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Berlin Conference

The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 met on 15 November 1884 and, after an adjournment, concluded on 26 February 1885 with the signature of a General Act regulating European colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period.

The conference was organized by Otto von Bismarck, the first chancellor of Germany, at the request of Leopold II of Belgium. The General Act of Berlin can be seen as the formalisation of the Scramble for Africa that was already in full swing. Some scholars, however, warn against an overemphasis on its role in the colonial partitioning of Africa, and draw attention to bilateral agreements concluded before and after the conference. According to a 2024 study, the conference only set the borders for the Congo region (those borders were later revised). The study finds that "most of Africa’s borders were not initially formed until after the 1884–85 Berlin Conference... most did not take their final form until over two decades later."

The conference contributed to ushering in a period of heightened colonial activity by European powers; one writer once made the point that the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 was responsible for "the old carve-up of Africa". Other writers have also laid the blame in "the partition of Africa" on the doors of the Berlin Conference. But Wm. Roger Louis holds a contrary view, although he conceded that "the Berlin Act did have a relevance to the course of the partition" of Africa. Of the fourteen countries being represented, seven of them – Austria-Hungary, Russia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden-Norway, the Ottoman Empire, and the United States – came home without any formal possessions in Africa.

Background

Prior to the conference, European diplomats approached African rulers and the French leaders had already invaded some parts of Lagos in the same manner as they had in the Western Hemisphere, by establishing a connection to local trade networks. In the early 1800s, the European demand for ivory, which was then often used in the production of luxury goods, led many European merchants into the interior markets of Africa. European spheres of power and influence were limited to coastal Africa at this time as Europeans had only established trading posts (protected by gunboats) up to this point.

In 1876, King Leopold II of Belgium, who had founded and controlled the International African Association the same year, invited Henry Morton Stanley to join him in researching and "civilising" the continent. In 1878, the International Congo Society was also formed, with more economic goals but still closely related to the former society. Leopold secretly bought off the foreign investors in the Congo Society, which was turned to imperialistic goals, with the "African Society" serving primarily as a philanthropic front.

From 1878 to 1885, Stanley returned to the Congo not as a reporter but as Leopold's agent, with the secret mission to organise what would become known as the Congo Free State soon after the closure of the Berlin Conference in August 1885. French agents discovered Leopold's plans, and in response France sent its own explorers to Africa. In 1881, French naval officer Pierre de Brazza was dispatched to central Africa, travelled into the western Congo basin, and raised the French flag over the newly founded Brazzaville in what is now the Republic of Congo. Finally, Portugal, which had essentially abandoned a colonial empire in the area, long held through the mostly defunct proxy Kingdom of Kongo, also claimed the area, based on old treaties with Restoration-era Spain and the Catholic Church. It quickly made a treaty on 26 February 1884 with its old ally, Great Britain, to block off the Congo Society's access to the Atlantic.

By the early 1880s, many factors including diplomatic successes, greater European local knowledge, and the demand for resources such as gold, timber, and rubber, triggered dramatically increased European involvement in the continent of Africa. Stanley's charting of the Congo River Basin (1874–1877) removed the last terra incognita from European maps of the continent, delineating the areas of British, Portuguese, French and Belgian control. These European nations raced to annex territory that might be claimed by rivals.

France moved to take over Tunisia, one of the last of the Barbary states, using a claim of another piracy incident. French claims by Pierre de Brazza were quickly acted on by the French military, which took control of what is now the Republic of the Congo in 1881 and Guinea in 1884. Italy became part of the Triple Alliance, an event that upset Bismarck's carefully laid plans and led Germany to join the European invasion of Africa.

In 1882, realizing the geopolitical extent of Portuguese control on the coasts, but seeing penetration by France eastward across Central Africa toward Ethiopia, the Nile, and the Suez Canal, Britain saw its vital trade route through Egypt to India threatened. Because of the collapsed Egyptian financing and a subsequent mutiny in which hundreds of British subjects were murdered or injured, Britain intervened in the nominally Ottoman Khedivate of Egypt, which it controlled for decades.

Conference
The European race for colonies made Germany start launching expeditions of its own, which frightened both British and French statesmen. Hoping to quickly soothe the brewing conflict, Belgian King Leopold II convinced France and Germany that common trade in Africa was in the best interests of all three countries. Under support from the British and the initiative of Portugal, Otto von Bismarck, the Chancellor of Germany, called on representatives of 13 nations in Europe as well as the United States to take part in the Berlin Conference in 1884 to work out a joint policy on the African continent.

The conference opened on 15 November 1884 and closed on 26 February 1885. The number of plenipotentiaries varied per nation, but these 14 countries sent representatives to attend the Berlin Conference and sign the subsequent Berlin Act:

Uniquely, the United States reserved the right to decline or to accept the conclusions of the conference.

General Act
The General Act fixed the following points:
 * Partly to gain public acceptance, the conference resolved to end slavery by African and Islamic powers. Thus, an international prohibition of the slave trade throughout their respected spheres was signed by the European members. In his novella Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad sarcastically referred to one of the participants at the conference, the International Association of the Congo (also called "International Congo Society"), as "the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs". The first name of this Society had been the "International Association for the Exploration and Civilization of Central Africa".
 * The properties occupied by Belgian King Leopold's International Congo Society, the name used in the General Act, were confirmed as the Society's. On 1 August 1885, a few months after the closure of the Berlin Conference, Leopold's Vice-Administrator General in the Congo, Francis de Winton, announced that the territory was henceforth called "the Congo Free State", a name that in fact was not in use at the time of the conference and does not appear in the General Act.  The Belgian official Law Gazette later stated that from that same 1 August 1885 onwards, Leopold II was to be considered Sovereign of the new state, again an issue never discussed, let alone decided, at the Berlin Conference.
 * The 14 signatory powers would have free trade throughout the Congo Basin as well as Lake Malawi and east of it in an area south of 5° N.
 * The Niger and Congo rivers were made free for ship traffic.
 * The Principle of Effective Occupation (based on effective occupation, see below) was introduced to prevent powers from setting up colonies in name only.
 * Any fresh act of taking possession of any portion of the African coast would have to be notified by the power taking possession, or assuming a protectorate, to the other signatory powers.
 * Definition of regions in which each European power had an exclusive right to pursue the legal ownership of land

The first reference in an international act to the obligations attaching to spheres of influence is contained in the Berlin Act.

Principle of effective occupation
The principle of effective occupation stated that a power could acquire rights over colonial lands only if it possessed them or had effective occupation: if it had treaties with local leaders, flew its flag there, and established an administration in the territory to govern it with a police force to keep order. The colonial power could also make use of the colony economically. That principle became important not only as a basis for the European powers to acquire territorial sovereignty in Africa but also for delimiting their respective overseas possessions, as effective occupation served in some instances as a criterion for settling colonial boundary disputes. However, as the scope of the Berlin Act was limited to the lands that fronted on the African coast, European powers in numerous instances later claimed rights over interior lands without demonstrating the requirement of effective occupation, as articulated in Article 35 of the Final Act.

At the Berlin Conference, the scope of the Principle of Effective Occupation was heavily contested between Germany and France. The Germans, who were new to the continent, essentially believed that as far as the extension of power in Africa was concerned, no colonial power should have any legal right to a territory unless the state exercised strong and effective political control and, if so, only for a limited period of time, essentially an occupational force only. However, Britain's view was that Germany was a latecomer to the continent and was assumptively unlikely to gain any possessions beyond those it already held, which were swiftly proving to be more valuable than British territories. That logic caused it to be generally assumed by Britain and France that Germany had an interest in embarrassing the other European powers on the continent and forcing them to give up their possessions if they could not muster a strong political presence. On the other side, Britain had large territorial holdings there and wanted to keep them while it minimised its responsibilities and administrative costs. In the end, the British view prevailed.

The great powers' disinclination to rule their territories is apparent throughout the protocols of the Berlin Conference but especially in the Principle of Effective Occupation. In line with Germany and Britain's opposing views, the powers finally agreed that it could be established by a European power establishing some kind of base on the coast from which it was free to expand into the interior. The Europeans did not believe that the rules of occupation demanded European hegemony on the ground. The Belgians originally wanted to include that effective occupation required provisions that "cause peace to be administered", but Britain and France were the powers that had that amendment struck out of the final document.

That principle, along with others that were written at the conference, allowed the Europeans to conquer Africa but to do as little as possible to administer or control it. The principle did not apply so much to the hinterlands of Africa at the time of the conference. This gave rise to hinterland theory, which basically gave any colonial power with coastal territory the right to claim political influence over an indefinite amount of inland territory. Since Africa was irregularly shaped, that theory caused problems and was later rejected.

Agenda

 * Portugal–Britain: The Portuguese government presented a project, known as the "Pink Map", or the "Rose-Coloured Map", in which the colonies of Angola and Mozambique were united by co-option of the intervening territory (the land later became Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi). All of the countries attending the conference, except for Britain, endorsed Portugal's ambitions, and just over five years later, in 1890, the British government issued an ultimatum that demanded the Portuguese withdraw from the disputed area.
 * France–Britain: A line running from Say in Niger to Maroua, on the northeastern coast of Lake Chad, determined which part belonged to whom. France would own territory to the north of the line, and Britain would own territory to the south of it. The basin of the Nile would be British, with the French taking the basin of Lake Chad. Furthermore, between the 11th and 15th degrees north in latitude, the border would pass between Ouaddaï, which would be French, and Darfur in Sudan, which would be British. In reality, a no man's land 200 km wide was put in place between the 21st and 23rd meridians east.
 * France–Germany: The area to the north of a line, formed by the intersection of the 14th meridian east and Miltou, was designated to be French, and the area to the south would be German, later called German Cameroon.
 * Britain–Germany: The separation came in the form of a line passing through Yola, on the Benue, Dekoa, going up to the extremity of Lake Chad.
 * France–Italy: Italy was to own what lies north of a line from the intersection of the Tropic of Cancer and the 17th meridian east to the intersection of the 15th parallel north and the 21st meridian east.

Aftermath
[[File:Colonial Africa 1913 map.svg|thumb|350px|

European claims in Africa, 1913. Today's boundaries, which are largely a legacy of the colonial era, are shown.

]]

The conference provided an opportunity to channel latent European hostilities towards one another outward; provide new areas for assisting the European powers expand in the face of rising American, Russian and Japanese interests; and form constructive dialogue to limit future hostilities. In Africa, colonialism was introduced across nearly all the continent. When African independence was regained after World War II, it was in the form of fragmented states.

The Scramble for Africa sped up after the Conference since even within areas designated as their sphere of influence, the European powers had to take effective possession by the principle of effectivity. In central Africa in particular, expeditions were dispatched to coerce traditional rulers into signing treaties, using force if necessary, such as was the case for Msiri, King of Katanga, in 1891. Bedouin- and Berber-ruled states in the Sahara and the Sahel were overrun by the French in several wars by the beginning of World War I. The British moved up from South Africa and down from Egypt and conquered states such as the Mahdist State and the Sultanate of Zanzibar and, having already defeated the Zulu Kingdom in South Africa in 1879, moved on to annex the independent Boer republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State.

Within a few years, Africa was at least nominally divided up south of the Sahara. By 1895, the only independent states were:
 * 🇲🇦 Morocco, involved in colonial conflicts with Spain and France, which conquered the nation in the early 20th century.
 * 🇱🇷 Liberia, founded with the support of the United States for freed slaves to return to Africa.
 * Ethiopian Empire, which fended off Italian invasion from Eritrea in the First Italo-Ethiopian War of 1895–1896 but fell to Italian occupation in 1936 defeat during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War
 * Majeerteen sultanate flag.jpg Majeerteen Sultanate, founded in the early 18th century, it was annexed by Italy in the 20th century.
 * Majeerteen sultanate flag.jpg Sultanate of Hobyo, carved out of the former Majeerteen Sultanate, which ruled northern Somalia until the 20th century, when it was incorporated into Italian Somaliland.

The following states were annexed by the British Empire roughly a decade after (see below for more information):
 * Orange Free State, a Boer republic founded by Dutch settlers.
 * South African Republic (Transvaal), also a Boer republic

By 1902, 90% of all the land that makes up Africa was under European control. Most of the Sahara was French, but after the quelling of the Mahdi rebellion and the ending of the Fashoda crisis, the Sudan remained firmly under joint British–Egyptian rulership, with Egypt being under British occupation before becoming a British protectorate in 1914.

The Boer republics were conquered by the British in the Second Boer War from 1899 to 1902. Libya was conquered by Italy in 1911, and Morocco was divided between the French and Spanish in 1912.

Motives and David Livingstone's crusade

One of the chief stated justifications "was a desire to stamp out slavery once and for all". Before he died in 1873, Christian missionary, David Livingstone, called for a worldwide crusade to defeat the Arab-controlled slave trade in East Africa. The way to do it was to "liberate Africa" by the introduction of "commerce, Christianity" and civilization.

Crowe, Craven, and Katzenellenbogen are authors who have attempted to soften the language and therefore the intent of the conference. They warn against an overemphasis on its role in the colonial partitioning of Africa, extensively justifying it by ignoring the motivations and outcomes of the conference by only drawing attention to bilateral agreements concluded before and after the conference, regardless of whether they were finalized and followed in practice. For example, Craven has questioned the legal and economic impact of the conference.

However, the countries that ultimately participated in the Final Act ignored requirements set forth within it to establish their satellite governments, rights to the land, and trade for the benefit of their national, and domestic economies.

Analysis by historians
Historians have long marked the Berlin Conference as the formalisation of the Scramble for Africa but recently, scholars have questioned the legal and economic impact of the conference.

Some have argued the conference central to imperialism. African-American historian W. E. B. Du Bois wrote in 1948 that alongside the Atlantic slave trade in Africans a great world movement of modern times is "the partitioning of Africa after the Franco-Prussian War which, with the Berlin Conference of 1884, brought colonial imperialism to flower" and that "[t]he primary reality of imperialism in Africa today is economic," going on to expound on the extraction of wealth from the continent.

Other historians focus on the legal implications in international law and argue that the conference was only one of many (mostly bilateral) agreements between prospective colonists, which took place after the conference.

title: Berlin Conference


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Gamma globulin

Gamma globulins are a class of globulins, identified by their position after serum protein electrophoresis. The most significant gamma globulins are immunoglobulins (antibodies), although some immunoglobulins are not gamma globulins, and some gamma globulins are not immunoglobulins.

Use as medical treatment
Gamma globulin injections are usually given in an attempt to temporarily boost a patient's immunity against disease.

Injections are most commonly used on patients having been exposed to hepatitis A or measles, or to make a kidney donor and a recipient compatible regardless of blood type or tissue match. Injections are also used to boost immunity in patients unable to produce gamma globulins naturally because of an immune deficiency, such as X-linked agammaglobulinemia and hyper IgM syndrome. Such injections are less common in modern medical practice than they were previously, and injections of gamma globulin previously recommended for travelers have largely been replaced by the use of hepatitis A vaccine.

Gamma globulin infusions are also used to treat some immunological diseases, such as idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura (ITP), a disease in which the platelets are being attacked by antibodies, leading to seriously low platelet counts. It appears that gamma globulin causes the spleen to ignore the antibody-tagged platelets, thus allowing them to survive and function.

Another theory on how gamma globulin administration works in autoimmune disease is by overloading the mechanisms that degrade gamma globulins. Overloading the degradation mechanism causes the harmful gamma globulins to have a much shorter half of the life in sera.

Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) may be used in Kawasaki disease.

In 1953, gamma globulin was shown to prevent paralytic polio.

Being a product derived from bone marrow and lymph gland cells, gamma globulin injections, along with blood transfusions and intravenous drug use, can pass hepatitis C to their recipients. Once hepatitis C was identified in 1989, blood banks began screening all blood donors for the presence of the virus in their bloodstream. However, since hepatitis C is known to have been present since at least the 1940s, a gamma globulin shot received prior to the early 1990s put the recipient at risk of being infected.

Intravenous gamma globulin was FDA-approved in 2004 to reduce antibodies in a patient with kidney failure to allow that person to accept a kidney from a donor with a different blood type (ABO-incompatible), or who is an unacceptable tissue match. Stanley Jordan at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles pioneered this treatment.

Pathology
An excess is known as hypergammaglobulinemia. A deficiency is known as hypogammaglobulinemia.

A disease of gamma globulins is called a "gammopathy" (for example, in monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance).

Brutton's agammaglobulinemia is an X-linked recessive disorder characterized by recurrent infections in the early-post natal period attributable to failure of pre-B cells to mature. Unless treated with Intravenous Immunoglobulins, patients often die.

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

title: Gamma globulin


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Point of Rocks, Maryland

Point of Rocks is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Frederick County, Maryland. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 1,466.

Point of Rocks is named for the striking rock formation on the adjacent Catoctin Mountain, which was formed by the Potomac River cutting through the ridge in a water gap, a typical formation in the Appalachian Mountains. The formation is not visible from the town and can only be seen from boats on the river, or from the southern bank of the river in Virginia.

Pre-settlement
Indigenous peoples inhabited the Point of Rocks regions for centuries prior to European colonization. The Piscataway were one of the indigenous cultures to live in Point of Rocks, inhabiting an island in the Potomac River known today as Heater's Island. Eventually, conflicts with neighboring tribes and European settlers forced the migration of the Piscataway from their ancestral homelands of Prince George's County to Heater's Island around 1699, though their population was severely decreased by an outbreak of smallpox in 1704.

The Piscataways remained on the island for a few more years before migrating north into Pennsylvania and New York.

About a decade after the Piscataway abandoned their settlement on Heater's Island, the first European settler in Point of Rocks, Arthur Nelson, received a patent for a tract of land called "Nelson's Island." The Nelson Family retained their status as prominent landholders in Point of Rocks in the early-18th century, developing several plantations on which tobacco was grown. Commercial interests in the region led the Nelsons to petition for a road to be built connecting Frederick and "Nelson's Ferry," the first English-language name assigned to the village that became Point of Rocks. This road was eventually constructed and became known as Ballenger Creek Pike.

19th and 20th centuries
In the early-19th century, the arrival of the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad led to an increase in settlement and industry in the Point of Rocks area. The village became a temporary terminus for both the C&O Canal and the B&O Railroad in 1828 when the companies went to court to determine which would control the right of way through the narrow passage between the Potomac River and Catoctin Mountain immediately west of Point of Rocks. After six years of court battles, the companies agreed to compromise and share the right of way, the B&O Railroad eventually constructing a tunnel through the mountain to broaden its lines through the narrow water gap.

With the construction of the C&O Canal and the B&O Railroad and its strategic location on the Potomac River, Point of Rocks was poised to become a regional transportation hub and center of industrial activity. In 1835, Charles Johnson, the owner of the land on which Point of Rocks was built, had lots surveyed and streets laid out for a new town.

From the earliest days of European settlement in Point of Rocks, forced labor through indentured servitude and enslavement of African Americans drove the local economy. Tobacco plantations in the fertile lands of the lower Monocacy Valley were operated based on the labor of enslaved men and women. The plantation owners also used their slaves to build houses, places of business, and public buildings, such as St. Paul's Episcopal Church, completed in 1841 using the labor of enslaved men and women from the Duval Plantation. Nearby Licksville, a small community located near Noland's Ferry crossing the Potomac River was the site of an active slave market.

American Civil War
Situated on the state line between Maryland and the seceded state of Virginia, Point of Rocks was the site of several small skirmishes and military actions during the Civil War. The B&O Railroad and C&O Canal were important targets for Confederate raiders across the Potomac River. In 1861, then Colonel Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson led a raid at Point of Rocks, shutting off the rail lines east of the town and capturing 56 locomotives and 300 rail cars.

Neighboring Loudoun County, Virginia, was home to several small pockets of Union supporters, including Quakers who lived in villages like Waterford and Lincoln who did not support secession or the Confederate cause for defending the institution of slavery. Point of Rocks became a haven for those families who were forced to flee Virginia.

In 1862, Captain Samuel C. Means, a native of Waterford, Virginia but then living in Point of Rocks where he was a merchant and B&O Railroad station manager, raised a cavalry unit called the Loudoun Rangers, the only organized unit from Virginia to fight for the Union. The Loudoun Rangers spent most of 1862 and 1863 fighting alongside Cole's Maryland Cavalry (the First Potomac Home Brigade) to protect the C&O Canal and the B&O Railroad from frequent Confederate raids. Cole's Maryland Cavalry encamped at Point of Rocks, occupying St. Paul's Episcopal Church where they burned the interior furnishings.

Lt. Col. John S. Mosby and his 43rd Battalion of Virginia Cavalry, known as "Mosby's Raiders", crossed the Potomac and attached Union garrison forces at Point of Rocks in 1864 in a brief campaign called the "Calico Raid." The area was also the scene of military maneuvers and brief skirmishes during Valley Campaigns of 1864 and the Battle of Monocacy on July 9, 1864.

After the Civil War, Point of Rocks remained a place of conflict. In 1879, James Carroll was lynched in Point of Rocks after being accused of breaking into the home of Richard Thomas and raping his wife. Having fled down the C&O Canal towpath to Georgetown, Carroll was apprehended on April 16, 1879. While being transported to Frederick for trial, a mob swarmed the train as it approached the station in Point of Rocks, removed Carroll from police custody, and hanged him in an adjacent field. The death of Carroll, whose alleged crimes have never been proven or disproven, was one of three recorded lynchings to take place in Frederick County.

In 1873, the B&O Railroad opened its Metropolitan Branch, connecting Washington D.C. to its Old Main Line in a junction at Point of Rocks. A new station, which has become a noted town landmark, was erected the same year. The Gothic Revival styled brick building was designed by E. Francis Baldwin and is situated in the center of the junction of the two lines.

Several other prominent structures were built in the town during the Victorian era, including the town's Methodist Church (1894), Holy Trinity Episcopal Church (1887, replaced in 1912), St. Luke's Lutheran Church (1889), and Masonic Temple (1898).

21st century
In 2001, Duke Energy filed an application with the Maryland Public Service Commission to construct a power plant on the north edge of town. In November 2002, however, Duke officially canceled its proposal, though it retains property in the area.

The Point of Rocks railroad station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and St. Paul's Episcopal Church was listed in 1978.

Flooding
Older portions of the town are on the Potomac River floodplain and have been repeatedly inundated. An ongoing Federal Emergency Management Agency program to reduce flood insurance payouts has resulted in the purchase and demolition of a large portion of structures on the lowest-lying properties.

Geography
Point of Rocks is located in southern Frederick County, on the north bank of the Potomac River, and is bordered to the west by U.S. Route 15, which here runs along the eastern base of Catoctin Mountain. Via US 15 it is 13 mi north to Frederick, the county seat, and 12 mi south across the Potomac River to Leesburg, Virginia. Maryland Route 28 leads east from Point of Rocks through rural Frederick County and Montgomery County 29 mi to Rockville. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Point of Rocks has a total area of 2.85 sqkm, all land.

Transportation
The community contains the Point of Rocks Bridge of U.S. Route 15 over the Potomac River into Virginia. The bridge is the first such crossing of the river upstream of the American Legion Memorial Bridge on I-495 in Montgomery County. The only other crossing between them is White's Ferry.

Rail service through Point of Rocks began with the 1834 opening of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's main line, which ended at the next stop in Sandy Hook, Maryland, before the Harpers Ferry Crossing across the Potomac and into Virginia opened in 1839.

Point of Rocks is a passenger station stop on the MARC Brunswick Line. The station, designed by Ephraim Francis Baldwin, was built by the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad and completed in 1876. Marking the junction between CSX's Metropolitan Subdivision (the current main line) and the Old Main Line Subdivision, it remains one of the former B&O's signature landmarks, and is a popular subject of railroad photography.

Notable person

 * Craig Davis, author and international development expert

title: Point of Rocks, Maryland


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Talk:Arthur Kellermann

"Peer reviewed research supports Kellerman's research".
The cite to this - https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/more-guns-do-not-stop-more-crimes-evidence-shows/ - does not say what the material in our article says. It's a fine line, but Kellerman's research was specifically about 'guns in the home'. He published three studies about that. The Sciam article states "More than 30 peer-reviewed studies, focusing on individuals as well as populations, have been published that confirm what Kellermann's studies suggested:" - emphasis mine. Sciam is a respected source, certainly. But their article is conflating the notion that vaguely similar studies confirm findings similar to Kellerman's, and they don't link to these claimed 30 peer reviewed studies. If the studies don't overtly state that they are attempting to replicate Kellerman's findings (none have, in fact), then this is not really appropriate to the article, unless our article also affirmatively states that the other studies were similar - not directly confirming. Further, as I mentioned in my edit, this claim is not detailed or expanded upon within the article. The lede is not the place for such claims, at least not until they are actually detailed in the body. Anastrophe (talk) 21:40, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

I want to add, just to be clear, I'm not interested in (nor going to) engage in an edit war about this. Nor am I going to stomp my feet then dig in my heels. I simply feel that the text as presented needs to be in the body, sourced beyond the Sciam article's claim, before either the NRA's criticisms or their negation are in the lede.Anastrophe (talk) 22:33, 22 January 2018 (UTC)
 * This feels like you're digging around for semantic wedges that you can use to discredit a reliable source. Let's be clear: the Scientific American piece, which we all agree is a reliable source, states: I presented this material in our article, writing:  That, to me, is as basic and accurate a restatement of the source material as one could imagine. You make an argument about the word "suggested", and then insert a bunch of your own words about "vaguely similar" etc. This is, frankly, pretty silly. Per the source, Kellermann's work "suggested" that guns are associated with violence and homicide, and other researchers' work subsequently "confirm[ed]" that finding. You're trying to artificially weaken that very clear statement from the source, which is inappropriate. You note that Scientific American doesn't link to the 30 studies mentioned in the source; this has absolutely no bearing on the discussion, and no validity as an argument. Scientific American is a reliable source. You don't get to make up a requirement that we can disregard a reliable source if studies aren't hyperlinked to your satisfaction. You then state that the 30 peer-reviewed studies should be disregarded unless they explicitly state that they set out to replicate Kellermann's work. This is a very basic misunderstanding on your part about how science, scientific writing, and the scientific process operate. In any case, the link between these studies and Kellermann's work has already been made by a reliable source (the Scientific American article), so it's totally inappropriate for you as a Wikipedia editor to overrule that with your personal judgement that the studies aren't sufficiently similar. I'm not going to engage in an edit war either, but I will note that this article is covered by WP:BLP, and as such, I'm not willing to allow language that falsely downplays the degree of support for Kellermann's work. Specifically, it is not appropriate to simply state that the NRA "disputes" his work. That language implies that this is a scientific back-and-forth where both "sides" have roughly equal validity. In reality, the peer-reviewed scholarly literature backs Kellermann's findings. If we don't make that clear, then we're violating WP:NPOV and WP:WEIGHT, by falsely implying rough equivalence where none exists. Finally, I'm planning to re-instate the language about the NRA "attacking" Kellermann and his work. The objection—that this language implies a physical attack—is frankly ludicrous. First of all, Kellermann's research is intangible and cannot be physically attacked. Secondly, if the NRA had physically attacked a researcher, that would be remarkable and we'd certainly describe it in clear detail. The sources clearly support this language; the NRA did not respond by scientifically disputing Kellermann's findings, but rather waged a political campaign to deny funding and filed a baseless "ethics" complaint against Kellermann. MastCell Talk 22:57, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

 * Setting aside your unnecessary personalized commentary. Much of what you wrote is assumptions about my motive; uncivil. If you find a source that actually states that the NRA "attacked Kellerman", then you can use that wording; neither of the cites do so. There is nothing ludicrous about the clear distinction between "The NRA attacked Kellerman" vs "The NRA attacked his research". I did not suggest a physical attack on his research, which would be ludicrous, except that you've put those words in my mouth. Uncivil. The objections to Kellerman's work are widespread and notable; the WaPo article goes into detail regarding Kleck et al. If it were not notable, it couldn't go in the article. If would be POV to _exclude_ criticism of his work, since it has been widely written about. If you suggest that only scientific criticism is allowed, then this stops being a BLP - controversy that has been published in RS is certainly appropriate.
 * I would say that I will dig in my heels on "attacked Kellerman". Your sources don't back that up, and it's inappropriately phrased. They 'attacked', if you must, his research - not Mr. Kellerman. Anastrophe (talk) 23:39, 22 January 2018 (UTC)
 * "Kellerman's research has been strongly disputed by gun rights organizations." That is true, supported by the cites, and neutrally worded. Anastrophe (talk) 23:46, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

 * And I would argue that you are distorting things and that it is NOT "as basic and accurate a restatement of the source material as one could imagine.":Especially how you turn the following statement:  into  There is a pretty big difference between  and . One is a neutral statement about guns and violence and the other is a clear statement regarding gun ownership that does not exist in the original sentence.  Nehcrum (talk) 22:18, 5 March 2020 (UTC)

Section reverted
I have reverted the addition of the following section: However it was proven that most of the guns used in homicides in the 1993 Kellermann were not the same guns kept in the home. As the original 1993 study did not include information on the origin of the guns used in the homicides, Gary Kleck used the dataset from a 1998 study from Kellermann that also looked at household homicides and gun ownership; this more recent study partially overlapped the years researched in the 1993 study as well as including two of the same cities (Seattle and Memphis). In this study Kellermann reported that only 14.2% of the guns used in household homicides were the same ones kept in the home. 67% involved guns brought to the home from elsewhere, and the remaning percentage unknown. Once this was taken into account by examing only incidences where the household homicide involved guns kept in the home, there were no significant associations between gun ownership and homicide risk. Kellermann responded to Kleck with the argument that the risk increase that was observed not necessarily needing to be the result of the same gun kept in the household. Kellermann further states that failed self-defense cases could result in the homicide risk that was attributable to guns. This is for a couple reasons. One, using a single critical article to declare anything flatly "proven" is dubious; note that we do not say that any of Kellermann's findings are "proven." We might say that Kleck argued this in response to Kellermann, but not that Kleck "proved" Kellermann wrong. Secondly, the extensive back-and-forth and details are unsuitable for what is a brief biographical article; it places undue weight on Kleck's critical analysis to give it more space than any one of Kellermann's own analyses are given. This article shouldn't turn into a back-and-forth place to spread a debate about gun control. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 04:56, 13 October 2018 (UTC)

 * If this was reworded to "kleck argued" instead of "proven". Would this suffice? This is an important counter-argument and Kellermann himself went out of his way to publish a reply. Why is the page about Gary Kleck allowed to contain a criticism by Hemenway regarding DGUs, but Kellermann's isn't? These are simply double standards.05:03, 13 October 2018 (UTC)72.211.160.224 (talk)

 * Eliminating 'proven' is certainly required. However, the section is too long as well, as noted by NorthBySouthBaranof. It would need to be drastically trimmed in order to mitigate WP:UNDUE. Anastrophe (talk) 05:37, 13 October 2018 (UTC)

 * Done. Let me know if there are any issues.72.211.160.224 (talk) 06:03, 13 October 2018 (UTC)
 * The current version is fair and appropriate; thanks for working collaboratively and addressing my concerns. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 15:47, 13 October 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Arthur Kellermann


text:
User:Hwebers

Hi!

My name is Enrico Webers, a 37 year old man living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

I discovered Wikipedia mid 2003 and I fell in love with it straight away!

My watchlist consists of entries like Homosexuality, Toronto, Geneva, easyJet, etc.

I look forward to making many more edits to this great initiative!

Cheers, Enrico

title: User:Hwebers


text:
Saudi Aramco

Saudi Aramco (أرامكو السعودية ), officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Group or simply Aramco (formerly Arabian-American Oil Company), is a state-owned petroleum and natural gas company that is the national oil company of Saudi Arabia. , it is the second-largest company in the world by revenue and is headquartered in Dhahran. Saudi Aramco has both the world's second-largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 270 Goilbbl, and largest daily oil production of all oil-producing companies. It is the single greatest contributor to global carbon emissions of any company in the world since 1965.

Saudi Aramco operates the world's largest single hydrocarbon network, the Master Gas System. In 2013, its crude oil production total was 3.4 Goilbbl, and it manages over one hundred oil and gas fields in Saudi Arabia, including 288.4 trillion standard cubic feet (scf) of natural gas reserves. Along the Eastern Province, Saudi Aramco most notably operates the Ghawar Field (the world's largest onshore oil field) and the Safaniya Field (the world's largest offshore oil field).

On 11 December 2019, the company's shares commenced trading on the Tadawul stock exchange. The shares rose to 35.2 Saudi riyals, giving it a market capitalization of about US$1.88 trillion, and surpassed the US$2 trillion mark on the second day of trading.

History
Saudi Aramco's origins trace to the oil shortages of World War I and the exclusion of American companies from Mesopotamia by the United Kingdom and France under the San Remo Petroleum Agreement of 1920. The US administration had popular support for an "Open Door policy", which Herbert Hoover, secretary of commerce, initiated in 1921. Standard Oil of California (SoCal) was among those US companies seeking new sources of oil from abroad.

The Saudi Arabian government granted a concession to SoCal in preference to a rival bid from the Iraq Petroleum Company. The concession allowed SoCal to explore for oil in Saudi Arabia. SoCal assigned this concession to a wholly owned subsidiary, California-Arabian Standard Oil (CASOC). In 1936, with the company having had no success at locating oil, the Texas Company (Texaco) purchased a 50% stake of the concession. After four years of fruitless exploration, the first success came with the seventh drill site in Dhahran in 1938, a well referred to as Dammam No. 7. This well immediately produced over 1500 oilbbl/d, giving the company confidence to continue. On 31 January 1944, the company name was changed from California-Arabian Standard Oil Co. to Arabian American Oil Co. (or Aramco). In 1948, Standard Oil of New Jersey (later known as Exxon) purchased 30% and Socony Vacuum (later Mobil) purchased 10% of the company, with SoCal and Texaco retaining 30% each. The newcomers were also shareholders in the Iraq Petroleum Co. and had to get the restrictions of the Red Line Agreement lifted in order to be free to enter into this arrangement. In 1949, ARAMCO had made incursions into the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, leading to a border dispute between Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia. In 1950, King Abdulaziz threatened to nationalize his country's oil facilities, thus pressuring Aramco to agree to share profits 50/50.

A similar process had taken place with American oil companies in Venezuela a few years earlier. The American government granted US Aramco member companies a tax break known as the golden gimmick equivalent to the profits given to King Abdulaziz. In the wake of the new arrangement, the company's headquarters were moved from New York to Dhahran. In 1951, the company discovered the Safaniya Oil Field, the world's largest offshore field. In 1957, the discovery of smaller connected oil fields confirmed the Ghawar Field as the world's largest onshore field.

In 1975, the Saudi Arabia second five-year economic plan included a Master Gas Plan. Natural gas would be used to generate power, rather than flaring the gas. The plan counted on using the associated gas, but by 1985, Aramco was able to include a billion standard cubic foot per day (Bscfd) of non-associated gas. This non-associated gas was produced from the Kuff Formation, which is a limestone layer 650 m below the oil producing Arab Zone. In 1994, Aramco discovered more non-associated gas in the deeper Jawf sandstone formation, and built plants in Hawiyah and Haradh to process it. This increased the capacity of the Master Gas System to 9.4 billion scfd.

Yom Kippur War
In 1973, following US support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War, the Saudi Arabian government acquired a 25% "participation interest" in Aramco's assets. It increased its participation interest to 60% in 1974 and acquired the remaining 40% interest in 1976. Aramco continued to operate and manage the former Aramco assets, including its concessionary interest in certain Saudi Arab oil fields, on behalf of the Saudi Arab Government until 1988. In November 1988, a royal decree created a new Saudi Arab company, the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, to take control of the former Aramco assets (or Saudi Aramco) and took the management and operations control of Saudi Arabia's oil and gas fields from Aramco and its partners. In 1989–90, high-quality oil and gas were discovered in three areas south of Riyadh: the Raghib area about 77 mi southeast of the capital.

Persian Gulf War
In September 1990, after the start of the Persian Gulf War, Aramco was expected to replace much of the oil production removed from the global market due to the embargo of Iraq and occupied Kuwait. This amounted to producing an extra 4.8 million barrels per day (Mbpd) to keep the global oil market stable. In addition, Aramco was expected to provide all of the coalition aviation and diesel needs. Aramco recommissioned 146 Harmaliyah, Khurais, and Ghawar oil wells with associated gas oil separation plants, and saltwater treatment pipeline, that had been mothballed during the 1980s oil price collapse. Daily production increased from 5.4 Mbpd in July to 8.5 Mbpd in December 1990 after a three-month de-mothball effort.

Starting in 1990, Aramco embarked on an expansion of crude oil sales in the Asian market. Agreements with South Korea, the Philippines, and China resulted. By 2016, about 70% of Aramco's crude oil sales were to Asia.

2000s
In May 2001, Saudi Arabia announced the Gas Initiative, which proposed forming three joint ventures with eight IOCs for gas exploration on pure upstream acreage. Core Venture 1 included south Ghawar and north Rub' Al-Khali, Core Venture 2 included the Red Sea, while Core Venture 3 involved Shaybah and Kidan. In 2003, Royal Dutch Shell and TotalEnergies formed a partnership with Saudi Aramco in Core Venture 3. In 2004, Core Venture 1 became three separate joint ventures with Saudi Aramco holding 20%, one with Lukoil, a second with Sinopec, and a third with Repsol.

By 2004, Aramco was producing 8.6 million barrels per day (mbpd) out of a potential 10 mbpd. In 2005, Aramco launched a five-year plan to spend US$50 billion to increase their daily capacity to 12.5 mbpd by increasing production and refining capacity and doubling the number of drilling rigs.

In 2005, Saudi Aramco was the world's largest company with an estimated market value of US$781 billion.

In June 2008, in response to crude oil prices exceeding US$130 a barrel, Aramco announced it would increase production to 9.7 million barrels per day (mbpd). Then as prices plummeted, Aramco stated in January 2009, that it would reduce production to 7.7 mbpd.

In 2011, Saudi Aramco started production from the Karan Gas Field, with an output of more than 400 million scf per day.

In January 2016, the Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, announced he was considering listing shares of the state-owned company, and selling around 5% of them in order to build a large sovereign wealth fund.

On 26 April 2017, Saudi security forces thwarted an attempted attack on an Aramco oil distribution center involving an unmanned boat from Yemen.

The Wall Street Journal reported in September 2018, Aramco was considering a US$1 billion venture-capital fund to invest in international technology firms.

In June 2019, a report by Financial Times claimed that Aramco had been bearing the ministry-related expenses; boosting the finance ministry budget allocation. It also included Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih’s company-related and diplomatic trips, as well as his stays in luxurious hotels. However, an ally mentioned that Falih’s policies have delivered additional oil revenues that far exceeded his expenses.

In September 2019, Saudi Arabia appointed Yasir Al-Rumayyan as the Chairman of Aramco. Al-Rumayyan became head of the country’s sovereign wealth fund by replacing Khalid Al-Falih, who was holding the position since 2015.

2012 cyber attack
Aramco computers were attacked by a virus on 15 August 2012. The following day Aramco announced that none of the infected computers were part of the network directly tied to oil production, and that the company would soon resume full operations. Hackers claimed responsibility for the spread of the computer virus. The virus hit companies within the oil and energy sectors. A group named "Cutting Sword of Justice" claimed responsibility for an attack on 30,000 Saudi Aramco workstations, causing the company to spend months restoring their services. The group later indicated that the Shamoon virus had been used in the attack. Due to this attack, the main site of Aramco went down and a message came to the home page apologizing to customers. Computer security specialists said that "The attack, known as Shamoon, is said to have hit "at least one organization" in the sector. Shamoon is capable of wiping files and rendering several computers on a network unusable." Richard Clarke suggests the attack was part of Iran's retaliation for the US involvement in Stuxnet. Security researcher Chris Kubecka, who helped the company establish security after the attack, detailed the level of sophistication in her Black Hat USA 2015 presentation and episode 30 of Darknet Diaries.

2019 drone attack
On 14 September 2019, there was a drone attack on two Saudi Aramco plants: the Abqaiq oil processing facility and Khurais oil field. Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attack. The attack cut 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of Saudi crude output, over 5% of the world's supply. There were discussions by Saudi Arabian officials on postponing Aramco's IPO, because the attacks "sidelined more than half of the kingdom's output" of oil.

2019 initial public offering (IPO)
Since around 2018, Saudi Arabia had been considering to put a portion of Saudi Aramco's ownership, up to 5%, onto public trading via a staged initial public offering (IPO), as to reduce the cost to the government of running the company. While the IPO had been vetted by major banks, the IPO was delayed over concerns of Aramco's corporate structure through 2018 into 2019. The September 2019 drone attacks on Aramco's facilities also delayed the onset of the IPO.

On 9 April 2019, Aramco issued bonds collectively valued at US$12 billion. Its first international bond issue received more than US$100 billion in orders from foreign investors, which breaks all records for a bond issue by an emerging market entity.

Aramco announced on Sunday 3 November 2019 its plan to list 1.5% of its value as an IPO on the Tadawul stock exchange.

On 9 November 2019, Saudi Aramco released a 600-page prospectus giving details of the IPO. According to the specifications provided, up to 0.5% of the shares were locked for individual retail investors.

On 4 December 2019, Saudi Aramco priced its offering at 32 Saudi riyals (approximately US$8.53 at the time) per share. The company generated subscriptions of total amount equals US$119 billion representing 456% of total offer shares. It raised US$25.6 billion in its IPO, making it the world's largest IPO, succeeding that of the Alibaba Group in 2014. The company commenced trading on Tadawul on 11 December 2019, with shares rising 10% to 35.2 riyals, giving the company a market capitalization of about US$1.88 trillion, and making Saudi Aramco the world's largest listed company. The entire Tadawul has a market capitalization of US$2.22 trillion.

Global Medium Term Note Programme
According to a bourse filing made by Aramco, the likes of Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and NCB Capital were hired by the company for organizing investor calls prior to the planned transaction. The document published by one of the other banks said to be involved in the deal showed that the deal included BNP Paribas, MUFG, BofA Securities, SMBC Nikko, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Societe Generale, and BOC International. The company has reported a fall in the net profit of its third-quarter for November 2020, due to increased crude prices and a drop in its demand following the COVID-19 pandemic.

2020s
On 10 March 2020 Saudi Aramco announced a global partnership with Formula One landing a multi-year deal.

On 17 June 2020, Saudi Aramco acquired a 70% share in SABIC, a chemicals manufacturing company.

In June 2020, Saudi Aramco laid off nearly 500 of its more than 70,000 employees, as global energy firms reduced their workforce due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the workers who lost their job at Aramco were foreigners.

On 31 July 2020, Saudi Aramco lost its title as the world’s largest listed company by market capitalization to Apple.

On 9 August 2020, Saudi Aramco reported a 50% fall in net income for the first half of its financial year, as demand for oil and prices continued to fall due to the coronavirus crisis.

On 3 November 2020, Saudi Aramco reported a 44.6% drop in third-quarter net profit amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

On 14 December 2020, Saudi state TV announced that an oil tanker carrying over 60,000 metric tons of unleaded gasoline from an Aramco refinery at Yanbu, had been attacked by a smaller boat rigged with explosives.

In March 2021, Saudi Aramco announced that earnings in 2020 fell by nearly 45% compared with 2019, as lockdowns around the world following the COVID-19 pandemic curbed demand for oil.

On 19 March 2021, an Aramco refinery was attacked by six bomb-laden drones. The attack, which was claimed by Houthi rebels, started a fire but caused no injuries or damage, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

On 21 March 2021, Saudi Aramco signed an agreement to secure China's energy supplies for the next 50 years, and also to develop new technologies to combat climate change. More recently, they signed a deal with a consortium led by EIG.

In July 2021, Saudi Aramco appointed former HSBC Holdings Plc Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver to the company's board of directors.

In October 2021, Saudi Aramco announced plans to achieve net-zero carbon emissions from its wholly-owned operations by 2060.

On 20 November 2021, Houthi fighters took credit for launching 14 drones at military targets in Riyadh, Abha, Jizan, Najran, and Jeddah, and Aramco's refineries in Jeddah.

In 2021, The Guardian reported that Aramco was not trying to diversify at the same rate as other oil companies, such as Shell and BP. Rather, Aramco announced in 2021 that the company intended to increase crude capacity from 12m barrels a day to 13m barrels by 2027.

In February 2022, following crude's ascent to nearly $95 per barrel, Saudi Arabia's Aramco boosted oil prices for clients in Asia, the United States, and Europe.

In March 2022, Houthi fighters attacked an Aramco storage site in Jeddah causing a fire in two storage tanks. The incident occurred during qualifying for the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

On 11 May 2022, Saudi Aramco became the largest (most valuable) company in the world by market cap, surpassing Apple Inc.

In August 2022, Saudi Aramco announced that it would acquire Valvoline's petroleum unit for $2.65 billion.

In March 2023, Saudi Aramco announced that they had seen record profits of $161 billion as prices of petrol soared following the COVID-19 pandemic. The figures eclipsed the numbers posted by ExxonMobil and Shell, who reported $55.7 and $39.9 billion in profit respectively.

In March 2023, Saudi Aramco announced it was going to acquire a 10% stake in China's Rongsheng Petrochemical Co. Ltd, with an estimated purchase price of $3.6 billion, and plans to build a new refining and petrochemical complex in northeast China through a joint venture.

In September 2023, it was announced that Saudi Aramco had reached an agreement with the Latin American private equity fund, Southern Cross Group to acquire the Santiago-headquartered fuel retailer, Esmax Distribución SPA, operator of Petrobras-branded service stations in Chile. The acquisition marks Saudi Aramco's entry into the South American fuel retailing market, and beginning in May 2024, the 300 Petrobras service stations in Chile will be gradually converted to Aramco service stations.

In September 2023, Indian engineering and construction giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T) signed a contract with Saudi Aramco. The Jafoor unconventional gas development expansion project in Saudi Arabia where L&T will build a gas processing plant and major processing facilities is worth $2.9 billion.

In December 2023, Saudi Aramco acquired 40% shares in Gas & Oil Pakistan for an undisclosed amount.

Operation
Saudi Aramco is headquartered in Dhahran, but its operations span the globe and include exploration, production, refining, chemicals, distribution and marketing. All these activities of the company are monitored by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources together with the Supreme Council for Petroleum and Minerals. However, the ministry has much more responsibility in this regard than the council.

Board of directors

 * Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan (chairman), member of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs (Saudi Arabia)
 * Ibrahim Abdulaziz Al-Assaf, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Finance
 * Mohammed Al-Jadaan, current Minister of Finance
 * Mohammad M. Al-Tuwaijri, former Minister of Economy and Planning
 * Nabil Al-Amoudi, former Minister of Transport
 * Mark Moody-Stuart, former group managing director and chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, Anglo American, HSBC, and the Foundation for the United Nations Global Compact
 * Andrew N. Liveris, former chairman and CEO of Dow Chemical
 * Lynn Elsenhans, former chairwoman and CEO of Sunoco
 * Peter Cella, former president and CEO of Chevron Philips Chemical
 * Mark Weinberger, former chairman and CEO of Ernst & Young
 * Amin H. Nasser, president and CEO of Saudi Aramco

Exploration
A significant portion of the Saudi Aramco workforce consists of geophysicists and geologists. Saudi Aramco has been exploring for oil and gas reservoirs since 1982. Most of this process takes place at the EXPEC Advanced Research Center. Originally, Saudi Aramco used Cray Supercomputers (CRAY-1M) in its EXPEC Advanced Research Center (ECC) to assist in processing the colossal quantity of data obtained during exploration and in 2001, ECC decided to use Linux clusters as a replacement for the decommissioned Cray systems. ECC installed a new supercomputing system in late 2009 with a disk storage capacity of 1,050 terabytes (i.e, exceeding one petabyte), the largest storage installation in Saudi Aramco's history to support its exploration in the frontier areas and the Red Sea.

Refining and chemicals
While the company did not originally plan on refining oil, the Saudi government wished to have only one company dealing with oil production. Therefore, on 1 July 1993, the government issued a royal decree merging Saudi Aramco with Samarec, the country's oil refining company. The following year, a Saudi Aramco subsidiary acquired a 40% equity interest in Petron Corporation, the largest crude oil refiner and marketer in the Philippines. Since then, Saudi Aramco has taken on the responsibility of refining oil and distributing it in the country. In 2008, Saudi Aramco sold its entire stake to the Ashmore Group, a London-listed investment group. Ashmore acquired an additional 11% when it made a required tender offer to other shareholders. By July 2008, Ashmore, through its SEA Refinery Holdings B.V., had a 50.57% of Petron's stock. Ashmore's payment was made in December 2008. In December 2008, Ashmore acquired PNOC's 40% stake. In the same month, San Miguel Corporation (SMC) said it was in the final stages of negotiations with the Ashmore Group to buy up to 50.1% of Petron. In 2010, SMC acquired majority control of Petron Corporation.

Currently, Saudi Aramco's refining capacity is 5.4 Moilbbl/d (International joint and equity ventures: 2,500 Moilbbl/d, domestic joint ventures: 1,900 mpbd, and wholly owned domestic operations: 1000 Moilbbl/d.)

Saudi Aramco's downstream operations are shifting emphasis to integrate refineries with petrochemical facilities. Their first venture into it is with Petro Rabigh, which is a joint venture with Sumitomo Chemical Co. that began in 2005 on the coast of the Red Sea. In order to become a global leader in chemicals, Aramco will acquire 50% of Royal Dutch Shell's stake in their refiner in Saudi Arabia for US$631 million.

List of refineries
List of domestic refineries:
 * Jazan Refinery and terminal projects (JRTP) (400000 oilbbl/d), Jazan construction is ongoing.
 * Jeddah Refinery (78000 oilbbl/d) Jeddah converted to product storage terminal in November 2017.
 * Ras Tanura Refinery (550000 oilbbl/d) (includes a Crude Distillation Unit, a Gas Condensate Unit, a hydrocracker, and catalytic reforming)
 * The Saudi Aramco Jubail Refinery Co. (SASREF), Jubail (305000 oilbbl/d)
 * Riyadh Refinery (126000 oilbbl/d)
 * Yanbu Refinery (245000 oilbbl/d)

List of domestic refining ventures:
 * The Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery Co. Ltd. (SAMREF), Yanbu (400000 oilbbl/d)
 * Petro Rabigh, Rabigh (400000 oilbbl/d)
 * Saudi Aramco Base Oil Co. (Luberef)
 * Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Co. (SATORP), Jubail (400000 oilbbl/d)
 * Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refinery (YASREF), Yanbu (400000 oilbbl/d)

List of international refining ventures:
 * Fujian Refining and Petrochemical Co. (FRPC), People's Republic of China
 * Sinopec SenMei (Fujian) Petroleum Co. Ltd. (SSPC), People's Republic of China
 * Motiva Enterprises LLC, United States, Port Arthur Texas 635000 oilbbl/d
 * Showa Shell, Japan 445000 oilbbl/d
 * S-Oil, Republic of Korea 669000 oilbbl/d
 * Saudi Refining Inc., United States
 * Reliance Industries, (no investment) India

Saudi Aramco at one point had been exploring projects in Pakistan, including a $10 billion refinery project in Gwandar which has since been cancelled. In 2022 it was revealed that Saudi Aramco was creating a joint venture with North Huajin Chemical Industries group to create a new company called Huajin Aramco Petrochemical Company which would develop a 300,000 bpd refining facility with ethylene steam cracking capabilities.

Shipping
Saudi Aramco has employed several tankers to ship crude oil, refined oil, and natural gas to various countries. It used to have its own created subsidiary company, Vela International Marine, which was merged with Bahri company, to handle shipping to North America, Europe, and Asia. It is a stakeholder in the King Salman Global Maritime Industries Complex, a shipyard that will be the largest in the world when complete.

Global investment
Saudi Aramco expanded its presence worldwide to include the three major global energy markets of Asia, Europe, and North America. In April 2019, Aramco has signed a deal to acquire a 13% stake in South Korean oil refiner Hyundai Oilbank for US$1.24 billion. Moreover, on 11 April 2019, Aramco signed an agreement with Poland’s leading oil refiner PKN Orlen to supply it with Arabian Crude Oil.

Liquefied natural gas
Aramco is planning to be a major producer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the world. It sold its first cargo of LNG from Singapore to an Indian buyer. The company is looking globally for potential joint ventures and partnerships to achieve its goal regarding LNG market.

Saudization
The original concession agreement included Article 23; as Ali Al-Naimi pointed out, this was a "key building block in the shaping of Saudi society for decades to come." It reads, "The enterprise under this contract shall be directed and supervised by Americans who shall employ Saudi nationals as far as practicable, and in so far as the company can find suitable Saudi employees it will not employ other nationals." The first company school was started in May 1940 in the Al-Khobar home of Hijji bin Jassim, company interpreter, translator and first instructor. Al-Naimi pointed out, "From the beginning, the development of Aramco was directly tied to the betterment of Saudi Arabia." Another school was located in Dhahran in 1941, and was called the Jebel School. Boys hired into entry-level positions attended at 7 AM for four hours, followed by four hours of work in the afternoon. In 1950, Aramco built schools for 2,400 students. In 1959, Aramco sent the first group of Saudi students to college in the States. In 1970, Aramco started hiring its first high school graduates, and in 1979 started offering college scholarships. In 1965, Zafer H. Husseini was named the first Saudi manager and in 1974, Faisal Al-Bassam was named the first Saudi vice president. One of the early students was Al-Naimi, who was named the first Saudi president of Aramco in November 1983. As Al-Naimi states, "The oil company committed itself to developing qualified Saudis to become fully educated and trained industry professionals." Al-Naimi acknowledged Thomas Barger's championing of Saudization, "You, of all of Aramco's leaders, had the greatest vision when you supported the training effort of Saudi Arab employees during its early days. That visionary support and effort is bearing fruit now and many executive positions are filled by Saudis because of that effort." In 1943, 1,600 Saudis were employed at Aramco, but by 1987, nearly two-thirds of Aramco's 43,500 strong workforce were Saudis. In 1988, Al-Naimi became CEO and Hisham Nazer became chairman, the first Saudis to hold those positions. The "pinnacle of Saudization" occurred when the Shaybah oil field came on line in July 1998, after a three-year effort by a team consisting of 90% Saudis. The Aramco of 2016 still maintained an expatriate workforce of about 15%, so Aramco can, in the words of Al-Naimi, "be sure it is getting access to the latest innovations and technical expertise."

Saudi Aramco has emitted 59.26 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent since it began operations, accounting for 4.38% of worldwide anthropogenic emissions since 1965.

In a letter sent to nine international banks reportedly hired by Aramco to assist it in arranging its US$2 trillion market debut, ten environmental groups warned about the listing causing a highly possible hindrance in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and end human rights abuses committed by the Saudi regime.

On 6 November 2019, Saudi Aramco joined the World Bank's initiative to reduce gas flaring to zero by 2030. The firm reported flaring of less than 1% of its total raw gas production in the first half of 2019.

Greenhouse gas emissions
According to environmentalists Aramco is responsible for more than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions since 1965. Most of this is from the use of the oil they sold, for example burning gasoline in car engines. In greenhouse gas accounting such emissions from use of a product are called "scope 3" emissions. Aramco has no plan to limit scope 3 emissions. However the government says it will have net zero carbon emissions by 2060 within the country. In October 2023, Saudi Aramco announced a direct air capture pilot program in partnership with Siemens Energy to be completed in 2024.

2007 Haradh gas pipeline explosion
On 18 November 2007, reports came out that a natural gas pipeline explosion had taken the lives of several workers, the death toll was later determined to be 34. Aramco asserts it was a purely maintenance-related incident.

Organizational culture
On 9 December 2020, the Financial Times published an article about an engineer, whose family claims that Saudi Aramco was negligent in handling his Covid-19 infection. According to his family, he had been asking the company and authorities for help, three weeks before his death, but was simply asked to keep his gloves and mask on. Saudi Aramco did not formally contact his family until approximately 14 hours after his death, refused to release his body, and allegedly erased information from his mobile phone. His grieving family had to do without financial support for almost five months, and only received $400,000 in benefits, back pay and insurance after the Financial Times had started asking questions.

In the same article, five whistleblowers accuse Aramco of bullying and mismanagement. One former employee expressed his concerns about the company’s highly dangerous failure to pressure-test valves and mains units, detailing cracks in the refinery structure and sinking of roads and foundations. The refinery runs a real risk of becoming Aramco's Piper Alpha, said another expatriate employee, who also accuses Aramco of lacking a culture of challenge, facilitating ineptitude and laziness.

Treatment of workers
In March 2020, Saudi Aramco came under fire after photos of a migrant worker dressed as a large hand-sanitizer dispenser went viral on social media. People on Twitter condemned the act as "modern-day slavery," "humiliating" and "dehumanizing." According to the company, the display was organized without the approval of Aramco officials.

Strong-arming investors
In 2019, sources told the Financial Times that wealthy families of Saudi Arabia had been coerced into joining the Saudi Aramco IPO.

Lobbying and research projects
Saudi Aramco has funded almost 500 studies in last five years on energy issues and collaborated with the United States Department of Energy on projects to boost oil production, such as developing more efficient gasoline, enhanced oil recovery and methods to increase the flow of oil from wells. Since 2016, Saudi Arabia has spent around $140 million on lobbying to influence public opinion and policies in the US. In an effort to keep gasoline cars competitive, Saudi Aramco is working on a device which would trap some of the carbon dioxide upon attaching it to cars running on gasoline. Saudi Aramco has partnered with Hyundai to develop a fuel for gas-electric vehicles which will run on petroleum.

title: Saudi Aramco


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Serum protein electrophoresis

Serum protein electrophoresis (SPEP or SPE) is a laboratory test that examines specific proteins in the blood called globulins. The most common indications for a serum protein electrophoresis test are to diagnose or monitor multiple myeloma, a monoclonal gammopathy of uncertain significance (MGUS), or further investigate a discrepancy between a low albumin and a relatively high total protein. Unexplained bone pain, anemia, proteinuria, chronic kidney disease, and hypercalcemia are also signs of multiple myeloma, and indications for SPE. Blood must first be collected, usually into an airtight vial or syringe. Electrophoresis is a laboratory technique in which the blood serum (the fluid portion of the blood after the blood has clotted) is applied to either an acetate membrane soaked in a liquid buffer, or to a buffered agarose gel matrix, or into liquid in a capillary tube, and exposed to an electric current to separate the serum protein components into five major fractions by size and electrical charge: serum albumin, alpha-1 globulins, alpha-2 globulins, beta 1 and 2 globulins, and gamma globulins.

Acetate or gel electrophoresis
Proteins are separated by both electrical forces and electroendoosmostic forces. The net charge on a protein is based on the sum charge of its amino acids, and the pH of the buffer. Proteins are applied to a solid matrix such as an agarose gel, or a cellulose acetate membrane in a liquid buffer, and electric current is applied. Proteins with a negative charge will migrate towards the positively charged anode. Albumin has the most negative charge, and will migrate furthest towards the anode. Endoosmotic flow is the movement of liquid towards the cathode, which causes proteins with a weaker charge to move backwards from the application site. Gamma proteins are primarily separated by endoosmotic forces. The drawing of the electrophoretic bands provided by the laboratory may be difficult to remember, and medical students, residents, nurses, and non-specialized medical practitioners may find visual mnemonics useful to recall the five main bands and the shape of normal serum electrophoresis.

Capillary electrophoresis
In capillary electrophoresis, there is no solid matrix. Proteins are separated primarily by strong electroendosmotic forces. The sample is injected into a capillary with a negative surface charge. A high current is applied, and negatively charged proteins such as albumin try to move towards the anode. Liquid buffer flows towards the cathode, and drags proteins with a weaker charge.

Albumin
Albumin is the major fraction in a normal SPEP. A fall of 30% is necessary before the decrease shows on electrophoresis. Usually a single band is seen. Heterozygous individuals may produce bisalbuminemia – two equally staining bands, the product of two genes. Some variants give rise to a wide band or two bands of unequal intensity but none of these variants is associated with disease. Increased anodic mobility results from the binding of bilirubin, nonesterified fatty acids, penicillin and acetylsalicylic acid, and occasionally from tryptic digestion in acute pancreatitis.

Absence of albumin, known as analbuminaemia, is rare. A decreased level of albumin, however, is common in many diseases, including liver disease, malnutrition, malabsorption, protein-losing nephropathy and enteropathy.

Albumin – alpha-1 interzone
Even staining in this zone is due to alpha-1 lipoprotein (high density lipoprotein – HDL). Decrease occurs in severe inflammation, acute hepatitis, and cirrhosis. Also, nephrotic syndrome can lead to decrease in albumin level; due to its loss in the urine through a damaged leaky glomerulus. An increase appears in severe alcoholics and in women during pregnancy and in puberty.

The high levels of AFP that may occur in hepatocellular carcinoma may result in a sharp band between the albumin and the alpha-1 zone.

Alpha-1 zone
Orosomucoid and antitrypsin migrate together but orosomucoid stains poorly so alpha 1 antitrypsin (AAT) constitutes most of the alpha-1 band. Alpha-1 antitrypsin has an SG group and thiol compounds may be bound to the protein altering their mobility. A decreased band is seen in the deficiency state. It is decreased in the nephrotic syndrome and absence could indicate possible alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency. This eventually leads to emphysema from unregulated neutrophil elastase activity in the lung tissue. The alpha-1 fraction does not disappear in alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency, however, because other proteins, including alpha-lipoprotein and orosomucoid, also migrate there. As a positive acute phase reactant, AAT is increased in acute inflammation.

Bence Jones protein may bind to and retard the alpha-1 band.

Alpha-1 – alpha-2 interzone
Two faint bands may be seen representing alpha 1-antichymotrypsin and vitamin D binding protein. These bands fuse and intensify in early inflammation due to an increase in alpha 1-antichymotrypsin, an acute phase protein.

Alpha-2 zone
This zone consists principally of alpha-2 macroglobulin (AMG or A2M) and haptoglobin. There are typically low levels in haemolytic anaemia (haptoglobin is a suicide molecule which binds with free haemoglobin released from red blood cells and these complexes are rapidly removed by phagocytes). Haptoglobin is raised as part of the acute phase response, resulting in a typical elevation in the alpha-2 zone during inflammation. A normal alpha-2 and an elevated alpha-1 zone is a typical pattern in hepatic metastasis and cirrhosis.

Haptoglobin/haemoglobin complexes migrate more cathodally than haptoglobin as seen in the alpha-2 – beta interzone. This is typically seen as a broadening of the alpha-2 zone.

Alpha-2 macroglobulin may be elevated in children and the elderly. This is seen as a sharp front to the alpha-2 band. AMG is markedly raised (10-fold increase or greater) in association with glomerular protein loss, as in nephrotic syndrome. Due to its large size, AMG cannot pass through glomeruli, while other lower-molecular weight proteins are lost. Enhanced synthesis of AMG accounts for its absolute increase in nephrotic syndrome. Increased AMG is also noted in rats with no albumin indicating that this is a response to low albumin rather than nephrotic syndrome itself

AMG is mildly elevated early in the course of diabetic nephropathy.

Alpha-2 - beta interzone
Cold insoluble globulin forms a band here which is not seen in plasma because it is precipitated by heparin. There are low levels in inflammation and high levels in pregnancy.

Beta lipoprotein forms an irregular crenated band in this zone. High levels are seen in type II hypercholesterolaemia, hypertriglyceridemia, and in the nephrotic syndrome.

Beta zone
Transferrin and beta-lipoprotein (LDL) comprises the beta-1. Increased beta-1 protein due to the increased level of free transferrin is typical of iron deficiency anemia, pregnancy, and oestrogen therapy. Increased beta-1 protein due to LDL elevation occurs in hypercholesterolemia. Decreased beta-1 protein occurs in acute or chronic inflammation.

Beta-2 comprises C3 (complement protein 3). It is raised in the acute phase response. Depression of C3 occurs in autoimmune disorders as the complement system is activated and the C3 becomes bound to immune complexes and removed from serum. Fibrinogen, a beta-2 protein, is found in normal plasma but absent in normal serum. Occasionally, blood drawn from heparinized patients does not fully clot, resulting in a visible fibrinogen band between the beta and gamma globulins.

Beta-gamma interzone
C-reactive protein is found in between the beta and gamma zones producing beta/gamma fusion. IgA has the most anodal mobility and typically migrates in the region between the beta and gamma zones also causing a beta/gamma fusion in patients with cirrhosis, respiratory infection, skin disease, or rheumatoid arthritis (increased IgA). Fibrinogen from plasma samples will be seen in the beta gamma region. Fibrinogen, a beta-2 protein, is found in normal plasma but absent in normal serum. Occasionally, blood drawn from heparinized patients does not fully clot, resulting in a visible fibrinogen band between the beta and gamma globulins.

Gamma zone
The immunoglobulins or antibodies are generally the only proteins present in the normal gamma region. Of note, any protein migrating in the gamma region will be stained and appear on the gel, which may include protein contaminants, artifacts, or certain medications. Depending on whether an agarose or capillary method is used, interferences vary. Immunoglobulins consist of heavy chains (μ, δ, γ, α, and ε) and light chains (κ and λ). A normal gamma zone should appear as a smooth 'blush', or smear, with no asymmetry or sharp peaks. The gamma globulins may be elevated (hypergammaglobulinemia), decreased (hypogammaglobulinaemia), or have an abnormal peak or peaks. Note that immunoglobulins may also be found in other zones; IgA typically migrates in the beta-gamma zone, and in particular, pathogenic immunoglobulins may migrate anywhere, including the alpha regions.

Hypogammaglobulinaemia is easily identifiable as a "slump" or decrease in the gamma zone. It is normal in infants. It is found in patients with X-linked agammaglobulinemia. IgA deficiency occurs in 1:500 of the population, as is suggested by a pallor in the gamma zone. Of note, hypogammaglobulinema may be seen in the context of MGUS or multiple myeloma.

If the gamma zone shows an increase the first step in interpretation is to establish if the region is narrow or wide. A broad "swell-like" manner (wide) indicates polyclonal immunoglobulin production. If it is elevated in an asymmetric manner or with one or more peaks or narrow "spikes" it could indicate clonal production of one or more immunoglobulins,

Polyclonal gammopathy is indicated by a "swell-like" elevation in the gamma zone, which typically indicates a non-neoplastic condition (although is not exclusive to non-neoplastic conditions). The most common causes of polyclonal hypergammaglobulinaemia detected by electrophoresis are severe infection, chronic liver disease, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and other connective tissue diseases.

A narrow spike is suggestive of a monoclonal gammopathy, also known as a restricted band, or "M-spike". To confirm that the restricted band is an immunoglobulin, follow up testing with immunofixation, or immunodisplacement/immunosubtraction (capillary methods) is performed. Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAb), also migrate in this region and may be misinterpreted as a monoclonal gammopathy, and may also be identified by immunofixation or immunodisplacement/immunosubtraction as they are structurally comparable to human immunoglobulins. The most common cause of a restricted band is an MGUS (monoclonal gammopathy of uncertain significance), which, although a necessary precursor, only rarely progresses to multiple myeloma. (On average, 1%/year.) Typically, a monoclonal gammopathy is malignant or clonal in origin, Myeloma being the most common cause of IgA and IgG spikes. chronic lymphatic leukaemia and lymphosarcoma are not uncommon and usually give rise to IgM paraproteins. Note that up to 8% of healthy geriatric patients may have a monoclonal spike. Waldenström's macroglobulinaemia (IgM), monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), amyloidosis, plasma cell leukemia and solitary plasmacytomas also produce an M-spike.

Oligoclonal gammopathy is indicated by one or more discrete clones.

Lysozyme may be seen as a band cathodal to gamma in myelomonocytic leukaemia in which it is released from tumour cells.

title: Serum protein electrophoresis


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Joseph-Ignace Guillotin

Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (28 May 1738 – 26 March 1814) was a French physician, politician, and freemason who proposed on 10 October 1789 the use of a device to carry out executions in France, as a less painful method of execution than existing methods. Although he did not invent the guillotine and opposed the death penalty, his name became an eponym for it. The actual inventor of the prototype was a man named Tobias Schmidt, working with the king's physician, Antoine Louis.

Early life and education
Guillotin was born on 28 May 1738 in Saintes, France, the second son of Joseph-Alexandre Guillotin and Catherine Agatha Martin. Legend has it that he was born prematurely because his mother was in distress after hearing the screams of a man being tortured to death on the breaking wheel.

Guillotin's early education was by the Jesuits in Bordeaux and he earned a Master of Arts degree at the College of Aquitaine of the University of Bordeaux in December 1761. The essay that he wrote to earn the degree impressed the Jesuits so much that they invited him to become a professor of literature at the Irish College in Bordeaux. However, he left after a few years and travelled to Paris to study medicine, becoming a pupil of Antoine Petit. He gained a diploma from the faculty at Reims in 1768 and his doctorate at the School of Medicine in Paris in 1770, which also gave him the title of Doctor-Regent. This allowed him to teach medicine in Paris.

Career
In Paris, Guillotin became a well-known physician. By 1775, he was concerned with issues of torture and death. That year, he wrote a memo proposing that criminals be used as subjects in medical experiments. Although he recognised that as cruel, he considered it preferable to being put to death. In 1784, when Franz Mesmer began to publicize his theory of "animal magnetism", which was considered offensive by many, Louis XVI appointed a commission to investigate it and Guillotin was appointed a member, along with Jean Sylvain Bailly, Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, Antoine Lavoisier, and Benjamin Franklin. The commission declared Mesmer to be a fraud, and this put Guillotin in the public eye.

Political career and guillotine
In December 1788, Guillotin drafted a pamphlet entitled Petition of the Citizens Living in Paris, concerning the proper constitution of the Estates-General. The French parliament attempted to suppress his pamphlet and summoned him to give an account of his opinions, but the crowd during his testimony was very much in support of him, and he was released, which served to increase his popularity. On 2 May 1789, he became one of 10 Paris deputies in the Estates-General of 1789 and was secretary to the body from June 1789 to October 1791. On 20 June 1789, the National Assembly, as the members were now calling themselves, found itself locked out of its chamber. Guillotin suggested they reconvene in a nearby jeu de paume court, where the members swore the Tennis Court Oath, vowing "not to separate and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the Constitution of the kingdom is established".

As a member of the assembly, Guillotin initially directed his attention towards medical reform. As a member of the Poverty Committee, he toured the Hôtel-Dieu and contributed to the report that exposed the unsanitary conditions there. He also became first chair of the Health Committee and submitted a bill for medical reform in 1791.

At the same time, he was also concerned with criminal law reform. His experiences as a doctor had led him to oppose capital punishment: at first, he attempted to abolish it, but was unsuccessful. At that time, beheading in France was typically by axe or sword, which did not always cause immediate death. Additionally, beheading was reserved for the nobility, while commoners were typically hanged, which could take a long time, as the techniques whereby the victim's neck was broken by the noose had not yet been invented. Other methods included burning at the stake, the breaking wheel, death by boiling, and dismemberment. Guillotin realised that, if he could not eliminate executions, he could at least make them more humane.

On 10 October 1789, he proposed that "the criminal shall be decapitated; this will be done solely by means of a simple mechanism." The "mechanism" was defined as "a machine that beheads painlessly". His proposal appeared in the Royalist periodical, Les Actes des Apôtres. In all, Guillotin proposed six articles:
 * 1) All punishments for the same class of crime shall be the same, regardless of the criminal (i.e., there would be no privilege for the nobility)
 * 2) When the death sentence is applied, it will be by decapitation, carried out by a machine
 * 3) The family of the guilty party will not suffer any legal discrimination
 * 4) It will be illegal to anyone to reproach the guilty party's family about his/her punishment
 * 5) The property of the convicted shall not be confiscated
 * 6) The bodies of those executed shall be returned to the family if so requested

Guillotin assumed that, if a fair system was established where the only method of capital punishment was by mechanical decapitation, then the public would feel more appreciative of their rights. Despite this proposal, Guillotin was opposed to the death penalty, and hoped that a more humane and less painful method of execution would be the first step towards total abolition. He also hoped that, as the decapitation machine would kill quickly without prolonged suffering, this would reduce the size and enthusiasm of crowds that often witnessed executions.

On 1 December 1789, Guillotin made a remark during a follow-up speech to the Assembly about capital punishment. He was quoted (or possibly misquoted ) as saying, "Now, with my machine, I cut off your head in the twinkling of an eye, and you never feel it!" The statement quickly became a popular joke, and a few days after the debate a comic song about Guillotin and "his" machine circulated, forever tying his name to it, despite the fact that he was not at all involved in its design or construction. The Moniteur of 18 December 1789 deplored the joking but repeated Guillotin's "twinkling of an eye" statement for posterity.

The articles were fairly controversial as the rights of the criminals and their families had not previously been considered, but they were accepted over the course of several years, with the "decapitation by simple machine" finally being accepted on 3 June 1791, with the result that his proposals became law on 20 March 1792. Meanwhile, the Assembly had commissioned Antoine Louis to build such a device. His proposal was presented on 17 March, and the first executions using it took place on 25 April 1792. However, by October 1791, Guillotin had already retired from the Assembly, returning to practise medicine. During the Reign of Terror, he moved to Arras to become the director of the military hospital there, returning to Paris a year later.

Towards the end of the Reign of Terror, a letter from the Comte de Méré to Guillotin fell into the hands of the public prosecutor, Fouquier-Tinville in which the Count, who was to be executed, commended his wife and children to Guillotin's care. The authorities demanded Guillotin inform them of the whereabouts of the Count's wife and children. As Guillotin either would not or could not give the information, he was arrested and imprisoned. He was freed from prison in the general amnesty of 9 Thermidor (27 July) 1794 after Robespierre fell from power.

In November 1795, a letter was published in the Moniteur claiming that the guillotine's victims survived for several minutes after beheading. Guillotin was shocked, and for the remainder of his life, he deeply regretted that the machine was named after him. His continued efforts to abolish the death penalty were hampered by the widespread belief that as the very person who proposed using a decapitation machine he must surely be in favour of it.

Resumption of medical career
Guillotin became one of the first French doctors to support Edward Jenner's discovery of vaccination, and in 1805 was the chairman of the Central Vaccination Committee in Paris. He also founded one of the precursors of the National Academy of Medicine.

Family
The association with the guillotine so embarrassed Guillotin's family that they petitioned the French government to rename it; when the government refused, they instead changed their own family name. By coincidence, another person named Guillotin was indeed executed by the guillotine – he was J.M.V. Guillotin, a doctor of Lyon. This coincidence may have contributed to erroneous statements that J-I Guillotin was put to death on the machine that bears his name; however, in reality, Guillotin died at home in Paris in 1814 of natural causes, aged 75, specifically from a carbuncle, and is now buried in the Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. He was married to Louise Saugrain, sister of the physician and chemist Antoine Saugrain.

Freemasonry
Joseph Guillotin was initiated into Freemasonry, in 1765 at "La Parfaite Union" lodge in Angoulême. Very active as a mason, he joined several other lodges. As a deputy of the Grand Lodge from 1772 he took part in the birth of the Grand Orient of France and attended all its conventions until 1790. In 1773, he became Worshipful Master of the lodge "La Concorde Fraternelle" in Paris. In 1776, he founded the "La Vérité" lodge and often attended Les Neuf Sœurs.

In modern fiction
Guillotin features in Andrew Miller's Costa prize-winning novel Pure. He is also a primary character in the 1992 novel Dr Guillotine, written by the actor Herbert Lom. He is also the main character in the French drama series La Révolution.

title: Joseph-Ignace Guillotin