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Helen B. Taussig

Helen Brooke Taussig (May 24, 1898 – May 20, 1986) was an American cardiologist, working in Baltimore and Boston, who founded the field of pediatric cardiology. She is credited with developing the concept for a procedure that would extend the lives of children born with Tetralogy of Fallot (the most common cause of blue baby syndrome). This concept was applied in practice as a procedure known as the Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt. The procedure was developed by Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas, who were Taussig's colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Taussig was partially deaf following an ear infection in childhood; in early adulthood this progressed to full deafness. To compensate for her loss of hearing, she learned to use lip-reading techniques and hearing aids to speak with her patients. Taussing also developed a method of using her fingers, rather than a stethoscope, to feel the rhythm of their heartbeats. Some of her innovations have been attributed to her ability to diagnose heart problems by touch rather than by sound.

Taussig is also known for her work in banning thalidomide and was widely recognized as a highly skilled physician. She was the first woman to be elected head of the American Heart Association. She was more proud of the fact that she was the first pediatrician to be elected head of the AMA; and in 1964 she was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Early life and education
Helen Brooke Taussig was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 24, 1898, to F. W. Taussig and Edith Thomas Guild, the youngest of four children. Her father was an economist at Harvard University, and her mother was one of the first students at Radcliffe College, a women's college.

She spent summers as a child in Cotuit, Massachusetts, and later in life had a home there.

When Taussig was 11 years old, her mother died of tuberculosis. Helen also contracted the disease and was ill for several years, severely affecting her ability to do schoolwork. She also struggled with severe dyslexia through her early school years and was partially deaf. Despite this, she did well at school due to diligent work and extensive tutoring from her father.

She graduated from Cambridge School for Girls in 1917, then studied for two years at Radcliffe College before earning a bachelor's degree and Phi Beta Kappa membership from the University of California, Berkeley in 1921.

After graduating, Taussig wished to study at Harvard Medical School, but the medical programme did not accept women (this was the case until 1945, though the first woman had applied nearly 100 years earlier, in 1847). The program actually did accept women in theory but would not give them a degree. When Taussig was told this by the dean of the medical school, she asked why anyone would want to attend without any hope of getting a degree, to which the dean replied, "That is what we are hoping." Taussig responded, "Well, I shall not be the first to disappoint you", and left. Instead she considered applying to study public health, partially because her father thought it a more suitable field for women, but learned that as a woman she could attend the programme but would not be recognised with a degree. She later reported asking the dean "Who wants to study for four years and get no degree for all that work?", and his replying "Nobody, I hope."

Taussig ended up taking classes at Boston University in histology, bacteriology, and anatomy, without expecting to receive a degree. She had to sit apart from her male colleagues at the back of lecture theatres and was not supposed to speak to them. As an anatomy student at Boston University in 1925, she published her first scientific paper on studies of ox heart muscles with Alexander Begg. With the encouragement of her professor Alexander Begg, Taussig applied to transfer to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, one of the few medical schools to admit women at the time, and was accepted as a full-degree candidate. After completing her MD degree in 1927 at Johns Hopkins, Taussig remained for one year as a cardiology fellow and for two years as a pediatrics intern, and received two Archibald Fellowships, spanning 1927–1930. Taussig wanted to specialise in Internal Medicine, but there was only one position available for a woman in that field, and it was already taken; she therefore decided to specialise in pediatrics, and ended up working in pediatric cardiology, a field that was still in its infancy.

Concept
Taussig's early career in pediatric cardiology at Johns Hopkins consisted of studying babies with congenital heart defects and rheumatic fever, an inflammation of the heart and other organs resulting from bacterial infection, which was at the time a major source of child mortality. In the early 20th century, rheumatic heart disease made up the majority of clinical cardiology work: congenital heart defects were considered hopeless curiosities as the surgical means to correct them were extremely undeveloped so relatively little could be done to prevent the early deaths of patients with these conditions.

She then was hired by the pediatric department of Johns Hopkins, the Harriet Lane Home, as its chief, where she served from 1930 until 1963. Taussig made use of fluoroscopy as a diagnostic tool, and developed a particular interest in infants with cyanosis (blue-tinged appearance), often caused by the heart defect Tetralogy of Fallot. Cyanosis is caused when insufficient oxygenated blood is circulating around the body; in infants it can be known as "blue baby syndrome". Taussig is most remembered for her role in the development of a surgical treatment for this condition, the Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt.

A new surgery first performed in 1939 by Robert Gross corrected a common pediatric heart problem: patent ductus arteriosus. The ductus arteriosus is a small blood vessel connecting the pulmonary artery to the aorta of a foetus. Since the foetus obtains oxygen via the mother's placenta and not via its own lungs, which are fluid-filled and not yet functional, this vessel provides a shortcut, bypassing the lungs and allowing more efficient delivery of oxygenated blood around the foetus' body. In most infants, the ductus arteriosus closes within a few weeks of birth so that blood flows to the lungs to be oxygenated; if it remains open or 'patent', the normal flow of blood is disrupted. This new surgical procedure artificially closed the blood vessel.

While this was going on, Taussig observed that infants with cyanotic heart defects such as Tetralogy of Fallot or pulmonary atresia often fared remarkably better if they also had a patent ductus arteriosus, with less severe symptoms and longer survival. In general, cyanotic symptoms would often begin or worsen shortly after birth, a change which Taussig suspected was caused by the natural closure of the ductus arteriosus. In cyanotic children, bloodflow from the heart to the lungs via the pulmonary artery is often compromised; Taussig thought that surgically creating an artificial ductus linking these two vessels could increase bloodflow to the lungs and alleviate this problem, increasing survival. She broached the idea to Robert Gross, and he was skeptical, reportedly telling her ""I have enough trouble closing the ductus arteriosus. I certainly don't want to try to make an artificial one."

The first surgeries
Two years later, Taussig obtained the collaboration of Johns Hopkins' new chief of surgery Alfred Blalock and his laboratory assistant Vivien Thomas. The three of them developed a surgery now known as the Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt. Originally, it was referred to as the Blalock-Taussig shunt: the critical input of Vivien Thomas was overlooked because of his non-clinical role and because of his race.

Following extensive experimentation on about 200 dogs, on November 9, 1944, Blalock and Thomas performed the surgery on the first human patient. Eileen Saxon, a 15-month-old baby, had arrived at the emergency department earlier that month severely underweight at just 5 kg, purplish blue in colour and hardly able to drink a sip without gasping for breath. Taussig diagnosed her with Tetralogy of Fallot, a diagnosis which meant that without intervention she certainly would not survive to adulthood. The procedure was an immediate success: Eileen's colour quickly returned to normal, she could drink milk more easily and gained a few kilograms. Two months after the surgery she was discharged from hospital. However, she became cyanotic again a few months later and died shortly before her second birthday. Despite Eileen's death, the operation was proof that the Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt could in principle be used to extend the lives of children with cyanotic heart disease.

By 1945, this operation had been performed on a total of three infants with pulmonary stenosis and pulmonary atresia. As Alfred Blalock and Helen Taussig wrote in Journal of the American Medical Association, "Heretofore there has been no satisfactory treatment for pulmonary stenosis and pulmonary atresia. A "blue" baby with a malformed heart was considered beyond the reach of surgical aid. During the past three months we have operated on 3 children with severe degrees of pulmonary stenosis and each of the patients appears to be greatly benefited. In the second and third cases, in which there was deep persistent cyanosis, the cyanosis has greatly diminished or has disappeared and the general condition of the patients is proportionally improved." Following this report, and lectures given by Blalock and Taussig at conferences around Europe and America, the procedure quickly gained worldwide acceptance.

Legacy
With the international fame this surgery drew, parents worldwide began coming to Baltimore to have their "blue babies" treated by Blalock and Taussig. The rapid influx of prospective patients was so great that the clinic struggled to cope, and medical visitors from around the world came to assist and to share knowledge. By 1951, the team had operated on over 1,000 children and the surgery had a mortality rate of only 5%.

One of the major benefits of this surgery was that children gained the ability to play actively without the rapid exhaustion and frequent loss of consciousness that usually results from cyanotic heart defects. Helen Taussig reportedly kept a letter on her mantelpiece from twelve year old Jean-Pierre Cablan, written after undergoing the procedure: "Je suis maintenant un tout autre petit garcon ... je vais pouvoir aller jouer avec mes petits camarades." ("I am now a completely new boy... I will be able to play with the other children.") Often, an immediate improvement in the level of cyanosis could be seen as well. Taussig later recalled, "I suppose nothing would ever give me as much delight as seeing the first patient change from blue to pink in the operating room... bright pink cheeks and bright lips."

Nowadays, the Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt is useful for prolonging life and improving health in infants before heart defects can be definitively repaired, commonly as the first stage of the three-step Norwood Procedure. It allows infants to survive and gain weight before more complex surgeries are later attempted, and is used in the care of patients with Tetralogy of Fallot, pulmonary atresia, and more rare and complex abnormalities.

At the time of Taussig's death, tens of thousands of children's lives had been saved by the shunt procedure.

Further career
As a physician, Taussig pioneered the use of x-rays and fluoroscopy simultaneously to examine changes in a baby's heart and lungs in a less invasive manner, and was very skilled in diagnosing heart conditions by feeling the heartbeat with her fingertips, rather than listening with a stethoscope.

As well as her day to day clinical work as a paediatrician, Taussig was also an accomplished academic clinician. She published 100 academic articles over her career, considering various aspects of cardiology including biomedical ethics and the evolutionary origins of heart disease. In her research into the long-term outcomes of recipients of the shunt, Taussig remained in touch with many of her patients as they grew to adulthood and middle age.

In 1947, after a decade of gathering material, Taussig published her magnum opus, Congenital Malformations of the Heart, considered to be the foundational text of pediatric cardiology as an independent field. The book was expanded into two volumes for a second edition published in 1960.

Taussig later became an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; she was promoted to full professor in 1959. At the time, she was only the second woman to reach full professor status at the university. She continued to serve as the director of the Harriet Lane Home (the children's treatment and research centre at Johns Hopkins) until her retirement in 1963. Most paediatric clinics at the time focussed on rheumatic fever, which was the major source of child mortality, but because of Taussig's experience, the Harriet Lane Home was also able to provide specialist care for children with congenital heart disease. It became a world-leading centre that aspiring surgeons flocked to.

Together with the cardiologist Richard Bing, Taussig was in 1949 the first to describe a heart condition now known as Taussig-Bing syndrome. This is the second most common type of double-outlet right ventricle (DORV), a set of rare congenital heart conditions in which the aorta, which is supposed to carry oxygen-rich blood from the left ventricle of the heart, instead is connected to the right ventricle and supplies oxygen-poor blood to the body. Several alternative methods for surgically correcting this defect have been tried over the decades since the problem was first described, and survival rates following surgical intervention are greatly improved in recent decades.

Banning of thalidomide
Around 1960, many more babies than usual began to be born in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands with phocomelia, a previously very rare condition in which limbs are absent or small and abnormally formed. The German paediatrician Widukind Lenz was the first to draw a link to the increasing frequency of this condition and thalidomide, a drug which was a popular sleeping medication at the time with the trade name Softenon, and was often taken by pregnant women to counter morning sickness. However, when it is taken between days 35 and 49 of a pregnancy, it blocks normal limb development and causes phocomelia.

After hearing about this issue from one of her students in January 1962, Taussig travelled to Germany and examined some of these children for herself. She reached the same conclusion as Lenz: that thalidomide taken during pregnancy was causing phocomelia. She flew back to America and launched a campaign to try to stop the pending approval of thalidomide by the FDA, speaking at the American College of Physicians, writing in journals and magazines, and testifying before Congress in 1967. Her and others' efforts paid off: the drug was banned in the United States and Europe.

Retirement and death
Taussig formally retired from Johns Hopkins in 1963, but continued to teach, give lectures, and lobby for various causes. In addition, she kept writing scientific papers (of the 129 total that Taussig wrote, 41 were after her retirement from Johns Hopkins). She advocated for the use of animals in medical research and for legalized abortion, as well as the benefits of palliative care and hospice.

In 1977, Taussig moved to a retirement community in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Ever active, she continued making periodic trips to the University of Delaware for research work. At the time of her death, she was researching the genetic basis for congenital heart defects in birds.

On May 20, 1986, four days short of her 88th birthday, Taussig was driving a group of friends to vote in a local election when her car collided with another vehicle at an intersection. She died about an hour later at Chester County Hospital, and donated her body to Johns Hopkins.

Honors

 * 1947: Chevalier (knight) of the Legion d'Honneur
 * 1948: Passano Foundation Award for an outstanding contribution to medical science, shared with Alfred Blalock- the first time this award was shared, and the first time it was awarded to a woman
 * 1953: Honorary medal from the American College of Chest Physicians
 * 1954: Feltrinelli Award
 * 1954: Albert Lasker Award for Outstanding Contributions to Medicine
 * 1957: Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
 * 1957: Eleanor Roosevelt Achievement Award
 * 1960: Honorary fellow of the American College of Cardiology
 * 1963: Gold Heart Award
 * 1963: Achievement Award from the American Association of University Women
 * 1964: Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded by President Lyndon Johnson
 * 1965: The University of Göttingen named its cardiac clinic in honor of Taussig
 * 1965: First woman and first pediatrician to be elected president of the American Heart Association
 * 1970: Blackwell Award from Hobart and William Smith Colleges
 * 1971: Howland Award from the American Pediatric Society
 * 1973: Elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 27 years after Blalock was elected for their joint work on the Blalock-Taussig shunt
 * 1973: Elected to the American Philosophical Society
 * 1973: Inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame
 * 1976: Awarded the Milton S. Eisenhower Medal for Distinguished Service by Johns Hopkins
 * 1982: Elizabeth Blackwell Medal awarded by the American Medical Women's Association
 * 2005: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine named one of its four colleges in her honor, as well as the Helen B. Taussig Congenital Heart Disease Center
 * 2018: The Helen B. Taussig Research Award began to be given out to postdoctoral fellows holding appointments in the Basic Sciences and clinical Departments at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Throughout her career, Taussig earned more than 20 honorary degrees. Taussig was a member of several professional societies during her career. She was a member of the American Pediatric Society, the Society for Pediatric Research, and the American College of Physicians.

Film portrayals
In the 2004 HBO movie Something the Lord Made about the life of Vivien Thomas, Dr. Taussig was portrayed by Mary Stuart Masterson. The movie was nominated for many awards and won several.

title: Helen B. Taussig


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Lotus berthelotii

Lotus berthelotii is a flowering plant endemic to the Canary Islands of Spain, in the genus Lotus of the pea family Fabaceae. Among its common names are lotus vine flower, parrot (or parrot's) beak, pelican beak, and coral gem. This plant is widely cultivated but is either extinct in the wild or persists as a few individuals. In 1884 it was already classed as "exceedingly rare" and plant collection probably hastened its decline.

Description
Lotus berthelotii is an evergreen prostrate shrub or subshrub, growing to 20 cm with a creeping or trailing habit. The leaves are divided into 3-5 slender leaflets, each leaflet 1–2 cm long and 1 mm broad, densely covered with fine silvery hairs. The flowers are orange-red to red, shaped like upward facing beaks on short stalks, but slender, 2–4 cm long and 5–8 mm broad.

Pollination
The flowers of Lotus berthelotii and some other Canary Island species appear to be adapted for bird pollination. It was once thought that the original pollinators of these plants (and other genera such as Isoplexis and Canarina) were sunbirds which had become extinct on the Canary Islands, explaining why they are rare and considered endangered species (Vogel 1954; Vogel et al. 1984; Valido et al. 2004). However more recent work has shown that these plants are adequately pollinated by non-specialist flower visiting birds, particularly the Canary Islands chiffchaff (Phylloscopus canariensis), and in fact show some specific adaptations to infrequent pollination by these birds, such as extended flower lifespans.

However, the cultivated population studied by Ollerton et al. (2008) set no fruit, despite the plants receiving large amounts of pollen on their stigmas. This may be because the population was a single, self incompatible clonal genotype; whether this is true of all plants in cultivation is unknown, but may have important implications for the conservation of this species if it is extinct in the wild.

Cultivation
Lotus berthelotii is cultivated as an ornamental plant with its needle-like silvery foliage and red flowers for: traditional gardens, container (pots), and drought tolerant water conserving gardens. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. A golden orange flowering cultivar is also grown. As it is intolerant of freezing temperatures, in cold temperate climates it requires the protection of glass in the winter months. It needs a sheltered spot in full sun.

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

title: Lotus berthelotii


text: Category:British swimmers

title: Category:British swimmers


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Dornoch Firth

The Dornoch Firth (Caolas Dhòrnaich, ) is a firth on the east coast of Highland, in northern Scotland. It forms part of the boundary between Ross and Cromarty, to the south, and Sutherland, to the north. The firth is designated as a national scenic area, one of 40 such areas in Scotland. The national scenic area covers 15,782 ha in total, of which 4,240 ha is the marine area of the firth below low tide. A review of the national scenic areas by Scottish Natural Heritage in 2010 commented: "By comparison with other east coast firths the Dornoch Firth is narrow and sinuous, yet it exhibits within its compass a surprising variety of landscapes. It is enclosed by abrupt rounded granitic hills clad in heather moor and scree, their Gaelic names of cnoc, meall and creag giving the clue to their character. Their lower slopes are frequently wooded, oakwoods being a noticeable feature of the area, but with other deciduous and coniferous species represented in plantations which vary from the policy plantings of Skibo Castle to the pines of the Struie Forest."

Together with Loch Fleet it is a designated as a Special Protection Area (SPA) for wildlife conservation purposes. Additionally, together with Morrich More, it has the designation of Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

The total SPA hosts significant populations of the following birds:

 * Breeding season: osprey (Pandion haliaetus)
 * Overwintering: bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica), greylag goose (Anser anser), wigeon (Anas penelope), curlew (Numenius arquata), dunlin (Calidris alpina alpina), oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus), and teal (Anas crecca).

The SAC protects a variety of habitats, including salt meadows and coastal dune heathland and grassland. The site is of importance for otters (Lutra lutra) and harbour seals (Phoca vitulina)

Crossing the firth
In 1991, the firth was bridged, the new Dornoch Firth Bridge providing a shorter route on the A9 road between Inverness and Thurso; until then traffic had to go by way of Bonar Bridge at the head of the inlet. There were proposals that the bridge should be constructed so as to allow the Far North railway line to also benefit from the shorter route, with the potential for up to 45 minutes to be saved on the journey between Inverness and Thurso/Wick. However this part of the scheme failed to secure government funding, and so only a road bridge was built.

On 16 August 1809 the firth was the scene of the Meikle Ferry disaster when an over-laden ferryboat sank with the loss of 99 lives.

title: Dornoch Firth


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Siemowit IV, Duke of Masovia

Siemowit IV (Ziemowit IV), also known as Siemowit IV the Younger (pl: Siemowit IV Młodszy; ca. 1353/1356 – 21 January 1426 ), was a Polish prince, member of the Masovian branch of the House of Piast and from 1373 or 1374 Duke of Rawa, and after the division of the paternal inheritance between him and his brother in 1381, ruler over Rawa, Płock, Sochaczew, Gostynin, Płońsk and Wizna, after 1386 hereditary Polish vassal, after 1388 ruler over Belz. During 1382–1401 he lost Wizna and during 1384–1399 and 1407–1411 he lost Zawkrze, during 1384–1399 he lost Płońsk, which was taken by the Teutonic Order.

He was the second son of Siemowit III, Duke of Masovia and his first wife Euphemia, daughter of Nicholas II of Opava.

Already during his father's lifetime, Siemowit IV received his own district, Rawa Mazowiecka (ca. 1373/74), and as a result of the partition of Masovia between him and his older brother Janusz I after the death of their father on 16 June 1381, Siemowit IV finally obtain the totality of his domains: Rawa, Płock, Sochaczew, Gostynin, Płońsk and Wizna.

Role in the Greater Polish Civil War
Siemowit IV was opposed to his older brother Janusz I's attempts to obtain the Polish crown. One year after the acquisition of his own domains, King Louis of Poland and Hungary died (10 September 1382), and with this emerged the opportunity to enact his claim to the crown, supported by the Greater Poland and Kujawy nobility (centered around the powerful Bartosz Wezenborg). However, the late King had made arrangements among the Lesser Poland nobility who guaranteed their support to his eldest daughter and heiress Mary and her husband Sigismund of Luxembourg. Without waiting for a favorable settlement, in January 1383, Siemowit IV marched to Greater Poland at the head of his troops, marked the beginning of the Greater Poland Civil War.

Unexpectedly, in Buda the Dowager Queen Elizabeth of Bosnia decided to change the decision of her husband and accepted the reign of her youngest daughter Jadwiga over Poland instead of Mary and Sigismund, who remained rulers of Hungary. This decision caused that several supporters of Siemowit IV to hope that he could marry the young Queen (despite the fact that she was already betrothed to William of Habsburg) and in this way, both factions could reconcile and in addition this union with the old Piast dynasty could further legitimize the Angevin rule.

The first step to implement this plan was the formal candidacy of Siemowit IV to the royal crown. To this end, in a meeting of nobles and gentry at Sieradz the Archbishop Bodzanta of Gniezno, one of his leading supporters, proposed Siemowit IV's candidacy to the throne. This proposal quickly gained widespread acceptance, and only thanks to the courageous intervention of the voivode of Kraków John of Tęczyn, who advised them to abstain from any decision until the arrival of Jadwiga, the idea was abandoned. The opposition of Lesser Poland to the candidacy of Siemowit IV was probably associated with the fear of the growing role of Greater Poland under an eventual rule of the Masovian Duke. Another argument against this was the emerging idea of the union with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

These events did not discourage Siemowit IV, who was determined to obtain the crown, even by force. Probably with the knowledge and consent of Archbishop Bodzanta, he attempted to abduct Jadwiga and marry her, in a desperate act to win the crown. When the Lesser Poland nobility knew of his intentions, they close the gates of Wawel to Bodzanta's men, among them was hidden Siemowit IV. They also warned Jadwiga, who remained at the court of her mother until was secured to travel.

Despite the defeat of his ambitious plans, Siemowit IV continued his efforts to obtain the Polish throne. For this purpose, after burning the property of his political opponents in Książ, he went back to Sieradz, where a part of the local nobility proclaimed him King of Poland. This time, however, the congress lacked of real authority, and for this reason, he delayed his expected coronation, trying to conquer the country by force. After a disastrous campaign and a failed siege to Kalisz (Siemowit IV was able to obtain only Kujawy), some of his supporters decided to sign an armistice on 29 September 1383.

The ceasefire enabled the Polish to add Hungarian troops to the country's forces under the personal command of Sigismund of Luxembourg. The combined attack of Hungarian-Polish forces caused that Siemowit IV avoided further fighting, especially after his brother Janusz opted for the recognition of Jadwiga as Queen. The defeat of Siemowit IV reduced considerably the number of his supporters. Consequently, and after a final rejection in October 1384 from the powerful Lesser Poland nobility to a marriage with Jadwiga, the Masovian Duke adopted a different tactic: if it was impossible for him obtain the crown, he decided to win all the territory possible.

Reconciliation with opponents
Siewomit, after adding Łęczyca to his territory, decided to undertake peace negotiations with Jadwiga, which ended successfully on 12 December 1385 with the signing of a treaty, under which Siemowit IV returned all the lands taken by him in exchange for the sum of 10,000 silver marks, and most important, he relinquished all his claims to the Polish crown and paid homage to the Queen Jadwiga and her new husband and King, Jogaila, from which he received the Duchy of Belz as dowry of Princess Alexandra of Lithuania, Jogaila's sister, who married Siemowit IV as a gesture of reconciliation between both parties. Siemowit IV's complete resignation of his claim to the Polish crown was his attendance to the ceremonies of baptism, marriage and coronation of Jadwiga and Jogaila in Kraków. After these ceremonies, he renewed his homage to the royal couple. He joined the royal entourage to Vilnius, where he participated in the process of Christianization of Lithuania.

Post civil war activity
Before the war, as an independent ruler he could effectively maneuver between the Polish, Lithuanians and the Teutonic Order; now, as a vassal was clearly seen as a representative of the Polish Kingdom. In addition, in order to finance his policies he needed money and several times he mortgaged some of his domains to the Teutonic Order, including Wizna (during 1382-1401), Płońsk (during 1384-1399) and Zawkrze (during 1384-1399 and 1407-1411). In view of the growing friction between the Polish and Teutonic Order, Siemowit IV tried to obtain the greatest benefit for him and intervened as a mediator. Also, after the outbreak of the war of 1409–1410 between Poland, Lithuania and the Teutonic Order, the attitude of the Masovian Duke wasn't clear: in one side, he tried to contact King Sigismund of Hungary and by other side, he pressured his warring neighbors to maintain the peace. In view of the failure of his attempts to make a compromise, Siemowit IV finally sent his troops at the Battle of Grunwald, but his participation was only symbolic; in fact, was his son Siemovit V who fielded two banners of his own troops and fought alongside the 'Royal' Poles and Lithuanian troops. In order to maintain his friendly relations with the Teutonic Order, he provides them with refunds even during the campaign; in exchange, the Order returned Zawkrze to Siemowit IV, despite the fact that under the Peace of Thorn (1411) they aren't obliged to do it.

Despite his official subordination to Poland, Siemowit IV tried to pursue an independent foreign policy. This was expressed in his frequent contacts with the Hungarian King Sigismund, who, wishing to drag a Polish vassal to his side gave the Masovian Duke the rich prebends from the Bishopric of Veszprém and other possessions across Hungary.

Siemowit IV's relations with Poland, although some temporary frictions caused by his too independent policy (he even minted his own coins) remained friendly, despite the fact that he didn't fulfill his duties as a vassal, and only sent troops to Poland occasionally when he was required to do. Another gesture of friendship with King Władysław II was noted when he used Siemowit IV's daughters into political marriages and the support given to his son Alexander in his Church career. In domestic politics, Siemowit IV continued the economic restructuring which begun under the rule of his father. For this purpose, in addition to the existing statutes he implemented the Kulm law in several of his cities and promoted the colonization of the Masovian nobility to Belz.

Ill health and death
After 1420 Siemowit IV, due to his progressive blindness, gradually gave participation in the government to his adult sons. In 1425, the dispute about the election of his Chancellor Stanisław z Pawłowic as Bishop of Płock forced his sons Siemowit V and Casimir II into a humiliating surrender. Siemowit IV died on 21 January 1426 at Gostynin and was buried in the Ducal crypt at Płock Cathedral.

Marriage and issue
In 1387, Siemowit IV married Alexandra (died 20 April 1434), a Lithuanian princess, daughter of Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his second wife, Uliana of Tver. They had thirteen children:

 * Siemowit V (1389 – 17 February 1442).
 * Hedwig (c. 1392 – aft. 19 February 1439), married after 3 January 1410 to Janos Garai, Ban of Uzora and Obergespan of Temes and Pozsega.
 * Cymburgis (c. 1394 – 28 September 1429), married on 25 January 1412 to Ernest I, Duke of Austria.
 * Euphemia (1395/97 – bef. 17 September 1447), married on 20 November 1412 to Bolesław I, Duke of Cieszyn.
 * Amelia (1397/98 – aft. 17 May 1434), married on 16 May 1413 to William II, Margrave of Meissen.
 * Alexander (1400 – 2 June 1444), a diplomat and Bishop of Trento, titular Bishop of Chur, titular Cardinal of Damascus, and Patriarch of Aquileia.
 * Casimir II (1401/03 – 15 September 1442).
 * Trojden II (1403/06 – 25 July 1427).
 * Władysław I (1406/09 – 11/12 December 1455).
 * Alexandra (1407/10 – c. 1426).
 * Maria (1408/15 – 14 February 1454), married on 24 June 1432 to Bogislaw IX, Duke of Pomerania.
 * Anna (24 April 1411 – bef. 7 Feb 1435), married bef. 26 May 1427 to Michael Žygimantaitis, a Lithuanian prince.
 * Catherine (1413/16 – betw. 2 June 1479/5 July 1480), married bef. 21 August 1439 to Michael Žygimantaitis, a Lithuanian prince (widower of her sister).

Grandchildren of Alexandra and Siemowit IV included Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, Przemyslaus II, Duke of Cieszyn, Sophie of Pomerania, Duchess of Pomerania and Dorothy Garai, queen of Bosnia.

Prior to his marriage, Siemowit IV fathered an illegitimate son, Miklusz (also called Mikołaj; born before 1387), who was legitimated on 29 June 1417 by Emperor Sigismund. Nothing more is known about him.

title: Siemowit IV, Duke of Masovia


text:
Douglas Cole

Douglas Cole may refer to:

 * G. D. H. Cole (1889–1959), English historian
 * Douglas Cole (historian) (1938–1998), Canadian historian
 * Douglas R. Cole (born 1964), American judge
 * Douglas Seaman Cole, former Canadian ambassador to Mexico
 * Douglas Cole, mayor of Largo, Florida
 * Doug Cole, footballer

title: Douglas Cole


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Spark testing

Spark testing is a method of determining the general classification of ferrous materials. It normally entails taking a piece of metal, usually scrap, and applying it to a grinding wheel in order to observe the sparks emitted. These sparks can be compared to a chart or to sparks from a known test sample to determine the classification. Spark testing also can be used to sort ferrous materials, establishing the difference from one another by noting whether the spark is the same or different.

Spark testing is used because it is quick, easy, and inexpensive. Moreover, test samples do not have to be prepared in any way, so, often, a piece of scrap is used. The main disadvantage to spark testing is its inability to identify a material positively; if positive identification is required, chemical analysis must be used. The spark comparison method also damages the material being tested, at least slightly.

Spark testing most often is used in tool rooms, machine shops, heat treating shops, and foundries.

Process
A bench grinder is usually used to create the sparks, but sometimes this is not convenient, so a portable grinder is used. In either case, the grinding wheel must have adequate surface velocity, at least 23 m/s (4500 surface feet per minute (sfpm)), but should be between 38 and 58 m/s (7500–11,500 sfpm). The wheel should be coarse and hard, therefore aluminium oxide or carborundum often are employed. The test area should be in an area where there is no bright light shining directly into the observer's eyes. Moreover, the grinding wheel and surrounding area should be dark so that the sparks can be observed clearly. The test sample is then touched lightly to the grinding wheel to produce the sparks.

The important spark characteristics are color, volume, nature of the spark, and length. Note that the length is dependent on the amount of pressure applied to the grinding wheel, so this can be a poor comparison tool if the pressure is not exactly the same for the samples. Also, the grinding wheel must be dressed frequently to remove metallic build-up.

Compressed air method
Another less common method for creating sparks is heating up the sample to red heat and then applying compressed air to the sample. The compressed air supplies enough oxygen to ignite the sample and give off sparks. This method is more accurate than using a grinder because it will always give off sparks of the same length for the same sample. The compressed air applies in essence the same "pressure" each time. This makes observations of the spark length a much more reliable characteristic for comparison.

Automated spark testing
Automated spark testing has been developed to remove the reliance upon operator skill and experience, thereby increasing reliability. The system relies upon spectroscopy, spectrometry, and other methods to "observe" the spark pattern. It has been found that this system can determine the difference between two materials that give off sparks that are indistinguishable to the human eye.

Spark characteristics

 * Wrought iron: Wrought iron sparks flow out in straight lines. The tails of the sparks widen out near the end, similar to a leaf.
 * Mild steel: Mild steel sparks are similar to wrought iron's, except they will have tiny forks and their lengths will vary more. The sparks will be white in color.
 * Medium-carbon steel: This steel has more forking than mild steel and a wide variety of spark lengths, with more near the grinding wheel.
 * High-carbon steel: High-carbon steel has a bushy spark pattern (much forking) that starts at the grinding wheel. The sparks are not as bright as the medium-carbon steel ones.
 * Manganese steel: Manganese steel has medium length sparks that fork twice before ending.
 * High-speed steel: High-speed steel has a faint red spark that sparks at the tip.
 * 300-series stainless steel: These sparks are not so dense as the carbon steel sparks, do not fork, and are orange to straw in color.
 * 310-series stainless steel: These sparks are much shorter and thinner than the 300-series sparks. They are red to orange in color and do not fork.
 * 400-series stainless steel: 400-series sparks are similar to 300-series sparks, but are slightly longer and have forks at the ends of the sparks.
 * Cast iron: Cast iron has very short sparks that begin at the grinding wheel.
 * Nickel and cobalt high-temperature alloys: These sparks are thin and very short, they are dark-red in color, and do not fork.
 * Cemented carbide: Cemented carbide has sparks under 3 inches, which are dark-red in color and do not fork.
 * Titanium: Although titanium is a non-ferrous metal, it gives off a great deal of sparks. These sparks are easily distinguishable from ferrous metals, as they are a very brilliant, blinding, white color.

History
In 1909, Max Bermann, an engineer in Budapest, was the first to discover that spark testing can be used reliably to classify ferrous material. He originally claimed to be able to distinguish different types of ferrous materials based on percent carbon and principal alloying elements. Moreover, he claimed to achieve an accuracy of 0.01% carbon content.

Tschorn produced an exhaustive treatment of spark testing. His book, Spark Atlas of Steels, along with Spark Testing by Gladwin represent the two most comprehensive texts on the subject

As of the late 1980s, the industrial use of spark testing is not as common as it used to be. In the early 21st century the availability of portable X-ray fluorescence equipment largely superseded it in laboratory practice.

title: Spark testing


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Rob Davis (musician)

Robert Berkeley Davis (born 1 October 1947) is an English guitarist and songwriter who achieved early fame as a founding member of glam rock band Mud in the 1970s. He had songwriting success in the 1990s and 2000s, penning vocal arrangements for dance hits including "Can't Get You Out of My Head" for Kylie Minogue, Fragma's "Toca's Miracle" and Spiller's "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)".

Early career
Davis received his first guitar aged 11, and music became a central part of his life. In 1962, at 15, he and Dave Mount formed a band called The Apaches, with a Shadows sound. He and Mount continued to work together in several bands, including the Barracudas, and in 1964 formed the Remainder. He joined the Mourners, who were looking for a lead guitarist and in February 1966 changed their name to Mud.

Mud
Davis was a founding member of the successful late 1960s and 1970s glam rock band Mud. In addition to playing lead guitar, he wrote a number of the band’s songs. He wrote the band’s first single, “Flower Power” which was released in the October 1967 but did not garner much success. While he did not compose any of the songs on the band’s first two full albums, he wrote or co-wrote over 45 songs for the band and their subsequent albums. His first and biggest songwriting hit with Mud was "L'L'Lucy" which reached number 10 on the UK Singles Chart in September 1975. It became a bigger hit in both Belgium and the Netherlands, where it reached No. 1 for twelve and nine weeks, respectively. Davis wrote the B-sides on two of Mud's biggest hits, "Tiger Feet" and "Dyna-Mite". The band broke up in 1980.

Other groups
Davis worked with several other groups, including the Tremeloes and Darts, but his efforts met with little commercial success.

Songwriting
Although Davis wrote many of Mud's later songs, he achieved songwriting success commercially after the band disbanded starting with a writing and producing partnership with George Stanley Alexander that saw some hits with disco group Liquid Gold. Following a chance meeting with Paul Oakenfold in the late 1980s, he continued to move genres from rock and disco to writing club and dance songs. He would receive instrumental tracks from producers and incorporate lyrics. The first hit with Oakenfold came with Not Over Yet by Grace in 1993 reaching No. 3 in the UK charts. He later worked with Coco Star, writing "I Need a Miracle" which was released in 1996 and re-recorded version released in 1997 peaked at No. 39 in the UK.

In 2000, he achieved his biggest commercial songwriting successes. Fragma's "Toca's Miracle" became Davis' first No. 1 hit and was a mashup of Davis-written "I Need a Miracle" by Coco and Fragma's instrumental "Toca Me". The song was released on 10 April and won critical acclaim, peaking at No. 1 in both the UK and Scotland. There have been multiple re-releases that have achieved chart success. On 14 August 2000, Spiller released "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)", on which he provided important lyrical support. The song reached No. 1 in five countries including the UK, Australia and New Zealand. It finished No. 8 on the UK 2000 year-end charts. In 2001, Davis scored a UK top 10 hit as one third of the group Stuntmasterz, with the mashup "The Ladyboy Is Mine".

In their first songwriting session together, Davis and Cathy Dennis wrote "Can't Get You Out of My Head" for Kylie Minogue. Released in 2001, it was the first song to have 3,000 radio plays in a single week in the UK, reached No. 1 in all but one European country and sold over four million copies. Davis and Dennis received an Ivor Novello Award for composing the most performed song of the year. The song was originally intended for Sophie Ellis-Bextor, but she turned it down according to Davis, although Sophie later claimed that the proposal never got to her in the first place. Davis soon met Minogue's A&R manager Jamie Nelson who liked it and wanted her to record it. While Minogue was not the original artist selected, Dennis believed Minogue was the best artist for the song. The two writers also teamed up to write Brooke Hogan's single, "Everything to Me", in 2004. The song reached #1 on the Billboard Singles Sales chart.

At the Grammy Awards of 2004, Davis shared a Grammy with co-producer Philip Larsen (Manhattan Clique) and performer Minogue, for another Minogue single "Come into My World", in the category of Best Dance Recording. The song reached No. 4 in Australia while peaking at No. 8 in the UK.

Davis also worked with Jan Johnston and together they wrote six songs including "Am I on Pause?". His latest commercial works include co-writing for the song "One Foot Boy" from Mika's album, The Boy Who Knew Too Much (2009).

Television appearances
In December 2005, Davis appeared in the Channel 4 programme, Bring Back...The Christmas Number One. In January 2008, Davis appeared in the BBC Four television documentary, Pop, What Is It Good For? In December 2009, he appeared in the Channel 4 programme The Greatest Songs of the Noughties, which featured "Can't Get You Out of My Head", ranked at No. 9 (in a Top 20). In December 2018, Davis appeared on BBC One's Pointless Celebrities Christmas Special. In October 2021, he contributed to the Channel 5 series Britain's Biggest 70s Hits appearing on the 1970 episode alongside Ray Dorset and David Hamilton.

title: Rob Davis (musician)


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List of parishes in Prince Edward Island

This is a list of parishes for the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island.

Prince County

 * North Parish
 * Egmont Parish
 * Halifax Parish
 * Richmond Parish
 * St. David's Parish

Queens County

 * Grenville Parish
 * Hillsboro Parish
 * Charlotte Parish
 * Bedford Parish
 * St. John's Parish

Kings County

 * St. Patrick's Parish
 * East Parish
 * St. George's Parish
 * St. Andrew's Parish


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Paul Bacon (politician)

Paul Bacon (1 November 1907 – 6 December 1999) was a French politician.

Biography
Bacon was born in Paris. During World War II, he was active in the French Resistance. He was a member of Georges Bidault's National Liberation Movement, and distributed a manifesto about trade unionism in December 1940. Bacon was arrested by the Gestapo in 1943.

After the war, Bacon continued his political career. A member of the Christian Democratic Popular Republican Movement (MRP), he was Member of the two National Constituent Assemblies (1945–46) and then of the National Assembly from 1946 to 1958 representing the Seine Department. He was Secretary of state in the prime minister's office in 1959-1960, Minister of Labour and Social security (with some interruptions during the cabinets of Pinay and of Mendès France) from 1950 to 1956 and again in 1957-1959.

He was Minister of Labour in De Gaulle, Debré and Pompidou governments from 1958 to 1962. With the other MRP ministers, he resigned in protest after De Gaulle's press conference about European integration in May 1962. He sat in the Economic and Social Council from 1962 to 1964. Bacon was also a municipal councillor at Saint-Maur-des-Fossés.

A trade unionist and an adept of social harmony, Paul Bacon was one of the major figures who built French social security and was the father of the Interprofessional Guaranteed Minimum Wage (salaire minimum interprofessionnel garanti, or SMIG).

Books
Bacon wrote several books:
 * La Naissance de la classe ouvrière
 * Vers la réforme de l'entreprise capitaliste
 * Vers la démocratie économique et sociale

title: Paul Bacon (politician)


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User:Ant/Copyright

I agree to multi-license all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:

title: User:Ant/Copyright


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Burslem

Burslem is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is often referred to as the "mother town" of Stoke on Trent. The population of the town was included under the Burslem Central ward and had a population of 6,490 in the 2021 Census.

Topography
Burslem is on the eastern ridge of the Fowlea Valley, the Fowlea being one of the main early tributaries of the River Trent. Burslem embraces the areas of Middleport, Dalehall, Longport, Westport, Trubshaw Cross, and Brownhills. The Trent & Mersey Canal cuts through, to the west and south of the town centre. A little further west, the West Coast Main Line railway and the A500 road run in parallel, forming a distinct boundary between Burslem and the abutting town of Newcastle-under-Lyme. To the south is Grange Park and Festival Park, reclaimed by the Stoke-on-Trent Garden Festival.

History
The Domesday Book shows Burslem (listed as Bacardeslim) as a small farming hamlet, strategically sited above a ford at Longport, part of the major pack horse track out of the Peak District and Staffordshire Moorlands to the Liverpool/London road. The name refers to the Old English personal name Burgweard and the former Forest of Lyme (reflected in the nearby town of Newcastle-under-Lyme). As far back as the late 12th century, a thriving pottery industry existed, based on the fine and abundant local clays. After the Black Death, Burslem emerges in the records as a medieval town – St John the Baptist's Church on Cross Hill, with a stone tower dating from 1536, was extended in the 18th century, and is still standing and in use. Until the mid-1760s Burslem was relatively cut off from the rest of England: it had no navigable river nearby, and there were no good and reliable roads.

By 1777 the Trent and Mersey Canal was nearing completion, and the roads had markedly improved. The town boomed on the back of fine pottery production and canals, and became known as The Mother Town of the six towns that make up the city. Hill Top Methodist Church and Sunday School opened on Westport Road in 1836. The railway station opened in 1848. The Burslem School of Art was founded in 1853. A new town hall was built in the market place in 1854, designed by G. T. Robinson of Leamington in elaborate baroque style. In 1906, the United Reformed Church was opened on Moorland Road, initially named the Woodall Memorial Congregational Church, in memory of William Woodall MP.

In 1910, the town was federated into the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent, and the borough was granted city status in 1925. The new town hall was built in 1911 on Wedgwood Place, in neo-classical style, designed by Russell and Cooper.

Many of the novels of Arnold Bennett evoke Victorian Burslem, with its many potteries, mines, and working canal barges. The Burslem of the 1930s to the 1980s is evoked by the paintings and plays of Arthur Berry.

Burslem contains Britain's last real working industrial district (i.e. where people live within walking distance of the factories of a single heavy industry, in this case, the potteries) and thus much of the nineteenth-century industrial heritage, buildings and character have survived intact.

Trade journals
""Burslem, an ancient town, with a market held for a long period by custom, and subsequently sanctioned by an act of parliament, is about three miles from Newcastle and two from Hanley, entitled to the precedence of other towns in this district, as claiming to be the mother, as it is the metropolis, of the Staffordshire Potteries.""

""In the Doomsday Survey – for even in that early date Burslem was a place of some importance – the town appears, as "Burwardeslyn;" and frequent mention is made of it in ancient documents during the Middle Ages.""

Population and housing
At the 1991 census count, the population of Burslem was 21,400. A study by consultants Atkins, working from the United Kingdom Census 2001 data, showed that the Burslem population is steady and has not declined despite a manufacturing decline during the 1980s and '90s.

Traditional Victorian architecture and Edwardian period terraced houses dominate the town. New housing developments are underway on the Sadlers Factory site and around Woodbank Street.

Heavy industrial employment (mines, steel and pots) has left a legacy of ill-health among many older people, but there is the Haywood Hospital (High Lane, Burslem) and the new £300-million University Hospital of North Staffordshire is just three miles away by road.

There were two electoral wards covering Burslem at the 2011 census, Burslem Central and Burslem Park.

At the 2011 census the ethnic demographics of the Burslem Central ward were:

At the 2011 census the ethnic demographics of the Burslem Park ward were:

Economy
Industrial scale pottery production has drastically declined since the 1970s; but specialist makers (Steelite) and smaller producers of high-value ceramics (Burleigh, Wade, Moorcroft) are thriving. Burslem is emerging as a centre for small, freelance creative businesses working in sectors such as fine art, animation and crafts as well as pottery.

The number of shops in the town centre have markedly declined, hit by the impact of nearby out-of-town retail parks that offer free parking. However, the evening economy is still active with a wide range of bars and restaurants mainly serving English and Indian food.

The Market Hall, a Grade II listed building dating from 1879, lying between the market place and Queen Street, was in use until 2003, closing after its condition was judged unsafe.

At Spring 2002 unemployment was 4.1% or 1,526 people in the Stoke-on-Trent North constituency; almost the same rate as the West Midlands as a whole. In Burslem at 2001 unemployment was 3.2% and declining.

In 2005, the building of business park units in the town. Further business parks are planned for 2006/7 just to the north in Chatterley Valley, and the south in Etruria Valley.

In 2019 it was reported that the town's last bank had closed, leaving the town without any free to use cash machines, making it the first large town in the UK without one.

Media
In 2007 a social enterprise newspaper, Local Edition, become one of the first newspapers to cover the area regularly. The newspaper covered Burslem, as well as surrounding areas including Tunstall, Middleport and Cobridge, giving a voice to the people in the community. The newspaper ceased publication in 2008 and its archive is online.

Leopard Inn
The Leopard public house, also known as the Leopard Inn, dates to the late 18th century. The building was refronted about 1830 and expanded in the 1870s with the addition of more than 50 bedrooms in the rear. In 1765 it was the location of the first meeting between Josiah Wedgwood, Thomas Bentley, Erasmus Darwin and James Brindley to discuss the building of what became the Trent and Mersey Canal; as The Tiger, it appears in several of Arnold Bennett's "Five Towns" novels. It was a coaching inn and after the rear extension, a major commercial hotel, but reduced demand for rooms led to the extension being closed off in 1956. The rediscovery of this section of the building in 2007 led to tales of hauntings and ghost tours.

Bass Breweries bought The Leopard in 1965 and renovated the restaurant, which they named the Arnold Bennett Suite. The building was Grade II listed on 18 April 1972. In the 21st century it became a live music venue and was extensively renovated, but it did not reopen after the COVID lockdown. In January 2021 it was sold to a development company who proposed redeveloping the rear into luxury apartments while retaining the pub; in February 2021 Stoke-on-Trent City Council declared it an Asset of Community Value. The following January, an illegal cannabis grow was discovered inside the vacant building, and it was then badly damaged in a suspected arson fire. The city council announced the formation of a Heritage Congress to protect historic properties in Stoke-on-Trent. In June 2024, the owners submitted a proposal to convert the building to a shop and 17 one-bedroom assisted living flats.

Tourism
Around 5 million tourists visit Stoke-on-Trent each year, supporting around 4,400 direct jobs. Stoke shows its popularity through the number of repeat visits; around 80 per cent of visitors have previously been here. Burslem has a variety of strong tourist attractions; Burleigh, Moorcroft, Festival Park, its many pubs, and the Trent & Mersey Canal. The Old Town Hall is one of the largest buildings in Burslem.

It also has the legacy of novelist Arnold Bennett, who refers to the town and many of its streets with thinly disguised names: e.g. Burslem/"Bursley", Swan (Square and Pub)/"Duck". It is the setting for one of his most famous works, the Clayhanger trilogy. Burslem's centre benefits from having an almost-intact medieval street-plan and countless fine old buildings, and a townscape which almost-totally escaped re-development during the 1960s and 1970s.

After being under-used for years, the Burslem School of Art has been refurbished at a cost of £2.1m and offers several large free art galleries. The free Public Library is currently based in the School of Art, after the Venetian Gothic Wedgwood Institute closed for safety reasons early in 2009. Ceramica was a new award-winning ceramics family attraction, based in the imposing old Town Hall and funded by Millennium Lottery money but due to the loss of council funding has been closed. The Queen's Theatre has regular concerts and an annual pantomime.

There is a traditional Friday street market, and street carnivals in May and December.

Sports
The major football club Port Vale F.C. is based in Burslem at Vale Park. The team currently plays in League One, England's third division.

Near to the town is Burslem Golf Club, a 9-hole course which once had singer Robbie Williams as a Junior Captain. It was opened on 28 September 1907 by vaudeville entertainer and golfer Sir Harry Lauder. On 29 September 2007 his great-nephew Gregory Lauder-Frost as guest-of-honour rededicated it for another century in a formal ceremony.

Professional darts player Phil Taylor is from Burslem.

Education
Burslem is the site of one of the two campuses of Stoke-on-Trent College; the College states that it is the largest Further Education college in Stoke and North Staffordshire. The campus specialises in media-production and drama. Stoke Studio College, a studio school for 13- to 19-year-olds opened at the college campus in September 2013.

Within a six-mile radius from Burslem there are three universities; Staffordshire at Shelton, Keele University, and Manchester Metropolitan's large Art & Design campus at Alsager.

The environment
The town is elevated and is not prone to flooding.

Burslem Park
The town's municipal park, designed by the landscape architect Thomas Hayton Mawson, was opened in 1894. It is protected by a Grade II* designation on the Register of Parks and Gardens. It was laid out on derelict land next to the Potteries Loop Line. Mawson also used reclaimed land as the site of Hanley Park, which he designed around the same time. Both parks include water features.

Other parks
There are also later examples of reclaimed green space near Burslem, such as the Westport Lake, a 1970s project, and the legacy of the 1986 National Garden Festival, which imaginatively reclaimed part of the site of the Shelton Bar steelworks.

The Peak District National Park begins just ten miles north-east of Burslem.

Burslem cemetery
The cemetery, to the east of Sneyd Hill Park, was laid out in 1879 as a combined burial ground and recreational park. It covers 11.4 acres, and comprised walks, rides, lodges and a chapel, situated at the centre. The chapel was demolished by the council in 2008 on the basis of lack of use and the costs of maintenance and repair. The ashes of the novelist Arnold Bennett were interred in his family tomb in the cemetery, following his death in 1931.

Transport
The nearby A500 gives access to the M6 motorway. Longport railway station offers direct connections south into Stoke, east to Derby and Nottingham, and north to Crewe and Manchester. The town is straddled by two major off-road cycle paths, part of the National Cycle Network.

The Trent and Mersey canal is said to see over 10,000 narrowboats a year using it. The former Burslem Canal was constructed in 1805 and remained open until 1961 when it was breached. The Burslem Canal was a branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal running from the junction near to Newport Lane (opposite the old steel works) through to the Furlong Lane area of Middleport.

The nearest international airports are Manchester and Birmingham; each is about 60 minutes away by train.

Burslem railway station which was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway opened on 1 November 1873 on the Potteries Loop Line. It closed in the 1960s and the site and trackbed are now a greenway.

Notable people
Burslem's most famous sons include the potter Josiah Wedgwood, the watercolour painter James Holland (1800–1870), Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister, the founder, bassist and lead singer of Motörhead, and Robbie Williams, who was a major shareholder in Port Vale and whose family are still resident in the area. Darts legend and 16-time world champion Phil Taylor was born, raised and also worked in the town.

In the 17th century, Molly Leigh was resident of the town, she was accused of being a witch before her death in 1748. Painter James Astbury Hammersley also came from Burslem.

William Frederick Horry owned the George Hotel in the 1860s before murdering his wife Jane at his father's house in Boston, Lincolnshire. Despite pleas for clemency he was hanged at Lincoln Castle on 1 April 1872 and his body interred with other executed felons in the interior of the Castle's Lucy Tower, where it can still be seen.

William Clowes, one of the founders of Primitive Methodism, was born in Burslem as was John Bennett the potter. Sarah Benett (1850–1924), the Suffragette, member of the WSPU and social reformer lived in Burslem from 1894.

William Boulton's Providence Works and Foundry was based in Burslem, which designed and made the machinery that revolutionised the pottery industry in the second half of the 19th century.

In popular culture
George Formby's first sound film, ''Boots! Boots!'', got its world premiere in Burslem in 1934.

The 1952 film adaptation of Arnold Bennett's The Card was partly filmed on location in the town.

Robbie Williams included the song "Burslem Normals"' on his album Rudebox, released in 2006. A short film, Goodbye to the Normals was also made.

A song "Waterloo Road" performed by Jason Crest was written (by Mike Deighan and Mike Wilsh) about the Waterloo Road in Burslem. The song became very popular and even reached no. 1 in France when the French singer Joe Dassin covered it under the title "Les Champs Élysées".

The guitarist Slash, lead guitarist of Guns N' Roses, was also an inhabitant of Stoke-on-Trent in his early years. Ian Fraser Kilmister, known as Lemmy, a musician, singer and songwriter who founded and fronted the rock band Motörhead, was born in Burslem.

title: Burslem


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Talk:Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary

[Untitled]
This article needs some more information, such as how big is the wildlife sanctuary, how easy is it for tourists to visit, etc. The particular species of tiger should also be mentioned. At least for now, I now a little grammar checking. gK [[User talk:GK|¿?]] 15:18, 11 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Number of species
This page says: ''A detailed summary discussion of the fauna of the combined Thung Yai-Huai Kha Khaeng sanctuaries is given in ONEB (1990) and species lists have been compiled. This includes some 120 mammals, 400 birds, 96 reptiles, 43 amphibians and 113 freshwater fish as confirmed occurrences, with a number of species suspected as being present but not confirmed. Thirty-four internationally threatened species are also found within the confines of the two sanctuaries (ONEB, 1990).''

Whereas this page says: [Thungyai is also home to large proportion of Thailands wildlife species: 153 of 258 mammal species, 400 of 930 bird species, 188 of 500 fish species, 89 of 313 reptile species, and 41 of 106 amphibean species.]

What could be the reason? --Altaileopard 19:08, 28 July 2007 (UTC)


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Loch Fleet

Loch Fleet (Loch Fleòid) is a sea loch on the east coast of Scotland, located between Golspie and Dornoch. It forms the estuary of the River Fleet, a small spate river that rises in the hills east of Lairg. The loch was designated a National Nature Reserve (NNR) in 1998, and is managed by a partnership between NatureScot, the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) and Sutherland Estates. The NNR extends to 1058 hectares, including the Loch Fleet tidal basin, sand dunes, shingle ridges and the adjacent pine woods, including Balbair Wood and Ferry Wood. The tidal basin of the loch covers over 630 ha, and forms the largest habitat on the NNR.

Geography and geology
Loch Fleet is a shallow, bar-built estuary with extensive sand-flats and mud-flats backed by saltmarsh and sand dunes. The loch connects to the Dornoch Firth via a narrow channel between Coul Links and Ferry Links.

Beneath the sand dunes lies a bedrock of old Red Sandstone, overlain by shingle ridges, which extend from the western NNR boundary to the current coastline and north from Littleferry to Golspie. At the end of the last ice age Loch Fleet became a was a wide-open bay with a tidal delta reaching inland as far as Rogart. The current gradually dragged shingle across the entrance of the bay, producing a tidal basin linked to the sea by a narrow tidal channel.

Flora and fauna
The mudflats are an important habitat for many bird species, and over 100 species have been recorded at the reserve, with the highest numbers seen during the spring and autumn migrations. Species that spend the winter at the loch include bar-tailed godwit, greylag goose, wigeon, curlew, dunlin, and teal. Approximately 2% of the entire UK population of greylag geese use the wider Dornoch Firth and Loch Fleet SPA, with Loch Fleet being particularly important during the autumn: as winter progresses many of the geese move on to the Dornoch Firth. The geese spend summers further north, with some heading for Iceland and some remaining within Scotland at sites in Caithness and Sutherland.

Breeding birds at Loch Fleet include Arctic terns, common terns, oystercatchers, ringed plovers, wheatears, European stonechats, cuckoos, meadow pipits and skylarks, these species tending to favour the links habitat. The pinewoods hold species including crossbills, siskin, common redstart, treecreeper, great spotted woodpecker, buzzard and sparrowhawk. Loch Fleet is a good place to see osprey fishing, and in the early 1990s there were 10 breeding pairs on the wider SPA.

The most visible mammals at Loch Fleet are seals: common seals can be seen from the public road at Skelbo year round, and grey seals visit during the winter months. Otter and pipistrelle bats are also found here, along with other typical Scottish land mammals such as roe deer, fox, pine marten, and weasel. Red squirrels and Scottish wildcats have been recorded in the area, but have not been seen in recent years.

There are 265 species of vascular plants, over 110 species of lichen, and over 50 species of fungi have been recorded at the Loch Fleet NNR. The most noteworthy flora is that of the pinewood at Balblair Wood, where the nationally important species one-flowered wintergreen, twinflower and creeping lady's-tresses can be found. Other species typically found in native pine forests but otherwise uncommon in Scotland such as common wintergreen and lesser twayblade are also found here. The alder woods around the mouth of the river at the Mound are also significant.

History
The ruins of Skelbo Castle are situated on the south side of the loch.

The Battle of Littleferry was fought a few days before the Battle of Culloden in 1746. The Sutherland militia came down from the hills above Golspie and fell upon around 500 men led by the Earl of Cromarty. Cromarty's men were cornered in the Littleferry peninsula on the northeast side of the loch, and were either killed, captured, or drowned in the loch.

The building of the Mound causeway, designed by Thomas Telford and built between 1814 and 1818 to carry what is now the A9 road, reduced the size of the loch. The causeway, which is nearly 1 km long, acts as a tidal barrier, stopping the sea some 2.5 km short of the former tidal limit. Sluices in the causeway allow salmon and sea-trout to continue to migrate upstream to spawning areas, as well providing an outflow for the River Fleet.

Conservation designations
Loch Fleet became a nature reserve under the management of the Scottish Wildlife Trust in 1970 by agreement with the landowners, Sutherland and Cambusmore Estates. In 1975 it was declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI): the Loch Fleet SSSI is slightly larger than the NNR, at 1232 ha, and also covers Coul Links. On 24 March 1997, the Dornoch Firth and Loch Fleet Special Protection Area (SPA) was established for wildlife conservation. The SPA covers 7836.33 ha of Loch Fleet, the Dornoch Firth, Morrich More, the Mound Alderwoods and Tarbat Ness, and was also listed as a Ramsar site the same year. The Joint Nature Conservation Committee described it as "one of the best examples in northwest Europe of a large complex estuary which has been relatively unaffected by industrial development".

Loch Fleet was made a national nature reserve (NNR) in 1998: the NNR is classified as a Category IV protected area by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

title: Loch Fleet


text:
Ad Infinitum (British band)

Ad Infinitum were an English musical group which were part of the Factory Records label. They were formed by Lindsay Reade, who was married to label manager Tony Wilson at the time. The group was composed of members of A Certain Ratio, and New Order bassist Peter Hook.

In 1984, the group recorded its sole single, a cover of the Joe Meek song "Telstar", with the B-side being "Telstar in a Piano Bar". The song had original lyrics written by Reade in its first version, which were rejected by Meek's publishers, and replaced by more abstract and unintelligible vocals. Lindsay Reade explained:

"I knew it wouldn’t be a hit in that event. We salvaged things but it didn’t correspond to my vision at all. Hooky (Peter Hook) came in and remixed the whole track; it felt like a drastic haircut and sounded a bit disco when he’d finished. He put my voice through a Vocoder so the words couldn’t be distinguished. The sleeve was a bit state-of-the-art for its time. Each one had a hologram of a spaceship stuck to it. I’d managed to get a job lot of these holograms cheap. I called the band Ad Infinitum, inspired by something Tony had typed on the envelope of one of his letters."

This single was one of the first records with a holographic cover.

title: Ad Infinitum (British band)


text:
Burslem (disambiguation)

Burslem is a town in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

Burslem may also refer to:

People

 * Alexandra Burslem (born 1940), British academic and educationalist
 * Henry Burslem (1790–1866)
 * Nathaniel Burslem (1837–1865), war hero
 * Oliver Burslem

Other uses

 * Burslem (UK Parliament constituency)
 * "Burslem Normals", a song by Robbie Williams

title: Burslem (disambiguation)