text:
Talk:ZX81

Table
I've changed the table to reflect the market position in the UK in June 1981, the time when the ZX81 was available to buy. The IBM PC, Dragon and Tandy Color Computer were not available at that time, I've put in some kit computers that were widely available in the UK instead.60.231.232.112 (talk) 02:33, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

 * Just to add some other points. I was going to add the Acorn Atom - after all they are the great Cambridge rivals to Sinclair - but firstly I didn't know how to describe the BASIC in the table, its a mixture of TinyBASIC and assembly code (MS Level 0.5 ?), secondly anyone actually ordering an Atom in June 1981 was unlikely to actually receive one in 1981, so I don't know if that can be counted as an available system.
 * Well I've added the Atom now, I'm not sure if the table is getting too big ? 60.231.232.112 (talk) 01:20, 31 January 2021 (UTC).

 * There is also the Nascom but I couldn't find much info on the system pricewise for June 1981 and its a bit neither here nor there, not as cheap as the Tangerine system, nor as widespread as the Ohio Scientific, which was one of the most popular systems in the 1970s, you used to see them in universities and laboratories all over the place - but who remembers them now ?

 * The MicroTan and Compukit didn't include a power supply - but then neither did the ZX81, that cost another ₤15, although by June Sinclair was giving up on that idea because of all the returns because of incompatible power supplies. The Apple II was the real outlier, there wasn't a cassette interface availble by then, you had to buy a disk drive and a controller, and the full 48k because 32k was taken up by ProDos.  You couldn't just plug it into the telly either, it had RF but only for NTSC, you had to buy a PAL RF card which cost almost as much as a Taiwanese composite video monitor - a total Apple system cost almost as much as a brand new car.

 * Oh, another thing. The TI and the TRS-80 had restricted BASIC - there were no POKE or PEEK commands meaning that only very simple BASIC programs could be written.  TRS-80 Level II BASIC cost a cool ₤150 extra - three times the price of a ZX81 !  The TRS-80 was a fairly low cost system in the US, but Tandy's foreign prices were crazy.

60.231.232.112 (talk) 03:59, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

A few thoughts...
As a former ZX81 owner, I think this is a pretty good article overall, but a couple of things did come to mind:

 * I'm wary of appearing insular with this one, but there does seem to be a bit of an American slant in places, which seems odd as the ZX81 was primarily a British machine. Firstly, I think it would be much better if the main photo was of an actual ZX81 rather than a TS1000 (though the latter could certainly be retained to illustrate this variant), since although the outward differences are small they are there (brand name, "DELETE" key instead of the ZX81's "RUBOUT"). Secondly several peripheral prices are given in USD only, also odd for an article about a British machine.

 * You're right! A real ZX81 image is quite better, and I just happened to find one on Commons for once. I think the Timex image is better fit in the actuall Timex Sinclair 1000 article, so Im going to fix that soon. --AndersL 19:32, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

 * There's a bit of confusion about RAM packs. Quite early in the article there's a reference to a Memopak (made by Memotech), yet there's no attempt to explain what a Memopak is, which might lead readers to assume that it was a brand name for the RAM pack pictured (Sinclair's own effort), which is in fact of a completely different appearance. (I always found Memopaks to be less "wobbly" than Sinclair ones in any case.) Finally, a few other companies - DK'tronics was one, IIRC - sold RAM packs too.

I also wonder whether at least one of the authors has been reading The Explorers Guide to the ZX81, since quite a number of the things mentioned here are also mentioned there! :) Loganberry (Talk) 15:06, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

 * The ZX81 was marketed in the U.S. Why do you say it is a "British machine"? Mirror Vax 23:04, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

 * For exactly the same reason I consider the VIC-20, which was widely marketed in the UK, to be an American machine. After all, you can buy Jaguars in America, and the company is owned by Ford, but that doesn't stop a Jaguar being a British car. Besides, I don't have a problem with US prices being quoted for peripherals - but since this is an international encyclopedia, not a US one, I do have a problem with only US prices being quoted, and I was hoping someone would know the sterling prices and include them in this article. Loganberry (Talk) 15:52, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

 * The machine was designed in Britain by a British company started by a particularly famous British entrepreneur. I think that makes it pretty British :-)  Richard W.M. Jones 19:21, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

The machine was third rate, poorly designed, and supplied by a company whose customer service was appalling. How could it possibly be anything other than British?! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.198.33.252 (talk) 12:19, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

 * Very true, but you need to understand Britain in those days to understand why. The ZX81 was able to bring computing to the masses because it was designed down to a price (and was in fact a very elegant design in those terms, not a "poor" design at all). Britain had been struggling under a disastrous socialist/keynesian economic experiment since the war, and the masses of the people, teh proleteriat, were genuinely poor and could not afford the kind of computers (and other goods) americans could afford at the time. The middle class- in Britain, this translates generally to people who get an income from the government, such as bureaucrats, teachers, BBC employees and so on- got a computer especially designed for them a little later- a high spec, high cost machine with the BBC name attached. The rest of us had what we could afford, the ZX81 and then the ZX Spectrum. Cheap, shoddy british goods existed in order to be affordable to the cheap, shoddy british working class.82.71.30.178 (talk) 13:05, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

 * A the time of its introduction - 1981 - the ZX81 had no competition at it's price range, all the other microcomputers available in the UK were far more expensive than the £69.95 of the Sinclair machine, or required kit-building and soldering skills as well as prior computer knowledge, these included the Acorn Atom, Tangerine Microtan 65, Research Machines 380Z, TRS-80, Video Genie, NASCOM, Atari 400 & 800, the Commodore PET, and the Apple II, the latter two and the RML 380Z costing serious money such that they were only found in businesses and institutions. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.7.147.13 (talk) 20:29, 5 March 2014 (UTC)

A call to ZX81 tape owners
Does anybody have a tape cover of the 3D Monster Maze game, preferrably the original (J.K.Greye Software as opposed to the New Generation Software republishing)? It would look great for the infobox there. You're welcome to improve the article in any other way you can think of, too. TIA, BACbKA 22:08, 17 December 2005 (UTC)
 * P.S. Just got a helping hand from the c.s.sinclair group, will upload the scan myself now. BACbKA 22:37, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

Images at Sinclair ZX81
I have followed the 16KB RAM expansion pack image link, and it looks like the file suffered as follows: Bottom line: this fine image is being threatened by the local copyright police any moment now :-) will the original uploader please step forward ASAP? Thanks, --BACbKA 12:01, 25 February 2006 (UTC) Thank you very much! --BACbKA 14:31, 25 February 2006 (UTC)
 * 1) somebody posted it as a public-domain work to the English wikipedia
 * 2) subsequently it was moved over to commons
 * 3) thereafter the original en: upload was removed (since it was not a GFDL image, noone cared about the history)
 * 4) then the PD tag became obsolete, and an explicit reference to whoever uploaded it originally and why it had been public domain back then (own photo? another PD source?) is needed by the commons
 * I have updated the copyright - I thought I'd been through all my images, obviously missed this one because someone moved it. -- Jbattersby 12:57, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Merge proposal
I have proposed a merge of Timex Sinclair 1000 into this article because IMHO they are fundamentally the same machine; the Timex model has more RAM, a different modulator, more shielding and some minor cosmetic differences, but for all that they are essentially the same.

It's not that the TS1000 is not important enough to warrant its own article; rather that I feel that the two machines would benefit from being placed in context instead of being artificially separated. Fourohfour 12:49, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Sounds very sensible to me. Cheers --Pak21 13:05, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

What about TS1500? --BACbKA 18:10, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Merge that in as well :-) Cheers --Pak21 18:47, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

All right, since both the TS articles cited above are stubs essentially (yes, I know the TS1000 isn't marked as such), I agree with the merge proposal. If the relevant sections in here grow too much, it'll be always possible to split them off again. --BACbKA 22:53, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

I agree. Kialari 15:08, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

 * I think that TS1000 should remain a seperate article. In the US, the TS1000 was the one that was famous and widely sold, not the ZX81.   If people want to find out about the ZX81 and the differences, they can always click on the link to it. Vivaldi 06:40, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm undecided about this. Clearly the TS1000 is a variant of the ZX81 rather than vice versa, so if there is a merged article it should go here - with, of course, a redirect from Timex Sinclair 1000. Having said that, the Dragon 32/64 is very similar to the Tandy Color Computer, yet has a full article of its own. And Pentagon (computer) has a separate stub article, despite being a Spectrum clone.

I think that if TS1000 is merged into ZX81, for consistency's sake the Pentagon (and other clones) should be merged into ZX Spectrum... but the Spectrum article is 30K long already, which is a good argument for keeping the clones on separate pages. And if we do that, then consistency would demand that TS1000 is not merged with ZX81! Loganberry (Talk) 13:13, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

 * I think the difference there is that the Pentagon article could say a lot more about the machine than it already does, whereas there's not really anything else that can be added to the TS1000 article than is already there. Cheers --Pak21 13:29, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

 * The Dragon 32 was not entirely compatible with the Tandy, although there were very major similarities. It was also marketed by an entirely separate company with its own history.
 * By contrast, the differences between the ZX81 and TS1000 were secondary or peripheral; shielding, more memory, NTSC output. They by a company closely involved with the ZX81 already and had Sinclair's name on them.
 * Timex Sinclair warrants its own article, but this computer? In all honesty, I agree that there is little more to say that would not belong in the main article.
 * I see what you're (Loganberry) saying about consistency, but splitting due to length is a perfectly valid thing to do for practical reasons (both editing *and* reading). Consistency demands that either the Spectrum article grows to a horrible length or that all computers marketed differently get their own article....
 * Should Laser 200 be split into separate articles for "Texet TX8000" and "Dick Smith VZ200" simply for this reason? In all honesty, I think that would be a very counterproductive thing to do.
 * Fourohfour 18:26, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

 * I disagree. They're different machines,

 * I should point out this is a circular argument; we're basically discussing whether or not they're different machines, so you can't assert that they're different machines and use that for support. :)

 * made in different countries

 * Many computers, consoles, cars, etc. belonging to the same range have been manufactured in several different countries; e.g. the ZX Spectrum was originally manufactured in Scotland and (IIRC) later made in China. More significantly, many of the "same" version of many products have been manufactured in different places, often simultaneously.

 * by different companies,

 * Well, the ZX81 was (mainly IIRC) made by Timex, so that point's debatable.

 * sold under different names in different packaging.

 * Different packaging? Well, that's true; not sure if it's that big a deal.

 * Yes, they differed mainly only in specification (e.g. amount of RAM as standard, type of TV modulator and case design)

 * It should be noted that other machines (e.g. the Atari 800) came in NTSC/PAL variants, and with varying amounts of RAM. Even the case design issue is only internal and relates to the shielding. Variations of such (or greater) significance have occurred over the lifetime of other computers such as the Commodore 64.

 * but the same is true of myriads of PC-compatibles, but they are not all lumped together. They're different - but closely-related - machines. Keep 'em separated. And I'm not just saying this because (AFAICR) I'm the author of the TS1000, TS1500 & Laser 200 articles! Liam Proven 12:04, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

 * The *vast* majority of PC compatibles do not warrant (and have not got) separate articles.
 * My main concern is that I cannot see any great benefit to having two separate articles; a lot of the information is going to be pointlessly duplicated, and if it isn't it will end up being a stubby article which refers to the 'main' ZX81 article. In which case, why have it separate at all when it would be better placed in the more encompassing and illuminating context of a single article? Fourohfour 19:36, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

I disagree with the merge proposal. Both articles are good at present. To combine them only gives the possibility of confusion between the two very similar iterations. In addition both are very clearly linked to each other early on in the text. The situation seems perfectly good as it is.HappyVR 19:46, 14 May 2006 (UTC) If only for the sake of clarity, please do not merge these two articles.HappyVR 19:49, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

I also disagree with the merge proposal. The US 'Syntax' magazine published programs for the prototype BASIC in Dec 1980 and a considerable number of ZX81s were sold in America prior to the production of the TS-1000. The TS-1500 came at the end of 1984 at the same time as the TS-2068. Timex were aware that they had goofed with the ROMs and managed to keep the lid on this for over 20 years. I became suspicious after reading a TS-1500 review in 'Syntax' and imported a machine to the UK in order to confirm that Timex had implemented the Logan/O'Hara division correction without testing it. A lot of books were pulped. This would be out of place in a ZX81/TS-1000 article.

The TS-1500 comes with its own skeletons which should not be allowed to impinge on the status of two Classics.

Popiy Popiy 01:21, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

 * In response to HappyVR; you said "the possibility of confusion between the two very similar iterations".... in other words, they *are* similar!

 * Popiy; I don't mean to be rude, but why does the fact that the original ZX81 was sold in North America prior to the TS-1000 justify separate articles? To clear up confusion? On the contrary, separate articles means either (a) inevitable duplication since the two machines are fundamentally the same, or (b) the minor article will end up constantly referring back to the parent article, making it hard to read.
 * There is no reason that having a separate article (as opposed to "merely" a distinct section) would make this clearer. It comes down to the quality of the writing.

 * The minor differences in the ROMs are just that; this happens with lots of computers and computer-based products. For example, the Atari 800XL came with at least two slightly different BASIC ROMs, but no-one would dream of using that as justification for separate articles.

 * Fourohfour 13:08, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

 * I had not realized that the same discussion served both merger proposals. To me it seems fine to merge the ZX81 and TS-1000 articles as they are essentially the same machine. The TS-1500 article is less important as the machine was launched as Timex pulled out in January 1984. The recently discovered facts about the machine are only important due to the lack of any previous coverage. For instance, the various ROMS of the ZX81 received coverage at the time but not the TS-1500 ROM. A single sentence for the TS-1500 would suffice if it was merged with the ZX81.

--Popiy 18:11, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

 * I'm against any merger that would dilute the prominence of the ZX81 in this article - after all it' an importrant part of British cultural history. I suspect a certain amount of geographical bias may be at play here. Artw 00:42, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

 * Given that the merged article would be titled "Sinclair ZX81", I don't think that's very likely. BTW, I live in Britain. Fourohfour 11:10, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

A few factual errors
There are a number of factual errors in this article.

1. The ZX81/TS1000 clock speed is 3.25MHz, not 3.5MHz as stated in the article (It uses a nominal 6.5MHz ceramic resonator, divided by 2).

2. The article states that the ZX81 contained a single 4118 (1k*8bit) RAM Chip. Actually, a large proportion of the ZX81s made used a pair of 2114 (1k*4bit)RAM chips instead. The PCB was designed so either could be mounted.

3. Further into the article, it states that in SLOW mode, user programs are only executed during the time the electron beam moves from the bottom to the top of the screen (The vertical retrace). This is incorrect. On the ZX81, in SLOW mode, user programs execute in the white top and bottom borders, not the vertical retrace.

4. In the section titled "Integrated Circuits", it "A15 is used for display purposes (see below), and the upper 32K memory area is therefore unusable for code execution, it can still be used to store data (such as BASIC programs) however." It does not state though, that in the default configuration (i.e. without a RAM Pack >16k), the upper 32k contains a shadow of the lower 32k. Hence, the previous sentence refering to 16/8 shadows is not strictly correct.

--MikeWynne 23:44, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Then edit and fix them! Edrigu 20:26, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

ZX printer - well built and safe to use...
Wondereing if this is worth mentioning - if you touched the metallised paper whilst the zx printer was operating - under certain conditions (no rubber boots) - you got electricuted - I remember - it happened to me...HappyVR 12:29, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Ha ha.... I've never heard that one before, but it's pretty interesting. Still, unless there's a reputable online source confirming it, it counts as original research and shouldn't go in. Sorry :-( Fourohfour 12:22, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

It certainly is true, and if you look at how the ZX Printer worked its fairly obvious too. The ZX Printer only printed on special paper which had a thin layer of metal foil laminated onto it. The printer basically generated sufficient voltage to allow the print head to arc and burn holes in the foil, and these holes formed the dot matrix that formed the characters. Therefore, as each dot was printed the foil became momentarily electrically "live" until the arc occurred, so if you touched the paper the potential would discharge through your finger. It wasn't enough to harm you, but it certainly made you jump. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.198.33.252 (talk) 12:11, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Merge resolution
As this page is one of the last on Merge since March 2006, I'm making a command decision. Sinclair 1500 was merged into Sinclair 1000, but since Sinclair 1000 now has a good bit of material, I'm NOT merging it to ZX81. If someone disagrees they can re-post the merge. Alba 19:41, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

 * It seems okay to me now. The only objection I would have would be if more material were added and it ended up duplicating the ZX81 article (in other words, unique non-overlapping material is what counts). Anyway, that's not the case at present. Fourohfour 12:19, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Size and weight?
What are the physical dimentions of the computer? // Liftarn (talk)

How slow?
In the fast and slow section, it says that a 1-1000 for loop takes 19 seconds to execute, but it is unclear whether this is measured in fast or slow mode. Given the speed of contemporary Basics I'd guess it is slow mode. Can someone who knows please clarify the main article? Drhex (talk) 12:05, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Square root bug
There's a good ref for this here. Letdorf (talk) 14:41, 25 November 2008 (UTC).

 * That reference suggests that it was a ROM issue which was corrected at some point. If that's the case, the issue probably belongs in the "reception" section, as does the cover-up. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 14:49, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Significant reworking
I've begun to rework this article into an accessible form which follows our guidelines for article content. For now, this has necessitated removing about 50% of the content, which was an excessively detailed overview of the hardware to the point of reading like a professional runbook. I don't disagree that this stuff might have value, but when it is the main focus of the article (to the detriment of general details about the machine's impact in the market, its influence on later products, what it was used for and how it affected Sinclair) the article isn't doing its job. The material is in the page history if someone wants to take it and make a sub-article dealing with low-level technical details. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 14:49, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

ZX Printer Merger proposal
I am proposing to merge ZX Printer into this article. There doesn't seem to be enough material on it to warrant its own article and has a Notability issue due lack of sources. --Macrowiz (talk) 15:38, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

 * I don't think a merge is appropriate here. The printer worked with the Spectrum as well. If it's going to be merged anywhere, a good target is back into spark printer, from whence it came. I think it might be able to stand alone if good references are found though. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 15:39, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

 * I agree that spark printer is a better target since it worked w/ other computers. --Macrowiz (talk) 15:46, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

 * This is still a stub article! The ZX Printer wasn't exclusive to the ZX81 and was a very common peripheral for ZX81 and ZX Spectrum users. Other Sinclair peripherals, like the ZX Interface 1 and ZX Interface 2 have had their own articles for some time now. The Spark printer article is about a particular printing technology; the ZX Printer is a notable example of a printer using this technology. IMHO, these topics can stand alone. Letdorf (talk) 15:54, 25 November 2008 (UTC).
 * The sources recently added are definitely an improvement and establish at least some notability in my view. Proposal withdrawn.   --Macrowiz (talk) 17:52, 25 November 2008 (UTC).   Please also note WP:NOTINHERITED and WP:WAX.  --Macrowiz (talk) 18:06, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

FORTH ROM
I can remember several adverts for ZX81 ROM swaps that improved speed. One that I was interested in (but never had the courage to swap the ROM at the time) was a ROM with a FORTH 'operating system' on it. The advert promised much faster operation and of course the FORTH language which tends to suite computers with few resources. Would such unofficial add-ons or upgrades be appropriate for the ZX81 page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.179.55.186 (talk) 18:25, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Might be related to the Jupiter Ace which should probably be mentioned in the article. 69.111.195.157 (talk) 03:11, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Featured article nomination
I have nominated this article for consideration as a possible featured article - I hope to have it on the Wikipedia home page on 5 March 2011, the 30th anniversary of the ZX81's launch. Please leave your comments at Featured article candidates/ZX81/archive1. Thank you. Prioryman (talk) 21:00, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

Comparisons between ZX81 and other computing devices
I'm somewhat conflicted over this section - I think it's a good idea, yet the list prices are all in dollars, which goes against the UK English article, and most of the other listed machines are primarily American as well.

Does anybody else have any thoughts? a_man_alone (talk) 12:54, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

 * I added that section for two reasons. First, even in the UK, the ZX81's principal competitors were imported American machines, and priced in dollars. Sinclair Research itself cited American competitors (notably the TRS-80) as the ZX81's closest rivals. Second, although the article is written in UK English, we mustn't forget the fact that the US played a very big role in the ZX81's story - from Timex producing it to the hundreds of thousands of ZX81s sold in the US. The comparison table helps to show the relative merits of the ZX81 against its nearest competitors in the US market, which helps to explain why it had as big an impact as it did. Prioryman (talk) 23:24, 26 February 2011 (UTC)

 * This is an interesting point, the currency issue. But I also have a problem with this section; Firstly, why is a phone listed for comparison rather then a more common computing device like a laptop or desktop model eg. something like the Asus EEE, a modern 'budget' device more comparable to this system. And why is a price listed for the Iphone that only seems to be relevant when signing a long term repayment contract with a US phone provider? Wouldn't an outright price for a computing device be more relevant for comparison. Furthermore, why is there no column for release dates? Isn't this an important tool for people comparing the specifications / costs?--Senor Freebie (talk) 03:20, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

 * And why is the BBC Micro omitted? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.174.149.61 (talk) 07:41, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

 * The BBC Micro came after the ZX81. All of the computers listed were competitors of the ZX81 at the time of its launch - they were already on the market, and they were what Sinclair was trying to compete with when the ZX81 was designed. Prioryman (talk) 08:09, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Number of units sold
The infobox claims "More than 1.5 million", citing the Sinclair website. But this interview states "the ZX81 which replaced it cost £69.95 and sold 250,000". Any ideas, anyone? The ZX81 was certainly less popular than the Spectrum, which claims "many millions of units". Any ideas, anyone? --Trevj (talk) 11:23, 23 May 2011 (UTC)
 * The Guardian article is certainly wrong. WHSmith sold over 350,000 ZX81s in the UK alone in a single year. I would definitely be inclined to trust the manufacturer's website more than a newspaper's! Prioryman (talk) 14:24, 23 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Pants. I suppose that means the ZX80 figure could be wrong too. It's not good when newspapers don't check their facts. --Trevj (talk) 14:51, 23 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm afraid it's definitely wrong. The 50,000 unit figure refers to only the first year's sales. The ZX80 sold about 100,000 units in total. I'll add a source to that effect to the ZX80 article. Prioryman (talk) 15:43, 23 May 2011 (UTC)
 * --Trevj (talk) 18:52, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

iphone 4
I'd like to get rid of the iphone 4 from the comparison table. I removed it a couple weeks ago but someone put it back. I don't think we need a modern computer in the table. It comes across as patronizing the reader in my opinion, like putting a comparison of a modern jet aircraft into the article about the 1930's DC-3. If we do have to have a modern computer I suggest the OLPC XO-1 instead of the iphone. While it's a little bit behind the times by now, it's closer to the ZX81's form factor and intended applications, and it's a FOSS design intended for hacking, avoiding turning yet more of Wikipedia into marketing for slick media consumption devices. 69.111.195.157 (talk) 08:19, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I'd like to keep the iPhone in the comparison table. I think we need a modern gadget (not necessarily a computer) in the table for exactly that - a comparison.  Although I do have issues over the use of dollars in the pricing structure, I think that it's best to see how times have changed - what you got then, and what you get now.  The iPhone is pretty much a perfect example of that. This is not about slick marketing, but a comparison of devices old and new.
 * The trouble with using something like the OLPC XO-1 - which I'd never heard of - is exactly that. Never heard of it.  The comparison needs to be a ubiquitous device that everybody knows about - much as the ZX81 was in its day.  Even people who didn't have one, or knew little about computers knew about the ZX81 - much as these days even people who don't have an iPhone (such as myself, for example,) know of the device.   a_man_alone (talk) 09:43, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I don't see why it's necessary to show that times have changed: we all already know that times have changed, which is why I find the inclusion patronizing. I don't see any comparison with a modern car in the Ford Model T article--so why do we need something like that here?  Perhaps you can explain.  I see a mostly-good article about a historical computer that says how many kb of memory it has, its cpu speed in mhz, etc, which is fine.  We all know what those terms mean and we know how many megabytes a modern computer has, and we don't need to be told what we already know.  As for the XO-1, it's basically a netbook of a few years ago (it spawned the netbook genre that started with the Asus EEE PC).  We could describe it that way if it helps; or else just say something like "2011-era netbook computer" without naming a specific model (they are all similar anyway).  Using a phone instead of a computer really doesn't come across very well IMO. I had the alternative idea of looking for a current Sinclair product, but it looks like the company was sold to Amstrad in the 1990's.  Amstrad is still around but is no longer making computers.  69.111.195.157 (talk) 10:26, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I disagree. In fact, I think you have a good idea there - comparing old with the new - I think it would be fascinating to compare the Grandfather of modern cars to one of its n-th generation offspring.  The engine section alone is good reading, comparing a 2.9 20hp four cylinder engine against the current Duratec models.   a_man_alone (talk) 10:40, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Does anybody else have a view about this? My guess is that putting something about the Kuga into the Model T article wouldn't go over too well there, but I could be wrong. 69.111.195.157 (talk) 12:05, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Digressing a bit now, but the Kuga was the first model that came into mind because there happened to be one parked across the road from me as I was typing. It could be the latest American Ford as well, but my knowledge of non-European models is lacking.   a_man_alone (talk) 13:32, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I think the iPhone should be removed. It doesn't show that times have changed because there are no dates given with the items in the table. To evaluate the iPhone against these we would have to look at other modern computers, size, battery consumption, portability. It's completely inappropriate for the table. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.102.116.75 (talk) 12:19, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

I've asked for outside comment at WP:3O. 69.111.195.157 (talk) 19:34, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Third Opinion
Question: Do any reliable sources suggest a comparison between the iphone 4 and whatever computer/phones are compared in the disputed table? If not, then the table is original research and must be removed. See WP:RS and WP:OR.Wikifan12345 (talk) 23:23, 18 June 2011 (UTC)
 * There were tons of published comparisons between the ZX81 and other 1970's-1980's computers at the time when those computers were being made, so there's not any issue about the comparison between the ZX81 and other computers of its era. Including the iphone 4 is more anachronistic.  FWIW, nobody is disputing the factual accuracy of the comparison (it's just observation, not "research").  IMO it's ok to interpret NOR a bit loosely in a situation like that, which leaves an editorial question of whether the comparison helps the article.  I myself think the table is better off without the iphone 4, but was asking what others think.  As stated above, I wouldn't have minded as much if the "modern" device was something closer to the ZX81 in function and spirit. 69.111.195.157 (talk) 01:41, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

I removed the iPhone from the comparison table and will remove it again in a few days. The comparison does not make sense, as this is an article about a single early 80's computer (not about the history of computers), the iPhone is not even a home computer, and the iPhone costs three times as much. If you wish to retain it in the article, please discuss your rationale here with something other than "it is also a computing device". Muad (talk) 08:41, 30 November 2011 (UTC)
 * The cost of the iPhone is, in real terms, comparable to that of the ZX81 when it was launched. Strictly speaking I suppose the closest modern comparator to a ZX81 would be a cheap netbook, but are there any netbooks that are sufficiently iconic to serve as a modern comparison? Prioryman (talk) 22:53, 30 November 2011 (UTC)
 * (Actually, after adjusting for inflation, the iPhone is still two and a half times more expensive.) You're right, a cheap netbook would be a better comparison, but the point is there should be no comparison to modern hardware. It makes no sense, as this article is about the ZX81, not the advancement of electronics since the 1980s. Muad (talk) 10:20, 2 December 2011 (UTC)

Aphex Twin Sound
Should we add that bit about how young Aphex Twin created a sound with the ZX81? Conkern65 (talk) 16:33, 2 December 2011 (UTC)

News reports
I came here to leave a note about ZX81: Small black box of computing desire in the news in 2011. But I see it's already included in #News reports. I know these are all valid refs but shouldn't they be either -- Trevj (talk) 10:12, 6 February 2012 (UTC)
 * 1) Included as inline citations; or
 * 2) Moved out of Article space (e.g. here on the Talk page?

NTSC version
The article claims that the NTSC version of the ZX81/TS100 computers had a different RF modulator and a different ULA. The modulator is indeed different (VHF instead of UHF) but is there any source for the claimed ULA difference? As there's no chroma and no sound, the only difference in the video signal is the number of lines (525 vs. 625) and that is controlled by firmware as this is an extreme bare-bones machine that does some ugly, kludgy things like SLOW mode and executing video memory as programme code. Some ZX81 kits in Canada (distributed at the time by Gladstone Electronics in Toronto for $C150 or $C200 assembled, in 1981 dollars) were the UK version with jumpers on the board configured to indicate NTSC 525-lines to the ULA but use the UK-style UHF RF modulator (there were differences in modulator pinout as the VHF NTSC modulator was switchable between two channels). The UK modulator will work on NTSC UHF 35 or so as there is no colour or sound - so PAL vs. NTSC is reduced to 625 vs. 525 line video as the sole remaining difference. 66.102.83.61 (talk) 17:17, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

Why removal of ZX81 1K hires link?
In tribute to 30 years of ZX81 Dr Beep tried coding a game in 1K RAM with hires. This ended in 2012 in 10 games together.

Never in history was a game coded in hires in just 1K of memory.

This alone makes it part of the history of the ZX81.

In the meantime the Dr has coded 10 new hires games in just 1K. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.171.174.50 (talk) 21:36, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

15kB/16kB RAM packs
There is a statement in the "Features" section of the article that states "Early versions of the external RAM cartridge contained 15 kB of memory using an assortment of memory chips, while later versions contained 16 kB of chips but the lowest addressed kilobyte was disabled."

I have no references to this other than personal memory and the ZX81 circuit diagram and the referenced articles, but my ZX81 RAM pack, ordered in June 1981 and in my hands in July that year had 16kB of memory, and matched the description in the Personal Computer World review written by David Tebbutt referenced as [95] in the article. This was the first review published as far as I know, so must have been an early system. Additionally, my experience showed that rather than the bottom 1KB of the RAM pack being disabled, when it was plugged in, the RAM pack disabled the internal 1KB of memory by connecting the NOT RAM CS pin (pin 8) of the 2114 internal memory chips (or pins 18 and 20 of the 4118), which was on track 2A of the edge connector to the 5V line in the RAM pack. This arrangement can be seen in the scan of ZX81 circuit diagram and the scan of ZX81 16kB RAM pack circuit diagram (sorry, probably neither of these are sufficiently authorititive as a Wikipedia link).

Rather than just editing the article, I wanted to see whether anybody else had any comments on the change. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gatherp (talk • contribs) 17:52, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Moving part!
The USA version of the ZX81 has indeed a channel selector switch on the bottom. You can easily verify this for yourself by grabbing your USA-release ZX81 and flipping it over.

See http://www.zdnet.com/pictures/sinclair-zx81-teardown/6/ for a photo of the bottom of the USA version.

Thanks. Sukiari (talk) 02:44, 3 January 2015 (UTC)

Ref: " The machine had no power switch or any moving parts (with the exception of a channel selector switch present only on early "ZX81 USA" models which pre-dated the Timex-Sinclair 1000)"

I have a Timex Model 1000 with the channel selector switch, so that statement is not correct and I have revised it.

Nkendrick (talk) 18:17, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

only 15kb RAM?
Edited from FaceBook, plot only to 22 lines. What = about 1kb RAM not working? mine OK. 3¼ or 3½ MHz? USA 1s'd 2kb RAM. Also USA 1s'd +1 resistor, which goes to pin of chip to give less top border, so as to fit display to screen, I think the chips =. PAL & NTSC = colour encoding, the fact that 1's 25, & other 30 pictures/2nd & N° of lines = what matters here. 86.145.116.78 (talk) 11:54, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

List of other computers
In fact the very 1st Atari 800 Computers were shipped with 8 or 16 KB memory, expandable to 48 KB. After initial release, the 800 came standard with 48 KB memory. That= normally 48 (the comparable 400'd less).

Some time ref' to pixels = block graphics as on PET & ZX81, & not the N° of pixels used by full line of letters. Pixels for VIC20 =@ start-up, it can do little better. 86.145.116.78 (talk) 12:20, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

kB/KB
This entire article was using "kB" to indicate memory sizes, which is factually wrong, since kB is defined as 1000 bytes. Computers of this era used 1024-byte kilobytes, so all storage references have been corrected to "KB". Clayhalliwell (talk) 18:25, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

On BBC mention of Sinclair incompetence: To be Censured?
This were the detailed text added, to the section The BBC affair:

'''This incompetence was fairly obvious: The ZX80 being a video board that only worked as a computer 1/5 of the time. An hack Clive Sinclair found interesting, though it would mean unnecessarily having 1/5 of a computer. The video generation circuit would be as cheaper the circuits that were needed to keep the hack going. With the ZX81 the ULA would drop the prices while solving the most visible aspects of the hack involved. The comparison BBC made of work/price ratio was not noticed.'''

Also changed the reference to Sinclair as an inventor, a popular mis-conception, being and entrepreneur. This is a difficulty Wikipedia suffers, when items are controlled by people who's not inside a subject, but 'believe' to be. Or is just a fan of a subject, blind with it. Or just what is more common, getting a sense of possession instead of correctness.

A lot of pages do have biased information, sometimes misleading, sometimes plain wrong information. In the case of the ZX-80/81, there is enough information as blueprints, technical information and discussion, also more or less popular media publications clarifying a point.

But nothing is more damaging than censorship to keep an hype or worse, a belief. The reaction is simple: Simple erasure, with a sort of justification. Have seen that years ago, needing a decade to get the information right. Some items will take more than a decade, whatever they are or whatever the field.

Wikipedia is damaged from the inside, with pretensions to 'judge' what one is unable to evaluate (due to technical inability, or to emotional attachment). As a result, wikipedia is considered unreliable as a reference. Even if usually useful...

These may be harsh words, may they need to be stated. Knowledge and Information are not just a matter of fashion, 'belief' nor "printed opinion to reference". The actual functioning of wikipedia may be a reason (for too many)... not to maintain it with contributions. Factor-h (talk) 17:43, 6 March 2016 (UTC)
 * The trouble is that your text, whether in article or talk page, is just incomprehensible. It's almost impossible to ascertain what you mean, and even where it is possible, your text is at odds with what the sources say.  Even if you are correct - which has by no means been ascertained yet - then your text cannot stay because it falls so far short of fluent general English that it, and it alone, would be enough to bring Wikiepdia's reliability into disrepute.  Wikipedia is fully aware of its own shortcomings, and even has an article about it - whether that article is reliable though is of course up for debate.  Chaheel Riens (talk) 17:55, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

 * You are changing "inventor" to "entrepreneur". This is probably more accurate, but the trouble is that this is a direct quote, and the quote said "inventor".
 * You say that content is easily sourced. Yet you haven't sourced it. That means it's unsourced.
 * The wording of the added paragraph is effectively unreadable, the English is so poor. I'm sorry, but this is the English language Wikipedia and content added has to meet basic language standards. This doesn't, and it's so unreadable that it's impractical to copy edit it and improve it.
 * Andy Dingley (talk) 18:05, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

___

Is it a perspective? Here's another, to consider: — Preceding unsigned comment added by Factor-h (talk • contribs) 16:38, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Actually there were 2 references to inventor, one being a quote the other didn't look like one. Quote of opinions are not valid, and should be marked with """ so the text may not be misleading.
 * There are plenty of sources of the several types mentioned. For time reasons they are added later, if a sentence is not obvious enough. There's no need to fill information with spurious references. Most references seen being references to opinions unreferenced. Or text simply being public belief presented as fact (example: "Tape drives" entry, which was erroneous and misleading, based on public view. Now corrected)
 * When a sentence is poorly written (which is easy to happen when editing a text mixed with raw code and references) then there's a chance to correct the poor English to a better one. Exception being it relates to information hard to grasp. This was not the case.

Corrections being needed, erasing is not correcting. If the subject is demanding, contacting the contributer is not only fair but seems the wise thing to do. Unfortunately the ZX-81 gave rise to it's own folklore, some even mention a cult (no references, sorry, not now).

Would agree it's difficult to deal with opinions and beliefs in an open database. Discretion and wiseness are in order. This being a reminder, as we all should contribute to a common goal: Information that is Informative, yet not misleading. (P.S. Also knowing it not to be knowledge, much less wisdom).

Factor-h (talk) 15:55, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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Past tense?
Why is this article introduced in the past-tense? Do none exist any longer? I was under the impression that so long as a product still exists in any form, we are to use the present-tense, like for the NES. — Supuhstar * — 05:09, 4 February 2018 (UTC)
 * You're right; MOS:TENSE dictates present tense for everything except historical action. I've adjusted the lead. — Hugh (talk) 01:10, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

Inconsistent Citation Style
A third of the refs on this article are in sfn, and the rest in ref templates. Citation style should be consistent. Both are longstanding and I suspect sfn was added when working to get this article to good article standard. Before moving any other refs to sfn, however, I wanted to check if anyone has any objection or strong opinions on the article's citation style. Thanks. Sirfurboy🏄 (talk) 09:10, 19 November 2022 (UTC)
 * I loathe the SFN style of footnote/ref. My browsing habit is to right click on a ref and open it in a new tab so I can continue to browse the article and then check the reference separately.  That doesn't work with SFN, and they're harder to navigate - IMO.
 * Have to confess that in my early days of editing I used to just use bare URL references, under the mantra of any ref is better than no ref, but now I'm an ardent supporter of citation templates - and as such would advocate their use over SFN. Chaheel Riens (talk) 09:34, 19 November 2022 (UTC)
 * PS: Also, if "[a] third of the refs on this article are in sfn, and the rest in ref templates" - wouldn't it be better to change the lesser number to citation?  Chaheel Riens (talk) 09:39, 19 November 2022 (UTC)

5 MB HDD peripheral was a hoax
Peripherals and software talks about a 5 MB HDD being on sale for the ZX81.

As per The Museum Of Hoaxes, this was a hoax article published in Byte on April Fool's Day 1982. The article clipping is shown, which reads:

"Responding to an obvious need of ZX81 owners for more data storage space, Hindsight Engineering has developed a 5-megabyte hard-disk system for the Sinclair ZX81. The system is available in either assembled or kit forms. The kit includes instructions for building your own clean room for kit assembly. A DOS will soon be available. For pricing information and a catalog of other products, write to Hindsight Engineering, POB 107.5, Peanutbutter, NH 03458."

I've never heard or seen of a HDD for the ZX81 in my long years knowing the machine. As this is a hoax, with no mention on the internet of a product ever having been seen, I'll remove this text. I don't think it's worth changing the text to talk about a hoax otherwise we could write about all sorts of things that also didn't happen. Better gone and the article slimmed down. ToaneeM (talk) 20:13, 10 August 2023 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:ZX81


text:
Roger Ascham

Roger Ascham (c. 1515 – 30 December 1568) was an English scholar and didactic writer, famous for his prose style, his promotion of the vernacular, and his theories of education. He served in the administrations of Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I, having earlier acted as Elizabeth's tutor in Greek and Latin between 1548 and 1550.

Early life
Ascham was born at Kirby Wiske, a village in the North Riding of Yorkshire, near Northallerton, the third son of John Ascham, steward to Baron Scrope of Bolton. The name Ascham is derived from Askham near York. His mother, Margaret, is said to have come from the Conyers family, but this is speculation. Thomas and John were Roger's two elder brothers, while Anthony Ascham was the youngest son of the Ascham family. The authority for this statement, as for most here concerning Ascham's early life, is his close friend Edward Grant (1540s–1601), headmaster of the venerable and still extant Royal College of St. Peter at Westminster—better known as Westminster School—who collected and edited his letters and delivered a panegyrical oration on his life in 1576.

Education
Ascham was educated at the house of Sir Humphrey Wingfield, a barrister, Ascham tells us, in the Toxophilus under a tutor named R. Bond. His preferred sport was archery, and Sir Humphrey "would at term times bring down from London both bows and shafts and go with them himself to see them shoot". Hence Ascham's earliest English work, the Toxophilus, the importance which he attributed to archery in educational establishments, and probably the reason for archery in the statutes of St Albans, Harrow and other Elizabethan schools.

Through Toxophilus, Ascham sought to teach the art of shooting and present a literary piece with proper English vocabulary. He criticised other English authors for sprinkling foreign terms into their works. Prior to Toxophilus' publication, the bow had been forgotten by the English people with firearms evolving as the prevailing weapons of choice. The book sparked renewed interest in the practice of archery and Ascham was able to present it as an "innocent, salutary, useful, and liberal division". Many recognise the use of the bow as a disciplined skill, requiring more practice than any other instrument of offence.

From this private tuition Ascham was sent "about 1530", at the age, it is said, of fifteen, to St John's College, Cambridge, then the largest and most learned college in either university, where he devoted himself specially to the study of Greek, then newly revived. Equipped with a small knowledge of the Greek language, Ascham went on to read lectures and teach fellow St. John students the language. He believed that the best way to learn a language was by teaching it. Ascham was applauded for his encouragement of Greek learning in the University. In particular, Robert Pember, a fellow student, praised Ascham's lectures and his method of teaching a language in order to learn it. In a letter to Ascham, Pember stated that "he would gain more knowledge by explaining one of Aesop's Fables to a boy, than by hearing one of Homer's poems explained by another". Ascham was then appointed by the University to read Greek at open schools and received payment through honorary stipends. This was monumental for Ascham because at the time, there was no established lecturer of Greek at the University. Here he fell under the influence of Sir John Cheke, who was admitted a fellow in Ascham's first year, and Sir Thomas Smith. Cheke in turn was friendly with Anthony Denny, who was brother-in-law to Kat Ashley, governess to the Lady Elizabeth. His guide and friend was Robert Pember, "a man of the greatest learning and with an admirable ability in the Greek tongue".

He became B.A. in 1533–34, and was nominated to a fellowship at St John's. Nicholas Metcalfe was then master of the college, "a papist, indeed, and if any young man given to the new learning as they termed or went beyond his fellows", he "lacked neither open praise, nor private exhibition". He procured Ascham's election to a fellowship, "though being a new bachelor of arts, I chanced among my companions to speak against the Pope ... after serious rebuke and some punishment, open warning was given to all the fellows, none to be so hardy, as to give me his voice at election." The day of election Ascham regarded as his birthday", and "the whole foundation of the poor learning I have and of all the furtherance that hitherto elsewhere I have been tamed". He took his M.A. degree on 3 July 1537.

He stayed for some time at Cambridge taking pupils, among whom was William Grindal, who in 1544 became tutor to Princess Elizabeth. Thomas Ashton, who was a foundational headmaster of Shrewsbury School, and an influential Tudor dramatist was in the St John's College fellowship at the same time.

In 1540 he sent letters in both Greek and Latin to Edward Lee, the former adversary of Erasmus.

Tutor to Elizabeth I
In January 1548, Grindal, the tutor of princess Elizabeth, died. Ascham, one of the ablest Greek scholars in England, as well as public orator of the university, had already been in correspondence with the princess. In one of Ascham's letters to Katherine Ashley, he enclosed a new pen, as well a pen which he himself mended specifically for princess Elizabeth. Through Cecil, and at the fourteen-year-old princess's own wish, he was selected as her tutor against another candidate, also named Grindal, who was pressed by Admiral Seymour and Queen Catherine. In 1548, Ascham began teaching Elizabeth, future queen of England, in Greek and Latin chiefly at Cheshunt, a job he held until 1550.

On the subject of his experience with Elizabeth's education, Ascham later wrote: "Yea, I beleve, that beside her perfit readines, in Latin, Italian, French, & Spanish, she readeth here now at Windsore more Greeke every day, than some Prebendarie of this Chirch doth read Latin in a whole weeke." Ascham's influence on Elizabeth is suggested by the fact that, for the remainder of her life, she remained an occasional writer of poems, such as "On Monsieur's Departure".

In a letter to Johannes Sturm, the Strassburg schoolmaster, Ascham praised Elizabeth's growth as a student: "She talks French and Italian as well as English: she has often talked to me readily and well in Latin and moderately so in Greek. When she writes Greek and Latin nothing is more beautiful than her handwriting . . . she read with me almost all Cicero and great part of Titus Livius: for she drew all her knowledge of Latin from those two authors. She used to give the morning to the Greek Testament and afterwards read select orations of Isocrates and the tragedies of Sophocles. To these I added St. Cyprian and Melanchthon's Commonplaces."

Secretary to Richard Morrison
In 1550, Ascham had an unspecified quarrel with the court, which he described only as "a storm of recent violence and injury". As a result, Ascham returned to Cambridge. Whilst there, Cheke informed Ascham that he had been appointed secretary to Sir Richard Morrison (Moryson), appointed ambassador to Charles V. It was on his way to join Morrison that he paid visit to Lady Jane Grey at Bradgate, where he found her reading Plato's Phaedo while every one else was out hunting. This final meeting between the two has been a cause of inspiration among many painters and writers as a grandiose romantic moment.

Ascham served in this position for several years, travelling widely on the European continent. The embassy went to Louvain, where he found the university very inferior to Cambridge, then to Innsbruck and Venice. Ascham read Greek with the ambassador Morrison four or five days a week. His letters during the embassy in 1553, which was recalled on Mary's accession, were later published as the Report and Discourse on Germany. The work, which was possibly a history of political turmoil in Germany in the 1550s, is incomplete. Common theories are that the work was either lost, damaged, or left unfinished.

Latin Secretary to Mary I
Ascham's next job was an appointment as Latin Secretary to Mary I. Throughout the first few months he held the position, Ascham was bombarded with a torrent of work, which included countless letters. Through the efforts of Bishop Gardiner on his return to England, this office he likewise discharged to Queen Mary with a pension of £20 a year, and then to Elizabeth—a testimony to his tact and caution in those changeful times.

On 1 June 1554, he married Margaret Harleston, of South Ockendon, Essex, the daughter of Sir Clement Harleston. By her he had at least four sons and three daughters. Ascham was not a rich man, and when marrying Margaret, Ascham had to resign both his College Greek Readership and his University Public Oratorship. Margaret herself brought very little dowry, leaving Ascham to seek help from the connections he had made throughout the years. His relationship with Cardinal Reginald Pole led to Ascham's securing from the queen the reversion of a lease of the manor of Salisbury Hall in Walthamstow, Essex, a manor once owned by Pole's family.

Death
Ascham became fatally ill on 23 December 1568, having just finished a poem of thanks for the blessings Queen Elizabeth I had bestowed on England through her reign. Ascham made his last confession to the parish priest of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, William Gravet, simply saying "I want to die and be with Christ", according to Edward Grant. He died on 30 December 1568, most likely from malaria. Ascham was then buried on 4 January 1569 in St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate, in London.

Publications
Ascham obtained from Edward Lee, then Archbishop of York, a pension of £2 a year, in return for which he translated Oecumenius' Commentaries on the Pauline Epistles but the archbishop, scenting heresy in some passage relating to the marriage of the clergy, sent it back to him.

Toxophilus
Ascham's first published work, Toxophilus ("Lover of the Bow") in 1545, was dedicated to Henry VIII. The objects of the book were twofold, to commend the practice of shooting with the long bow, and to set the example of a higher style of composition than had yet been attempted in English. Ascham presented the book to Henry VIII at Greenwich soon after his return from the capture of Boulogne, and received a grant of a pension of £10 a year. Toxophilus was the first book on archery in English. The work is a Platonic dialogue between Toxophilus and Philologus. Editions were published in 1571, 1589 and 1788, and by Edward Arber in 1868 and 1902.

The Scholemaster
In 1563 Ascham began the work The Scholemaster, published posthumously in 1570, which ensured his later reputation. Richard Sackville, he states in the book's preface, told him that "a fond schoolmaster" had, by his brutality, made him hate learning, much to his loss, and as he had now a young son, whom he wished to be learned, he offered, if Ascham would name a tutor, to pay for the education of their respective sons under Ascham's orders, and invited Ascham to write a treatise on "the right order of teaching". The Scholemaster was the result.

Not a general treatise on educational method, the book concentrates on the teaching of Latin; and it was not intended for schools, but "specially prepared for the private brynging up of youth in gentlemen and noblemens houses". It advocated "the double translation of a model book", the book recommended being Sturmius's Select Letters of Cicero; the method itself was not new. The book's plea for gentleness and persuasion instead of coercion in schools, was contemporary: it was being practised and preached at that time by Christopher Jonson (c. 1536–1597) at Winchester College; and had been repeatedly urged by Erasmus and others. Along with its suggestions for educational practice, Ascham's book includes a famous warning against the dangers of Italy, which he calls "inchantementes of Circes".

The Scholemaster was reprinted in 1571 and 1589. It was edited by James Upton in 1711 and in 1743, by John Eyton Bickersteth Mayor 1863, by Edward Arber in 1870 (reprints in 1888, 1895, 1903, 1910, 1927), by J. Holzamer (Vienna, 1881), and by Henry Morley in 1888 (Cassell's National Library, no. 137; and reprints). In the twentieth century, it was included in series of English classics, in editions for use in schools: Methuen's English Classics (1934, ed. D. C. Whimster), Dent University Paperbacks (1966, ed. R.J. Shoeck), Folger Shakespeare Library (1967, ed. L.V. Ryan).

Correspondence
Ascham's letters were collected and published in 1576, and went through several editions, the last at Nuremberg in 1611. They were re-titled by William Elstob in 1703.

Other works
Report and Discourse of the Affairs and State of Germany 1553 was published by John Daye (1570). Ascham's English works were edited by James Bennett, with a life by Samuel Johnson in 1771, reprinted in 1815. John Allen Giles in 1864–1865 published in 4 vols. select letters from the Toxophilus and Scholemaster and the life by Edward Grant.

Legacy

 * His character Euphues was referred to in Thomas Lodge's Rosalynde, which was the source book for William Shakespeare's As You Like It.
 * Euphues was also referred to by John Lily in his literary work.
 * Ascham School, in Sydney, Australia, is named after Roger Ascham.
 * Roger Ascham Primary School in Walthamstow, London is named after Roger Ascham.
 * Roger Ascham Primary School on Ascham Road in Cambridge, England, which closed in 1987

title: Roger Ascham


text:
Boyce Thompson Arboretum

Boyce Thompson Arboretum is the oldest and largest botanical garden in the state of Arizona. It is one of the oldest botanical institutions west of the Mississippi River. Founded in 1924 as a desert plant research facility and “living museum”, the arboretum is located in the Sonoran Desert on 392 acre along Queen Creek and beneath the towering volcanic remnant, Picketpost Mountain. Boyce Thompson Arboretum is on U.S. Highway 60, an hour's drive east from Phoenix and 3 miles west of Superior, Arizona.

The arboretum has a visitor center, gift shop, research offices, greenhouses, a demonstration garden, picnic area, and a looping 1.5-mile (2.4 km) primary trail that leads visitors through various exhibits and natural areas. The exhibits include a cactus garden, palm and eucalyptus groves, an Australian exhibit, South American exhibit, aloe garden and an herb garden. There are also side trails such as the Chihuahuan Trail, Curandero Trail, and High Trail. Over 2600 species of arid land plants from around the world grow at the arboretum. Agaves, aloes, boojum trees, cork oaks, jujube trees, legume trees, and, in the eucalyptus grove, one of the largest red gum eucalyptus trees ("Mr. Big") in the United States. Cacti and succulents grow extensively throughout the arboretum.

Because the arboretum is a riparian zone, the park attracts Sonoran Desert wildlife and migrating birds. Visitors have seen bobcats, javelinas, coatimundis, rattlesnakes, gila monsters, hawks, hummingbirds, and vultures. 270 bird species have been spotted in the park and the Audubon Society has designated the arboretum as an Important Bird Area.

the arboretum had 5,000 members and attracted over 75,000 people annually.

Plant Collections
The arboretum holds collections of plants from the deserts of the United States, Mexico, Australia, Madagascar, India, China, Japan, Israel, South America, the Middle East, Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Arabian Peninsula. Among these are three nationally accredited plant collections: eucalyptus trees, desert legumes, and southwest oaks.

Eucalyptus Collection
The eucalyptus collection was accredited in 2018. At 93 taxa, it is one of the largest collections in the U.S. and features many trees planted in the 1920s, including "Mr.Big," a Champion Tree.

Desert Legume Collection
The arboretum's desert legume collection is the first primarily seed-based collection accredited by Plant Collections Network. The internationally recognized seed bank of 1,413 species are housed at the University of Arizona in Tucson, while 121 species are grown in field plantings and the Taylor Family Desert Legume Garden at the arboretum.

Oak Collection
In 2012, the arboretum gained accreditation of its collection of oak trees, as well as joining the Plant Collection Network's Quercus Multisite Collection. The Boyce Thompson Arboretum's collection includes oak trees sourced from Arizona, New Mexico, and west Texas in the United States, and Sonora, Chihuahua, and Coahuila in Mexico.

Other Plant Collections of Note
The Australia collection, one of the largest in the United States, contains 39 families, 93 genera, and 321 species of plant. This collection is as old as the arboretum, with the first accessions wild-collected on Australian expeditions and dating back to the early 1920's. Key genera represented include eucalyptus (103 species), acacia (37 species) and melaleuca (15 species).

The ephedra collection is one of the largest collections of New World Ephedra in the world, with 11 of the 12 North American species represented at the arboretum. There are currently 28 taxa, with 69 individual plants/

The aloe collection holds almost half the world's known aloes at 217 species and 817 total plants. Highlight plants in the collection include Aloe helenae, which is an endangered aloe native to Madagascar, as well as Big John, a large unusually colored aloe hybrid in the Wallace collection.

The dudleya collection has recently begun expanding, with 10 species and 24 individual plants currently. Four of these species are listed as vulnerable or locally endanged, as the dudleya are threatened due to habitat loss and poaching.

History
The arboretum was founded by William Boyce Thompson (1869-1930), a mining engineer who made his fortune in the copper mining industry. He was the founder and first president of Inspiration Consolidated Copper Company at Globe-Miami, Arizona and Magma Copper Company in Superior, Arizona. In the early 1920s, Thompson, enamored with the landscape around Superior, built a winter home overlooking Queen Creek. Also in the 1920s, as his fortunes grew, he created and financed the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research in Yonkers, New York (now at Cornell University), and the Boyce Thompson Arboretum on the property of the Picket Post House, west of Superior.

Boyce Thompson wrote: “I have in mind far more than mere botanical propagation. I hope to benefit the State and the Southwest by the addition of new products. A plant collection will be assembled which will be of interest not only to the nature lover and the plant student, but which will stress the practical side, as well to see if we cannot make these mesas, hillsides, and canyons far more productive and of more benefit to mankind. We will bring together and study the plants of the desert countries, find out their uses, and make them available to the people. It is a big job, but we will build here the most beautiful, and at the same time the most useful garden of its kind in the world.” The Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum was established on April 1, 1924, by hiring its first two employees, Dr. Franklin Crider and Frederick Gibson, both from the University of Arizona. Their first project was the construction of two homes that still exist on site, the Crider House and the Gibson House. Propagation buildings were put up in 1925 and by 1926, the Smith Building (administration building) and two connecting greenhouses were built. Ayer Lake was created the same year to help irrigate the lower portion of the park. In 1927, the Boyce Thompson Southwest Arboretum was incorporated, becoming the first non-profit research organization in Arizona. The Arboretum opened to the public on April 6, 1929.

Arboretum Administration – Board of Directors

In 1927, the Board of Directors consisted of Colonel Thompson, Charles F. Ayer (a business associate of the Colonel) and Edward Rice, an attorney from Globe. In 1929, the Directors of Boyce Thompson Institute and the Arboretum were added. Since that time, the Colonel's family has served continuously on the Board and is currently represented by his great-great grandson Dr. Paul Hohenlohe. His business associates have been represented by the son of another associate, William T. Smith, his son, Richard A. Smith and his son-in-law Ian Thompson. Between the three of them, they held Chairmanship of the Board from 1963 to 2000 and 2010 to present. The President of the Boyce Thompson Institute has remained on the Board as well and is currently represented by Dr. David Stern. Since 1976 with the signing of the Tri-Partite Agreement, two members from the University of Arizona and two members from Arizona State Parks also sit on the Board bringing the maximum number of Board members to 20.

The Early Years – 1924–1965

With the hiring of Dr. Franklin Crider and Frederick Gibson on April 1, 1924, from the University of Arizona, the Arboretum was on its way. With the passage of Arizona House Bill 121 on March 7, 1925, it became possible for the Arboretum to incorporate as Arizona's first non-profit research institution on October 5, 1927. Opening to the public in 1929, the future was indeed bright for the Arboretum. With the crash of 1929, subsequent depression, a drought, and the passing of the Colonel in 1930, the Arboretum began to struggle. Dr. Crider left as Managing Director in 1934 and was succeeded by Frederick Gibson. The Picket Post House was sold in 1946 to help cut costs and raise revenues for the Arboretum. Frederick Gibson stayed as Director until his death in 1953. The Colonel's nephew, Joe E. Thompson Jr., became the Managing Director until the agreement with the University of Arizona in 1965.

The Desert Biology Station and University of Arizona Years – 1965–1976

A cooperative agreement was made with the University of Arizona in 1965, and Dr. E. Lendell Cockrum became the 4th Managing Director of the Arboretum. The intent was to reinvigorate the research program at the Arboretum and it was renamed the Desert Biology Station. In addition, Drs. Frank and Carol Crosswhite were added to the staff as Curators of Botany and Zoology. Dr. Cockrum left the Arboretum in 1968 and was replaced by Dr. Vernon Grant. Dr. Grant was succeeded in 1970 by Dr. Robert T. McKittrick who served as the 6th Director until 1984. Dr. McKittrick and Drs. Frank and Carol Crosswhite who retired in 2002 became the bridge between this and the next phase of the Arboretum's development.

The Tri-Partite Years and Arizona State Parks - 1976 to 2019

With the signing of the Tri-Partite Agreement on March 30, 1976, the Arboretum became not only a State Park, but remained a scientific research facility and a non-profit institution. In addition, the Arboretum was listed on the National Register of Historic Places the same year. The Arboretum began publishing the journal Desert Plants in 1979. Dr. McKittrick, who had brought stability to the Arboretum though two transitions, retired in 1984. His replacement, Dr. William Feldman, was to serve for 21 years, the 3rd longest serving Director after Frederick Gibson and Robert McKittrick. Under Dr. Feldman, the face of the Arboretum became what it is today. The Visitor Center, Demonstration Garden, and Legume Garden were completed under his tenure as was the planning for the Children's Garden. Exhibits became more geographically focused and the word “conservation” was added to the mission statement. The Demonstration Garden was developed by Dr. Warren Jones from the University of Arizona and Steve Carter from the Arboretum. The Children's Garden was left for Dr. Mark Bierner to realize during his tenure from 2005 to 2008. In addition, the Picket Post House was purchased by Arizona State Parks in 2008 making the Arboretum whole again.

An example of this Tri-Partite partnership is the University of Arizona/BTA's Desert Legume Program or DELEP. DELEP is one of three U.S. organizations to have its seed bank backed up at the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway and one of three private organizations backed up at the National Center for Plant Genetic Resources in Fort Collins, Colorado. Another example is the Arizona State Parks’ Volunteer program which has allowed the Arboretum to expand its educational and recreational programming.

title: Boyce Thompson Arboretum


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GAP (computer algebra system)

GAP (Groups, Algorithms and Programming) is an open source computer algebra system for computational discrete algebra with particular emphasis on computational group theory.

History
GAP was developed at Lehrstuhl D für Mathematik (LDFM), Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Germany from 1986 to 1997. After the retirement of Joachim Neubüser from the chair of LDFM, the development and maintenance of GAP was coordinated by the School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. In the summer of 2005 coordination was transferred to an equal partnership of four 'GAP Centres', located at the University of St Andrews, RWTH Aachen, Technische Universität Braunschweig, and Colorado State University at Fort Collins; in April 2020, a fifth GAP Centre located at the TU Kaiserslautern was added.

Features
GAP contains a procedural programming language and a large collection of functions to create and manipulate various mathematical objects. It supports integers and rational numbers of arbitrary size, memory permitting. Finite groups can be defined as groups of permutations and it is also possible to define finitely presented groups by specifying generators and relations. Several databases of important finite groups are included. GAP also allows to work with matrices and with finite fields (which are represented using Conway polynomials). Rings, modules and Lie algebras are also supported.

Distribution
GAP and its sources, including packages (sets of user contributed programs), data library (including a list of small groups) and the manual, are distributed freely, subject to "copyleft" conditions. GAP runs on any Unix system, under Windows, and on Macintosh systems. The standard distribution requires about 300 MB (about 400 MB if all the packages are loaded).

The user contributed packages are an important feature of the system, adding a great deal of functionality. GAP offers package authors the opportunity to submit these packages for a process of peer review, hopefully improving the quality of the final packages, and providing recognition akin to an academic publication for their authors. , there are 151 packages distributed with GAP, of which approximately 71 have been through this process.

An interface is available for using the SINGULAR computer algebra system from within GAP. GAP is also included in the mathematical software system SageMath.

title: GAP (computer algebra system)


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Talk:Dragon Ball Z

I dont think Dragon Ball Kai is actually licensed by Crunchyroll/Funimation
Considering its not on either service I do not think its licensed by them unlike the regular Dragon Ball Z.  Is la  🏳⚧ 19:39, 30 November 2023 (UTC)

"I'ma Chargin Mah Lazer" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=I%27ma_Chargin_Mah_Lazer&redirect=no I'ma Chargin Mah Lazer] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached. Rusalkii (talk) 23:19, 24 March 2024 (UTC)

Dragon ball gt mention
I recommend adding a note that dragon ball gt is not a cannon sequal to dragon ball z while dragon ball super is. Vuongdovu (talk) 05:47, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

 * https://screenrant.com/dragon-ball-gt-is-canon-official-timeline/#:~:text=Summary,Super%2C%20and%20Dragon%20Ball%20GT. Vuongdovu (talk) 05:52, 28 March 2024 (UTC)
 * We don't use such terms here. Also, that Screen Rant post is mostly based on WP:SELFPUBLISH and WP:USERG sources. Xexerss (talk) 05:55, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

Kaio-Ken and Spirit Bomb explanation.
"King Kai teaches Goku the Kaio-ken (界王拳, Kaiōken, lit. "Fist of Kings of Worlds") and the Spirit Bomb (元気玉, Genki Dama, lit. "Energy Sphere") techniques". I am going to expand on this sentence to explain what the techniques do.

[https://dragonball.fandom.com/wiki/Kaio-ken#:~:text=The%20technique%20can%20also%20generate,greatly%20increase%20for%20an%20instant. https://dragonball.fandom.com/wiki/Kaio-ken#:~:text=The%20technique%20can%20also%20generate,greatly%20increase%20for%20an%20instant.] Vuongdovu (talk) 05:58, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

 * That's not necessary. It is not the purpose of this site to delve into the lore of the series. Also, Wikis are unreliable WP:USERG sources. I recommend that you first familiarize yourself with Wikipedia's guidelines before continuing to make edits. Xexerss (talk) 06:04, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Dragon Ball Z


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Middle England

The phrase "Middle England" is a socio-political term which generally refers to middle class or lower-middle class people in England who hold traditional conservative or right-wing views.

Origins
The origins of the term "Middle England" are not known. Writer Ian Hislop found evidence of the British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury's using the term in 1882, but it did not gain popularity at the time. Modern popular usage of the phrase has been attributed to Margaret Thatcher who, according to the historian David Cannadine, introduced the expression into political phraseology by adopting Richard Nixon's concept of "Middle America". However, Joe Moran found that, although the concept originated in Thatcherism, the term itself was rarely used by Thatcher, or by national newspapers until the 1990s premiership of John Major.

Modern usage

The primary meaning of the term is now a political or sociological one (as is also the case for the term "Middle America" or "Middle Australia"). It principally indicates the middle classes or lower-middle classes of non-urban Britain, but also carries connotations of "Deep England". John Major's 1993 speech to the Conservative Group for Europe is often cited, evoking romantic imagery of rural cricket matches, warm beer, suburban gardens, and "old maids bicycling to Holy Communion through the morning mist" (itself based on a quote from George Orwell).

Although Middle England does not refer to a geographical region, it may be understood to refer to the inhabitants of suburbs in the South of England and the Midlands, typified by the small towns that make up "Metro-Land", the suburban areas north-west of London that are served by London Underground's Metropolitan line. The BBC described the Kent town of Tunbridge Wells as the "spiritual home" of Middle England, with particular reference to the popular characterisation of "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells", the pseudonym of an imaginary, incensed letter-writer. Emphasising its lack of geographical location, the writer Nick Inman likened Middle England to J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth: "We know everything about it except where it is".

The term is used by journalists to refer to the presumed views of mainstream English and to a lesser extent British people, as opposed to minorities of all types (the rich or the poor, ethnic minorities, gays, lesbians and bisexuals, the politically active, the intelligentsia, etc.). In particular, it is increasingly used to denote the more right-wing views of those who are not in such minorities. The phrase "Middle England" may be regarded by some as interchangeable with "Middle Britain", particularly with reference to political campaigns that seek to include middle-class voters in Scotland and Wales, but commentators such as Cannadine have assessed it as a designation specific to a segment of England, not Britain as a whole. John Major's 1993 speech has been noted for its culturally selective evocation of Britain, omitting inner cities, football, people who are unemployed, coal mines, Muslims, and the other Constituent Countries of the United Kingdom.

People who belong to the Middle England grouping are typically said to be white, middle class or lower-middle class, heterosexual, with a strong work ethic and a highly developed sense of conscientiousness. They may typically read the Daily Mail, a popular British newspaper known for its conservative editorial bias, and are also sometimes referred to as the "silent majority" or "moral majority" in the British media.

In politics
In British politics, Middle England is considered as a grouping to be especially important because of its potential to swing the results of United Kingdom general elections; according to the polling company MORI, Middle England is said to make up 25% of the UK population, its members are not devoted to any particular party and may be swayed by successful political campaigning, and many live in marginal constituencies. Middle England was also considered to be a major force in the vote to leave the European Union during the 2016 European Union membership referendum.

Other institutions
Members of the Countryside Alliance may be considered to be typical of Middle England, while members of the Women's Institute have been described as "the backbone of Middle England".

Related terms
Other demographic personas associated with Middle England include "Mondeo Man" (a term attributed to Tony Blair which describes a middle-class floating voter who owns a Ford Mondeo); "Worcester woman" (a provincial voter with little actual political awareness); "Essex Man" (an aspirational lower-middle-class voter from Essex); and "Pebbledash people" (a term coined by ICM Research to describe married white collar couples who live in semi-detached houses covered in pebbledash).

title: Middle England


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William Paget, 1st Baron Paget

William Paget, 1st Baron Paget of Beaudesert (1506 – 9 June 1563), was an English statesman and accountant who held prominent positions in the service of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I.

Early life
He was the son of John Pachett or Paget, one of the serjeants-at-mace of the city of London. He was born in Staffordshire in 1506, and was educated at St Paul's School when William Lily was its headmaster, and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, proceeding afterwards to the University of Paris. At St Paul's, he befriended the future antiquary John Leland and later acted as one of his benefactors.

Political career
He served as Member of Parliament for Lichfield in 1529 and for Middlesex in 1545.

Probably through the influence of Stephen Gardiner, who had early befriended Paget, he was employed by King Henry VIII in several important diplomatic missions; in 1532 he was appointed Clerk of the Signet and soon afterwards of the privy council. He became secretary to Anne of Cleves in 1539 and was appointed Clerk of the Parliaments on 15 July 1541, although it seems likely that he never discharged the duties of this office in person, but rather through others. In April 1543 he was sworn of the privy council and appointed secretary of state, in which position Henry VIII relied on his advice, at last appointing him one of the council to act during the minority of King Edward VI.

Paget at first vigorously supported the protector Somerset, while counselling a moderation which Somerset did not always observe. Paget would go on to become increasingly alienated from the Duke, reaching out to him in a series of letters from February 1548 in which he tried to persuade Somerset to take others' opinions into consideration. He blamed Somerset's dictatorial style and foolish attempts to help the poor for the Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549. In 1547 he was made controller of the king's household, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, elected knight of the shire (MP) for Staffordshire and made a knight of the Garter; and in 1549 he was summoned by writ to the House of Lords as Baron Paget de Beaudesert (at which point he ceased to be the Clerk of the Parliaments ). About the same time he obtained extensive grants of lands, including Cannock Chase and Burton Abbey in Staffordshire, in London the residence of the bishops of Exeter, afterwards known successively as Lincoln House and Essex House, on the site now occupied by the Outer Temple in the London, and also in 1547 he was granted the lordship and manor of Harmondsworth. He obtained Beaudesert in Staffordshire, which remained the chief seat of the Paget family.

Paget shared Somerset's disgrace, being committed to the Tower in 1551 and degraded from the Order of the Garter in the following year, besides suffering a heavy fine by the Star Chamber for having profited at the expense of the Crown in his administration of the duchy of Lancaster. He was, however, restored to the king's favour in 1553, and was one of the twenty-six peers who signed Edward's settlement of the crown on Lady Jane Grey in June of that year. He made his peace with Queen Mary I, who reinstated him as a knight of the Garter and in the privy council in 1553, and appointed him Lord Privy Seal in 1556. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth I in 1558, Paget retired from public life.

Descendants
By his wife Anne Preston, Paget had four sons and five daughters.

Sons:

 * 1) Henry (c.1539 – 28 December 1568)
 * 2) Thomas (c.1540–1589)
 * 3) Charles
 * 4) Edward (died young)

Daughters:

 * 1) Etheldreda, who married Sir Christopher Allen
 * 2) Eleanor, who married firstly, Jerome Palmer, esquire, and secondly, Sir Rowland Clarke
 * 3) Grisold, who married firstly, Sir Thomas Rivett, and secondly, Sir William Waldegrave
 * 4) Joan (or Jane), who married Sir Thomas Kitson
 * 5) Dorothy, who married Sir Thomas Willoughby (died 1559)
 * 6) Anne (died 1590), who married Sir Henry Lee.

Paget's two eldest sons, Henry and Thomas, succeeded in turn to the peerage. Henry was raised to the peerage as Baron Burton during his father's lifetime. Charles was a well-known Catholic conspirator during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I; Thomas was suspected of complicity in Charles's plots and was attainted in 1587.

title: William Paget, 1st Baron Paget


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William Rankine

William John Macquorn Rankine (5 July 1820 – 24 December 1872) was a Scottish mathematician and physicist. He was a founding contributor, with Rudolf Clausius and William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), to the science of thermodynamics, particularly focusing on its First Law. He developed the Rankine scale, a Fahrenheit-based equivalent to the Celsius-based Kelvin scale of temperature.

Rankine developed a complete theory of the steam engine and indeed of all heat engines. His manuals of engineering science and practice were used for many decades after their publication in the 1850s and 1860s. He published several hundred papers and notes on science and engineering topics, from 1840 onwards, and his interests were extremely varied, including, in his youth, botany, music theory and number theory, and, in his mature years, most major branches of science, mathematics and engineering.

He was an enthusiastic amateur singer, pianist and cellist who composed his own humorous songs.

Life
Rankine was born in Edinburgh to Lt David Rankin (sic), a civil engineer from a military background, who later worked on the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway (locally known as the Innocent Railway). His mother was Barbara Grahame, of a prominent legal and banking family.

His father moved around Scotland on various projects and the family moved with him. William was initially educated at home but he later attended Ayr Academy (1828–29) and then the High School of Glasgow (1830). Around 1830 the family moved to Edinburgh when the father got a post as Manager of the Edinburgh to Dalkeith Railway. The family then lived at 2 Arniston Place.

In 1834 he was sent to the Scottish Naval and Military Academy on Lothian Road in Edinburgh with the mathematician George Lee. By that year William was already highly proficient in mathematics and received, as a gift from his uncle, Isaac Newton's Principia (1687) in the original Latin.

In 1836, Rankine began to study a spectrum of scientific topics at the University of Edinburgh, including natural history under Robert Jameson and natural philosophy under James David Forbes. Under Forbes he was awarded prizes for essays on methods of physical inquiry and on the undulatory (or wave) theory of light. During vacations, he assisted his father who, from 1830, was manager and, later, effective treasurer and engineer of the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway which brought coal into the growing city. He left the University of Edinburgh in 1838 without a degree (which was not then unusual) and, perhaps because of straitened family finances, became an apprentice to Sir John Benjamin Macneill, who was at the time surveyor to the Irish Railway Commission. During his pupilage he developed a technique, later known as Rankine's method, for laying out railway curves, fully exploiting the theodolite and making a substantial improvement in accuracy and productivity over existing methods. In fact, the technique was simultaneously in use by other engineers – and in the 1860s there was a minor dispute about Rankine's priority.

The year 1842 also marked Rankine's first attempt to reduce the phenomena of heat to a mathematical form but he was frustrated by his lack of experimental data. At the time of Queen Victoria's visit to Scotland, later that year, he organised a large bonfire situated on Arthur's Seat, constructed with radiating air passages under the fuel. The bonfire served as a beacon to initiate a chain of other bonfires across Scotland.

In 1850 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposer being Prof James David Forbes. He won the Society's Keith Prize for the period 1851–53. He served as the Society's Vice President from 1871 to 1872.

From 1855 he was Professor of Civil Engineering and Mechanics at Glasgow University.

He died at 8 Albion Crescent (now called Dowanside Road), Dowanhill, Glasgow at 11:45pm on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1872, aged only 52. He was unmarried and had no children. His death was registered by his uncle, Alex Grahame (his late mother's brother in law).

Thermodynamics
Undaunted, Rankine returned to his youthful fascination with the mechanics of the heat engine. Though his theory of circulating streams of elastic vortices whose volumes spontaneously adapted to their environment sounds fanciful to scientists formed on a modern account, by 1849, he had succeeded in finding the relationship between saturated vapour pressure and temperature. The following year, he used his theory to establish relationships between the temperature, pressure and density of gases, and expressions for the latent heat of evaporation of a liquid. He accurately predicted the surprising fact that the apparent specific heat of saturated steam would be negative.

Emboldened by his success, in 1851 he set out to calculate the efficiency of heat engines and used his theory as a basis to deduce the principle, that the maximum efficiency possible for any heat engine is a function only of the two temperatures between which it operates. Though a similar result had already been derived by Rudolf Clausius and William Thomson, Rankine claimed that his result rested upon his hypothesis of molecular vortices alone, rather than upon Carnot's theory or some other additional assumption. The work marked the first step on Rankine's journey to develop a more complete theory of heat. In 1853, he coined the term potential energy.

Rankine later recast the results of his molecular theories in terms of a macroscopic account of energy and its transformations. He defined and distinguished between actual energy which was lost in dynamic processes and potential energy by which it was replaced. He assumed the sum of the two energies to be constant, an idea already, although surely not for very long, familiar in the law of conservation of energy. From 1854, he made wide use of his thermodynamic function which he later realised was identical to the entropy of Clausius. By 1855, Rankine had formulated a science of energetics which gave an account of dynamics in terms of energy and its transformations rather than force and motion. This article presents the first published definition of energy in terms of capacity for performing work, which quickly became the standard general definition of energy. The theory was very influential in the 1890s. In 1859 he proposed the Rankine scale of temperature, an absolute or thermodynamic scale whose degree is equal to a Fahrenheit degree. In 1862, Rankine expanded Lord Kelvin’s theory of universal heat death and, along with Kelvin himself, formulated the heat death paradox, which disproves the possibly of an infinitely old universe.

Energetics offered Rankine an alternative, and rather more mainstream, approach, to his science and, from the mid-1850s, he made rather less use of his molecular vortices. Yet he still claimed that Maxwell's work on electromagnetics was effectively an extension of his model. And, in 1864, he contended that the microscopic theories of heat proposed by Clausius and James Clerk Maxwell, based on linear atomic motion, were inadequate. It was only in 1869 that Rankine admitted the success of these rival theories. By that time, his own model of the atom had become almost identical with that of Thomson.

As was his constant aim, especially as a teacher of engineering, he used his own theories to develop a number of practical results and to elucidate their physical principles including:

 * The Rankine–Hugoniot equation for propagation of shock waves, governs the behaviour of shock waves normal to the oncoming flow. It is named after physicists Rankine and the French engineer Pierre Henri Hugoniot;
 * The Rankine cycle, an analysis of an ideal heat-engine with a condensor. Like other thermodynamic cycles, the maximum efficiency of the Rankine cycle is given by calculating the maximum efficiency of the Carnot cycle;
 * Properties of steam, gases and vapours.

The history of rotordynamics is replete with the interplay of theory and practice. Rankine first performed an analysis of a spinning shaft in 1869, but his model was not adequate and he predicted that supercritical speeds could not be attained.

Fatigue studies
Rankine was one of the first engineers to recognise that fatigue failures of railway axles was caused by the initiation and growth of brittle cracks. In the early 1840s he examined many broken axles, especially after the Versailles train crash of 1842 when a locomotive axle suddenly fractured and led to the death of over 50 passengers. He showed that the axles had failed by progressive growth of a brittle crack from a shoulder or other stress concentration source on the shaft, such as a keyway. He was supported by similar direct analysis of failed axles by Joseph Glynn, where the axles failed by slow growth of a brittle crack in a process now known as metal fatigue. It was likely that the front axle of one of the locomotives involved in the Versailles train crash failed in a similar way. Rankine presented his conclusions in a paper delivered to the Institution of Civil Engineers. His work was ignored however, by many engineers who persisted in believing that stress could cause "re-crystallisation" of the metal, a myth which has persisted even to recent times. The theory of recrystallisation was quite wrong, and inhibited worthwhile research until the work of William Fairbairn a few years later, which showed the weakening effect of repeated flexure on large beams. Nevertheless, fatigue remained a serious and poorly understood phenomenon, and was the root cause of many accidents on the railways and elsewhere. It is still a serious problem, but at least is much better understood today, and so can be prevented by careful design.

Other work
Rankine served as Regius Professor of Civil Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Glasgow from November 1855 until his death in December 1872, pursuing engineering research along a number of lines in civil and mechanical engineering.

Rankine was instrumental in the formation of the forerunner of Glasgow University Officer Training Corps, the 2nd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteer Corps at Glasgow University in July 1859, becoming Major in 1860 after it was formed into the first company of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteer Corps; he served until 1864, when he resigned due to pressure of work – much of it associated with Naval Architecture.

Civil engineering
The Rankine Lectures, organised by the British Geotechnical Association, are named in recognition of the significant contributions Rankine made to:
 * Forces in frame structures;
 * Soil mechanics; most notably in lateral earth pressure theory and the stabilization of retaining walls. The Rankine method of earth pressure analysis is named after him.

Naval architecture
Rankine worked closely with Clyde shipbuilders, especially his friend and lifelong collaborator James Robert Napier, to make naval architecture into an engineering science. He was a founding member, and first President of the Institution of Engineers & Shipbuilders in Scotland in 1857. He was an early member of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (founded 1860) and attended many of its annual meetings. With William Thomson and others, Rankine was a member of the board of enquiry into the controversial sinking of HMS Captain.

Awards and honours

 * Fellow of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts
 * Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1843 (he was never a full Member)
 * Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1850
 * Fellow of the Royal Society of London, 1853
 * Keith Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1854
 * Founding President of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, 1857
 * LL.D. from Trinity College, Dublin, 1857
 * Foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 1868
 * The Rankine absolute Fahrenheit scale is named in his honour.
 * Rankine, a small impact crater near the eastern limb of the Moon, is also named in his honour.
 * In 2013 he was one of four inductees to the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame.

Publications

 * Books
 * Manual of Applied Mechanics (1858)
 * Manual of the Steam Engine and Other Prime Movers (1859)
 * Manual of Civil Engineering (1861)
 * Shipbuilding, theoretical and practical (1866)
 * Manual of Machinery and Millwork (1869)

 * Papers
 * On the Mechanical Action of Heat, especially in Gases and Vapours (1850), read at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 4 February 1850
 * On the General Law of Transformation of Energy (1853), read at the Glasgow Philosophical Society
 * On the Thermodynamic Theory of Waves of Finite Longitudinal Disturbance (1869)
 * Outlines of the Science of Energetics (1855), read at the Glasgow Philosophical Society
 * This work influenced French physicist Pierre Duhem's Traité de l'énergétique (1911) in which he considered thermodynamics, not classical mechanics, to be the more fundamental theory.

 * About Rankine

title: William Rankine