text:
Beith

Beith is a small town in the Garnock Valley, North Ayrshire, Scotland approximately 20 mi south-west of Glasgow. The town is situated on the crest of a hill and was known originally as the "Hill o' Beith" (hill of the birches) after its Court Hill.

Name
Beith's name is thought to emanate from Ogham, which is sometimes referred to as the "Celtic Tree Alphabet", ascribing names of trees to individual letters. Beithe in Old Irish means Birch-tree (cognate to Latin betula). There is reason to believe that the whole of the district was covered with woods. The town of Beith itself was once known as 'Hill of Beith' as this was the name of the feudal barony and was itself derived from the Court Hill near Hill of Beith Castle.

Alternatively, Beith may be derived from Cumbric *baɣeδ, 'boar' (Welsh baedd). The local pronunciation of the name would favour this theory.

The Wood of Beit, now the 'Moor of Beith', has been identified as an Arthurian site where according to Taliessin in a poem under the name of 'Canowan' it was the site of a battle in the wood of Beit at the close of the day.

Saint Inan
Beith is said to have been the occasional residence of Saint Inan, a confessor of some celebrity, whose principal place of abode was Irvine. He flourished about 839. Although he is said to have been a hermit, according to tradition Saint Inan often visited Beith, frequenting Cuff Hill with its Rocking Stone and various other prehistoric monuments. A cleft in the west-front of Lochlands Hill is still known as "St. Inan's Chair" and said to have been used by the saint as a pulpit. An unsuccessful search for the saint's writings which were said to be preserved in the library of Bonci, Archbishop of Pisa, was made by Colonel Mure of Caldwell in the 19th century.

Saint Inan is said to have preached to the assembled people from the chair on the hill. There was not a great population in the area at that time and the people were located not in Beith, but up on the top of the Bigholm near to the old Beith water dams. The first settlements were in the heavily wooded areas around the dams where people were safe from attack and could get food from the land, and fish in the lochs. The Saints of old went where the people were, and they also tended to go where there had been worship of heathen gods. It has been suggested that High Bogside Farm, which used to be called Bellsgrove, was really "Baalsgrove", which fits in with the story of Saint Inan going to where the pagan gods were.

There is an annual civic fete held in the town bearing Saint Inan's name.

Alexander Montgomerie
The sixteenth century poet Alexander Montgomerie was probably born in Hazelhead (now Hessilhead) Castle, which is on the outskirts of Beith, beyond Gateside. Montgomerie is regarded as one of the finest of Middle Scots poets, and perhaps the greatest Scottish exponent of the sonnet form.

Smugglers
Beith has a historical connection to smuggling and built a reputation during the 18th century as being a town which harboured those whose intentions were not always lawful. In 1733 forty or fifty Beith smugglers sacked the Irvine Customs House, escaping with a rich booty of confiscated contraband goods and by 1789 a company of 76 soldiers were quartered in the town dealing with the continuing illicit trade in tea, tobacco, and spirits. This caused great inconvenience to the law-abiding citizens on whom the soldiers were billeted. The town was policed in this fashion for some time thereafter. Hence, the Main Street's popular public house is still called the Smugglers Tavern, recalling the days when Beith's location between the coast and Paisley and Glasgow, made it a convenient stopping off point for those involved in nefarious activities.

A possible relic of the smuggling days of Beith is the ley tunnel that is said to run from Eglinton Street to Kilbirnie Loch.

Morrishill and James Montgomery
Now a small housing estate, the house and land of Morrishill stood a short distance south of Beith. It commanded an excellent view and was well sheltered with trees. Owned by Robert Shedden, who purchased the land in 1748, it is notoriously linked to the case of James Montgomery.

James Montgomery, an enslaved African, was brought from Virginia to Beith by Shedden. He wanted Montgomery, then called "Shanker", apprenticed to a joiner so that he would learn a skill and could then be sold for a large profit back in Virginia. James was trained in carpentry by Robert Morrice, husband of Shedden's sister Elizabeth Montgomery. When Shanker was baptised in Beith Parish Church (by the Rev. John Witherspoon ) with the name James Montgomery in April 1756, Shedden objected. Montgomery was dragged nearly 30 mi to Port Glasgow behind horses to be taken back to Virginia but escaped to Edinburgh before the ship sailed. Montgomery sought justice but before a decision could be made by judges he died in Tolbooth Gaol.

Rev. John Witherspoon
A signatory of the American Declaration of Independence, the Rev. John Witherspoon, was a former minister of one its Church of Scotland parishes between 1745 and 1757. In 1745 he led the men of Beith to Glasgow to defend King George III against the Young Pretender in the '45 rebellion. Despite receiving orders to return to Beith, Witherspoon carried on, was captured at the Battle of Falkirk and imprisoned for a time in Doune Castle. He later emigrated and became a member of the US congress and in July 1776 he voted for the Resolution for Independence. In answer to an objection that the country was not yet ready for independence, according to tradition, he replied that it "was not only ripe for the measure, but in danger of rotting for the want of it." Witherspoon was also the sixth president of Princeton University and showed great commitment to liberal education and republican government. He died in 1794 on his farm that he had built"Tusculum," just outside Princeton, and is buried in the Princeton Cemetery. –His direct descendants include actress Reese Witherspoon, and he is commemorated by statues in Washington D.C., at the University of the West of Scotland in Paisley, and a plaque, placed by DSDI in 2009 in Beith town centre.

Robert Tannahill
The Scottish Poet Robert Tannahill's relatives lived at Boghall Farm near Gateside. His mother, Janet Pollock, came from Boghall although she spent much of her life at the home of her uncle, Hugh Brodie, who farmed at Langcroft at the foot of Calder Glen, near Lochwinnoch. Robert Tannahill (3 June 1774 - 17 May 1810), was known as the 'Weaver Poet', his music and poetry is contemporaneous with that of Robert Burns and they both died when relatively young.

Henry Faulds
Henry Faulds, the originator of the concept of forensic use of fingerprinting, was born in Beith in 1843. A well-travelled man, he explained the suitability of fingerprinting for the identification of criminals and also wrote to Charles Darwin to forward his ideas. The letter was never published and he died in 1930, aged 86, bitter at the lack of recognition he had received for his work. His work in Japan is remembered by a memorial stone in Tokyo. In 2007 a memorial was also placed in view in Woolstanton near to St Margaret's churchyard, where he was laid to rest.

On 12 November 2004 a substantial memorial stone with interpretation plaques were dedicated to his memory in Beith town centre close to the site of the house in New Street where he was born.

Robert Aitken
Aitken was a land surveyor and cartographer who published in Beith a New Parish Atlas of Ayrshire in 1829.

Textiles
About the time of the Act of Union, trade in linen cloth was introduced to Beith, which became so considerable, that the Beith markets were frequented by merchants from the neighbouring towns every week. By the 1730s, the declining linen cloth business was being succeeded by considerable trade in linen yarn. Crawford Brothers, flax spinners and makers of linen thread and shoe thread opened in Crummock in 1775 and moved to a factory at Barr Farm, Barrmill in 1836. The factory changed hands, continuing in production as the English Sewing Company until 1946. Beith merchants purchased the yarn made in the local area, and sold it to Paisley and Glasgow manufacturers. The demand for the commodity encouraged local farmers to raise great quantities of flax, and the linen yarn trade peaked around 1760. The manufacture of silk gauze superseded both trades and, from 1777 to 1789, the number of looms in the town producing the gauze peaked at approximately 170.

Furniture making
From 1845 until the 1980s, Beith had the honour of being the most important furniture-manufacturing town in Scotland with a reputation for high-quality furniture. The origins of the industry can be traced back to Mathew Dale who started by making hand-built furniture for local people in 1845. A former employee of Dale, Matthew Pollock progressed the manufacturing by introducing machinery in a factory setting 3 miles outside of the town at Beith North railway station. After approximately twelve years, Pollock and his brothers sold the factory to Robert Balfour, and moved into the town to expand their business. Balfour suffered the same problems as the Pollock Brothers in being unable to attract employees from the town willing to walk the 3 miles to work. In 1872, he built a factory near the Beith Town railway station and persuaded the railway company to build a siding to allow easy transportation of raw materials and finished products.

The industry expanded across the local area making it a centre of excellence in furniture manufacturing, and building its reputation throughout the world. In the late-1920s, transportation switched away from the railway but the industry continued to burgeon with many companies producing high-quality furniture: Macneill Bros, specialised in board room and library fittings, Stevenson and Higgins made lift cages, which were fitted in many hotels and department stores, Balfours were for a number of years the main manufacturers of mantlepieces in Scotland, some were designed in the elegant style, and required the skill of expert woodcarvers. Matthew Pollock Ltd supplied furniture to both the RMS Queen Mary and the RMS Queen Elizabeth II. I am from beith and believe it was beithcraft who supplied furniture for the RMS Queen Elizabeth II

Furniture is no longer produced in Beith due to the closure of the various manufacturing firms. The closures were caused by a multitude of problems such as the economic downturn, and an inability to compete with self-assembly furniture firms and their increase in popularity. The last major furniture manufacturer to close was Beithcraft (formerly Balfours) which finished in 1983 (after a major fire a few years earlier, which destroyed large sections of the plant) with the loss of 420 jobs. With this final closure came the end of Beith's reputation for being one of the main furniture manufacturers in the country.

This history of carpentry is remembered in the nickname of the local football team, Beith Juniors, who are commonly referred to as "The Cabes" (Cabinet Makers).

DM Beith
A large Defence Munitions (DM) centre is located between Beith and Barrmill. The site was originally developed in 1943 as a conventional Royal Naval Armaments Depot, munitions store, for the Royal Navy, the Ministry of Defence continues to maintain the armament depot, DM Beith, in the area.

As part of Ministry of Defence reorganisation plans in 2005, the 360 posts at DM-Beith were cut by 60. This was attributed to changes in the way equipment and supplies were stored and distributed, and it was hoped at the time, that it would reduce costs by £50m a year by 2010.

Regional industries
Historically in recent times, the major employers in the area were the Glengarnock Steelworks and the Linwood car manufacturing plant. Outwith the furniture industry, a large proportion of the local population were employed within these industries. At its peak, the local Steelworks had 3,000 employees, but by the time it closed in 1985 it had been reduced to 200. The Linwood car plant manufactured the Hillman Imp, a competitor to BMC's Mini, and provided up to 9,000 jobs during peak production but was closed by Peugeot-Citroen in 1981. It has been estimated that 13,000 workers were left jobless in the region as both direct and indirect consequences of the Linwood closure.

Beith today
In 1966 a local survey estimated that 48% of the population worked outside the town whilst today the figure is more likely to be around 80%. The current population is around 6,000 helped by the completion of ten private housing estates dating from 1966 to the present and by redevelopment of sites within the town. The town has good transport links to Glasgow.

Deprivation and regeneration
North Ayrshire is ranked fifth highest in Scotland in terms of percentage of the population living in the most deprived areas. These areas have been targeted for regeneration by the local authority. This involves the targeting of activity and resources by the community planning partnership in relation to housing, crime, income, employment, health, skills and training and access to services.

A small area of Beith is one of three regeneration areas in the Garnock Valley. These are the smallest regeneration areas in Ayrshire. This is partly because rural deprivation tends to be less geographically concentrated than urban deprivation, and so it remains more hidden, being experienced by individuals and households rather than the larger communities. The area of Beith targeted for regeneration amounts to 359 households and 635 people (approximately 10% of the town's population).

The Auld Kirk
The Beith Auld Kirk began as a parish church in 1593. It was built in the form of a cross and was dedicated to Saint Inan. A bell tower and clock were added in 1800. The old bell still stands, and bears this inscription: "This bell was given by Hew Montgomerie, sone of Hessilhead, anno 1614, and refounded by the Heritors of Beith, anno 1734″. The kirk had been built in a rather precarious position on a cliff-side, and from 1807 to 1810 it was rebuilt a little further up the hill as the new Parish Church. The Heritors then moved the older portions of the Auld Kirk to the new one, leaving only the front door, the clock and the belfry. There was not much left of the old kirk after that, and it came to be used as a burial ground for the Woodside family. Later on, however, it was closed for further burials and partly renovated, with the old high wall replaced by railings and paths dugs over the ground. Presently, there are no sepulchres of the old baronial families left standing, and the earliest graves date back only until 1710.

There are a number of memorials to the Spier  and Dobie families within the grounds of the Auld Kirk, and also a memorial to Robert Patrick of Hazelhead (Inspector General of Army Hospitals). A sundial dating from the 1840s is also visible, and a stone coat of arms thought to originate from the Auld Kirk manse can be seen nearby, in Reform Street.

The Townhouse
Beith Townhouse was built by public subscription in 1817; the lower part of the building originally consisted of two shops, one of which was an ironmonger's operated by George B. Inglis from 1862 until around 1900. There was also a small room where prisoners were kept prior to their appearance in the upper hall which was used as a JP Court, Sheriff Small Debt Circuit Court, meeting of the road trustees and as a public meeting room. It was also used as a public reading room. For the first twenty years the management of the Town House was in the hands of the JPs of Beith, Dalry, and Kilbirnie, the heritors of the parishes, the propietors of certain houses in Beith, and finally tenants of said houses within 1/2 mi of the cross.

Places of worship
Beith hosts three listed 19th-century churches: Two Beith Parish Churches of the Church of Scotland, and the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour.

The Trinity Church was built in 1883, designed by architect Robert Baldie. The chief external feature is a graceful octagonal tower. The interior was destroyed by fire in 1917, and rebuilt in 1926. Gothic style, with rectangular nave, Gothic arched chancel and one transept on the east side. The stained glass windows are by John C Hall & Co. Organ 1937 by Hill, Norman & Beard. The church is a category C listed building.

The Beith High Church was built in 1807 and extended in 1885. Gothic T-plan kirk dominated by the tall five-stage tower. Stained glass by Gordon Webster. Harrison & Harrison pipe organ 1885. The High Church is a category B listed building.

Our Lady of Perpetual Succour RC Church was built with a churchyard, in 1816, to replace the 1761 building on a different site. Re-built in 1910, it became a Roman Catholic place of worship in 1921.

Scapa Cottage
Scapa Cottage is known locally as "Dummy Cottage". The entire outside of the sandstone building is indented with marks giving it a most unusual appearance; in earlier years it was a Toll House. A deaf-and-dumb young man lived in the cottage in earlier times, hence the unfortunate acquired name "Dummy Cottage".

Kilbirnie Loch
Kilbirnie Loch (NS 330 543), is in the floodplain of between Kilbirnie, Glengarnock and Beith, and runs south-west to north-east for almost 2 km, is about 0.5 km wide for the most part and has an area of roughly 3 km2. The loch is fed mainly by the Maich Water and is drained by the Dubbs Water that runs into Castle Semple Loch. Early authors often use the term "Garnoth" or "Garnott" and may be referring to a single large loch incorporating Kilbirnie Loch and Loch Winnoch (Barr and Castle Semple Lochs). Boece in his book of 1527 the Historia Gentis Scotorum (History of the Scottish People), says that this one entity was "nocht unlike the Loch Doune full of fische".

There is a long history of drainage schemes and farming operations in the Lochwinnoch area, with co-ordinated attempts dating from about 1691 by Lord Sempill, followed by Colonel McDowal of Castle Sempil in 1774, James Adams of Burnfoot, and by others. Until these drainage works Loch Winnoch and Kilbirnie Loch nearly met and often did during flooding, to the extent that, as stated, early writers such as Boece, Hollings and Petruccio Ubaldini regarded the lochs as one, using the name "Garnoth" or "Garnott".

Spier's school
Spier's (pron. Speers) school stood on the Barmill Road near the old Marshalland Farm. It was built for Mrs Margaret Spier of the Marshalland and Cuff estate in 1887 to commemorate John Spier, her son, who had died at the age of 28, the last of her ten children. It was designed by Campbell Douglas. The school started as a fee paying day and boarding school, becoming part of the county education system in 1937. Following the construction of Garnock Academy, Spier's school closed in 1973 and the buildings were demolished in 1984. Robert Spier and family lived in Beith at number 62 Eglinton Street, formerly Whang Street, and they unusually had their own private chapel in the grounds.

The 16 acre of woodland and gardens remain a popular site for dog walkers, bird watchers, and those out to enjoy the rural surroundings. There are a number of memorials to the Spier's family in the Auld Kirk grounds and in the local area. The Spier's family left a trust for providing financial help to those from the Garnock Valley pursuing further education. The Trust is a committee of North Ayrshire council. The trust committee decided in 2007 to investigate ways of making better use of the assets of the trust in particular the former school grounds and the council worked in partnership to set up a Friends of Spiers (FoS) organisation to develop ideas and seek funding. North Ayrshire Council was successful in an application to the Forestry Commission to provide funding for a footpath network around the woodland area.

Geilsland House
William Fulton Love, writer and bank agent in Beith, built Geilsland House and developed this small estate near Gateside in the 19th century although the deeds go back to the 17th century. Geilsland was a special school, run by the Church of Scotland as part of its CrossReach initiative.

Crummock House
This mansion house and estate stood on the outskirts of Beith in an area now cut through by the main Dalry to Glasgow road. Built for the Kerr family in the 18th century, Crummock was sold in 1815 to William Wilson, who added to the house and improved the grounds. James Dobie, the historian and author, and his family lived here from 1836. Now demolished and a housing estate built on the site, some boundary walls and a cottage remain. Historic stones which had been built into the kitchen garden were donated to the North Ayrshire Heritage Centre, including the arched stone known as the shrine. Images of these shrine stones can be viewed in The Gallery section below. A plaque remembering James Dobie resides in Beith Auld Kirk.

The Court Hill
The Court Hill is near Hill of Beith, below the site of Hill of Beith Castle, Gateside, in the old Barony of Beith. Dobie states that this is the moot hill on which the Abbot of Kilwinning used to administer justice to his vassals & tenants. It is a sub-oval, flat-topped mound, situated at the foot of a small valley. A number of large stones are visible in the sides of the mound. It is turf-covered, probably situated on a low outcrop, and is mostly an artificial work. Pre-dating the channelling of the burn which detours around it, the mound was probably isolated in this once marshy outflow of the former Boghall Loch (see NS35SE 14).

In the 12th century the Barony of Beith was given to the Tironensian monks of Kilwinning Abbey by the wife of Sir Richard de Morville. The farm or Grange of the monks is indicated by the name Grange Hill and a castellated tower indicated as once existing in the area may have been the local dwelling of the Abbot of Kilwinning when he was visiting the barony to deliver justice at the Court Hill or attend to other business and later the local laird. No clearly undisputed remains have been found of the tower or grange buildings, however the New Statistical Account of 1845 written by the local minister, George Colville, states that the castle stood close to the Court Hill.

Boghall Loch
Loch Brand or Bran was the name by which Boghall Loch was formerly known. The loch, now almost completely drained, is the main source of the Powgree Burn and partly lay on the lands of Boghall. On or around the margin of the loch piles or stakes of oak or elm have been discovered and it is thought that these may be the remains of crannogs.

Beith Rocking Stone
The Beith Rocking Stone, sits on top of Cuff Hill. According to local folklore, Saint Inan frequented the stone. Legend states that the stone rocked from side to side on an unseen fulcrum, however this is no longer the case and the stone is now fully set into the ground. An article was published in Cumnock Chronicle in 1907 on the reason for the stone being dislodged. Signed by a Messer's Robert Boyle & Robert Currie.

Willowyards (Angel's Share fungus)

The area surrounding Willowyards and its whisky bond are characterised by a black staining that covers all living and non-living surfaces to varying degrees. The research that first led to the scientific identification of the organism causing this black and velvety encrustation was partly carried out using samples from Willowyard. The organism causing what is commonly known as 'Warehouse Staining', is a black fungus, Baudoinia compniacensis which is harmless and feeds upon the 'Angels's Share' of alcohol evaporating from the whisky barrels.

Demographics
According to the Office for National Statistics, based on the 2011 Census estimates, 91.2 per cent of the 6,200 inhabitants of Beith were born in Scotland, with 6.9 per cent born in the United Kingdom, 0.8 per cent from other countries in the European Union and 1.2 per cent classified as other country.

The 2011 Scotland census reported 99.2 (6,156) per cent of people from Beith being White, 0.4 per cent are Asian, followed by mixed/multiple descent being 0.3 per cent and 0.1 per cent reported "Other" origins.

Saint Inan's Fete
There is an annual celebration that parades through the town each summer. It normally commences outside the town's Community Centre, going through the town and ending in the grounds of the Primary School for the Fete in the afternoon. A gala dance is normally held in the evening.

Friends of Spiers (FoS)
This is a support group, affiliated to The Conservation Volunteers (TCV), which works with the Spier's Trust, North Ayrshire Council Ranger Service & Beith Cultural & Heritage Society.

The first substantial signs of the regeneration of the site was the construction of the Spier's Commemorative Wall, erected in 2010, resurfacing of the paths and roads within the site and the restoration of the Coronation Garden, completed in 2011.

Youth Making Beith Better (YMBB)
The YMBB youth group was set up by members of the community to give the young people of Beith and district an opportunity to involve themselves in improving their town and the surrounding area, whilst at the same time providing a forum for learning additional skills, sharing ideas and socialising with their peers. The group was closely involved with the Saint Inan's parade and other local events.

YMBB met in the Beith Community Centre twice a week, supervised by adults from the NAC Youth Services. The YMBB committee included youth members, adults from the community and local councillors who assist in the overview of the group and with forward planning.

Beith Theatre Group
Beith Theatre Group began in 1990 and started out as Beith High Drama, as part of Beith High Church raising funds for roof repairs.

When Beith High Church and Beith Trinity Church joined in the late 2000s, Beith High Drama changed its name to Beith Amateur Dramatics, subsequently changing its name to Beith Theatre Group post Covid lockdown in 2022 to reflect the new direction the group has taken.

Beith Theatre Group performs for the community of Beith and the wider community of the Garnock Valley, producing two to three productions a year, all culminating to the widely anticipated annual pantomime performed at the end of the second week of December.

Beith Theatre Group is a charity run under the auspices of Beith Parish Church. It has its own Committee charged with the day-to-day management of the group.

It is a community based group bringing together many from across Ayrshire to perform light-hearted entertainment in Beith, in a safe, inclusive environment where all are encouraged to give it their all.

Beith Theatre Group meets twice weekly on a Wednesday evening and Sunday afternoon, any one above the age of 11 can join.

Transport
The town was once served by two railway stations: Beith North, commonly referred to as "the Low station" and Beith Town. Beith North closed in 1951 and the Beith Town station closed in 1962. The nearest railway station is just over 2 miles away, at Glengarnock which provides direct rail links to Glasgow Central station and services to the Clyde coast and Glasgow Prestwick airport.

Beith is approximately 13 miles south-west of Glasgow International Airport, 21 miles north of Glasgow Prestwick airport and 60 miles west of Edinburgh Airport.

Football
The local football club, Beith Juniors, formed in 1938 to succeed Beith who had played in the Scottish Football League in the 1920s. The team participate in the and play their home games at Bellsdale Park, which is famous for its slope. The club's most famous former player is Steve Clarke, who went on to play for St Mirren and Chelsea, and has been the manager of West Bromwich Albion, Reading and Kilmarnock. He is the current manager of the Scotland national team.

Beith Astro
Beith Astro was generated through the enabling efforts of the Beith Trust. As a result of campaigning and lobbying throughout 2010, North Ayrshire Council committed £300,000 towards the refurbishment of the synthetic pitch in advance of the facilities coming under community management in April 2012. Beith Trust also enabled community ownership of two grass pitches, and changing pavilions.

Beith Astro is an eleven-a-side, full-size synthetic astro pitch now used by not only the trust and its affiliated community programmes and groups but also Beith Juniors Football Club and all twelve Beith Community Football Clubs.

Rugby
Beith's only rugby football club, Old Spierians was amalgamated, along with Dalry High School FP into Garnock RFC in 1972 when Spier's School, Dalry High, Kilbirnie Central and Beith Academy schools were closed to form Garnock Academy. The Old Spierians club had been founded in the early years of the 20th century and joined the Scottish Rugby Union in 1911. Garnock play their home games at Lochshore on the banks of Kilbirnie Loch and currently (2010) participate in the Scottish Hydro Premier League 3.

Golf
Beith also has its own 18-hole, 68-par golf course, in the Bigholm area just east of the town, a short walking distance from Saint Inan's chair at Lochland's Hill.

Cinema
The town's George cinema was put up for sale in the autumn of 1982, but a surprisingly good run of E.T. over that Christmas period helped keep it open until the following summer. It finally closed on 25 June 1983 for conversion to a snooker club, although the building has since been demolished.

People from Beith

 * Archibald Clark (1805-1875) First Mayor of Auckland City
 * James McCosh Clark (1833–1898), 8th Mayor of Auckland City
 * Sandy Brown (1879–1944), footballer

title: Beith


text:
Planned obsolescence

In economics and industrial design, planned obsolescence (also called built-in obsolescence or premature obsolescence) is the concept of policies planning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life or a purposely frail design, so that it becomes obsolete after a certain predetermined period of time upon which it decrementally functions or suddenly ceases to function, or might be perceived as unfashionable. The rationale behind this strategy is to generate long-term sales volume by reducing the time between repeat purchases (referred to as "shortening the replacement cycle"). It is the deliberate shortening of the lifespan of a product to force people to purchase functional replacements.

Planned obsolescence tends to work best when a producer has at least an oligopoly. Before introducing a planned obsolescence, the producer has to know that the customer is at least somewhat likely to buy a replacement from them in the form of brand loyalty. In these cases of planned obsolescence, there is an information asymmetry between the producer, who knows how long the product was designed to last, and the customer, who does not. When a market becomes more competitive, product lifespans tend to increase. For example, when Japanese vehicles with longer lifespans entered the American market in the 1960s and 1970s, American carmakers were forced to respond by building more durable products.

History
In 1924, the American automobile market began reaching saturation point. To maintain unit sales, General Motors executive Alfred P. Sloan Jr. suggested annual model-year design changes to convince car owners to buy new replacements each year, with refreshed appearances headed by Harley Earl and the Art and Color Section. Although his concept was borrowed from the bicycle industry, its origin was often misattributed to Sloan. Sloan often used the term dynamic obsolescence, but critics coined the name of his strategy planned obsolescence.

This strategy had far-reaching effects on the automobile industry, product design field and eventually the whole American economy. The smaller players could not maintain the pace and expense of yearly re-styling. Henry Ford did not like the constant stream of model-year changes because he clung to an engineer's notions of simplicity, economies of scale, and design integrity. GM surpassed Ford's sales in 1931 and became the dominant company in the industry thereafter. The frequent design changes also made it necessary to use a body-on-frame structure rather than the lighter, but less easy to modify, unibody design used by most European automakers.

The origin of the phrase planned obsolescence goes back at least as far as 1932 with Bernard London's pamphlet Ending the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence. The essence of London's plan would have the government impose a legal obsolescence on personal-use items, to stimulate and perpetuate purchasing. However, the phrase was first popularized in 1954 by Brooks Stevens, an American industrial designer. Stevens was due to give a talk at an advertising conference in Minneapolis in 1954. Without giving it much thought, he used the term as the title of his talk. From that point on, "planned obsolescence" became Stevens' catchphrase. By his definition, planned obsolescence was "Instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary."

The phrase was quickly taken up by others, but Stevens' definition was challenged. By the late 1950s, planned obsolescence had become a commonly used term for products designed to break easily or to quickly go out of style. In fact, the concept was so widely recognized that in 1959 Volkswagen mocked it in an advertising campaign. While acknowledging the widespread use of planned obsolescence among automobile manufacturers, Volkswagen pitched itself as an alternative. "We do not believe in planned obsolescence", the ads suggested. "We don't change a car for the sake of change." In the famous Volkswagen advertising campaign by Doyle Dane Bernbach, one advert showed an almost blank page with the strapline "No point in showing the 1962 Volkswagen, it still looks the same".

In 1960, cultural critic Vance Packard published The Waste Makers, promoted as an exposé of "the systematic attempt of business to make us wasteful, debt-ridden, permanently discontented individuals". Packard divided planned obsolescence into two sub categories: obsolescence of desirability and obsolescence of function.

"Obsolescence of desirability", also known as "psychological obsolescence", referred to marketers' attempts to wear out a product in the owner's mind. Packard quoted industrial designer George Nelson, who wrote:

"Design ... is an attempt to make a contribution through change. When no contribution is made or can be made, the only process available for giving the illusion of change is 'styling'!"

Variants
There are several variants of planned obsolescence. They are listed in the order of increasing severity:

Perceived obsolescence
Obsolescence of desirability or stylistic obsolescence occurs when designers change the styling of products so trendsetting customers will purchase the latest styles.

Many products are primarily desirable for aesthetic rather than functional reasons. An example of such a product is clothing. Such products experience a cycle of desirability referred to as a "fashion cycle". By continuously introducing new aesthetics, and retargeting or discontinuing older designs, a manufacturer can "ride the fashion cycle", allowing for constant sales despite the original products remaining fully functional. Sneakers are a popular fashion industry where this is prevalent—Nike's Air Max line of running shoes is a prime example where a single model of shoe is often produced for years, but the color and material combination ("colorway") is changed every few months, or different colorways are offered in different markets. This has the upshot of ensuring constant demand for the product, even though it remains fundamentally the same.

Motor vehicle platforms typically undergo a midlife "facelift"—a cosmetic rather than an engineering change for the purpose of cost effectively increasing customer appeal by making previously manufactured versions of the same fundamental product less desirable. The most simplistic way to achieve this outcome is to offer new paint colors.

To a more limited extent this is also true of some personal-use electronic products, where manufacturers will release slightly updated products at regular intervals and emphasize their value as status symbols. The most notable example among technology products are Apple products. New colorways introduced with iterative “S” generation iPhones (e.g. the iPhone 6S's "Rose Gold") entice people into upgrading and distinguishes an otherwise identical-looking iPhone from the previous year's model.

Some smartphone manufacturers release a marginally updated model every 5 or 6 months compared to the typical yearly cycle, leading to the perception that a one-year-old handset can be up to two generations old. A notable example is OnePlus, known for releasing T-series devices with upgraded specifications roughly 6 months after a major release device. Sony Mobile utilised a similar tactic with its Xperia Z-series smartphones.

Contrived durability
Contrived durability is a strategy of shortening the product lifetime before it is released onto the market, by designing it to deteriorate quickly. The design of all personal-use products includes an expected average lifetime permeating all stages of development. Thus, it must be decided early in the design of a complex product how long it should last so that each component can be made to those specifications. Due to natural degradation, most products will ultimately break down, no matter what steps are taken. Limited lifespan is only a sign of planned obsolescence if the limit is made artificially short.

The strategy of contrived durability is generally not prohibited by law, and manufacturers are free to set the durability level of their products. While often considered planned obsolescence, it is often argued as its own field of anti-customer practices.

A possible method of limiting a product's durability is to use inferior materials in critical areas, or suboptimal component layouts which cause excessive wear. Using soft metal in screws and cheap plastic instead of metal in stress-bearing components will increase the speed at which a product will become inoperable through normal usage and make it prone to breakage from even minor forms of abnormal usage. For example, small, brittle plastic gears in toys are extremely prone to damage if the toy is played with roughly, which can easily destroy key functions of the toy and force the purchase of a replacement. The short life expectancy of smartphones and other handheld electronics is a result of constant usage, fragile batteries, and the ability to easily damage them.

Screens
Samsung AMOLED displays used in mobile phones have suboptimal ribbon cables that deteriorate over time, resulting in the screen turning completely white. Another point of failure is the degraded TFT layer which causes green or purple lines to appear on the display. Both issues can be triggered by a software update. They render the device unusable, requiring the user to repair or replace the display or to upgrade to a new device sooner than they had needed to. These issues are well known to the public thanks to Samsung's own Galaxy S20 series of mobile phones.

Batteries
Throughout normal use, batteries lose their ability to store energy, output power, and maintain a stable terminal voltage, which impairs computing speeds and eventually leads to system outages in portable electronics.

Some portable products highly relied upon in the post-PC era, such as mobile phones, laptops, as well as electric toothbrushes, are designed in a way that denies end-users the ability to replace their batteries after those have worn down, therefore leaving an aging battery trapped inside the device, which limits the product lifespan to its shortest-lived component.

While such a design can help make the device thinner, it makes it difficult to replace the battery without sending the entire device away for repairs or purchasing an entirely new device. On a device with a sealed back cover, a manual battery replacement might induce permanent damage, including loss of water-resistance due to damages on the water-protecting seal, as well as risking serious, even irreparable damage to the phone's main board as a result of having to pry the battery free from strong adhesive in proximity to delicate components. Some devices are even built so that the battery terminals are covered by the main board, requiring it to be riskily removed entirely before disconnecting the terminals.

The practice in phone design started with Apple's iPhones and has now spread out to most other mobile phones with, as of 2022, the exception of Fairphone and Shiftphone offerings. Earlier mobile phones (including water-resistant ones) had back covers that could be opened by the user in order to replace the battery. On December 9, 2022, the EU Parliament reached an agreement to require, from 2026, manufacturers to design all electrical appliances sold in the EU (and not used predominantly in wet conditions) so that consumers can easily remove and replace batteries themselves.

Prevention of repairs
The ultimate examples of such design are single-use versions of traditionally durable goods, such as disposable cameras, where the customer must purchase entire new products after using them just once. Such products are often designed to be impossible to service; for example, a cheap throwaway digital watch may have a case which is sealed in the factory, with no designed ability for the user to access the interior without destroying the watch entirely. Manufacturers may make replacement parts either unavailable or so expensive that they make the product uneconomic to repair. For example, Canon and some HP inkjet printers incorporate a replaceable print head which eventually fails. However, the high cost of a replacement forces the owner to scrap the entire device.

Other products may also contain design features meant to frustrate repairs, such as Apple's "tamper-resistant" pentalobe screws that cannot easily be removed with common personal-use tools, overuse of glue, as well as denying operation if any third-party component such as a replacement home button has been detected.

Front loading washing machines often have the drum bearing – a critical and wear-prone mechanical component – permanently molded into the wash tub, or even have a sealed outer tub, making it impossible to renew the bearings without replacing the entire tub. The cost of this repair may exceed the residual value of the appliance, forcing it to be scrapped.

Bosch, despite the up to 10-year availability of spare parts declared on websites, assembles in the popular MaxoMixx mixers an easily breaking plastic latch, refusing to sell the replacement latch to the user and proposing to replace the entire drive consisting of many elements as a single spare part, which is almost equivalent to buying a new device.

According to Kyle Wiens, co-founder of online repair community iFixit, a possible goal for such a design is to make the cost of repairs comparable to the replacement cost, or to prevent any form of servicing of the product at all. In 2012, Toshiba was criticized for issuing cease-and-desist letters to the owner of a website that hosted its copyrighted repair manuals, to the detriment of the independent and home repair market.

One way is that a store can sell a part which is incompatible with the products they sell on their own, so customers would try it and think their product is just broken, and then buy a whole new product. One example is that a ceiling fan pull chain The Home Depot or Lowe's sell at their stores wouldn't work out perfectly on most of the ceiling fans, including the ones they sell at their stores. The pull chain they sell is for a ceiling fan with a 3 speed motor and a single capacitor, which is rarely the case of ceiling fans sold today, and would cause ceiling fans with triple capacitor to not work well on medium and would cause ceiling fans with dual capacitor to not spin at all.

Systemic obsolescence
Planned systemic obsolescence is caused either by the withdrawal of investment, or a product becoming obsolete through continuous development of the system in which it is used in such a way as to make continued use of the original product difficult. Common examples of planned systemic obsolescence include changing the design of screws or fasteners so that they cannot easily be operated on with existing tools, thereby frustrating maintenance. This may be intentionally designed obsolescence, a withdrawal of investment or standards being updated or superseded. For example, serial ports, parallel ports, and PS/2 ports have largely been supplanted or usurped by USB on newer PC motherboards since the 2000s.

Programmed obsolescence
In some cases, notification may be combined with deliberate artificial disabling of a functional product to prevent it from working, thus requiring the buyer to purchase a replacement. For example, inkjet printer manufacturers employ smart chips in their ink cartridges to prevent them from being used after a certain threshold (number of pages, time, etc.), even though the cartridge may still contain usable ink or could be refilled (with ink toners, up to 50 percent of the toner cartridge is often still full). This constitutes "programmed obsolescence", in that there is no random component contributing to the decline in function.

In the Jackie Blennis v. HP class action suit, it was claimed that Hewlett-Packard designed certain inkjet printers and cartridges to shut down on an undisclosed expiration date, and at this point customers were prevented from using the ink that remained in the expired cartridge. HP denied these claims, but agreed to discontinue the use of certain messages, and to make certain changes to the disclosures on its website and packaging, as well as compensating affected customers with a total credit of up to $5,000,000 for future purchases from HP.

Samsung produces laser printers that are designed to stop working with a message about imaging drum replacing. There are some workarounds for users, for instance, that will more than double the life of the printer that has stopped with a message to replace the imaging drum.

In 2021, Canon disabled the scanning function of its Canon Pixma MG6320 all-in-one printers whenever an ink cartridge was out of ink. A class action lawsuit was filed.

Software degradation and lock-out
Another example of programmed obsolescence is making older versions of software (e.g. Adobe Flash Player or YouTube's Android application ) unserviceable deliberately, even though they would technically, albeit not economically, be able to keep working as intended.

Where older versions of software contain unpatched security vulnerabilities, such as banking and payment apps, deliberate lock out may be a risk-based response to prevent the proliferation of malware in those older versions. If the original vendor of the software is no longer in business, then disabling may occur by another software author as in the case of a web browser disabling a plugin. Otherwise, the vendor who owns a software ecosystem may disable an app that does not comply with a key policy or regulation, such as the processing of personal data to protect user privacy, though in other cases, this does not exclude the possibility of "security reasons" being used for fearmongering.

This could be a problem for the user, because some devices, despite being equipped with appropriate hardware, might not be able to support the newest update without modifications such as custom firmware.

Additionally, updates to newer versions might have introduced undesirable side effects, such as removed features or compulsory changes, or backwards compatibility shortcomings which might be unsolicited and undesired by users.

Software companies sometimes deliberately drop support for older technologies as a calculated attempt to force users to purchase new products to replace those made obsolete. Most proprietary software will ultimately reach an end-of-life point at which the supplier will cease updates and support, usually because the cost of code maintenance, testing and support exceed the revenue generated from the old version. As free software and open source software can usually be updated and maintained at lower cost, the end of life date can be later. Software that is abandoned by the manufacturer with regard to manufacturer support is sometimes called abandonware.

Legal obsolescence
Legal obsolescence refers to the undermining of product usability through legislation, as well as facilitate purchasing a new product by offering benefits.

For example, governments wanting to increase electric vehicle ownership could increase the replacement rate of cars by subsidising them.

Several cities such as London, Berlin, Paris, Antwerp and Brussels have introduced low-emission zones (LEZ) banning older diesel cars.

Laws and regulations
In 2015 the French National Assembly established a fine of up to €300,000 and jail terms of up to two years for manufacturers planning the failure of their products. The rule is relevant not only because of the sanctions that it establishes but also because it is the first time that a legislature recognized the existence of planned obsolescence. These techniques may include "a deliberate introduction of a flaw, a weakness, a scheduled stop, a technical limitation, incompatibility or other obstacles for repair".

The European Union is also addressing the practice. The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), an advisory body of the EU, announced in 2013 that it was studying "a total ban on planned obsolescence". It said replacing products that are designed to stop working within two or three years of their purchase was a waste of energy and resources and generated pollution. The EESC organised a round table in Madrid in 2014 on 'Best practices in the domain of built-in obsolescence and collaborative consumption' which called for sustainable consumption to be a customer right in EU legislation. Carlos Trias Pinto, president of the EESC's Consultative Commission on Industrial Change supports "the introduction of a labeling system which indicates the durability of a device, so the purchaser can choose whether they prefer to buy a cheap product or a more expensive, more durable product".

In 2015, as part of a larger movement against planned obsolescence across the European Union, France passed legislation requiring that appliance manufacturers and vendors declare the intended product lifespans, and to inform purchasers how long spare parts for a given product will be produced. From 2016, appliance manufacturers are required to repair or replace, free of charge, any defective product within two years from its original purchase date. This effectively creates a mandatory two-year warranty.

Critics and supporters
Shortening the replacement cycle has critics and supporters. Philip Kotler argues that: "Much so-called planned obsolescence is the working of the competitive and technological forces in a free society—forces that lead to ever-improving goods and services."

Critics such as Vance Packard argues the process is wasteful and exploits customers. With psychological obsolescence, resources are used up making changes, often cosmetic changes, that are not of great value to the customer. Miles Park advocates new and collaborative approaches between the designer and the purchaser to challenge obsolescence in fast-moving sectors such as personal-use electronics. Some people, such as Ronny Balcaen, have proposed to create a new label to counter the diminishing quality of products due to the planned obsolescence technique.

The Environmental Law Institute writes that planned obsolescence "contributes to a culture of wastefulness by perpetuating a 'buy new and buy often' mentality and limiting consumer autonomy to keep products longer by hard-wiring a 'self-destruct' button in products". Bisschop et al. (2022) have said that the practice limits the "usable life of products to bolster private profit at the expense of consumer interests and environmental sustainability", stating it should be considered a corporate crime against the environment.

In academia
Russell Jacoby, writing in the 1970s, observes that intellectual production has succumbed to the same pattern of planned obsolescence used by manufacturing enterprises to generate ever-renewed demand for their products.

"The application of planned obsolescence to thought itself has the same merit as its application to consumer goods; the new is not only shoddier than the old, it fuels an obsolete social system that staves off its replacement by manufacturing the illusion that it is perpetually new."

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

title: Planned obsolescence


text:
Talk:Common Sense

Still start class?
This really doesn't look like a start class article to me, I think the article's rating in the US project's quality scale should be updated.161.77.38.138 (talk) 16:07, 3 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Moved to C-class. Any article assessment change up to B-class can be performed by a single editor at their discretion. Loafiewa (talk) 16:19, 3 June 2021 (UTC)

EDIT REQUEST - Common Sense was a 47-page pamphlet
This article should begin... Common Sense was a 47-page pamphlet. (Note: Its back page was blank.) 73.85.206.245 (talk) 19:36, 2 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Well the number of pages is given as 48 in the infobox, although this does seem be unsourced. Do you have a source? Do you have a source for the back page being blank? Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 10:00, 1 July 2017 (UTC)

Math
This sentence makes no sense: "Common Sense sold almost 100,000 copies in 1776,[12] and according to Paine, 120,000 copies were sold in the first three months." O0drogue0o (talk) 09:09, 1 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Yes. I suspect that the second figure should be 20,000. But as it has no source for Paine's own claim, perhaps it should simply be removed for now? Martinevans123 (talk) 09:42, 1 July 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 5 July 2017
Richard Gimbel refers to "today" without any mention being made of when "today" is. He wrote in 1956, more than half a century ago, and the population of the United States has grown significantly since then. Therefore, after his phrase "equivalent sale today" please add the date in brackets, i.e. "today [1956], based" 208.95.51.38 (talk) 16:27, 5 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done jd22292 (Jalen D. Folf) (talk) 16:41, 5 July 2017 (UTC)
 * I've tweaked further, to put into past tense and retain the verbatim quote. I hope this looks ok, but if not, please revert. Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 18:23, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

Could you add a comma after the 1956? "Writing in 1956, Richard Gimbel estimated" Also, could you ask for the page to be un-semi-protected? It's been semi-protected for four years, and maybe un-semi-protection would show that it needs to be re-semi-protected, but maybe it would show that it's no longer needed. 208.95.51.38 (talk) 12:53, 7 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Padlock-dash2.svg Not done: requests for decreases to the page protection level should be directed to the protecting admin or to Requests for page protection if the protecting admin is not active or has declined the request. jd22292 (Jalen D. Folf) (talk) 14:46, 7 July 2017 (UTC)
 * I've added the comma. Also agree, in principle, to trying an unprotect. Martinevans123 (talk) 15:01, 7 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Could you ask the protecting admin, Martinevans123? Maybe he or she would listen more to someone with an account than to someone with an IP.  208.95.51.38 (talk) 16:07, 7 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Yes, of course. I'll try later. But it would obviously help if you created an account? :-) Martinevans123 (talk) 16:17, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

Main meaning of common sense?
I hope I am not missing anything. If so my apologies, but it seems to me there is a clear error in the way the dab redirects have been set-up. I have nothing against this article but it clearly isn't the main meaning of the term Common Sense. I will adapt on the assumption this is a clear case. I'm sure I'll hear more if I'm wrong.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 12:49, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I just noted the archived discussion above, but it also seems to show a clear majority seeing it the same way I do, which indeed seems to be "common sense".--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 12:51, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
 * It actually is the main meaning of Common Sense, especially when capitalized. The pamphlet's article actually gets even more views than common sense, and anyone typing Common Sense with a capital S very likely wants this article. The other things on the dab page don't come close.|Common_Sense_(pamphlet)|Common_sense|Common_Sense_(J_Hus_album)|Common_Sense_(John_Prine_album)|Common_Sense_(Scottish_magazine)|Common_Sense_(series) There are also many incoming wikilinks to Common Sense that intend the pamphlet. I just fixed the three I found that intended something else: one for the concept, one for the band, one unclear. Station1 (talk) 19:40, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Well as I said I have nothing about this pamphlet, but I have to respectfully disagree, and I see that most people do and have done so here on this talk page in previous discussions. Common Sense however it is capitalized is an everyday word whereas approximately 99.99% of people have never heard of the pamphlet. (Funnily enough I have. But honestly I know if I start talking about it no one will know what I am talking about.)--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 21:22, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
 * The objective facts are that more people read this article than read the common sense article, and that numerous wikilinks to Common Sense, which were not fixed prior to your change, intend this article. (I just fixed one more, which intended the rapper Common, not common sense.) In the 9-year-old discussion, several people did agree with your point of view, but the closer did not change the redirect at the time, and it has been mostly stable since then. Common Sense is not an "everyday word" like "common sense" and I have no idea why you think no one except you has ever heard of something that is covered in virtually every U.S. history textbook ever written. Let's see if others agree or disagree, but in any case, if consensus to redirect develops, please fix the wikilinks before you change it again. You might want to try WP:RFD if no one responds here. Station1 (talk) 02:43, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes, I think you would need to show that more editors agree with you. The discussions so far show a clear majority. I think your preference is based mainly on attaching a big importance to capital letters, but in fact common sense (the very common everyday term) is written in many ways in practice. I am happy to hear that lots of people read this article, but of course one possible reason is that people come to it by accident. It can't be our aim to be setting up redirects to get articles read more.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 07:48, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I certainly agree that the aim of redirects should not be to get articles read more. It should be to get readers to the article they want when they type certain words or click on a link. Capital letters are important, both in English generally and in WP titles (see WP:DIFFCAPS). I see no evidence that "common sense" is normally written with capitals or that people come to "Common Sense" in error. In fact, it's more likely that someone would not bother with the shift key when searching for the book than it is that someone looking for the term would capitalize the S; if anything, it's likely more people land on common sense by accident than here, maybe giving that article a small boost. It's not a major issue, except that someone clicking on a Common Sense wikilink should not be sent to the common sense article. Station1 (talk) 16:50, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Which happened to me, and must happen a lot, according to common sense ... so to speak. There is a reasonably strong consensus already recorded.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 18:02, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

Common Sense a 47-Page Pamphlet
I added "47-page" pamphlet. Many websites support this. 2601:589:4800:9090:45E1:5CC8:8A27:F2F (talk) 00:06, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: HIST 2010 Early U.S. History
— Assignment last updated by HughCQuinlan (talk) 13:44, 28 September 2022 (UTC)

Diagram of the "Constitution"
Under the title "III. Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs" there is a diagram that purportedly describes the US Constitution according to Thomas Paine.

However, it seems more a diagram for the election of the president than the whole of the Constitution.

I don't know if I'm right, though.

PaulStSmith (talk) 19:04, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Common Sense


text:
Triad

Triad or triade may refer to:

 * a group of 3|three

Humanities

 * Trichotomy (philosophy), often called triads
 * Triad (sociology), a group of three people as a unit of study
 * Triad (relationship), or ménage à trois

Music

 * Triad (music), chord consisting of root, third and fifth

Science and technology

 * Triad (anatomy), structure in skeletal muscles, formed by a T tubule surrounded by sarcoplasmic reticulum
 * Triad (computing), 3 bits of information storage
 * Triad (environmental science), management system for environmental cleanup
 * Triad (monitors), group of three phosphor dots used in some computer monitors
 * List of medical triads, tetrads, and pentads
 * A nuclear triad
 * Triad, a brand name of the combination medication butalbital/acetaminophen

Religion

 * Triad (religion), a grouping of three gods

Businesses and organisations

 * Triad (American fraternities), certain historic groupings of seminal college fraternities in North America
 * Triad (organized crime), a Chinese transnational organized crime syndicate
 * Triad Broadcasting, an American radio station operator
 * Triad High School (disambiguation), several uses
 * Triad Hospitals, an American hospital operator
 * Triad International, a multi-national private investment corporation
 * Triad Racing Technologies, a body parts and chassis supplier for NASCAR teams
 * Triad Securities, a finance company
 * Triad Strategies, an American lobbying firm
 * Triad Theater, a performing arts venue in New York City

Places

 * The Triad (mountain), in Washington, U.S.
 * Piedmont Triad, or simply the Triad, a region of North Carolina, U.S.
 * Triad Islands, in Antarctica

Arts and entertainment

 * Triads (Gregory Palamas), a set of nine treatises by 14th-century Byzantine Greek theologian St. Gregory Palamas
 * Triad, a 2013 video game by Anna Anthropy
 * Triad (sculpture), a 1980 outdoor sculpture by Evelyn Franz
 * Welsh Triads, collections of medieval Welsh legend and history
 * Triads of Ireland, a collection of Old Irish writings

Fictional characters

 * The Triad (Charmed), fictional characters in the TV series
 * Triad (superhero), alias of DC Comics' Luornu Durgo

Film and television

 * Triad (film), a 1938 German film
 * Triad, a 2012 Hong Kong film starring William Chan

Music

 * The Triad (album), by Pantha du Prince, 2016
 * Triad (band), a Swedish music group
 * "Triad", a track on Enya's 1987 album Enya
 * "Triad" (Pitchshifter song), 1993
 * "Triad" (David Crosby song), 1967
 * "Triad", a song by Tool from their 2001 album Lateralus
 * “Triad”, a song by Jefferson Airplane from their 1968 album “Crown Of Creation”

Other

 * HMS Triad (N53), T-class submarine of the UK Royal Navy

title: Triad


text:
Alberts Kviesis

Alberts Kviesis (22 December 1881 – 9 August 1944) was a Latvian politician who served as third President of Latvia from 1930 to 1936.

Early life
Alberts Kviesis was born in Kalnamuiža (Tērvete) parish (now Dobele Municipality) in the Courland Governorate. Having received his primary education from his parents, he thereafter finished the Jelgava Gymnasium and from 1902 studied law at the Tartu University, from where he graduated in 1907. After his studies, he worked as a lawyer in Jelgava. He took an active part in the work of Latvian national societies, having served as an acting chair of the Jelgava Latvian Society and a member of the Latvian commission of the Jelgava Red Cross.

Political career
On 25 April 1917, in Tartu, he participated in the Kurzeme local assembly and was elected to the Provisional Land Council of Kurzeme. In May 1917, he was elected by the Congress of Latvian Lawyers to the Bureau of Latvian Lawyers of Tartu. On 17 November 1918 Kviesis was among the delegates of the Tautas padome (People’s Council) of Latvia and, as a lawyer, was elected the vice-chair of the Council for juridical affairs. During the first years of Latvian independence, Kviesis actively participated in the development of the Latvian legal and court system. In July 1919 he was appointed a member of the Court Chamber, becoming its chairman from March 1923. Concurrently, from 1921 to 1923 he served as the Minister for the Interior in the cabinet of Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics. He was one of the most active members of the Latvian Farmers' Union, being elected to the Constitutional Assembly and first three Saeimas. From 1926 he served as the Vice-Speaker of the Latvian parliament.

After his unsuccessful attempt during the Latvian presidential elections in 1927, Kviesis ran again in 1930 after Gustavs Zemgals refused to be a candidate for a second term. He was elected after eleven rounds of voting on 9 April 1930, with a 55-vote majority of the Saeima members. During his term as President, he never proposed a single law himself, never vetoed a single law passed by Saeima, and never exercised his right to call an extraordinary cabinet meeting. On 11 April 1933 he was reelected by Saeima for his second term.

On 15 May 1934, Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis organized a coup d’etat, of which the President, his fellow party member, had no prior knowledge. As the coup was under way, Kvesis’s communications in the Riga Castle were cut off, but he never made any attempt, as the army’s commander-in-chief, to prevent or resist the coup. After Ulmanis had informed the President at 1 a.m. on 16 May that the Saeima had been dissolved and the Constitution suspended, Kvesis made no protest and continued to exercise his duties until the expiration of his term, albeit without any real power. He dutifully signed all laws passed by Ulmanis’ authoritarian government, the only remarkable event of his second term being the solemn opening of the Freedom Monument in Riga on 18 November 1935.

On 19 March 1936, Kviesis promulgated a law which stipulated that Ulmanis would become president upon the expiration of Kvesis' term, thus unconstitutionally combining the two offices. The law took effect when Kvesis left office on 11 April 1936, after which he returned to his law practice.

As the Soviet army occupied Latvia in 1940, Kviesis was prohibited to practice law and put under house arrest. He evaded mass deportations of June 1941, having hid with his family at some forest warden’s home. During the German occupation, he returned to his law practice and became a collaborationist, working for the legal consultant at the Law General Directorate of the pro-German Latvian Self-Government which was completely under the German control. From 1943 to 1944 he served as the director for the legal affairs of the Latvian Self-Government.

In August 1944, as he boarded a German ship to leave with the retreating German army, he died of a heart attack while the ship was still at the harbor. He is buried at the Forest Cemetery in Riga.

title: Alberts Kviesis


text:
Bus Éireann

Bus Éireann ("Irish Bus") is a state-owned bus and coach operator providing services throughout Ireland, with the exception of Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area, where bus services are provided by sister company Dublin Bus. It is a subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ). The company's primary hub is Busáras, located in Store Street, Dublin. In 2022 it operated 229 Public Service Obligation Routes, 14 expressway routes and 8940 school transport routes.

History
Bus Éireann was established in February 1987 when it was split out from Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ). The logo of Bus Éireann incorporates a red Irish Setter, a breed of dog that originated in Ireland.

The National Development Plan 1999-2006 included a large expansion in commuter services, especially in the Greater Dublin Area, and so the company greatly increased services on routes such as Dublin/Drogheda/Dundalk, Dublin/Ashbourne, Dublin/Ratoath, Dublin/Dunshaughlin/Navan/Kells/Cavan.

In 2008 Bus Éireann stated that they also intended to develop similar services to the 24-hour Dublin-Belfast route on the following routes: Donegal-Dublin, Ballina-Dublin, Sligo-Dublin and Drogheda-Balbriggan-Dublin Airport-Dublin. Due to the post-2008 economic downturn in Ireland these plans were never realised. On 20 January 2009, Bus Éireann announced that it was to let 320 staff go and withdraw 150 buses due to the economic crisis. Some services were permanently withdrawn or reduced due to the cutbacks.

During 2016, it was reported that Bus Éireann amassed losses of around €6 million and that these losses were set to rise throughout 2017. As a result, Shane Ross, TD, Ireland's Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, mentioned the company "faces insolvency within 18 months". Bus Éireann concluded an all out strike on Thursday 13 April that lasted since Friday 24 March 2017.

In November 2020 Bus Éireann suspended its Dublin to Belfast service, route X1, along with its Expressway services linking Dublin to Cork (route X8), Galway (routes 20 and X20) and Limerick (route X12). The board of the company announced it had taken the decision to end these commercial services, as they were losing money, in order to protect core routes. The financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was also cited as a reason for the suspension. Galway-Roscommon TD Claire Kerrane criticised the decision, highlighting the negative impact it would have on passengers who had relied on it in Aughrim, Ballinasloe and Athlone at a time when people were being encouraged to move back to such towns from the cities.

During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2022 it was noted that Bus Éireann had been the only bus company to continue operating long-distance routes in the country. Speaking to the BBC, the general secretary of the National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) Dermot O'Leary noted that as the majority of the Irish population stayed at home, the market for commercial companies to make profits on their normal routes ceased overnight, and they subsequently paused operations. As a result, "essential workers [reliant on public transport] could not have gone into hospitals, doctor's surgeries, pharmacies" were it not for Bus Éireann. Bus Éireann also provided the only bus connection between Athlone and the cities of Galway and Dublin for a period in 2020 when private companies such as Citylink temporarily suspended services.

From 2021 Bus Éireann services were expanded as part of a general expansion of services of bus services in Ireland. In rural areas this is taking place under the Connecting Ireland programme. Connecting Ireland includes the expansion of LocalLink and Bus Éireann services, as well as a reorganisation of services nationally. In 2022 this included improvements to 20 bus routes under the purview of Bus Éireann. Services in urban areas have also been expanded, with the launch of new town bus services, such as Carlow's, in July 2023.

Services
Bus Éireann's main services are in Ireland but they also provide services to Northern Ireland in association with Ulsterbus including: expressway (intercity), commuter, local and school services. Additional services within Ireland include city services in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford and town services in Athlone, Balbriggan, Drogheda, Dundalk, Navan and Sligo.

Bus Éireann operates international services to Great Britain and Europe, via the ports at Dublin and Rosslare Europort. Cities served include London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds. These are operated under the Eurolines brand.

When the company was first established in February 1987, there were no bus services between Dublin and Belfast. The Dublin/Dublin Airport/Newry/Belfast route was initiated soon after and came to be jointly operated by Bus Éireann and Ulsterbus. Reasons for the route's expansion in the 1990s and 2000s included the economic boom in the Republic, known as the Celtic Tiger; the Northern Ireland peace process which helped boost the economy there, and the rise of the low-cost airline industry, which greatly increased the numbers of people flying in and out of Dublin Airport from both sides of the border. By the 2000s the route operated an hourly service, each way, from 06:00 to 21:00 daily. In October 2006, further services were introduced on the route, departing at 01:00, 03:00, 05:00, and 23:00, thus establishing the route as the first "24-hour inter-city bus service" in the country. In November 2020 the service was suspended indefinitely by Bus Éireann although private companies continue to offer bus services between the two cities. These include Aircoach route 705X (01:30-22:30) and Dublin Coach route 400 (05:30-20:30).

A similar service to the Dublin-Belfast route was implemented on route 2 between Dublin Airport and Wexford, which started on 18 January 2009. Services departed Dublin Airport for Wexford on the hour from 05:00 to 23:00, with services during the night at 01:00 and 03:00. As of May 2022, no services exist on this route now between the hours of 00:00 and 06:00.

Expressway
‘Expressway’ is a division of Bus Éireann that provides intercity services throughout the country serving most of the main airports and cities in Ireland.

It is a commercial part of the company which, unlike the local and city services, does not receive government funding to operate.

Bus Éireann has also introduced regular clockface schedules on popular Expressway routes, such as hourly services on the routes Dublin/Athlone/Galway, Tralee/Killarney/Cork/Waterford, Cork/Limerick/Shannon Airport/Galway.

In 2021 with the launch of a new ticketing system for Expressway services, tickets ceased being interchangeable between expressway operated routes and PSO (i.e. Bus Éireann-branded) routes.

Nightrider
Bus Éireann introduced a number of Dublin 'Nightrider' services in the early 2000s, offering special Friday and Saturday night buses for people departing the city centre to return to locations in the Greater Dublin Area. Over busy periods, the Nightrider could also be extended to operate six days a week, Mon-Sat (observed during the Christmas 2005 period), offering late-night transport options to the towns of Newbridge, Drogheda, Navan, Enfield and Wicklow. The route numbers on the Nightrider services were suffixed with an 'N' to denote their night status.

 * Route 101N operated from Dublin to Drogheda via Dublin Airport, Swords, Balrothery, Balbriggan, Gormanston Cross and Julianstown. The service left Dublin at 00:30 and 03:30 each Friday and Saturday night. At some point after the year 2013, the route was scrapped as the regular route 101 began to operate on a 24-hours a day basis, with the largest gap between departures being those at 01:30, 03:30 and 05:30.

 * Route 109N operated from Dublin to Kells via Dublin Airport, Ashbourne, Ratoath, Dunshaughlin and Navan. On 30 May 2017, Bus Éireann announced it would be discontinuing the route. They did however notify that an alternative service was available on route 109A which operates hourly throughout the night, 7 days per week, 364 days per year. Route 109A operates hourly between 00:30-05:30 whilst the daytime route 109 is inactive.

 * Route 126N operated from Dublin to Newbridge via Heuston Station, Inchicore, Newlands Cross, Citywest, Rathcoole Junction, Kill Junction and Naas. The service left Dublin at 00.30 and 03:30 each Friday and Saturday night. On 19 November 2018, Bus Éireann announced the termination of the route noting that costs to run the service were not being covered due to insufficient passenger numbers and it had been loss-making for some time. The operation of the daytime route 126 remained unaffected, but the last departure now left from Dublin at the earlier time of 23.00. In early December 2019 Go-Ahead Ireland took over operation of the route, and reinstated late night departures from the city. As of May 2022, route 126 caters for late-night passengers by departing from Connolly station (Mon-Sat) at the times of 00:05, 01:05 and 03:35.

 * Route 133N operated from Dublin to Wicklow town, incorporating the towns of Kilmacanogue, Newtownmountkennedy, Newcastle, Ashford and Rathnew. The service left Dublin at 00.30 and 03:00 each Friday and Saturday night. In October 2008, Bus Éireann cancelled the service, mentioning that the route was no longer commercially viable. Others blamed the poor passenger numbers on the lack of adequate promotion or advertisement on the part of Bus Éireann with many people not even knowing the service existed.

The Nightrider service was also extended to Cork city and its environs during Christmas and other high-capacity events such as the Cork Jazz Festival. The service was also extended to Galway city for a time in 2008, departing Eyre Square at 01:30 for Moycullen, 02.30 for Spiddal and 03.30 for the towns of Oranmore and Claregalway. In December 2010 during a period of cold weather, Nightrider services from Dublin to Drogheda, Meath and Kildare were cancelled due to icy conditions.

Tourism services
Bus Éireann operates special one-day sightseeing tours from Dublin to locations such as Glendalough, Newgrange; from Cork, day tours to the Ring of Kerry, County Clare, West Cork, and Cape Clear Island; and from Galway, tours of Connemara and the Burren.

Real-time passenger information
RTPI is run by the National Transport Authority under the brand Transport for Ireland, a single portal providing information on public transport in Ireland.

Real-time information is available across most Bus Éireann services providing up-to-the-minute details about the arrival of a bus at a specific stop. It is calculated using the GPS location of a bus and is estimated and changed with current traffic conditions. Real-time information is available on the Bus Éireann website and via the Real Time Ireland App. Many stops across Ireland have real-time information that allows the customer to see exactly when the bus will arrive.

RTPI began to roll out across bus services in Ireland from 2011.

Bus Scoile
Bus Éireann operates "Bus Scoile" (School Bus), the School Transport Scheme on behalf of the Department of Education. County Meath VEC assists Bus Éireann in administering the service in County Meath to all second-level schools. Bus Éireann is responsible for planning routes, employing bus drivers, collecting fares and ensuring compliance with safety regulations and insurance. For the 2023/2024 school year 161,000 students used the service.

The 'Schools' services are mostly operated by cascaded second-hand ex-frontline vehicles. Due to recent regulations regarding seatbelts, all dated and unsuited vehicles were withdrawn and replaced with second-hand vehicles (mainly from the UK). From 2006 to 2016 Bus Éireann has been purchasing brand new buses from BMC, Euro Coach Builders Donegal, Alexander Dennis and TAM Motors Slovenia in 2016.

A number of the routes are outsourced to local bus companies such as Dunshaughlin Coach Hire, Jerry Ryan, O'Rourkes, Bernard Kavanaghs, Bartons, and James Mullally Coach Hire.

Stations

Bus Éireann operates from 17 bus stations across Ireland:
 * Athlone
 * Ballina
 * Ballyshannon
 * Cavan
 * Cork
 * Drogheda
 * Busáras, Dublin
 * Dundalk
 * Ennis
 * Galway
 * Killarney
 * Letterkenny
 * Limerick
 * Monaghan
 * Sligo
 * Tralee
 * Waterford

Safety
Bus Éireann has had a few fatal incidents, with those involving school buses being particularly scrutinised. After the death of five schoolgirls in a fatal accident in County Meath in 2005 involving a 1993 DAF MB230/Van Hool (ex-front line expressway) school bus. All school buses are fitted with seatbelts since 31 October 2011.

Some non-fatal incidents have also been quite serious, for example, an off-duty bus plunging into the River Liffey in Dublin, after a collision with another vehicle.

The company has also posted notices to encourage orderly queuing at bus stops after a series of incidents where pedestrians on the footpath were struck on the head by the wing mirrors of city buses.

In 2023 an Expressway bus caught fire, shortly after departing from Donegal Town. The 15 passengers on the bus escaped uninjured.

Natural gas buses
Bus Éireann introduced the first NGV on 17 July 2012 in Cork. It operated on the 216 (Cork University Hospital - Cork City Centre - Mount Oval) route until mid-August 2012 on a trial that was undertaken in partnership with Ervia. The Eco-city bus was made by MAN.

Fleet
As of January 2018, the fleet consists of 1,200 buses and coaches. The company mainly uses buses built by firms such as Scania, VDL Berkhof and Volvo. Bus Éireann's fleet has been substantially invested in as part of the National Development Plan. The vast majority of the operating fleet for expressway, commuter, and local services are now five years old or less.

title: Bus Éireann


text:
Triad (music)

In music, a triad is a set of three notes (or "pitch classes") that can be stacked vertically in thirds. Triads are the most common chords in Western music.

When stacked in thirds, notes produce triads. The triad's members, from lowest-pitched tone to highest, are called:
 * the root
 * Note: Inversion does not change the root. (The third or fifth can be the lowest note.)
 * the third – its interval above the root being a minor third (three semitones) or a major third (four semitones)
 * the fifth – its interval above the third being a minor third or a major third, hence its interval above the root being a diminished fifth (six semitones), perfect fifth (seven semitones), or augmented fifth (eight semitones). Perfect fifths are the most commonly used interval above the root in Western classical, popular and traditional music.

Some 20th-century theorists, notably Howard Hanson, Carlton Gamer, and Joseph Schillinger expand the term to refer to any combination of three different pitches, regardless of the intervals. Schillinger defined triads as "A structure in harmony of but three parts; conventionally, but not necessarily, the familiar triad of ordinary diatonic harmony." The word used by other theorists for this more general concept is "trichord". Others use the term to refer to combinations apparently stacked by other intervals, as in "quartal triad"; a combination stacked in thirds is then called a "tertian triad".

The root of a triad, together with the degree of the scale to which it corresponds, primarily determine its function. Secondarily, a triad's function is determined by its quality: major, minor, diminished or augmented. Major and minor triads are the most commonly used triad qualities in Western classical, popular and traditional music. In standard tonal music, only major and minor triads can be used as a tonic in a song or some other piece of music. That is, a song or other vocal or instrumental piece can be in the key of C major or A minor, but a song or some other piece cannot be in the key of B diminished or F augmented (although songs or other pieces might include these triads within the triad progression, typically in a temporary, passing role). Three of these four kinds of triads are found in the major (or diatonic) scale. In popular music and 18th-century classical music, major and minor triads are considered consonant and stable, and diminished and augmented triads are considered dissonant and unstable.

"When we consider musical works we find that the triad is ever-present and that the interpolated dissonances have no other purpose than to effect the continuous variation of the triad."

- Lorenz Mizler (1739)

History
In the late Renaissance music era, and especially during the Baroque music era (1600–1750), Western art music shifted from a more "horizontal" contrapuntal approach (in which multiple, independent melody lines were interwoven) toward progressions, which are sequences of triads. The progression approach, which was the foundation of the Baroque-era basso continuo accompaniment, required a more "vertical" approach, thus relying more heavily on the triad as the basic building block of functional harmony.

The primacy of the triad in Western music was first theorized by Gioseffo Zarlino (1500s), and the term "harmonic triad" was coined by Johannes Lippius in his Synopsis musicae novae (1612).

Construction
Triads (or any other tertian chords) are built by superimposing every other note of a diatonic scale (e.g., standard major or minor scale). For example, a C major triad uses the notes C–E–G. This spells a triad by skipping over D and F. While the interval from each note to the one above it is a third, the quality of those thirds varies depending on the quality of the triad:
 * major triads contain a major third and perfect fifth interval, symbolized: R 3 5 (or 0–4–7 as semitones)
 * minor triads contain a minor third, and perfect fifth, symbolized: R ♭3 5 (or 0–3–7)
 * diminished triads contain a minor third, and diminished fifth, symbolized: R ♭3 ♭5 (or 0–3–6)
 * augmented triads contain a major third, and augmented fifth, symbolized: R 3 ♯5 (or 0–4–8)

The above definitions spell out the interval of each note above the root. Since triads are constructed of stacked thirds, they can be alternatively defined as follows:
 * major triads contain a major third with a minor third stacked above it, e.g., in the major triad C–E–G (C major), the interval C–E is major third and E–G is a minor third.
 * minor triads contain a minor third with a major third stacked above it, e.g., in the minor triad A–C–E (A minor), A–C is a minor third and C–E is a major third.
 * diminished triads contain two minor thirds stacked, e.g., B–D–F (B diminished)
 * augmented triads contain two major thirds stacked, e.g., D–F♯–A♯ (D augmented).

Triads appear in close or open positions. "When the three upper voices are as close together as possible, the spacing is described as close position or close harmony. [...] The other arrangements [...] are called open position or open harmony."

Function

Each triad found in a diatonic (single-scale-based) key corresponds to a particular diatonic function. Functional harmony tends to rely heavily on the primary triads: triads built on the tonic, subdominant, and dominant degrees. The roots of these triads are the first, fourth, and fifth degrees (respectively) of the diatonic scale, and the triads are accordingly symbolized I, IV, and V. Primary triads "express function clearly and unambiguously." The other triads in diatonic keys include the supertonic, mediant, submediant, and leading-tone, whose roots are the second, third, sixth, and seventh degrees (respectively) of the diatonic scale, symbolized ii, iii, vi, and vii. They function as auxiliary or supportive triads to the primary triads.

title: Triad (music)