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Robert Stephenson

Robert Stephenson, DCL (Hon. causa) (16 October 1803 – 12 October 1859) was an English civil engineer and designer of locomotives. The only son of George Stephenson, the "Father of Railways", he built on the achievements of his father. Robert has been called the greatest engineer of the 19th century. Stephenson's death was widely mourned, and his funeral afforded marks of public honour. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Early life
Robert Stephenson was born on 16 October 1803, at Willington Quay, east of Newcastle upon Tyne, to George Stephenson and Frances ( Henderson), usually known as Fanny. She was twelve years older than George, and when they met she was working as a servant where George was lodging. After marrying, George and Fanny lived in an upper room of a cottage; George worked as a brakesman on the stationary winding engine on the Quay, and in his spare time he cleaned and mended clocks and repaired shoes.In 1804, George became a brakesman at the West Moor Pit, and the family moved to Killingworth. Fanny's health deteriorated, and she died on 14 May 1806. Robert was first sent to a village school 1+1/2 mi away in Long Benton. George had received little formal education but was determined that his son would have one and so sent the eleven-year-old Robert to be taught at the Percy Street Academy in Newcastle. Robert became a member of the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society and borrowed books for him and his father to read. In the evenings, he would work with his father on designs for steam engines. In 1816 they made a sundial together, which is still in place above the cottage door.

After leaving school in 1819, Stephenson was apprenticed to the mining engineer Nicholas Wood, manager of Killingworth colliery. As an apprentice Stephenson worked hard and lived frugally, and unable to afford to buy a mining compass, he made one that he would later use to survey the High Level Bridge in Newcastle.

Personal life
In 1829, Stephenson married Frances Sanderson; the couple had no children, and he did not remarry after her death in 1842. In 1847, he was elected Member of Parliament for Whitby, and held the seat until his death. Stephenson declined a British knighthood, for unstated reasons, as his father had before him. He did accept several non-British honours: He was decorated in Belgium with the Knight of the Order of Leopold, in France with the Knight of the Legion of Honour and in Norway with the Knight Grand Cross of the order of St Olaf. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1849. A later fellow of the society was Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, who was Stephenson's godson and named after him. Stephenson also served as President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Oxford University conferred an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree on Stephenson.

Stockton and Darlington Railway
Ways were investigated in the early 19th century to transport coal from the mines in the Bishop Auckland area to Darlington and the quay at Stockton-on-Tees, and canals had been proposed. The Welsh engineer George Overton suggested a tramway, surveyed a route in September 1818 and the scheme was promoted by Edward Pease at a meeting in November. A private bill for a Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was presented to Parliament in 1819 but was opposed by landowners and did not pass. The route was changed, Overton carried out another survey and an Act received Royal Assent on 19 April 1821; Pease and George Stephenson met for the first time in Darlington that same day, and by 23 July George had been appointed to make a fresh survey of the line.

Stephenson had not completed his apprenticeship, but he was showing symptoms of tuberculosis, and his work was hazardous; he was down West Moor Pit when there was an underground explosion. Wood agreed to release the 18-year-old so that he could assist his father during the survey. By the end of 1821 they reported that a usable line could be built within the bounds of the Act, but another route would be shorter and avoid deep cuttings and tunnels. George was elected engineer by shareholders with a salary of £660 per annum. He advocated the use of steam locomotives, Pease visited Killingworth in the summer of 1822, and the directors visited Hetton colliery railway, on which George had also introduced locomotives. During the survey of the S&DR George had been persuaded, mainly by the Scottish engineer Robert Bald, that Robert would benefit from a university education. George could have afforded to send his son to a full degree course at Cambridge but agreed to a short academic year as he wished that Robert should not become a gentleman but should work for his living. Robert first helped William James to survey the route of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and then attended classes at Edinburgh University between October 1822 and April 1823.

On 23 May 1823, a second S&DR Act received Assent with the Stephensons' deviations from the original route and permission for the use of "loco-motives or moveable engines". In June 1823 the Stephensons and Pease opened Robert Stephenson and Company at Forth Street in Newcastle to build these locomotives, Pease lending Robert £500 so he could buy his share. As George was busy supervising the building of the railway, Robert was placed in charge of the works with a salary of £200 per annum. Robert also surveyed the route and designed the Hagger Leases branch, which was planned to serve the collieries at Butterknowle and Copley Bent. A new Act was required for the line, and Robert stayed in London for five weeks while the bill passed through its parliamentary process, Assent being given in May 1824. The S&DR ordered two steam locomotives and two stationary engines from Robert Stephenson & Co. on 16 September 1824, and the railway opened on 27 September 1825.

Colombian mines
On 18 June 1824, Stephenson sailed on the Sir William Congreve from Liverpool for South America with a contract for three years. At that time Colombia and Venezuela had not been independent of Spain for long, and they were both part of the same republic, Gran Colombia. The area's natural resources were attracting some British investors, including the Colombian Mining Association which had been formed to reopen gold and silver mines worked by the Spanish in colonial times. A Robert Stephenson & Co. partner, Thomas Richardson, was a promoter. Robert Stephenson & Co. received orders for steam engines from the company, and Richardson suggested to Stephenson that he go to South America.

To prepare for the trip, Stephenson took Spanish lessons, visited mines in Cornwall, and consulted a doctor, who advised that such a change of climate would be beneficial to his health. After a five-week journey Robert arrived at the port of La Guayra in Venezuela on 23 July 1824. He investigated building a breakwater and pier at the harbour, and a railway to Caracas. A railway linking Caracas to its port was an ambitious project as Caracas is nearly 1,000 meters above sea level: one was not completed until the 1880s. Stephenson had potential backers for his railway in London, but he concluded that while the cost of a pier, estimated at £6,000, would be sustainable, that of a breakwater or railway would not. He travelled overland to Bogotá, arriving on 19 January 1825. Travelling onward, Robert found the heavier equipment at Honda on the Magdalena River; there was no way to get it to the mines as the only route was a narrow and steep path. The mines were another 12 mi from Mariquita, and Stephenson set up home at Santa Ana in a bungalow. The Mining Association sent Cornish miners to work the mine, but they proved difficult to manage and drank so heavily that only two-thirds were available for work on any given day. They refused to accept that Stephenson, who had not been brought up in Cornwall, could know anything about mining.

His contract ended on 16 July 1827. He travelled to Cartagena to see if he could walk across the Panama Isthmus, but this proved too difficult. While waiting for a ship to New York, he met the railway pioneer Richard Trevithick, who had been looking for South American gold and silver in the mines of Peru and Costa Rica, and gave him £50 so he could buy passage home.

Stephenson caught a ship to New York; en route this picked up shipwrecked survivors that were so weak they had to be winched aboard, before the ship he was on sank in another storm. Everyone was saved, but Stephenson lost his money and luggage. He noticed that one second-class passenger was given priority over first-class passengers in the lifeboats: the captain later said privately that he and the passenger were Freemasons and had sworn an oath to show such preference to each other in times of peril. Stephenson was impressed and became a Freemason in New York. Wishing to see something of North America, he and four other Englishmen walked the 500 mi to Montreal via Niagara Falls. He returned to New York, caught the packet Pacific across the Atlantic and arrived in Liverpool at the end of November 1827.

Locomotive designer
In 1827 George was working as the chief engineer of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR). He had built the Experiment locomotive with sloping cylinders instead of the vertical ones on previous locomotives. Robert wanted to improve the way the wheels were driven and had a chance when an order arrived in January 1828 from the L&MR. The Lancashire Witch was built with inclined cylinders that allowed the axles to be sprung, but the L&MR withdrew the order in April; by mutual agreement the locomotive was sold to the Bolton and Leigh Railway. Several similar locomotives with four or six wheels were built in the next two years, one being sent to the US for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. As well as working at the locomotive works, Robert was also surveying routes for railways and advised on a tunnel under the River Mersey. In March 1828 Robert wrote to a friend saying he had an attraction to Broad Street in London as Frances (Fanny) Sanderson lived there. Robert and Fanny had known each other before he had gone to South America, and after calling on her soon after returning he had an invitation from her father to be a frequent visitor. He introduced her to his father in August 1828, and she accepted his proposal of marriage at the end of that year. Robert spent so much time in London the following year that his partners accused him of neglecting his business. Robert had not wished for a long engagement, but it took some time until a suitable house was found at 5 Greenfield Place in Newcastle, and Robert and Fanny married in London on 17 June 1829.

The L&MR directors had not decided whether to use fixed engines with ropes or steam locomotives and resolved to hold trials to see if a steam locomotive would meet their requirements. The trials were to be held at a two-mile (3.2 km) double-track railway that was to be built at Rainhill. Robert designed the locomotive for the trials during the summer of 1829. Only two of the wheels were driven, as experience had shown that wrought-iron wheels had a high rate of wear that quickly resulted in wheels of different size, and gears were provided for both forward and reverse running. The performance-enhancing idea to heat water using many small diameter tubes through the boiler was communicated to Robert via a letter from his father who heard about it from Henry Booth and Marc Seguin. With both George and Booth in Liverpool, Robert was responsible for the detail design, and he fitted twenty-five 3 in diameter tubes from a separate firebox through the boiler. In September the Rocket locomotive was sent to Rainhill where it was coupled with its tender.

The Rainhill trials started on 6 October, and between 10,000 and 15,000 people had assembled to watch. Five locomotives had arrived, but Perseverance did not compete, having been damaged on the way to Rainhill, and Cyclops, powered by two horses in a frame, was not a serious entry. Challenging Rocket was Novelty, built by John Ericsson and John Braithwaite in London, and Sans Pareil, built at the Shildon railway works by Timothy Hackworth, the locomotive supervisor of the S&DR. On 8 October at 10:30 am Rocket started its 70 mi journey forwards and backwards across the course. Rocket covered the first 35 miles in 3 hours and 12 minutes. Then, it took a 15 minutes break for replenishing its coke and water supplies before completing the course in another 2 hours 57 minutes. It had run at an average speed of 12 mph, and the highest speed reached was over 29 mph. Sans Pareil was found to be overweight but was allowed to run. She burnt fuel at more than three times the rate of Rocket before her boiler ran dry. Novelty was tried again the following day, was withdrawn after a joint failed again, and Rocket was declared the winner.

The L&MR purchased Rocket and ordered four similar locomotives from Robert Stephenson & Co. before the end of October. Four more similar locomotives followed, before Planet was delivered on 4 October 1830 with cylinders placed horizontally under the boiler. Hackworth was building Globe at the Robert Stephenson & Co. works at the same time, and Edward Bury delivered Liverpool the same month, both with cylinders under the boiler. It has been alleged that Stephenson copied Hackworth or Bury; he later said he had no knowledge of Liverpool at the time he was designing Planet. John Bull, a Planet type locomotive, was shipped to the US and became the first movement by steam on a railway in New Jersey when it ran on the Camden and Amboy Railroad in 1831. So many orders for locomotives were received that Stephenson proposed in 1831 to open a second locomotive works. It was agreed that the Stephenson name would not be attached to any other works, and what was to become the Vulcan Foundry was developed at Newton-le-Willows.

George Stephenson and Son
George Stephenson & Son had been created on the last day of 1824, when Robert was in South America, with the same partners as Robert Stephenson & Co. Formed to carry out railway surveys and construction, George and Robert were both listed as chief engineers and responsible for Parliamentary business, and the list of assistant engineers included Joseph Locke, John Dixon, Thomas Longridge Gooch and Thomas Storey. The company took on too much work that was delegated to inexperienced and underpaid men.

Soon after he had returned from America, Robert took over responsibility for overseeing the construction of the Canterbury & Whitstable Railway, and this opened on 3 May 1830 with a locomotive similar to Rocket called Invicta, supplied by Robert Stephenson & Co. He was also responsible for two branches of the L&MR, the Bolton & Leigh and Warrington & Newton railways. The Leicester & Swannington Railway was built to take coal from the Long Lane colliery to Leicester, and Stephenson was appointed engineer. Robert Stephenson & Co. supplied Planet type locomotives, but these were found underpowered and were replaced in 1833.

London and Birmingham Railway
On 18 September 1830 George Stephenson & Son signed a contract to survey the route for the London and Birmingham Railway. George recommended the route via Coventry, rather than an alternative via Oxford, but it was Robert that did most of the work; that same year Robert joined the Institution of Civil Engineers as a member. There were two surveys in 1830–31 which met opposition from landowners and those who lived in market towns on the coach route that would be bypassed. Robert stood as the engineering authority when a bill was presented to Parliament in 1832, and it was suggested during cross-examination that he had allowed too steep an angle on the side of the cutting at Tring. Remembering that Thomas Telford had cut through similar ground at Dunstable, Robert left with Gooch in post-chaise that night, and arrived at the cutting at dawn to find it the same angle he had proposed. He returned and was in the company solicitor's office at 10 am. That year the bill passed through the Commons but was defeated in the Lords. After a public campaign and another survey by Robert, the necessary Act was obtained on 6 May 1833, and it was Robert, not yet 30 years old, that signed the contract on 20 September 1833 to build the 112 mi railway from Camden Town to Birmingham.

Robert was awarded a salary of £1,500 plus £200 expenses per annum, and he and Fanny moved from Newcastle to London. He drew up plans and made detailed work estimates, dividing the line into 30 contracts, most of which were placed by October 1835. A drawing office with 20–30 draughtsmen was established at the empty Eyre Arms Hotel in St John's Wood; George Parker Bidder, whom Robert had first met at Edinburgh University, started working for him there. Primrose Hill Tunnel, Wolverton embankment, and Kilsby Tunnel all had engineering problems and were completed using direct labour.

The line permitted by the 1833 Act terminated north of Regent's Canal at Camden (near Chalk Farm Underground station), as Baron Southampton, who owned the land to the south, had strongly opposed the railway in the Lords in 1832. Later Southampton changed his mind, and authority was gained for an extension of the line south over Regent's Canal to Euston Square. This incline, with a slope between 1 in 75 and 1 in 66, was worked by a stationary engine at Camden − trains from Euston were drawn up by rope, whereas carriages would descend under gravity. The oft repeated statement that the rope-working was necessary because locomotives of the period were insufficiently powerful was denied in 1839 by Peter Lecount, one of the assistant engineers. In fact the incline was worked by locomotives from the opening date of the southern section of the line, 20 July 1837, until 14 October 1837, also whenever the stationary engine or rope were stopped for repairs, then for Mail Trains from November 1843, and entirely from 15 July 1844, without any real increase in the power of the locomotives. The reason given by Lecount for the rope working was the London and Birmingham Railway Act of Parliament, by which he said they were 'restricted ... from running locomotive engines nearer London than Camden Town.'

The L&BR opened ceremonially on 15 September 1838. Construction had taken four years and three months, but had cost £5.5 million against the original estimate of £2.4 million.

Great George Street
In 1835 Robert travelled with his father to Belgium. George had been invited to advise King Leopold on the Belgian State Railway and was decorated with the Order of Leopold; Robert returned with his father two years later to celebrate the opening of the railway between Brussels and Ghent. By agreement with the L&BR, Robert was not permitted to work on any other engineering project while the railway was being built, but he was permitted to act as consultant. The Stephenson valve gear was developed in 1842 by Stephenson employees in Newcastle. The six-coupled Stephenson long-boiler locomotive design was developed into a successful freight locomotive but was unsuitable for sustained high speeds.

The Stanhope and Tyne Railroad Company (S&TR) had been formed in 1832 as a partnership to build a railway between the lime kilns at Lanehead Farmhouse and the coal mines at Consett in County Durham. The partners had decided to build a railway instead of upgrading the existing Pontop Waggonway, and commissioned Robert as surveyor and consulting engineer, and with Thomas Elliot Harrison as acting engineer, construction started at Stanhope in July 1832, and the line opened in 1834. Instead of obtaining an Act of Parliament the company had agreed wayleaves with the land owners, requiring payment of rent. The company borrowed heavily, and the debt grew to £440,000; by 1840 the lime kilns and the section from Stanhope to Carrhouse had closed, and the remaining Stanhope to Annfield section was losing money. A creditor sent a bill to Stephenson that the railway company could not pay, and Robert found that as the S&TR was not a limited company, shareholders were liable for the debt. Fearing financial ruin Robert sought the advice of Parker, the insolvent railway company was dissolved on 5 February 1841 and a new limited company, the Pontop and South Shields Railway, was created to take over the line, Robert contributing £20,000. The southern section from Stanhope to Carrhouse was sold to the Derwent Iron Company at Consett. The Great North of England Railway opened in 1841 to York with a railway connection at Darlington to London, and the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway (N&DJR) was formed to extend this line to Newcastle using five miles of the Pontop and South Shields Railway. George Hudson, a railway financier known as the "Railway King", was the chairman of the N&DJR, and Robert was appointed engineer.

Some work still needed to be completed on the L&BR, and the North Midland Railway and lines from Ostend to Liège and Antwerp to Mons in Belgium required Robert's attention. In 1839 he visited France, Spain and Italy for three months to advise on railways, meeting the leading French railway engineer Paulin Talabot. When he returned he was in demand, travelling the country, giving evidence to Parliament and was often asked to arbitrate in disputes between railway companies and their contractors.

Robert, like his father, planned a railway line that avoided gradients as much as possible, extending the route if necessary, and proposed such a route for a line between London and Brighton, but an alternative was selected. In August 1841 Robert was made Knight of the Order of Leopold for his improvements to locomotive engines.

In the summer of 1842 Robert was away working on the N&DJR, in September in Cardiff and then in London working on a report for the French Railways. Fanny had been diagnosed with cancer two years previously and she grew seriously ill at the end of the month. She died on 4 October 1842. Her wish was that Robert remarry and have children, but he stayed single for the rest of his life. Her funeral was on 11 October, and Robert returned to work the following day, although he was to visit to her grave for many years.

Cambridge Square
Robert grew to dislike the house on Haverstock Hill after the death of his wife. He moved to Cambridge Square in Westminster to be nearer to London's gentlemen's clubs, but soon afterwards the house was damaged by fire and he lived in temporary accommodation for ten months. The Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway opened on 18 June 1844. A special train left Euston at 5:03 am, and travelling via Rugby, Leicester, Derby, Chesterfield and Normanton, reached Gateshead, south of the River Tyne, at 2:24 pm. Festivities were held in the Newcastle Assembly Rooms, where George was introduced as the man who had "constructed the first locomotive that ever went by its own spontaneous movement along iron rails", although there were people present who should have known better. When George had built the Stockton & Darlington and Liverpool & Manchester he had placed the rails apart, as this was the gauge of the railway at the Killingworth Colliery. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, chief engineer to the Great Western Railway, had adopted the or broad gauge, arguing that this would allow for higher speeds. Railways built with the different gauges met for the first time at Gloucester in 1844, and although an inconvenience to passengers, this became a serious problem for goods, with delays and packages being lost at Gloucester. In 1845 a Royal Commission was appointed and of the forty-six witnesses that gave evidence, only Brunel and his colleagues at the Great Western supported the broad gauge. Comparisons between a Stephenson locomotive between York and Darlington and one built by Brunel between Paddington and Didcot showed the broad gauge locomotive to be superior, but the commissioners found in favour of a gauge, due in part to the greater number of route miles that had already been laid. Brunel also supported propelling trains using the atmospheric system. Robert sent assistants to the Dalkey Atmospheric Railway in Ireland to observe, but advised against its use as the failure of one pump would bring traffic to a stop.

Robert's stepmother Elizabeth had died in 1845. That year George was returning ill from a trip to Spain and suffered an attack of pleurisy in the cabin of the packet bound for Southampton. He retired to Tapton House, near Chesterfield, and married his housekeeper early in 1848. Later that year he died on 12 August following a second attack of pleurisy, and was buried in Trinity churchyard, in Chesterfield. George had been the President of the newly formed Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and Robert took over that role until 1853.

Bridge builder
The Chester & Holyhead Railway received its permission in 1845, and Robert became the chief engineer and designed an iron bridge to cross the River Dee just outside Chester. Completed in September 1846, it was inspected by the Board of Trade Inspector, Major-General Paisley, on 20 October. On 24 May 1847 the bridge gave way under a passenger train; the locomotive and driver made it across, but the tender and carriages fell into the river. Five people died. Conder attended the inquest at Chester: he recounts that Paisley was so agitated he was nearly unable to speak; Robert was pale and haggard and the foreman of the jury seemed determined to get a verdict of manslaughter. Robert had been prepared to admit liability but was persuaded to present a defence that the cast-iron girder could only have fractured because the tender had derailed from a broken wheel. Robert was supported by expert witnesses such Locke, Charles Vignoles, Gooch and Kennedy, and a verdict of accidental death was returned. Robert never used long cast-iron girders again, and a Royal Commission was later set up to look at the use of cast iron by the railway companies.

The Britannia Bridge was built for the Chester & Holyhead Railway to cross the Menai Strait from Wales to the island of Anglesey. The bridge needed to be 1511 ft long, and the Admiralty insisted on a single span 100 ft above the water. Problems during the launch of the wrought-iron steamship Prince of Wales meant that she fell with her hull not supported for 110 ft, but was undamaged. Robert was inspired by this and with William Fairbairn and Eaton Hodgkinson designed a wrought-iron tubular bridge large enough for a train to pass through. They experimented with models in 1845 and 1846 and decided to use similar design on the 400 ft Conwy Bridge to gain experience. The first Conwy tube was floated into position in March 1848 and lifted the following month, allowing a single line railway to open on 1 May. The second tube was lifted into position that October; on these days Brunel was with Robert supporting his friend. The positioning of the first of the four tubes for the Britannia Bridge was carried out in June 1849, when both Brunel and Locke were with Robert, and this was lifted into position in October. The second tube was in lifted into place 7 January 1850, a single line was open to public traffic through these tubes 18 March 1850, and the second line was open 19 October.

The route north of Newcastle to Edinburgh along the coast, via Morpeth and Berwick, had been recommended by George in 1838, and Hudson promoted this route for the Newcastle and Berwick Railway in 1843. The required Act, which, was given Royal Assent in 1845, included a high level road and rail bridge across the Tyne at Newcastle and the Royal Border Bridge across the Tweed at Berwick. The High Level Bridge is 1372 ft long and 146 ft high and made from cast-iron bows held taut by horizontal wrought-iron strings. The first train crossed the Tyne on a temporary wooden structure in August 1848; the iron bridge was formally opened by Queen Victoria in September 1849, Robert having been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June. The bridge across the Tweed is a 28-arch stone viaduct, and was opened by the Queen on 29 August 1850. At the celebratory dinner Robert sat beside the Queen; he had just been offered a knighthood, but had declined.

Politics
In August 1847, Robert was elected unopposed as the Member of Parliament for Whitby; he continued as their MP for the rest of his life. He entered Parliament as a member of the Conservative Party, holding strong protectionist Tory views and opposed to free trade. His maiden speech was in favour of the Great Exhibition and, with Brunel, he became one of the Commissioners. Robert spoke against educational reform, saying workmen needed only to learn how to do their jobs, although he made donations to educational organisations. In 1850, the pope appointed Bishop Wiseman as the first English Roman Catholic Cardinal since the Reformation; Robert wrote in a private letter that this was aggressive, saying that in the "battle as to the mere form in which the creator is to be worshiped – the true spirit of Christianity is never allowed to appear." He later voiced strong opposition to the Crimean War but supported the government in January 1855, although the government lost the vote and the prime minister resigned.

Robert had become a member of the Société d'Études du Canal de Suez in 1846, and the following year had accompanied Talabot and Alois Negrelli to look at the feasibility of a Suez canal. He advised against a canal, saying it would quickly fill up with sand, and assisted in the building of a railway between Alexandria and Cairo, with two tubular bridges that he had designed. This opened in 1854, and was extended to Suez in 1858. He spoke in Parliament against possible involvement in a Suez canal scheme in 1857 and 1858.

The house that has no knocker
Robert had moved to 34 Gloucester Square in 1847; when in London he would socialise at the Athenaeum and Carlton clubs, delaying returning home until late. By 1850, Robert had been involved in a third of the country's railway system, and had prematurely aged and become ill with chronic nephritis, then known as Bright's Disease.

Robert found that he attracted the unwelcome attention of inventors and promoters; if he was too ill to be at Great George Street they visited him at home in Gloucester Square. In part to defend himself from these intrusions in 1850 he commissioned a 100-ton yacht, calling her Titania. Finding that he had no unwanted visitors when aboard, he referred to her as "the house that has no knocker"; when he went aboard, he seemed to grow younger and would behave like an excited schoolboy. He joined the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1850, becoming its first member not from an upper-class background. Titania missed the 1851 Royal Squadron Cup race, which America won and started the America's Cup challenge, but lost to America in a private race a few days later. A second yacht, also Titania but 90 ft long and 184 tons, was built in 185e after the first was destroyed by fire in 1852.

In 1850, the route for the Norwegian Trunk Railway from Oslo (then Christiania) to Lake Mjøsa was surveyed, and Robert became chief engineer. Bidder stayed on as resident engineer, Robert returning in 1851, 1852 and 1854. In August 1852 Robert travelled to Canada to advise the Grand Trunk Railway on crossing the St Lawrence River at Montreal. The 8600 ft Victoria Bridge had a 6,500-foot-long (2,000-metre-long) tube made up of 25 wrought iron sections, and was to become for a time the longest bridge in the world.

In 1853, he was elected a member of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers and in 1854 was elected as one of the institute's vice Presidents. In 1855 Robert was decorated Knight of the Legion of Honour by the Emperor of France.

Having served as vice-president of the Institution of Civil Engineers since 1847, he was elected president in 1856, and the following year received an Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law at Oxford along with Brunel and Livingstone.

During his life he had become close friends with Brunel and Locke, and in 1857, although weak and ill, he responded to a plea for help from Brunel in launching the SS Great Eastern. Robert fell from the slipway into riverside mud, but continued without an overcoat until the end of his visit. The following day he was confined to his bed for two weeks with bronchitis.

In late 1858, Robert sailed with some friends to Alexandria, where he stayed on board Titania or at Shepheard's Hotel in Cairo. He dined with his friend Brunel on Christmas Day before returning to London, arriving in February 1859. He was ill that summer, but sailed to Oslo in the company of George Parker Bidder to celebrate the opening of the Norwegian Trunk railway and to receive the Knight Grand Cross of the order of St. Olaf. He fell ill at the banquet on 3 September and returned to England on board Titania in the company of a doctor, but the journey took seven days after the yacht ran into a storm. As Robert landed in Suffolk, Brunel was already seriously ill following a stroke and died the following day. Robert rallied, but died on 12 October 1859. He was three years older than Brunel.

Legacy
By 1850 Stephenson had been involved in the construction of a third of England's railway system. He designed the High Level Bridge and Royal Border Bridge on the East Coast Main Line. With Eaton Hodgkinson and William Fairbairn he developed wrought-iron tubular bridges, such as the Britannia Bridge in Wales, a design he would later use for the Victoria Bridge in Montreal, for many years the longest bridge in the world. He eventually worked on 160 commissions from 60 companies, building railways in other countries such as Belgium, Norway, Egypt and France. Robert's death was deeply mourned throughout the country, especially since it happened just a month after the death of Brunel. His funeral cortège was given permission by the Queen to pass through Hyde Park, an honour previously reserved for royalty. Two thousand tickets were issued, but 3000 men were admitted to the service at Westminster Abbey, where he was buried beside the great civil engineer Thomas Telford. Ships on the Thames, Tyne, Wear and Tees placed their flags at half mast. Work stopped at midday on Tyneside, and the 1,500 employees of Robert Stephenson & Co. marched through the streets of Newcastle to their own memorial service.

Robert left about £400,000 : the Newcastle locomotive works, Snibston collieries and £50,000 went to his cousin George Robert Stephenson, the only son of George's younger brother Robert, £10,000 was left to Parker Bidder and the Newcastle Infirmary, and the rest was left to friends or as legacies to institutions. One of the bequests, for £2,000, was to the fund from which the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers was anticipating the creation of its permanent Newcastle Headquarters. Robert was a member of this institute.

title: Robert Stephenson


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Old wives' tale

An "old wives' tale" is a colloquial expression referring to spurious or superstitious claims. They can be said sometimes to be a type of urban legend, said to be passed down by older women to a younger generation. Such tales are considered superstition, folklore or unverified claims with exaggerated and/or inaccurate details. Old wives' tales often centre on women's traditional concerns, such as pregnancy, puberty, social relations, health, herbalism and nutrition.

Origins
In this context, the word wife means "woman" rather than "married woman". This usage stems from Old English ' ("woman") and is akin to the German ' (also meaning "woman"). This sense of the word is still used in Modern English in constructions such as midwife and fishwife.

Old wives' tales are often invoked to discourage certain behaviours, usually of children, or to share knowledge of folk cures for ailments ranging from toothaches to dysentery.

The concept of old wives' tales has existed for centuries. In 1611, the King James Bible was published with the following translation of a verse: "But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself [rather] unto godliness" (1 Timothy 4:7).

Old wives' tales originate in the oral tradition of storytelling. They were generally propagated by illiterate women, telling stories to each other or to children. The stories do not attempt to moralise, but to teach lessons and make difficult concepts like death or coming of age easy for children to understand. These stories are also used to scare children so they don't do undesirable things.

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

title: Old wives' tale


text:
Charles Bowen, Baron Bowen

Charles Synge Christopher Bowen, Baron Bowen, (1 January 1835 – 10 April 1894) was an English judge.

Early life
Bowen was born at Woolaston in Gloucestershire – his father, the Rev. Christopher Bowen, originally of Hollymount, County Mayo, being then curate of the parish and his mother, Catherine Steele (1807/8–1902); his younger brother was Edward Ernest Bowen, a long-serving Harrow schoolmaster. He was educated at Lille in France, Blackheath and Rugby schools, leaving the latter in 1853 having won a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford. There he made good his earlier academic promise, winning the principal classical scholarships and prizes of his time. He was elected a fellow of Balliol in 1857 while an undergraduate and became President of the Oxford Union in 1857.

It was Bowen who, as President-Elect of the Oxford Union during the summer vacation of 1857, responded with enthusiasm to the plan of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris to paint the upper walls of the new debating chamber with scenes from the legends of King Arthur. Bowen's support was crucial to ensuring the scheme happened. 'Bowen,' said Edward Burne-Jones, ‘was beloved by all’, ‘A courteous and delightful fellow … whom Rossetti loved at once.’

Career
From Oxford, Bowen went to London, where he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1861, and while studying law he wrote regularly for the Saturday Review, and also later for The Spectator. In 1861, he also played a single first-class match for Hampshire against the Marylebone Cricket Club: in Hampshire's first innings he was dismissed for a duck by Caleb Robinson and in their second innings he scored 30*. His brother, Edward Ernest Bowen also played first-class cricket for Hampshire County Cricket Club.

For a time he had little success at the bar, and came near to exchanging it for the career of a college tutor, but he was persuaded by his friends to persevere. Soon after he had begun to make his mark he was briefed against the claimant in the famous Tichborne Case. Bowen's services to his leader, Sir John Coleridge, helped to procure for him the appointment of junior counsel to the Treasury when Sir John had died, as he did while the trial proceeded, from the office of Solicitor General to that of Attorney-General; and from this time his practice became a very large one.

The strain, however, of the Tichborne trials was great, and his physical health became unequal to the tasks which his zeal for work imposed upon it. In 1879 his acceptance of a position as a High Court judge in the Queen's Bench division, on the retirement of Mr Justice John Mellor, gave him the opportunity of comparative rest. He was knighted in June 1879.

The character of Charles Bowen's intellect hardly qualified him for some of the duties of a puisne judge; but it was otherwise when, in 1882, in succession to Lord Justice Holker, he was raised to the Court of Appeal. As a Lord Justice of Appeal, he was conspicuous for his learning, his industry and his courtesy to all who appeared before him; and in spite of his failing health, he sat regularly until August 1893, when, on the retirement of Lord Hannen, he was made a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, and a life peer with the title Baron Bowen, of Colwood in the County of Sussex. By this time, however, his health had finally broken down; he never sat as a law lord to hear appeals, and he gave but one vote as a peer, while his last public service consisted in presiding over the commission which sat in October 1893 to inquire into the Featherstone riots.

Lord Bowen was regarded with great affection by all who knew him professionally or privately. He had a polished and graceful wit, of which many instances might be given, although such anecdotes lose force in print. For example, when it was suggested on the occasion of an address to Queen Victoria, to be presented by her judges, that a passage in it, "conscious as we are of our shortcomings," suggested too great humility, he proposed the emendation "conscious as we are of one another's shortcomings"; and on another occasion he defined a jurist as "a person who knows a little about the laws of every country except his own". Lord Bowen's judicial reputation will rest upon the series of judgments delivered by him in the court of appeal, which are remarkable for their lucid interpretation of legal principles as applied to the facts and business of life.

Literary work
Of Lord Bowen's literary works besides those already indicated may be mentioned his translation of Virgil's Eclogues, and Aeneid, books i.-vi. and his pamphlet, The Alabama Claim and Arbitration considered from a Legal Point of View.

Some of the quotations attributed to him include The rain it raineth on the just And also on the unjust fella; But chiefly on the just, because The unjust hath the just’s umbrella.

and When I hear of an 'equity' in a case like this, I am reminded of a blind man in a dark room - looking for a black hat - which isn't there.

Personal life
In 1862, he married Emily Frances, eldest daughter of the engineer James Meadows Rendel, by whom he had two sons and a daughter. His daughter, Ethel Kate Bowen, married Josiah Wedgwood IV (later 1st Baron Wedgwood) of the pottery dynasty.

Judgments
He is credited with coining the phrase "the man on the Clapham omnibus", which was quoted by Sir Richard Henn Collins MR many years after his death in the case of McQuire v. Western Morning News ([1903] 2 KB 100). Amongst his judgments are:

 * Imperial Hydropathic Hotel Co v Hampson - a UK company law, concerning the interpretation of a company's articles of association in the matter of removal of directors.
 * Harben v Phillips
 * Hutton v West Cork Rly Co - UK company law case concerning the limits of a director's discretion to spend company funds for the benefit of non-shareholders.
 * Speight v Gaunt - English trusts law concerning the extent of the duty of care owed by a fiduciary.
 * Abrath v North Eastern Railway
 * Thomas v Quartermaine
 * Smith v Land and House Property Corp - English contract law case, concerning misrepresentation and holding that a statement of opinion can represent that one knows certain facts, and can amount to misrepresentation.
 * Edgington v Fitzmaurice - "the state of a man's mind is as much a fact as the state of his digestion", securities-fraud case dealing with false statements of intention
 * Falcke v Scottish Imperial Insurance Co - an English unjust enrichment law case, also concerning English contract law, and setting out some fundamental principles of construction of obligations, as viewed to exist by the late 19th-century English judiciary.
 * In the Arbitration between Secretary of State for Home Department and Fletcher (1887) - upholding a Queen's Bench decision supporting the authority of the Inspector of Mines to require the use of safety lamps; Bowen LJ dissenting.
 * The Moorcock - English contract law giving rise to the "Business Efficacy" Test for common law implied terms.
 * Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company - an advertisement containing certain terms to get a reward constituted a binding unilateral offer that could be accepted by anyone who performed its terms.
 * Vagliano v Bank of England - prepared the majority judgment of the court, held wrong in conclusion by the majority of the House of Lords
 * Mogul Steamship Co Ltd v McGregor, Gow & Co - English tort law case concerning the economic tort of conspiracy to injure.
 * Angus v Dalton

Other
The top GDL Scholarship offered by The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is named after Lord Bowen.

title: Charles Bowen, Baron Bowen


text:
Talk:Old wives' tale

Correct saying is "Old Wives' Tale"
To the two users below me, perhaps english isn't your first language, or no mans land maybe you've just heard it wrong... the fact remains that the saying is "old wives' tale" NOT "old wise tale". It's akin to some people hearing the saying "a dog eat dog world" as "a doggy-dog world", people may misuse it, but that does not make it correct. In addition, you'll find the only version of the saying in the Merriam Webster Dictionary as "old wives' tale". For more proof, you can do a google book search and see the only areas where "old wise tale" is used is to emphasize a character's ignorance, or simplicity. Callopo (talk) 06:17, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

 * OLD WISE TALE vs. OLD WIVES TALE
 * Does the saying Old Wise Tale or Old Wives Tale the correct saying? If humanity tells a story about something that is thought to be "common sense" (which I think is an Old Wise Tale also) by passing along information that is thought to be from ancient times or historic where the word OLD is used and WISE is thought to be very smart or knowing all, and the word TALE which means story.  The correct says has been mocked over the years  and it should be WISE''
 * Old WISE Tales Hello there!!!

 * I believe it is called old wise tales. I've never heard the old wives tale title.  Or is it called something different due to region?  I suggest it be changed to old wise tales. Mallow's Basement 13:00, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Swimming & Cramps
"If you go swimming less than an hour after you've eaten, you'll get cramps. False, but some scientists do in fact advise not to swim - or engage in any physical activity - for some time after eating, as the parasympathetic nervous system will kick in and start digestion, overriding the orders of the sympathetic nervous system which brings the body into the mode for physical activities"

I edited out that entry per>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Side_Stitch

When exercising, a side stitch (or side cramp) is an intense stabbing pain under the lower edge of the ribcage. It is also referred to as exercise related transient abdominal pain (ETAP). This pain is caused by the internal organs (like the liver and stomach) pulling downwards on the diaphragm. It is therefore more likely to occur in sports involving up and down actions - like running, jumping and horse riding.

There are more theories regarding ETAP than merely stretching of the visceral ligaments due to repeated vertical translation and jolting. Other theories include:

1. Diaphragmatic Ischemia 2. Imbalances of the thoracic spine 3. Irritation of the parietal peritoneum

The reasons for these theories include, in particular, the prevalence of ETAP during swimming.

Preventing a side stitch

* Improve fitness * Strengthen the diaphragm by using exercises such as those that aid respiratory rehabilitation[1] * Strengthen core muscles (abdominals, lower back, obliques) * '''Limit consumption of food and drink two to three hours before exercising (in particular, drinks of high carbohydrate content and osmolality (reconstituted fruit juices))'''

there seems to be a legitimate dispute regarding that old wives tale, and limiting food intake, ensuring proper hydration, fitness ect are a reasonable precautions, Im all for debunking, but few entries here have the potential to be as fatal as drowning represents. A blanket statement either way seems false, with a large number of other variables coming into play, for some a 5 course meal followed by a moonlight dip is likely fine, for less fit or the dehydrated far less intake could be dangerous.

Overly pessimistic maxims do save lives if only in a small percentage of cases Rather maybe a link to a separate wiki entry weighting the arguments both for and against.

 * http://www.thestretchinghandbook.com/archives/side-stitch.php
 * http://www.snopes.com/oldwives/hourwait.asp\
 * http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/injuries/a/aa053100a.htm
 * http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3883/is_199909/ai_n8857681/pg_1
 * http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=0co&q=exercise+related+transient+abdominal+pain+swimming&btnG=Search
 * http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11984289&dopt=AbstractPlus

Page title
In researching I've seen lots of references to "old wives' tale". It is "old wive's tale" because "wives" is only ever a plural, much like it is "children's coats". What is it about the apostrophe that people find so hard? CGS 22:02 25 Jun 2003 (UTC).

 * Are you sure? Old wives' tales looks right to me... Evercat 22:04 25 Jun 2003 (UTC)
 * I'm with Evercat on this one. More importantly so is the Random House Dictionary of the English Language :) -- Cimon Avaro on a pogo stick 22:22 25 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * The singular is "wife" though. Ah! Silly me, because of the "s" it goes at the end, after the "s". One rule says it doesn't, but the other does. I'm moving it. CGS 22:31 25 Jun 2003 (UTC).

 * Don't go just yet; The "s" is always on the end of "wives." Therefore the appostrophe goes after the "s."  A co-worker and I were just researching the origina and spelling of this phrase and made the same mistake.  We sorted it out after about 10 minutes, but we had to accept the dictionary's opinion until we realized.  Rather humbling.

No coat in cold
Hey, it's at least half-true that standing in the cold without a coat, and particularily without a cap causes cold, pneumonia and other diseases of the respiratory system.

It's true that cold is caused by a virus, and pneumonia is caused by a bacteria. But these germs are abundant, and do not attack just everyone - they attack mainly when organism is hypotermized.

--Grzes 00:27, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

 * There are studies that have shown there is no correlation between lowered core body temperature and susceptibility to disease. I am aware of these studies because my father, a physician, has read them and related them to me.  Unfortunately, I have had a hard time finding the studies on the Internet.  Otherwise I would put a link to them here. CyborgTosser (Only half the battle) 12:43, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * You cannot empirically demonstrate that any two things are totally uncorrelated. If you look at the abstract for these studies, there will be some numbers there.  These numbers are actually important!  Without some idea of what those numbers are, I cannot give any weight to what you are saying.

 * Further, the common cold article says that "researchers at the Common Cold Centre at the University of Cardiff recently demonstrated that cold temperatures can lead to a greater susceptibility to viral infection." -- 18.252.6.246 02:08, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Spending prolonged amounts of time in the cold, could lower the core body temperature, which could adversely affect immune responses(at least partially) the same way lack of sleep or lack of food would. I'd admit that the effect would be weak, and wouldn't guarantee exposure to pathogens, but i think in the case of a severely hypothermic person, it would be significant. But I suppose if hypothermia is your problem, the hypothetical increase in succeptibility to a disease you probably wont come into contact with and won't affect you for at least a few days would be the least of your worries. Who would be willing to even test that? And who really cares besides? Who wants to be in the cold without a coat anyway? 66.102.196.3 09:50, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Most infectious bacteria propagate better in temperatures slightly lower than the normal 37C of the human body (hence the purpose of fever). However your "core temperature" being slightly lowered is the defenition for hypothermia. My understanding of the bacteriology unit was that heavy breathing of cold air is capable of lowering the temperature of the lungs, increasing susceptibility to any pathogen that targets the lungs. But it's not just about temperature, as protective cilia and mucous line the lungs. Studies are often not as specific as they should be. Perhaps a study of subjects running in the cold might show different results.

 * I don't think this should be here at all. It may be a common misperception, but not an old wives' tale like the other ones. It certainly does someone no could, gives one a chill. William Quill 12:12, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

Pneumonia may be caused by several pathogens not just bacteria. viruses, fungi, and protozoa may cause pneumonia as well, since it's a broad term The Nanto (talk) 10:19, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

Chocolate
Chocolate causes acne

False

Chocolate does not cause acne; in fact, there is little evidence that one's diet affects acne at all. This is an example of an old wives' tale used to discourage something (the large quantities of chocolate some children eat is unhealthy in other ways) by associating it with something that people are afraid of.

Although it's true that what you eat won't affect acne, you still might get rashes or other allergic reactions. This might be as subtle as a little redness, which is also caused by acne. In addition, eating oily foods and then touching your face might do something. Blueaster 00:38, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

"This is not at all true as chewing gum is digested just like any other piece of food." "digested" means broken down, leading to absorption. Gum is not digested, but passes through your system. So maybe "excreted" would be a better word Blueaster 00:47, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

Since I rarely eat chocolate, I can say with absolute certainty that my face ALWAYS breaks out the week following consumption of chocolate, with no other changes in my diet. I know what the scientists say, but I can say from personal experience that chocolate does indeed cause acne- at least on me.

 * The same thing happened to my dad when he ate butter. Also to me when I eat onions. Your experience doesn't mean that chocolate is dangerous to everyone on earth: it only means that you specifically are affected. -- Charlene 08:50, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

 * Yeah, I know someone who has a reaction to chocolate. But it does not cause acne in general.

A while ago i read that eating chocolate (or excessive amounts of sugar) increase your insulin level's, which inturn increases the amount of oil in your sweat, thus incresing your chance of pimples. I will try and find verufucation of this, but nutrition facts seem to change from week to week, so who knows.

Rusty nail
I'm not so sure about rusty nails being no worse than other nails. It is true that an anaerobic climate is necessary for growth of Clostridium tetani and that oxides of iron would not be expected to depelete their neighborhood of oxygen. However, this simple view does not take into account the fact that rust particles and dirt accumulated within the rust could be deposited as "foreign bodies" in a wound, giving rise to infections with other organisms, changes in the actions of enzymes and other metabolic effects together with devitalization of the affected area, all of which could encourage proliferation of the tetatus microbe. Perhaps there are reports in the medical literature that might clarify whether rust contributes to tetanus. Myron 15:42, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

Is this really an Old Wives Tale? Was there a time when people went around stepping on nails such that a story of the horrors of stepping on them was necessary to prevent it? 216.84.45.194 14:54, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Yes. Back when horses were ubiquitous and all horses wore horseshoes (attached by nails, of course), old nails were everywhere. Also many people back then didn't own/couldn't afford shoes and went around barefoot, especially in the southern US where you could do that without losing toes to frostbite three months a year. Add this to the fact that one of the most common sources of tetanus historically was horse feces, and the old wives' tale begins to make a little more sense. -- Charlene 08:47, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Origins of the Phrase
How about a phrase origins section? Looks to be the title of a 16th century play. Unless anyone posts opposition I will work on sorting this out. 143.88.85.140 22:57, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

Shave or not?
Shaving/cutting hair makes it grow thicker than before While stabilised hair should not have much impact, the usual thin hair all over the skin has. Shaving that hardly visible hair can make it thicker or darker, more visible anyhow. At least i know one woman who told me she tries in her 14yr histeria to shave top of breasts - and later had great regret on this. Perdon my poor English.
 * It's not true. The hair that is above the surface of the skin is dead. Cutting it will have absolutely no effect on the living tissue inside the skin that produces the hair. The only tiny kernel of truth in this myth is because of how hair is tapered at the end. If you cut off the tapered tip, only the thicker, lower part of the hair will be left as the hair continues to grow. This may create an optical illusion that the hair is thicker, but it is no thicker than it would be if you had not cut off the tapered tip. When the cut hair naturally falls out and is replaced by a new hair, the new hair will be completely unaffected by the previous one having been cut. --Icarus (Hi!) 04:12, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

 * Additionally, I've heard some people say that some hair, particularly facial hair, will slowly 'bleach' and lose colour in the sun (particularly in pre-pubecent moustuche hair), so by removing it, the stubble that regrows is a slightly darker tone. Is there any truth in this? Reverieuk 23:49, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Masturbation and blindness
What if you get some in your eyes?--Kawachan 17:19, 30 December 2005 (UTC)
 * It would probably wash out wouldn't it? ch 18:26, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
 * lmao. S  oa  P  15:13, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Probably stings like hell though...--Kawachan (talk) 19:55, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Okay, I asked a friend. A friend of said friend says it hurts a lot. And the former says I'm three years too late with this. WHAT EVER XD --Kawachan (talk) 19:59, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Watching television too much/up close will give you square eyes
Why does it say "Of course, watching television too much or too close up will damage the eyes"? This could very well be an Old wives' tale in itself:

'Dr. Lee Duffner, spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, responds in his professional opinion: "Hogwash. You won't cause any physical damage to your eyes."'

from http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/05/11/09/does_sitting_too_close_to_the_tv_really_damage_your_eyes.htm

Vs. superstition?
Toward the end of the article, there seems to be little difference between these tales and general superstition. How would you define the difference? I looked at the article on superstition, and it seems as if the difference might be that the consequence in superstition is just generally "bad luck" or "good luck," while old wives' tales have more specific consequences. What do the rest of you think?Lawikitejana 22:47, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

'Feed a cold, Starve a fever.'
Surely this one is very famous? Anyone got any information on it?

I found This new scientist link in favor --Reverieuk 00:30, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Use of 'wife'
I believe the "wife" in "old wives' tale" doesn't refer to "wife" as we know it, but to the Old English term for a woman. Hence, old women's tales.

Same as "housewife." She's not married to a house, she's a woman who is associated with the house.

So "alewife" for a woman bartender or "farm wife" for a female farmer.

Maybe also "man and wife" although I don't vouch for it.Hypostasis 00:43, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Cold hair
There's an old tale if you go outside in cold weather with wet hair you'll catch a cold. I don't know for sure if it's true or not because wouldn't the water absorb heat? Cold weather alone is enough to give you a runny nose.
 * It's safe to say that it's probably not true. The moistness of your hair should have no impact on your immune system, or any other factor that would make it likelier for you to catch a cold. It's certainly not true in an absolute sense: I've done this plenty of times and never caught a cold from it, and while anecdotal evidence is not conclusive, it at least proves the method is not reliable...
 * Also, having a runny nose doesn't necessarily mean you caught a cold, though it is one of the symptoms. See Mucus for an explanation of how cold weather can cause a runny nose in an otherwise healthy person. 82.92.119.11 00:56, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Really Old "old wives' tale"
Wording of "never jump up and down it will give u a rash to be energic" is so confusing... Could someone please rephrase it? JBatista 12:47, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Removing a bunch of article
I removed a bunch of the text of this article, due to it being unsourced. In fact, almost the entire article is unsourced, but these bits appear to be the most dubious. Note that we don't merely need sources showing that an old wives' tale is false/true, we need sources that it even exists in the first place. Please find sources for this, if anyone wants to re-add it, or for anything else you wish to add to the article:

"Watching television too much/up close will give you square eyes False

This rumor is likely told to keep children from sitting too close to a television set or watching too much. Watching television for extended periods, and/or too closely, may cause fatigue, but it won't change the natural shape of the eye.

Very old wives' tales None of these have any basis of truth:
 * A man's hat placed on his marriage bed will cause infertility.
 * Washing clothes on New Year’s Day will cause you to spend all year doing laundry.
 * A black cricket in your house indicates you are prospering.
 * If your palm itches, you are about to receive some money.
 * If your nose itches, relatives are coming to visit.
 * If you spill salt, you will not eat well for a period of time that is in proportion to the amount of salt spilled.
 * Pulling a loose baby tooth in a child will cause permanent teeth to be crooked.
 * Drinking coffee reduces body growth. False. Coffee is a stimulant and may increase body growth, or more likely, will have no effect.
 * Taking showers or washing your hair when you are sick will rehatch a virus. False. Doctors prescribe cold water showers to bring down temperatures and nasal congestion. Viruses do not lay eggs or hatch from them.  The most nearly analogous activity is that some viruses, such as those responsible for herpes and chickenpox, can become dormant in the nerves and reactivate under various circumstances, such as the immune system becoming weakened.  However, a shower is unlikely in the extreme to cause this.
 * Eating the crust of bread makes your hair curl. False.
 * A pimple on your tongue means that you have lied. False.
 * If your chin does not shine yellow when you hold a buttercup underneath it then you do not like butter. A variation of this tale is that if it does shine yellow, you'll be rich. Veracity would be coincidental, not causative.
 * If you sneeze while someone else is talking, then what they are saying is true.
 * Don't cross your eyes; they might stay that way. It is conceivable that the ocular muscles may become cramped or strained while crossing the eyes, but the probability is very low.
 * If you smell dandelions, you'll wet your bed. Coincidental if true.
 * This may refer to the dandelion's well-known diuretic properties, but one would have to consume them; smelling would have no effect. Nonetheless, the idea that dandelions cause bedwetting is seen in the English folkname for the plant ("pissabed") and the common French name for it (pissenlit).
 * If your eyelids keep on twitching or ticing (blepharospasm), something significantly bad is going to happen to you soon. If the twitch occurs on the left eye, it means you will lose money, while a twitch on the right eye means you will be in some life-at-risk disasters. Unless the twitch is a highly unusual foresign of stroke, causation would be impossible to verify.
 * If you eat cold milk and cherries together, it is toxic. U.S. President Zachary Taylor was believed to have died because he consumed milk and cherries together. Alternatively, any fruit consumed with milk will make you ill, because the acid in the fruit will make the milk curdle in your stomach. False, but the combination will cause discomfort in sensitive individuals.
 * Eating apples with cherries increases penis size. Coincidental if true.
 * Eating cheese before going to bed will make you have nightmares. Eating any food before bed may disrupt the somnatic cycle, increasing the likelihood that sleepers will awake during REM sleep and remember their dreams.
 * Not wearing slippers indoors will cause a range of ailments such as diarrhea, infertility, hemorrhoids, and pneumonia (common belief in many eastern European countries, including Poland, Bulgaria, and Turkey). False.
 * Drinking cold liquids or eating ice cream will cause one to have a sore throat. False. Ice cream is often given to tonsilitis patients after operations.
 * Burying a chicken's foot in the garden cures common ailments. Coincidental if true.
 * A crow making noise on your rooftop foretells the arrival of a guest. (Especially in Punjab) (In Norse mythology, the principal god, Odin, is accompanied by two ravens who can foresee the future.) However, Galliformes (game birds of the chicken family) predict death if perched on rooftops (especially in Northern Europe).
 * If you drink milk after eating rice, it can kill you. False. (Rice is a staple food in Asia, many Asians drink milk right after eating rice with no problems)
 * Not to mention the main ingredients of rice pudding. mh. 22:18, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

 * If you whistle at night, burglars will break into your house. (In many parts of Africa and Asia, this is usually modified with the nuance that evil spirits, ominous animals (such as snakes) or the angel of death may be drawn to the whistler. In parts of West Africa in particular, this tale is modified to include high pitched singing by a female or child, or the playing of wind instruments.)
 * Brazilian old wives´ tales:
 * You will die if you eat mangoes and milk (created to avoid slave nightly plundering of farm areas during the slavery period)
 * Mirrors attract lightning during a storm; cover them to be protected (some truth here: metal attracts electric discharges more easily than most other materials, including water. Mirrors were mostly made of iron back then).
 * Pointing your finger to the stars will make warts grow on your fingers. No problems if you point to the moon or other planets, though.
 * A recipe will not work if you mix ingredients partly clockwise, partly counter-clockwise. (This is true only if one switches direction so quickly that the entire container is not fully stirred).
 * You will grow worms on your stomach if you sleep when you're really hungry.
 * If a pregnant woman does not eat whatever food she craves at the time she craves it, the baby's face will resemble said food's shape.
 * Drinking soft drinks under sunlight may twist your mouth permanently.
 * Ornamental elephants within your home are bad luck unless they face the door." —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Xyzzyplugh (talk • contribs) 00:31, 21 March 2007 (UTC).

Sex Standing Up
"The tale is believed to have originated as a misunderstanding of advice by fertility specialists not to be standing up during coitus, if one is attempting to become pregnant. While it is true that some positions encourage pregnancy, the converse idea that some positions prevent it is false."

Actually, the reasoning here seems sound, as long as the word "prevent" is changed to "discourage". If certain positions improve the chances of pregnancy over the average of all positions, then the use of positions which do not improve the chances of pregnancy over the chances of all positions should decrease the chances of pregnancy. The myth seems to lie in the belief that, if certain positions "cause" pregnancy (stronger than the actual "encourage"), than other positions "prevent" pregnancy (again, stronger than the correct "discourage"). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Editor437 (talk • contribs) 02:52, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

The entry on birth control (a redirect from contraception defines it as "prevent or reduce the likelihood of pregnancy or childbirth". If it is really true that "some positions encourage pregnancy", then some positions must make it less likely.  I think the status of this one should be changed to "half-truth".  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Farannan (talk • contribs) 00:18, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

could be true
"If you feel a burning in your ears, it means that somebody is talking about you. A variation on this is that if you hear a ringing in your ears, someone is thinking about you. In Pakistan, India, and former USSR countries, hiccups are a sign that you are being remembered by someone. In Japan, if you sneeze it means that somebody is talking about you behind your back. Similarly, choking mildly on food is also supposed to mean that somebody is talking about you. False."

While such beliefs might be false most of the time, there is no scientific evidence against the claim. Should remove the false at the end. -Max —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.181.237.179 (talk) 20:45, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

 * What scientific evidence do you have to support your claim? -- Smjg (talk) 22:25, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Old Wive's Tales Over Places and Time.
Could some Old Wive's Tales from maybe 100 years ago have since lost the label "Old Wive's Tales" if they have been proven scientifically true leaving us with nothing but false tales?Lots of herbs meant to cure things really work, but were once Old Wives's tales. Cramp Bark Tea relieves menustruation cramps, Rapeseed (the weed used to make Canola Oil) causes goats to act crazy when forced to eat it (the acid that causes this has been removed for human consumption, thus the name change), Devil's claw relieves Arthritis, etc.

I can't agree with the statement Old Wive's Tale's are generally false or the comparison made here on Wiki to Urban Legends. Urban Legends are almost always untrue and sensational, granted the best ones are based on some fact, making for good converstaion. Old Wive's Tales true or not are some kind of teaching anecdotes, not really tales or stories.

A much more useful discussion would be to discover what the intended purpose of an Old Wive's Tale was, this would explain why it was perpetuated. 76.124.208.110 (talk) 18:55, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

Is a widely-believed but false belief automatically an old wives' tale? A very common one I think is the belief that an item must be sold at the marked price. The belief in it persists even though it is illogical - if true it would mean any dishonest person would only need to swap price tickets between cheap and expensive items. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.147.215.243 (talk) 01:45, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

some examples
I have always heard ``If you step on a line, you'll break your mother's spine.`` and ``Don't make silly faces or it will stay like that forever.``. I was wondering if anyone knows the origins of these old wives tales. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.229.112.135 (talk) 18:22, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

Does this count?
My mother always said ``Always wear clean underwear because you never know what could happen.`` and I was wondering if this counts as an old wives tale. If it does, is it true? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.240.55.173 (talk) 15:47, 20 May 2011 (UTC) The meaning of your mothers statement is (as my grandmother put it) that heaven forbid something bad happen (like car accident or something) that required a stranger to see your underwear... You wouldn't want them to be dirty! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.123.101.203 (talk) 01:09, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

Oral Tradition
I have added a section to the article about the oral tradition of old wives' tales. I think this section could be expanded even further. Does anyone have any opinions on this? Pilkie01 (talk) 04:41, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

This article has been hijacked by feminists. It's painful to read. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.16.160.45 (talk) 09:48, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

What is old?
Can we be sure about whether these are old tales of wives, or tales of old wives? It would usually be older women handing these lessons down, but on the other hand the lessons are ancient. Correctrix (talk) 11:23, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

"Don't make silly faces or it will make the silly face permanent."
This is a poor example, since adults never believe this; it's only something that they say to children to try to improve their behavior... AnonMoos (talk) 23:48, 13 December 2017 (UTC)

Sugar and hyperactivity
The idea that sugar consumption causes or worsens hyperactivity has been debunked thoroughly, but it's one of the most widely-accepted concepts in food folklore. Should this be included? - 24.37.164.162 (talk) 14:02, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

War-winning & separating people
ie to win a, something similar ,than- or a war.you have to separate the other people.someone please tell me what is the expression/old wives tale????...(.????? ) 92.40.214.85 (talk) 23:17, 10 March 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Old wives' tale


text:
Cap (disambiguation)

A cap is a form of headgear.

Cap may refer to:

Arts and entertainment

 * Cap, a character in the comic strip Cap Stubbs and Tippie
 * The Cap, a 1984 Canadian short film
 * "Cap" (song), a song by KSI featuring Offset from the 2020 album Dissimulation

Health and medicine

 * Cervical cap, a barrier method of contraception
 * Crown (dentistry), a type of dental restoration

People

 * Cap (nickname), a list of people
 * Čáp, a list of people with the Czech surname
 * Vladislao Cap (1934–1982), Argentine footballer
 * Cap R. Carden (1866–1935), American politician

Places

 * Cap Point, Saint Lucia
 * Cap River, New Caledonia
 * El Capitan, or "El Cap", a rock formation in Yosemite National Park
 * Nga Ying Chau or Cap Island, a former island in Hong Kong

Science and technology

 * Cap set, in affine geometry
 * CAP theorem, related to properties of distributed data stores
 * Capricornus, an astronomical constellation, whose stars are abbreviated β Cap, δ Cap, etc.
 * Five-prime cap, a special nucleotide added to the 5′ end of some eukaryotic mRNA molecules
 * Pileus (mycology), the cap of a mushroom or related fungi
 * Cap, a piping and plumbing fitting
 * Armor-piercing cap (often known simply as a 'cap'), a metal cover on an armor-piercing projectile meant to protect the penetrator and improve armor-penetrating capabilities.
 * Capacitor, an electronic device, sometimes referred to by the abbreviated name "cap"

Sports

 * Cap (sport), a term for an athlete's appearance at international level
 * Salary cap, an agreement limiting money spent on players' salaries

Other uses

 * Cap (crown), the cap which fills the inner space of modern crowns
 * Cap, a winemaking term
 * Cap, or Camper shell, a covering for the rear bed of a pickup truck
 * Captain, a title, rank or, position, sometimes abbreviated as "Cap" or "Cap."
 * Cap Radio (Morocco), a Moroccan radio station
 * Chipaya language, ISO 639-3 language code cap
 * Combat air patrol, a type of flying mission for military aircraft
 * Closure (container), often referred to as a cap

title: Cap (disambiguation)


text:
Talk:Naomi Klein

Citing Encyclopedias
Hi. Small point that doesn't require all the following explanation, but here goes anyway. According to the guidelines at WP:RSPRIMARY you can cite another encyclopedia. But also according to MOS:LEAD the lead can be free of citations for non-controversial facts, especially ones that are supported by citations in the body. So it all comes down to WHY the IP editor wants the citation. They mentioned Klein's date of birth. I assume that is supported in the body, but haven't verified that yet. A previous editor had removed the middle initial "A" which was not supported by the encyclopedia citation that you removed. So I currently support your removal of the citation, but disagree with your reason, and should an editor want to use it to support some fact I would support that. I hope this makes sense. Cheers.DolyaIskrina (talk) 15:36, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

The "Not to be Confused with …" hatnote is a joke
NOTE: See also Naomi Wolf talk.

The "Not to be Confused with Naomi Wolf" hatnote is a joke, and does not belong in this article. Sure, some people allegedly confused the two on Twitter (the premise of Klein's 2023 book), but that does not justify the inclusion of that tag: it's mentioned in the section discussing the book, and that's sufficient. Shankar Sivarajan (talk) 22:17, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

 * I disagree. The only reason not to provide clarification and disambiguation is if it is somehow tendentious. Like if you were to say "John Doe" is not to be confused with "Party Clown". You are implying that John is a clown. Here however there is no pejorative I can think of. Klein certainly doesn't seem to have a problem with the association being called out. Until Klein's book came out, I myself had confused them. DolyaIskrina (talk) 02:32, 26 October 2023 (UTC)
 * I have no objections to mentioning this confusion in the lede. I only heard of either of these people because of this supposed confusability. Shankar Sivarajan (talk) 03:45, 26 October 2023 (UTC)
 * I support including the note. I have confused them myself, and Klein has written extensively about the confusion. cagliost (talk) 12:38, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Naomi Klein


text:
Talk:Burnside's lemma

Application to Fermat's Little Theorem
If anyone has looked at the Wikipedia page called "Proofs of Fermat's Little Theorem", there is one which uses "bracelets" to establish the theorem. If you look at a proof of Cauchy's theorem given by Dr. Eyal Goren on page 79 in his course notes for an algebra course given this fall (http://www.math.mcgill.ca/goren/MATH235.2006/CourseNotesMath235.2006.pdf) you can see how the bracelet argument is virtually identical to the first part of the proof. I'm suggesting that under "example applications" we could mention that the CFF can be used to prove Fermat's Little Theorem quite easily, or even just prove it directly as a nice "sample application". feedback?

DavidKawrykow 01:23, 8 May 2007 (UTC)DavidKawrykow

The example might look better if the tabular information was formatted in a proper table. My HTML skills are weak. Is there anyone who knows what they are doing willing and able to give it a try? hawthorn

 * Nice Proof!

 * I hate this particular notation for orbits stabilsers and fixes. Unless you are very familiar with this :stuff you have to constantly look back at the definitions to see which is which and it is so easy to mix :them up. Does anyone else feel this way also? I don't suppose we could engineer a switch to the much more :instantly memorable
 * $$ \mbox{Orb}_G(x) $$, $$ \mbox{Stab}_G(x) $$ and $$ \mbox{Fix}_X(g) $$?
 * hawthorn

 * Excelent idea. In our country is the notation a bit different (also quite confusing, nevertheless I would say a bit more logical) and I confused orbits with fixes from this reason... Finiteautomaton 20:46, 5 January 2009 (UTC)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.99.139.169 (talk)

 * I would support that change. The proof is kind of hard to understand. FelixP 19:16, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

 * This article confuses two signficantly different results, the Burnside lemma (the stated identity, due to Cauchy, as Burnside knew-- he never claimed priority, and the work of Cauchy would have been known to the readers of his textbook, but some later writer apparently didn't know this literature and jumped to an incorrect conclusion), and the Polya enumeration formula (unknown to Polya, this had been previously found by Redfield). The latter explicitly refers to the cycle index of a finite group.  See any good combinatorics text.  For my article on Newton's identities, we need to deconflate these two results.  TIA---CH  (talk) 20:37, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

 * I agree that the proof is hard to understand due to the non-universal notation and therefore needing to click around to other articles for definitions. I expanded the proof to mitigate this problem, briefly including some definitions, but kept the notation since that is what is used elsewhere (e.g. Orbit-stabilizer theorem, Lagrange's theorem). Solitonic (talk) 18:07, 13 April 2014 (UTC)

infinite set
Is there a good reason to allow this finite group to act on an infinite set? There are always an infinite number of orbits and the identity fixes infinitely many points, so the result is trivial then. It doesn't really hurt but maybe it reduces the understandability. McKay 07:43, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

As far as I know, the assertion is fairly easy to prove true for infinite cardinals. I have added this (stated appropriately). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.3.85.24 (talk) 18:57, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

which consequently is a natural number or +∞
The average of natural numbers is not always a natural number. For example avg(2,3)=2.5. Therefore it does not follow that the number of orbits should be a natural number or +∞ from the summand being a natural number or +∞. Crasshopper (talk) 05:34, 12 January 2012 (UTC)
 * The number of orbits is a natural number of +∞ because it is counting something. It is neat that it is also equal to the average, since as you observe, one would not have expected the average to even be a natural number.  For example, S3 acting on 3 points has fixed point sets of sizes 3, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, and the average size is (3+0+0+1+1+1)/6 = 1; coincidentally (or not, as Burnside discovered) this is the number of orbits of S3 on 3 points. JackSchmidt (talk) 16:10, 12 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Does any book actually state the Burnside formula for an infinite set? Some1Redirects4You (talk) 04:45, 30 April 2015 (UTC)

Proof order
The proof is such that the right-hand side $$\frac{1}{|G|}\sum_{g \in G}|X^g|$$ is manipulated until it equals the left-hand side $$|X/G|$$. Might it make more sense to start with the left-hand side, the value that we are trying to compute, and manipulate it to a formula, the right-hand side? Having a path from a question to an answer is the more natural direction for me. Starting with an answer and then exploring to find a question it resolves is a bit backwards in my book. Leegrc (talk) 14:14, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

odd claim
"William Burnside stated and proved this lemma, attributing it to Frobenius 1887, in his 1897 book on finite groups. But, even prior to Frobenius, the formula was known to Cauchy in 1845. In fact, the lemma was apparently so well known that Burnside simply omitted to attribute it to Cauchy." -- That makes no sense. If it was so well known that he didn't bother attributing it to Cauchy, why did he attribute it to Frobenius? McKay (talk) 03:40, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

 * You're right, that doesn't make much sense. I notice that the edit that introduced the claim that "Burnside simply omitted to attribute it to Cauchy" (this one) says that Burnside proved this lemma without attribution in his 1897 book. So we really need to check the book to see whether Burnside does give any attribution for it. (It's possible that the attribution was added in the second edition, which would explain the confusion.) --Zundark (talk) 08:09, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

 * Actually it is not impossible. Someone today could cite the lemma to anything convenient, say a reference book, rather than to Cauchy. Probably Neumann's article has enough information to clarify the wording. McKay (talk) 05:53, 30 May 2015 (UTC)

title: Talk:Burnside's lemma


text:
Ecological model of competition

The ecological model of competition is a reassessment of the nature of competition in the economy. Traditional economics models the economy on the principles of physics (force, equilibrium, inertia, momentum, and linear relationships). This can be seen in the economics lexicon: terms like labour force, market equilibrium, capital flows, and price elasticity. This is probably due to historical coincidence. Classical Newtonian physics was the state of the art in science when Adam Smith was formulating the first principles of economics in the 18th century.

According to the ecological model, it is more appropriate to model the economy on biology (growth, change, death, evolution, survival of the fittest, complex inter-relationships, non-linear relationships). Businesses operate in a complex environment with interlinked sets of determinants. Companies co-evolve: they influence, and are influenced by, competitors, customers, governments, investors, suppliers, unions, distributors, banks, and others. We should look at this business environment as a business ecosystem that both sustains, and threatens the firm. A company that is not well matched to its environment might not survive. Companies that are able to develop a successful business model and turn a core competency into a sustainable competitive advantage will thrive and grow. Very successful firms may come to dominate their industry (referred to as category killers).

title: Ecological model of competition


text:
Oxyd

Oxyd is a 1990 puzzle video game developed for the Atari ST and ported to the Amiga, Macintosh, MS-DOS, and NeXT by Dongleware Verlags GmbH. It is a game of puzzles and tests to restart all the oxygen generators (called Oxyds) on the player's home planet. The Oxyds must be restarted by opening them in pairs of matching patterns, and (in colour versions) matching colours.

The Atari ST version was developed with the Megamax Modula-2 programming language.

Gameplay
The player controls a small black marble that rolls around, touches things to activate them (Oxyds are opened by touching them), and bashes things to move them. The player has an inventory and can add some items to the inventory by rolling over them. The game's playfield is called a landscape. The player must open all of the Oxyds to progress to the next landscape. Oxyds must be matched in pairs. An unpaired Oxyd will close if an Oxyd of another pattern or colour is opened.

Some landscapes also contain textual clues, which the player can place in their inventory by rolling the marble over them. They can then be selected and read. There are clues on many landscapes: some are helpful, but others are confusing or not so helpful. Other useful items include bombs, dynamite, spades, keys and computer disks. These items may be placed in the inventory, and can create or destroy blocks, create holes, fill holes, and open doors. There are other interactive blocks, including movable wooden blocks, lasers, mirrors, hidden passages. There are also dangerous areas, including bottomless pits, crumbling floors (which collapse if the marble has been rolled on them several times), slides, pools of water to drown in, quicksand (which the marble will slowly sink in), and assorted traps.

Some levels invert the player's controls, and in the sequel games, the player has to control several balls, which shatter if they touch each other.

There are two-player cooperative levels with one black and one white marble that can either be played by one player, alternating his mouse control between either marble, or by two players playing on two interconnected computers. The interconnection is accomplished by MIDI on the Atari ST, or by the serial ports on other machines.

Release
Dongleware offered for $4 shipping and handling the first ten levels of Oxyd, and the game was easily obtainable from shareware CDs or bulletin board systems. From the 11th level onward, at various intervals throughout the games, "Magic Tokens" blocked crucial parts and passageways of the landscapes, mostly rendering progress impossible. These stones could only be removed by entering a code. The Oxyd Book was sold separately for $39, with code tables matching the information given on the Magic Stone. This form of software protection used the book as a dongle or code wheel; however, unlike other games which use the code book protection approach, the game itself was free.

Reception
Computer Gaming World in April 1993 called Oxyd "My favorite new shareware title ... an exceptional offering, guaranteed to provide numerous hours of enjoyment". The magazine in April 1994 said that Oxyd Magnum "will quickly pull players deeper and deeper into its 100 devilish mazes". Computer Gaming World in May 1994 said that it "is a game with very few flaws. The graphics are clean, and the mouse control is crisp", and praised the small size. The magazine concluded that "Oxyd Magnum is a top notch puzzle game that will keep players up to the early hours of the morning attempting to solve 'just one more level.

Legacy

Oxyd spawned a number of sequels: Oxyd Magnum, Oxyd Extra, and  (also known as Oxyd 2). Additionally, Oxyd itself was a sequel to a lesser-known game, called Esprit.

In summer 2019, Dongleware announced a completely new Oxyd release and a port of the classic version to the Nintendo Switch console. In March 2021, the Steam store page for the game was removed. Around 2020, Oxydgames twitter account was suspended. Only the YouTube channel and website remain. The current status of the new release is unknown, as such it is assumed that development has been suspended for the time being.

Enigma is an Open source fangame with over a thousand different landscapes that can also read the original Oxyd level packs (they are not included for copyright reasons). Also the included "Dejavu" level packs contain levels with similar ideas to the original levels.

Mad Data, with the permission of Dongleware, has produced an official freeware game with the name "Oxyd extra v2.0".

title: Oxyd


text:
Talk:North American F-100 Super Sabre

Dates?
In the second paragraph of Design and Development it says that the Super Sabre's prototype flew on the 14th of Oct followed by the first production Super Sabre on the 9th. Is it supposed to be that the first production flight was followed by the second prototype or are the dates swapped? TophatGuy14 (talk) 03:17, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

 * It should be the 29th October, not the 9th, a mistake was made in December 2006 converting the date format. Nimbus (Cumulus nimbus floats by)  09:32, 18 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you. Also cool award on your profile.
 * TophatGuy14 (talk) 13:45, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:North American F-100 Super Sabre


text:
2000 Governor General's Awards

The 2000 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit were presented by Adrienne Clarkson, Governor General of Canada, and Jean-Louis Roux, Chairman of the Canada Council for the Arts, on November 14 at Rideau Hall.

title: 2000 Governor General's Awards


text:
Utopia: The Creation of a Nation

Utopia: The Creation of a Nation is a strategy video game. It was developed by Celestial Software and published by Gremlin Graphics (later known as Gremlin Interactive), in 1991 for Amiga, Atari ST and MS-DOS. It was later released for the Super NES in 1993, by Jaleco in the USA. This release made use of the Super NES Mouse peripheral.

Gameplay
The game, taking place in the future, on a new planet, is open-ended where the player character is a planetary governor who evacuated his colony after it was hit by a biological weapon by an alien race. Instead of being reprimanded or fired, the governor is lauded for his care of colonists' lives over material gain, and promoted to a series of pioneer worlds to colonize.

It is the player's task to colonize the new planet, manage the colony and raise the quality of life for the citizen in order to reach utopia.

Initially the player has a few colonists with a lot to do. The player needs to build everything from scratch. Building takes time and free colonists, in addition to money. Buildings under construction are depicted by scaffold.

Certain buildings require personnel (hospitals, labs, mines, factories, shipyards ...) and therefore the player has to engage in population management. The player also has to micromanage features such as tax rate, birth rate and trade.

In addition, each world also has a competing alien race which is trying to colonize the same planet. There is no option to form alliances, which means that the player's population must come into conflict with the aliens. The player never actually gets to see the alien city, as it is located outside the playable map, but must instead rely on espionage to find out what the aliens and their city look like. It is possible to completely eradicate the alien race, after which the game loses its combat aspect and becomes a pure management simulation.

Scenarios
Utopia includes ten scenarios, all with a different planet and a different alien race. The scenarios are named according to the alien races in the Amiga version and according to the planets in the SNES port:

 * Eldorians (Rhendor IV)
 * Vroarscans (Alpha Ceti)
 * Soomanii (Vega III)
 * Kal-Kriken (Astoria II)
 * Catalytes (Benezar IV)
 * Squiz-Quijy (Antares III)
 * Pascalenes (Rukbat III)
 * Tilikanthua (Betazan II)
 * Vanacancia (Merak VI)
 * Lucratians (Gamma Lucra)

A data disk called Utopia: The New Worlds was later released by Gremlin. This disk required the original Utopia and could not be played as a stand-alone game. It included the following scenarios:

 * Foralbo
 * Parillatians
 * Chevanno
 * Old-Worlders
 * Sarturians
 * Sal-Kadeem
 * Rako-Gorda
 * Key-Guardians
 * Darjakr'Ul
 * Temarkians

The "Old-Worlders" were said to be humans, coming from Earth's earlier attempt to colonize the same planet. In practice, they were handled just as another hostile alien race. The terrain of the Sal-Kadeem planet was unique in that it was mostly covered with silver-colored oil that was impossible to build on. Buildings were restricted to tiny patches of habitable land.

Development
The Amiga version of Utopia began development in September 1990, and was released in September 1991. British gaming magazine The One interviewed Graeme Ing and Robert Crack, the designers of Utopia, for information regarding its development in a pre-release interview. Work on Utopia began after the completion of Spacewrecked: 14 Billion Light Years From Earth, and was inspired by Sim City. According to Ing, Utopia was conceived around the idea of how Sim City could be improved upon. The main differentiating design choice was to have a 'more involved' social model, rather than center Utopia's gameplay around the city-building aspect. Ing notes Utopia's hybridized mode of gameplay, noting Utopia's combat, and greater involvement in the development of technology that the player can use, but expresses that he "[doesn't] think the actual simulation is as deep as Sim City ... All sorts of interesting factors were incorporated there. Instead, we've gone for the fun aspect". The option to automate trading was added due to Ing and Crack's belief that Utopia's trading and resource management aspect 'won't appeal to everybody'.

Utopia's alien environments were partially inspired by science fiction novels. Each alien race has differing AI routines, but the level of detail put into their development was limited by memory restrictions, with Ing expressing that "it's a trade-off really. You can't go completely overboard because the more intelligence you put in, the slower the gameplay. You've got to balance the two". A user-friendly UI was an important aspect in Utopia's development, and Ing expresses that "nothing annoys me more than a product which is graphically good but in which it's difficult for the player to grasp the controls. That's why from the word go I'm always thinking about making everything as easy as possible to use". Utopia's graphics were created in DPaint. Expansion disks for Utopia were being considered by Gremlin prior to Utopia's release, due to the project 'seeming promising'.

Ing states that he holds a design philosophy of making lists to organize a game's design prior to its development, stating that "first we generated a massive spec. It's about 100 pages long and details absolutely everything that needs to be done. Then what I always do is make a list of every single piece of code that needs to be written to make that spec. possible and work my way slowly though the list. Eventually it gets shorter". A fully functional map screen was prioritized as the first part of Utopia to be programmed, and Ing states that "we created some temporary graphics for the buildings and then I worked on all the routines necessary to scroll around the world and select those buildings". At this stage in development, Utopia lacked an isometric perspective, and the map screen was instead in 2D graphics. Ing expresses in regards to this design change that "halfway through what was going to be a 2D sim we decided it would look a lot better with an extra dimension". Ing expresses that the transition from 2D to 3D midway through development was a complication, stating that "there were a lot of problems when we switched to 2D to 3D. For example, the game involves a lot of ground vehicles moving behind and around the buildings and that took ages to work out". A map editor was designed for Utopia during development to 'simplify' map design, and Ing expresses that "basically, all it is is a modified version of the game itself with the gameplay taken out and all the facilities to help us construct the scenario maps".

Reception
In 1992 and surveys of science fiction games, Computer Gaming World gave the title three-plus stars out of five.

The One gave the Amiga version of Utopia an overall score of 93%, calling it "a cross between Sim City and Populous - and a rival to both", furthermore stating that Utopia "incorporates so much more than [SimCity]" and that "each game provides a totally new challenge within the first few minutes". The One praises Utopia's difficulty and creativity, expressing that those who achieve a 'quality of life' rating of 100% should "consider a career in public office", and calls the game's alien antagonists "the spark of genius that sets this game apart from other software". The One praises Utopia's graphics and sound, noting a feature where the soundtrack changes depending on the player's performance in-game, and calls the game's isometric perspective "pleasing to the eye".

Successors
Utopia was succeeded by K240, which carried the colonization idea over to an asteroid belt. The most prominent improvement was that in K240, the alien race was no longer off the map, but its cities could be viewed the same way as the player's. K240 was in turn succeeded by Fragile Allegiance, further refining the idea of colonizing an asteroid belt.

title: Utopia: The Creation of a Nation