lengths to hide it. Hyacinth likes to spend her days visiting stately homes (convinced she will meet and strike up a friendship with the upper class owners, especially if they are part of the landed gentry or peerage) and hosting "executive-style" candlelight suppers (with her Royal Worcester double-glazed Avignon china and Royal Doulton china with "the hand-painted periwinkles").

She ostentatiously brags about her possessions, including her "white slimline telephone with automatic redial", which she always answers with "The Bouquet residence, the lady of the house speaking." (She frequently receives misdialled calls asking for a Chinese takeaway, making her angry.) She speaks in an exaggerated RP-like accent with northern undertones, while her relatives speak in broad northern accents. Her neighbours speak in milder RP accents. When flustered, Hyacinth reverts to her native accent.

Hyacinth's attempts to impress makes the lives of those around her difficult; her continual efforts to improve her social position usually involve inviting her unwitting neighbours and friends to "exclusive candlelight suppers". Although Hyacinth is not deterred by the lack of response to her attempts, her friends, neighbours, and acquaintances live in fear of being invited, and usually make frantic attempts to excuse themselves.

Her husband Richard (Clive Swift) bears the brunt of the suffering. He initially worked for the council in "Finance and General Purposes", but at the beginning of series three, reluctantly accepts early retirement. Though Hyacinth describes his role as "a power in local authority", he appears to be no more than a bureaucratic functionary. Although he loves her with a long-suffering endurance, he is notably exasperated by her plans and her habit of making extravagant and unnecessary purchases.

Although she lives to impress others, Hyacinth regularly competes with her middle-class neighbours (whom she considers snobbish showoffs) such as Sonia Barker-Finch, Delia Wheelwright and Lydia Hawksworth (who alone of Hyacinth's rivals seems to be an actual snob, as she disdains kiwifruit as "lower middle class"). Hyacinth sometimes says things like "I haven't a snobbish bone in my body" or "I can't abide such snobbery like that" when talking about those she considers her competition.

Always hindering Hyacinth's best efforts to impress, and providing an unwelcome reminder of her less-than-refined roots, are her working-class sisters Daisy (Judy Cornwell) and Rose (Shirley Stelfox in series one; Mary Millar thereafter), and Daisy's proudly "bone-idle" husband Onslow (Geoffrey Hughes). They, along with Hyacinth's senile father, frequently turn up inconveniently (usually in their clapped-out Ford Cortina Mk IV – which always makes a characteristic backfire when it arrives), with Hyacinth going to great lengths to avoid them (saying: "Richard, you know I love my family, but that's no reason why I should have to acknowledge them in broad daylight!"). Rose is very sexually aggressive and promiscuous, adding to Hyacinth's embarrassment. Although Hyacinth is embarrassed by Onslow's laziness and unkempt character, Richard and Onslow get along very well with each other.

Hyacinth's senile father frequently has flashbacks to the Second World War, and often exhibits bizarre behaviour, sometimes involving embarrassing situations with women (Onslow describes him as "barmy"). Two relatives of whom Hyacinth is not ashamed are her wealthy sister Violet (Anna Dawson) and her unseen son Sheridan. Violet frequently telephones Hyacinth for advice, allowing her to loudly announce to anyone in earshot, "It's my sister Violet – the one with a Mercedes, swimming pool/sauna and room for a pony". However, Violet's social acceptability is damaged by the eccentric behaviour of her cross-dressing, equestrian-loving turf accountant husband Bruce, whom she attacks because of his behaviour.

Hyacinth also tries to impress people with the intellectual prowess of her beloved son Sheridan (who actually only takes a course in needlework at a polytechnic). Hyacinth boasts about the "psychic" closeness of their relationship and how often he writes and telephones her, although he never writes and only telephones his mother to ask for money (much to the despair of Richard). Hyacinth is blissfully oblivious of the seemingly obvious hints that Sheridan, who lives with a man named Tarquin (who makes his own curtains, wears silk pyjamas, and has won prizes for embroidery), is gay, but Richard appears to have caught on, asking Hyacinth if she's ever wondered why Sheridan shows no interest in girls.

Hyacinth's neighbour Elizabeth "Liz" Warden (Josephine Tewson) is frequently invited round for coffee. Though she is ordinarily calm, Elizabeth's nerves go to pieces in Hyacinth's house, causing her to smash Hyacinth's china and spill coffee and biscuits on Hyacinth's Burmese rug. She is married with a daughter away at university, yet her husband works abroad and, like Sheridan, neither character ever appears. While everyone else usually addresses her simply as "Liz", Hyacinth almost always calls her by her full name.

Elizabeth is occasionally able to "one-up" Hyacinth herself by reminding her neighbour that her daughter is at university, while Sheridan is studying at a mere polytechnic. Liz's brother Emmet (David Griffin) moves in with her at the beginning of series two, after a messy divorce. Hyacinth, upon learning that Emmet is a musician, frequently and abruptly sings out-of-key at him to try to get a part in one of his productions, making him terrified of leaving the house, lest she see him ("She'll sing at me!"). Emmet's problems are made worse by Hyacinth's mistaken belief that his frightened reactions indicate that he is infatuated with her, which, in fact, could not be further from the truth.

Hyacinth frequently confronts the postman with complaints, harassing him to the point that he will go to extreme lengths not to face her; she often forces workmen and other visitors to her home to remove their shoes before entering. Michael, the vicar of the local church (Jeremy Gittins) is also loath to face the overbearing Hyacinth, to whom he refers (to others) as "the Bucket woman". The vicar and his wife sometimes exact comic revenge on Hyacinth for her snobbishness; on one occasion, when she was one of a group of volunteer helpers at the church, the vicar's wife saw to it that Hyacinth's hand went up prematurely and assigned her the job of cleaning the church toilets.

Episodes
Keeping Up Appearances aired for five series, four Christmas specials, and one short Children in Need special from 29 October 1990 to 25 December 1995. The series officially ended after the episode "The Pageant", because Patricia Routledge wanted to focus on other TV and theatre work, including Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, which began airing in 1996. Clive Swift, who portrayed Richard, stated in a BBC interview that Routledge "didn't want to be remembered as simply 'Mrs. Bucket'".

Locations

Exterior shots around Hyacinth's house were recorded at a privately owned residence at 117 Heather Road, Binley Woods, Warwickshire, east of Coventry.

Exterior shots around Daisy's and Onslow's council terrace were taken in the Stoke Aldermoor district of Coventry. Other exterior street and town shots were filmed in Leamington Spa and in various towns in Warwickshire, along with many scenes from the large town of Northampton, mainly the church hall. Some scenes were also shot in Swindon, Lydiard Park (the hotel where Hyacinth and Richard are arrested by the police for stealing a Rolls Royce), Oxford market scenes, and Bristol, (Bedminster). One scene was shot in Oslo, Norway. One episode was filmed in Great Yarmouth, mainly in the Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach Theme Park.

The opening sequence shows Hyacinth writing an invitation to one of her trademark candlelight suppers; this invitation lists Hyacinth's address as "Waney Elm, Blossom Avenue, Fuddleton". In the same sequence, the invitation is eventually sent to an address in Eddleton. Neither town actually exists. However, there are several references to the characters being in the West Midlands throughout the series, as when Hyacinth said that she could become the "Barbara Cartland of the West Midlands Social Circuit Scene" in the episode "The Hostess". In another episode, police officers wearing West Midlands Police jumpers escort Richard home and several West Midlands Travel buses are also seen throughout the series.

Vehicles
Richard's car is a Rover 200-series (SD3) saloon. Early episodes show a light blue 1987 216S bearing the number plate D541 EXL, but later episodes feature a sky-blue 1989 216SE EFi model (with the same number plate except for one letter, now D541 EFL).

Onslow drives a 1978 Ford Cortina (number plate VSD 389S) that is in poor condition and backfires loudly almost every time it starts or stops, embarrassing Hyacinth, and frequently crushing her hopes of creating a perfect impression with new people. (The DVLA website shows that this vehicle's tax was not renewed once the series finished, suggesting that it was scrapped at that point or maybe not since the V5C (logbook) is dated as issued on 5 October 2020). Onslow also has the rusting carcass of a Hillman Avenger in his front garden, in which lives Onslow's dog that always barks at Hyacinth as she approaches.

Violet and Bruce own a Mercedes-Benz W126 S-class and later a Mercedes-Benz W202 C-class.

Neighbour Elizabeth drives a white 1989 Austin Metro City hatchback with number plate F434 RLA, which, despite being the subject of comments from Hyacinth about its age, is newer than Richard's car.

Legacy
Various spin-off shows and specials related to the programme were broadcast.

Mr Blobby Meets Hyacinth Bucket
In 1993, a short sketch aired during an episode of Noel's House Party. The clip featuring Mr Blobby, saw the character causing havoc in Hyacinth's home. This clip was also featured in the "Blobbyvision" VHS release in 1994.

Daddy's Dead (Children In Need Special)
In 1995, a special 6-minute sketch was broadcast as part of Children in Need. Hyacinth dreams Daddy has died, and demands the coffin is brought to her house.

The Memoirs of Hyacinth Bucket
In March 1997, Geoffrey Hughes and Judy Cornwell reprised their roles as Onslow and Daisy for a special compilation episode, recorded for broadcast in the United States on PBS. The show sees the pair introduce clips from the series using Hyacinth's personal diary. The special was also released on VHS and DVD.

Comedy Connections
In 2004, the documentary series Comedy Connections featured an episode dedicated to Keeping Up Appearances. Stars Clive Swift, Josephine Tewson, Judy Cornwell and David Griffin, along with writer Roy Clarke and producer/director Harold Snoad, all discussed the series. Clips from an interview with Patricia Routledge from 2002 were also included.

The episode revealed that there were serious artistic differences between Clarke and Snoad. Specifically, Clarke refused to act as anything but a writer and rarely visited the set or location shoots, necessitating that Snoad make minor rewrites to accommodate the realities of taping. This infuriated Clarke, who disliked any tampering of his work, and Snoad thought Clarke was being unreasonable. The situation was mitigated in later series by the hiring of a script editor whose sole job was to keep Clarke apprised of Snoad's changes, and to keep Snoad informed of Clarke's opinion of them.

Life Lessons from Onslow
In early 2008, Geoffrey Hughes reprised his role as Onslow once again for a clipshow of the series; this was for broadcast on American television and sees him teaching a credit course at the Open University having selected "successful relationships" as his subject matter. The programme was also released on Region 1 DVD.

Mind Your Manors
When Keeping Up Appearances did not return, after Patricia Routledge announced that she no longer wished to play Hyacinth, Roy Clarke proposed a spin-off series called Mind Your Manors. The series was referenced in BBC in-house literature during 1997 and 1998 and later described by both Clarke and Geoffrey Hughes as part of a discussion of the character of Onslow in Radio 4's Archive on 4: On Northern Men, broadcast in 2009.

The spin-off would have seen Onslow forced to take a supposedly "easy" job tending the gardens of a large manor house estate owned by a doddery and rather forgetful old Lord. When the Lord dies suddenly, Onslow, Daisy and Rose (who it is implied was having a fling with the Lord, causing the heart attack which led to his passing) end up 'temporarily' moving into the manor house to mind it, due to a legal dispute with the deceased Lord's estranged brother (who Rose immediately starts lusting after), who wants the land.

A mislaid deeds paper left by the forgetful old Lord would supposedly clarify who has rights to the estate, buried somewhere in the gardens that Onslow is left to ineptly try and keep in shape. Most of the conflict would have come from the Lord's brother and the manor's snooty neighbours, the wealthy Hyde-Whytes, who are not happy about the "commoners" who have taken up residence next door (although it later transpires that Mr. Hyde-Whyte used to know Onslow in their youth and is indebted to him after Onslow once took the fall for him to stop him being arrested). Su Pollard was approached to play the role of Miss Dorothy "Dotty" Henshaw, the Lord's eccentric and easily flustered cook/housekeeper who remains with the estate, and some preliminary location shooting was reportedly undertaken. This proposed spin-off series was ultimately not commissioned.

Comedy Classics: Keeping Up Appearances – 30 Years Of Laughs
In January 2023, Channel 5 aired a 67-minute special retrospective for their "Comedy Classics" series. Cast, crew and celebrities pay tribute to the show. The documentary features an interview with Routledge, who was 93 at the time, sharing her memories of the show, along with supporting cast members Judy Cornwell, Jeremy Gittins and David Janson.

Audio
In 1998, the BBC released three episodes of the show: "Hyacinth tees off", "Rural Retreat", and "Sea Fever" on audio cassette. Clive Swift reprised his role as Richard recording a narrative to compensate for the lack of images.

VHS
BBC Video released three videos featuring episodes from the series.

This was released in 1993 and featured the episodes: "Iron Age Remains", "What to Wear when Yachting" and "How to Go on Holiday Without Really Trying".
 * How to Enhance Your Husband's Retirement

This was released in 1994 and featured the episodes: "Sea Fever" and "A Job for Richard".
 * Sea Fever

This was released in 1995 and featured the episodes: "Country Retreat", "Let There Be Light" and "Please Mind Your Head".
 * Rural Retreat

Streaming
In the United States, the complete series was available via streaming through Netflix and Amazon Video. It was also made available for streaming on BritBox.

In Australia the complete series was made available for streaming on Stan in 2018.

In 2022, in the United Kingdom the entire series was made available on the BBC iPlayer.

Books
Three books related to the series have been released in the UK. Two were written by Jonathan Rice and published by BBC Books and the other one was written by Harold Snoad (the director of Keeping Up Appearances) and was published by Book Guild Publishing.

This was first published in 1993, and is a light-hearted guide to manners, as seen through Hyacinth Bucket's eyes. It is based on the TV series' scripts and contains many black-and-white photos of scenes from the show.
 * Hyacinth Bucket's book of etiquette for the socially less fortunate

This was published in 1995 and is presented in a diary format chronicling a year in Hyacinth Bucket's life, with typical comments about her relations and neighbours.
 * Hyacinth Bucket's Hectic Social Calendar

This was published in late 2009, the book includes rare photos which were taken during the filming of Keeping Up Appearances. The book contains full plot synopses for all episodes, main cast details, filming locations for all episodes which used outside shots, and stories of some entertaining events which happened during filming.
 * It's Bouquet – Not Bucket

Overseas books
Due to the popularity of Keeping Up Appearances in the United States, books about the series have also been published across the Atlantic.

This comical series guidebook was published in the late 1990s by WLIW21. It was co-authored by mother-and-daughter writers Georgene and Mary Lee Costa. It features summary descriptions of each episode, cast and crew biographies, series photographs and an interview with Harold Snoad.
 * Keeping Up Appearances: A Companion to the Series

Since it was written during the filming of the final series of episodes, Snoad included the co-authors of the guide as extras in the episode "The Fancy Dress Ball".

Theatre adaptation
In 2010, the television show was adapted into a play entitled Keeping Up Appearances that toured theatres in the UK. The cast included Rachel Bell as Hyacinth, Kim Hartman as Elizabeth, Gareth Hale as Onslow, Steven Pinder as Emmet, Debbie Arnold as Rose, David Janson (who had previously appeared in the TV show as the postman) as Mr Edward Milson, a new character created for the stage show, Christine Moore as Daisy and Sarah Whitlock as Mrs Debden.

Main character Richard Bucket, Hyacinth's husband, does not appear in the production, but is frequently referred to: Hyacinth addresses him off-stage and talks to him on the phone. The main plot of the show revolves around Emmet directing a play at the local village hall, but when Hyacinth is cast in the play's leading role disaster is in the making.

This adaptation, directed by playwright Johnny Culver, made its American premiere in New York City in March 2015, at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church Theater Fellowship/Jones Auditorium. Culver directed an additional production of this adaptation with performances on 5 August 2017 and 6 August 2017 at Saint Luke's Episcopal Church in Forest Hills, Queens.

Prequel
In 2015, it was announced that a prequel to the series entitled Young Hyacinth would be made, with original writer Roy Clarke returning to pen the script, following a 19-year-old Hyacinth Bucket during the early postwar years and set some forty years before the events of Keeping Up Appearances. The cast were announced on 11 April 2016. Hyacinth was played by Kerry Howard; Rose by Katie Redford; Daisy by Katherine Pearce; Violet by Tamla Kari and Daddy by Mark Addy. It was broadcast on BBC One on 2 September 2016.

The prequel sees Hyacinth working as a maid and attempting to manage her family so they appear well above their means. In the special, Hyacinth is in a relationship with a Mr. William Hitchcock, whom Hyacinth forces to dress up and wear a hat when they walk. The special ends with her drunken Daddy falling into the canal, which Hyacinth's employers see, causing her great embarrassment. However, she blames Daddy's behaviour on "an old war injury".

Approximately 4.14 million viewers watched the show within seven days of its broadcast, making it the 22nd-most-watched BBC One show for the week ending 4 September. A total of 4.39 million viewers watched the show within 28 days of its initial broadcast.

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Mr. Bean

Mr. Bean is a British sitcom created by Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis, produced by Tiger Aspect Productions and starring Atkinson as the eponymous title character. The sitcom consists of 15 episodes that were co-written by Atkinson alongside Curtis and Robin Driscoll; the pilot episode was co-written by Ben Elton. The series originally aired on ITV, beginning with the pilot episode on 1 January 1990 and ending with "The Best Bits of Mr. Bean" on 15 December 1995.

Based on a character developed by Atkinson while he was studying for his master's degree at the University of Oxford, the series centres on Mr. Bean, described by Atkinson as "a child in a grown man's body", as he solves various problems presented by everyday tasks and often causes disruption in the process. The series has been influenced by physical comedy actors such as Jacques Tati and those from early silent films.

During its original five-year run, Mr. Bean was met with widespread acclaim and attracted large television audiences. The series was viewed by 18.74 million viewers for the episode "The Trouble with Mr. Bean" and has received a number of international awards, including the Rose d'Or. The series has since been sold in 245 territories worldwide. It has inspired an animated spin-off and two theatrical feature-length films along with Atkinson reprising his role as Mr. Bean for a performance at the London 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, television commercials and several sketches for Comic Relief. The programme carries strong appeal in hundreds of territories worldwide because, in addition to the acclaim from its original run, it uses very little intelligible dialogue, making it accessible to people who know little or no English.

Origin
The character of Mr. Bean was developed while Rowan Atkinson was studying for his master's degree in electrical engineering at The Queen's College, Oxford. A sketch featuring Bean was shown at the Edinburgh Fringe in the early 1980s. A similar character called Robert Box, also played by Atkinson, appeared in the one-off 1979 ITV sitcom Canned Laughter which also featured routines used in the motion picture in 1997.

One of Bean's earliest appearances occurred at the "Just for Laughs" comedy festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1987. When programme coordinators were scheduling him into the festival programme, Atkinson insisted that he perform on the French-speaking bill rather than the English-speaking programme. Having no French dialogue in his act at all, programme coordinators could not understand why Atkinson wanted to perform on the French bill instead. As it turned out, Atkinson's act at the festival was a test platform for his character and he wanted to see how his character's physical comedy would fare on an international stage with a non-English speaking audience.

The character's name was not decided until after the first episode had been produced; a number of other vegetable-influenced names such as "Mr. Cauliflower" were explored. Atkinson cited the earlier comedy character Monsieur Hulot, created by French comedian and director Jacques Tati, as an influence on the character. Atkinson also cited the influence of Peter Sellers, who had previously played similar "fumbling fool" characters, notably Hrundi Bakshi in The Party (1968) and Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther films. Stylistically, Mr. Bean is also similar to early silent films, relying purely upon physical comedy with Mr. Bean speaking very little dialogue (although like other live-action sitcoms during this period, it featured a laugh track). This has allowed the series to be sold worldwide without any significant changes to dialogue. In November 2012, Atkinson told The Daily Telegraph of his intentions to retire the character, stating that "someone in their fifties being childlike becomes a little sad." In 2016, however, Atkinson changed his mind by saying that he would never retire playing Mr. Bean.

Mr. Bean
The title character and protagonist, played by Rowan Atkinson, is a childish buffoon who brings various unusual schemes and contrivances to everyday tasks. He lives alone at the address of Flat 2, 12 Arbour Road, Highbury, and is almost always seen in his trademark tweed jacket and a skinny red tie. He also usually wears a digital calculator watch. Mr. Bean rarely speaks, and when he does, it is generally only a few mumbled words which are in a comically low-pitched voice. His first name (he names himself "Bean" to others) and profession, if any, are never mentioned. In the first film adaptation, "Mr." appears on his passport in the "first name" field and he is shown employed as a guard at London's National Gallery.

Mr. Bean often seems unaware of basic aspects of the way the world works, and the programme usually features his attempts at what would normally be considered simple activities, such as going swimming, using a television set, interior decorating or going to church. The humour largely comes from his original (and often absurd) solutions to problems and his total disregard for others when solving them, and his pettiness and occasional malevolence.

In the title sequence of episode two, Mr. Bean falls from the sky in a beam of light accompanied by a choir singing Ecce homo qui est faba ("Behold the man who is a bean") which was sung by the Southwark Cathedral choir in 1990. The opening sequence was initially in black and white in episodes two and three, which was intended by the producers to show his status as an "ordinary man cast into the spotlight". However, later episodes showed Mr. Bean dropping from the night sky in a deserted London street against the backdrop of St. Paul's Cathedral. At the end of episodes three and six, he is also shown being sucked right back up into the sky in the respective background scenes (the black scene in episode 3 and street scene in episode 6). Regarding the opening credits, Atkinson has acknowledged that Bean "has a slightly alien aspect to him". In the Mr. Bean: The Animated Series episode "Double Trouble", the alien aspect of him was used in a storyline in which he is taken inside a spacecraft with aliens who look exactly like him and even have their own plushy toys. In an obvious homage towards the end, the aliens send him back home in a beam of light and music similar to the opening of the original Mr. Bean series. Whether Bean is an extraterrestrial is not made clear.

Irma Gobb
Mr. Bean's long-suffering girlfriend, Irma Gobb (played by Matilda Ziegler), appears in three episodes. In "The Curse of Mr. Bean" and "Mr. Bean Goes to Town", the character is simply credited as "the girlfriend". She is treated relatively inconsiderately by Bean, who appears to regard her more as a friend and companion rather than as a love interest. However, he does become jealous when she dances with another man at a disco in "Mr. Bean Goes to Town", and she certainly expects him to propose to her on Christmas Day in "Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean"; his failure to do so results in her leaving him for good. Despite this, she later reappears in Mr. Bean: The Animated Series. It is revealed in the book Mr. Bean's Diary that her name is Irma Gobb and she works as a librarian at the local library.

In the Comic Relief sketch "Torvill & Bean", Bean is accompanied by a female companion portrayed by Sophie Thompson whose overall appearance resembles Gobb's.

Teddy
Teddy is Mr. Bean's teddy bear and, apparently, best friend. This little brown bear is a knitted oddity with button eyes and sausage-shaped limbs which invariably end up broken in half or in various other states of destruction and disfiguration. Although Teddy is inanimate, Mr. Bean often pretends it is alive: he always buys it a Christmas present or tries not to wake it up in the morning. For example, when Mr. Bean hypnotizes Teddy, he snaps his fingers and the bear's head falls backwards as if it had fallen asleep instantly. (Bean used his finger to prop Teddy's head up.) Teddy is often privy to Mr. Bean's various schemes and doubles as a tool or other items in emergencies; it has been decapitated ("Mr. Bean in Room 426"), used as his paint brush ("Do-It-Yourself Mr. Bean") and shrunk in the wash ("Tee Off, Mr. Bean"). Teddy is also Mr. Bean's "pet" in "Hair by Mr. Bean of London" where he is used to win a pet show.

Over the years, Teddy has undergone several changes. When it debuted on "The Trouble with Mr. Bean", it had a smaller head. Two episodes later, its head reached its current size but its "eyes" were not present until Bean placed gold thumb tacks on its face. The "eyes" have since been replaced with two small white buttons sewn over Teddy's face, giving it a distinctive image.

After filming ended, Teddy was donated by Atkinson to Gyles Brandreth's Teddy bear museum in Stratford-upon-Avon. In 2008 upon the museum's closing, Teddy was sold at auction for £180.

The Mini

Mr. Bean's vehicle, a citron-green 1977 British Leyland Mini 1000 Mark 4 with a matte black bonnet, was central to several antics such as Bean getting dressed in it, driving while sitting in an armchair strapped to the roof or attempting to avoid a car park fee by driving out through the entrance. In the pilot episode, Bean's vehicle was an orange 1969 BMC Morris Mini 1000 Mark 2 (registration RNT 996H) but was destroyed in an off-screen crash at the end. Throughout the sitcom, Bean keeps it locked with a bolt-latch and padlock rather than the lock fitted to the car, which formed a running gag in several episodes; in two episodes, he demonstrated an additional and innovative security measure in that he removes the steering wheel instead of the key which in one episode deterred a car thief. In "Back to School Mr. Bean", Bean's Mini is crushed by a tank as part of a demonstration after he replaced an identical Mini (registration ACW 497V) meant for the demonstration with his own to secure a parking space. After losing it, he removes his padlock and bolt-latch from the remains. Although the Mini has been crushed, it nonetheless reappears in subsequent episodes with the same colours and registration number (SLW 287R) as the car that has been crushed.

There were three Minis painted green and black used in the series, as well as two others painted with the same colour scheme but with no engine that got crushed by the tank. One of the main cars was also crushed by the tank. During filming many parts were swapped from car to car throughout production, including bonnets, wheel trims, grilles, steering wheels, rear lights, occasionally the driver's door, and the seat covers.

After filming ended, one of the original Minis was sold to Kariker Kars to be hired for various events whereupon it was temporarily displayed as a major attraction at the Rover Group's museum. In 1997, it was purchased by the Cars of the Stars Motor Museum and displayed for a number of years, later being sold on to a museum in the United States. The main Mini is privately owned and nearing the end of restoration in the south of England.

To promote Mr. Bean: The Animated Series, a replica of the Mini with the registration number DRW 221T was used. This Mini is currently on display at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu. The London Motor Museum also has a replica on display.

The Mini was going to appear in the first film adaptation of the series under the registration C607 EUW. In the film, Mr. Bean drives his Mini through Harrods in order to avoid a traffic jam. Although the sequence was filmed, it was not included in the final cut. In June 2018, the Mini from the first film was sold for US$70,000. The Mini had its debut on the big screen in the film Mr. Bean's Holiday under the registration YGL 572T. Unlike the previous Minis (which were Austin Citron green), it is 'Nissan Amarillo Yellow'. The film also features a second version of the Mini with the same colour scheme but with left-hand drive, driven by Bean's friend Sabine, and registered 207 UHD 75.

The Mini reappeared in Mr. Bean: The Animated Series under the registration STE 952R. In 2015, Mr. Bean returned in a sketch for Comic Relief in which he drives his Mini to attend a funeral. This Mini bore the same registration as the one in the animated spin-off.

The Reliant
Since the pilot episode, Mr. Bean has had a long-running feud with the unseen driver of a three-wheeled, light-blue 1972 Reliant Regal Supervan III (registration GRA 26K), which would usually get turned over, crashed out of its parking space and so forth by Bean in his Mini, who is usually oblivious to the results. These mishaps also became a running gag throughout the series. In "Tee Off, Mr. Bean", Bean is hitchhiking and the Reliant pulls over for him but Bean, who recognizes the car, pretends to not see it until it leaves.

The Reliant reappears in Mr. Bean: The Animated Series under the registration "DUW 742", again victimized by Mr. Bean in his Mini. In the episode "Young Bean", the identity of the Reliant driver is revealed for the first time. In the episode "Car Wars", after being abused by Mr. Bean for many years, the driver becomes angry and fed up, and decides to get his revenge by chasing Mr. Bean and trying to outmaneuver him in various situations, ultimately resulting in Mr. Bean's Mini being crushed by a car crusher.

Other characters
Although Mr. Bean is the only significant character in the programme, others appear usually as foils for his various antics. Other than his girlfriend Irma Gobb (Matilda Ziegler), there are more characters in each episode. However several notable British actors and comedians appear alongside Atkinson in the series as various one-off supporting characters, including Owen Brenman, Richard Briers, Roger Sloman, Angus Deayton, Stephen Frost, Nick Hancock, Christopher Ryan, Paul Bown, Caroline Quentin, Danny La Rue, Roger Brierley, Roger Lloyd-Pack, Rupert Vansittart, David Battley, David Schneider, Richard Wilson and Rudolph Walker. Vansittart and Walker later appeared alongside Atkinson in The Thin Blue Line.

Episodes
All 15 episodes of Mr. Bean were produced by Tiger Aspect Productions. Additionally, the character has been used in one-off sketches, guest appearances and television commercials.

The fourteenth episode, "Hair by Mr. Bean of London", was originally released as a direct-to-video VHS exclusive in 1995, and was not broadcast on television until 25 August 2006 on Nickelodeon.

Broadcast
Mr. Bean originally aired in the United Kingdom on ITV from 1990 to 1995, with reruns later shown on Comedy Central Extra, ITV3 and ITV4. Due to its widespread popularity, the series aired in many other countries; in the United States, it aired on HBO starting on 2 April 1992, and also ran on PBS television stations across the United States. Reruns of the series were also shown on Fox Family during the late 1990s, both as segments in the variety series Ohh Nooo! Mr. Bill Presents and as stand-alone episodes.

Music
Mr. Bean features a choral theme tune in the key of C major written by Howard Goodall (adapted from a passage of "Locus iste" by Anton Bruckner) and performed by the Choir of Southwark Cathedral (episodes 2–11 and 14; opening of episode 15) and Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford (episodes 12 and 13; closing of episode 15). The words sung during the title sequences are in Latin:
 * "Ecce homo qui est faba" – "Behold the man who is a bean" (sung at beginning)
 * "Finis partis primae" – "End of part one" (sung before the commercial break)
 * "Pars secunda" – "Part two" (sung after the commercial break and rarely)
 * "Vale homo qui est faba" – "Farewell, the man who is a bean" (sung at end)

The theme was later released on Goodall's album Choral Works. Goodall also wrote an accompanying music track for many episodes. The first episode of Mr. Bean did not feature the choral theme tune, but instead an up-beat instrumental piece also composed by Goodall, which was more an incidental tune than a theme. It was used while Bean drove between locations intimidating the blue Reliant, and as such, was sometimes heard in later episodes whenever Bean's nemesis is seen. The instrumental of the theme tune was used in the original series finale of Mr. Bean: The Animated Series titled "Double Trouble".

In the episode "Tee Off, Mr. Bean", Goodall's choral theme tune for another Richard Curtis comedy, The Vicar of Dibley, is heard playing on a car stereo. In "Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean", while playing with Queen's Royal Guards figurines and the nativity set, he hums "The British Grenadiers", which was quoted in the theme to Blackadder Goes Forth.

Mr. Bean appeared in the music video of a 1991 fundraising single for Comic Relief, fronted by Hale and Pace, entitled "The Stonk". Mr. Bean also appeared in the music video for the Boyzone single "Picture of You", which was the main theme song for the first film adaptation.

Mr. Bean also made a Comic Relief record in 1992, entitled "(I Want To Be) Elected" and which was credited to "Mr. Bean and Smear Campaign featuring Bruce Dickinson". It was a cover of the Alice Cooper song of the same name, and reached number 9 in the UK singles chart.

Awards
The first episode won the Golden Rose, as well as two other major prizes at the 1991 Rose d'Or Light Entertainment Festival in Montreux. In the UK, the episode "The Curse of Mr. Bean" was nominated for a number of BAFTA awards; "Best Light Entertainment Programme" in 1991, "Best Comedy" (Programme or Series) in 1991, and Atkinson was nominated three times for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" in 1991 and 1994.

Mr. Bean: The Animated Series
Seven years following the end of the original live-action series, Mr. Bean reappeared in an animated television series with Rowan Atkinson reprising his role as the title character as well as providing references for all of Bean's animated actions. Much like the original live-action series, the animated spin-off contains little dialogue; although some words are spoken most is either little soundbites or mumbling. The series introduced a list of new characters alongside regulars in the original series (such as Teddy and Irma Gobb), including an unpleasant landlady of Mr. Bean named Mrs. Wicket and her evil one-eyed cat Scrapper. Other characters' voices are provided by Jon Glover, Rupert Degas, Gary Martin and Lorelei King.

From 2002 to 2004, 52 episodes were originally broadcast on ITV1 each consisting of two 11-minute segments. In 2015, CITV commissioned a brand new series of episodes. The new series amended the format in which it featured episodes that had much more dialogue than normal. 78 new episodes began broadcasting from 6 February 2015.

Feature films
Two theatrical feature-length films featuring Mr. Bean have been released, with Atkinson reprising his role as the character in each. The first film, Bean, was directed by Mel Smith, released in 1997 and followed the misadventures of Mr. Bean as he oversaw the transfer of Whistler's Mother to a Los Angeles art gallery. The film broke from the programme's traditional narrative by using a subplot with more developed characters, whereby Bean was not the sole centre of attention but interacted with a suburban Californian family that he stays with during the film. The film was commercially successful, grossing more than US$250 million globally ($45 million in the USA) on a budget estimated at $18 million, despite receiving mixed reviews from critics and holding a 41% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The second film, Mr. Bean's Holiday, was directed by Steve Bendelack, released in 2007 and followed Bean on an eventful journey across France for a holiday in the French Riviera to which, after a number of mishaps, culminates in an unscheduled screening of his video diary at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, despite an earlier rumour in February 2001 stating that an unused script by Richard Curtis would see him on an Australian misadventure. Production on the film occurred during 2006 and was first released in the United Kingdom on 30 March 2007; it premiered in North America on 17 July that year at the Just for Laughs festival in Canada where the character had been launched 20 years earlier before being released nationwide over a month later on 24 August. The film is notable for featuring a mixture of traditional film photography and home-shot video camera photography. The film garnered improved critical reception (with a 52% rating on Rotten Tomatoes ) and was also commercially successful, grossing nearly US$230 million globally ($33 million in the United States) against a $25 million budget. Mr. Bean's Holiday was originally the last live-action appearance of the character, before reappearing at the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony five years later.

London 2012 Olympic Summer Games opening ceremony
In 2012, Atkinson reprised his character for a live performance as part of the London 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony. In the scene, Mr. Bean works within the London Symphony Orchestra in its performance of "Chariots of Fire", conducted by Simon Rattle. For this scene, Bean does not wear his usual brown tweed sports jacket but the traditional clothing of the musician – white tie and tails. As they perform the piece, Bean is mostly bored with playing the same note repeatedly on the synthesiser and gets jealous of the more interesting part being played on the grand piano. Still bored, he takes out his mobile phone and takes a picture of himself, looking proud. He then sneezes in a comical fashion and tries to retrieve his handkerchief from his bag behind him, finding he cannot reach it while at the synthesizer until he uses an umbrella to maintain his performance. When he finally blows his nose with his serviette, he throws it into the grand piano.

He then falls asleep continuing to play the note. A dream sequence of the opening scene of the film Chariots of Fire shows the characters running across a beach, though Mr. Bean dreams he is running with them. He begins to fall behind, until he hails a car to overtake all the others. Now running in front, Bean ensures he wins the race on the beach by tripping one of the runners trying to overtake him, whereupon he crosses the line with elation, and then wakes up. Finding that the rest of the orchestra have stopped playing while he continued his one recurring note, Bean, with encouragement from Rattle, plays an extended flourish and lastly touches a note that makes a flatulent sound then stops.

Director Danny Boyle later explained: "It wasn't actually Mr. Bean. Strictly speaking, the name of his character was Derek" In 2021's "Happy Birthday Mr. Bean" documentary, Atkinson and Curtis also stated that the performance wasn't actually intended to be the character Mr. Bean, although the official Olympic YouTube channel and the live commentary promoted it as such.

Books
Two books tied-in to the original live-action series were released: Mr. Bean's Diary in 1992 and Mr. Bean's Pocket Diary in 1994. The two books have identical content and differ only in the format in which they are printed. The content of both is a template diary with handwritten content scrawled in by Mr. Bean. They provide some additional information on the setting: for example, they establish that Mr. Bean lives in Highbury and rents his flat from a landlady named Mrs. Wicket.

They confirm the name of Mr. Bean's girlfriend as "Irma Gobb" and also give the name of the other man she actually dances with in "Mr. Bean Goes to Town" (Giles Gummer). An additional book also called Mr. Bean's Diary was released in 2002 to accompany Mr. Bean: The Animated Series; this book was also graded as a children's reader.

Two further books, Mr. Bean's Scrapbook: All About Me in America (1997) and Mr. Bean's Definitive and Extremely Marvelous Guide to France (2007), were released to tie-in with the feature films Bean and Mr. Bean's Holiday respectively.

Other appearances
Rowan Atkinson has appeared in character as Mr. Bean in many television broadcasts, sometimes as a publicity stunt to promote a new episode, DVD or film. A number of short sketches for the Comic Relief telethon have also been produced and Bean also starred in various commercials, music videos and in YouTube videos such as Handy Bean. In 2017 Atkinson appeared in the Chinese film Top Funny Comedian: The Movie a spin-off film of a variety show of the same name; the plot involves a number of Chinese people getting involved in a series of misadventures during a visit to Macau at the same time as Mr. Bean. One of the film's stars, comedian Guo Degang, informed media outlet The Beijinger that due to Atkinson being unable to speak Mandarin, the cast used mainly body language to speak to each other saying that "with facial expressions and gestures we seemed to understand each other, [it] was really an interesting experience, which proves that comedy can cross boundaries." The film was distributed in Chinese territories, but as of 2017, had yet to receive an American or European release.

Home media
The series was available on a number of Thames Television VHS compilations. In the United Kingdom (Region 2), episodes of Mr. Bean were released on a yearly basis by Universal Pictures UK from 2004. The complete collection is now available, including the two feature films and other extras. The episodes were released on VHS by A&E Home Video in the United States in the 2000s. These releases are unique in that they contain the original opening credits for the first three episodes, as seen when originally broadcast on television. In addition, they contain extra scenes which were edited into certain episodes at the request of PBS, in order to extend the run-time for a commercial-free airing. In Canada and the United States, Mr. Bean was released on VHS by Polygram Home Video in the 1990s. In the United States (Region 1), the complete series has been available since 2003 on A&E Home Video as "The Whole Bean". The documentary The Story of Mr. Bean is edited on both the UK and USA DVD sets: it was originally 52 minutes when broadcast on television. However, it is 48 minutes on the UK DVD while only 40 on the American DVD. Most notably, in the UK version, the section detailing The Tall Guy has humorous clips from the film removed. The American DVD features the same edits as the British DVD but is also missing comments by Burt Reynolds on the set of Bean, comments by Jeff Goldblum, some clips from the show Mr. Bean and many others. The record-selling UK videos were withdrawn shortly before the release of Bean, and the DVDs were released on an annual basis since 2004.

In August 2009, an official YouTube channel of the series was launched featuring content from both the original live-action and animated series.

The series was re-released by Shout Factory in North America on 24 March 2015 on DVD to coincide with its 25th anniversary. This set contains digitally remastered episodes (similar to the 2010 British release), the 40-minute The Story of Mr. Bean, additional scenes: "Turkey Weight," "Armchair Sale," "Marching," and "Playing With Matches," "Bus Stop" and "Library" sketches, a trailer for Mr. Bean: The Animated Series and The Best Bits of Mr. Bean, a 72-minute clip show.

DVD

 * Volumes

DVD re-release
Mr. Bean: The Whole Bean was re-released on 24 March 2015 on DVD digitally remastered to coincide with the series' 25th anniversary.

In popular culture

Various politicians have been mocked for a supposed facial resemblance to Mr. Bean, including Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Ed Miliband.

In MythBusters episode 52 – "Mind Control", the idea of painting a room with explosives placed in a tin of paint, as seen in "Do-It-Yourself Mr. Bean", was tested and deemed impossible as adequate coverage was not achieved.

An image of Mr. Bean grinning mischievously has been used as an internet meme for highlighting sexual double entendres, usually accompanied by the statement "If you know what I mean."

In Tetsuo Hara and Buronson's manga Souten no Ken, a parody of Mr. Bean can be found.

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

title: Mr. Bean


text:
Pre-war

Pre-war or prewar (antebellum) is the period before the most recent or significant war in a culture's history, and may refer to:

 * Prior to World War I
 * Between World War I and World War II
 * Pre-war architecture, buildings from the 20th century before World War II

title: Pre-war


text:
Fuji (film)

Fuji is a 1974 American animated short by Robert Breer.

Summary
The film explores the director's artistic rendition of a train ride past Japan's Mount Fuji, using line drawings, rotoscope and live action.

Reception and legacy
In 2002, Fuji was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It is part of Anthology Film Archives' Essential Cinema Repertory collection.

title: Fuji (film)


text:
Swern oxidation

In organic chemistry, the Swern oxidation, named after Daniel Swern, is a chemical reaction whereby a primary or secondary alcohol (\sOH) is oxidized to an aldehyde (\sCH\dO) or ketone (>C\dO) using oxalyl chloride, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and an organic base, such as triethylamine. It is one of the many oxidation reactions commonly referred to as 'activated DMSO' oxidations. The reaction is known for its mild character and wide tolerance of functional groups.

The by-products are dimethyl sulfide ((CH3)2S), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2) and—when triethylamine is used as base—triethylammonium chloride (Et3NHCl). Of the volatile by-products, dimethyl sulfide has a strong, pervasive odour and carbon monoxide is acutely toxic, so the reaction and the work-up needs to be performed in a fume hood. Dimethyl sulfide is a volatile liquid (B.P. 37 °C) with an unpleasant odour at even low concentrations.

Mechanism
The first step of the Swern oxidation is the low-temperature reaction of DMSO, 1a, formally as resonance contributor 1b, with oxalyl chloride, 2. The first intermediate, 3, quickly decomposes giving off carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide and producing chloro(dimethyl)sulfonium chloride, 4.

After addition of the alcohol 5, the chloro(dimethyl)sulfonium chloride 4 reacts with the alcohol to give the key alkoxysulfonium ion intermediate, 6. The addition of at least 2 equivalents of base — typically triethylamine — will deprotonate the alkoxysulfonium ion to give the sulfur ylide 7. In a five-membered ring transition state, the sulfur ylide 7 decomposes to give dimethyl sulfide and the desired carbonyl compound 8.

Variations
When using oxalyl chloride as the dehydration agent, the reaction must be kept colder than −60 °C to avoid side reactions. With cyanuric chloride or trifluoroacetic anhydride instead of oxalyl chloride, the reaction can be warmed to −30 °C without side reactions. Other methods for the activation of DMSO to initiate the formation of the key intermediate 6 are the use of carbodiimides (Pfitzner–Moffatt oxidation), a sulfur trioxide pyridine complex (Parikh–Doering oxidation) or acetic anhydride (Albright-Goldman oxidation). The intermediate 4 can also be prepared from dimethyl sulfide and N-chlorosuccinimide (the Corey–Kim oxidation).

In some cases, the use of triethylamine as the base can lead to epimerisation at the carbon alpha to the newly formed carbonyl. Using a bulkier base, such as diisopropylethylamine, can mitigate this side reaction.

Considerations
Dimethyl sulfide, a byproduct of the Swern oxidation, is one of the most notoriously unpleasant odors known in organic chemistry. Humans can detect this compound in concentrations as low as 0.02 to 0.1 parts per million. A simple remedy for this problem is to rinse used glassware with bleach or oxone solution, which will oxidize the dimethyl sulfide back to dimethyl sulfoxide or to dimethyl sulfone, both of which are odourless and nontoxic.

The reaction conditions allow oxidation of acid-sensitive compounds, which might decompose under the acidic oxidation conditions such as Jones oxidation. For example, in Thompson & Heathcock's synthesis of the sesquiterpene isovelleral, the final step uses the Swern protocol, avoiding rearrangement of the acid-sensitive cyclopropanemethanol moiety.

title: Swern oxidation


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Non-volatile random-access memory

Non-volatile random-access memory (NVRAM) is random-access memory that retains data without applied power. This is in contrast to dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and static random-access memory (SRAM), which both maintain data only for as long as power is applied, or forms of sequential-access memory such as magnetic tape, which cannot be randomly accessed but which retains data indefinitely without electric power.

Read-only memory devices can be used to store system firmware in embedded systems such as an automotive ignition system control or home appliance. They are also used to hold the initial processor instructions required to bootstrap a computer system. Read-write memory such as NVRAM can be used to store calibration constants, passwords, or setup information, and may be integrated into a microcontroller.

If the main memory of a computer system were non-volatile, it would greatly reduce the time required to start a system after a power interruption. Current existing types of semiconductor non-volatile memory have limitations in memory size, power consumption, or operating life that make them impractical for main memory. Development is going on for the use of non-volatile memory chips as a system's main memory, as persistent memory. A standard for persistent memory known as NVDIMM-P has been published in 2021.

Early NVRAMs
Some early computers used magnetic drum which was non-volatile as a byproduct of its construction. The industry moved to magnetic-core memory in the later 1950s, which stored data in the polarity of small magnets. Since the magnets held their state even with the power removed, core memory was also non-volatile. Other memory types required constant power to retain data, such as vacuum tube or solid-state flip-flops, Williams tube, and semiconductor memory (static or dynamic RAM).

Advances in semiconductor fabrication in the 1970s led to a new generation of solid state memories that magnetic-core memory could not match on cost or density. Today dynamic RAM forms the vast majority of a typical computer's main memory. Many systems require at least some non-volatile memory. Desktop computers require permanent storage of the instructions required to load the operating system. Embedded systems, such as an engine control computer for a car, must retain their instructions when power is removed. Many systems used a combination of RAM and some form of ROM for these roles.

Custom ROM integrated circuits were one solution. The memory contents were stored as a pattern of the last mask used for manufacturing the integrated circuit, and so could not be modified once completed.

PROM improved on this design, allowing the chip to be written electrically by the end-user. PROM consists of a series of diodes that are initially all set to a single value, 1 for instance. By applying higher power than normal, a selected diode can be burned out (like a fuse), thereby permanently setting that bit to 0. PROM facilitated prototyping and small-volume manufacturing. Many semiconductor manufacturers provided a PROM version of their mask ROM part so that development firmware could be tested before ordering a mask ROM.

Currently, the best-known form of both NV-RAM and EEPROM memory is flash memory. Some drawbacks to flash memory include the requirement to write it in larger blocks than many computers can automatically address, and the relatively limited longevity of flash memory due to its finite number of write-erase cycles (as of January 2010 most consumer flash products can withstand only around 100,000 rewrites before memory begins to deteriorate). Another drawback is the performance limitations preventing flash from matching the response times and, in some cases, the random addressability offered by traditional forms of RAM. Several newer technologies are attempting to replace flash in certain roles, and some even claim to be a truly universal memory, offering the performance of the best SRAM devices with the non-volatility of flash. As of June 2018 these alternatives have not yet become mainstream.

Those who required real RAM-like performance and non-volatility typically have had to use conventional RAM devices and a battery backup. For example, IBM PC's and successors beginning with the IBM PC AT used nonvolatile BIOS memory, often called CMOS RAM or parameter RAM, and this was a common solution in other early microcomputer systems like the original Apple Macintosh, which used a small amount of memory powered by a battery for storing basic setup information like the selected boot volume. (The original IBM PC and PC XT instead used DIP switches to represent up to 24 bits of system configuration data; DIP or similar switches are another, primitive type of programmable ROM device that was widely used in the 1970s and 1980s for very small amounts of data—typically no more than 8 bytes.) Before industry standardization on the IBM PC architecture, some other microcomputer models used battery-backed RAM more extensively: for example, in the TRS-80 Model 100/Tandy 102, all of the main memory (8 KB minimum, 32 KB maximum) is battery-backed SRAM. Also, in the 1990s many video game software cartridges (e.g. for consoles such as the Sega Genesis) included battery-backed RAM to retain saved games, high scores, and similar data. Also, some arcade video game cabinets contain CPU modules that include battery-backed RAM containing keys for on-the-fly game software decryption. Much larger battery-backed memories are still used today as caches for high-speed databases that require a performance level newer NVRAM devices have not yet managed to meet.

Floating-gate MOSFET
A huge advance in NVRAM technology was the introduction of the floating-gate MOSFET transistor, which led to the introduction of erasable programmable read-only memory, or EPROM. EPROM consists of a grid of transistors whose gate terminal (the switch) is protected by a high-quality insulator. By pushing electrons onto the base with the application of higher-than-normal voltage, the electrons become trapped on the far side of the insulator, thereby permanently switching the transistor on (1). EPROM can be reset to the base state (all 1s or 0s, depending on the design) by applying ultraviolet light (UV). The UV photons have enough energy to push the electrons through the insulator and return the base to a ground state. At that point the EPROM can be re-written from scratch.

An improvement on EPROM, EEPROM, soon followed. The extra E stands for electrically, referring to the ability to reset EEPROM using electricity instead of UV, making the devices much easier to use in practice. The bits are re-set with the application of even higher power through the other terminals of the transistor (source and drain). This high-power pulse, in effect, sucks the electrons through the insulator, returning it to the ground state. This process has the disadvantage of mechanically degrading the chip, however, so memory systems based on floating-gate transistors in general have short write-lifetimes, on the order of 105 writes to any particular bit.

One approach to overcoming the rewrite count limitation is to have a standard SRAM where each bit is backed up by an EEPROM bit. In normal operation the chip functions as a fast SRAM and in case of power failure the content is quickly transferred to the EEPROM part, from where it gets loaded back at the next power up. Such chips were called NOVRAMs by their manufacturers.

The basis of flash memory is identical to EEPROM and differs largely in internal layout. Flash allows its memory to be written only in blocks, which greatly simplifies the internal wiring and allows for higher densities. Memory storage density is the main determinant of cost in most computer memory systems, and due to this flash has evolved into one of the lowest-cost solid-state memory devices available. Starting around 2000, demand for ever-greater quantities of flash have driven manufacturers to use only the latest fabrication systems in order to increase density as much as possible. Although fabrication limits are starting to come into play, new "multi-bit" techniques appear to be able to double or quadruple the density even at existing line widths.

Commercialized Alternatives
Flash and EEPROM's limited write-cycles are a serious problem for any real RAM-like role. In addition, the high power needed to write the cells is a problem in low-power roles, where NVRAM is often used. The power also needs time to be built up in a device known as a charge pump, which makes writing dramatically slower than reading, often as much as 1,000 times. A number of new memory devices have been proposed to address these shortcomings.

Ferroelectric RAM
To date, the only such system to enter widespread production is ferroelectric RAM, or F-RAM (sometimes referred to as FeRAM). F-RAM is a random-access memory similar in construction to DRAM but (instead of a dielectric layer like in DRAM) contains a thin ferroelectric film of lead zirconate titanate [Pb(Zr,Ti)O3], commonly referred to as PZT. The Zr/Ti atoms in the PZT change polarity in an electric field, thereby producing a binary switch. Unlike RAM devices, F-RAM retains its data memory when power is shut off or interrupted, due to the PZT crystal maintaining polarity. Due to this crystal structure and how it is influenced, F-RAM offers distinct properties from other nonvolatile memory options, including extremely high endurance (exceeding 1016 access cycles for 3.3 V devices), ultra low power consumption (since F-RAM does not require a charge pump like other non-volatile memories), single-cycle write speeds, and gamma radiation tolerance. Ramtron International has developed, produced, and licensed ferroelectric RAM (F-RAM), and other companies that have licensed and produced F-RAM technology include Texas Instruments, Rohm, and Fujitsu.

Magnetoresistive RAM
Another approach to see major development effort is magnetoresistive random-access memory, or MRAM, which uses magnetic elements and in general operates in a fashion similar to core, at least for the first-generation technology. Only one MRAM chip has entered production to date: Everspin Technologies' 4 Mbit part, which is a first-generation MRAM that utilizes cross-point field induced writing. Two second-generation techniques are currently in development: Thermal Assisted Switching (TAS), which is being developed by Crocus Technology, and spin-transfer torque (STT) on which Crocus, Hynix, IBM, and several other companies are working. STT-MRAM appears to allow for much higher densities than those of the first generation, but is lagging behind flash for the same reasons as FeRAM – enormous competitive pressures in the flash market.

Phase-change RAM
Another solid-state technology to see more than purely experimental development is Phase-change RAM, or PRAM. PRAM is based on the same storage mechanism as writable CDs and DVDs, but reads them based on their changes in electrical resistance rather than changes in their optical properties. Considered a dark horse for some time, in 2006 Samsung announced the availability of a 512 Mbit part, considerably higher capacity than either MRAM or FeRAM. The areal density of these parts appears to be even higher than modern flash devices, the lower overall storage being due to the lack of multi-bit encoding. This announcement was followed by one from Intel and STMicroelectronics, who demonstrated their own PRAM devices at the 2006 Intel Developer Forum in October.

Intel and Micron Technology had a joint venture to sell PRAM devices under the names 3D XPoint, Optane and QuantX, which was discontinued in July 2022.

STMicroelectronics manufactures phase-change memory devices for automotive applications.

Millipede memory
Perhaps one of the more innovative solutions is millipede memory, developed by IBM. Millipede is, in essence, a punched card rendered using nanotechnology in order to dramatically increase areal density. Although it was planned to introduce Millipede as early as 2003, unexpected problems in development delayed this until 2005, by which point it was no longer competitive with flash. In theory the technology offers storage densities on the order of 1 Tbit/in2 (≈155 Gbit/cm2), greater than even the best hard drive technologies currently in use (perpendicular recording offers 636 Gbit/in2 (≈98.6 Gbit/cm2) as of Dec. 2011 ), but future heat-assisted magnetic recording and patterned media together could support densities of 10 Tbit/in2 (≈1.55 Tbit/cm2). However, slow read and write times for memories this large seem to limit this technology to hard drive replacements as opposed to high-speed RAM-like uses, although to a very large degree the same is true of flash as well.

FeFET memory
An alternative application of (hafnium oxide based) ferroelectrics is Fe FET based memory, which utilises a ferroelectric between the gate and device of a field-effect transistor. Such devices are claimed to have the advantage that they utilise the same technology as HKMG (high-L metal gate) based lithography, and scale to the same size as a conventional FET at a given process node. As of 2017 32Mbit devices have been demonstrated at 22 nm.

title: Non-volatile random-access memory


text:
User:Alan Richmond

I live in South Wales with 1 cats, 1 son, and 1 wife. I've lived in several other countries: Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, USA. I was a software developer for several international scientific research institutes & projects, e.g. the Hubble Space Telescope. I was a Principal Systems Engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. I have Bachelor degrees in physics and mathematics. I was a web developer since 1993, starting at NASA/GSFC (near Washington, DC). I founded one of NASA's first web sites, wrote the first web calculator (WebCalc), and founded EncycloZine, the web's first XHTML site, in November 1998. I founded the Web Developer's Virtual Library, the web's first commercial web site for web developers. My wife, Lucy, was a programmer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. We met by both working on the HST Data Management Facility. Later I went to work there also.

Most of my career has been as a scientific software engineer and sometimes team leader creating user interfaces, databases, and real-time control and data acquisition systems for Doel Nuclear Power Station, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Hubble Space Telescope, High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive, European Southern Observatory, Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Joint European Torus. I have presented several papers on scientific software systems at conferences.

I now tend to Python3.codes, Tuxar's Open Source Software directory & computing blog and Mandrian's FractalArt.Gallery - Fractals and Mathematical Art in South Wales. More..

title: User:Alan Richmond


text:
Talk:Optical aberration

Expert offer
I have been a professional in this area for over 30 years, and would be happy to take this on if there is no-one else willing. As I have only just joined Wikipedia, I will need some time to get used to it. My first reaction from looking at the current article is that it does need comprehensive rewriting although parts of it can be reused. LarryJayCee 22:54, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Welcome to it. Ask here if you need help figuring out how to do things wiki-style, or whatever, and some of us will be glad to help, I'm sure. Dicklyon 23:17, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Please Larry - fill yer boots! This is, as it stands, a truly bad article because it was lazily grafted here without any thought of context. Having tried to read it myself, I would recommend starting from scratch. Please contact me if I can help with any subsections or in any other way.Rbowman (talk) 14:48, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

 * One change I recommend in the rewrite: since many of the Seidel aberrations have individual articles, this article should summarize them, but reserve the details for the individual articles. Instead, this article should focus on the big picture, going into detail on topics not covered by other articles. I can help with formatting and Wikification, but am not an expert in this area.--Srleffler (talk) 18:54, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Expert required
This page is almost completely lifted from Project Gutenberg. Because Gutenberg is public domain, this is not a copyright problem, but the original text dates to 1911, without changes. An expert is needed to check the current accuracy of the article.

Catfood73 13:53, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

General
This is good stuff, but needs cleaning up.

Does anyvone have the images that belong to this article?

User:Egil

 * I have obtained a copy of the original (with diagrams), and I suppose I could re-draw them, they're not too complicated. OTOH, I really dislike the style of this article; I'm thinking your idea of splitting off the aberration section of lens is a good one, and expanding that to replace this article. -- DrBob 22:50 Jan 29, 2003 (UTC)

 * Just scanning them would be much better than nothing.

 * I've added the question wrt missing illustrations to Pages needing attention. Please delete the entry there when this is fixed. Egil 22:52 Apr 24, 2003 (UTC)

I've added the scans from the original article. Not good quality, but if and when someone re-writes this, they should come in useful. -- DrBob 21:21, 15 Mar 2004 (UTC)

filter into separate articles?
There are already specific articles on some types of aberations, such as Coma and Spherical. Maybe this should be more of a summary, and the info used to supplement/enhance their repsective articles. Tenfour 20:51, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree. The individual articles need to be improved/cleaned up, and then this article needs to be edited to provide a good summary and overview. There is a lot of material that will probably remain here, however. Many aspects of aberrations are best treated together.--Srleffler 07:03, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Overwhelming?
This page, at first glance, is a bit much. It really has a great deal of content, but it is so heavy that it is nearly unreadable.RSido 04:41, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Pencils?

I have never seen the word Pencils used in the context that is is on this page. Sometimes i think that it means angles and sometimes i have no idea what it is referring to. Is this how the original (Gutenburg) article is written or is this a vandalism of sorts? -- Straha_206th 18:19, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
 * See if this book page helps: Dicklyon 00:55, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of the . Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

move. Duja ► 08:32, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Aberration in optical systems → Optical aberration — This would be a simpler, clearer title, and would reduce the need to pipe links to this article. Another posibility might be Aberration (optics). —Srleffler 16:42, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Survey

 * Feel free to state your position on the renaming proposal by beginning a new line in this section with  or  , then sign your comment with  . Since polling is not a substitute for discussion, please explain your reasons, taking into account Wikipedia's naming conventions.

 * Support - either optical aberration or aberation (optics) would be an improvement. Dicklyon 20:18, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Support "Optical aberration" is more concise and more search friendly--victor falk 23:56, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Discussion

 * Any additional comments:

 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the . Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

wrong drawing
The drawing 386px-ABERR4.svg is not correct. The radial distortion inreases or decreases with the the distance to the centre of distortion. If it decreases the result is a barrel. So the distorted barrel have to be smaller than the object. Someone with the privileges could change it. --Msoon1509 (talk) 12:14, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

Zernike fitting?
The article discusses fitting a wavefront with a Zernike polynomial. This sort of makes sense, but I'm not clear on how the wavefront would be described. Ideally, a wavefront converging on the image surface would be spherical so that it comes to a point on the image surface. Is the idea that you compute that nearly-spherical wavefront in spherical coordinates? That is, do you look at the chief ray 1mm away from the image and then normalize the rest of the wavefront with ρ in [0,1] representing the angles from the center to the edge of the exit pupil as seen from the image point, so then you ideally would have
 * $$r(\rho, \varphi) = 1\,\mathrm{mm}$$

(a section of a perfect sphere) and so the aberration is the error,
 * $$\mathrm{aberration}(\rho,\varphi) = r(\rho, \varphi) - 1\,\mathrm{mm}$$.

Is that basically right, or is it something else? I ask because my understanding is that the DC Zernike term corresponds to Piston (optics) and that page does an awful job explaining. If what I describe is correct, then the DC Zernike term is just defocus, no? —Ben FrantzDale (talk) 12:30, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Basic problems
The problems begin right at the start and are not just technical.

"An optical aberration is a departure of the performance of an optical system from the predictions of paraxial optics.[1] In an imaging system".

To my mind, this is a muddled and inadequate definition. For example, camera lenses designed using optical models much more sophisticated than paraxial optics still exhibit aberrations (departures from ideal performance).

As another, hardly technical, mistake, the author seems to think that the retina of the human eye is a plane surface. A medic will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that this is horse feathers!

I'm not sure that the article belongs under medical stuff either. Lens aberration is a general topic of interest to those in various fields and is certainly not limited to optical lenses. Much of the analysis applies to radio frequency (RF), particularly microwave, lenses in radio astronomy.

NetherWyndham (talk) 07:24, 17 October 2015 (UTC)

 * The definition is correct as written. Aberrations are by definition the departure in performance of an optical system from the idealized paraxial model. Camera lenses are designed using sophisticated ray tracing to minimize aberrations, i.e. to obtain performance closer to the ideal, paraxial model. Some aberrations remain in even the best designs.

 * Yes, the retina is not a plane. I fixed that. A large part of this article (including the section that claimed the retina is a plane) was pulled from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. It's way overdue for a rewrite. If nothing else, the writing style is antiquated.

 * I'm not sure what you're getting at with "...belongs under medical stuff".--Srleffler (talk) 07:48, 17 October 2015 (UTC)

 * "The definition is correct as written." That's missing the point.  The question to be addressed is whether the definition is clear and understandable to a person not already familiar with the subject. Geoffrey.landis (talk) 19:34, 22 September 2017 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure how to make it any clearer. Do you have any suggestions?--Srleffler (talk) 05:05, 23 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Right now my best suggestion is to delete and rewrite from scratch, but absent that, I rewrote the first paragraph incorporating a definition from a standard physics book, and, I hope, aiming the lede a little more on the main aspect of abberation. Geoffrey.landis (talk) 13:26, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

EB1911 sourcing
Almost the entire article, except for three or four added paragraphs, is an exact copy of the entry in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition. I was going to add footnotes to each EB1911 paragraph, but that seems excessive (it came out to about 35 footnotes). If this article ever gets more of a rewrite, and needs some specific footnotes for the surviving EB1911 material, it can be compared with 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aberration, using Earwig's copyvio detector for example. David Brooks (talk) 19:57, 3 May 2016 (UTC)

Any good article starts with a first structure of the contents, let's do it!
As explained, this article was adapted from an old article with no copyright problem. I am not an expert in this subject. I just have a general knowledge from what I have read in photography books. There is an old offer from an expert, I ignore what inhibited him for rewriting the article. I hope that he had not been disappointed by the stupid robots that blindly revert changes based on a weak criterium which considers everything vandalism. Nor by those kids which spend too much time editing earning the rights to control Wikipedia, but lacking experience want to blindly apply rigid rules based on what they subjectively believe is the correct thing. That is the reason that inhibited me to write in subjects that I know.

For those enthusiasts who want to improve this entry, I suggest to propose a new structure.

From my limited point of view, I think that a good start is to explain an ideal optical model, which anyone that learned Analytical Geometry in school, can understand. Then introduce the limitations to build the lenses that we know, explaining what aberrations are caused from the elements available to build lenses. How those aberrations are solved, for example by composing lenses in groups, adding anti-reflexive coatings, etc. Then moving to the optics of other spectrum of the electromagnetic space, like that in radio-astronomy, radars, medical imaging equipment, different kinds of microscopes, etc.

In synthesis, first giving a general overview of optics with parabolas, spheres modelling elements like mirrors and glasses, then explaining why those models are difficult to implement in real lenses. And after explaining with objects which are familiar to almost everyone like, mirrors, eyeglasses, magnifying glasses, Fresnel screens, camera lenses, microscopes, telescopes, etc. Going to radio-telescopes, electron microscopes, radars, medical imaging systems like ultrasound, tomographies, etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.124.237.242 (talk) 00:22, 24 December 2019 (UTC)

 * I reverted the changes you made. The core problem was that you assumed that a parabolic-shaped lens would produce an optimum focus, which isn't true. Parabolas are optimum for mirrors, not lenses. There were other problems, and not much to be gained by trying to keep anything from that edit.

 * Our goal in writing articles is for all the important information to be verifiable by consulting reliable, published sources. It's OK to rely on your memory of things you've read (at least for straightforward, noncontroversial facts), but you shouldn't be making stuff up yourself and putting it into Wikipedia, like the idea that a parabola would be the optimum shape for a lens.

 * Regarding the project proposed above: the introduction and "Overview" sections of the article are pretty good as they are. They don't come from the Encyclopædia Britannica. The problem referred to in the tag at the top of the article affects the rest of it, from "Theory of monochromatic aberration" on. I don't think trying to explain an "ideal optical model" first is going to work well. Optics is based on simplifications for a reason. A good explanation of why real lenses don't behave like the ideal would be useful, as would an explanation of how we deal with aberrations in practice. Some of that is already in the article, though.--Srleffler (talk) 01:33, 31 December 2019 (UTC)

 * Apologies in advance. Im not a wikipedian but I do hold a degree in this field. Replying to Srleffler, I hope you can make use of what im about to say whilst you search for content to ensure it is correct. There are two types of aberration: Chromatic and Monochromatic.

Chromatic is the splitting of white light into its respective colours/wavelengths. Monochromatic Aberration is the splitting of pencils of light depending on the shape, curvature, density, position and size of the lens. Chromatic Aberration as an inherent effect of light moving through a medium of one refractive index to another, cannot be solved but can be reduced by using lenses with a high Abbe value. The highest still used in spectacles is Crown Glass (n=1.523, abbe=59). Sometimes chromatic aberration is desirable, such as in diamonds (abbe=2.4), in which the splitting of light combined with a multifaceted surface, produce a multispectral 'sparkle'. Within telescopes and spectacles, this is undesirable though as the viewer would see colour fringing when viewing high contrast images such as a tree against a bright sky. On Monochromatic aberration: There are 5 types. Coma, Spherical, Distortion(Barrel and Pincushion), Petzval Field Curvature and Astigmatism.(You have articles for some of these). I would then briefly touch on causes of each of these and their current solutions or perhaps link to their own articles.

I would also suggest this article on 'Optical Aberration' is therefore divided into 'Monochromatic Aberration' and 'Chromatic Aberration' with this article only serving to briefly summarise 'Optical Aberration' before diverting people on.213.18.178.122 (talk) 14:12, 31 August 2020 (UTC) Mike (info@optics.works)

title: Talk:Optical aberration


text: Wikipedia:Sites using MediaWiki

title: Wikipedia:Sites using MediaWiki


text:
Expo (Magnus Lindberg)

EXPO is an orchestral composition by the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. It was the first work commissioned by the New York Philharmonic under the conductor Alan Gilbert, and was Lindberg's first commission as the orchestra's composer-in-residence. The piece was first performed on September 16, 2009 at Avery Fisher Hall, New York City, during Alan Gilbert's inaugural concert with the New York Philharmonic. EXPO was the first newly commissioned work to open the New York Philharmonic's concert season since the premiere of Aaron Copland's Connotations under Leonard Bernstein on September 23, 1962.

Composition
EXPO has a duration of roughly 10 minutes and is composed in a single movement.

Instrumentation
The work is scored for a large orchestra comprising two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, two percussionists, harp, and strings.

Reception
Reviewing the world premiere, Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times called it "an urgent, inventive 10-minute piece" and wrote, "as Mr. Lindberg, a pragmatic composer, surely realized, this occasion did not warrant a gnarly, intimidating modern piece. Not that 'EXPO' was some easygoing crowd pleaser. It is an intense, complex and elusive piece, yet somehow celebratory." Jeff Dunn of the San Francisco Classical Voice called it "a terrific curtain raiser, 10 minutes of alternating string whooshes (reminiscent of Lindberg's Finnish countrymen Sibelius and Rautavaara) and brass chorales." " David Patrick Stearns of The Philadelphia Inquirer similarly observed, "Part fanfare, part concerto for orchestra, Expo is an aerobic workout for all sections of the orchestra and [...] an exhilarating showcase. Though far from Lindberg's best work, Expo is a fine curtain-raiser. And if ever you felt lost in the high-traffic orchestration, you could at least glom onto the near-quotations of Britten's Peter Grimes in the brass writing. "

title: Expo (Magnus Lindberg)


text:
Killer heuristic

In competitive two-player games, the killer heuristic is a move-ordering method based on the observation that a strong move or small set of such moves in a particular position may be equally strong in similar positions at the same move (ply) in the game tree. Retaining such moves obviates the effort of rediscovering them in sibling nodes.

This technique improves the efficiency of alpha–beta pruning, which in turn improves the efficiency of the minimax algorithm. Alpha–beta pruning works best when the best moves are considered first. This is because the best moves are the ones most likely to produce a cutoff, a condition where the game-playing program knows that the position it is considering could not possibly have resulted from best play by both sides and so need not be considered further. I.e. the game-playing program will always make its best available move for each position. It only needs to consider the other player's possible responses to that best move, and can skip evaluation of responses to (worse) moves it will not make.

The killer heuristic attempts to produce a cutoff by assuming that a move that produced a cutoff in another branch of the game tree at the same depth is likely to produce a cutoff in the present position, that is to say that a move that was a very good move from a different (but possibly similar) position might also be a good move in the present position. By trying the killer move before other moves, a game-playing program can often produce an early cutoff, saving itself the effort of considering or even generating all legal moves from a position.

In practical implementation, game-playing programs frequently keep track of two killer moves for each depth of the game tree (greater than depth of 1) and see if either of these moves, if legal, produces a cutoff before the program generates and considers the rest of the possible moves. If a non-killer move produces a cutoff, it replaces one of the two killer moves at its depth. This idea can be generalized into a set of refutation tables.

A generalization of the killer heuristic is the history heuristic. The history heuristic can be implemented as a table that is indexed by some characteristic of the move, for example "from" and "to" squares or piece moving and the "to" square. When there is a cutoff, the appropriate entry in the table is incremented, such as by adding d² or 2d where d is the current search depth. Beyond an incremental depth of about 2, history information rapidly degenerates into "noise".

title: Killer heuristic


text:
Grue, Norway

Grue is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Solør. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Kirkenær. Other villages in the municipality include Bergesida, Grinder, Namnå, Risberget, Rotberget, Skasenden, and Svullrya.

The 837 km2 municipality is the 136th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Grue is the 189th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 4,572. The municipality's population density is 5.9 PD/km2 and its population has decreased by 8.5% over the previous 10-year period.

Economy: One private company (a lamp factory) has 51 employees; as of June 2024, there is less than a year until the production gets moved to an EU country.

General information
The parish of Grue was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1867, the southern district of Grue (population: 3,946) was separated to become the new municipality of Brandval. This left Grue municipality with 6,464 residents. In 1941, a small area of Grue (population: 68) was transferred to the neighboring municipality of Brandval. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1969, the Rotberget farm area (population: 23) was transferred from Åsnes Municipality to Grue. On 1 January 1974, an unpopulated part of the Lystad area was transferred from Grue to the neighboring municipality of Kongsvinger.

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Grue farm (Grǫf or Grǫfa) since the first Grue Church was built there. The name is identical with the word grǫf or grǫfa which means "depression" or "hollow".

Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 30 October 1992. The official blazon is "Per bend sinister rayonny of wolf-teeth argent and vert" (Venstre skrådelt av sølv og grønt ved buet ulvetannsnitt). This means the arms have are divided with a diagonal line that is rayonny, meaning it looks like curved wolf teeth rather than a straight line. The field (background) below the line has a tincture of Vert (green). Above the line, the field has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The flame-like line represents the clearance of farms in the woods by the use of fire and is also a remembrance of the gruesome church fire of 1822. The colors symbolize the forests and the Glomma river. The arms were designed by Harald Hallstensen. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.

Churches
The Church of Norway has two parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Grue. It is part of the Solør, Vinger og Odal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Hamar.

Geography
Grue is situated around the Glomma river and the geography is dominated largely by forests and some agricultural areas around Glomma. Grue is located in the southeast part of Innlandet county. It is bordered on the south by the municipality of Kongsvinger, on the north by the municipality of Åsnes, and on the west by Nord-Odal. To the east, it borders Sweden.

Grue was the early center for the Finnish migration which today populates the Finnskogen, a belt about 32 km wide and running continuously along the frontier in the districts of Brandval, Grue, Hof, Åsnes, and Våler. Their first population center in Norway was located around the lake of Røgden.

The rivers Løvhaugsåa and Rotna both run through the area. The lakes Hukusjøen, Skasen, Gardsjøen.

Government
Grue Municipality is responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Romerike og Glåmdal District Court and the Eidsivating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council
The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Grue is made up of 19 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.

Mayors
The mayors (ordfører) of Grue since 1838 when the municipality was established:

 * 1838-1845: Ole Arntzen Lützow
 * 1846-1847: Jørgen Cappelen Omsted
 * 1848-1857: Nicolai Astrup
 * 1858-1859: Gunder Gundersen
 * 1860-1863: Jacob Rolsdorph Andersen
 * 1864-1879: Ole Bredesen Opset
 * 1880-1883: Arne A. Omsted
 * 1883-1887: Ole Bredesen Opset
 * 1888-1898: Arne A. Omsted
 * 1899-1907: Amund Bredesen Opset
 * 1908-1913: Wilhelm Omsted
 * 1914-1919: Amund Bredesen Opset
 * 1920-1925: Magnus Vangerud
 * 1926-1928: Sigurd Woll
 * 1929-1931: Ole H. Sæther
 * 1932-1933: Arve Myrvang
 * 1933-1934: Arne Tveter
 * 1935-1935: Ole Kamphaug
 * 1936-1940: Eivind Grimstad
 * 1940-1945: Vacant due to WWII
 * 1945-1945: Martin Møllerud
 * 1946-1955: Magnus Vangerud
 * 1956-1963: Reidar Mellem
 * 1964-1964: Martin Råberget
 * 1964-1978: Thor Henriksen
 * 1979-1985: Torbjøn Øveråsen
 * 1985-1999: Ragnar Nyman
 * 1999-2007: Niels Ferdinand Rolsdorph
 * 2007-2011: Herdis Bragelien
 * 2011-2015: Niels Ferdinand Rolsdorph
 * 2015-2019: Wenche Huser Sund
 * 2019–present: Rune Grenberg (Ap)

Notable people

 * Andreas Aagaard Kiønig (1771–1856), a lawyer and representative at the Norwegian Constitutional Assembly
 * Andreas Arntzen (1777–1837), a politician, police chief, Supreme Court judge, & timber merchant
 * Mor Sæther (1793–1851), a Norwegian "klok kone" ("cunning woman"), i.e. a herbalist
 * Ole Peter Riis Høegh (1806–1852), a trained civilian architect and Bergen's first town surveyor
 * Wilhelm Maribo Schøyen (1844–1918), Norway's first government entomologist
 * Olav Strøm (1866-1963), a pioneer trade unionist
 * Kristian Prestrud (1881–1927), a naval officer and member of Amundsen's South Pole expedition
 * Hagbart Haakonsen (1895-1984), a cross-country skier who competed at the 1928 Winter Olympics
 * Åsta Holth (1904–1999), a novelist, poet and short story writer
 * Kåre Jonsborg (1912–1977), a painter and textile artist
 * Sinikka Langeland (born 1961), a traditional folk singer and kantele player
 * Tom Harald Hagen (born 1978), a football UEFA referee

title: Grue, Norway


text:
Glomma

The Glomma, or Glåma, is Norway's longest and most voluminous river. With a total length of 621 km, it has a drainage basin that covers fully 13% of Norway's surface area, all in the southern part of the country.

Geography
At its fullest length, the river runs from Aursund lake near Røros in Trøndelag and runs into the Oslofjord at Fredrikstad. Major tributaries include the Vorma River, which drains Lake Mjøsa, joining the Glomma River at Årnes in Nes. The Lågen drains into Lake Mjøsa, collecting drainage from the large Gudbrandsdalen and significantly increasing the Glomma's flow.

Because it flows through some of the richest forest districts, it has historically been Norway's leading log-floating river. The combination of raw materials, water power, and easy transport has over the centuries encouraged industry along the Glomma. Some of the country's largest manufacturing and processing concerns are found around its mouth, where supplies of timber and hydropower have been backed by excellent port facilities.

The upper limit of the Glomma valley farms is variable, but typically runs about 500 m in Østerdalen, slightly lower than in the Gudbrandsdalen, which reflects the colder climate. The treeline, with a light birch forest, rises to about 900 m in Østerdalen. Above Røros the forest is restricted to the valley floor.

The upper river valleys of Norwegian rivers have distinctive names which are vestiges of earlier cultural distinctions such as building styles, traditional clothing or bunad and domestic crafts. The upper valley of the Glomma is the Østerdal (or East Valley).

Upon entering Lake Øyeren at Fetsund, the Glomma has formed Europe's largest inland delta which reaches the opposite side of the lake, across its short axis. Some of the vast amount of silt that the Glomma deposits in Lake Øyeren is extracted to manufacture LECA building blocks widely used for in the construction of foundations in Norway.

Name
The form Glomma is used in Østfold and Akershus counties, while in Innlandet and Trøndelag counties the river is called (and written) Glåma. An older form was Glaumr; another, in Old Norse, was Raumelfr, meaning a "loud noise" or "thunder" + "river".

Several places are named after the river, for instance Glåmdal and Glåmos.

title: Glomma