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Rationing

Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular day or at a particular time. There are many forms of rationing, although rationing by price is most prevalent.

Rationing is often done to keep price below the market-clearing price determined by the process of supply and demand in an unfettered market. Thus, rationing can be complementary to price controls. An example of rationing in the face of rising prices took place in the various countries where there was rationing of gasoline during the 1973 energy crisis.

A reason for setting the price lower than would clear the market may be that there is a shortage, which would drive the market price very high. High prices, especially in the case of necessities, are undesirable with regard to those who cannot afford them. Traditionalist economists argue, however, that high prices act to reduce waste of the scarce resource while also providing incentive to produce more.

Rationing using ration stamps is only one kind of non-price rationing. For example, scarce products can be rationed using queues. This is seen, for example, at amusement parks, where one pays a price to get in and then need not pay any price to go on the rides. Similarly, in the absence of road pricing, access to roads is rationed in a first come, first served queueing process, leading to congestion.

Authorities which introduce rationing often have to deal with the rationed goods being sold illegally on the black market. Despite the fact that rationing systems are sometimes necessary as the only viable option for societies facing severe consumer goods shortages, they are usually extremely unpopular with the general public, as they enforce limits on individual consumption.

Civilian rationing
Rationing for civilians has most often been instituted during wartime. For example, each person may be given what's known as a "ration coupon" allowing them to purchase a certain amount of a product each month. Rationing often includes food and other necessities for which there is a shortage, including materials needed for the war effort such as rubber tires, leather shoes, clothing, and fuel.

Rationing of food and water may also become necessary during an emergency, such as a natural disaster or terror attack.

In the U.S., the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has established guidelines for rationing food and water when replacements are not available. According to FEMA standards, every person should have a minimum of 1 USqt per day of water, and more for children, nursing mothers, and the ill.

Origins

Military sieges have often resulted in shortages of food and other essentials. In such circumstances, the rations allocated to an individual are often determined based on age, sex, race or social standing. During the Siege of Lucknow (part of the Indian Rebellion of 1857) a woman received three-quarters of a man's food ration. Children received only half. During the Siege of Ladysmith in the early stages of the Boer War in 1900 white adults received the same food rations as soldiers while children received half that. Food rations for Indian people and black people were significantly smaller.

The first modern rationing systems were imposed during the First World War. In Germany, suffering from the effects of the British blockade, a rationing system was introduced in 1914 and was steadily expanded over the following years as the situation worsened. Although Britain did not suffer from food shortages, as the sea lanes were kept open for food imports, panic buying towards the end of the war prompted the rationing of first sugar and then meat. It is said to have benefited the overall health of the country, through the "levelling of consumption of essential foodstuffs". To assist with rationing, ration books were introduced on 15 July 1918 for butter, margarine, lard, meat, and sugar. During the war, average caloric intake decreased only three percent, but protein intake six percent.

Food rationing appeared in Poland after the First World War, and ration stamps were in use until the end of the Polish–Soviet War.

Second World War

Rationing became common during the Second World War. Ration stamps were often used. These were redeemable stamps or coupons, and every family was issued a set number of each kind of stamp based on the size of the family, ages of children, and income. The British Ministry of Food refined the rationing process in the early 1940s to ensure the population did not starve when food imports were severely restricted and local production limited due to the large number of men fighting the war.

Rationing on a scientific basis was pioneered by Elsie Widdowson and Robert McCance at the Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Cambridge. They worked on the chemical composition of the human body, and on the nutritional value of different flours used to make bread. Widdowson also studied the impact of infant diet on human growth. They studied the differing effects from deficiencies of salt and of water and produced the first tables to compare the nutritional contents of foods before and after cooking. They co-authored The Chemical Composition of Foods, first published in 1940 by the Medical Research Council. Their book, "McCance and Widdowson", became known as the dietician's bible and formed the basis for modern nutritional thinking.

In 1939, they tested whether the United Kingdom could survive with only domestic food production if U-boats ended all imports. Using 1938 food-production data, they fed themselves and other volunteers a limited diet, while simulating the strenuous wartime physical work Britons would likely have to perform. The scientists found that the subjects' health and performance remained very good after three months. They also headed the first ever mandated addition of vitamins and minerals to food, beginning with adding calcium to bread. Their work became the basis of the wartime austerity diet promoted by the Minister of Food, Lord Woolton.

The British public's wartime diet was never as severe as in the Cambridge study because German U-boats failed to halt trans-Atlantic supply, but rationing improved the health of British people: infant mortality declined and life expectancy rose. This was because everyone had access to a varied diet with enough nutrients.

The first commodity to be controlled was petrol. On 8 January 1940, bacon, butter and sugar were rationed. This was followed by successive rationing schemes for meat, tea, jam, biscuits, breakfast cereals, cheese, eggs, lard, milk, and canned and dried fruit. Fresh vegetables and fruit were not rationed, but supplies were limited. Many people grew their own vegetables, greatly encouraged by the highly successful "Digging for Victory" campaign. Most controversial was bread; it was not rationed until after the war ended, but the "national loaf" of wholemeal bread replaced the ordinary white variety, to the distaste of most housewives who found it mushy, grey, and easy to blame for digestive problems. Fish was not rationed, but fish prices increased considerably as the war progressed.

In May 1941, Woolton appealed to Americans to reduce consumption of certain foods (dairy, sugar canned salmon and meat) so more of those could go to the United Kingdom. The Office of Price Administration (OPA) warned Americans of potential gasoline, steel, aluminum and electricity shortages. It believed that with factories converting to military production and consuming many critical supplies, rationing would become necessary if the country entered the war. It established a rationing system after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In June 1942 the Combined Food Board was set up to coordinate the worldwide supply of food to the Allies, with special attention to flows from the U.S. and Canada to Britain.

American civilians first received ration books—War Ration Book Number One, or the "Sugar Book"—on 4 May 1942, through more than 100,000 school teachers, Parent-Teacher Associations, and other volunteers. Sugar was the first consumer commodity rationed. Bakeries, ice cream makers, and other commercial users received rations of about 70% of normal usage. Coffee was rationed on 27 November 1942 to 1 lb every five weeks. By the end of 1942, ration coupons were used for nine other items. Typewriters, gasoline, bicycles, footwear, silk, nylon, fuel oil, stoves, meat, lard, shortening and cooking oils, cheese, butter, margarine, processed foods (canned, bottled, and frozen), dried fruits, canned milk, firewood and coal, jams, jellies, and fruit butters were rationed by November 1943.

The work of issuing ration books and exchanging used stamps for certificates was handled by some 5,500 local ration boards of mostly volunteers. As a result of the gasoline rationing, all forms of automobile racing, including the Indianapolis 500, were banned. All rationing in the United States ended in 1946.

In the Soviet Union food was rationed from 1941 to 1947. In particular, daily bread rations in besieged Leningrad were initially set at 800 g. By the end of 1941 the bread rations were reduced to 250 g for workers and 125 g for everyone else, which resulted in a surge of deaths caused by starvation. Starting in 1942 daily bread rations were increased to 350 g for workers and 200 g for everyone else. One of the documents of the period is the diary of Tanya Savicheva, who recorded the deaths of each member of her family during the siege.

Rationing was also introduced to a number of British dominions, and colonies, with rationing of clothing imposed in Australia, from 12 June 1942, and certain foodstuffs from 1943. Canada rationed tea, coffee, sugar, butter and mechanical spares, between 1942 and 1947. The Cochin, Travancore and Madras states, of British India elected to ration grain between the fall of 1943 and spring 1944. Egypt introduced a ration card-based subsidy of essential foodstuffs in 1945 that has persisted into the 21st century. New Zealand rationing in began in 1942 and was abolished on most foods in 1948, but continued on butter until 1950.

Similarly rationing was introduced across the Japanese empire, as commodities such as rice became scarce in territories, after the destruction of the transport infrastructure that once served colonies.

Many countries had gasoline rationing that determined how much gasoline could be filled in a fuel tank, depending on whether the driver was essential to the war effort.

Peacetime rationing
Civilian peacetime rationing of food has been employed after natural disasters, during contingencies, or after failed governmental economic policies regarding production or distribution, as well as due to extensive austerity programs implemented to cut or restrict public spending in countries where the rationed goods previously relied on government procurement or subsidies, as was the case in Israel.

In the United Kingdom, rationing remained for years after the end of the war. In some respects it was more strict after the war than during it—two major foodstuffs that were never rationed during the war, bread and potatoes, were rationed after it (bread from 1946 to 1948, and potatoes for a time from 1947). Tea was still rationed until 1952. In 1953 rationing of sugar and eggs ended and in 1954, all rationing was abolished when cheese and meats came off ration. Sugar was again rationed in 1974 after Caribbean producers began selling to the more lucrative United States market.

Some centralized planned economies introduced peacetime rationing systems due to food shortages in the postwar period. North Korea and China did so in the 1970s and 1980s, as did Socialist Republic of Romania during Ceausescu's rule in the 1980s, the Soviet Union in 1990–1991, and from 1962–present in Cuba.

From 1949 to 1959, Israel was under a regime of austerity, during which rationing was enforced. At first, only staple foods such as cooking oil, sugar, and margarine were rationed, but it was later expanded, and eventually included furniture and footwear. Every month, each citizen would get food coupons worth six Israeli pounds, and every family would be allotted food. The average Israeli diet was 2,800 calories a day, with additional calories for children, the elderly, and pregnant women.

Following the 1952 Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany, and the subsequent influx of foreign capital, Israel's economy was bolstered, and in 1953, most restrictions were cancelled. In 1958, the list of rationed goods was narrowed to just eleven, and in 1959, it was narrowed to only jam, sugar, and coffee.

Petroleum products were rationed in many countries following the 1973 oil crisis. The United States introduced odd–even rationing for fuels during the crisis, which allowed only vehicles with even-numbered numberplates to fill up on gas one day and odd-numbered ones on another.

Poland enacted rationing in 1981 to cope with economic crisis. The rationing system initially encompassed most of the population's daily necessities, but was gradually phased out over time, with the last ration being abolished in 1989.

Rationing in Cuba for basic goods was enacted in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had previously subsidised the island nation's economy. Rationing started being phased out in the year 2000 at the end of the "special period", as Cuba had shifted to a more diversified and self-sustaining economy. Rationing, however, was not fully abolished and instead turned into an alternative way to purchase goods, in addition to the markets. This makes a curious departure from classical rationing, as during the 2001–2019 period, the rationing system was used in addition to, instead of as a replacement for regular markets. Cubans would be able to buy a certain amount of items at 'liberated' prices using ration coupons at a significantly reduced rate, while still being able to purchase more at regular market prices. This 'liberated' system persisted even during Cuba's period of economic growth and relative prosperity during the early and mid 2010s and enjoyed considerable popularity among the island's citizens. Cuba later re-introduced a classical limiting rationing system in 2019, following the imposition of strict sanctions on the island by US President Donald Trump, as well as the collapse of petroleum shipments from Venezuela, which was facing its own economic troubles at that time. Cuba's president pitched the new system as significantly more lenient than the 1991–2000 "special period", though admitted that it would negatively affect consumption.

Short-term rationing for gas and other fuels was introduced in the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York following Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

In April 2019, Venezuela announced a 30-day electricity rationing regime in the face of power shortages.

For a few years during a series of droughts in California (from 2015 to 2019), the California State Water Resources Control Board had mandatory water-use restrictions.

In 2021, Sri Lanka, facing a major economic crisis, is considering introducing food rationing. According to The Hindu, "President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has called in the army to manage the crisis by rationing the supply of various essential goods."

In 2023, Iran began the National Credit Network mechanism.

Refugee aid rations
Aid agencies, such as the World Food Programme, provide food rations and other essentials to refugees or internally displaced persons who are registered with the UNHCR and are either living in refugee camps or are supported in urban centres. Every registered refugee is given a ration card upon registration which is used for collecting the rations from food distribution centres. The 2,100 calories allocated per person per day is based on minimal standards and is frequently not achieved, as has been the case in Kenya.

According to Article 20 of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees refugees shall be treated as national citizens in rationing schemes when there is a rationing system in place for the general population.

Health-care rationing
As the British Royal Commission on the National Health Service observed in 1979, "whatever the expenditure on health care, demand is likely to rise to meet and exceed it". Rationing health care to control costs is regarded as an explosive issue in the US, but in reality health care is rationed everywhere. In places where a government provides healthcare, rationing is explicit. In other places people are denied treatment because of personal lack of funds, or because of decisions made by insurance companies. The American Supreme Court approved paying doctors to ration care, stating that there must be "some incentive connecting physician reward with treatment rationing". Shortages of organs for donation forces the rationing of organs for transplant even when funding is available.

Cultural rationing
Censorship, libraries and museums can function to limit, moderate and share out approved cultural goods, experiences and exposures to the general public.

Credit rationing
Credit rationing describes a situation wherein a bank limits the supply of loans, even when it has enough funds to loan, and the provision of loans has not yet equaled the demand of prospective borrowers. Changing the price of the loans (interest rate) does not balance loan demand and supply.

Carbon rationing
Personal carbon trading refers to proposed emissions trading schemes under which emissions credits are allocated to adult individuals on a (broadly) equal per capita basis, within national carbon budgets. Individuals then surrender these credits when buying fuel or electricity. Individuals wanting or needing to emit at a level above that permitted by their initial allocation would be able to engage in emissions trading and purchase additional credits. Conversely, those individuals who emit at a level below that permitted by their initial allocation have the opportunity to sell their surplus credits. Thus, individual trading under Personal Carbon Trading is similar to the trading of companies under EU ETS.

Personal carbon trading is sometimes confused with carbon offsetting due to the similar notion of paying for emissions allowances, but is a quite different concept designed to be mandatory and to guarantee that nations achieve their domestic carbon emissions targets (rather than attempting to do so via international trading or offsetting).

Rationing mechanisms
The purpose of rationing is to guarantee a minimum of some resource or to impose a maximum limit on its use. (The latter is the case with carbon rationing, where the scarcity is artificial). Usually, the government determines a fair ration, for example, one proportional to the number of family members. If participants possess different rights to a portion (even when they have the same need) and there is not enough for everyone, then one of the many algorithms for solving the bankruptcy problem may apply.

Sweden from 1919 to 1955 and Finland from 1944 to 1970, also Estonia from 1 July 1920 to 31 December 1925 sought to limit the consumption of alcohol by rationing with Bratt System, where each household was given a booklet (motbok in Sweden, viinakortti in Finland, tšekisüsteem in Estonia), where after each purchase of alcoholic beverages, a stamp was added, based on the amount of alcohol bought. If the buyer had reached their monthly ration, they would have to wait until next month to buy more. The rations were based on gender, income, wealth and social status, with unemployed people and welfare recipients not being allowed to buy any alcohol at all. In addition, since the motboks were distributed per household, not per person, wives had to share their household allowance with their husbands, and in fact thus got nothing at all. People often sought to circumvent the rationing by making frequent use of friends or even strangers' booklets, for example by rewarding a young woman with a dinner out in return for the other party consuming most or all of the alcohol incurring the stamps. Alcohol rationing was eventually abolished in Sweden with the opening of state-owned Systembolaget liquor stores, where people could buy alcoholic beverages without limit.

At other times, the ration can only be estimated by the beneficiary, such as a factory for which energy is to be rationed. In such cases, a mechanism is needed to discourage misreporting the needs or wants (i.e., to meet strategy-proofness). Suppose every participant reports an ideal ration. For so-called uniform rationing, each ration is set to the minimum of the participant's ideal ration and a cap, the cap being determined so that the sum of the rations equals the amount available. So, loosely speaking, the participant asking least will be served first. This mechanism is strategy-proof, avoids unnecessary waste (Pareto optimality) and equally treats equals (anonymity.) In fact, it is the only such mechanism. (Anonymity in this statement can be replaced by envyfreeness). For the redistribution of scarce goods to demanders by suppliers, see non-monetary microeconomies.

For smooth supply chain management the supplies may be rationed, which is sometimes referred to as the rationing game. The references mentioned here are a small sample of the literature about rationing inventories.

Ration stamp
A ration stamp, ration coupon, or ration card is a stamp or card issued by a government to allow the holder to obtain food or other commodities that are in short supply during wartime or in other emergency situations when rationing is in force. Ration stamps were widely used during World War II by both sides after hostilities caused interruption to the normal supply of goods. They were also used after the end of the war while the economies of the belligerents gradually returned to normal. Ration stamps were also used to help maintain the amount of food one could hold at a time. This was so that one person would not have more food than another.

India
Rationing has been present in India since World War II. A ration card allows households to purchase highly subsidised food grain, sugar and kerosene from their local Public distribution system (PDS) shop.

There are two types of ration cards:
 * Priority ration cards (replaced the erstwhile above poverty line and below poverty line ration cards after the enactment of the National Food Security Act in 2013)
 * Antyodaya (AAY) ration cards, issued to the "poorest of the poor"

United States
Rationing was used in the United States during World War II.

Government funds provided to poverty stricken individuals by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are often referred to colloquially as "food stamps". The parallels between these "food stamps" and ration stamps as used in war time rationing is limited, however, since food can be purchased in the United States on the regular market without the use of stamps.

United Kingdom
Rationing was widespread in the United Kingdom during World War II and continued long after the end of the war. It has been credited with greatly increasing public health. Fuel rationing did not end until 1950.

Poland
Ration cards were used in the Polish People's Republic in two periods: April 1952 to January 1953 and August 1976 to July 1989.

If one were to buy more food than specified on the stamp, they had to pay 2.5 times the price.

title: Rationing


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Royal Aircraft Establishment

The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), before finally losing its identity in mergers with other institutions.

The British Army Balloon Factory was established on Farnborough Common in the early 1900s. By 1912 it had come under civilian control and was the Royal Aircraft Factory (RAF) In 1918 it was renamed Royal Aircraft Establishment to prevent confusion with the newly created Royal Air Force.

The first site was at Farnborough Airfield ("RAE Farnborough") in Hampshire to which was added a second site RAE Bedford (Bedfordshire) in 1946.

On 1 May 1988 it was renamed the Royal Aerospace Establishment (RAE) before merging with other research entities to become part of the new Defence Research Agency in 1991.

History
In 1904–1906 the Army Balloon Factory, which was part of the Army School of Ballooning, under the command of Colonel James Templer, relocated from Aldershot to the edge of Farnborough Common in order to have enough space to inflate the new "dirigible balloon" or airship which was then under construction. Templer's place was taken by Colonel John Capper and Templer himself retired in 1908. Besides balloons and airships, the factory also experimented with Samuel Franklin Cody's war kites and aeroplanes designed both by Cody and J. W. Dunne. In October 1908 Cody made the first aeroplane flight in the United Kingdom at Farnborough.

In 1909 Army work on aeroplanes ceased and the Factory was brought under civilian control. Capper was replaced as Superintendent by Mervyn O'Gorman. In 1912 the Balloon Factory was renamed the Royal Aircraft Factory (RAF). Its first new designer was Geoffrey de Havilland who later founded his own company. Later colleagues included John Kenworthy who became chief engineer and designer at the Austin Motor Company in 1918 and who went on to found the Redwing Aircraft Co in 1930 and Henry Folland – later chief designer at Gloster Aircraft Company, and founder of his own company Folland Aircraft. One of the designers in the engine department was Samuel Heron, who later went on to invent the sodium-filled poppet valve, instrumental in achieving greater power levels from piston engines. While at the RAF, Heron designed a radial engine that he was not able to build during his time there, however upon leaving the RAF he then went to Siddeley-Deasy where the design, the RAF.8, was developed as the Jaguar. Heron later moved to the United States where he worked on the design of the Wright Whirlwind. Other engineers included Major F.M. Green, G.S. Wilkinson, James E. "Jimmy" Ellor, Prof. A.H. Gibson, and A.A. Griffith. Both Ellor and Griffith would later go on to work for Rolls-Royce Limited.

In 1918 the Royal Aircraft Factory was once more renamed, becoming the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) to avoid confusion with the Royal Air Force, which was formed on 1 April 1918, and because it had relinquished its manufacturing role to concentrate on research.

During WWII the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment, which had moved from Felixstowe to a safer location at Helensburgh in Scotland, was under the control of the RAE. In 1946 work began to convert RAF Thurleigh into RAE Bedford. Engineers at the Royal Aircraft Establishment invented high strength carbon fibre in 1963. In 1961, the world's first grooved runway for reduced aquaplaning was constructed. In 1965, a US delegation visited to view the new surfacing practice and initiated a study by the FAA and NASA.

On 1 May 1988 the RAE was renamed the Royal Aerospace Establishment. On 1 April 1991 the RAE was merged into the Defence Research Agency (DRA), the MOD's new research organisation. Then, on 1 April 1995 the DRA and other MOD organisations merged to form the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA). The Bedford site was largely shut down in 1994. In 2001 DERA was part-privatised by the MOD, resulting in two separate organisations, the state-owned Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), and the privatised company QinetiQ.

 * Aircraft

The unit used various aircraft such as the: English Electric Canberra B.6 WK163 & B.6 WH953, BAC One-Eleven Series 402 XX919, Hawker Siddeley HS.125 XW930, and Douglas Dakota ZA947. During February 1988 the last Westland Wessex left after 30 years of trials work.

Aircraft Factory designs
Between 1911 and 1918 the Royal Aircraft Factory produced a number of aircraft designs. Most of these were essentially research aircraft, but a few actually went into mass production, especially during the war period. Some orders were met by the factory itself, but the bulk of production was by private British companies, some of which had not previously built aircraft.

Up to about 1913 the designation letters referred to the general layout of the aircraft, derived from a French manufacturer or designer famous for that type:
 * S.E. = Santos Experimental (Canard or tail-first layout)
 * B.E. = Blériot Experimental (Tractor or propeller-first layout)
 * F.E. = Farman Experimental (Pusher or propeller behind the pilot layout)

From 1913/4 onwards this was changed to a designation based on the role for which the aircraft was designed:
 * A.E. = Armed or Armoured Experimental
 * C.E. = Coastal Experimental (e.g. Royal Aircraft Factory C.E.1 – prototype only)
 * F.E. = Fighting experimental (although they remained "Farmans" in the sense of being pushers)
 * N.E. = Night Experimental (e.g. Royal Aircraft Factory N.E.1 – prototype only)
 * R.E. = Reconnaissance experimental (two-seat machines)
 * S.E. = Scout experimental fast single-seat aircraft.

The B.S.1 of 1913 was a one-off anomaly, combining both systems: Blériot (tractor) Scout (fighter).

R.T. & T.E. were also used for strictly one-off prototypes.

Designs produced
Several aircraft were produced during the days as the Army Balloon Factory. These include the airships as well as the Cody and Dunne designs.

Subsequent Royal Aircraft Factory type designations are inconsistent and confusing. For instance the "F.E.2" designation refers to three quite distinct types, with only the same broad layout in common, the F.E.2 (1911), the F.E.2 (1913), and finally the famous wartime two-seat fighter and general-purpose design, the F.E.2 (1914). This last aircraft was the one that went into production and had three main variants, the F.E.2a, F.E.2b, and the F.E.2d. As if this wasn't enough, there is the F.E.2c; this was a generic description rather than a subtype proper, and refers to several one-off conversions of F.E.2b's that experimentally reversed the seating positions of the pilot and the observer.

The B.E.1 was basically the prototype for the early B.E.2 but the B.E.2c was almost a completely new aeroplane, with very little common with the earlier B.E.2 types apart from engine and fuselage. On the other hand, the B.E.3 to the B.E.7 were all effectively working prototypes for the B.E.8 and were all very similar in design, with progressive minor modifications of the kind that many aircraft undergo during a production run. The B.E.8a was at least as different from the B.E.8 as the B.E.7 was.

The S.E.4a had nothing in common at all with the S.E.4, while the S.E.5a was simply a late production S.E.5 with a more powerful engine.

Several early RAF designs were officially "reconstructions" of existing aircraft because the Factory did not initially have official authority to build aircraft to their own design. In most cases, the type in question used no parts whatever from the wreck, in some cases, not even the engine.

 * British Army Dirigible No 1 Nulli Secundus—1907
 * Nulli Secundus II—1908
 * British Army airship Beta – 1910
 * Dunne D.1 – 1907
 * British Army Aeroplane No 1 (Cody) – 1908
 * Dunne D.3
 * Dunne D.4
 * Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.1—1911
 * Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.1—1911
 * Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.1—1911
 * Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2—1912
 * Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.3—1912
 * Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.4—1912
 * Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.3—1913
 * Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.7—1913
 * Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.2—1913
 * Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.1—1913
 * Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.2—1913
 * Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.8—1913
 * Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.3—1913
 * Royal Aircraft Factory H.R.E.2—1913
 * Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2—1914
 * Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.2—1914
 * Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.5—1914
 * Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.4—1914
 * Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.6—1914
 * Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.7—1915
 * Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.12—1915
 * Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.9—1915
 * Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.8—1915
 * Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.4a—1915
 * SS class airship – 1915
 * Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.4 – 1916
 * Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.10 – 1916
 * Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.7 – 1916
 * Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 – 1916
 * Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.9 — 1916
 * Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5—1916
 * Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a—1917
 * Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.9—1917
 * Royal Aircraft Factory N.E.1—1917
 * Royal Aircraft Factory A.E.3—1918
 * Royal Aircraft Factory C.E.1—1918
 * Royal Aircraft Factory Ram—1918

Engines

 * RAF 1
 * RAF 2
 * RAF 3
 * RAF 4
 * RAF 5
 * RAF 8

Controversy
At the time of the "Fokker Scourge" in 1915, there was a press campaign against the standardisation of Royal Aircraft Factory types in the Royal Flying Corps, allegedly in favour of superior designs available from the design departments of private British firms. This slowly gained currency, especially because of the undeniable fact that the B.E.2c and B.E.2e were kept in production and in service long after they were obsolete and that the B.E.12 and B.E.12a were indisputable failures. Some of this criticism was prejudiced and ill-informed.

Some aviation historians continue to perpetuate the resulting belittling of the important experimental work of the Factory during this period, and the exaggeration of the failings of Factory production types, several of which were described in sensationally derogatory terms.

A modern, rather more "pro-factory" point of view, can be found in several of the volumes of War Planes of the First World War, by J.M. Bruce—MacDonald, London, 1965.

Superintendents
The Superintendents of the School of Ballooning were James Templer (1878–1906) and John Capper (1906 – 1909). The following have served as Superintendents of the Royal Aircraft Factory / Establishment:

 * Mervyn O'Gorman (1912–1916) - Also Superintendent of the Balloon Factory from 1909 to 1912
 * Henry Fowler (1916–1918)
 * Sidney Smith (1918-)

Changes
After the end of the First World War, the design and development of aircraft types ended – although work continued on general research and the development of missiles. Research included wind tunnel testing and other aeronautical research, areas which offered rare opportunities for women in STEM fields at this time with examples including Frances Bradfield who worked at the RAE for her entire career from 1919 to her retirement; Muriel Glauert (née Barker) joined in 1918 as a researcher working in aerodynamics and Beatrice Shilling who went on to invent Miss Shilling's orifice, to improve the engine performance of RAF Hurricane and Spitfire fighters during the Battle of Britain as part of wider work at the RAE on aircraft engine problems during World War II. Johanna Weber, a German mathematician who joined the RAE after World War II as part of Operation Surgeon to employ German aeronautical researchers and technicians and bring them to the UK, to prevent their technical knowledge falling into the hands of the Soviet occupying forces in Germany.

In 1930 the RAE developed the Robot Air Pilot, an autopilot that used a gyro and flight controls that functioned by compressed air.

Aircraft that were developed or tested at the RAE included the Hawker Siddeley Harrier and Concorde.

Aircraft

 * RAE Hurricane
 * RAE Scarab
 * RAE Zephyr

Missiles

 * RAE Target—Surface-to-surface missile project from the early 1920s.
 * RAE Larynx—1927 unmanned pilotless aircraft, surface-to-surface anti-ship missile.
 * Malkara missile

Rockets
In the late fifties and through the sixties work proceeded at the RAE on several rocket projects – all of which were eventually abandoned

 * R.A.E. – Vickers Transonic Research Rocket
 * Black Arrow
 * Black Prince
 * Black Knight
 * Jaguar
 * Skylark

Space satellites

 * Orba X-2 – space satellite
 * Prospero X-3 – space satellite

Current use of the Farnborough site

The former RAE Farnborough site is (as of 2011) occupied by:
 * Farnborough Airport.
 * QinetiQ.
 * Housing, hotels, offices etc. The IQ Farnborough development includes several refurbished former-RAE buildings.
 * The Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST) museum, which has several former RAE aircraft and other exhibits.
 * Air Accidents Investigation Branch.

The National Aerospace Library (NAL), located in the former Weapon Aerodynamics building (Q134 Building), has a collection of over 2,500 technical reports produced by the RAE.

Historic structures
The historic Farnborough factory site houses three major wind tunnels, the 24 ft low-speed wind tunnel (Q121 Building), constructed during the early 1930s, the No. 2 11 ft low-speed wind tunnel (R136 Building) and the 8 x transonic wind tunnel within R133 Building, which was originally commissioned in the early 1940s as a 10 x high subsonic speed tunnel but converted during the mid-1950s. A smaller 2 x transonic tunnel is housed in R133 Building, while R52 Building contains the remaining 4 x low turbulence wind tunnel. R52 Building had previously housed two early 10 ft x 7 ft low-speed tunnels in separate bays, which were replaced by the No. 1 11.5' and 4ft x 3ft tunnels respectively. The former remains in operation at the University of Southampton. R52 building also previously contained a 5 ft open jet low-speed tunnel, originally built as a sub-scale prototype for the larger 24-ft tunnel, but subsequently modified for use as a noise measurement facility. Both Q121 and R133 are now Grade I listed buildings.

To the west of the Farnborough site is the 5-metre pressurised low-speed wind tunnel, which was commissioned in the late 1970s. This facility remains in operation by QinetiQ, primarily for the development and testing of aircraft high lift systems.

Fictional appearance
The hero of Nevil Shute's 1948 novel No Highway is an eccentric "boffin" at Farnborough who predicts metal fatigue in the United Kingdom's new airliner, the fictional "Rutland Reindeer". The Comets failed for just this reason in 1954, although in the case of the Comet I the problem was in the metal structure around the navigation windows, while the point of failure in the Reindeer aircraft was in the structure of the rear empennage/fuselage joints. A film version of the novel, No Highway in the Sky, appeared in 1951, starring James Stewart as the protagonist. Stewart prepared for the role by shadowing Fred Jones OBE, a co-founder of the RAE Accident Section. Jones later was head of Structures Section (formerly Airworthiness Section) from 1957 to 1980.

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

title: Royal Aircraft Establishment


text:
Talk:Cyberlaw

This is a very poor article at the moment. It needs scrapping, and substantial rewriting....,,l

Some notes for comment...

Radio era (Prehistory) Tension between amateur radio, commercial broadcast radio and government over the regulation of the radio spectrum. With amateur radio shut out of the 'interesting' long wave bands, led to amateur radio pioneering short wave and microwave. Pirate radio station operators dispute right of government to regulate radio. (One justification of the regulation of the use of the radio spectrum is that bandwidth is a scarce resource, which is disputed by present-day proponents of "intelligent radio".)

Modem and BBS era Old crimes commited in new ways. Old laws adapted to new circumstance. E.g. Tresspass, break-in, vandalism all extended from physical to virtual. Dispute about validity of some crimes such as computer tresspass by crackers.

Internet era Virtual identity and reputation. Anonymity and pseudonymity. Conflict over alledged harm of intellectual property law to human technological development and private expression. Privacy, freedom of expression and strong encryption. Impact of borderless communication on ability of governments to maintain law and order (and reppression).

-- (User:Lawsonsj)

Just an FYI: The Law of the Internet freshman seminar at Harvard has taken it upon ourselves (as in, we were assigned) to de-stubify this wiki over the course of this semester. (Fall '05 - under the direction of John Palfrey)

-- (User:dccarrollj)

the section on "Indian Cyber law"
is comepletely out of place. Chensiyuan 08:04, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Sarbanes-Oxley Act
I added a link to this, because it is part of a recent revolution in corporate governance regulation impacting a major segment of companies doing business in the USA, combined with reaction to widespread computer insecurity. Perhaps there should be a separate section that looks at the evolution of the cyberlaw landscape by nation, with international implications. For example, a person, in one nation, does something that is illegal in another nation, but not their home nation. People in the other nation, where the content is illegal, access the material. This includes libel, viruses, all manner of scams. User:AlMac|(talk) 05:56, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

brief change
Removed a parenthetical note that was both unprofessional and irrelevant to the article at hand (it acts more of a discrediting factor than anything else, which if addressed should be addressed elsewhere). -- spm, 4.25.06

cyber law
hi frnds , i have a presentation on the topic cyber law so will anybody tell me the seralized way to represent the topic? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.96.37.238 (talk) 19:07, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

A way to get started could be to go to Amazon and look up the book CyberLaw and its table of contents. There are, of course, some other areas to add, but you should be on your way. jonathan

Cyberlaw
The following passage had some time ago been inserted as the introduction. I've taken it out. It's inappropriate for a lead, as it deals with a specific trademarked subject. Not sure that it belongs in the article at all, or as an external link. JNW (talk) 17:05, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

''CyberLaw is a term first coined by Jonathan Rosenoer as the title for a service aimed at explaining legal issues to computer users. It derives from the term, Cybernetics. CyberLaw (tm) was first published on an AOL user group in March 1992, as a version of a series of articles published in print, under the name "The Legal Side," by major US computer (primarily Macintosh) users groups, such as BMUG, and on The WELL. Many of the CyberLaw articles were published in a book titled, CyberLaw: The Law of the Internet (Springer Verlag 1996).''

title: Talk:Cyberlaw


text:
Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Accessibility/Alternative text for images/Archive 1

I was dinged by Wapcaplet for stating on How to edit a page that the most appropriate ALT text for most images is "". It seems that Wapcaplet, and many Wikipedia contributors, are unfortunately mistaken on this issue; they apparently think that any ALT text is better than none, but this is usually not the case.

Take, for example, the article on Karl Marx. As I write this, the ALT text for Marx's picture is "Kmarx.jpg". That is horribly wrong, as you'll discover if you run the article through a speech browser: "Karl Marx. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Kmarx dot jay pee jee Karl Marx (May 5, 1818 - March 14, 1883) was an influential political philosopher ..." Huh? Who on earth is Kmarx dot jay pee jee Karl Marx?

ALT text is an accessibility aid, which should express the meaning of an image for someone who can't see it -- it should not make them feel guilty or disadvantaged about not seeing it. Appropriate ALT text for the Karl Marx picture might be "Marx was an imposing figure, with a full moustache and a large beard." However, is that kind of information really important for someone listening to an encyclopedia article? If it is, then use it as the ALT text. If it isn't important -- and it isn't important in most cases, because the image is merely illustrative rather than meaningful -- then the most appropriate ALT text is "".

-- Mpt 00:20 8 Jun 2003 (UTC)

You may note, from the third link you give:

 * Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element

I would strongly disagree that an empty ALT text tag is appropriate in any case, save those where the image is absolutely meaningless (such as a design element, spacer, or the like - elements which are quickly becoming obsolete as browsers begin to support a wider range of CSS and other web standards). And I agree with you, "Kmarx dot jay pee gee" is highly inappropriate as well. The reason the one on the Karl Marx article is "Kmarx.jpg" is because whoever placed the image there did not bother to give it meaningful ALT text. Appropriate ALT text in this case might be "Photograph of Karl Marx." It's just enough information to let speech readers know what an appropriate thing to say would be. If the ALT text were empty, the text-only reader or the person with the screen reader would wonder "So, does that image contain anything of interest?"

To answer your point - no, I do not think that just any old ALT text is better than none. But I do think that if someone is going to bother putting something in the ALT text, it should be something other than an empty space.

-- Wapcaplet 00:45 8 Jun 2003 (UTC)

The WCAGs (as paraphrased by the checkpoints for them, which you linked to) say "Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content", not "Provide descriptions of auditory and visual content". "Photograph of Karl Marx" is a description, not an equivalent; it would be an excellent TITLE, but as ALT text it would be just as annoying as "kmarx.jpg" is. Listen to the speech browser again: "Karl Marx. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photograph of Karl Marx Karl Marx (May 5, 1818 - March 14, 1883) was an influential political philosopher ..." Huh? Who on earth is Photograph of Karl Marx Karl Marx?

 * W3C still recommends that every image have an ALT text -- we just need to write a good one! In this example, a period is a big accessibility help to begin with; that done, "Karl Marx. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photograph of Karl Marx. Karl Marx (May 5, 1818 dash March 14, 1883) was an influential political philosopher ..." works just fine, and lets people know what's on the page if they want to check things out more carefully (with more technology, say). It sure beats "image" (which some browsers will still say). A longer description would be even better, to be sure. (Also, this example highlights why we should prefer words like "to" over symbols like "-"!) -- Toby Bartels 05:02 12 Jun 2003 (UTC)

If I'm blind, why do I care that there's a photo there at all? If the photo's providing meaning, then tell me the meaning. And if it's not providing meaning, then don't fill my ears with garbage; make the image completely silent, using ALT="", as described in Ian Hickson's FAQ ...

-- Mpt 02:13 8 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * In my humble opinion, Matthew is exactly correct. On a biography about Karl Marx, it may be appropriate, if the photograph comes after the header, for the alternate text to be something along the lines of "In his later age, Karl Marx's appearance was of an elderly distinguised gentleman, known for his bushy beard, moustache, and receeding hairline." if that is what the photograph is trying to convey; if it is purely decorative then "" is the most appropriate alternate text since the image is not conveying anything.
 * -- Hixie 10:14 8 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Mpt - You have made some excellent points. I must admit I hadn't thoroughly considered the speech presentation matter, nor the fact that there are alternative, and more appropriate, ways of specifying the description of an image. As a proponent of web accessibility yourself, you are probably aware of the difficulty often encountered in even getting people to realize that it's an important issue! I've spent so long just trying to convince people not to leave off the ALT tag entirely (resulting in lots of "IMAGE" placeholders everywhere), and not enough about what is appropriate text.

I think we can at least agree that the short explanation given on How to edit a page for appropriate usage of ALT text is insufficient. No guidelines are given for what is appropriate ALT text; perhaps an additional page should be created discussing the matter. Meanwhile, perhaps we should petition some of the Wikipedia developers to change the "default" ALT text (for cases such as the Karl Marx one) from the string containing the filename to an empty string as you suggest - since it is probably safe to assume that many people insert images without considering an ALT text equivalent.

It may also be good to change Image use policy (particularly the section on appropriate markup) to reflect some appropriate ALT text. There is a comment on that page regarding ALT text - if it can be expounded within that page, then the matter of appropriate text should probably be discussed there; if you think (as I am beginning to) that it warrants its own article, then perhaps Alternate text for images should be created ...

-- Wapcaplet 15:53 8 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Some questions:

 * Generally on Wikipedia we put images in div tags so that text flows around them a little better (see eg Rachel Corrie). What's the best way to deal with this?

 * and  are the tofu of HTML, and you should avoid them whenever there is real markup you can use instead. Ideally, Wikipedia would have a   you could apply to images which would put them to the side, flow text around them with an appropriate margin, etc. Then: If an image’s alternate text is empty, it doesn’t matter where you code it. If non-empty alternate text makes most sense as a paragraph by itself, the image should be coded on a paragraph by itself. And if the alternate text belongs best inside a particular paragraph, that’s where the image should be coded (as in my   example). -- Mpt

 * Ok, and in the non-ideal world that we currently live in, where there is no real markup we can use instead of div, what do you suggest? Obviously if you add nice extra features to the wikipedia software (it's open source, btw) then we'll use them - but we need a solution in the interim. -- Martin

 * . In the case of images inside a paragraph, the  element should be styled directly, but … (see below) -- Mpt

...

 * Are you trying to suggest that we should not have captions at all, because we have image description pages? Martin

 * No, I was trying to suggest what I spelled out below: for accessibility, captions should either be in the image’s  attribute, or the image description page, or both. -- Mpt

...

 * Putting caption-like info only on the image description page means that they're not rendered for people who can see the image in the first place, and since such information is relevant to them, this is not acceptable. Martin

 * So alter the Wikipedia code (please!) to allow captions in the image’s  attribute instead (maybe  ). Putting captions in-line with the rest of the text makes the page nonsensical for those listening to it, which IMHO is similarly unacceptable. -- Mpt

 * Currently, it appears that image alt text is placed into the title of the anchor which links the image to its associated description page, along with being placed in the alt attribute of the image itself. So while having a description in the alt part of our images may not be appropriate for the images, it looks like it probably is being used appropriately for the anchor. But yeah, I agree, we should see about getting title implemented explicitly. -- Wapcaplet 20:25 14 Jun 2003 (UTC)

I think that your ideas are great, but please keep in mind that Martin doesn't work on the code (nor I). Programming here is only done by volunteers, but if you could join in to make Wikipedia more accessible, then that would be fantastic! Otherwise, things are liable to be "under advisement" ... '_`. -- Toby Bartels 09:05 12 Jun 2003 (UTC)

One big improvement to the picture on the left is to add a period after the ALT text. Then nobody gets confused inside the sentence. That done, the left-hand ALT text is now better than no ALT text at all. There's a good reason why the W3C still recommends always including a text element with an image, which is (or at least one is) that readers can be frustrated if they know that an image is there but not what it is. There is no doubt that the right-hand side is better still, but until the brilliant prose is written, I'd much rather see "Image:Photograph of the Moon." than just "Image". Or IOW, blank ALT text doesn't always render an image invisible, but it still renders an image incomprehensible. Thus it's a Bad Thing. -- Toby Bartels 05:11 12 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * I would be extremely surprised if you could find anywhere the W3C recommend "always including a text element with an image". They say "The  attribute must be specified" [emphasis added], but the attribute is allowed to be empty (they even give an empty example). And they say "Provide a text equivalent", but the best text equivalent will often be nothing at all, as I've explained.

 * Didn't somebody cite something earlier saying «Provide a text element.»? No matter. The opinion that I'm most familiar with is http://www.w3.org/2001/06tips/altAttribute, since it shows up often when I validate. Now, this does have an example of a suggested "" for alt, but -- like the one on the page that you cited! -- it's not the sort of thing that we're talking about here; they suggest it for bullets and horizontal rules. To say that the W3C agrees that the best text equivalent for a contentful picture is sometimes empty is, IMO, reading more into any of these references than is there.

 * You're mistaken about the "Image" thing - Lynx only says "[INLINE]" if the  attribute isn't present at all, not if it's present but empty. Despite that, I'm at a loss to understand why you think "Photograph of the Moon. The Moon has no atmosphere." would be acceptable for an encyclopedia article. It doesn't even make sense, let alone qualify as brilliant prose. :-)

 * -- Mpt 08:17 12 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * Not that the W3C knows everything, so now let me argue on merits. ^_^ In my situation, as a sighted person that often surfs without images, I like to see "Photograph of the Moon", because it tells me what's on the page -- giving me the option of going in for more detail (in this case, looking at the image) if I wish. Having checked lynx's behaviour again (and what you said was quite right), I now think that what I'd most like to see is "Image: Photograph of the Moon." With the period, it's quite clear what's going on there when reading (or being read to) -- no confusion or nonsense.

 * As for brilliant prose, I definitely agree that the right-hand version (barring  business) is superior to anything like "Image: Photograph of the Moon.". I agree with all that you've said about how an alt tag should say what the image says, not say what the image is. The only thing that I disagree with is the claim that "" is better than "Photograph of the Moon."; I don't claim that either is ideal!

 * -- Toby Bartels 09:29 12 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * Toby makes a good point here; I often surf without images, and the alt text is the only thing that tells me what was in those images. Lots of webpages use dozens of itty-bitty images for formatting, borders, and other fluff (which of course I am not crazy about) - and obviously those should have an empty alt text. But for an image that is of importance in the context of whatever I'm reading, I would hope to see some sort of descriptive phrase. Even "From space, the moon appears..." would be fine; anything other than a null string would be enough to make me consider doing a right-click-show-image so I can see what's there. Obviously, in working towards accessibility, we should not alienate and confuse the non-disabled population :) -- Wapcaplet 12:17 12 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * I’m very sorry, but helping you to decide whether to load an image is not, and never has been (since HTML 2.0), the primary purpose of the  attribute. (Occasionally it may be useful for that, but only as an accident.)   is a replacement for an image; descriptions, on the other hand, belong in  . -- Mpt 14:27 12 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * That's not of much use, since users can't see the title. Especially in a place like Wikipedia, where everything starts out rough and is later improved, putting title material like "Photograph of Karl Marx." in the alt tag will serve to begin with -- and is more informative than "" -- and can be replaced by a later editor that thinks of something useful to say. -- Toby Bartels 15:19 13 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * No it won't serve to begin with, because it doesn't make any sense., on the other hand, makes perfect sense. I am really curious why you seem so determined that all images must have non-empty alternate text. It Just Ain't So. -- Mpt

 * Perhaps I phrased that poorly. I simply meant that having some alt text (preferably well-chosen as a replacement for the image) is better than nothing at all, in that context.

...

 * As shown in the second example, Wikipedia currently does not allow images to be inserted within a paragraph while visually being floated to the side

So why give it as an example? Don't bother editors with criticism of the current state of Wikipedia code - just tell them the best way to proceed, given the current state. Save criticism for image pages. Martin

 * Agreed. If this isn't possible on Wikipedia, then it shouldn't be given as an example. It seems odd for the alt text to begin and end with a comma, also. I'll see if I can fix it up a bit... -- Wapcaplet 11:23 13 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * But as you can see, there are Wikipedia bugs affecting nearly every detail of writing decent alternate text, so I think it's important for authors to know how to work around them. It's also important to know that they are workarounds rather than permanent practices, so that when the bugs are fixed, people don't feel as though they were misled. (I've already listed the fixes needed on image pages.)

 * As for the Eiffel Tower example, it's there precisely to demonstrate how it may be appropriate for alternate text to begin and end with a comma -- as I said, "If the image's meaning fits best in the middle of a sentence, use commas at the beginning and/or end of the alternate text where appropriate". Wapcaplet, please reconsider your alteration. Thanks. -- Mpt 12:12 13 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * Yes, Wikipedia has bugs. We have a ways to go before we have great accessibility. Wikipedia is not perfect. But a policy/howto-style page such as this one is not the appropriate place to point out these flaws.

 * I'd be willing to put the example back in as it was, but I don't think it should be listed as a "Do this" example, at least not until Wikipedia does correctly handle images in the middle of a paragraph.

 * What I'd prefer to do, though, is give examples of ways to avoid putting alt text that consists of parenthetical remarks. Here is another case where, to me, having this type of accessibility will confuse sighted readers with images turned off (parf of the reason I included those in the previous examples, and why I would like them to be re-instated). Say we do get the "bug" fixed, and images within paragraphs end up being floated to the side of the containing paragraph. Sighted users with images turned off might see:

, such as the Eiffel Tower, A large number of tourist attractions help attract some 20 million visitors to Paris each year. The city is the hub of France's motorway network, and is surrounded by a large orbital road, the Peripherique.

 * I think it'd be best if we could find some good examples that work well for all of these cases. -- Wapcaplet 12:38 13 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * I think currently we want:
 * an example of doing it right (chess example is good)
 * wiki-code
 * what people see
 * what people see (no images)
 * what people hear (or see in search results, etc)
 * an example of people using the filename as alternate text (ie, cabbage example)
 * wiki-code
 * what people hear
 * an example of how to do the cabbage example right
 * wiki-code
 * what people hear

 * Those will suffice to give people a rough idea. From there, they can go and learn by doing, or learn by watching what others do. If we keep this page nice and concise, then people are more likely to actually read it. Martin

 * Sounds good to me. I'll see if I can't whip that chess example into shape... -- Wapcaplet 13:58 13 Jun 2003 (UTC)

In terms of the links you provide above. Ian Hickson's mini-FAQ is talking almost entirely about what user agents should do, not about what authors should do. So, ignore that.

Flavell recommends including ALT text for images that are merely "Supplemental or Interesting" - they do not have to be "important and unique". Flavell also makes this point: "If you want to also offer them a link to the picture, then do so, in one of the ways mentioned above. (Even a blind reader might want to download the picture, to show it to a friend later.)" - in both of these points he is contradicting your position. He also suggests "If your audience is accustomed to reading mathematical equations in LATEX notation, you could use that as alt text for the image of the equation" - I think we already do this.

I've yet to see you provide any reference to a source that suggests having ", such as Prince Charles, " or the like as alt text. I'd like to see you provide such a source, if this is indeed recommended practice. Martin 14:10 13 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * Important and unique are both subsets of "interesting". If you were an engineer asking the Computer on the USS Enterprise to read you the Wikipedia entry for dilithium-3, you'd probably get pretty annoyed if (important) it started talking about how the crystals reflect a lovely mixture of colors when viewed in the Cardassian twilight (because that's how they happened to be shown in a photograph in the article's graphical rendering), or if (unique) it told you the crystal structure twice, once from the main text and once from the alternate text to a diagram of the structure.

 * As for the Charles example, I don't know of any references on writing alternate text about Prince Charles in particular, but ... You can see it with your own eyes/ears, if you like. Try the following in Lynx or a speech browser:

 * -- Mpt 16:27 13 Jun 2003 (UTC)


text:
Mladen Rudonja

Mladen Rudonja (born 26 July 1971) is a Slovenian retired footballer. He most often played as a winger (usually on the left side) or striker.

International career
Rudonja made his debut for the Slovenia national team in a February 1994 friendly match against Georgia. Despite being an attacker, he did not score a goal for the team until his 53rd cap – in the second leg of the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifying playoffs against Romania in Bucharest. The match ended with a score of 1–1, a result that was enough to secure Slovenia's first-ever qualification for the main World Cup event. Rudonja played 65 matches for Slovenia.

Personal life
His son Roy is a former professional footballer.

title: Mladen Rudonja


text:
PSP

PSP may refer to:

Political parties

 * Former Pak Sarzameen Party, Pakistan
 * Former Pacifist Socialist Party (Dutch: Pacifistisch Socialistische Partij), Netherlands
 * Partido Socialista Popular (Cuba)
 * People's Services Party, Vanuatu
 * Former Popular Socialist Party (Argentina) (Partido Socialista Popular)
 * Post-WWII Popular Socialist Party, Chile
 * Former Popular Socialist Party (Haiti) (Parti Socialiste Populaire)
 * Popular Socialist Party (Mexico) (Partido Popular Socialista, PPS)
 * Former Popular Socialist Party (Spain) (Partido Socialista Popular), merged with Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)
 * Former Praja Socialist Party, India
 * Progress Singapore Party
 * Progressive Socialist Party (الحزب التقدمي الاشتراكي, al-hizb al-taqadummi al-ishtiraki), Lebanon
 * Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (, Prohresivna Sotsjalistychna Partiya Ukrayiny)
 * Former Progressive Sudanese Party (Parti soudanais progressiste), French Sudan (now Mali)
 * Former Puerto Rican Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Puertorriqueño)

Government

 * Państwowa Straż Pożarna, State Fire Service, Poland
 * Pennsylvania State Police, US
 * Polícia de Segurança Pública (Public Security Police), Portugal
 * Public Sector Pension Investment Board or PSP Investments

Computing

 * PlayStation Portable, game console
 * PlayStation Portal, handheld gaming accessory
 * PaintShop Pro, graphics editor software
 * Parallel slave port on some PIC microcontrollers
 * Personal software process, development process
 * Program Segment Prefix, DOS data structure
 * Python Server Pages, for embedding Python in HTML
 * AMD Platform Security Processor

Engineering

 * Pierced steel planking
 * Pneumatic stabilized platform, for large floating structures

Firearms

 * Heckler & Koch P7 "Police Self-loading Pistol"

Science and medicine

 * Paralytic shellfish poisoning
 * Parker Solar Probe
 * Excoriation disorder, dermatillomania, or pathological skin picking
 * Phenolsulfonphthalein (phenol red), a pH indicator
 * Photostimulable phosphor plate, for recording X-rays
 * Polydiethylstilbestrol phosphate, an estrogen
 * Polysaccharide peptide
 * Postsynaptic potential, nerve voltage
 * Pressure-sensitive paint
 * Primary spine practitioner
 * Progressive supranuclear palsy of the brain

Other

 * Palm Springs International Airport, IATA airport code
 * Payment service provider
 * Personal Public Service Number (Irish: Uimhir Phearsanta Seirbhíse Poiblí), Ireland
 * Philippine Sign Language, by ISO 639-3 language code
 * Physical Security Professional
 * Planning and Scheduling Professional, an AACE International certification
 * President's Surveillance Program, US

title: PSP


text:
Zhongshan

Zhongshan is a prefecture-level city in the south of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, China. As of the 2020 census, the whole city with 4,418,060 inhabitants is now part of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen conurbation with 65,565,622 inhabitants. The city-core subdistricts used to be called Shiqi or Shekki.

Zhongshan is one of the few Chinese cities to be named after a person. It was originally named Xiangshan (香山, "Fragrant Mountain"; Cantonese: Heung-saan), but was renamed in 1925 in honor of Sun Yat-sen, who is known in China as "Sun Zhongshan". Sun was the founding father of the Republic of China who is also regarded positively by the People's Republic. He was born in Cuiheng village in Nanlang Township of what was then Xiangshan County.

Names
Until 1925, Zhongshan was generally known as Xiangshan or Heung-san (Siangshan), in reference to the many flowers that grew in the mountains nearby. The city was renamed in honor of Sun Yat-sen, who had adopted the name Zhongshan. Sun is considered by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China to be the "Father of Modern China", and was from Cuiheng village – now part of Nanlang Town in Zhongshan.

History
Thousands of years ago, much of the Zhongshan area lay within the Pearl River estuary, with only scattered islands above the surface. Gradually from south to north, the area filled in with alluvial silt and became dry land. The northern parts of today's Zhongshan did not fill in until the time of the Ming dynasty.

The Zhongshan area was part of an extended Dongguan County during the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD), and was a significant sea salt producer. In 1082, during the Northern Song dynasty, a fortified settlement called Xiangshan was founded in the area, marking the first official use of the name by which it would be known throughout most of its modern history. The prosperous settlement was then upgraded to a county in 1152. After the collapse of the Southern Song dynasty, many descendants of Song court officials, including members of the imperial family, settled in Xiangshan. Significant land formation in the area of Zhongshan occurred since the Ming dynasty. Under the Qing dynasty, embankments were built to prevent flooding in the new alluvial lands, and the area of cultivation was extended.

Much of the First Opium War took place in and around Xiangshan. In 1839, the official Lin Zexu arrived in Xiangshan and ordered the expulsion of Sir Charles Elliot and other British traders from the area. Qing dynasty soldiers resisted British attacks on the area in 1840, but were ultimately overwhelmed.

After the Opium Wars opened the region to foreign influence, a number of Xiangshan residents, including Sun Zhongshan (Yatsen), left to study overseas and were among the creators of modern China. Xiangshan was one of the first counties in China liberated as part of the Xinhai Revolution. After Sun Zhongshan's death in 1925, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Republic of China decided to memorialize Sun by renaming his county of birth from Xiangshan to Zhongshan.

Nationalist and Communist units launched guerrilla attacks on Japanese occupancy forces and their Collaborators beginning in 1942. On August 15, 1945, Japanese forces declared an unconditional surrender, and Zhongshan was liberated.

Zhongshan was the scene of fighting during the Chinese Civil War and was held for much of the war by Nationalists. On October 30, 1949, however, the People's Liberation Army defeated Nationalist forces in Zhongshan, and the county came under the control of the People's Republic of China.

In 1983, Zhongshan was elevated in administrative status from a county to a county-level city under the administration of Foshan. In 1988 Zhongshan became a prefecture-level city.

Geography and climate
Zhongshan is located along the west side of the mouth of the Pearl River, directly opposite Shenzhen and Hong Kong. It lies south of Guangzhou and Foshan and north of Zhuhai and Macau. The northern part of Zhongshan, including most of the urbanized area, lies on the alluvial plains of the Pearl River Delta, while the southern part of the city's territory reaches into a range of coastal hills.

The most notable of these are the Wugui Hills. The city's current geography is typical of southern China: numerous steep mountains and hills with alluvial plains in between down to the coastline. The main summit of the Wugui Hills is the highest point in the city, at 531 m above sea level.

Like nearly all of southern China, Zhongshan's climate is warm and humid most of the year, with an average temperature of 22 °C and 175 cm of rainfall each year. Southern China experiences fairly frequent typhoons and thunderstorms, and most rain falls between April and September.

Cityscape

Zhongshan is a city of numerous leafy parks, wide boulevards, and monuments. Notable sights include:

Zhongshan, like many cities in China, has a rapidly changing cityscape with many new buildings under construction. Currently, the tallest completed buildings in the city are the two Zhongshan International Finance Center Towers. Tower 1 and Tower 2 both reach a height of 220 m and are 55 stories tall. These will be eclipsed by the Perfect Eagle Golden Square tower, which will reach 238 m, with an expected completion date in 2018. The International Trade Center in Guzhen Town, expected to be completed in 2019, will reach a height of 305 m with 65 floors.
 * Sunwen Road West (or Sunwen Xilu) in Zhongshan Old Town, a pedestrian mall lined with dozens of restored buildings from the colonial period in treaty port style. Several of these buildings were built in the 1920s.
 * The seven-story Fufeng Pagoda, built in 1608 and visible from all over the city, is on a hill in Zhongshan Park, which abuts the western end of Sunwen Road West immediately to its north. A Sun Yat-sen memorial pavilion stands near the pagoda.
 * Sunwen Memorial Park, at the southern end of Xingzhong Road, is the site of the largest bronze sculpture of Sun Yat-sen in the world.

Administration
Zhongshan is a prefecture-level city of the Guangdong province. An uncommon administrative feature is that it has no county-level division, but the municipal government does group the 24 township-level divisions into five district areas. The city government directly administers 8 Subdistricts and 15 towns:

 * Cuiheng New Area (翠亨新区)

Language
Although the main ethnic group in Zhongshan is Han Chinese, there is no one dominant language or dialect spoken making Zhongshan one of the most diverse cities in China. Dialects spoken in the city ranging from the more common Yue, Hakka, and Min dialects to the more local Shiqi, Shatian, Longdu, Nanlang, Sanxiang, Guzhen, Sanjiao, and Zhangjiabian dialects as well as Wuiguishan, the only Hakka dialect in the city. The most common language, however, is Cantonese.

Yue

 * Shiqi dialect – Shiqiqu Subdistrict, Dongqu Subdistrict, Nanqu Subdistrict
 * Shatian dialect – Xiqu Subdistrict, Tanzhou Town, Shenwan Town, Banfu Town, Henglan Town, Xiaolan Town, Dongfeng Town, Nantou Town, Huangpu Town, Minzhong Town, Gangkou Town, Fusha Town, Dongsheng Town
 * Guzhen dialect – Guzhen Town
 * Sanjiao dialect – Sanjiao Town

Min

 * Nanlang dialect – Nanlang Town
 * Sanxiang dialect – Sanxiang Town
 * Longdu dialect – Dachong Town, Shaxi Town
 * Zhangjiabian dialect – THIDZ Subdistrict

Hakka

 * Wuguishan dialect – Wuguishan Subdistrict

Primary industries
Primary productions are agricultural, such as rice, lychee, banana, and sugar cane. Added to this, horticulture in Xiaolan Town is famous throughout southern China for its blooming chrysanthemum and chickens.

Manufacturing industries
Zhongshan, Dongguan, Nanhai, and Shunde are dubbed the 'Four Little Tigers' in Guangdong. The proximity of Zhongshan to Hong Kong and Macau is an advantage to its economic development, especially in manufacturing.

In the 1980s, Zhongshan had a relatively developed state-owned enterprise (SOE) sector that was used to stimulate Township and Village Enterprises (TVE) development in the countryside. Currently, the SOE sector is much weaker, and the economy is dominated by foreign investment and TVEs, and by specialized 'manufacturing towns'. Each of these towns specializes in making a particular product. Most of the towns have earned a reputation as leading manufacturers in their pillar industries.

These specialized manufacturing towns include:
 * Dachong Town for mahogany furniture
 * Dongfeng Town for electric household appliances
 * Guzhen Town for lighting fixtures
 * Huangpu Town for food processing
 * Shaxi Town for casual wear manufacturing
 * Xiaolan Town for locks and hardware, as well as for electronic acoustics products

The government of Zhongshan encourages "Research and Design" in the region by setting up national level research centres and specialized industrial regions. For example, the Zhongshan National Torch High-Tech Industrial Development Zone (中山国家级火炬高技术产业开发区) was established in 1990 in the east of the city by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the governments of Guangdong province and Zhongshan. Zhongshan Port, which ranks among the top 10 ports nationwide in container-handling capacity, is in the zone. Since 2001, it has included the Zhongshan Electronic Base of China (中国电子中山基地) for its reputation in the electronic acoustics industry. Following possible development in Nansha, the city considers its eastern part, of which 400 km² of land is available, a focus of future development.

Currently, the city is trying to re-organize its fragmented industrialization. Meanwhile, the light and labour-intensive industry characteristic of the local economy faces the problem of a shortage of land in Zhongshan.

Tourism, recreation and leisure
The World Lamp King Museum, a lamp museum in the form of a giant lamp scheduled to open in 2015, will be a major tourist attraction. Zhongshan is home to a number of forest parks which are designed to protect the natural features of the land and offer visitors a chance to get closer to nature. Zhongshan Tianxin Forest Park (中山田心森林公园) was opened in 2015 as part of the city's "green lung" initiative.
 * Zhongshan Museum of Art 1.jpg natural hot spring resorts are located in Sanxiang Town, such as the national own firm Zhongshan Hot Springs Resort, which is ranked top 10 hot spring resorts in China because there is a rare hot spring reservoir in the Pearl River Delta.
 * Former Residence of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Museum: The former residence of Sun Zhongshan is at the center of the Memorial Museum, located in the village of Cuiheng.
 * Xiaolan: Many houses in the town of Xiaolan have garden pavilions dedicated to the cultivation of chrysanthemums. Roofs and balconies, streets and lanes feature countless varieties of chrysanthemum plantings.

Colleges and universities

 * Guangdong Pharmaceutical University (Zhongshan Campus)
 * University of Electronic Science and Technology
 * Guangdong Polytechnic Institute (Zhongshan Campus)
 * Zhongshan Polytechnic
 * Zhongshan Torch Polytechnic

High schools and institutions

 * Zhongshan Overseas Chinese Middle School opened in 1954(Mr. Chen Maoyuan, a returned overseas Chinese, initiated the establishment of the school), is one of the first top-grade schools of Guangdong Province  and the first national demonstrative ordinary high schools.
 * Sun Yat-sen Memorial Secondary School was established in memory of Sun Yat-sen in 1934, and was built under the supervision of Soong Ching-ling, the widow of Sun Yat-sen.
 * Zhongshan No. 1 Middle School opened in 1908.
 * Guangdong Zhongshan Experimental Middle School
 * Zhongshan Guishan Middle School
 * Guangdong Bowen International School
 * Sanxin Bilingual School
 * China-Hong Kong English School

Notable people

 * Li Kuen-pei (李焜培), artist
 * Sun Yat-sen, statesman and political philosopher, first leader of the Kuomintang; served as the provisional first president of the Republic of China
 * 蕭國健, professor, department of Chinese Literature and director of Hong Kong Historical and Cultural Research Center at Zhuhai College, (Jilin University); Honorary Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong; museums consultant for the Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services Department
 * Cheng Chung-tai, Hong Kong academic, social activist, and politician
 * Su Bingtian, Chinese athlete, fastest Asian sprinter of all-time

Public Buses
Zhongshan Public Transport Group Co., Ltd. operates many bus routes throughout the city. Stop announcements are voiced in Mandarin and Cantonese on all buses. On BRT system buses, announcements are also voiced in English. By purchasing a Zhongshan Tong card from authorized retailers, riders can receive a discount of 50% on all bus rides. Elderly citizens are allowed to ride for free.

Ferry Transport
Chu Kong Passenger Transport (CKS) connects Zhongshan with Hong Kong with multiple daily scheduled high-speed ferry services to both Hong Kong–Macau Ferry Terminal on Hong Kong Island and Hong Kong China Ferry Terminal in Kowloon. The trip by ferry takes about 1.5 hours.

Railway
Guangzhou–Zhuhai Intercity Railway serves the city of Zhongshan with seven stations.

Metro
The Zhongshan Metro system is currently under planning with 2 lines.

Aviation
There is a bus service from Zhongshan to Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport in Shenzhen.

Additionally Zhongshan is served by Hong Kong International Airport; ticketed passengers can take ferries from the Zhongshan Ferry Terminal to the HKIA Skypier. There are also coach bus services connecting Zhongshan with HKIA.

Major projects

 * The Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge will connect Zhongshan with the city of Shenzhen on the Eastern side of the Pearl River Delta. It will consist of a series of bridges and tunnels, starting from Bao'an International Airport on the Shenzhen side. Construction of the proposed 51 km eight-lane link started in 2017, with completion scheduled for 2024.

Twin towns – sister cities
Zhongshan has seven sister cities:

 * 🇨🇦 Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada (2011)
 * 🇨🇷 Puntarenas, Costa Rica
 * 🇲🇽 Culiacán, Mexico
 * 🇦🇺 Cairns, Australia
 * 🇺🇸 Alameda County, California, United States
 * 🇺🇸 Honolulu, Hawaii, United States (1997)
 * 🇯🇵 Moriguchi, Osaka, Japan (1998)

title: Zhongshan


text:
Malvinas (disambiguation)

Malvinas is the Spanish name for the Falkland Islands, an archipelago in the south Atlantic Ocean which is a British Overseas Territory.

Malvinas, Malvinas Islands or Islas Malvinas may also refer to:

 * Malvinas Islands (Chile), a group of islands in the General Carrera Lake, Chile
 * Malvinas Day, a public holiday in Argentina
 * Malvinas Current, an Atlantic current which is also known as the Falkland Current
 * Estadio Islas Malvinas, home ground of Buenos Aires's All Boys club
 * HMS Tiger Bay, a vessel of the Royal Navy until 1986, formerly PNA Islas Malvinas of the Argentine Naval Prefectureas
 * Las Malvinas Airport, an airport in Peru

title: Malvinas (disambiguation)


text:
Manuel Lisa

Manuel Lisa, also known as Manuel de Lisa (September 8, 1772, in New Orleans Louisiana (New Spain) – August 12, 1820, in St. Louis, Missouri), was a Spanish citizen and later, became an American citizen who, while living on the western frontier, became a land owner, merchant, fur trader, United States Indian agent, and explorer. Lisa was among the founders, in St. Louis, of the Missouri Fur Company, an early fur trading company. Manuel Lisa gained respect through his trading among Native American tribes of the upper Missouri River region, such as the Teton Sioux, Omaha and Ponca.

After being appointed, as US Indian agent, during the War of 1812, Lisa used his standing among the tribes to encourage their alliance with the United States and their warfare against tribes allied with the United Kingdom. While still married to a European-American woman in St. Louis, where he kept a residence, in 1814 Lisa married Mitane, a daughter of Big Elk, the principal chief of the Omaha people, as part of securing their alliance. They had two children together, whom Lisa provided for equally in his will with his children by his other marriage.

Early life
Little is known of the early life of Manuel Lisa, but he is believed to have been born in 1772 in New Orleans, then part of Spanish Louisiana. It was ceded to Spain by France after the British victory in the Seven Years' War, when the British gained Florida in exchange with Spain for French lands west of the Mississippi River. His father, Christoval de Lisa, was born in Murcia, Spain, while his mother, Maria Ignacia Rodriguez, was born to a colonial family in St. Augustine, Florida. It is likely that Christoval came to Spanish Louisiana in the service of the governor Alejandro O'Reilly, who started his tenure in 1769. Manuel had at least one elder brother, Joaquin Lisa, who worked with him in his early trade expeditions.

By 1789, Manuel Lisa and his brother Joaquin were trading on the Mississippi River in New Madrid, Missouri; the next recorded mention of Manuel Lisa was again in New Madrid, after he had returned from trading along the Wabash River.

Marriage and family
By 1796 Lisa had married Polly Charles Chew (d. 1817), a young widow from New Orleans. After he obtained a land grant in the Missouri area, they relocated to St. Louis, which was the center of the region's thriving fur trade, established primarily by French colonists, some also from New Orleans. Polly Lisa lived in the city with their three children while her husband made his long expeditions to various Indian territories on the Upper Missouri River.

After founding Fort Lisa about 1813, a post in what is now part of Omaha, Nebraska, Lisa worked to gain alliances with local tribes, such as the Omaha. After being appointed US Indian agent in the area by the governor of the Missouri Territory, in 1814 Lisa married Mitane, a daughter of Big Elk, the principal chief of the Omaha until 1846. Both sides saw it as a strategic alliance. Lisa and Mitane had two children together, Rosalie and Christopher, born in subsequent years after Lisa's expeditions and wintering over at Fort Lisa.

"Kinship and ties of affinity proved more than merely useful to the traders. They were both a source of power and a necessity if one was to achieve success in the trade." Only traders were accepted for marriages to high-status women, such as the daughters of chiefs, as the chiefs saw such marriages as a way to increase their own power. As the Omaha had a patrilineal system, the children of Lisa and Mitane were considered "white" as their father was "white". The tribe protected them, but unless such mixed-race children were officially adopted by a man of the tribe, they were not considered Omaha and had no real place in a gens (clan), the basic kinship unit.

Polly Chew Lisa died in 1817 in St. Louis while Manuel Lisa was away on an expedition. After his return the following year, on August 5, 1818, Lisa married the widow Mary Hempstead Keeny, a sister of his friend, the attorney Edward Hempstead. As a widow, she had migrated with her parents and siblings from Connecticut to join four brothers already in Missouri.

In 1819 Lisa took his new wife Mary with him for his next expedition and winter at Fort Lisa, Nebraska. He tried to gain custody of his children with Mitane, who let him take Rosalie back to St. Louis the next year for education at a Catholic school, but refused to let him have Christopher. Lisa included provisions for both Rosalie and Christopher in his will, along with his children by his first wife Polly Chew. Only Rosalie Lisa Ely (c. 1815 – 1904) survived to adulthood, married and had children.

Land and purchases of enslaved people in the Louisiana Territory
In 1799, Manuel Lisa requested a land grant; according to his letter to the Spanish governor, Manuel wanted it "upon one of the banks of the River Missouri, in a place where may be found some small creek emptying into the said river, in order to facilitate the raising of cattle, and, with time, to be able to make shipments of salted and dried meat to the capital. After being awarded the grant, Manuel Lisa and his wife relocated to St. Louis, where they purchased a home on Second Street near the Mississippi River. In the late 1790s and early 1800s, Lisa purchased numerous enslaved people.

Early trade expeditions
Lisa likely moved to St. Louis to enter the fur trade, the major part of the regional economy. By 1802, he had obtained a trade monopoly from French officials (the territory had traded hands again) with the Osage Nation. (The monopoly had formerly been held by Auguste Chouteau, a French colonist and first settler of St. Louis). But, after the Louisiana Purchase and annexation of the territory by the United States, Lisa's relationship with the new government officials was not as strong. He competed with Pierre Chouteau, a prominent member of the founding family, who had gained a position as a U.S. government Indian agent; Chouteau and his brother had gained their wealth and social positions through the fur trade and as merchants.

Lisa had difficult relations with James Wilkinson, then-governor of U.S. Louisiana Territory. Later found to have been a secret agent of the Spanish Crown, Wilkinson denied Lisa's requests to establish trade routes to Santa Fe, New Mexico, which was still under Spanish colonial rule. In 1806, Wilkinson warned Zebulon Pike, undertaking Pike's Expedition, to prevent Lisa's efforts to make business connections to Santa Fe.

Having been stymied by the government and the Chouteau family, Lisa began organizing a trade expedition to the upper Missouri River region. On the first expedition, which departed in April 1807, Lisa and his company of 42 men (including John Colter, George Drouillard or Benito Vázquez) moved up the Missouri until they reached the mouth of the Yellowstone River. After ascending the Yellowstone some 170 mi, Lisa established a trading post on November 21 at the mouth of the Bighorn River in present-day Montana. Named Fort Raymond for his son (also known as Fort Manuel), it was the first such outpost in the upper Missouri region.

Lisa assigned John Colter of his party to explore the region and trade with the nearby Blackfeet tribe. During his exploration, Colter became the first known European to visit what is now known as Yellowstone National Park; he reported on what was named the eponymous Colter's Hell.

In July 1808, after a successful trading season, Lisa departed Fort Raymond, leaving behind a small party of men for the winter. While operations from the area were profitable for Lisa, the outpost suffered frequent attacks by the Blackfeet. During these years of Lisa's expeditions to the upper Missouri, his wife Polly and children stayed in St. Louis.

Creation of the Missouri Fur Company
Upon his return to St. Louis in August 1808, Lisa established the Missouri Fur Company (sometimes referred to as the St. Louis Missouri Fur Company), a joint venture with Jean Pierre Chouteau, Pierre Chouteau, Jr., William Clark, Andrew Henry, Francois Marie Benoit, and other prominent St. Louis fur traders. Jean Pierre Chouteau had also come from New Orleans, so the two men had ties to its French and Spanish Creole community. The company was created as a temporary trust by its founders, designed to either expire or reorganize after three years.

In the spring of 1809, Lisa returned to Fort Raymond with a major expedition, made up of 350 men, about half of whom were Americans, the rest French Canadians and Creoles. They had 13 barges and keel-boats loaded with food, munitions, and articles suitable for the Indian trade, and the trip up the Missouri River was slow. Lisa transferred the fort's contents to the new company, and abandoned the isolated post.

Directing the large force of men, Lisa built the first Fort Lisa (also called Fort Manuel) near what is now Bismarck, North Dakota. It was near a Gros Ventres village between the mouth of the Little Missouri and the Knife rivers. After the new fort was constructed, Lisa returned to St. Louis in October 1809. The next year, he ascended the river to Fort Lisa and conducted more trading operations. He returned to St. Louis in the autumn of 1810.

In April 1811, Lisa began a final expedition of the Missouri Fur Company's first three years; he had two goals: to locate the then-lost fur trader Andrew Henry, and to transport the remaining property from Fort Lisa to St. Louis. The expedition became famous in its day as the company's barges heading up the Missouri overtook the rival Astor Expedition, led by William Price Hunt for the American Fur Company, which had set out three weeks earlier. Lisa remained among the Mandan and Arikara tribes until Henry came downriver, and they returned to St. Louis together at the end of 1811. In 1811 Lisa was host to the first recorded tourist to present-day South Dakota: Pittsburgh lawyer Henry Marie Brackenridge.

When the Missouri Fur Company was reorganized during the winter of 1811-1812, Lisa became more prominent among its leadership. That year he built a brick home in St. Louis as a measure of his success. (Earlier he had built a stone warehouse for his fur company, which stood until the late 1930s, when it was demolished for other development. )

In May 1812, Lisa went upriver to Fort Lisa, trading there until his return to St. Louis on June 1, 1813. Lisa happened to be at Fort Lisa in North Dakota when Sacagawea, the historic interpreter and guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition, died at the fort on December 20, 1812. She was buried there.

On this journey he established a new fort further downriver, also called Fort Lisa, in what is now the North Omaha area of Omaha, Nebraska. Lisa at that time became the first known United States settler of Nebraska. His outpost became among the most important in the region, and the basis for the development of the major city of Nebraska.

War of 1812
In June 1812 the U.S. Congress voted to declare war on the United Kingdom. After Lisa's return to St. Louis in 1813, he heard fears expressed that British agents would encourage the upper Missouri tribes to attack settlements throughout the northern and western territories. The war disrupted the fur trade with the northern tribes on both sides of the border; in 1813 the British and American Indian allies burned Fort Lisa of North Dakota. Like other traders, Lisa had to suspend his operations for the period of the war.

Early in 1814, William Clark, governor of the Missouri Territory, appointed Lisa as US Indian Agent to the tribes located above the mouth of the Kansas River, at an annual salary of $548. Lisa set out for Fort Lisa of Nebraska, where he secured alliances between the United States and Missouri-area tribes, such as the Omaha and Ponca. He was especially effective among the Teton Sioux further upriver in present-day Minnesota, whom he organized to send war parties against tribes allied with the British. While securing these alliances, in 1814 Lisa took Mitain as a consort; she was the daughter of Big Elk, the principal chief of the Omaha people. (Lisa was still legally married to Polly, his first wife, but European-American men often took "country wives" among their Native American allies to build their relationships.)

Later, the U.S. government recognized Lisa, calling his efforts as a "great service in preventing British influence" in the northern area. After the war's conclusion in 1815, Lisa renewed his yearly trade expeditions to the area, staying each winter at Fort Lisa, Nebraska. He eventually had two children with Mitain: Rosalie and Christopher.

Later life
After the war, Lisa's reputation in St. Louis improved as a result of his success in the fur trade and having aided the Americans. In 1815, he invited 43 Native American chiefs and headmen from various tribes living between the Mississippi and Missouri to the city to strengthen their alliance with the Americans, and entertained them for about three weeks. He conducted them to Portage des Sioux to meet with the commissioners William Clark, Edwards and Auguste Chouteau to sign treaties of friendship. About two years later, he hosted another 24 chiefs from the Pawnee, Missouri and Sioux before another treaty signing.

In St. Louis, Lisa was considered an ally of the landed elite. He became more affiliated with leading American members of St. Louis, including Edward Hempstead, a land claims attorney, and Thomas Hart Benton, editor of the St. Louis Enquirer. In the fall of 1817, while the trader was on an expedition up the Missouri, his first wife Polly Lisa died.

In 1818 Lisa was with most of the residents in St. Louis who turned out to welcome the newly assigned Bishop Louis William Du Bourg. He had decided to make St. Louis the seat of the diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas. Lisa and other Creole families pledged substantial funds to build a church (now called the Old Cathedral) near the river that was fit for the diocese. After his return from that year's expedition, on August 5, 1818, Lisa married the widow Mary Hempstead Keeny (a sister of Edward Hempstead). As a measure of Lisa's social standing, Pierre Chouteau was a witness at his second wedding.

After living a year in St. Louis, Lisa took Mary with him for the winter of 1819-1820 to Fort Lisa in Nebraska (Mary Lisa reportedly became the first woman of European descent to travel so far up the Missouri River). When he and Mary arrived, Lisa sent his second wife Mitain away from the fort.

By the time of his 1819 expedition, Lisa had developed strong relationships with the Omaha, Ponca, Yankton and Teton Sioux, Mandan and Arikara peoples. He was instrumental in extending the "commercial outreach of St. Louis" to the Yellowstone and Bighorn rivers and to tribes previously more under British influence. By 1829 the Missouri Fur Company had invested capital of about $10,000, highest among the local firms.

Although Lisa returned to St. Louis in good health in April 1820, he soon became ill. The unidentified illness caused his death at Sulphur Springs (now within the city of St. Louis) on August 12, 1820. He was buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery at the Hempstead family plot. Although his will provided for $2000 for each of his children upon reaching adulthood (including those by Mitain ), there is no evidence that they received any money. The historian Chittenden believed Lisa left few assets to his estate.

After his death, Joshua Pilcher led the Missouri Fur Company to do business under various names until about 1830. By 1830, John Jacob Astor had gained a monopoly with his American Fur Company. As the fur trade had been declining overall with changes in taste, Pilcher dissolved the Missouri Fur Company.

title: Manuel Lisa


text:
Geometry of numbers

Geometry of numbers is the part of number theory which uses geometry for the study of algebraic numbers. Typically, a ring of algebraic integers is viewed as a lattice in $$\mathbb R^n,$$ and the study of these lattices provides fundamental information on algebraic numbers. The geometry of numbers was initiated by.

The geometry of numbers has a close relationship with other fields of mathematics, especially functional analysis and Diophantine approximation, the problem of finding rational numbers that  approximate an irrational quantity.

Minkowski's results
Suppose that $$\Gamma$$ is a lattice in $$n$$-dimensional Euclidean space $$\mathbb{R}^n$$ and $$K$$ is a convex centrally symmetric body. Minkowski's theorem, sometimes called Minkowski's first theorem, states that if $$\operatorname{vol} (K)>2^n \operatorname{vol}(\mathbb{R}^n/\Gamma)$$, then $$K$$ contains a nonzero vector in $$\Gamma$$.

The successive minimum $$\lambda_k$$ is defined to be the inf of the numbers $$\lambda$$ such that $$\lambda K$$ contains $$k$$ linearly independent vectors of $$\Gamma$$. Minkowski's theorem on successive minima, sometimes called Minkowski's second theorem, is a strengthening of his first theorem and states that
 * $$\lambda_1\lambda_2\cdots\lambda_n \operatorname{vol} (K)\le 2^n \operatorname{vol} (\mathbb{R}^n/\Gamma).$$

Later research in the geometry of numbers
In 1930–1960 research on the geometry of numbers was conducted by many number theorists (including Louis Mordell, Harold Davenport and Carl Ludwig Siegel). In recent years, Lenstra, Brion, and Barvinok have developed combinatorial theories that enumerate the lattice points in some convex bodies.

Subspace theorem of W. M. Schmidt
In the geometry of numbers, the subspace theorem was obtained by Wolfgang M. Schmidt in 1972. It states that if n is a positive integer, and L1,...,Ln are linearly independent linear forms in n variables with algebraic coefficients and if ε>0 is any given real number, then the non-zero integer points x in n coordinates with
 * $$|L_1(x)\cdots L_n(x)|<|x|^{-\varepsilon}$$

lie in a finite number of proper subspaces of Qn.

Influence on functional analysis
Minkowski's geometry of numbers had a profound influence on functional analysis. Minkowski proved that symmetric convex bodies induce norms in finite-dimensional vector spaces. Minkowski's theorem was generalized to topological vector spaces by Kolmogorov, whose theorem states that the symmetric convex sets that are closed and bounded generate the topology of a Banach space.

Researchers continue to study generalizations to star-shaped sets and other non-convex sets.

title: Geometry of numbers