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A. Lange & Söhne

A. Lange & Söhne is a trademark of Lange Uhren GmbH, a German manufacturer of luxury and prestige watches. The company was originally founded by Ferdinand Adolph Lange in Glashütte, Kingdom of Saxony in 1845. The original A. Lange & Söhne was nationalized and ceased to exist in 1948, following the occupation by the Soviet Union after World War II. The current A. Lange & Söhne trademark was re-registered when Lange Uhren GmbH was founded in 1990 by Walter Lange, the great-grandson of Ferdinand Adolph Lange.

A. Lange & Söhne is a highly regarded watch manufacturer. Notable early patrons and timepieces owners of Lange included German Emperor Wilhelm II, Abdul Hamid II of Ottoman Empire, and Alexander II of Russia. Since 2000, Lange Uhren GmbH has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Richemont Group. Lange watches boast distinctive Glashütte style in appearance and design, which is different from and more "Teutonic" than Swiss styles. The company's current model families are Lange 1, Zeitwerk, Saxonia, 1815, Richard Lange and Odysseus.

Early history
Ferdinand Adolph Lange, son of Johann Samuel Lange, was born in Dresden on 25 February 1815. When his parents were separated, he was adopted by a foster family, who luckily offered him a chance of proper education. In 1829, he entered the Technische Bildungsanstalt (technical education institute) of Dresden. The training in the school was accompanied by three days of theoretical studies and the other three days were devoted to manual craftwork with a student's master. Ferdinand Adolph Lange's master was Johann Christian Friedrich Gutkaes (the maker of the famous Five-Minute Clock at Dresden's Semperoper), who at the time was second mechanic at the Mathematics and Physics Salon providing an astronomical clock with a mercury compensation pendulum for his service observatory.

After finishing his apprenticeship with honours in 1835, Ferdinand A. Lange worked for Gutkaes for more than two years. In 1837 Lange embarked on his journeyman years, which took him to France, England and Switzerland. In Paris, he spent four years working as workshop manager of Austrian watchmaker Joseph Thaddäus Winnerl (inventor of the split-seconds chronograph). The lectures given by the physician and director of the Paris Observatory Dominique François Arago extended his knowledge of astronomy. After France, he went to Switzerland and Great Britain to improve his knowledge and skills even further with well-known watchmakers. However, Lange's intention was to set up a watchmaking industry in Saxony. He returned to Dresden in 1841 and became partners with his master's business.

Lange wasted no time in building complicated watches to put into practice what he learnt through his journey years, which all noted in his notebook. His main ambition was the industrialization of the area and become independent as he made verbal proposals in a letter he sent to the government minister Von Lindenau and councillor Weissenbach. His ambition was to found a watch manufactory in Saxony. He asked a commission from the government to grant him a business licence in the less economically fortunate region, “Erzgebirge” (Ore Mountains) in Glashütte. Mentions in the letter as follows:

“…Should the high council be able and willing to grand the wherewithal for the establishment of an institution and the welfare of 10-15 young people, and to entrust me with its leadership, I am certain that in a near future, livelihood and prosperity will spread among a large number of these unfortunate people…” On 7 December 1845, he founded A. Lange & Cie, which later became A. Lange & Söhne in Glashütte. Lange founded not only a watchmaking factory that would bear his name; he also established his vision for an entire industry. Starting with a team of 15 apprentices, to whom he taught the basics of watchmaking. Later on, when they had thoroughly mastered the crafts, he encouraged them to leave his company to start their own small supplier firms. Thus, he established a watchmaking cluster, which provided the region with a new means to make a living.

As Ferdinand Adolph Lange travelled through France he saw French watchmakers still used duodecimal ligne as length unit instead of the new metric system. Accordingly, he recorded detailed calculations for each individual gear-wheel size. Returning from his travels, he started to use the metric system in watchmaking instead of the traditional norm, ligne. Soon after, he built his first micrometer in Dresden from the plans in his journey book. It could measure millimeters to the thousandth. Along with a measurement system, he invented various tools like hand-powered face-lathe to slide-rules and dixieme gauges.

Rise to fame
In 1868, Ferdinand A. Lange's elder son Richard entered the company, and the company name changed to A. Lange & Söhne (A. Lange & Sons). He had seven children and also took on political responsibility in his home town: He was the mayor of Glashütte for a period of 18 years. After retiring from this position, he was awarded with the honorary citizenship. Additionally, the citizens of Glashütte established the Lange Foundation, which provided pensions for local watchmakers. He died in 1875.

At the time when Emil and Richard Lange joined the company, the name A. Lange & Söhne was already growing and the company needed new premises. In 1873, the company moved to the Stammhaus, which is being used as the company's headquarters today. The new building gave Lange senior the opportunity to realize his idea, a clock with a pendulum of almost 10 meters, the longest in the world. Emil and Richard Lange were complementing each other. While Emil was interested in business, Richard Lange followed his father's path. He advanced his father's inventions and patents such as quarter repeater and chronograph. Some of his notable patents include an up/down power reserve indicator (patent No.9349), improved chronometer restraints, pocket watch with minutes counter, and addition of beryllium to improve the rate characteristic of balance spring

Emil Lange was awarded the cross of the Knight of the French Legion of Honor for his services as a juror at the Paris world fair and the presentation of the “Jahrhunderttourbillon” (tourbillon of the century). The model was auctioned in 1990 and sold for 1,500,000 Marks. Furthermore, Emil Lange was given the honorary title of “Kommerzienrat” (commercial councilor) by King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony for his success as businessman. In 1898, German Emperor Wilhelm II commissioned A. Lange & Söhne to make a pocket watch that would be presented to Sultan Abdul Hamid II during an official visit of the Ottoman Empire. The watch is in the collection of the Topkapı Palace.

The turn of the 20th century came with a change in fashion. Flat watches for men were increasing in demand. A. Lange & Söhne came up with a new design and registered it in 1898 as “Glashütte caliber” pocket watch. However, in the beginning of the century, in 1904 “Glashütte Präzisons-Uhrenfabrik Akt. Ges.” was founded and then in 1906 “Nomos-Uhr-Gesellschaft” came up. Both companies offered machine-made watches or movements imported from Switzerland and cased up in Glashütte. By contrast, A. Lange & Söhne was still offering hand-made watches and operating with high costs.

World Wars I & II
Due to World War I, demand for precious gold watches fell sharply. Many companies had to let go most of their workforce. At the same time, Germany closed its borders to Swiss watches and movements forcing firms dependent on Switzerland out of production. Shortly after the war, German watchmakers founded “Deutsche Präzisions-Uhrenfabrik Glashütte in Sachsen GmbH” (German precision watch factory Glashütte in Saxony), known by its acronym DPUG. The idea was to go to mass production using latest technological machinery. Emil Lange decided not to follow this direction. In 1919, he retired and left the company to his three sons: Otto, Rudolf and Gerhard Lange.

To counter inexpensive production of DPUG, Otto Lange launched a new brand “OLIW” (Original Lange Internationales Werk) and designed a 43mm diameter movement. It was protected in Germany under registered design No. 748 972. It took years to complete the OLIW and serial production did not start until the late 1920s. Between 1921 and 1923, hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic triggered a wave of corporate bankruptcies. Prices ran out of control, for example a loaf of bread, which cost 250 marks in January 1923, had risen to 200,000 million marks in November 1923. At A. Lange & Söhne, sales of OLIW remained behind expectations. In the Glashütte watch industry, most of the workforce was laid off during 1920 and 1930s. Walter Lange describes the situation as follows:

“''I was born in the Weimar era; then came the crash in 1929 and the great unemployment. I can still see it today; it was a childhood trauma for me, when I looked out the living room window and saw all the unemployed men lined up, waiting across the street. I will never forget that view.''”

Germany's military buildup of the 1930s brought the demand for precision watches back to Glashütte. From the second half of the thirties to the end of World War II, A. Lange & Söhne was one of five watch manufacturers (the others being Stowa, Laco, Wempe and IWC) that built B-Uhren for Germany's air force (Luftwaffe). B-Uhren is an abbreviation of Beobachtungsuhren, literally: observation watches. The total military production amounted to about 13,500 precision watches, equipped with caliber 48 (small seconds) and caliber 48.1 (sweep seconds) with a movement diameter of 48mm.

A. Lange & Söhne, as well as other Glashütte watchmakers, used slave labour to build chronometers, timers, and fuses. During this time Glashütte contained more prisoners than residents, most were women from other European countries.

On 8 May 1945, the last day of the war, the Lange headquarter and main production building was almost completely destroyed in a Soviet air raid. The Glashütte watch companies were nationalized in 1948. At the time, Lange was working on a new movement: Caliber 28, a wristwatch format of the caliber 48. It went into production in 1949 as the last movement developed by A. Lange & Söhne. Watches from this period were signed “Lange VEB” (Volkseigener Betrieb - publicly owned enterprise). When the seized watch companies were merged in 1951 to form VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe, the Lange name disappeared from the dials.

Recent development
On 7 December 1990, following German reunification, Walter Lange and Günter Blümlein, a watch industry executive, restored the company as Lange Uhren GmbH, with the assistance of several Swiss watch manufacturers, including IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre. It was re-established on the exact date 145 years after Walter's great-grandfather Ferdinand Adolph Lange founded the original company. The new company re-registered A. Lange & Söhne as its trademark, and was again based in Glashütte. It presented its first range of wristwatches in 1994.

Since 2000, A. Lange & Söhne has been a member of the Richemont group, and only manufactured around five thousand watches every year. In 2017, Walter Lange died at age 92.

Pronunciation and spelling
A. Lange & Söhne is pronounced, approximately "ah LAHNG-eh unt ZUR-neh" (by an English speaker who doesn't pronounce their R's). Where the Umlaut "ö" is not available, it is rendered as a digraph by German convention ("Soehne"), but often as "Sohne" internationally (even though that would imply a different pronunciation in German).

Motto and slogan
One of A. Lange & Söhne's company slogans is "State-of-the-art Tradition". In addition, a notable personal motto of Walter Lange is "Never Stand Still".

Watch manufacturing
All A. Lange & Söhne watches contain mechanical rather than quartz movements, and, with the exception of a very few special edition watches and the Odysseus model, Lange watch cases are made of yellow gold, rose gold, white gold, or platinum. Lange's movements are developed, produced, and assembled by Lange itself. In addition to time-only watches, both manually wound and automatic, Lange is known for its complicated watches, including chronographs and split-seconds chronographs, and perpetual calendars.

Design and finishing
The design philosophy of A. Lange & Söhne was established in 1990 when the company was re-established, and it draws from heritage. Lange's watches are often described as more "austere" or "Teutonic" in appearance than watches produced by comparable Swiss firms. Case and dial design are straightforward, confident, solid and comforting. Recurrent design elements are the outsize date, inspired by the stage clock of Dresden's Semperoper, solid gold or platinum cases, the shape of the soldered lugs, the galvanized solid-silver dials and the customized typography based on the “Engravers” font from 1899.

The company employs hand-finishing for all their pieces. A. Lange & Söhne applies same level of top hand-finishing on all their pieces from the basic Saxonia to Grand Complication. The hand-engraved balance cock is the brand's signature technique. A. Lange & Söhne uses a multitude of different surface decorations. The most frequent finishing techniques are chamfering, circular graining, contour grinding, engraving, mirror polish, linear finish, perlage, Glashütte ribbing, sunray finish and black polish.

Movements
Lange's movement design and decoration is distinctively Glashütte in appearance, eschewing typically Swiss features, such as multiple bridges and cocks, or perlage, "Glashütte stripes", hand-engraved balance cocks and screwed gold chatons. The movements are made from a metal known as German silver, as opposed to the plated brass typically used for Swiss movements. It requires extra care and attention of the watchmaker. One wrong move carries the risk of tainting and tarnishing the material.

Each watch movement is designed and made entirely in-house. Since 1994, the brand has developed 63 different movements. Many of the movements feature patented constructions and advancements. The brand is especially known for its chronograph mechanisms. According to Lange's director of product development, Anthony de Haas, it takes four to five years to develop a watch with a new caliber.

The movement numbers are named regarding their development years. For example, L043.1 (Zeitwerk) indicates that work on this particular Lange (L) movement started in 2004 (04), that it is the third project of that year (3) and that it is the first version of this caliber (.1). Prototypes undergo rigorous load tests before going into series production. The testing routine includes a shaking test, a hammer test, which simulates a free fall from a height of one meter onto a hardwood floor, a pusher test, during which each pusher is pressed 50,000 times and a climatic chamber, where the watches are exposed to temperatures from minus 20 degrees to 80 degrees.

Notable inventions and patents

 * 1864, Stable three-quarter plate. In 1864, Ferdinand Adolph Lange introduced the three-quarter plate in his pocket watches. It replaced the many separate bridges which until then held the arbors of the going train. While this requires more time and effort during the assembly phase, it clearly improves the stability of the movement. Only the balance cock with the oscillation system remained exposed, located beneath a cock.
 * 1867, Jumping seconds hand. In 1867, Lange developed a jumping-seconds mechanisms for a pocket watch, which his sons Richard and Emil adapted slightly and filed for patent ten years later. Further patents include a keyless winding and hands-setting, a system for the removal of the mainspring barrel, a constant-force escapement, a chronograph, an aluminium balance-spring29 and a quarter repeater.
 * 1902, Grand Complication No. 42500. The Grand Complication was made in 1902 as a unique piece. It was sold to Heinrich Schäfer of Vienna for the price of 5600 Marks which at the time was the equivalent of a villa in Dresden, Germany. The watch houses 833 individual parts and features the following complications: chiming mechanism with grand and small strike (grande et petite sonnerie), minute repeater, split-seconds chronograph with minute counter, perpetual calendar with moon phase, flying seconds (seconde foudroyante), and so on. In 2001, the watch came back to Glashütte during a manufacture visit from customers who left it to the hands of the restoration workshop to be repaired. It took a team of five experts and almost seven years to renovate the watch as it was in 1902. In 2010, the restored piece was first exhibited at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH). The watch is now on permanent loan in the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon (Royal Cabinet of Mathematical and Physical Instruments) in Dresden.
 * 1931, Richard Lange's balance spring patent. Elinvar balance spring's introduction was revolutionary because it was removing the effects of temperature over the elasticity of the spring. After Emil Lange's introduction of the nickel-steel balance to Germany, Richard Lange's interest in the metallurgical aspect of watchmaking was awoken. He was the first to realise that adding beryllium to nickel and steel lessened the sensitivity of hairsprings to temperature fluctuations and magnetic fields on the one hand, while improving their elasticity and hardness in comparison with the Elinvar alloy springs. His patent application “Metal alloys for watch springs” in Germany and was granted in 1931. His invention created the base of the Nivarox balance springs that are still in use today.
 * 1997, Zero reset mechanism. In 1997, A. Lange & Söhne introduced an advanced and elaborate self-winding movement: the Sax-0-Mat calibre features an integrated Zero-Reset mechanism that stops the balance when the crown is pulled and instantaneously moves the seconds hand to the zero position, much like in a chronograph.
 * 2005, Disengagement mechanism. With this invention, Lange's split-seconds chronographs – Double Split and Triple Split – can be activated without causing a decline in amplitude. The mechanism prevents friction loss encountered in conventional solutions by separating the interlocking connection between the rattrapante hands and the chronograph hands on the chronograph centre arbor and on the minute counter arbor when the rattrapante button is actuated.
 * 2008, Stop-seconds for tourbillon. A. Lange & Söhne is the only brand to find a way to stop the oscillating balance inside the revolving tourbillon cage to allow precise time setting in watches endowed with this complication. Pulling the crown triggers a complex lever ensemble that pivots a movable V-shaped spring into the balance rim. It instantly stops the balance. When the crown is pushed, the “brake” is released, and the balance instantly begins to oscillate again.
 * 2018, Triple-split chronograph. In January 2018, Lange introduced the triple-split chronograph, an advancement from Lange's double-split chronograph introduced in 2004. The new chronograph can compare the times of two concurrent events, of up to twelve hours' duration and to the accuracy of one-sixth of a second. Being the world's first mechanical split-seconds chronograph that allows multi-hour comparative time measurements, the watch also features Lange's patented isolator mechanism to preserve the amplitude of the balance wheel while the chronograph is running to ensure precision at all times.

Most expensive pieces

 * On November 12, 2007, an 18K-pink-gold A. Lange & Söhne pocket watch (No. 46177) manufactured in 1904 was auctioned by Christie's for around 0.95 million US dollars (1,057,000 CHF). The pocket watch contains complications such as minute repeater, perpetual calendar, split-second chronograph, and so on.
 * On May 12, 2018, a unique A. Lange & Söhne 1815 "Homage to Walter Lange" made in stainless steel was sold for US$852,525 in Phillips' Geneva auction. This is one of the auction records for Lange timepieces. The proceeds went to Children Action, a Swiss children's relief organization. The watch model was introduced in 2018 to pay tribute to the late Walter Lange. It was limited to 263 pieces in total in the following metals: pink gold (145), white gold (90), yellow gold (27) and steel. Notably, it was the first 1815 model that included a jumping seconds hand, a complication first devised by the founder himself.
 * In 2013, Lange introduced the Grand Complication, which boasts multifarious complications including a chiming mechanism with grand and small strike (grande et petite sonnerie), a minute repeater, a split-seconds chronograph with minute counter, and a perpetual calendar with moon phase and flying seconds (seconde foudroyante). Upon release, the piece was the most complicated wristwatch ever made in Germany. The retail price for the watch was US$2.6 million, and only six pieces have been produced. It took about a year for a master watchmaker to assemble the mechanism.

1815
In general, Lange 1815 is a family of wristwatches that pays a tribute to the legacy of Ferdinand Adolph Lange, who was born in the year 1815 and founded the company in 1845. The Lange 1815 family consists of watch models with complications such as chronograph, annual calendar, tourbillon, perpetual calendar and so on. The watches in this line take their roots from Lange pocket watches to the present time by using traditional elements like railway minute track, Arabic numerals and clubs-shaped markers on the 15-minute intervals. Additionally, a couple notable models of the Lange 1815 include the "1815 'Homage to Walter Lange,'" limited in production to just 263 time pieces, and the "1815 Rattrapante Perpetual Calendar in Platinum," winner of the Grande Complication Prize and the Public Prize at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Geneve.

Zeitwerk
Introduced in 2009, the Zeitwerk is the first mechanical watch that displays the time from left to right in a digital looking manner. Its designers had challenged everything, except mechanical principles, to come up with a patented mechanism that drove three precisely switching hour and minute discs. In November 2009, it was awarded the “Aigulle d’Or” at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. Encouraged by the success, the watch was turned into a family of its own. The Zeitwerk range includes several watches with striking complications as well as a model featuring a ring-shaped date display.

Lange 1
The Lange 1 is one of the first watch models introduced after A. Lange & Söhne trademark was re-established in 1990s. It is a family of watches that boasts a unique decentralized and asymmetrical dial design, as well as the outsize date display. Specifically, the "Lange 1" model features an asymmetric layout with no overlap among its key indicators: a dial displaying the hours and minutes, a smaller subsidiary dial displaying seconds, an oversized double window date display, and a power reserve indicator. The Lange 1 family is often regarded as one of the most iconic watch designs and has won 45 prizes since 1995.

At the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) 2012 in Geneva, A. Lange & Söhne unveiled new watches including a take on the classic Lange 1. The Lange 1 watch family is to be headed by the Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar, with two large complications and a new type of instantaneously jumping month ring. The company also issued a reworked Grand Lange 1. In addition, there was a luminous Lange 1 Time Zone in white gold. Over the years, the Lange 1 has been evolved into a watch family composed of 15 models. They come in various case diameters and as manually wound or self-winding versions. The portfolio has been enriched with additional functions such as a moon-phase displays that are designed to remain accurate for 122.6 years, a second time zone, or as a combination featuring a tourbillon and a perpetual calendar (Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar Tourbillon). In 2019, the brand celebrated the Lange 1's 25th anniversary with a series of limited editions.

Athletes

 * Michael Jordan, American basketball player

Celebrities

 * Brad Pitt, American actor
 * Ed Sheeran, English singer

Politicians

 * Vladimir Putin, President of Russia
 * Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States

Royalty

 * Alexander II of Russia, Tsar of Russia
 * Abdul Hamid II, 34th Sultan (Emperor) of the Ottoman Empire. The pocket watch was commissioned by German Emperor Wilhelm II as a gift to Sultan Abdul Hamid II during Emperor Wilhelm II's official tour of the Ottoman Empire.

title: A. Lange & Söhne


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Frankie Vaughan

Frankie Vaughan (born Frank Fruim Abelson; 3 February 1928 – 17 September 1999) was an English singer and actor who recorded more than 80 easy listening and traditional pop singles in his lifetime. He was known as "Mr. Moonlight" after his signature song "Give Me the Moonlight, Give Me the Girl". Two of Vaughan's singles topped the UK Singles Chart – "The Garden of Eden" (1957) and "Tower of Strength" (1961). He starred in several films, including a role opposite Marilyn Monroe in Let's Make Love (1960).

Life and career
Vaughan was born Frank Fruim Abelson on Devon Street in the Islington district of Liverpool on 3 February 1928, one of four children of Isaac and Leah Abelson.

He came from a family of Russian Jewish descent and derived his stage surname from his grandmother; as he was her first-born grandson, she called him "Frank my 'number one' grandson", and her Russian accent made "one" sound like "Vaughan". In his early life, he was a member of the Lancaster Lads' Club, a member group of the National Association of Boys' Clubs; having started out at the club intending to become a boxer, he was a major contributor to them during his career, dedicating his monetary compensation from one song each year to them. He was an evacuee during World War II.

He attended the Lancaster College of Art on a scholarship and was a vocalist in their dance band. After a stint in the Royal Army Medical Corps (where he spent most of his time boxing) he returned to art school, this time at the Leeds College of Art. An early appearance was in the Leeds students rag revue "It's Rag Time", which opened on 20 June 1949 at the Empire Theatre in Leeds, when he was described as the show's main vocalist. He was still known as Frank Abelson at that time. When he won a prize in a design contest, he left for London, where he won second prize on a radio talent show.

Vaughan auditioned for the agent Billy Marsh who booked him in for a week at the Kingston Empire in May 1950 with Jimmy Wheeler. His debut went well with press comment stating "Frankie Vaughan gives a promising performance when singing some new and old songs in a crooning style. He receives a warm reception." This led to further bookings on the variety circuit and he appeared with the veteran male impersonator Hetty King on several occasions. Her guidance helped change Vaughan's style for the rest of his career. He became known as a fancy dresser, wearing top hat, bow tie, tails, and cane.

Vaughan made his first television appearance on 13 October 1951 in a variety show from the Theatre Royal, Leeds starring Gracie Fields. He was introduced by Donald Peers and sang "Lucky Me".

He made his first records in 1950 for His Master's Voice but they were not popular. In August 1952 he joined the dance band of Nat Temple for a year or so, but the popularity of further recordings he made in 1953 encouraged him to return to the variety stage. He switched to the Philips label and in 1955, he recorded what was to become his trademark song, "Give Me the Moonlight, Give Me the Girl".

He recorded a large number of songs that were covers of United States hit songs, including Perry Como's "Kewpie Doll", Jimmie Rodgers' "Kisses Sweeter than Wine", Boyd Bennett's "Seventeen" (also covered in the US by the Fontane Sisters), Jim Lowe's "The Green Door", and (with the Kaye Sisters), the Fleetwoods' "Come Softly to Me". In 1956, his cover of "The Green Door" reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart. The same year he was voted 'Showbusiness Personality of the Year'. In early 1957, his version of "The Garden of Eden", reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart. In 1957 he was voted the eighth most popular star at the British box office.

Managed at this time by former journalist and theatrical agent Paul Cave, Vaughan stayed in the United States for a time to make a film with Marilyn Monroe, Let's Make Love (1960), and was an actor in several other films, but his recordings were never chart hits in the US, with the exception of "Judy", which reached No.100 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1958. In 1961, Vaughan was on the bill at the Royal Variety Performance at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Coventry Street, London. That December, Vaughan hit No. 1 in the UK again, with "Tower of Strength", written by Burt Bacharach and Bob Hilliard. The rise of beat music eclipsed Vaughan's chart career before he returned to the Top 10 in 1967 with "There Must Be a Way". Chart success eluded him after this although he did have two more Top 40 singles; "Nevertheless" and "So Tired".

In the late 1960s, Vaughan, involved himself with a youth project in Easterhouse, Glasgow. He was appalled by the level of violence amongst young people. Vaughan held meetings with the gang leaders and appealed for them to surrender their weapons.

In 1985, Vaughan starred in a stage version of 42nd Street at Drury Lane in London, opposite his old friend Shani Wallis who appeared in their first film together, Ramsbottom Rides Again. After a year, he nearly died of peritonitis and had to leave the cast. Vaughan was married to Leeds-born Stella Shock (1924–2022) from 1951 until his death; the couple had three children, a daughter Susan (b.1963) and two sons, singer and yoga elder David Sye (b.1961) and actor-singer Andrew Abelson (b.1968).

In 1994, he was one of a few to be honoured by a second appearance on This Is Your Life, when he was surprised by Michael Aspel. Vaughan had been a subject of the show previously in April 1970 when Eamonn Andrews surprised him at the Caesar's Palace nightclub in Luton.

Despite frequent bouts of ill-health, Vaughan continued performing until shortly before his death in 1999.

Awards and honours
Vaughan was awarded an OBE in 1965, a CBE in 1996, and as a long-time resident of High Wycombe had been a Deputy Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire since 1993. He was an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University. He also received the Variety Club of Great Britain Award for "Showbusiness Personality of the Year" in 1957.

Death
Vaughan died from heart failure at his home in High Wycombe aged 71. His wife Stella donated archival materials, including scores and sheet music he had collected throughout his career, to Liverpool John Moores University in 2000.

Filmography

 * Ramsbottom Rides Again (1956) as Elmer
 * These Dangerous Years (1957) as Dave Wyman
 * Wonderful Things! (1958) as Carmello
 * The Lady Is a Square (1959) as Johnny Burns
 * The Heart of a Man (1959) as Frankie Martin
 * Let's Make Love (1960) as Tony Danton
 * The Right Approach (1961) as Leo Mack (final acting role)
 * It's All Over Town (1964) as himself
 * Full Dress Affair (1966, Broadcast 23 May 1966 : penultimate episode of the television show Mrs Thursday, starring Kathleen Harrison)

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

title: Frankie Vaughan


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Covedale, Cincinnati

Covedale is a former village in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The main area of the village was annexed by the city of Cincinnati and is now a neighborhood of about 15,000 people in the western part of the city.

History
Covedale was annexed by Cincinnati on June 4, 1930. Residents of the annexed territory unsuccessfully argued in Common Pleas Court that the annexation date was March 18, 1931. Upon annexation, the village disincorporated and its remaining area reverted to Green Township, with a small fragment going to Delhi Township.

Geography
Covedale is located about 6 mi west of downtown Cincinnati. It is primarily a residential neighborhood of tree lined streets with brick and Tudor-style homes. Commercial areas are mainly centered about Glenway Avenue.

The U.S. Census provides population and demographic data for the area that remains in the townships, Covedale (CDP).

title: Covedale, Cincinnati


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Akwasi Afrifa

Lieutenant General Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa (24 April 1936 – 26 June 1979) was a Ghanaian soldier, farmer, traditional ruler and politician. He was the head of state of Ghana and leader of the military government in 1969 and then chairman of the Presidential Commission between 1969 and 1970. He continued as a farmer and political activist. He was elected a member of Parliament in 1979, but he was executed before he could take his seat. He was executed together with two other former heads of state, General Kutu Acheampong and General Fred Akuffo, and five other generals (Utuka, Felli, Boakye, Robert Kotei and Amedume), in June 1979. He was also popularly referred to by his title Okatakyie Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa and was in addition the abakomahene of Krobo in the Asante-Mampong Traditional Area of the Ashanti Region of Ghana.

Education and training
After his secondary education at Adisadel College, he joined the Ghana Army in 1957 and was sent to the Regular Officer's Special Training School. From there, he attended the Mons Officer Cadet School, Aldershot, England in 1958. He then completed officer training at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, England. In 1961, he was at the School of Infantry, Hythe, United Kingdom.

Afrifa also attended the Defence College, at Teshie in Accra.

Career
In 1960, Afrifa was commissioned as second lieutenant in the Ghana Armed Forces. From 1962 up to 1964, he was a general staff officer in the army. He next attended the Defence College, at Teshie in Accra. Afrifa was one of the officers who served in the Ghana contingent of the United Nations Operation in the Congo. Afrifa rose through the ranks to become a major. He was also staff officer in charge of army training and operations by 1965. He was based at Kumasi, at the headquarters of the Second Infantry Brigade (now the Central Command) of the Ghana Army.

24 February 1966 coup
While at Kumasi, Afrifa became friends with Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka, then a colonel and the commander of the Second Infantry Brigade. At the time, Ghana had become a one-party state, political opposition was effectively removed with the Preventive Detention Act of 1958 and in 1964 Kwame Nkrumah declared himself president for life. Simultaneously, the export price of Ghana's main foreign exchange earner, cocoa, plummeted. This, combined with ambitious domestic expenditure on much needed social infrastructure and on well documented white elephants, led to the bankruptcy of Ghana. There was a lot of discontent among the general population as prices rocketed for basic consumer goods which were widely unavailable, and among the Ghana Armed Forces. Nkrumah had asked the military at the time to prepare for a possible campaign in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) due to that country's recent unilateral declaration of independence under a white minority regime. Under the pretext of a training exercise, Kotoka moved his troops from Kumasi to Accra for the coup. Afrifa was his right-hand man in the coup exercise. It turned out later that, unhappy with Nkrumah's strengthening ties with the Soviet Union, China and other communist states, the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States had been kept updated about preparations for this coup and may have helped create difficulties for the Nkrumah government to facilitate this. The coup plotters struck while Nkrumah was on a trip to Hanoi, then the capital of North Vietnam. Afrifa's brief was to take the Broadcasting House, the base from which the national radio station broadcast its news and programmes. This succeeded after heavy fighting, allowing Kotoka to go on air to announce the coup d'état to the whole nation.

Allegations of atrocities
There have been allegations by members of Nkrumah's Presidential Detail Department (PDD) responsible for the personal protection of Nkrumah that they were physically tortured, some apparently in the presence of Kotoka, J. W. K. Harlley and Afrifa. Martin Okai, a member of the PDD, claimed at the National Reconciliation Commission hearings that his torture was supervised by Afrifa.

Time in government
Following the coup, Kotoka became one of the eight members of the National Liberation Council (NLC). Afrifa also went through a series of rapid promotions rising from major to lieutenant general in the three years his government was in power. He was also appointed the commissioner (minister) for Finance and Trade. The head of state of Ghana and chairman of the NLC, Joseph Arthur Ankrah was forced to resign in April 1969 following a bribery scandal involving Francis Nzeribe, a Nigerian businessman. He was replaced by Afrifa as head of state. Ankrah was accused of effecting payments to influence the results of a poll which showed him ahead of Afrifa and Kofi Abrefa Busia for the national elections due in August 1969. Afrifa was a supporter of Busia, the leader of the Progress Party who was a candidate in the forthcoming National Assembly elections. Afrifa handed over to Busia who became the prime minister of Ghana on inauguration of the Second Republic. He continued as chairman of the newly created Presidential Commission until August 1970 when he was replaced by Nii Amaa Ollennu, the speaker of Parliament in the Second Republic.

Campaign for democracy
After the overthrow of the democratically elected Busia government by Acheampong and the National Redemption Council, Afrifa, a known supporter of Busia was arrested two days later on 15 January 1972 and detained until December 1972. Following his release, Afrifa restricted himself largely to farming at his home town of Mampong. In 1978, the Supreme Military Council (SMC) government sought to introduce a new and widely criticized political system called Union Government (UNIGOV) which was to be a military and civilian partnership rather than a return to a multi-party democracy. A referendum was scheduled in March 1978, and Afrifa was one of the leaders of the Popular Movement for Freedom and Justice, which led the opposition to this UNIGOV concept. Joined by students and the intelligentsia among others, the PMFJ demanded a return to constitutional multi-party democracy.

Elected member of Parliament
Following the fall of Acheampong, the new SMC under General Fred Akuffo organized presidential and parliamentary elections on 18 June 1979 for a multi-party national assembly. The elections were, however, held under the government of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) as the SMC itself had been overthrown on 4 June 1979. Afrifa stood for and won the Mampong North constituency seat on the ticket of the United National Convention, whose roots were from the Progress Party of Kofi Abrefa Busia. On 26 June 1979, eight days after his election, Afrifa was executed and thus never had the opportunity to take his seat in the Parliament of the Third Republic of Ghana and was succeeded in parliament by Ebenezer Augustus Kwasi Akuoko.

Other roles
The late Asantehene (Asante king), Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, honoured Afrifa with the title "okatakyie" (meaning "hero" in Asante) after the NLC had returned power to the civilian Busia government. Afrifa was also the abakomahene of Krobo in the Asante-Mampong Sekyere Traditional Area in the Ashanti Region. Afrifa is also credited with initiating the Krobo Rehabilitation Project, raising funds leading to the rebuilding of the entire village.

Family
Afrifa was the son of Opanin Kwaku Amankwa and Ama Serwaa Amaniampong, both from Krobo, near Mampong, in the Ashanti Region. At the time of his execution, he was married to Christine Afrifa, with whom he had nine children. His first Ama Serwa Afrifa, seven with Christine Afrifa; Baffour Afrifa, Baffour Anokye Afrifa, Maame Drowaa Afrifa, Serwaa Adimam Afrifa, Ayowa Afrifa, Sophia Amaniampong Afrifa and Akosua Afrifa. His last son Henry Afrifa was born after his death.

Premonitions
Afrifa had written a letter to Acheampong expressing fears about the future execution of soldiers as a deterrent against the staging of military coups in Ghana, due to the prevailing corruption and indiscipline in the military. This was around the period of the UNIGOV campaign and before Acheampong was removed in a palace coup on 5 July 1978. "I feel greatly disturbed about the future after the government ... In order to discourage the military from staging coups in the future, how about if they line all of us up and shot us one by one? I do not certainly want to be arrested, given some sort of trial and shot. But I would be a stupid General if I sit in the comfort of my farm and await the VENGEANCE that is about to be unleashed on us. ... I will pray to take away the fear and confusion weighing on my mind now."

Execution
After the overthrow of the SMC by the AFRC led by Jerry Rawlings, Afrifa was again arrested on his farm at Mampong. Together with other arrested senior military officers, they were tried to varied extents in camera. They were apparently found guilty of corruption, embezzlement, and using their positions to amass wealth. The investigations carried out were apparently incomplete. Evidence gathered by the National Reconciliation Commission in 2004 also suggests that the others executed were not properly tried. Previously, Afrifa had personally had his assets probed by the independent Sowah Assets Commission without any adverse findings. There also appears to have been a delay to the executions as no one including Rawlings appears to have been ready to sign the death warrants. Lieutenant General Joshua Hamidu, a former chief of the Defence Staff at the time of the AFRC regime, stated that he and Rawlings were the only soldiers at the centre of government who opposed the executions of the former heads of state. He is quoted as saying in response to an accusation of calling for Afrifa's execution that: "That is ridiculous. It is a lie. I had nothing to do with the executions. For three weeks after the 4 June event, questions were constantly raised about executing people. I always stood against it. Surprisingly, the only person who also stood against it was Rawlings. The young boys wanted blood and I used to tell 'you cannot resurrect the man once you've killed him. If you have any case against people, try them. Let everybody hear what they have done wrong against the country.' And that even, they could not do." On 26 June 1979, Afrifa was executed by firing squad, together with General Fred Akuffo, also a former head of state and Major General Robert Kotei, Colonel Roger Felli, Air Vice Marshal George Yaw Boakye and Rear Admiral Joy Amedume. Reports suggest that Afrifa did not die immediately and had to be shot again. The bodies of the executed officers were buried without ceremony at the Nsawam Prisons Cemetery at Adoagyiri, near Nsawam in the Eastern Region.

Reburial
Following a petition by the widows of the executed generals, President John Kufuor decided that their bodies be returned to their respective families as part of a national reconciliation. On 27 December 2001, the bodies were returned to their respective families in Accra. Afrifa's remains were finally laid to rest at his hometown of Krobo on 28 January 2002.

Publications

 * with preface by K.A. Busia and introduction by Tibor Szamuely

title: Akwasi Afrifa


text:
Figure-ground (cartography)

Figure-ground contrast, in the context of map design, is a property of a map in which the map image can be partitioned into a single feature or type of feature that is considered as an object of attention (the figure), with the remainder of the map being relegated to the background, outside the current focus of attention. It is thus based on the concept of figure–ground from Gestalt psychology. For example, in a street map with strong figure-ground contrast, the reader would be able to isolate and focus attention on individual features, like a given street, park, or lake, as well as layers of related features, like the street network.

Strong figure-ground contrast has been seen as a desirable goal of map design, because it helps the map reader to perceive distinct geographic phenomena in the map. This allows more complex composition techniques such as visual hierarchy to organize these phenomena into clear structures that help readers use the map for its intended purposes.

Related disciplines and history
Fields other than cartography, such as psychology, neurology, and computer science, have studied differentiation of figure from ground. Many studies have employed different experiments, varying the shades, textures, and orientations of test pictures to determine the best method for figure–ground design with mixed results. A current application of figure–ground research is the development of computer vision for robots. By studying the way humans perceive figure and ground, methods can be developed to improve computer vision algorithms. Unlike some of these other applications, in which figures and grounds are discovered in a natural visual field that may or may not have this contrast, in cartography they are intentionally created by design, based on knowledge of the visual perception tendencies of map readers.

Since the early days of academic cartography, there has been a recognition of the need for maps to have a conceptual structure. In The Look of Maps (1952), Arthur Robinson emphasized the need for visual contrast in making maps that are clearly organized, including the figure-ground relationship, "the visual relation of one or more components to the background on which they are seen." In 1972, Borden Dent appears to have been the first to use the principles of perceptual psychology to develop a theory of how the figure-ground relationship emerges on maps (as well as Visual hierarchy), and a set of guidelines for design to strengthen it. He identified heterogeneity (contrast), Contour (strong edges), Area (size) and Enclosedness (closure) as the primary determinants of figure identification, a model that gained wide support, soon becoming a core principle of the cartographic canon found in textbooks (including his own). He tied it directly to the idea of visual levels, the illusion that some elements on the map appear to float above the page, suggesting that figures are "above" their ground. This correlation has also gained widespread, if not universal, acceptance, even though there are common situations when figures appear below their ground (such as a river beneath a road network).

Further research was largely grounded in Gestalt psychology and perception, which largely corroborated and expanded upon Dent's model. In summarizing the work to date, MacEachren added Orientation and Convexity to Dent's list, with the acknowledgment that these are relatively minor influences compared to the others. MacEachren discussed the concept of visual levels as "related," but not equal, to figure-ground contrast.

Influences on figure–ground contrast
Several visual patterns are believed to contribute to figure-ground contrast, such that features that exhibit these patterns are easier to recognize as figures. These have been largely adopted from Gestalt psychology.

 * Differentiation or heterogeneity, the amount of difference in appearance between the intended figure and the intended ground. A strong figure looks significantly different than everything in the ground, while the elements of the ground look relatively similar to each other. This can be accomplished using almost any of the visual variables, such as color, size, and texture. Achieving difference is more important than using prescribed design techniques on the figure and ground; for example, a dark figure stands out on a light background just as much as a light figure stands out on a dark background.
 * Closure, the appearance of a figure to be completely contained within the visual field, and thus entirely surrounded by ground. A figure with closure stands out because it looks like "a thing." The proclivity for closed objects is so strong in human visual processing that humans will perceive closure even when figures are only mostly closed.
 * Centrality, in which features near the center of the visual field (the map) are easier to isolate as figures than features on the edge. The concept of centrality is important because the object located in the center of a map is most often assumed to be the figure. Other map elements can be centered in the remaining visual space after the figure has been centered.
 * Size, in which smaller elements are more easily recognized as figures than those that fill the visual field. This is one of the few factors in which figure-ground and visual hierarchy have opposite effect.
 * Interposition is when some features appear to be "in front" of others in the visual field, with the former partially obscuring the latter. The former thus has a stronger recognition as a figure. This property could be considered a more complex use of closure.
 * Articulation utilizes texture to differentiate figure from ground. One common example of using articulation on a map is differentiating a continent from the ocean. The ocean, in most cases, will be the ground and the continent will be the figure. By adding fine-textured shading to water, the continent pops out visually as the figure. Another method that can be employed for articulation is called vignetting, or the inclusion of brightness gradients at the land-water edge.
 * Contour is the strength of the boundary or edge of a figure. The figure is formed by a contour or outline (as opposed to an isometric contour line), the common boundary between the figure and ground, usually through a brightness contrast. If a figure is not separated entirely from the ground, a simple black contour line can be drawn around the figure enclosing it and thus differentiating it from the ground.

Relationship to visual hierarchy
The concept of figure-ground contrast is often confused with the concept of visual hierarchy. Both are related elements of map composition, the same design techniques frequently achieve both goals simultaneously, and they are synergistic in that strengthening one typically has the side effect of strengthening the other. The primary difference is in intent. Figure-ground contrast is about making each feature appear distinct from the rest of the features in the map, while visual hierarchy is about making each feature appear more or less important than the rest of the features in the map.

title: Figure-ground (cartography)


text:
Noël Godin

Noël Godin (born 13 September 1945) is a Belgian writer, critic, actor and notorious pie thrower or entarteur. Godin gained global attention in 1998 when his group ambushed Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in Brussels, pelting the software magnate with a pie. After bombarding Gates, Godin allegedly said, "My work is done here."

Philosophy
Godin insists he is non-violent and is careful to use only what he calls a "tarte classique", filled with whipped cream and perhaps a little chocolate in soft sponge cake. He says his humor can be traced back through Jerry Lewis, Wile E. Coyote, the Marx Brothers and yippies like Abbie Hoffman.

Godin is inspired (for instance in his Anthologie de la subversion carabinée (1989)) by the works of the Utopian philosophers Tommaso Campanella (Civitas Solis) and Charles Fourier (La Phalange, Le Phalanstère). His ideal society is one where there is no struggle for power or money and where everybody can live in a state of perfect happiness. He is also an admirer of the anarchist Ravachol without approving his violence, sentiment which inspired him to his pie-attacks.

Selected victims
The list of public figures Godin and his accomplices have targeted with pies includes:

 * Marguerite Duras (1969)
 * Maurice Béjart (1969)
 * Marco Ferreri (1976)
 * Jean-Luc Godard (1985)
 * Bernard-Henri Lévy (1985, 1988, 1991, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2015)
 * Jean Delannoy (1988)
 * Vladimir Volkoff (1993)
 * Patrick Bruel (1993)
 * Jean-Pierre Elkabbach (1994)
 * Hélène Rollès (1995)
 * Philippe Douste-Blazy (1995)
 * Pascal Sevran (1995)

 * Patrick Poivre d'Arvor (1996)
 * Daniel Toscan du Plantier (1996)
 * Priests at Nantes Cathedral (1996)
 * Nicolas Sarkozy (1997)
 * Bill Gates (1998)
 * Bernard Landry (2000)
 * Benjamin Castaldi (2001)
 * Jean-Pierre Chevènement (2002)
 * Karel Dillen and Jean-Claude Martinez (2002)
 * Jean Charest (2003)
 * Doc Gynéco (2007)

Books

 * Anthologie de la subversion carabinée, L'âge d'homme, 1989, ISBN 2-8251-0715-8 (philosophical study of political freedom), réédition revue et augmentée, 2008
 * Zig zig boum boum, Le Veilleur, Toulouse, 1994
 * Crème et châtiment : mémoire d'un entarteur, Albin Michel, 1995
 * Godin par Godin, Yellow Now, 2001, ISBN 2-87340-151-6
 * Armons-nous les uns les autres! (novel), Flammarion, 2003, ISBN 978-2-08-068385-4
 * Entartons, entartons les pompeux cornichons!, Flammarion, 2005, ISBN 2-08-068546-5 (The story of all his pieings).

Piers' websites

 * Official Site of the "Internationale Pâtissière" (IP)
 * Official Site of the Montreal "entartistes"

Articles

 * An article about Godin
 * An article about Godin

Movies with Noël Godin

 * Site of the Movies with Noel Godin
 * Les vacances de Noël (2005)
 * La vie politique des Belges (2002)
 * Camping Cosmos (1998)
 * La vie sexuelle des Belges 1950-78 (1994)

title: Noël Godin


text:
Peter D. Mitchell

Peter Dennis Mitchell FRS (29 September 1920 – 10 April 1992) was a British biochemist who was awarded the 1978 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his theory of the chemiosmotic mechanism of ATP synthesis.

Education and early life
Mitchell was born in Mitcham, Surrey on 29 September 1920. His parents were Christopher Gibbs Mitchell, a civil servant, and Kate Beatrice Dorothy (née) Taplin. His uncle was Sir Godfrey Way Mitchell, chairman of George Wimpey. He was educated at Queen's College, Taunton and Jesus College, Cambridge where he studied the Natural Sciences Tripos specialising in Biochemistry.

He was appointed a research post in the Department of Biochemistry, Cambridge, in 1942, and was awarded a Ph.D. in early 1951 for work on the mode of action of penicillin.

Career and research
In 1955 he was invited by Professor Michael Swann to set up a biochemical research unit, called the Chemical Biology Unit, in the Department of Zoology, at the University of Edinburgh, where he was appointed a Senior Lecturer in 1961, then Reader in 1962, although institutional opposition to his work coupled with ill health led to his resignation in 1963.

From 1963 to 1965, he supervised the restoration of a Regency-fronted Mansion, known as Glynn House, at Cardinham near Bodmin, Cornwall - adapting a major part of it for use as a research laboratory. He and his former research colleague, Jennifer Moyle founded a charitable company, known as Glynn Research Ltd., to promote fundamental biological research at Glynn House and they embarked on a programme of research on chemiosmotic reactions and reaction systems.

Chemiosmotic hypothesis
In the 1960s, ATP was known to be the energy currency of life, but the mechanism by which ATP was created in the mitochondria was assumed to be by substrate-level phosphorylation. Mitchell's chemiosmotic hypothesis was the basis for understanding the actual process of oxidative phosphorylation. At the time, the biochemical mechanism of ATP synthesis by oxidative phosphorylation was unknown. Mitchell realised that the movement of ions across an electrochemical potential difference could provide the energy needed to produce ATP. His hypothesis was derived from information that was well known in the 1960s. He knew that living cells had a membrane potential; interior negative to the environment. The movement of charged ions across a membrane is thus affected by the electrical forces (the attraction of positive to negative charges). Their movement is also affected by thermodynamic forces, the tendency of substances to diffuse from regions of higher concentration. He went on to show that ATP synthesis was coupled to this electrochemical gradient. His hypothesis was confirmed by the discovery of ATP synthase, a membrane-bound protein that uses the potential energy of the electrochemical gradient to make ATP; and by the discovery by André Jagendorf that a pH difference across the thylakoid membrane in the chloroplast results in ATP synthesis.

Protonmotive Q-cycle
Later, Peter Mitchell also hypothesized some of the complex details of electron transport chains. He conceived of the coupling of proton pumping to quinone-based electron bifurcation, which contributes to the proton motive force and thus, ATP synthesis.

Awards and honours
In 1978 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his contribution to the understanding of biological energy transfer through the formulation of the chemiosmotic theory." He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1974.

title: Peter D. Mitchell