text:
I-400-class submarine

The I-400-class submarine (伊四百型潜水艦) Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) submarines were the largest submarines of World War II and remained the largest ever built until the construction of nuclear ballistic missile submarines in the 1960s. The IJN called this type of submarine Sentoku type submarine (潜特型潜水艦). The type name was shortened to Toku-gata Sensuikan (特型潜水艦). They were submarine aircraft carriers able to carry three Aichi M6A Seiran aircraft underwater to their destinations. They were designed to surface, launch their planes, then quickly dive again before they were discovered. They also carried torpedoes for close-range combat.

The I-400 class was designed with the range to travel anywhere in the world and return. A fleet of 18 boats was planned in 1942, and work started on the first in January 1943 at the Kure, Hiroshima arsenal. Within a year the plan was scaled back to five, of which only three (I-400 at Kure, and JAPANESE SUBMARINE I-401 and I-402 at Sasebo) were completed.

Origins
The I-400 class was the brainchild of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he conceived the idea of taking the war to the United States mainland by making aerial attacks against cities along the U.S. western and eastern seaboards using submarine-launched naval aircraft. He commissioned Captain Kameto Kuroshima to make a feasibility study.

Yamamoto submitted the resulting proposal to Fleet Headquarters on 13 January 1942. It called for 18 large submarines capable of making three round-trips to the west coast of the United States without refueling or one round-trip to any point on the globe. They also had to be able to store and launch at least two attack aircraft armed with one torpedo or 800 kg bomb. By 17 March, general design plans for the submarines were finalized. Construction of I-400 commenced at Kure Dock Yards on 18 January 1943, and four more boats followed: I-401 (April 1943) and I-402 (Oct 1943) at Sasebo; I-403 (Sept 1943) at Kobe and I-404 (February 1944) at Kure. Only three were completed.

Following Yamamoto's death in April 1943, the number of aircraft-carrying submarines to be built was reduced from eighteen to nine, then five and finally three. Only I-400 and I-401 actually entered service; I-402 was completed on 24 July 1945, five weeks before the end of the war, but never made it to sea.

Design features and equipment

Each submarine had four 1680 kW engines and carried enough fuel to go around the world one-and-a-half times—more than enough to reach the United States travelling east or west. Measuring more than 120 m long overall, they displaced 5900 tonne, more than double their typical American contemporaries. The cross-section of its pressure hull had a unique figure-of-eight shape which afforded the necessary strength and stability to handle the weight of a large on-deck aircraft hangar. To allow stowage of three aircraft along the vessel's centreline, the conning tower was offset to port.

Located approximately amidships on the top deck was a cylindrical watertight aircraft hangar, 31 m long and 3.5 m in diameter. The outer access door could be opened hydraulically from within or manually from the outside by turning a large hand-wheel connected to a rack and spur gear. The door was made waterproof with a 51 mm rubber gasket.

Situated atop the hangar were three waterproofed Type 96 triple-mount 25 mm autocannon for AA defence, two aft and one forward of the conning tower. A single 25 mm autocannon on a pedestal mount was also located just aft the bridge. One Type 11, 140 mm deck gun was positioned aft of the hangar. It had a range of 15 km.

Eight torpedo tubes were mounted in the bow, four above and four below. There were no aft tubes.

Stowed in an open recessed compartment on the forward port side, just below top deck, was a collapsible crane used to retrieve the submarine's Seiran floatplanes. The crane had an electrically operated hoist and was capable of lifting approximately 4.5 tonne. It was raised mechanically to a height of 8 m via a motor inside the boat. The boom extended out to a length of 11.8 m.

A special trim system was fitted to the boats, allowing them to loiter submerged and stationary while awaiting the return of their aircraft. However, operation of this system was noisy and its usefulness was in doubt.

Strung along the submarine's gunwales were two parallel sets of demagnetization cables, running from the stern to the bow planes. They were meant to protect against magnetic mines, by nullifying the magnetic field which normally triggers the mines fusing system. A similar demagnetizing system was carried on many Japanese surface ships during the first part of the war, until they were later removed during refitting.

Electronics on board the I-400s included a Mark 3 Model 1 air search radar equipped with two separate antennas. This unit was capable of detecting aircraft out to a range of 80 km. The boats were also equipped with Mark 2 Model 2 air/surface radar sets with distinctive horn-shaped antennas. Each boat carried an E27 radar warning receiver, connected to both a trainable dipole antenna and a fixed non-directional antenna made up of a wire mesh basket and two metal rods.

The submarines were equipped with two periscopes of German manufacture, about 12.2 m long, one for use during daylight and the other at night.

A special anechoic coating made from a mixture of gum, asbestos, and adhesives was applied to the hulls from the waterline to the bilge keel. This coating was apparently based on German research, though completely different in composition from German anechoic tiles such as Alberich or Tarnmatte. This was intended to absorb or diffuse enemy sonar pulses and dampen reverberations from the boat's internal machinery, theoretically making detection while submerged more difficult, though its effectiveness was never conclusively established.

In May 1945, I-401 was fitted with a German-supplied snorkel, a hydraulically raised air intake device allowing the boat to run its diesel engines and recharge its batteries while remaining at periscope depth. This retrofit occurred while the boat was laid up at Kure for repairs after being damaged by an American mine in April.

I-402 was completed shortly before the war ended, but had been converted during building to a tanker and was never equipped with aircraft.

Characteristics
The I-400-class subs were unwieldy and relatively difficult to maneuver while surfaced owing to their small rudders. The large superstructure also caused the sub to veer off course during any strong wind. The maximum safe diving depth of the I-400-class submarine was only 82% of its overall length, which presented problems if the submarine dived at too steep an angle in an emergency. Because of their large aircraft hangars and conning tower, all I-400-class boats had significant visual and radar signatures on the surface, and could be detected by aircraft relatively easily. Dive time was 56 seconds, nearly double that of U.S. fleet subs, which made the boats easier to destroy from the air when caught on the surface.

When submerged and traveling at a slow speed of two knots, the offset superstructure forced the helmsman to steer seven degrees starboard in order to steer a straight course. When conducting a torpedo attack the captain had to take into account his larger turning circle to starboard than to port, again because of the offset design. Like other Japanese submarines, crew members in I-400 subs had no air conditioning to control temperatures in tropic waters and no flush toilets. Lack of cold storage greatly limited the crew's diet, while inadequate sleeping quarters forced some of the crew to sleep on the decks or in passageways.

Aircraft

The hangar of the I-400s was originally designed to hold two aircraft. In 1943, however, Commander Yasuo Fujimori, Submarine Staff Officer of the Naval General Staff, requested it be enlarged. This was deemed feasible and, as remodelled, I-400s could stow up to three Aichi M6A Seiran floatplanes.

The Seiran was specifically designed for use aboard the submarines and could carry an 800 kg bomb 1000 km at 475 km/h. To fit inside the narrow confines of the hangar, the floats were removed and stowed, the wings rotated 90 degrees and folded backward hydraulically against the fuselage, the horizontal stabilizers folded down and the top of the vertical stabilizer folded over so the overall forward profile of the aircraft was within the diameter of its propeller. When deployed for flight, the aircraft had a wingspan of 12 m and a length of 11.6 m. A crew of four could prepare and launch all three in 30 minutes (or 15 minutes if the planes' pontoons were not first attached, which would make recovery impossible). As the Seiran would normally be launched at night, parts and areas of the plane were coated with luminescent paint to ease assembly in the dark.

The Seirans were launched from a 26 m Type 4 No. 2 Model 10 compressed-air catapult on the forward deck of the submarine. Underneath the catapult track were four high-pressure air flasks connected in parallel to a piston. The aircraft, mounted atop collapsible carriages via catapult attachment points along their fuselages, would be slung 70–75 feet along the track, though the piston itself only moved between eight and ten feet during operation.

Two sets of pontoons for the Seirans were stored in special watertight compartments located just below the main deck on either side of the catapult track. From there they could be quickly slid forward on ramps and attached to the plane's wings. A third set of pontoons and additional spares were kept inside the hangar.

The aircraft were to be launched by catapult, and fly their missions. The launching submarine was to submerge and stay in place to allow the aircraft to navigate back to the area by dead reckoning, where it would land on the water with its floats, and be hoisted back aboard by crane. Overall the system was the same as used by Japanese Navy cruisers and light cruisers when launching their reconnaissance floatplanes (like the Aichi E13A), only with aircraft specially designed for use with the I-400 class submarine, and with the added complexity of having to locate a submerged and hidden vessel on return from the mission.

Although this was the typical mode of operation, in cases where fast launching and recovery was essential for escape (see below), the floatplanes could be launched without their floats, and ditched upon landing, saving the time spent recovering and re-hangaring the aircraft, which was a complex and lengthy procedure. This had the added benefit of eliminating the weight and considerable drag of the large and bulky floats, which in turn increased the speed and range of the aircraft, but made any recovery of the aircraft after completing the mission impossible. (For a similar defensive measure involving catapult-launched, disposable aircraft used by Allied convoy groups in the Battle of the Atlantic, see CAM ship.) In extreme circumstances, the aircraft could theoretically be launched and abandoned altogether while the submarine beat a hasty retreat, leaving the crews to fly their missions with no hope of return, perhaps as a kamikaze mission.

Operational history
As the war turned against the Japanese and their fleet no longer had free rein in the Pacific, the Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, devised a daring plan to attack New York, Washington D.C., and other large American cities.

Panama Canal strike
Following an inspection of Rabaul in August 1943, Captain Chikao Yamamoto and Commander Yasuo Fujimori conceived the idea of using the sen toku (secret submarine attack) to destroy the locks of the Panama Canal in an attempt to cut American supply lines to the Pacific Ocean and hamper the transfer of U.S. ships. Intelligence gathering on the proposed target began later that year.

The Japanese were well aware that American fortifications existed on both sides of the Canal. On the Atlantic, the large coastal artillery batteries of Fort Sherman had a range of 30,000 yards (17 mi), preventing enemy ships from getting near enough to shell the locks. In the months following the attack on Pearl Harbor, air and sea patrols had been strengthened around both entrances, and barrage balloons and anti-submarine nets erected. In August 1942, the 88th Coast (Anti-Aircraft) Artillery unit was added to help defend against aerial attacks.

As the war continued and Japan's fortunes declined, however, security around the Canal grew increasingly lax. In January 1944 Commander Fujimori personally interviewed an American prisoner-of-war who had done guard duty there. He told Fujimori that defensive air patrols had virtually ceased, since it was considered increasingly unlikely the Axis powers would ever attack the locks. This further convinced Fujimori of his plan's feasibility.

A Japanese engineer who had worked on the Canal during its construction handed over hundreds of documents to the Naval General Staff, including blueprints of the Canal structures and construction methods. A team of three shipping engineers studied the documents and concluded that the locks at Miraflores on the Pacific side were the most vulnerable to aerial bombing, but the Gatun locks on the Atlantic side offered a chance of causing greater damage, since it would be harder to halt any outflow of water. They estimated the Canal would be unusable for at least six months following a successful attack on the locks.

To increase the size of the airborne attack force, Commander Fujimori requested that two additional fleet submarines still under construction at Kobe, I-13 and I-14, be modified to house two Seirans each, bringing the total number of planes available to ten. It was originally planned that two of the Seirans would carry torpedoes and the other eight would carry 800 kg bombs. They were to make a combined torpedo and glide-bombing attack against the Gatun Locks. Eventually though, torpedo-bombing was dispensed with, because only one Seiran pilot had mastered the technique.

The Panama Canal strike plan called for four aircraft-carrying submarines (I-400, I-401, I-13 and I-14) to sail eastward across the Pacific to the Gulf of Panama, a journey expected to take two months. At a point 185 km off the coast of Ecuador, the submarines would launch their Seiran aircraft at 0300hrs on a moonlit night. The Seirans, without floats, would fly at an altitude of 4000 m across the northern coast of Colombia to the vicinity of Colón. Now on the Caribbean side of the isthmus, they would turn westward on a heading of 270 degrees, then angle south-west and make their final approach to the Canal locks at dawn. After completing their bombing runs, the Seirans were to return to a designated rendezvous point and ditch alongside the waiting submarines where the aircrews would be picked up.

Around April 1945, Captain Ariizumi, the man appointed to carry out the attack, decided the Seiran pilots would make kamikaze ramming attacks against the gates, rather than conventional bombing runs, a tactic becoming increasingly common as the war went against the Japanese. The Seiran squadron leader had already suggested as much to Ariizumi earlier that month, though for a time this was kept secret from the other pilots. At the end of May, however, one pilot happened to observe a Seiran having its bomb-release mechanism removed and replaced with a fixed mount. Realizing the implications of this change, he angrily confronted the executive officer of the squadron, who explained that the decision to withhold this intention from the other men was made to "avoid mental pressures on the aircrews."

By 5 June 1945, all four aircraft-carrying submarines had arrived at Nanao Wan where a full-scale wooden model of the Gatun Locks gate had been built by the Maizuru Naval Arsenal, placed on a raft and towed into the bay. The following night, formal training commenced with the Seiran flight crews practising rapid assembly, catapult launch and recovery of their aircraft. There was also rudimentary formation flying. From 15 June the Seiran pilots made practice daylight bombing runs against the wooden gate mock-up. By 20 June, all training ended and the operation was set to proceed.

Ulithi atoll
Before the attack could commence, Okinawa fell, and word reached Japan that the Allies were preparing an assault on the Japanese home islands. The Japanese Naval General Staff concluded the Panama Canal attack would have little impact on the war's outcome, and more direct and immediate action was necessary to stem the American advance.

Fifteen American aircraft carriers had assembled at the Ulithi atoll, preparatory to making a series of raids against the home islands. The Japanese mission was changed to an attack on the Ulithi base.

The attack on Ulithi Atoll was to take place in two phases. The first, codenamed Hikari (light), involved transporting four C6N Saiun (Myrt) single-engined high-speed reconnaissance planes to Truk Island. They were to be disassembled, crated and loaded into the water-tight hangars of submarines I-13 and I-14. Upon reaching Truk, the Saiuns would be unloaded, reassembled and then flown over Ulithi to confirm the presence of American carriers anchored there. Following the delivery, I-13 and I-14 were to sail for Hong Kong, where they would embark four Seiran attack planes. They would then head to Singapore and join I-400 and I-401 for further operations.

The second phase of the Ulithi attack was codenamed Arashi (storm). I-400 and I-401 were to rendezvous at a predetermined point on the night of 14/15 August. On 17 August they would launch their six Seirans before daybreak on a kamikaze mission against the American carriers. The Seirans, each with an 800 kg bomb bolted to its fuselage, were to fly less than 50 m above the water to avoid radar detection and the American fighters expected to be patrolling 4000 m above.

Just before departing Maizuru Naval Station, the Seirans were completely over-painted in silver with American stars and bars insignias covering the red Hinomarus, a direct violation of the rules of war. This was an attempt to further confuse recognition if the aircraft were prematurely spotted, but it was not well received by the pilots. Some felt it was both unnecessary and a personal insult to fly under American markings, as well as dishonorable to the Imperial Navy.

Following the attack on Ulithi, I-400 and I-401 would sail for Hong Kong. There they would take on six more Seirans and sail for Singapore, where fuel oil was more readily available. They would then join I-13 and I-14 and stage further attacks with a combined force of ten Seiran aircraft.

On 22 June, I-13 and I-14 arrived at Maizuru Harbor to take on fuel. They reached Ominato on 4 July to pick up their Saiun reconnaissance aircraft. I-13 departed for Truk on 11 July but never reached her destination. She was detected running on the surface, attacked, and damaged by radar-equipped TBM Avengers on 16 July. An American destroyer escort later arrived and sank her with depth charges.

Japan surrendered before the Ulithi attack was launched, and on 22 August 1945, the crews of the submarines were ordered to destroy all their weapons. The torpedoes were fired without arming and the aircraft were launched without unfolding the wings and stabilizers. When I-400 surrendered to the American destroyer, USS Blue (DD-744), the U.S. crew was astounded at her size, nearly 24 ft longer than the USS Blue and just as wide – considerably longer and wider than the largest American fleet submarine of the day.

Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night
The Japanese conceived of an attack on the United States through the use of biological weapons specifically directed at the civilian population in San Diego, California. Dubbed "Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night", the plan was to launch aircraft from five I-400 submarines near Southern California at night, who would then drop "infected flea" bombs on the intended target, in the hope that the resulting infection would spread to the entire Western seaboard and kill tens of thousands of people. The plan was scheduled for September 22, 1945, but Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, before the operation was carried out.

American inspections

The U.S. Navy boarded and recovered 24 submarines, including the three I-400 submarines, taking them to Sasebo Bay to study them. While there, they received a message that the Soviets were sending an inspection team to examine the submarines. To prevent this, Operation Road's End was instituted. Most of the submarines were taken to a position designated as Point Deep Six, about 35 km southeast of Fukue Island, packed with charges of C-3 explosive and destroyed; they sank to a depth of 200 m.

Four remaining submarines, I-400, I-401, JAPANESE SUBMARINE I-201 and JAPANESE SUBMARINE I-203, were sailed to Hawaii by U.S. Navy technicians for further inspection. Upon completion of the inspections, the submarines were scuttled in the waters off Kalaeloa near Oahu in Hawaii by torpedoes from US submarine USS Trumpetfish (SS-425) on June 4, 1946, to prevent the technology from being made available to the Soviets who were demanding access to them. Dr. James P. (Jim) Delgado of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's maritime heritage program reported that the official government position that the exact location of the sinking was unknown, but has been confirmed by declassified US Navy documents.

Artifacts
The wreckage of I-401 was discovered by the Pisces deep-sea submarines of the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory in March 2005 at a depth of 820 m.  It was reported that I-400 was later found by the same team off the southwest coast of the Hawaiian island of Oahu in August 2013 at a depth of 700 m. NOAA researcher Jim Delgado, working aboard Pisces V, told the Chicago Tribune "It was torpedoed, partially collapsed and had sunk at a steep angle." The submarines scuttled off the Japanese coast were located in July 2015.

A restored Seiran airplane is displayed at the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center in suburban Washington, D.C. It is the only surviving example of this aircraft, and was found at the Aichi Aircraft Factory following the end of the war in August 1945. Shipped to Naval Air Station Alameda, it was left on outdoor display until 1962, when it was transferred to the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Silver Hill, Maryland. There it remained in storage until 1989, when a comprehensive restoration effort was mounted. Though the plane had been ravaged by weather and souvenir collectors, and original factory drawings were lacking, the restoration team was able to reconstruct it accurately, and by February 2000 it was ready for display.

title: I-400-class submarine


text:
Irrational exuberance (disambiguation)

Irrational exuberance is a term used in 1996 by Alan Greenspan, then chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, with regards to equity prices in the United States.

Irrational exuberance may also refer to:
 * Irrational Exuberance (book), by Robert Shiller, which expanded on the theme of Greenspan quote
 * Irrational Exuberance (animutation), a Flash animutation of the song "Yatta" which features images of Greenspan

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

title: Irrational exuberance (disambiguation)


text:
Garganta's Thrilling Science

Garganta's Thrilling Science was a comic book published in 2001 by A.C. Comics. The central character is Garganta, also known as Dr. Carol Heisler, who can transform herself into a giantess at will. The Garganta stories, drawn by Stephanie Sanderson, are supplemented by several classic comic-book adventures. Garganta is also a regular character in the Femforce comic book, where she appears in her own section Gargantarama.

Garganta's Thrilling Science was originally intended to be a continuing series, but only one issue (#1) has so far appeared.

title: Garganta's Thrilling Science


text:
Talk:Dumpster (brand)

This is an informative, but rather US-centric article. The term 'dumpster' is not in common usage in the United Kingdom, where I would refer to it as a Trade-Waste receptacle, a skip or a rubbish bin. Can anyone shed more light on this, please? - Tim. 62.30.239.8 23:04, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * The word dumpster is gaining usage in Britain (as is American influence in general) but the word would either be "bin" or "skip" as far as I'm concerned. -- Graham :) 23:08, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * Where I'm from, it's called a "Front load(er) container", but we don't speak english here anyway.. :) G®iffen 16:01, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Simpsons reference
There was a Simpsons episode that referred to the Dumpster as genericized trademark issue. AIR, a character was found sleeping in one, and chided for this, replied, "No way, Dumpster brand trash containment units are top-of-the-line. This is just a Trash-O-Matic." If there's a Simpson fan out there who can add this forthwith, please do, otherwise I'll look it up. ProhibitOnions 12:35, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

I looked it up. It was the episode "The Otto Show," in which the following exchange occurs:

 * Bart: Otto-Man? You're living in a dumpster?
 * Otto: Ho, man, I wish. Dumpster-brand trash bins are top-of-the-line. This is just a Trash-Co waste disposal unit.

ProhibitOnions 12:45, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

 * Is that strictly necessary? —Wiki Wikardo 19:29, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

Dumpster photo
Is this actually a Dumpster-brand waste receptacle? Are there identifying features that could be pointed out in the caption? 76.247.45.41 (talk) 10:06, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

title: Talk:Dumpster (brand)


text:
Cairngorms

The Cairngorms (Am Monadh Ruadh) are a mountain range in the eastern Highlands of Scotland closely associated with the mountain Cairn Gorm. The Cairngorms became part of Scotland's second national park (the Cairngorms National Park) on 1 September 2003. Although the Cairngorms give their name to, and are at the heart of, the Cairngorms National Park, they only form one part of the national park, alongside other hill ranges such as the Angus Glens and the Monadhliath, and lower areas like Strathspey.

The Cairngorms consists of high plateaux at about 1,000–1,200 m above sea level, above which domed summits (the eroded stumps of once much higher mountains ) rise to around 1,300 m. Many of the summits have tors, free-standing rock outcrops that stand on top of the boulder-strewn landscape. In places, the edges of the plateau form steep cliffs of granite and they are excellent for skiing, rock climbing and ice climbing. The Cairngorms form an arctic-alpine mountain environment, with tundra-like characteristics and long-lasting snow patches. This area is home to bird species such as ptarmigan, dotterel, snow bunting, curlew and red grouse, as well as mammals such as mountain hare. The plateau also supports Britain's only herd of reindeer (albeit semi-domesticated). Surrounding the central massif are many remnants of the Caledonian forest in straths and glens of the Rivers Spey and Dee. These forests support many species that are rare elsewhere in Britain, including red squirrels, pine marten, wood ants, Scottish crossbill, capercaillie and crested tit.

There are no glaciers, but snow can fall in any month of the year, and snow patches usually persist all summer; for snow and ice climbing, the area is the most dependable in Britain. The mountains are also popular for hill-walking, ski touring and climbing, and there are three alpine ski centres in the range, at Cairn Gorm, The Lecht and Glenshee.

The range lies in the Scottish council areas of Aberdeenshire, Moray and Highland, and within the counties of Aberdeenshire, Inverness-shire and Banffshire.

Etymology
The original Gaelic name for the range is Am Monadh Ruadh (the red hills), distinguishing them from Am Monadh Liath (the grey hills), which lie to the west of the River Spey: "If you look from Aviemore on a clear evening, the granite screes of Lairig Ghru and Braeriach do glow a warm red in the sun. The name Am Monadh Ruadh still lives among the oldest folk of Strath Spey, but long ago, outsiders had replaced it with 'the Cairngorms', on maps and in guide books."

The English language name for the range is Cairngorms, and is derived from Cairn Gorm, which is prominent in the view of the mountains from Speyside. The earliest reference to this name appears to be from a Colonel T. Thornton, who visited the area in about 1786: "The use of the term 'Cairngorms' as applied to the group must have become well established early in the nineteenth century, for we find it in Col Thornton's Sporting Tour (1804), where there is a reference to 'Aurora peeping over the immense Cairngorms.'"

Cairn Gorm is generally translated as Blue Cairn, although the Gaelic gorm is also used as an adjective and verb, meaning green or greening and is often seen in connection with growing grass. Thus, there is a contradiction or confusion, because the original Scottish Gaelic name of the mountains translates to English as the "red hills" whilst their English name is the "blue hills" or the "green hills".

Geography
The Cairngorms consist of three large elevated plateaux adorned with low, rounded glacial mountains, and divided by the passes of the Lairig an Laoigh and the Lairig Ghru. The range gives the sense of being a single plateau, because the passes that cut through them are not very deep: the summit of Lairig an Laoigh lies at 740 m, whilst the summit of the Lairig Ghru is at 835 metres above sea level at the Pools of Dee, where the water may be frozen over even in mid-summer. This means a walker could cross between the Cairntoul (1,293 m) – Braeriach (1,296 m) massif to the Ben Macdui (1,309 m) – Cairn Gorm (1,245 m) massif and thence onto the Beinn a' Bhùird (1,196 m) – Ben Avon (1,171 m) massif without descending below the 740 m summit of the Lairig an Laoigh. The range is drained by the Rivers Dee and Spey; and the latter's two tributaries: the Rivers Feshie and Avon.

The approximate southern boundary of the Cairngorm range is generally reckoned to run from slightly east of Braemar, west along the Dee and Glen Geldie to the head of Glen Feshie. The western edge of the range is defined by Glen Feshie and the River Spey as far as Aviemore, with the northern boundary running roughly eastward from Aviemore through Glenmore to Glen Avon. The eastern boundary is defined by Glen Avon and the Am Bealach Dearg, thus ending slightly east of Braemar.

The Cairngorms feature the highest, coldest and snowiest plateaus in the British Isles and are home to five of the six highest mountains in Scotland:

 * Ben Macdui (1,309 m)
 * Braeriach (1,296 m)
 * Cairn Toul (1,293 m)
 * Sgor an Lochain Uaine (1,258 m)
 * Cairn Gorm (1,245 m)

There are no public roads through the Cairngorms, and all the public roads in the general area either skirt the Cairngorms or stop short, providing access to them only. From the south and south-east, motorised access ends at Linn of Dee, or Allanaquoich. From the north-west, a road passes Coylumbridge, Glenmore and the Sugarbowl to end at the car park at the Cairngorm Mountain ski resort. The majority of hill-walkers access the range from these road ends.

Climate
In terms of height, remoteness and the severe and changeable weather, the Cairngorms are the most arduous area in the United Kingdom. The plateau area has a Tundra climate (Köppen ET), and the shattered terrain is more like the high ground in high-arctic Canada or northern Norway than what is often observed in the European Alps or Rockies. The weather often deteriorates rapidly with altitude so that, when there are moderate conditions 150 m below the plateau, the top can be stormy or misty, and there can be icy or powdery snow. Even when no snow is falling, the wind can whip up lying snow to produce white-out conditions for a few metres above the surface, and snowdrifts can build up rapidly in sheltered places. Gravel can be blown through the air, and walking can be impossible. "When a gale is accompanied by thick storms of ground drift, or worse, by heavy falling blizzards plus ground drift, or worse still by mist as well, conditions can be extremely serious on the plateau, making it suffocating and difficult to breathe, hard to open your eyes, impossible to see anything beyond your own feet, and unable to communicate with your party except one at a time by cupping an ear and shouting into it."

The lowest recorded temperature in the United Kingdom has twice been recorded in the Cairngorms, at Braemar, where a temperature of -27.2 C, was recorded on 11 February 1895 and 10 January 1982. The greatest British wind speed of 176 mph was measured at Cairngorm summit weather station in January 1993. The weather can be very hazardous at times, with dangerous and unpredictable conditions. What is often described as Britain's worst mountaineering tragedy, the Cairngorm Plateau Disaster, left five children and one adult dead in November 1971.

Cairn Gorm gets 320 cm of snow annually according to snowforecast.com.

Snow patches
The Cairngorms hold some of the longest-lying snow patches in Scotland:

 * On Ben Macdui, snow has been known to persist at a few locations from one winter to the next.
 * Lying at the north-eastern shoulder of Cairn Gorm is Ciste Mhearad. This hollow contains a patch which, hitherto, was known to persist through many years, but has not done so since 2000. Observations in 2007 and 2008 revealed that September was the month when final melting occurred for this patch. It sits at an altitude of 1,095 m and is located at approximately.
 * Braeriach's Garbh Choire Mòr is the location of Scotland's most persistent snow beds. Snow has been absent from this corrie just five times in the last century: 1933, 1959, 1996, 2003 and 2006. Sitting at an altitude of about 1140 m, these patches are located around ; the two most long-lasting patches are known as "the Pinnacles" and "the Sphinx" after the rock climbs lying above them. Recent studies based on morraine, avalanche debris fields and climate models suggest it is likely that Garbh Choire Mòr (as well as Coire an Lochain in the northern corries) contained glaciers as recently as the 19th century.

In 1994, the Cairngorms and surrounding mountains of north-east Scotland had 55 surviving patches, an exceptional number.

Geology
The Cairngorms were formed 40 million years before the last ice age, when slight uplift raised an eroded peneplain based on an exposed granite pluton. The highest present-day peaks represent eroded monadnock hills. During the ice ages, the ice caps that covered most of northern Scotland remained static—frozen to the ground for long periods—and actually protected the rounded summits and valleys and deep, weathered granite of the mountains of the area. Glacial erosion is represented in deep valleys which dissect the area. Many valleys are littered with glacial deposits from the period of glacial retreat. The most famous valley is the Lairig Ghru pass, a gouge through the centre of the mountains—a u-shaped valley, now partly filled with extensive scree produced by intense frost action during ice-free periods. Many parts of the Cairngorms exhibit classic periglacial weathering which occurred during cold periods in ice-free areas.

Tors are a common feature of the Cairngorm granite massif, being especially frequent on Ben Avon and Beinn Mheadhoin and impressively high on Bynack More. They represent masses of granite which are less closely jointed than surrounding rock and which have therefore been less susceptible to underground weathering associated with fluid percolation along joints. The present tors have been exhumed over a long period of time, not least by periglacial processes associated with ice ages during the Quaternary period.

Nature and conservation
The Cairngorms provide a unique alpine semi-tundra moorland habitat, home to many rare plants, birds and animals. Speciality bird species on the plateaux include breeding ptarmigan, dotterel, snow bunting, golden eagle, ring ouzel and red grouse, with snowy owl, twite, purple sandpiper and Lapland bunting seen on occasion. Mammal species include red deer and mountain hare, as well as the only herd of reindeer in the British Isles. They now roam the high Cairngorms, after being reintroduced in 1952 by a Swedish herdsman. The herd is now stable at around 150 individuals, some born in Scotland and some introduced from Sweden; since the individuals depend on humans for food and come from domesticated stock, they are not considered wild.

The surrounding areas feature an ancient woodland, one of the last major ones of its kind in the British Isles, known as the Caledonian forest. In the forests, capercaillie, black grouse, Scottish crossbill, parrot crossbill and crested tit are found. Of particular fame is the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) reserve at Abernethy Forest and Loch Garten. A famous pair of ospreys are present in the summer months, and they often attract large crowds to see them. The forest is home to the endangered capercaillie and endemic Scottish crossbill.

As well being included as part of the Cairngorms National Park the Cairngorm Mountains are designated as a national scenic area, one of 40 such areas in Scotland. Apart from a small area around the Cairngorm Ski Area, the whole of the mountain area is protected as both a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area, thus forming part of the Natura 2000 network of protected sites. The Cairngorms are classified as a Category IV protected area by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The Cairngorms were declared a national nature reserve (NNR) in 1954, being the largest NNR in Britain. In 2006 Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) reviewed the Cairngorms NNR, and it was decided that the reserve should be broken up into separate, smaller reserves that reflected existing management units. There now are four NNRs within the core mountain area of the Cairngorms. Mar Lodge Estate, which covers the south side of the plateau and the watershed of the upper Dee has been classified as a national nature reserve since May 2017. The Abernethy Forest National Nature Reserve covers a stretch of land from the plateau down to Loch Garten on the north side of the range, and Glenmore Forest Park, covering a remnant of the Caledonian Forest surrounding Loch Morlich, is also designated as a national nature reserve. The Invereshie and Inshriach National Nature Reserve lies on the western flanks of the range, and extends to the summit of Sgòr Gaoith.

Threats to the ecosystem
The Cairngorms represents an unusually cold area of mountains in a maritime climate at 57 degrees north. The climate is projected to warm—and precipitation patterns to change—under present climate change models. This is an over-riding concern for the long-term conservation of this area. Ptarmigan has been considered as an indicator species for this process, although the natural population cycles of this bird do not seem to have been disrupted as yet.

Other man-made threats include the problems of popularity in a country with limited wilderness resources and a large, relatively affluent urban population. These include various types of recreation and the associated trampling damage and erosion, disturbance, litter and threats to water quality.

Human habitation and ownership
The valleys between the individual plateaux were used as drove roads by cattle drovers who built rough protective shelters for their arduous journeys. At about the same time that droving was dying out towards the end of the 19th century, deer stalking estates were flourishing, and so the shelters were developed into bothies to provide improved, though still primitive, accommodation for gamekeepers. In modern times, these bothies have been taken over by the Mountain Bothies Association for use by walkers and climbers to provide shelter and rough sleeping accommodation. With the exception of the bothies, there are no buildings or settlements within the Cairngorms, nor is there evidence for historic settlement, except in the uppermost reaches of the Derry and Gairn rivers. In the surrounding areas, villages such as Aviemore and Braemar provide a base for visitors to the core mountain area.

Much of the core mountain area is owned by conservation bodies, with the National Trust for Scotland owning Mar Lodge Estate, and the RSPB's Abernethy Estate stretching from the lower slopes up to the plateau. The main private landowners are the Glenavon Estate in the northeast, the Invercauld Estate in the southeast, the Glen Feshie Estate to the southwest and the Rothiemurchus Estate in the northwest.

Leisure
There is a funicular railway on Cairn Gorm serving the Cairn Gorm Ski Centre. The funicular opened in late 2001, and runs from a base station at 637 m up to the Ptarmigan Centre, situated at 1097 m, 150 m from the summit of Cairn Gorm. It was built amidst some controversy, with supporters of the scheme claiming that it would bring valuable tourist income into the area, whilst opponents argued that such a development was unsuitable for a supposedly protected area. A condition was therefore imposed under which walkers were not allowed outside the top station if arriving by funicular, although this did not apply to skiers and snowboarders in the winter. In 2010 the operating company proposed to modify this requirement to allow guided walks, whilst still preventing general access. Guided walks continued to be the only way for walkers and summer visitors to access the plateau if arriving via the funicular as of 2017.

The mountains are very popular for hill-walking, with eighteen Munros lying between Ben Avon in the east and Glen Feshie in the west. In winter these summits can often be reached by ski touring. The Cairngorms have excellent climbing, and has long attracted winter climbers, especially in the northern corries. This area boasts what was for a time probably the world's hardest traditionally protected mixed climb: "The Hurting", grade XI. As with all land in Scotland, there is a right of responsible access to the mountains for those wishing to participate in recreational pursuits, although the restriction on access via the funicular means walkers and climbers cannot use the railway to access the hills.

Angling for trout and salmon is popular in the lochs and rivers that surround the mountains, and Loch Avon in the very heart of the range is noted for its Arctic charr. Other popular activities include birdwatching and wildlife watching, whilst the Cairngorm Gliding Club (based in Glen Feshie) offers the opportunity for gliding.

title: Cairngorms


text:
Talk:Loudness

Comment
The article List of heavy metal musicians should have a wikilink to here, but sadly i don't know LOUDNESS and don't know to which subdivision of metal it should be caunted, so i can't add it. Please do so if you feel competent about it. Lady Tenar 23:10, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Temporal integration
The first paragraph of the Explanation is mainly about loudness temporal integration, but the integration periods (600-1000 ms) are longer than those that I see in the literature. Consider Moore's "An Introduction to the Psychology of Hearing" (fourth edition, p63), where 100-200 ms is given as the upper cutoff of temporal integration. Similar data are in Zwicker & Fastl's "Psychoacoustics: Facts and Models". I am curious as to whether the 600-1000 ms time can be substantiated, or if it would be better to rewrite this to be consistent with authoratitive sources (which is what I suspect).Densilcabrera (talk) 02:34, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

 * Temporal integration is no longer discussed in the article. Perhaps it should be. ~Kvng (talk) 23:00, 25 March 2020 (UTC)

Temporal effects
I've removing this uncited information on temporal considerations for loudness perception. I have heard these effects discussed but I am unable to find a citation. ~Kvng (talk) 17:17, 17 January 2018 (UTC)

 * The human auditory system averages the effects of SPL over a 600–1000 ms interval. A sound of constant SPL will be perceived to increase in loudness as samples of duration 20, 50, 100, 200 ms are heard, up to a duration of about 1 second at which point the perception of loudness will stabilize. For sounds of duration greater than 1 second, the moment-by-moment perception of loudness will be related to the average loudness during the preceding 600–1000 ms.

 * I agree with the removal; explaining short-term and long-term loudness (see Moore, or Fastl) will require more detail than that. Altaphon (talk) 06:14, 3 May 2019 (UTC)

volume
The disambiguation page for volume points here, yet the word doesn't appear anywhere in the article. Should there be some statement that the word volume is commonly (thought technically incorrectly) used to indicate audio loudness? Common knowledge, but i don't know how I'd cite it. Gjxj (talk) 18:11, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

 * There is a similar problem with the other articles referenced there. I have improved Volume (disambiguation) to try and add some context. ~Kvng (talk) 14:12, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

"Explanation" inadequate
The crucial second sentence in the Explanation sentence gives no reference and, confusingly, refers to both 0.67 and 0.3 power functions.Paulhummerman (talk) 10:09, 28 June 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Loudness


text:
User:Quinwound

See my talk page

title: User:Quinwound


text:
Peter Hitchens

Peter Jonathan Hitchens (born 28 October 1951) is an English conservative author, broadcaster, journalist, and commentator. He writes for The Mail on Sunday and was a foreign correspondent reporting from both Moscow and Washington, D.C. Peter Hitchens has contributed to The Spectator, The American Conservative, The Guardian, First Things, Prospect, and the New Statesman. His books include The Abolition of Britain, The Rage Against God, The War We Never Fought and The Phoney Victory.

Previously a socialist and supporter of the Labour Party, Hitchens became more conservative during the 1990s. He joined the Conservative Party in 1997 and left in 2003, and has since been deeply critical of the party, which he views as the biggest obstacle to true conservatism in the UK. Hitchens describes himself as a Burkean conservative, social democrat, and Anglo Gaullist. He advocates conservative Christian political views, such as opposition to same-sex marriage and support of stricter recreational drug policies. Hitchens criticised the UK's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially lockdowns and mandates that the public wear face masks.

Early life and family
Peter Hitchens was born in Malta, where his father, Eric Ernest Hitchens (1909–1987), a naval officer, was stationed as part of the then Mediterranean Fleet of the Royal Navy. His mother, Yvonne Jean Hitchens (née Hickman; 1921–1973), had met Eric while serving in the Women's Royal Naval Service (Wrens) during the Second World War. Hitchens has Jewish descent via his maternal grandmother, a daughter of Polish Jewish migrants. His grandmother revealed this fact upon meeting his wife Eve Ross. Though his brother Christopher was quick to embrace his Jewish identity following the principle of matrilineal descent, Peter noted that they were only one-32nd Jewish by descent and has not identified as Jewish himself.

As a youth, Hitchens wanted to be an officer in the Royal Navy, following his father. However, when he was 10, he learned he had a lazy eye that could not be corrected, thereby barring him from serving in the Royal Navy.

Hitchens attended Mount House School, Tavistock, The Leys School, and the Oxford College of Further Education before being accepted at the University of York, where he studied Philosophy and Politics and was a member of Alcuin College, graduating in 1973.

Hitchens married Eve Ross in 1983. They have a daughter and two sons. Their elder son, Dan, was editor of the Catholic Herald, a London-based Roman Catholic newspaper. Hitchens lives in Oxford.

Religion
Hitchens was brought up in the Christian faith and attended Christian boarding schools but became an atheist, beginning to leave his faith at 15. He returned to church later in life, and is now an Anglican and a member of the Church of England.

Relationship with his brother
Hitchens' only sibling was the journalist and author Christopher Hitchens, who was two years older. Christopher said in 2005 that the main difference between the two was belief in the existence of God. Peter was a member of the International Socialists (forerunners of the modern Socialist Workers' Party) from 1968 to 1975 (beginning at age 17) after Christopher introduced him to them. The brothers fell out after Peter wrote a 2001 article in The Spectator which allegedly characterised Christopher as a Stalinist.

After the birth of Peter's third child, the two brothers reconciled. Peter's review of his brother's book God Is Not Great led to a public argument between the brothers but no renewed estrangement.

In 2007, the brothers appeared as panellists on BBC TV's Question Time, where they clashed on a number of issues. In 2008, in the US, they debated the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the existence of God. In 2010 at the Pew Research Center, the pair debated the nature of God in civilisation. Christopher died in 2011; at a memorial service held for him in New York, Peter read St Paul's Philippians 4:8, which Christopher had read at their father's funeral.

Journalism
He joined the Labour Party in 1977 but left shortly after campaigning for Ken Livingstone in 1979, thinking it was wrong to carry a party card when directly reporting politics, and coinciding with a culmination of growing personal disillusionment with the Labour movement.

Hitchens began his journalistic career on the local press in Swindon and then at the Coventry Evening Telegraph. He then worked for the Daily Express between 1977 and 2000, initially as a reporter specialising in education and industrial and labour affairs, then as a political reporter, and subsequently as deputy political editor. Leaving parliamentary journalism to cover defence and diplomatic affairs, he reported on the decline and collapse of communist regimes in several Warsaw Pact countries, which culminated in a stint as Moscow correspondent and reporting on life there during the final months of the Soviet Union and the early years of the Russian Federation in 1990–92. He took part in reporting the UK 1992 general election, closely following Neil Kinnock. He then became the Daily Express Washington correspondent. Returning to Britain in 1995, he became a commentator and columnist.

Hitchens reported from Somalia at the time of the United Nations intervention in the Somali Civil War.

In 2000, Hitchens left the Daily Express after its acquisition by Richard Desmond, stating that working for him would have represented a moral conflict of interest. Hitchens joined The Mail on Sunday, where he has a weekly column and weblog in which he debates directly with readers. Hitchens has also written for The Spectator and The American Conservative magazines, and occasionally for The Guardian, Prospect, and the New Statesman.

After being shortlisted in 2007 and 2009, Hitchens won the Orwell Prize in political journalism in 2010. Peter Kellner, one of the Orwell Prize judges, described Hitchens's writing as being "as firm, polished and potentially lethal as a Guardsman's boot."

A regular on British radio and television, Hitchens has been on Question Time, Any Questions?, This Week, The Daily Politics and The Big Questions. He has authored and presented four documentaries; one on the BBC about Euroscepticism, and three on Channel 4, including one on the surveillance state, and critical examinations of Nelson Mandela and David Cameron. In the late 1990s, Hitchens co-presented a programme on Talk Radio UK with Derek Draper and Austin Mitchell.

In 2010, Hitchens was described by Edward Lucas in The Economist as "a forceful, tenacious, eloquent and brave journalist. He lambasts woolly thinking and crooked behaviour at home and abroad." In 2009, Anthony Howard wrote of Hitchens, "the old revolutionary socialist has lost nothing of his passion and indignation as the years have passed us all by. It is merely the convictions that have changed, not the fervour and fanaticism with which they continue to be held."

Political views
Hitchens describes himself as a Burkean conservative, a social democrat and more recently, a British Gaullist. In 2010, Michael Gove, writing in The Times, asserted that, for Hitchens, what is more important than the split between the Left and the Right is "the deeper gulf between the restless progressive and the Christian pessimist." Hitchens joined the Conservative Party in 1997 and left in 2003. This was when he challenged Michael Portillo for the Conservative nomination in the Kensington and Chelsea seat in 1999.

He has been consistently dismissive of the modern UK Conservative Party since the 1990s. This is because he believes that the party has since then abandoned true social conservatism. His view is that conservatism should embody a Burkean sense of public duty, conscience and the rule of law, which he sees as the best guarantee of liberty. Furthermore, this view holds a general hostility to hasty reforms and adventurism. This was central to his criticism of many policy proposals by the New Labour government, which he viewed as attacks on liberty and facets of a constitutional revolution. He believes the Conservative Party should be a defender of establishment institutions such as the Church of England and the Monarchy, but has shifted to social liberalism instead. He believes that atheism, along with cultural liberalism, are the causes of the systematic undermining of Christianity. Hitchens has written "The left's real interests are moral, cultural, sexual and social. They lead to a powerful state. This is not because they actively set out to achieve one." He also believes that the First World War and the devolution of marriage are the causes of the demise of Christianity in Europe.

In his book The Cameron Delusion, Hitchens argues that in the last few decades, the party has become virtually "indistinguishable from Blairite New Labour". He thinks the Conservative Party is now just a vehicle for "obtaining office for the sons of gentlemen" and he loathes the party. Hitchens's claim that the "Conservatives are now the main Left-wing party in the country" in his Mail on Sunday column has been met with criticism.

He is in favour of capital punishment, and was the only British journalist to attend and write about the execution of British-born Nicholas Ingram in America in 1995. He supports first-past-the-post voting. He is opposed to the privatisation of railways.

Hitchens has been a member of the campaign to clear the name of Bishop of Chichester, George Bell, from allegations of child sexual abuse. He has argued that the Church of England convicted him in what he described as a kangaroo court, and stated his wish that allegations are not treated as proven facts.

He is a supporter of grammar schools.

War and terrorism
He was opposed to the NATO intervention in Kosovo and 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, arguing that neither was in the interests of either Britain or the United States, and opposed the war in Afghanistan.

He believes that the UK should never have participated in World War I, and is very critical of the view that World War II was "The Good War". His view on World War II is laid out in his book The Phoney Victory, in which he argues that the UK entered World War II too early, and that the UK overly glorifies World War II. He argues that while the allies were fighting a radical evil, they sometimes used immoral methods, such as the carpet bombing of German civilians. He believes that Britain's entry into World War II led to its rapid decline after the war. This was because, among other things, it could not finance the war and was not prepared for it. As a result, it had to surrender much of its wealth and power to avoid bankruptcy. Hitchens' views on the UK in World War II have been met with criticism by historians, with Richard J. Evans describing his book The Phoney Victory as 'riddled with errors'.

Hitchens is not anti-war, since he believes that this position often leaves countries defenceless in times of war. Instead, he argues that military power and the threat of war can be deterrents against war. Hitchens wrote about his concern of the use of security (anti-terrorism) legislation and increased police powers under New Labour, and how it has been used to suppress civil liberties. In Channel 4's Dispatches, Hitchens said the result of this legislation was that Britain ended up "sleepwalking into a Big Brother state".

European Union
Hitchens is critical of the European Union and argued for many years, before Brexit, that Britain would be better off outside it. In 2017 he endorsed the Flexcit model proposed by Richard North and Christopher Booker as the most sensible and moderate way to leave the EU while remaining in the European Economic Area to preserve the economic benefits of EU membership. However, he did not vote in the 2016 UK EU referendum because he is critical of referendums. Instead of a referendum, he argued that a leave decision would be best done by voting into power a political party whose manifesto committed the country to withdrawal by an act of Parliament.

Vaccination
Hitchens was against the MMR vaccine following the Lancet MMR autism fraud. He asked in a 2001 article: "Is it really our duty to risk our children's lives with this jab?" In 2013, he defended this earlier article, saying he was criticising "State bossiness in an age that has seen a catalogue of mistakes, panics and mysteries in the world of disease and medicine" and referred to the thalidomide scandal. He has defended discredited former doctor Andrew Wakefield.

After being vaccinated against COVID-19 in 2021, Hitchens rejected accusations he is an anti-vaxxer, but said that he was "more or less forced to have an immunisation I would not normally have bothered with".

War on drugs
Hitchens has written about the enforcement of drug laws, most notably in his book The War We Never Fought (2012). He advocates harsher penalties properly enforced for possession and illegal use of cannabis, claiming that "cannabis has been mis-sold as a soft and harmless substance when in fact it's potentially extremely dangerous." He is opposed to the decriminalisation of recreational drugs in general. In 2012, Hitchens gave evidence to the Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee as part of its inquiry into drugs policy, and called for the British government to introduce a more hard-line policy on drugs. Hitchens disagrees with the notion of drug addiction, arguing that it goes against the notion of free will. He says: "People take drugs because they enjoy it."

LGBT rights and marriage
Hitchens has criticised the transgender rights movement, claiming that it promotes zealotry and that changes in traditional gender roles in society are "destroying truth itself".

Hitchens was one of the most outspoken opponents of same-sex marriage in 2013, the year before same-sex marriage was legal in Britain. In speaking to Guardian journalist Owen Jones in 2015, he said his real issue was with the decline of heterosexual marriage in society and the legalisation "of what was in effect no-fault divorce", and that same-sex marriage is "a side-effect ... It's a consequence of the collapse of heterosexual marriage, and I regret now getting involved in the argument about same-sex marriage, because it was a Stalingrad, a diversion. Why is one worrying about a few thousand people who want to have same-sex marriages, without being at all concerned about the collapse of heterosexual marriage, which involves millions of people, and millions of children?"

In 2019, the University of Buckingham organised a "free-speech society" after Hitchens' "no-platforming" by the University of Portsmouth over his views on gay rights, which they believed would cause conflict with LGBT events on campus. Hitchens was the first guest invited by the society to address students. In response to his being no-platformed by the University of Portsmouth, Hitchens was invited by the Archivist and the Head of History and Politics at The Portsmouth Grammar School to give a short talk on "The myth of Russian aggression" to Sixth Form pupils.

Environment
Hitchens has claimed that "the greenhouse effect probably doesn't exist" and that the scientific consensus linking global warming to human activity has not been proven, describing it as "modish dogma". He has criticised wind power in the United Kingdom and argued in 2015 that its expansion put the UK at risk of blackouts.

COVID-19 pandemic
Hitchens has repeatedly criticised the British government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He has particularly criticised COVID-19 lockdowns in the UK, suggesting they would have negative consequences and questioning their epidemiological efficacy. Critics have described him as a "lockdown sceptic". Full Fact evaluated his statement, where he said it was "not possible" for the first lockdown in March to cause the peak in daily infections and deaths to decline, in a fact-checking article, and concluded that this was "wrong" based on available evidence. Hitchens' view was also disputed by Paul Mason in the New Statesman. George Monbiot in The Guardian also critiqued Hitchens' views. Daniel Hannan meanwhile expressed agreement with Hitchens in The Daily Telegraph. A tweet by Hitchens stating four fifths of cases were asymptomatic was also described as "misleading" by Voice of America. Hitchens criticised Imperial College London modelling, which suggested that there could be up to 500,000 COVID-19 deaths if the government did not impose a lockdown.

He has supported Sweden's response to the pandemic. He has opposed the mandatory wearing of face masks during the pandemic, referring to them as "muzzles". He also believes that government mandates to wear face coverings are oppressive. He has been accused of promoting misinformation about the pandemic and public health restrictions by several sources.

English independence
Hitchens has spoken in favour of English nationalism, arguing that the United Kingdom should be dissolved and England should become an independent country once again.

Ukraine
In 2010, Hitchens argued that Crimea should be part of Russia rather than Ukraine, stating that the peninsula is historically Russian. In November, 2022, he said that there exists a "virulent" nationalism in Ukraine, and that it is easier "to be a non-Scot in Scotland" than "an ethnic Russian in Ukraine" due to the "ugly strain of Ukrainian nationalism that made life difficult for ethnic Russians in Ukraine."

Hitchens has stated that Ukraine should not join NATO. He has been described as opposed to the Russia and Ukraine war, having stated: "The conflict in Ukraine was always unnecessary. It has done nothing but harm to Ukraine and Ukrainians. Ukraine has been used as a battering ram in someone else’s quarrel." Hitchens called for peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.

Graham Phillips
Hitchens has been a vocal supporter of British journalist Graham Phillips in his fight against being sanctioned by the Government of the United Kingdom. Although expressing criticism of Phillips and his work, Hitchens has been strongly critical of the UK Government, describing Phillips's fight against sanctions as 'Liberty fighting tyranny' and 'one of the most important court cases of our time'. Writing in support of Phillips, and Julian Assange, in March 2024, Hitchens described Phillips as a "prisoner of the (UK) state".

Publications
Hitchens is the author of The Abolition of Britain (1999) and A Brief History of Crime (2003), both critical of changes in British society since the 1960s. A compendium of his Daily Express columns was published as Monday Morning Blues in 2000. A Brief History of Crime was reissued as The Abolition of Liberty in April 2004, with an additional chapter on identity cards ("Your papers, please"), and with two chapters – on gun control ("Out of the barrel of a gun") and capital punishment ("Cruel and unusual") – removed.

The Broken Compass: How British Politics Lost its Way was published in May 2009, and The Rage Against God was published in Britain in March 2010, and in the US in May. Hitchens's book The War We Never Fought: The British Establishment's Surrender to Drugs, about what he sees as the non-existence of the war on drugs, was published by Bloomsbury in the autumn of 2012.

In June 2014, Hitchens published his first e-book, Short Breaks in Mordor, a compendium of foreign reports. The Phoney Victory: The World War II Illusion was published in August 2018 by I.B. Tauris. It addresses what Hitchens views as the national myth of the Second World War, which he believes did long-term damage to Britain and its position in the world. It was negatively reviewed by the historian Richard Evans in the New Statesman, who described the book as "riddled with errors".

title: Peter Hitchens


text:
Fire alarm notification appliance

A fire alarm notification appliance is an active fire protection component of a fire alarm system. A notification appliance may use audible, visible, or other stimuli to alert the occupants of a fire or other emergency condition requiring action. Audible appliances have been in use longer than any other method of notification. Initially, all appliances were either electromechanical horns or electric bells, which would later be replaced by electronic sounders. Most of today's appliances produce sound levels between 70 and 100 decibels at three feet.

Methods of notification
The primary function of the notification appliance is to alert persons at risk. Several methods are used and documented in industry specifications published by UL.

Alerting methods include:
 * Sound (audible signals)
 * ~3.1 kHz / ~3100 Hz tone (high frequency). Used in many current notification devices.
 * 520 Hz 80 dB tone used in newer notification devices.
 * 70 dB to 100 dB weighted for human hearing (higher decibels, in the 100 to 115 dB range, were common with older electromechanical horns)
 * Light (visible signals)
 * 15 cd to 1,000 cd candela output
 * 1 to 2 flashes per second

Coding
Coding refers to the pattern or tones a notification appliance sounds in and is controlled either by the panel or by setting jumpers or DIP switches on the notification appliances. The majority of audible notification appliances installed prior to 1996 produced a steady sound for evacuation. In general, no common standard at that time mandated any particular tone, or pattern for audible fire alarm evacuation signals. While less common than a steady sound, differing signaling methods were used for the same purpose. These are named with respect to their distinctive structure and include, March Time (usually 120 pulses per minute but sometimes at 90 pulses or 20 pulses per minute, depending on the panel), Hi-Lo (two different tones that alternate), Slow-Whoop (slow rising sweep upwards in tone) among others. Today these methods are confined to applications intended to trigger a response other than evacuation alone. In 1996, the ANSI and the NFPA recommended a standard evacuation pattern to eliminate confusion. The pattern is uniform without regard to the sound used. This pattern, which is also used for smoke alarms, is named the Temporal-Three alarm signal, often referred to as "T-3" or "Code-3" (ISO 8201 and ANSI/ASA S3.41 Temporal Pattern) and produces an interrupted four count (three half second pulses, followed by a one and one half second pause, repeated for a minimum of 180 seconds). CO (carbon monoxide) detectors are specified to use a similar pattern using four pulses of tone (often referred to as T4).

Audibility
From NFPA 72, 2002 Edition: “7.4.2.1* To ensure that audible public mode signals are clearly heard, unless otherwise permitted by 7.4.2.2 through 7.4.2.5, they shall have a sound level at least 15 dB (Decibel) above the average ambient sound level or 5 dB above the maximum sound level having a duration of at least 60 seconds, whichever is greater, measured 1.5 m (5 ft) above the floor in the occupiable area, using the A-weighted scale (dBA).”

Visual signals
In 1970, Space Age Electronics introduced the first visual notification appliance, the AV32 light plate (which was installed over an existing horn) and V33 remote light. Meanwhile, in 1976, Wheelock introduced the first horn/strobe notification appliances with its 7000 series. The majority of visual signals throughout the 1970s and 1980s were white or red incandescent lights. In the 1980s, most new installations began to include visual signals, and more strobes started to appear. In the United States, the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) triggered changes in evacuation signaling methods to include the hearing impaired. Audible notification appliances would now have to include strobe lights with higher brightness intensity to alert the hearing impaired. This made incandescent lights inadequate for the purposes of the ADA.

Many existing installations that did not include visual signals were retrofitted with strobe plates. These retrofit plates would allow for the easy installation of a strobe without replacing the audible signal. Later, ADA codes also required that strobes be at least 15 candelas and have a flash rate of at least 60 flashes per minute (one flash per second). Companies discontinued their translucent strobes, and replaced them with new, clear, high-intensity strobes. Today, strobe synchronization is often used to synchronize all strobes in a uniform flash pattern. This is to prevent individuals with photosensitive epilepsy from potentially experiencing seizures due to unsynchronized strobes.

Voice evacuation
Voice evacuation systems (also called Voice Alarm Systems) have become popular in most countries. Voice evacuation alarms typically are not as loud as horns or bells (although generally standards require the same minimum sound pressure levels), and usually sound an alarm tone (typically a slow whoop, code-3, or chime tone, although this depends on the country and particular application) and a voice message warning that an emergency has been reported and to evacuate the building (often also directing occupants to not use elevators). Voice evacuation systems can also be used by personnel to give specific live information and/or instructions over the alarm system using a built-in microphone, which provides a distinct advantage over horns or bells. The system can be stand alone (i.e. using dedicated loudspeakers, which can also feature integrated strobe lights), or the system can accommodate public address system functionality. In 1973, the Autocall fire alarm company (merged to SimplexGrinnell then relaunched), manufactured the first voice evacuation system.

Voice evacuation in Europe
In Europe, voice evacuation systems are normally a mandatory requirement for rail and air transport terminals, high-rise buildings, schools, hospitals, and other large facilities. Voice systems for emergency use date back at least as far as the second world war. Following the lead of companies like Avalon, Tannoy and Millbank Electronics etc., in the 1980s many other companies began producing voice-evacuation systems. In the 1990s, voice evacuation started to become the standard for large facilities, and is still growing in popularity. The use, design, operation and installation of Voice evacuation systems is governed in Europe by CENELEC European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization EN 60849 and in the UK by the British Standard BS 5839-Part 8, a system code of practice. This is joined by the European harmonised equipment standards family EN 54, and ISO 7240-16:2007.

Effectiveness
Initial research into the effectiveness of the various alerting methods is sparse. From 2005 to 2007, research sponsored by the NFPA focused on understanding the cause of a higher number of deaths seen in high-risk groups such as the elderly, those with hearing loss, and those who are intoxicated. Research findings suggest that a mid frequency (520 Hz) square wave output is significantly more effective at waking high-risk individuals. More recent research suggests that strobe lights are not effective at waking sleeping adults with hearing loss and suggest that a different alarm tone is much more effective. Individuals in the hearing loss community are seeking changes to improved awakening methods.

Effectiveness of mid frequency (520 Hz) sound
Further NFPA research demonstrated the heightened waking effectiveness of mid frequency square wave auditory signals that use 520 Hz, especially when used to wake people with mild to moderately severe hearing loss. Two separate studies were conducted – one for the hard-of-hearing and one for the alcohol-impaired – in order to compare the waking effectiveness of 520 Hz mid frequency square wave devices and 3100 Hz pure tone T-3 sound devices.

Under the testing conditions, a 520 Hz square wave T-3 sound woke up 92% of hard-of-hearing participants, making it the most effective. The 3100 Hz pure tone T-3 sound woke up 56% of participants.

A summary of the studies shows that the 520 Hz square wave signal has at least 4 to 12 times more waking effectiveness than the current 3100 Hz signal.

NFPA code implementation of mid frequency (520 Hz) sound
Effective January 1, 2014, section 18.4.5.3 of the 2010 and later editions of NFPA 72 requires the mid frequency audible fire alarm signal in occupancy sleeping areas with a protected premises (building) fire alarm system. The Chapter 18 committee chose to apply the requirement to all sleeping areas – not just those where occupants have self-identified as having a hearing impairment. This was done intentionally for several reasons: in many cases, the applications impacted are lodging spaces such as hotels, and many people may not know they have a hearing impairment or they may be alcohol impaired.

The 520 Hz mid frequency signal is required in sleeping areas of the following buildings:
 * Hotels and motels
 * College and university dormitories
 * Retirement/assisted-living facilities without trained staff responsible for waking up patients
 * Dwelling units within apartments and condominiums

According to NFPA 72-2010, section 18.4.5.3*, audible appliances provided for sleeping areas to awaken occupants shall produce a mid frequency alarm signal that complies with the following (effective January 1, 2014):
 * (1) The alarm signal shall be a square wave or provide equivalent awakening ability.
 * (2) The wave shall have a fundamental frequency of 520 Hz +/- 10 percent.

title: Fire alarm notification appliance


text:
User talk:Quinwound

Hello, I have cleared out the old stuff from my talk page. I archived it at Old Talk Pages. Thanks,

title: User talk:Quinwound


text:
Trim Castle

Trim Castle (Caisleán Bhaile Átha Troim) is a castle on the south bank of the River Boyne in Trim, County Meath, Ireland, with an area of 30,000 m2. Over a period of 30 years, it was built by Hugh de Lacy and his son Walter as the caput of the Lordship of Meath. The Irish Government currently own and are in charge of the care of the castle, through the state agency The Office of Public Works (OPW).

The castle is on the List of National Monuments in County Meath.

De Lacy
The land area of Meath was owned by the church but was granted to Hugh de Lacy in 1172 by Henry II of England as one of the new administrative areas. De Lacy built a huge ringwork castle defended by a stout double palisade and external ditch on top of the hill. There may also have been further defences around the cliffs fringing the high ground. Part of a stone footed timber gatehouse lies beneath the present stone gate at the west side of the castle.

The site was chosen because it is on raised ground, overlooking a fording point on the River Boyne. The area was an important early medieval ecclesiastical and royal site that was navigable in medieval times by boat up the River Boyne, about 25 miles from the Irish Sea. Trim Castle is referred to in the Norman poem The Song of Dermot and the Earl.

De Lacy left Ireland entrusting the castle to Hugh Tyrrel, baron of Castleknock, one of his chief lieutenants. The ringwork was attacked and burnt by forces of the Gaelic High King of Ireland, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair; Tyrrel, having appealed in vain for help, was forced to flee. Ua Conchobair soon withdrew and De Lacy, or Raymond FitzGerald, immediately repaired or rebuilt the castle in 1173. After Hugh's death in 1186 his son Walter de Lacy succeeded as Lord of Meath. He continued rebuilding and the castle was completed in the 1220s, most likely in 1224. The year when construction was completed was considered to be 1220 by historians in the 19th century but that is now in dispute.

Geneville and Mortimer
The next phase of the castle's development took place at the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th century; a new great hall (with undercroft and attached solar in a radically altered curtain tower), a new forebuilding, and stables were added to the keep.

On Walter de Lacy's death in 1241 his granddaughter Mathilda ('Maud') inherited the castle. Her second husband was Geoffrey de Geneville (brother of the crusade historian Jean de Joinville), Lord of Vaucouleurs in Champagne, France, and of many lordships in England and Ireland which were to devolve upon his heirs. His son Piers de Geneville (who married Joan de Lusignan) died in 1292 leaving a daughter Joan, who in 1301 married Roger Mortimer (1st Earl of March). Mathilda having died in 1304, in 1308 Geoffrey conveyed his Irish lordships to Roger Mortimer, and entered the priory at St. Mary's in Trim. Joan Mortimer inherited the title Baroness Geneville suo jure when Geoffrey died in 1314.

The castle thereby passed to the Mortimer family who held it until 1425, when the male line died out with Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March. After this the estate passed to Richard of York, son of Edmund's sister Anne Mortimer by Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge. Richard of York was killed at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460, and in 1461 his son, King Edward IV, appointed Germyn Lynch, goldsmith of London, to be his representative at Trim as warden and master worker of the new issues of moneys and coins within the Castles of Dublin and Trim, and the town of Galway.

Later ownership
During the 15th century the Irish Parliament met in Trim Castle seven times and a mint operated in the castle. It was at that time the centre of administration for Meath and marked the outer northern boundary of The Pale. In the 16th century it fell into decline and was allowed to deteriorate, but it was refortified during the Irish Confederate Wars in the 1640s. In 1649 after the sacking of Drogheda, the garrison of Trim fled to join other Irish forces and the place was occupied by the army of Oliver Cromwell.

After the wars of the 1680s, the castle was granted to the Wellesley family who held it until Arthur Wellesley (the Duke of Wellington), sold it to the Leslies. In following years it passed via the Encumbered Estates Court into the hands of the Dunsany Plunketts. They left the lands open and from time to time allowed various uses, with part of the Castle Field rented for some years by the Town Council as a municipal dump, and a small meeting hall for the Royal British Legion erected. The Dunsany held the Castle and surrounds until 1993, when after years of discussion, Lord Dunsany sold the land and buildings to the State, retaining only river access and fishing rights.

Restoration
The Office of Public Works began a major programme of exploratory works and conservation, costing in the region of 4.5 million euro, including partial restoration of the moat and the installation of a protective roof on the keep. The castle was re-opened to the public in 2000.

Structure
With an area of 30,000 m2, Trim Castle is the largest Cambro-Norman castle in Ireland. The design of the central three-storey keep (also known as a donjon or great tower) is unique for a Norman keep being of cruciform shape, with twenty corners. It was built on the site of the previous large ring work fortification in at least three stages, initially by Hugh de Lacy (c. 1174) and then in 1196 and 1201–5 by Walter de Lacy. The castle interior was partially the subject of archaeological digs, by David Sweetman of the OPW in the 1970s, and more extensively by Alan Hayden in the 1990s.

The surviving curtain walls are predominantly of three phases. The west and north sides of the enceinte are defended by rectangular towers (including the Trim Gate) dating to the 1170s; the Dublin gate was erected in the 1190s or early part of the 13th century; and the remaining wall to the south with its round towers dates to the first two decades of the 13th century. The castle has two main gates. The one in the west side dates to the 1170s and sits on top of a demolished wooden gateway. The upper stories of the stone tower were altered to a semi-octagonal shape, c. 1200. The Dublin Gate in the south wall is a single round towered gate with an external barbican tower. It dates from the 1190s or early 13th century and was the first example of its type to be constructed in Ireland.

Apart from the keep, the main extant structures consist of the following: an early 14th-century three-towered fore work defending the keep entrance and including stables within it (accessed by a stone causeway crossing the partly filled-in ditch of the earlier ringwork); a huge late 13th-century three-aisled great hall (with an under croft beneath its east end opening via a water gate to the river); a stout defensive tower (turned into a solar in the late 13th century at the northern angle of the castle); a smaller aisled hall (added to the east end of the great hall in the 14th or 15th century); a building (possibly the mint) added to the east end of the latter hall; two 15th- or 16th-century stone buildings added inside the town gatehouse, 17th-century buildings (added to the end of the hall range and to the north side of the keep) and a series of lime kilns (one dating from the late 12th century, the remainder from the 18th and 19th centuries).

Access
The Office of Public Works operate a Guide Service at Trim Castle and the grounds are open to the public for self-guiding, on payment of an entry fee. Access to the Castle keep is by guided tour only, an entry fee also applies. In winter, the complex is open only on weekends and bank holidays.

Popular culture

The 1980 movie The Big Red One, starring Lee Marvin and Mark Hamill, was also partially shot in Trim and in particular at Trim Castle.

The castle is noted for the part it played in the filming of Mel Gibson's film Braveheart. The castle was presented as the walled city of York; scenes that took place in London were also filmed here.

Controversies
In 2003 there was a controversy surrounding the decision by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Martin Cullen not to oppose the construction of a five-storey hotel across the road from the castle. The development had been condemned by a local councillor, a senior inspector in An Bord Pleanála (acting in a private capacity, and later choosing to withdraw his appeal lest it be considered a conflict of interest) and heritage bodies, many of whom had been critical of the government's treatment of other heritage sites such as Carrickmines Castle (the ruins of which were excavated partly to allow the completion of a roadway). The hotel was opened in August 2006.

The recent addition of buildings outside the west side of the town has further intruded on the castle remains.

title: Trim Castle


text:
Yablochkov candle

A Yablochkov candle (sometimes electric candle) is a type of electric carbon arc lamp, invented in 1876 by the Russian electrical engineer Pavel Yablochkov.

Design
A Yablochkov candle consists of a sandwich of two electrodes, which are long carbon rods, approximately 6 by 12 millimetres in cross-section, separated by a block of inert and insulating material such as plaster of Paris or kaolin. There is a small piece of fuse wire or carbon paste linking the two carbon rods at the top end. The assembly is mounted vertically into a suitable insulated holder. On application of the electric supply, the fuse wire "blows" and strikes the arc. The arc then continues to burn, gradually consuming the carbon electrodes and the intervening plaster, which melts at the same pace. The first candles were powered by a Gramme machine. The drawback of using direct current was that one of the rods would burn at twice the rate of the other. This problem was initially solved by preparing the sandwich with one of the rods thicker than the other, but this solution was not practicable. The problem was eventually solved by powering the candles with alternating current which burned the two rods at the same speed.

The electrodes last about two hours or until the power is cut. A classic Yablochkov candle cannot be relit, since the fuse wire between the electrodes has been consumed. Later versions of the candle, however, included powdered metal in the inert separator. This would act as a new fuse wire, allowing a half-burnt candle to be restarted once extinguished. The advantage of this design over other carbon arc designs is that it removes the need for a mechanical regulator to maintain the appropriate distance between the carbon electrodes to sustain the arc.

In his trials to power more sets of candles with different light flux and in order to obtain different voltages, Yablochkov invented the first transformers.

As any other carbon arc lamps, Yablochkov candles have a very bright light that can be used for lighting large lengths of streets or large interiors such as factories and train stations and its use as a street lighting system was cheaper than oil lamps. The disadvantages of these lamps are related to a short duration, which implied replacing them after short periods of time. When lit they produce buzzing noise, dangerous UV rays, carbon monoxide emissions and radio frequency interference. During use they were a constant fire hazard principally due to sparks and high operating temperature.

History
In 1875 Yablochkov left Russia and started his Paris business; by 1876 he was granted the French patent 112024 for his candles. The first public experiment was held in London on April 15, 1876. The Yablochkov candles were first used commercially in 1877 in the Marengo hall of the department store Galeries du Louvre in Paris with an installation of 80 lamps. Their presence is mentioned by Émile Zola in his novel Au Bonheur des dames (Ladies paradise). In this occasion Paris was nicknamed city of lights.

They were first demonstrated as street illumination during the Paris Exhibition of 1878, notably on the Avenue de l'Opéra, in Place du Theatre Français (now Place André Malraux) and in Place de l'Opéra. The 64 lamps had four to twelve candles each, connected in series and were enclosed in globes of enamelled glass. In December of the same year Yablochkov candles were installed along the Victoria Embankment in London.

Werner von Siemens visited the 1878 Paris Exhibition and negotiated to become a distribution agent for the candles in Germany; in return he delivered dynamo machines to Yablochkov. The candles were soon used in many European cities but also in other continents: cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, New Delhi, Calcutta, and Madras were using them. The Shah of Persia and the King of Cambodia used the candles for their palaces.

The candles were successfully used aboard the French ironclad Amiral Duperré, launched in 1879.

In 1881 at the International Exposition of Electricity the Yablochkov candles were regarded as one of the main attractions. At that time their cost was estimated to have dropped from 66 cents (of French francs) in 1877 to just 10 cents, making them very convenient also with respect to gas lamps. The main drawback was that the candles needed a big power machine in order to be lit.

At the height of their success 8,000 candles per day were produced in France.

title: Yablochkov candle


text:
Giuoco Piano

The ; ) is a chess opening beginning with the moves:
 * 1. e4 e5
 * 2. Nf3 Nc6
 * 3. Bc4 Bc5

"White aims to develop quickly – but so does Black. White can construct a but in unfavourable conditions a centre which cannot provide a basis for further active play."

The name "Italian Game" is also commonly used; however, that name is sometimes used instead to describe all openings starting 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4, including 3...Nf6 (the Two Knights Defence) and other less common replies.

The Giuoco Piano is assigned codes C50 to C54 in the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings.

History
The Giuoco Piano is one of the oldest recorded openings. The Portuguese writer Pedro Damiano played it at the beginning of the 16th century and the Italian Greco played it at the beginning of the 17th century. The Giuoco Piano was popular through the 19th century, but modern refinements in defensive play have led most chess masters towards openings like the Ruy Lopez that offer White greater chances for long-term initiative.

In modern play, grandmasters have shown distinct preference for the slower and more strategic Giuoco Pianissimo (4.d3, or 4.c3 Nf6 5.d3). Anatoly Karpov used the Giuoco Pianissimo against Viktor Korchnoi twice in the 1981 World Championship match, with both games ending in a draw; Garry Kasparov used it against Joël Lautier at Linares 1994, resigning after 29 moves; Vladimir Kramnik chose it against Teimour Radjabov at Linares (2004); Viswanathan Anand used it to defeat Jon Hammer in 2010; Magnus Carlsen used it against Hikaru Nakamura at London 2011, winning in 41 moves and Ian Nepomniachtchi used it against Magnus Carlsen in the 2021 World Championship match, losing in 49 moves.

Variations
The main continuations on White's fourth move are:
 * 4.c3, the Main line.
 * 4.b4, the Evans Gambit, in which White offers a pawn in return for rapid.
 * 4.d3, the Giuoco Pianissimo.
 * 4.0-0, often with the intention of meeting 4...Nf6 with 5.d4, the Max Lange Attack, in which White opens up the, or 5.d3, the Giuoco Pianissimo.

Other continuations are:
 * 4.Nc3 Nf6, the Four Knights Variation.
 * 4.d4, the Italian Gambit, which is considered an inaccurate move order due to the reply 4...Bxd4
 * 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5, the Jerome Gambit, an opening where White sacrifices two pieces in the hope of exposing Black's king and obtaining a.

Main line: 4.c3
White plays 4.c3 in preparation for the central advance d2–d4. The main reply 4...Nf6 was first analysed by Greco in the 17th century. Alternatives include 4...Qe7, with the intention of holding on to the centre.

4...Nf6
5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4
 * White can also try 6.e5, a line favoured by Evgeny Sveshnikov, when play usually continues 6...d5 7.Bb5 Ne4 8.cxd4 Bb6, with approximate . Additionally, White has a gambit alternative in 6.0-0, which Graham Burgess revived in the book 101 Chess Opening Surprises; the critical line runs 6...Nxe4 7.cxd4 d5 8.dxc5 dxc4 9.Qe2 Qd3. The seldom seen pawn thrust 6.b4, was played in the off-balance upset encounter between Fier–Mamedyarov, Chessable Masters 2023. After 6...Bb6 7.e5 d5 8.exf6 dxc4 9.Qe2+ Be6 10.b5, black offered the sacrifice 10...Nb4. White choose to accept the offer with 11.cxb4, allowing black a pair of connected passed pawns for the piece. Accurate play was required to hold back the passers advance. Play continues with 11...Qxf6 12.0-0 0-0 13 a4 a5 14.bxa5 Rxa5 15. Bg5 Qf5 16.Bd2 Raa8 17.Bb4 Rfe8 18.a5 Qxb5 19.Qd2 c5. White countered with 20.Bc3, attempting to exchange his extra bishop for the dangerous d-pawn, seeking to regain equality. Black eventually converted his advantage, with the simplifying and consolidating exchanges 20...Bd8 21.Bxd4 cxd4 22.Nxd4 Qd7 23.Nxe6 Qxe6.

6...Bb4+
 * White now has a choice between 7.Nc3 and 7.Bd2. 7.Nc3 usually leads to the Møller Attack, an aggressive line involving the sacrifice of a pawn, but it has been largely abandoned in high-level games, as Black gains the advantage with accurate defence. 7.Bd2 offers about equal chances.

7.Nc3 (including Greco Variation and Møller Attack)
7.Nc3 Nxe4 8.0-0 (diagram)

 * Greco encouraged an attack on White's with 8.0-0, allowing 8...Nxc3, the Greco Variation. If 9.bxc3 Bxc3?! 10.Qb3 Bxa1?, White wins with 11.Bxf7+ Kf8 12.Bg5. Greco's game (probably analysis) continues 12...Ne7 13.Ne5 (13.Re1 and 13.Rxa1 also win) 13...d5 14.Qf3 Bf5 15.Be6 g6 16.Bh6+ Ke8 17.Bf7#.  This trap is well-known, and Black can avoid it by playing 10...d5. For this reason, the Scottish master James Aitken proposed 10.Ba3!, which gives White the advantage. After 9.bxc3, best for Black is 9...d5! 10.cxb4 dxc4 11.Re1+ Ne7 12.Qa4+! Bd7 13.b5 0-0 14.Qxc4 Ng6!

 * In 1898 Danish player Jørgen Møller published analysis of the line in Tidsskrift for Skak. In what is now known as the Møller Attack, White sacrifices a pawn for development and the initiative:

'''8...Bxc3! 9.d5'''
 * 9.bxc3 is met with 9...d5!

9...Bf6
 * On 9...Ne5, a possible continuation is 10.bxc3 Nxc4 11.Qd4 f5 12.Qxc4 d6.

10.Re1 Ne7 11.Rxe4 d6 12.Bg5 Bxg5 13.Nxg5 h6!
 * 13...0-0 14.Nxh7! has been analysed to a draw with best play, although Black has many opportunities to go wrong.

14.Bb5+
 * After 14.Qe2 hxg5 15.Re1 Be6! 16.dxe6 (White also can try 16.Qd2 c6! 17.dxe6 f6 18.Bd3 d5 19.Rg4 Qc7 20.h3 0-0-0 21.b4, attacking) 16...f6 17.Re3 c6 18.Rh3 Rxh3 19.gxh3 g6 it is doubtful that White has compensation for the sacrificed pawn, according to Grandmaster Larry Kaufman; 14.Qh5 0-0 15.Rae1 Ng6! (or 15...Nf5!) also favours Black.

14...Bd7 15.Qe2 Bxb5 16.Qxb5+ Qd7 17.Qxb7
 * 17.Qe2 Kf8! wins a second pawn, as in Barczay–Portisch, Budapest 1969.

17...0-0 18.Rae1 Rab8 19.Qxa7 Nxd5 20.Qd4 Qf5 21.Nf3 Rb4
 * and Black is clearly better.

7.Bd2
If White does not want to gambit material, 7.Bd2 is a good alternative. The game could continue 7...Bxd2+ (Kaufman recommends 7...Nxe4 8.Bxb4 Nxb4 9.Bxf7+ Kxf7 10.Qb3+ d5!? [10...Kf8 11.Qxb4+ Qe7 12.Qxe7+ Kxe7 is safer, reaching an equal endgame] 11.Ne5+ Ke6! 12.Qxb4 c5!?) 8.Nbxd2 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Qb3 Nce7 (10...Na5 is an alternative, inviting a repetition of moves after 11.Qa4+ Nc6 [threatening 12...Nb6] 12.Qb3 Na5) 11.0-0 0-0 12.Rfe1 c6. In this position White has more freedom, but the can be a weakness. 7.Nbd2 is also a viable move for White, although this still only offers approximate equality. It has not been a popular choice among human players, but it seems to be recommended by computer engines. 7.Kf1?! has been largely abandoned.

4...Qe7 and alternatives
Black can try to hold a in the centre at e5 with 4...Qe7, a move which first appeared in the Göttingen manuscript around 1500. After 5.d4 (5.0-0 usually transposes) Bb6, White's options include 6.0-0, 6.d5, 6.a4 and 6.Bg5. A typical continuation is 6.0-0 d6 7.a4 a6 8.h3 Nf6 9.Re1 0-0 (Leonhardt–Spielmann, Ostend 1907).

4...Bb6 usually transposes after 5.d4 Qe7.

Other 4th moves for Black are considered inferior.

Giuoco Pianissimo: 4.d3
With 4.d3, White plays the Giuoco Pianissimo (Italian: "Very Quiet Game", a name given by Adolf Anderssen). White aims for a slow buildup, deferring the to d4 until it can be prepared. By avoiding an immediate confrontation in the centre, White prevents the early release of through exchanges and enters a positional maneuvering game. 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.d3 is the Giuoco Pianissimo Deferred. 4.d3 f5 is the not-so-quiet Lucchini Gambit; there can follow 5.Ng5 f4, the Dubois Variation.

If White plays c2–c3, the position can take some characteristics of the Ruy Lopez if the bishop retreats to c2 via b3. This idea has been taken up by some grandmasters, such as Anish Giri, to avoid the drawish Berlin Defence in the Ruy Lopez. White can also play b4 and a4, chasing the Black bishop and staking out on the. Despite its slow, drawish reputation, this variation became more popular after being taken up by John Nunn in the 1980s. The common move orders are 4.c3 Nf6 5.d3 (ECO C54), and transposition from the Bishop's Opening: 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 Nc6 4.Nf3 Bc5 5.c3 or 5.0-0 d6 6.c3.

ECO codes
Codes from the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings are:
 * C50 Italian Game, includes Giuoco Piano lines other than 4.c3 and 4.b4
 * C51 Evans Gambit
 * C52 Evans Gambit, with 4...Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5
 * C53 Giuoco Piano, 4.c3, without 4...Nf6
 * C54 Giuoco Piano, 4.c3 Nf6
 * includes other than 5.d4 and 5.d3
 * 5.d4 exd4, without 6.cxd4
 * 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4
 * 5.d3

title: Giuoco Piano