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Bronze Age of Comic Books

The Bronze Age of Comic Books is an informal name for a period in the history of American superhero comic books, usually said to run from 1970 to 1985. It follows the Silver Age of Comic Books and is followed by the Modern Age of Comic Books.

The Bronze Age retained many of the conventions of the Silver Age, with traditional superhero titles remaining the mainstay of the industry. However, a return of darker plot elements and storylines more related to relevant social issues began to flourish during the period, prefiguring the later Modern Age of Comic Books.

Origins
There is no one single event that can be said to herald the beginning of the Bronze Age. Instead, a number of events at the beginning of the 1970s, taken together, can be seen as a shift away from the tone of comics in the previous decade.

One such event was the April 1970 issue of Green Lantern, which added Green Arrow as a title character (Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76). The series, written by Denny O'Neil and penciled by Neal Adams (inking was by Adams or Dick Giordano), focused on "relevance" as Green Lantern was exposed to poverty and experienced self-doubt.

Later in 1970, Jack Kirby left Marvel Comics, ending arguably the most important creative partnership of the Silver Age (with Stan Lee). Kirby then turned to DC, where he created The Fourth World series of titles, starting with Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #133 in December 1970. Also in 1970, Mort Weisinger, the long-term editor of the various Superman titles, retired to be replaced by Julius Schwartz. Schwartz set about toning down some of the more fanciful aspects of the Weisinger era, removing most Kryptonite from continuity and scaling back Superman's nigh-infinite—by then—powers, which was done by veteran Superman artist Curt Swan together with author Denny O'Neil.

The beginning of the Bronze Age coincided with the end of the careers of many of the veteran writers and artists of the time, or their promotion to management positions and retirement from regular writing or drawing, and their replacement with a younger generation of editors and creators, many of whom knew each other from their experiences in comic book fan conventions and publications. At the same time, publishers began the era by scaling back on their superhero publications, canceling many of the weaker-selling titles, and experimenting with other genres such as horror and sword and sorcery.

The era also encompassed major changes in the distribution of and audience for comic books. Over time, the medium shifted from cheap mass market products sold at newsstands to a more expensive product sold at specialty comic book shops and aimed at a smaller, core audience of fans. The shift in distribution allowed many small-print publishers to enter the market, changing the medium from one dominated by a few large publishers to a more diverse and eclectic range of books.

The 1970s
In 1970, Marvel published the first comic book issue of Robert E. Howard's pulp character Conan the Barbarian. Conan's success as a comic hero resulted in adaptations of other Howard characters: King Kull, Red Sonja and Solomon Kane. DC Comics responded with comics featuring Warlord, Beowulf and Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. They also took over the licensing of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan from longtime publisher Gold Key and began adapting other Burroughs creations, such as John Carter, the Pellucidar series, and the Amtor series. Marvel also adapted to comic book form, with less success, Edwin Lester Arnold's character Gullivar Jones and, later, Lin Carter's Thongor.

The murder of Spider-Man's longtime girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, at the hands of the Green Goblin in 1973's Amazing Spider-Man #121–122 is considered by comics scholar Arnold T. Blumberg to be the definitive Bronze Age event, as it exemplifies the period's trend towards darker territory and willingness to subvert conventions such as the assumed survival of long-established, "untouchable" characters. However, there had been a gradual darkening of the tone of superhero comics for several years prior to "The Night Gwen Stacy Died", including the death of her father in Amazing Spider-Man #90 and the beginning of the Dennis O'Neil/Neal Adams tenure on Batman.

In 1971, Marvel Comics' editor-in-chief Stan Lee was approached by the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare to do a comic book story about drug abuse. Lee agreed and wrote a three-part Spider-Man story, "Green Goblin Reborn!," which portrayed drug use as dangerous and unglamorous. At that time, any portrayal of drug use in comic books was banned outright by the Comics Code Authority, regardless of the context. The CCA refused to approve the story, but Lee published it regardless.

The positive reception that the story received led to the CCA revising the Comics Code later that year to allow the portrayal of drug addiction as long as it was depicted in a negative light. Soon after, DC Comics had their own drug abuse storyline in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85–86. Written by Denny O'Neil with art by Neal Adams, the storyline was entitled "Snowbirds Don't Fly," and it revealed that the Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy had become addicted to heroin.

The 1971 revision to the Comics Code has also been seen as relaxing the rules on the use of vampires, ghouls and werewolves in comic books, allowing the growth of a number of supernatural- and horror-oriented titles, such as Swamp Thing, Ghost Rider and The Tomb of Dracula, among numerous others. However, the tone of horror comic stories had already seen substantial changes between the relatively tame offerings of the early 1960s (e.g. Unusual Tales) and the more violent products available in the late 1960s (e.g. The Witching Hour, revised formats in House of Secrets, House of Mystery and The Unexpected).

At the beginning of the 1970s, publishers moved away from the superhero stories that enjoyed mass-market popularity in the mid-1960s; DC cancelled most of its superhero titles other than those starring Superman and Batman, while Marvel cancelled weaker-selling titles such as Dr. Strange, Sub-Mariner and The X-Men. In their place, they experimented with a wide variety of other genres, including Westerns, horror and monster stories, and the above-mentioned adaptations of pulp adventures. These trends peaked in the early 1970s, and the medium reverted by the mid-1970s to selling predominantly superhero titles.

Social relevance
A concern with social issues had been a part of comic book stories since their beginnings: early Superman stories, for example, dealt with issues such as child mistreatment and working conditions for minors. However, in the 1970s relevance became not only a feature of the stories, but also something that the books loudly proclaimed on their covers to promote sales. The Spider-Man drug issues were at the forefront of the trend of "social relevance" with comic books noticeably handling real-life issues. The above-mentioned Green Lantern/Green Arrow series dealt not only with drugs, but other topics like racism and environmental degradation. The X-Men titles, which were partly based on the premise that mutants were a metaphor for real-world minorities, became wildly popular. Other well-known "relevant" comics include the "Demon in a Bottle", where Iron Man confronts his alcoholism, and the socially conscious stories written by Steve Gerber in such titles as Howard the Duck and Omega the Unknown. Issues regarding female empowerment became trends with female versions of popular male characters (Spider-Woman, Red Sonja, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk).

Creator credit and labor agreements
Writers and artists began getting a lot more credit for their creations, even though they were still ceding copyrights to the companies for whom they worked. Pencil Artists were allowed to keep their original artwork and sell it on the open market. When word got out that Superman's creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were living in poverty, artists such as Neal Adams, Jerry Robinson and Bernie Wrightson helped organize fellow artists to pressure DC in rectifying them and other pioneers from the 1930s and 1940s. Newer publishers, such as Pacific Comics and Eclipse Comics, negotiated contracts in which creators retained copyright to their creations.

Minority superheroes
One of the most significant developments during the period was a substantial rise in the number of black and other non-white minority superheroes. Before the 1970s, there had been very few non-white superheroes (Marvel Comics' Black Panther and Falcon introduced in 1966 and 1969, respectively, being notable exceptions) but starting in the early 1970s this began to change with the introduction of characters such as Marvel's Luke Cage (who was the first black superhero featured in his own comic book in 1972) of the Defenders, Storm of the X-Men, Blade, Monica Rambeau of the Avengers, Misty Knight, Shang-Chi, and DC's Green Lantern John Stewart, Bronze Tiger, Black Lightning, Vixen and Cyborg of Teen Titans, many of whom were black (with the exception of Shang-Chi himself). Additionally, Jewish superheroes became more visible with the appearances of Marvel's Kitty Pryde of the X-Men and Moon Knight, respectively.

Characters such as Luke Cage, Mantis, Misty Knight, Shang-Chi and Iron Fist have been seen by some as an attempt by Marvel Comics to cash in on the 1970s crazes for kung fu films. However, these and other minority characters came into their own after these film trends faded, and became increasingly popular and important as time progressed. By the mid-1980s, Storm and Cyborg had become leaders of the X-Men and Teen Titans, respectively, and John Stewart briefly replaced Hal Jordan as the lead character of the Green Lantern title.

Art styles
Starting with Neal Adams' work in Green Lantern/Green Arrow a newly sophisticated realism became the norm in the industry. Buyers would no longer be interested in the heavily stylized work of artists of the Silver Age or simpler cartooning of the Golden Age. The so-called "House Style" of DC tended to imitations of Adams' work, while Marvel adopted a more realistic version of Kirby's style. This change is sometimes credited to a new generation of artists influenced by the popularity of EC Comics in the 1950s. Artists who could distinguish themselves from these House Styles would achieve some renown. Such names include Berni Wrightson, Jim Aparo, Jim Starlin, John Byrne, Frank Miller, George Pérez and Howard Chaykin. A secondary line of comics at DC, headed by former EC Comics artist Joe Orlando and devoted to horror titles, established a differing set of styles and aggressively sought talent from Asia and Latin America.

Revival of the X-Men and the teen characters
The X-Men were originally created in 1963 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. However, the title never achieved the popularity of other Lee/Kirby creations, and by 1970, after a brief run with Neal Adams' more realistic Silver Age style, Marvel ceased publishing new material and the title was turned over to reprints. But in 1975 an "all-new, all-different" version of the X-Men was introduced by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum in Giant-Size X-Men #1, with Chris Claremont as uncredited assistant co-plotter. Claremont stayed as writer on just about all X-Men-related titles, including spinoffs, for the next sixteen years, after which other regular writers such as Louise Simonson, Fabian Nicieza and Scott Lobdell joined and Claremont eventually left.

One of the most apparent influences from this series was the creation of what became DC Comics' answer to X-Men's character-based storytelling style, The New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, which became a highly successful and influential property in its own right. Wolfman would associate himself with the title for sixteen years, while Perez established a large fan base and a sought-after pencilling style. A successful cartoon based on the Titans of the Bronze Age of Comics was launched in 2003, and lasted for four years.

Team-up books and anthologies
During the Silver Age, comic books frequently had several features, a form harkening back to the Golden Age when the first comics were anthologies. In 1968, Marvel graduated its double feature characters appearing in their anthologies to full-length stories in their own comic. But several of these characters could not sustain their own title and were cancelled. Marvel tried to create new double feature anthologies such as Amazing Adventures and Astonishing Tales which did not last as double feature comic books. A more enduring concept was that of the team-up book, either combining two characters, at least one of which was not popular enough to sustain its own title (Green Lantern/Green Arrow). Even DC combined two features in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes and had team-up books (The Brave and the Bold, DC Comics Presents and World's Finest Comics). Virtually all such books disappeared by the end of the period.

Company crossovers
Marvel and DC worked out several crossover titles the first of which was Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man. This was followed by a second Superman and Spider-Man, Batman vs. the Incredible Hulk and the X-Men vs The New Teen Titans. Another title, The Avengers vs. the Justice League of America was written by Gerry Conway and drawn by George Pérez with plotting by Roy Thomas, but was never published, reflecting the later animosity between the two companies. Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter was not pleased that DC wanted the fourth company crossover to include The New Teen Titans, DC's best-selling title at the time, as he wanted the crossover to be the X-Men and the Legion of Super-Heroes. This led to Shooter's decision to stall and cancel the JLA/Avengers project.

Reprints
Beginning around 1970, Marvel introduced vast numbers of reprints into the market, which played a key role in their becoming the overall market leader among comic publishers. Suddenly many titles featured reprints: X-Men, Sgt. Fury, Kid Colt, Outlaw, Rawhide Kid, Two-Gun Kid, Outlaw Kid, Jungle Action, Special Marvel Edition (the early issues), War is Hell (the early issues), Creatures on the Loose, Monsters on the Prowl and FEAR, to name just a few.

DC Implosion
In the mid-'70s, DC launched numerous new titles such as Jack Kirby's New Gods and Steve Ditko's Shade, the Changing Man. Jenette Kahn would eventually take the helm of the company in 1976. The company followed this up in 1978 with the "DC Explosion" where the standard line of books increased in page count and 50 cent price. Many of these titles added backup features with various characters. However, DC greatly overestimated the appeal of so many new titles at once, sales dropped severely during the harsh 1978 winter and it nearly broke the company and the industry, including Charlton Comics; this event has been called the "DC Implosion".

Marvel eventually gained 50% of the market and Stan Lee handed control of the comic division to Jim Shooter while he worked with their growing animation spin-offs.

Non-superhero comics
As the Bronze Age began in the early 1970s, popularity shifted away from the established superhero genre towards comic book titles from which superheroes were absent altogether. These non-superhero comics were typically inspired by genres like Westerns or fantasy & pulp fiction. As previously noted, 1971's revised Comics Code left the horror genre ripe for development and several supernaturally-themed series resulted, such as the popular The Tomb of Dracula, Ghost Rider and Swamp Thing. In the science fiction genre, post-apocalyptic survival stories were an early trend, as evidenced by characters like Deathlok, Killraven and Kamandi. The long-running sci-fi/fantasy anthology comic magazine Metal Hurlant and its American counterpart Heavy Metal began publishing in the late '70s. Marvel's Star Wars series was very popular with a nine-year run.

Other titles began from characters originally found in 20th century pulp magazines or novels. Noteworthy examples are the long running titles Conan the Barbarian and Savage Sword of Conan (the latter was published as a magazine, bypassing the Comics Code), as well as Master of Kung-Fu. The early success of these titles soon led to more pulp character adaptations (Doc Savage, Kull, The Shadow, Justice, Inc., Tarzan). During this period, Charlton, Western Publishing/Gold Key, Marvel and DC also regularly published official comic book adaptations for various projects, including popular films (Planet of the Apes, Godzilla, Logan's Run, Indiana Jones, Jaws 2, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars), TV shows (The Six Million Dollar Man, Lost in Space, The Man from Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, The A-Team, Welcome Back Kotter), toys (G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Transformers, Rom, Atari Force, Thundercats), and even public figures (Kiss, Pope John Paul II).

Though not necessarily "non-superhero", a few unconventional comic book series from the period featured one or more villains as their central character (Super-Villain Team-Up, Secret Society of Super Villains, The Joker).

Alternate markets and formats
Archie Comics dominated the female market during this time with their characters, Betty and Veronica having some of the largest circulation of titular female characters. Several clones were attempted by Marvel and DC unsuccessfully. Several Archie titles examined socially relevant issues and introduced a few African-American characters. Archie largely switched to paperback digest format in the late 1980s.

Children's comics were still popular with Disney reprints under the Gold Key label along with Harvey's stable of characters which grew in popularity. The latter included Richie Rich, Casper and Wendy, which eventually switched to digest format as well. Again Marvel and DC were unable to emulate their success with competing titles.

An 'explicit content' market akin to the niche Underground Comix of the late '60s was ostensibly opened with the Franco-Belgian import Heavy Metal Magazine. Marvel launched competing magazine titles of their own with Conan the Barbarian and Epic Illustrated which would eventually become its division of Direct Sales comics.

The paper drives of World War II and a growing nostalgia among Baby-Boomers in the 1970s made comic books of the 1930s and 1940s extremely valuable. DC experimented with some large-size paperback books to reprint their Golden Age comics, create one-shot stories such as Superman vs. Shazam and Superman vs. Muhammad Ali as well as the early Marvel crossovers.

The popularity of those early books also opened up a market for specialty shops. The existence of these shops made it possible for small-press publishers to reach an audience, and some comic book artists began self-publishing their own work. Notable titles of this type included Dave Sim's Cerebus and Wendy and Richard Pini's Elfquest series. Other small-press publishers came in to take advantage of this growing market: Pacific Comics introduced in 1981 a line of books by comic-book veterans such as Jack Kirby, Mike Grell and Sergio Aragonés, for which the artists retained copyright and shared in royalties.

In 1978, Will Eisner published his "graphic novel" A Contract With God, an attempt to produce a long-format story outside the traditional comic book genres. In the early 1980s Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly began publishing Raw magazine, which included the early serialization of Spiegelman's award-winning graphic novel Maus.

Comics sold on newsstands were distributed on the basis that unsold copies were returned to the publisher. Comics sold to comic shops were sold on a no-return basis. This allowed small-press titles sold through the direct market to keep publishing costs down and increase profits, making viable titles that otherwise would have been unprofitable. Marvel and DC began taking advantage of this direct market themselves, publishing books and titles distributed only through comic book shops.

Disappearing genres
This period is also marked by the cancellation of most titles in the genres of romance, western, and war stories that had been mainstays of comics production since the 1940s. Most anthologies, whether they presented feature characters or not, also disappeared. They had been used since the Golden Age to introduce new characters, to host characters that lost their own title or to feature several characters. This had the effect of standardizing the length of comics stories within a narrow range, so that multiple stand-alone stories would appear within a single issue. The underground comix of the 1960s counterculture continued, but contracted significantly and were ultimately subsumed into the emerging direct market.

End
One commonly used ending point for the Bronze Age is the 1985–1986 time frame. As with the Silver Age, the end of the Bronze Age relates to a number of trends and events that happened at around the same time. DC Comics published Crisis on Infinite Earths, which overhauled the history of the DC Universe and several of the company's major characters, and revitalized sales for the company, again making it a serious market contender against Marvel. During this period Marvel published the crossover Secret Wars, cancelled Defenders and Power Man and Iron Fist, and launched the New Universe and X-Factor (an extension of the X-Men franchise).

After the Bronze Age came the Modern Age of Comic Books. According to Shawn O'Rourke of PopMatters, the shift from the previous ages involved a "deconstructive and dystopian re-envisioning of iconic characters and the worlds that they live in", as typified by Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986) and Alan Moore's and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen (1986–1987). Other features that define the era are an increase in adult-oriented content, the rise of the X-Men as Marvel Comics' "dominant intellectual property", and a reorganization of the industry's distribution system. These changes would also lead to the appearance of new independent comic book publishers in the early 1990s—such as Image Comics, with titles like Spawn and Savage Dragon which also boasted a darker, sarcastic and more mature approach to superhero storylines.

Noted talents
Writers
 * T. Casey Brennan (Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, House of Mystery)
 * Chris Claremont (Iron Fist, Uncanny X-Men)
 * Gerry Conway (The Amazing Spider-Man, Justice League of America, Batman)
 * Steve Englehart (Captain America, Detective Comics, Doctor Strange)
 * Mark Evanier (Blackhawk, The DNAgents, Crossfire)
 * Michael Fleisher (Jonah Hex, Spectre)
 * Steve Gerber (Howard the Duck, Defenders, Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown, Guardians of the Galaxy)
 * Archie Goodwin (Manhunter)
 * Bill Mantlo (Micronauts, Rom)
 * Don McGregor (Black Panther, Killraven)
 * Al Milgrom (Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk)
 * Doug Moench (Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu, Moon Knight)
 * David Michelinie (Aquaman, Iron Man)
 * Dennis O'Neil (Batman, Green Lantern/Green Arrow)
 * Jim Shooter (Avengers)
 * Jim Starlin (Captain Marvel, Adam Warlock)
 * Roy Thomas (Conan the Barbarian, All-Star Squadron)
 * Len Wein (Swamp Thing, Giant-Size X-Men)
 * Marv Wolfman (The Tomb of Dracula, The New Teen Titans)

Artists
 * Neal Adams (Batman, Detective Comics, Green Lantern/Green Arrow)
 * Ross Andru (The Amazing Spider-Man)
 * Jim Aparo (The Brave and the Bold, Aquaman, Adventure Comics, Batman and the Outsiders)
 * Frank Brunner (Doctor Strange)
 * Rich Buckler (Fantastic Four, Deathlok)
 * John Buscema (Conan the Barbarian, Fantastic Four, Savage Sword of Conan, Thor)
 * John Byrne (Alpha Flight, Fantastic Four, Uncanny X-Men)
 * Dave Cockrum (Legion of Super-Heroes, Uncanny X-Men)
 * Gene Colan (The Tomb of Dracula, Howard the Duck, Daredevil)
 * Ernie Colón (Richie Rich)
 * Keith Giffen (Legion of Super-Heroes)
 * Billy Graham (Black Panther, Luke Cage, Vampirella)
 * Mike Grell (Legion of Super-Heroes, The Warlord)
 * Paul Gulacy (Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu)
 * Arvell Jones (All-Star Squadron, Iron Man, Iron Fist)
 * Mike Kaluta (The Shadow)
 * Jack Kirby (New Gods, Mister Miracle, The Demon, Kamandi, Eternals)
 * Bob Layton (Iron Man, Hercules)
 * Frank Miller (Daredevil)
 * George Pérez (Avengers, The New Teen Titans)
 * Don Perlin (Werewolf by Night, The Defenders, Ghost Rider)
 * Keith Pollard (Thor, The Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four)
 * Marshall Rogers (Detective Comics)
 * Walt Simonson (Hercules Unbound, Manhunter, Thor)
 * Curt Swan (Superman)
 * Barry Windsor-Smith (Conan the Barbarian)
 * Bernie Wrightson (Swamp Thing, House of Mystery, House of Secrets)
 * Mike Zeck (Captain America, Punisher)

Timeline

 * January 1970: First Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams Batman story (The Secret of the Waiting Graves, Detective Comics #395) signals a darker era for the iconic character. Ward Dick Grayson (Robin) left for college, and alter ego Bruce Wayne left Wayne Manor, in previous month's Batman comic.
 * April 1970: DC Comics adds Green Arrow to Green Lantern book for stories written by Denny O'Neil and penciled by Neal Adams featuring "relevance". Series, story, writer, penciller and inker all win first Shazam Awards in their respective categories the following year.
 * October 1970: Marvel Comics begins publishing Conan the Barbarian.
 * October 1970: DC Comics begins publishing Jack Kirby's Fourth World titles beginning with Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen and continuing with New Gods, The Forever People and Mister Miracle.
 * 1971: The Comics Code is revised.
 * January 1971: Clark Kent becomes a newscaster at WGBS-TV.
 * February 1971: African-American superhero Falcon shares co-feature status in renamed Captain America and The Falcon.
 * July 1971: DC Comics introduces the character of Swamp Thing in its House of Secrets title.
 * April 1972: Marvel begins publishing The Tomb of Dracula.
 * June 1972: Luke Cage becomes the first African American superhero to receive his own series in Hero for Hire #1.
 * June 1973: Green Goblin kills Gwen Stacy in Amazing Spider-Man #121.
 * December 1973: The absurdist Howard the Duck makes his first appearance in comics and would be one of the most popular non-superheroes ever. He would get his own series in 1976 and he would graduate to his own daily newspaper strip and a 1986 film.
 * February 1974: First appearance of the Punisher in The Amazing Spider-Man #129.
 * November 1974: First appearance of Wolverine in Incredible Hulk #181.
 * 1975: Giant-Size X-Men #1 by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum introduces the "all-new, all-different X-Men."
 * July 1977: At the request of Roy Thomas, Marvel releases Star Wars, based on the hit movie, and it quickly becomes one of the best-selling books of the era.
 * August 1977: Black Manta kills Aquababy in Adventure Comics #452.
 * December 1977: Dave Sim launches Cerebus independent of the major publishers, the longest-running limited series (300 issues) in comics as well as the longest run by one artist on a comic book series.
 * Spring 1978: First appearance of Elfquest by Wendy and Richard Pini is published in Fantasy Quarterly.
 * 1978: DC cancels over half of its titles in the so-called DC Implosion.
 * July 1979: DC publishes World of Krypton, the first comic book mini-series, which gave publishers a new flexibility with titles.
 * January – October 1980: "The Dark Phoenix Saga" (Uncanny X-Men)
 * November 1980: First issue of DC Comics' The New Teen Titans whose success at revitalizing a previously underperforming property would lead to the idea of revamping the entire DC Universe.
 * June 1982: Marvel publishes Contest of Champions, its first limited series. This title features most of the company's major characters together, providing a template for later limited-series storylines at Marvel and DC.
 * October 1982: Comico begins publishing a comic called Comico Primer that would later be the starting point for several influential artists and writers such as Sam Kieth and Matt Wagner.
 * May 1984: Marvel begins releasing the first "big event" storyline, Secret Wars, which would, along with Crisis on Infinite Earths, popularize big events, and make them a staple in the industry.
 * May 1984: Mirage Studios begins publishing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.
 * Summer 1984: DC Comics, desiring to feature more diverse characters, adds Vixen, Vibe (and Steel) to the Justice League of America, with Aquaman as team leader and later Batman. This was commonly known as "Justice League Detroit Era".
 * April 1985: DC begins publishing Crisis on Infinite Earths, which would drastically restructure the DC universe, and popularize the epic crossover in the comics industry along with Secret Wars. In the aftermath of this Crisis, DC cancels and relaunches the Flash, Superman and Wonder Woman.
 * August 1985: Eclipse Comics publishes Miracleman, written by Alan Moore, developing the later trends of bringing superhero fiction into the real world, and showing the effects of immensely powerful characters on global politics (both potentially apocalyptic and utopian).
 * 1986: DC publishes Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, setting a new grim tone for Batman.
 * September 1986: Curt Swan, primary Superman artist during the Silver and Bronze Age, is retired from his monthly art duties on all Superman books after the last Pre-Crisis Superman story, called "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?", on which he worked together with Alan Moore, is published.
 * September 1986 – October 1987: DC Comics publishes the Watchmen limited series, seen by many as a model for a new age of comics.

title: Bronze Age of Comic Books


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Eastern District, Upper Canada

Eastern District was one of four districts of the Province of Quebec created in 1788 in the western reaches of the Montreal District and partitioned in 1791 to create the new colony of Upper Canada.

Historical evolution
The District, originally known as Lunenburg District (after Lüneburg in Germany), was constituted in 1788 in the Province of Quebec, and was described as:

"... bounded on the east by the eastern limit of tract lately called or known by the name of Lancaster, protracted northerly and southerly as far as our said province extends, and bounded westerly by a north and south line, intersecting the mouth of the river Gananoque, now called the Thames, above the rifts of the Saint Lawrence, and extending southerly and northerly to the limits of our said province, therein comprehending the several towns or tracts called or known by the names of Lancaster, Charlottenburg, Cornwall, Osnabruck, Williamsburg, Matilda, Edwardsburg, Augusta and Elizabethtown..."

The District was renamed as "Eastern District" in 1792, and its jail and courthouse were established in New Johnstown.

In 1798, the new Parliament of Upper Canada divided the District in two, which went into force in January 1800, and the new Districts consisted of the following electoral counties:

In 1816, Prescott and Russell were removed from the District, to form the new Ottawa District.

At the beginning of 1850, the district was abolished and replaced by the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry for municipal and judicial purposes.

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

title: Eastern District, Upper Canada


text:
Radiochemistry

Radiochemistry is the chemistry of radioactive materials, where radioactive isotopes of elements are used to study the properties and chemical reactions of non-radioactive isotopes (often within radiochemistry the absence of radioactivity leads to a substance being described as being inactive as the isotopes are stable). Much of radiochemistry deals with the use of radioactivity to study ordinary chemical reactions. This is very different from radiation chemistry where the radiation levels are kept too low to influence the chemistry.

Radiochemistry includes the study of both natural and man-made radioisotopes.

Main decay modes
All radioisotopes are unstable isotopes of elements— that undergo nuclear decay and emit some form of radiation. The radiation emitted can be of several types including alpha, beta, gamma radiation, proton, and neutron emission along with neutrino and antiparticle emission decay pathways.

1. α (alpha) radiation—the emission of an alpha particle (which contains 2 protons and 2 neutrons) from an atomic nucleus. When this occurs, the atom's atomic mass will decrease by 4 units and the atomic number will decrease by 2.

2. β (beta) radiation—the transmutation of a neutron into an electron and a proton. After this happens, the electron is emitted from the nucleus into the electron cloud.

3. γ (gamma) radiation—the emission of electromagnetic energy (such as gamma rays) from the nucleus of an atom. This usually occurs during alpha or beta radioactive decay.

These three types of radiation can be distinguished by their difference in penetrating power.

Alpha can be stopped quite easily by a few centimetres of air or a piece of paper and is equivalent to a helium nucleus. Beta can be cut off by an aluminium sheet just a few millimetres thick and are electrons. Gamma is the most penetrating of the three and is a massless chargeless high-energy photon. Gamma radiation requires an appreciable amount of heavy metal radiation shielding (usually lead or barium-based) to reduce its intensity.

Activation analysis
By neutron irradiation of objects, it is possible to induce radioactivity; this activation of stable isotopes to create radioisotopes is the basis of neutron activation analysis. A high-energy most interesting object which has been studied in this way is the hair of Napoleon's head, which has been examined for its arsenic content.

A series of different experimental methods exist, these have been designed to enable the measurement of a range of different elements in different matrices. To reduce the effect of the matrix it is common to use the chemical extraction of the wanted element and/or to allow the radioactivity due to the matrix elements to decay before the measurement of the radioactivity. Since the matrix effect can be corrected by observing the decay spectrum, little or no sample preparation is required for some samples, making neutron activation analysis less susceptible to contamination.

The effects of a series of different cooling times can be seen if a hypothetical sample that contains sodium, uranium, and cobalt in a 100:10:1 ratio was subjected to a very short pulse of thermal neutrons. The initial radioactivity would be dominated by the 24Na activity (half-life 15 h) but with increasing time the 239Np (half-life 2.4 d after formation from parent 239U with half-life 24 min) and finally the 60Co activity (5.3 yr) would predominate.

Biology applications
One biological application is the study of DNA using radioactive phosphorus-32. In these experiments, stable phosphorus is replaced by the chemically identical radioactive P-32, and the resulting radioactivity is used in the analysis of the molecules and their behaviour.

Another example is the work that was done on the methylation of elements such as sulfur, selenium, tellurium, and polonium by living organisms. It has been shown that bacteria can convert these elements into volatile compounds, it is thought that methylcobalamin (vitamin B12) alkylates these elements to create the dimethyls. It has been shown that a combination of Cobaloxime and inorganic polonium in sterile water forms a volatile polonium compound, while a control experiment that did not contain the cobalt compound did not form the volatile polonium compound. For the sulfur work, the isotope 35S was used, while for polonium 207Po was used. In some related work by the addition of 57Co to the bacterial culture, followed by isolation of the cobalamin from the bacteria (and the measurement of the radioactivity of the isolated cobalamin) it was shown that the bacteria convert available cobalt into methylcobalamin.

In medicine PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scans are commonly used for diagnostic purposes in. A radiative tracer is injected intravenously into the patient and then taken to the PET machine. The radioactive tracer releases radiation outward from the patient and the cameras in the machine interpret the radiation rays from the tracer. PET scan machines use solid state scintillation detection because of their high detection efficiency, NaI(Tl) crystals absorb the tracer's radiation and produce photons that get converted into an electrical signal for the machine to analyze.

Environmental
Radiochemistry also includes the study of the behaviour of radioisotopes in the environment; for instance, a forest or grass fire can make radioisotopes mobile again. In these experiments, fires were started in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl and the radioactivity in the air downwind was measured.

It is important to note that a vast number of processes can release radioactivity into the environment, for example, the action of cosmic rays on the air is responsible for the formation of radioisotopes (such as 14C and 32P), the decay of 226Ra forms 222Rn which is a gas which can diffuse through rocks before entering buildings  and dissolve in water and thus enter drinking water In addition, human activities such as bomb tests, accidents, and normal releases from industry have resulted in the release of radioactivity.

Chemical form of the actinides
The environmental chemistry of some radioactive elements such as plutonium is complicated by the fact that solutions of this element can undergo disproportionation and as a result, many different oxidation states can coexist at once. Some work has been done on the identification of the oxidation state and coordination number of plutonium and the other actinides under different conditions. This includes work on both solutions of relatively simple complexes and work on colloids Two of the key matrixes are soil/rocks and concrete, in these systems the chemical properties of plutonium have been studied using methods such as EXAFS and XANES.

Movement of colloids
While binding of a metal to the surfaces of the soil particles can prevent its movement through a layer of soil, it is possible for the particles of soil that bear the radioactive metal can migrate as colloidal particles through the soil. This has been shown to occur using soil particles labeled with 134Cs, these are able to move through cracks in the soil.

Normal background
Radioactivity is present everywhere on Earth since its formation. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, one kilogram of soil typically contains the following amounts of the following three natural radioisotopes 370 Bq 40K (typical range 100–700 Bq), 25 Bq 226Ra (typical range 10–50 Bq), 25 Bq 238U (typical range 10–50 Bq) and 25 Bq 232Th (typical range 7–50 Bq).

Action of microorganisms
The action of micro-organisms can fix uranium; Thermoanaerobacter can use chromium(VI), iron(III), cobalt(III), manganese(IV), and uranium(VI) as electron acceptors while acetate, glucose, hydrogen, lactate, pyruvate, succinate, and xylose can act as electron donors for the metabolism of the bacteria. In this way, the metals can be reduced to form magnetite (Fe3O4), siderite (FeCO3), rhodochrosite (MnCO3), and uraninite (UO2). Other researchers have also worked on the fixing of uranium using bacteria, Francis R. Livens et al. (Working at Manchester) have suggested that the reason why Geobacter sulfurreducens can reduce cations to uranium dioxide is that the bacteria reduce the uranyl cations to  which then undergoes disproportionation to form  and UO2. This reasoning was based (at least in part) on the observation that is not converted to an insoluble neptunium oxide by the bacteria.

Education
Despite the growing use of nuclear medicine, the potential expansion of nuclear power plants, and worries about protection against nuclear threats and the management of the nuclear waste generated in past decades, the number of students opting to specialize in nuclear and radiochemistry has decreased significantly over the past few decades. Now, with many experts in these fields approaching retirement age, action is needed to avoid a workforce gap in these critical fields, for example by building student interest in these careers, expanding the educational capacity of universities and colleges, and providing more specific on-the-job training.

Nuclear and Radiochemistry (NRC) is mostly being taught at the university level, usually first at the Master- and PhD-degree level. In Europe, substantial effort is being done to harmonize and prepare the NRC education for the industry's and society's future needs. This effort is being coordinated in projects funded by the Coordinated Action supported by the European Atomic Energy Community's 7th Framework Program: The CINCH-II project - Cooperation in education and training In Nuclear Chemistry.

title: Radiochemistry


text:
User talk:Tom Lewis

Welcome
Welcome!

Hello,, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Where to ask a question, ask me on my talk page, or place  on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! -- Hoary 09:49, 2005 Jun 17 (UTC)
 * The five pillars of Wikipedia
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Copyright, merging, redirecting
Hello. The text of the article Darwin 1942, as posted by you, appears to come from this web page. I note that this seems to be a write-up of a book by Tom Lewis, and that your usename here is Tom Lewis. However, you should make it clear that the text is released under GFDL before posting it on Wikipedia. (Please note item no. 5 on the template that's now at Darwin 1942.) Thank you. -- Hoary 09:52, 2005 Jun 13 (UTC)

Hi - still getting used to this. I looked ta the GDFL page - am I required to attach a statement to the article?

The entry Darwin 1942 is a few paragraphs of summary, also used in one of my books "A War at Home" - I am a military historian.

Can you advise further?

I can also be contacted at. . . . @bigpond.net.au

Tom Lewis

 * Sorry, I may have been sleepy when I posted the earlier comment. If the material is indeed by you -- as is now clear -- and you know what posting it to Wikipedia implies -- briefly, that others will tamper with it, and that although you can complain about their particular changes, you can't complain about changes in general -- then all is fine. Indeed, your contribution of this material is very welcome.

 * However, "Darwin 1942" seems a very odd title, unless perhaps the events are commonly referred to as "Darwin 1942". Anyway, there's already a longer article, Air raids on Darwin, February 19, 1942. I encourage you to merge your material there. ("Merging" means copying, pasting, and rewriting to taste, until Darwin 1942 contains nothing, and then turning it into a "redirect article" -- one whose entire content is the single line of text #REDIRECT Air raids on Darwin, February 19, 1942 . You may also wish to improve the longer article in some other ways. -- Hoary 10:07, 2005 Jun 17 (UTC)

 * Hi, and welcome!

 * Further to the above, you also added Lieutenant - pronounciation, which substantially overlaps with Lieutenant. I was concerned that Lieutenant - pronounciation was a copy of another document and have added a {tl|copyvio}} template - are you the original author / copyright holder?  In any event, the information could be merged with the existing discussion of pronunciation at Lieutenant.  -- ALoan (Talk) 10:26, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:Tom Lewis


text:
Petőfi Bridge

Petőfi híd or Petőfi Bridge (named after Sándor Petőfi, old name is Horthy Miklós Bridge, named after governor Miklós Horthy) is a bridge in Budapest, connecting Pest and Buda across the Danube. It is the second southernmost public bridge in Budapest.

Its two ends are:
 * Boráros tér (southern end of Grand Boulevard and terminus of the Csepel HÉV)
 * Goldmann György tér (next to the campuses of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics)

Budapest already made a proposal in the early 1900s to build the bridge, but the competent state bodies believed that a bridge in Óbuda was much more important. After the start of World War I., the idea was postponed, however, the bridge was still important for the townspeople.

The bridge was built between 1933 and 1937, according to the plans of Hubert Pál Álgyay. It is 514 m in length (along with the sections leading up) and 25.6 m in width. It was destroyed by the retreating German troops during the Second World War. Its rebuilt version was inaugurated in November 1952, when it also took on its new name, Petőfi Bridge.

title: Petőfi Bridge


text:
Category:Districts of Upper Canada

A list of policial division for Upper Canada between 1788 to 1792:

title: Category:Districts of Upper Canada


text:
Point (tennis)

A point in tennis is the smallest subdivision of the match. A point can consist of a double fault by the server, in which case the point is automatically won by the receiver. In all other cases, a point begins when a legal serve is hit by the server to the receiver on the opposite side of the court, and continues until one side fails to legally return the ball to the opposite side. Whichever side fails to do so loses the point and their opponent wins it.

In the advantage scoring system, the first side to win four points by a two-point margin wins the game. To start a game, both sides begin at "love" (zero points). The first point won by a side is called "15," the second point is "30," and the third point is "40." If both sides have won three points in a game (i.e., 40-40), the score is called "deuce." From deuce, whichever side wins the following point is said to have "advantage" and can win the game by winning the next point (two-point margin). If the side with advantage loses the next point, the score returns to deuce, and play continues until one side wins two consecutive points from deuce, thereby winning the game.

Alternatively, if no-advantage (no-ad) scoring is used, then the first side to win four points wins the game, without the requirement of a two-point margin. No-ad scoring means any one game will consist of a maximum of seven points, as opposed to advantage scoring which allows for a hypothetically infinite number of points per game. For this reason, no-ad scoring is used in some competition formats to ensure quicker matches.

During a tiebreak game, each side's points are counted more simply as 0, 1, 2, etc. rather than love, 15, 30, etc. used during other games. A standard tiebreak is won by the first side to win seven points by a two-point margin. Other variations (e.g., 10-point tiebreak) are sometimes used.

Play of a single point
The players (or teams) stand on opposite sides of the net. One player is designated the server, and the opposing player (or, in doubles, one of the opposing players) is the receiver. The players (or teams) alternate serving with each game. From point-to-point within a game, the server alternates serving from the right and left sides of their court. The first point of a game is always served from the server's right side. At the start of each point, the server stands behind their baseline, anywhere between the center line and the sideline, and serves the ball at the service box diagonally opposite. The receiver may stand anywhere on their side of the net and prepare to return the serve.

A legal serve is any serve which is not a "fault." A fault occurs if the ball does not land in the appropriate service box on the receiver's side of the net. Service faults are also incurred for missing the ball, stepping on the baseline, center line, or sideline before striking the ball (foot fault), and walking or running while serving. Two consecutive faults (double fault) result in the receiver winning the point. The receiver must allow the serve to bounce once before returning it, or else the server automatically wins the point.

If the ball touches the net during an otherwise legal serve ("let" or "net" service), the serve is retaken without being counted as a fault. After the serve, if the ball touches the net during the point but lands safely on the opposite side, then play continues as normal without stopping.

Once a legal serve is made, the players then alternate returning the ball from their side of the court to the opponent's side. The point is lost by whichever player first:
 * allows the ball to bounce on the player's own side of the court, and then fails to hit the ball before it bounces a second time, or
 * hits the ball, unless either
 * the ball safely bounces on the first bounce in the opponent's court (although the ball may hit the net before bouncing), or
 * before it bounces, the ball is hit by the opponent, or hits the opponent
 * intentionally contacts the ball with the racket more than once, without it being hit by the opponent, or
 * touches the ball with anything other than the racket (or with the racket after it has left the player's hand), or
 * hits the ball before it has passed over the net to the player's own side, or
 * touches any part of the net with their person before the point is over, or
 * (in doubles) hits the ball after their partner has already done so, and before the ball has returned to the opposite side.

The rules specifically allow certain actions, such as:
 * bouncing the returned ball off any part of the net, including the net post(s), before it lands in the correct court,
 * returning a ball before it has bounced on the player's own side (volley), except when returning a serve in which case the served ball must be allowed to bounce
 * reaching over the net to hit a ball only if the ball has already bounced on the player's own side and then moved back over the net,
 * unintentionally touching the ball twice with the racket,
 * returning the ball around a net post and below the height of the net, and
 * returning the ball under the net cord between the net and net post.

The lines are considered part of the court and so a ball is "in" the court if it touches any part of the relevant line, even if a majority of the ball bounces outside of the line. In an officiated match, it is the duty of line umpires to call a ball "out" if it bounces outside of the relevant line(s). The chair umpire may overrule the line umpire if they believe an in or out call is clearly incorrect. On clay courts, ball marks left on the court's surface may be visually inspected by the chair umpire after a disputed call. In unofficiated matches, players are responsible for making their own calls on their respective sides of the court, in which case the ethics of the game requires honesty and a willingness to give one's opponent the benefit of the doubt.

Instant replay
Computer-assisted video tracking technology can determine the precise position of a ball at impact with a margin of error less than five millimeters. Accordingly, starting with the NASDAQ-100 Open in March 2006, most top-level professional tournaments allow systems such as Hawk-Eye to be used to settle disputed line calls. When this technology is in place, players are allowed a maximum of three incorrect challenges per set. If a set reaches six games-all, then each player is awarded one additional challenge for the tiebreak.

The use of instant replay technology remains uncommon on clay courts, where visual inspection of ball marks predominates.

In American college tennis
As of 1999, in NCAA tennis in the United States, a let service is not retaken and the point continues without stopping.

title: Point (tennis)


text:
Tabubil

Tabubil is a town located in the Star Mountains area of the North Fly District of Western Province, Papua New Guinea. The town, including the adjoining relocated village of Wangabin and the industrial area of Laydown (where industrial equipment was originally laid down before being installed at the mine ~1970–1980), is the largest settlement in the province, although the provincial capital, Daru is a similar size. It had a recorded population of 10,270 at the 2011 census.

Tabubil is set in extremely dense jungle fed by one of the highest rainfalls in the world. The town is the largest settlement in the country that has never been a provincial capital, or incorporated within one. The town was established primarily to serve the Ok Tedi Mine, which is currently mining copper and gold.

Pre-colonisation
Tabubil lies in the heart of the Min Nation, an area with a distinct ethnic makeup that straddles the Indonesian border, and extends towards the southern Sepik areas and throughout the northern Fly River system. During the early years of colonisation of New Guinea it was unknown how many people, if any, lived in this remote and seemingly impassable and inhospitable terrain.

Before the 1940s, outside contact with the Min people was either brief, or merely vicarious. It is thought the Min were pushed north hundreds or even thousands of years ago by war with the southern Gogodala peoples, who were a strong warrior nation that currently reside on the plains of the central Fly area of the Western Province.

Colonisation of Telefomin
It was not until 1943 that United States Army Air Forces gliders landed deep in the Star Mountains to establish an airstrip station in what is now Telefomin, about 25 km north-east of Tabubil. This is the first permanent colonial influence on the Min people, who at the time were cannibals involved in a deep tribal war. Soon after the arrival of the Americans, the Telefolmin tribe experienced a cessation of hostilities with its neighbours, the Falamin and the Tifalmin due to mutually agreeable conditions that emerged from the construction and introduction of western goods and services. Conflict between social groups was also forcefully deterred by Australian colonial administrators. After colonial pacification, trade flourished in the area.

Mining town

Tabubil, originally a small camp surrounding an airstrip, was set up as a base of operations for drilling sites by the Kennecott Copper Corporation. In 1976, Australian mining company BHP entered into negotiations with the Papua New Guinea government in an attempt to gain control of the camp and establish it as a gold mining town. BHP was successful in 1980, and in 1981, Ok Tedi Mining was established to take control of operations, with a major BHP shareholding.

Today, the old Kennecott camp is still standing. Known locally as the "A" houses, they are ATCO shipping crate styled houses. Later, the “B” and “C” houses were built by BHP for their workers. BHP has built the majority of the town, with structures placed by other companies and the national government making up only a small percentage of the total buildings.

Culture
Tabubil is host to a diverse range of cultures, due to its workforce historically being sourced from many parts of PNG, Australia, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Most expatriates are Australian, but there are also many Filipinos. A Canadian mining company, Inmet Mining owns an 18% stake in the mine, and of Tabubil. A number of Canadians, particularly those from Port Hardy on Vancouver Island, have also resided in Tabubil. During recent years, however, Ok Tedi Mining Limited has looked closer to home for human resources, with its long existent, but recently enforced preferred area human resourcing plan.

Events
The main cultural event of the year is Papua New Guineaʼs Independence Day. The event is proceeded by a festival known as the "Hamamas Week", meaning "joyful week", encompassing a week of traditional and contemporary dancing (arranged and performed by school students, local groups and groups from other provinces), music, and traditional ceremonies. In the 1990s, performers from other countries like Samoa and New Zealand were also invited to showcase their traditional dances for the week.

Elections are extremely important to local residents, often inciting riots, tribal conflict, and other forms of civil disobedience. The provincial government has banned the sale of alcohol during an election to try to curb violence.

Melbourne Cup day has been a well celebrated event since the foundation of the town. As many expatriate residents of the town are from Australia, Melbourne Cup celebrations have been a traditionally important connection to the culture left behind in Australia.

Religion
The most popular religion in the town is Christianity. There are still a few people that hold traditional beliefs, and others that blend traditional beliefs with Christianity.

Tabubil is host to four major permanent churches, and many other church groups that meet in the large undercover areas beneath the “B” and “C” style houses.

The Mission Aviation Fellowship has a presence in Tabubil Airport and the YMCA and YWCA hold a strong influence over the town culture and commerce.

Media
Although many people in Tabubil own computers, internet use is very rare. There is, however, a wide selection of cable TV stations available from Singapore, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, PNG, and the USA. There is a local TV station called OTV. Several AM and FM radio stations are available in town. Radio Fly is on shortwave frequencies 3915 kHz and 5960 kHz.

Mobile (cellular) phone and data services are provided by Telikom PNG (CitiFon) and Digicel.

Climate
Tabubil has a tropical rainforest climate more subject to the Intertropical Convergence Zone than the trade winds and with no cyclones therefore equatorial. The town is known unofficially as one of the wettest places on earth, with an average annual rainfall of 8 m, and a peak yearly rainfall of 10 m. The unique weather conditions have caused much adaptation in the local jungle flora and fauna, causing Tabubil to be particularly interesting to the scientific community.

Tabubil often has a transient population who is unused to the large amount of rain that falls there. Locals, however, operate quite happily in the rain, as it rains daily, and residents cannot afford to let it disrupt their lives.

Urban design
Most fixed houses in northern Tabubil are designed to suit the town and its unique conditions much better than their counterparts in the south, as the “B” and “C” class houses are newer. Most of these newer houses have a large dry undercover area under the house, and are raised on stilts. Many people think the houses are on stilts due to the possibility of flooding, but they mostly provide protection from the many earthquakes in the area.

The entire town is slightly sloped on an increment towards the south. This provides excellent water runoff, which is aided by the many “floodways” which are found around town, and allow large volumes of water to cross roads. Most residents, especially on the escarpment side of town, have large ravines in their backyards which can fill up to a depth of two metres during especially wet periods, and pose a safety hazard.

Because of the large rainfall, there are many indoor sporting facilities in town. Indoor facilities for sports such as squash, indoor cricket, gymnastics, basketball, and other sports are available.

The climate and nature
In a country where biodiversity is extreme, the area around Tabubil is regarded as being especially unique. There are untold numbers of different species of birds, fish, insects, spiders, and small animals. The area around Tabubil is known for moths that grow to the size of dinner plates, bird-eating spiders and many other unique creatures. New species are being discovered constantly.

The sheer abundance of life in the area is attributed to the high rainfall. In town, many plant species, such as mint, that grow elsewhere in the world can be found in large amounts. The plants in Tabubil are larger than usual, and grow much faster than they do elsewhere.

Ok Tedi Mine

Tabubil is the base of operations for the Ok Tedi Copper Mine, the largest economic entity in the Western Province. The mine accounts for over half of the entire province's economy and 25.7% of the country's entire export earnings. Consequently, Tabubil is the richest and most well served settlement in western Papua New Guinea.

The mine, which operates as Ok Tedi Mining was formerly owned by a joint initiative between the PNG government, and Australian mining giant, BHP. In 2002 the mine was restructured, and the PNG Sustainable Development Program now owns the BHP share.

Town services
Tabubil is serviced by a hotel, a hospital, a police station and courthouse, fire station, two primary schools (one international), a community high school, two supermarkets, a bakery, chemist, two banks, and a hardware store. Various other local businesses create an unusually westernised culture within this remote town.

Various clubs operate in the town, including the Golf Club, the Hash House Harriers, and the Gazebo club. For non drinking related recreation there is an indoor squash court, indoor cricket centre, tennis courts, a public pool, rugby fields, a gym, and many jungle tracks which may or may not be safe to walk along.

Commerce
The main commercial hub of town is in the Centre, to the northeast of the airport. This commercial district is based around a town square plan, and was host to the first ATMs, EFTPOS machines and public telephones in western Papua New Guinea. The largest store in town, the Tabubil Superstore, is located in the Centre. There is also a smaller, newer supermarket in the north of town and several smaller convenience shops known as Lik-Lik Shops after the Tok Pisin word for small.

Industry
Tabubil is powered by a hydro-electric station at Ok Menga, capable of producing 52 megawatts of electricity, and has a backup diesel power generating plant.

The main industrial hub is at the south end of the airport. This area was originally known locally as the 'Lay-Down' area, due to the fact that it was the storage location for much of the materials shipped in for the construction of the town. It is currently officially known as the ward of Laytown.

A sawmill (now disused) is located at Sawmill Creek.

Transportation
Tabubil itself is situated amongst dense jungle on a plateau, beside a steep escarpment leading down to the Ok Tedi River in the Star Mountains of Papua New Guinea. The township is very remote and is only accessible via air, or river barge followed by road.

Air travel
Tabubil has an international airport (IATA code TBG) with a 1280-metre (4200 ft) dirt and gravel airstrip. Most passenger traffic is handled by daily flights to Port Moresby or Mount Hagen and tri-weekly flights to Cairns in Australia by Asia Pacific Airlines Dash 8s. Prior to the introduction of Dash 8 services, a King Air Super 200 was used for mine traffic.

Asia Pacific Airlines is a local company with head offices in Tabubil, and Airlines PNG, Mission Aviation Fellowship and Air Niugini also fly to Tabubil Regularly. Tabubil was also regularly serviced by Talair before it was disbanded.

Road travel
There are some sealed main streets in Tabubil, and several unsealed minor roads. The central north-south road in the town, separating the 'B' and 'C' houses is called "Spine Road" (known locally as “Dead End Road”), and is closed to vehicular traffic by large boulders at the end of each local road, apart from a small section at the south that is used for access to a group of townhouses. This non-vehicular road creates a well used and safe walkway through the town. Market stalls are common on this road, and there are two "lik-lik" stores adjacent to the road, and the town's only public park and playground.

All major roads are sealed and contain numerous "floodways" which allow the large amounts of rain in the town to wash over the road without obstructing traffic.

The most common form of roadkill in town is snakes, which will often stretch across the road seeking heat from the bitumen.

Kiunga-Tabubil Highway
The township is situated upon an unsealed highway. One end of the highway terminates at Ok Tedi mine, about 30 km by road to the northwest. The other end of the highway terminates at the river port of Kiunga, the most northern navigable point of the Fly River, about 100 km to the south. Buses, private vehicles, and heavy trucking operations run along this route. This highway is used for transportation of supplies to the town and to the mine from barges on the Fly River. The highway is heavily used by trucking operations heading to and from the port. Slurry of copper concentrate from the mine is sent to the river port along a 137 km pipeline which runs parallel to this highway. The Kiunga-Tabubil Highway is one of the only all-weather roads in the province, and most other roads in the district feed into this remote highway.

River Travel
Except in cases of severe drought, most supplies to the mine are delivered by barge along the Fly River, which can be accessed by a port in Kiunga on the southern terminus of the Kiunga-Tabubil Highway. All the produce from the mine and all local exports are sent from this port. The Fly river has a water level which is often too low for shipping, and barges are often banked mid-passage. River barge followed by truck is the only way to supply the township apart from air cargo.

Travel by foot
It is not uncommon for residents to access other remote areas by foot. Most locals can tell you how many days it would take to walk to most locations within the country. Walking often is the only way for people to get to their local villages anyway, as many local airstrips are in disrepair. The maintenance of airstrips is a Local Level Government responsibility, and many LLGs in the surrounding area are severely underfunded.

title: Tabubil


text:
Dolby Stereo

Dolby Stereo is a sound format made by Dolby Laboratories. It is a unified brand for two completely different basic systems: the Dolby SVA (stereo variable-area) 1976 system used with optical sound tracks on 35mm film, and Dolby Stereo 70mm noise reduction on 6-channel magnetic soundtracks on 70mm prints.

Dolby SVA significantly improves the development of sound effects in films and theorization of sound design by Walter Murch. In 1982, it was adapted for home use as Dolby Surround when hi-fi capable consumer VCRs were introduced, and further improved in 1987 with the Dolby Pro Logic home decoding system.

Dolby SVA
Of the two, Dolby SVA is by far the more significant, bringing high-quality stereo sound within the reach of virtually every cinema. Though 6-track magnetic stereo had been used in Cinerama films since 1952, and Fox had introduced 4-track stereo magnetic sound as part of the CinemaScope system in 1953, the technology had proved to be expensive and unreliable. Except in large cities, most movie theaters did not have facilities for playing back magnetic soundtracks, and a majority of films continued to be produced with mono optical soundtracks. Dolby SVA provided a method for putting high-quality stereo soundtracks on optical sound prints.

The optical soundtrack on a Dolby Stereo encoded 35 mm film carries not only and  tracks for stereophonic sound, but also—through a matrix decoding system (Dolby Motion Picture matrix or Dolby MP ) similar to that developed for "quadraphonic" or "quad" sound in the 1970s—a third center channel, and a fourth surround channel for speakers on the sides and rear of the theater for ambient sound and special effects. This yielded a total of four sound channels, as in the 4-track magnetic system, in the track space formerly allocated for one mono optical channel. Dolby also incorporated its A-Type noise reduction into the Dolby Stereo system.

History
Dolby Labs became involved in movie sound when film studios used Dolby A type noise reduction on studio magnetic film recordings. The first film to use Dolby noise reduction throughout the production process is A Clockwork Orange (1971), though much of the benefit was lost when it was released with a standard "Academy" optical soundtrack. This led to a proposal from Dolby that A type noise reduction be applied to the optical soundtrack on release prints.

Through the early 1970s, there was renewed interest in improving the quality of optical soundtracks, which had changed little since the 1930s. In particular, the infamous "Academy curve" (the standard frequency response for cinema playback of optical tracks as specified by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1938) was still in use. It involved a drastic roll-off in the high-frequency response of the theater system with the intention of reducing the audibility of noise and distortion. Dolby proposed replacing the Academy curve with Dolby A type noise reduction on the track. Starting with the 1974 film Callan, ten films were released with a Dolby encoded mono soundtrack. Theaters were equipped with a Dolby A type noise reduction module and a third-octave equalizer to equalize the electro-acoustic frequency response of the speakers/auditorium. It created a new international standard for cinema sound.

Though the system worked well, theater owners were reluctant to invest in the technology until stereo was added to the mix. The idea of putting a two-channel optical stereo soundtrack in the normal soundtrack area of a film print was not new; the stereo pioneer Alan Blumlein had made experimental stereophonic films using such a system as early as 1933, and J. G. Frayne of Westrex had proposed a similar system to the SMPTE in 1955.

By 1970, however, it was apparent that magnetic recording methods were not going to displace optical soundtracks on most release prints, and in the early 1970s Eastman Kodak revived the idea, as described by R. E. Uhlig in a paper presented to the SMPTE in 1972. Initially using a two-channel 16mm film recorder built for them by RCA, Kodak recorded two-channel stereo soundtracks much as Blumlein and Frayne had done before, but added Dolby noise reduction to improve the limited dynamic range available from these half-width tracks.

The remaining problem was the lack of a center channel, regarded as essential to lock dialogue to the middle of the screen. Uhlig discussed this issue in a follow-up paper. He considered the possibility of splitting the soundtrack area three ways to provide a third center channel, but dismissed it because of the negative impact it would have on dynamic range and the problems involved in converting film projectors. Instead he suggested feeding a center-channel speaker with a simple mix of the left and right channels; however, this is not entirely satisfactory as it degrades the stereo separation. After he brought his idea and worked with Dolby, Dolby SVA, a 35mm stereo variable-area optical encoding and decoding system, came up and later was adopted as an industry standard--ISO 2969.

At this time, Dolby joined forces with Kodak in developing this system. Dolby's solution to the center-channel problem was to use a "directionally enhanced" matrix decoder, based on those developed for domestic "Quadraphonic" systems, to recover a center channel from left and right channels recorded on the film. The matrix decoder originally employed for this used the Sansui QS matrix under license. This system was used for the 1975 Ken Russell film Lisztomania.

The matrix was then extended to provide a fourth channel for surround loudspeakers, allowing for a 4-channel system with the same speaker layout as the CinemaScope 4-track magnetic stereo system of the 1950s, but at a far lower cost.

Dolby Stereo, as this 4-channel system was now branded, was first used in 1976's A Star is Born. From spring 1979 onward, a new custom matrix replaced the Sansui QS matrix. It was first used in that year's Hair and Hurricane.

At first, Dolby Stereo equipment was installed mainly in larger theaters already equipped with amplifiers and speakers for CinemaScope 4-track stereo. But the success of 1977's Star Wars, which used the 4-channel system to great effect, encouraged owners of smaller theaters to install stereo equipment for the first time.

A key feature of this system was its backward compatibility: the same print could play anywhere, from an old drive-in theater with mono sound to a Dolby Stereo-equipped cinema, eliminating the need for a costly double inventory of prints for distribution. The success of Dolby Stereo resulted in the final demise of magnetic stereo on 35mm release prints. From then on, only 70mm prints used magnetic sound.

In the early 1990s, Dolby SR noise reduction began to replace Dolby A type NR in 35mm motion picture exhibition. All release prints encoded with Dolby Digital include a Dolby SR analog soundtrack, both as a backup in case the digital track malfunctions and for theaters not equipped for Dolby Digital playback.

, Dolby Stereo's market share in the cinema space has declined rapidly with the advent of digital cinema. It serves as a backup for movie theaters still exhibiting 35mm film.

The Dolby Stereo Matrix
The Dolby Stereo Matrix (or Dolby 4:2:4 Matrix) is straightforward. The four original channels of Left (L), Center (C), Right (R), and Surround (S), are combined into two, known as Left-total and Right-total (LtRt) by this formula:

where j = 90° phase-shift

This center channel information is carried by both Lt and Rt in phase, and surround channel information by both Lt and Rt but out of phase. This gives good compatibility with both mono playback, which reproduces L, C and R from the mono speaker with C at a level 3dB higher than L or R, but surround information cancels out. It also gives good compatibility with two-channel stereo playback where C is reproduced from both left and right speakers to form a phantom center and surround is reproduced from both speakers but in a diffuse manner.

A simple 4-channel decoder could simply send the sum signal (L+R) to the center speaker, and the difference signal (L-R) to the surrounds. But such a decoder would provide poor separation between adjacent speaker channels, thus anything intended for the center speaker would also reproduce from left and right speakers only 3dB below the level in the center speaker. Similarly anything intended for the left speaker would be reproduced from both the center and surround speakers, again only 3dB below the level in the left speaker. There is, however, complete separation between left and right, and between center and surround channels.

To overcome this problem the cinema decoder uses so-called "logic" circuitry to improve the separation. The logic circuitry decides which speaker channel has the highest signal level and gives it priority, attenuating the signals fed to the adjacent channels. Because there already is complete separation between opposite channels there is no need to attenuate those, in effect the decoder switches between L and R priority and C and S priority. This places some limitations on mixing for Dolby Stereo and to ensure that sound mixers mixed soundtracks appropriately they would monitor the sound mix via a Dolby Stereo encoder and decoder in tandem. In addition to the logic circuitry the surround channel is also fed via a delay, adjustable up to 100 ms to suit auditoria of differing sizes, to ensure that any leakage of program material intended for left or right speakers into the surround channel is always heard first from the intended speaker. This exploits the "Precedence effect" to localize the sound to the intended direction.

Dolby Surround/Dolby Pro Logic (home decoders)
Dolby Surround is the earliest consumer version of Dolby's multichannel analog film sound format Dolby Stereo.

Due to the compatibility of the Dolby Stereo matrix with mono and stereo playback, when films originally made in Dolby Stereo were released on stereo domestic video formats - such as VHS-HiFi, laserdisc or broadcast on stereo TV - the original two-channel Dolby Stereo soundtrack could be used. Some domestic listeners were keen to hear these soundtracks in a manner more akin to how they would have sounded in the theater and for that market some manufacturers produced simplified surround decoders. To keep the cost down these decoders dispensed with a center speaker output and the logic circuitry found on the professional decoder, but did include the surround delay. To distinguish these decoders from the professional units found in cinemas they were given the name "Dolby Surround" decoders. The term "Dolby Surround" was also licensed by Dolby for use on TV programs or straight-to-video movies recorded through the Dolby Stereo matrix.

By the late 1980s integrated-circuit manufacturers were working on designing Dolby matrix decoders. A typical early example is the SSM-2125 from PMI. The SSM-2125 is a complete Dolby Stereo matrix decoder (except for the surround delay) on a single chip, it allowed domestic decoders which used the same logic system found in professional decoders to be marketed to the consumer. These decoders were thus named Dolby Pro Logic.

Dolby Stereo 70 mm Six Track
Dolby Stereo 70 mm Six Track is the use of Dolby noise reduction on the six magnetic soundtracks of a 70 mm print. This was first used on some prints of the MGM film Logan's Run released in 1976.

The Todd-AO format was introduced in 1955 and included multi-channel magnetic sound from the start, it does not have an optical soundtrack, although in some 70mm prints have used a DTS digital track in place of the analogue magnetic one.

The original layout was for 5 front channels and one surround. But by the 1970s the use of the intermediate (left-center and right-center) tracks had been largely abandoned, these channels either being left blank, or filled with a simple mix of the adjacent channels. Dolby did not approve of this later practice, which results in loss of separation, but instead used these channels for LFE (low-frequency effects) utilizing the bass units of the otherwise redundant intermediate front speakers. Later the unused HF capacity of these channels was used to provide for stereo surround in place of the mono surround of the Todd-AO layout giving the modern 5.1 channel allocation retained by Dolby Digital.

Ultra Stereo
By 1984, Dolby Stereo had a competitor. Ultra Stereo Labs had introduced a comparable stereo optical sound system, Ultra Stereo. Its cinema processor introduced improvements in matrix decoding and convolution matching with greater channel separation. An included balancing circuit compensated for film weave and some imbalances between the left and right tracks that previously caused voice leakage into the surround channel. The Ultra Stereo sound system won a 1984 Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

title: Dolby Stereo


text:
Talk:Dolby Stereo

Matrixing vs. Noise Reduction
This article is confusing because it conflates the matrixing algorithm with the noise reduction. In the context of 35mm film, "Dolby Stereo" generally means "Dolby A"-type noise reduction, and that almost always meant it had 4 channels of sound encoded as 2.

I don't think it is correct to suggest that the dematrixing be called "Dolby Stereo," which this article implies. It's a bit problematic to call the dematrixing Dolby Pro-Logic, because that name did not exist at the time and is not generally used in the cinema industry, though it is probably the best name that fits.

If you look at a Dolby A -encoded film print, it will just say "Dolby Stereo" (if the soundtrack format is labelled at all!) and you have to know that means A-type noise reduction, and thus set your cinema processor for "Dolby format 04: Dolby Stereo A-type," which applies the Dolby A noise reduction decoder as well as the Dolby Pro-logic dematrixing. Jhawkinson 08:58, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, that's because the term "Dolby Stereo" itself conflates both. I don't really see much basis in your complaint. The article puts the emphasis on the matrixing, but that seems fair to me, as there's already a separate article for Dolby A NR itself.
 * As far as I'm aware, Dolby use the term "Dolby Surround" for the matrixing system alone, out of the context of actual film prints. Presumably that could be mentioned. Hmm, I see there's already a separate article for Dolby Surround. That's not too good. The articles should almost certainly be merged. --KJBracey 15:12, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Dolby MP, Dolby Stereo, Dolby Surround, Pro Logic, and Dolby Digital are all surround sound systems. Dolby A and Dolby SR are both single channel noise reduction systems. A single channel noise reduction system cannot displace a surround sound system. This is because they do different things. Yes, the Dolby surround sound systems incorporated Dolby noise reduction, but they are still different beasts.

 * Here are some quotes from Dolby documents:

Dolby Stereo ''Dolby Stereo technology provided such a highly practical 35 mm stereo optical release print format that by the late 1980s almost all major titles were being released with wide-range multichannel stereo soundtracks. In the space allotted to the conventional mono optical soundtrack are two soundtracks that not only carry left and right information for stereo sound, but are also encoded with a third center-screen channel and most notably a fourth surround channel for ambient sound and special effects.'' Dolby SR ''Dolby SR is an advanced recording process applied to Dolby Stereo soundtracks, greatly improving their dynamic range (the ratio of the loudest sounds to the softest). Introduced in 1986, Dolby SR (spectral recording) provided more than twice the noise reduction of Dolby A-type, and, moreover, permitted loud sounds with wider frequency response and lower distortion. The 35 mm optical soundtracks treated with Dolby SR not only sounded superb in cinemas equipped with new Dolby SR processors, but also played back satisfactorily in all cinemas. As a result, today, the analog soundtracks on virtually all prints are Dolby SR tracks.'' Dolby Stereo, the company's original film audio format and predecessor to Dolby Digital, is still providing improved surround effects in many venues. Dolby Spectral Recording (SR) ''Dolby's next advancement in analog film sound. This technology delivered a significantly improved dynamic range over Dolby Stereo and is still included today on nearly all 35 mm film prints. On films with digital soundtracks, the SR track is used in cinemas not equipped for digital playback, and it serves as a backup in case of problems with the digital track.''

 * I believe your confusion arises because Dolby Stereo originally referred to a technique of encoding stereo sound onto optical film stock. It therefore exhibited a particular signal to noise ratio which was subsequently improved by deploying Dolby SR. For this reason Dolby Stereo and Dolby SR are sometimes referred to together. However, Dolby Stereo cannot be displaced by Dolby SR because the former became a surround sound system and the latter was always a single channel noise reduction system.

 * Hope this helps. Martin.leese 21:59, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

 * Don't agree with your last edit. Dolby Digital didn't displace Dolby Stereo, Dolby SR did - ie the same system but with SR noise reduction instead of A. Note that Dolby use "Dolby SR" both to refer to the noise reduction itself, as well as the Dolby Stereo system with SR noise reduction. Dolby Digital certainly is the next generation format, but it hasn't displaced Dolby SR, at most it coexists. But when did Dolby SR enter use on film prints? The Dolby SR article says 1990s, this article used to say 80s. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by KJBracey (talk • contribs) 23:20, 26 March 2007 (UTC).

 * I must object to this. Where are your references for these claims? I quoted three Dolby documents. Please give some verification for your claims or undo your damage. Martin.leese 23:38, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Assuming you mean the naming, then the very documents you quoted above do it, all the way through. They refer to the current analogue (=Matrixing+SR) sound system as just "Dolby SR", as opposed to the original "Dolby Stereo" (=Matrixing+A) system. Yes, I agree that's muddle-headed, maybe they should have gone with "Dolby Stereo SR", but who are we to argue with Dolby?
 * As to displacement, again the documents explain that. Dolby SR is present on every Dolby Digital print. Dolby SR (matrixing+SR) displaced Dolby Stereo (matrixing+A) - ie Dolby Stereo is no longer used. But Dolby Digital did not displace Dolby SR; Dolby SR is present on every Dolby Digital print for back-up and compatibility, and Dolby SR is used on its own on some lower-budget films. KJBracey 00:10, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Ah, here's a better example of them using Dolby SR to refer to the entire analogue film soundtrack system, even down to the number of channels . See top half of page 3. "A Dolby SR soundtrack features four channels with left, centre, and right speakers behind the screen, and a single surround channel used for ambiences, atmospheres, and special effects." --KJBracey 00:18, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
 * KJBracey is correct here. As a practitioner of the field of motion picture projection, I can speak from personal experience. But we can back things up with harder data, too. First of all, you contend that noise reduction and surround systems are different. That is true, but in the film context, the terms "Dolby Stereo" and "Dolby SR" imply both a particular noise reduction system (A and SR, respectively), and also a particular dematrixing algorithm (Dolby Pro Logic, though it is not called that); this is confusing, which is why I started the "Matrixing vs. Noise Reduction" topic here on the Talk page. The article needs to be fixed.
 * Anyhow, the edit we're questioning is when you changed "Dolby Stereo was displaced ...by Dolby SR" to "Dolby Stereo was displaced...by Dolby Digital." This change does not reduce any confusion between noise reduction and matrixing, as your edit summary claims. Furthermore, you claimed it reduced confusion but you actually changed the facts. If you were to have claimed "The noise reduction used changed from Dolby A to Dolby SR," that would be correct, but I don't think is quite in context here (because this is an article on Dolby Stereo, and hence Dolby A).
 * Your quotations do not support the contention that Dolby Stereo was displaced by Dolby Digital, not by Dolby SR. So there's nothing to refute in them. In your text above, you say, "However, Dolby Stereo cannot be displaced by Dolby SR because the former became a surround sound system and the latter was always a single channel noise reduction system." This is not correct. You may find it instructive to consult the "Dolby CP45 Cinema Processor: Users' Manual", Appendix D, "ABOUT DOLBY FILM SOUND FORMATS" (page 39 of the PDF) (the CP65 manual might be more strictly correct, but Film-Tech's copy is missing a few pages and has ordering problems, and they have the same text):

1. How Dolby Noise Reduction Works ... The CP45 has two channels of Dolby A-type noise reduction and Dolby SR circuitry to decode the two soundtracks on Dolby Stereo release prints (the left, center, right, and surround channels are derived from the two soundtracks after the Dolby noise reduction decoding). 2. About Dolby SR The soundtracks on Dolby Stereo SR prints have been encoded with the DolbySR (spectral recording) process, rather than Dolby A-type. DolbySR also boosts quiet sounds when a recording is played and brings them back down again when it is played back. ...
 * Is there any remaining ambiguity you need resolved? jhawkinson 00:58, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Cheers, jhawkinson. To summarise the terminology: I note that Dolby now talk about Dolby Pro Logic II encoders, which I've seen mentioned for live encoding with games - presumably these have 5-channel inputs with matrices set up for optimum Pro Logic II decoding.
 * Matrixed+A content: Dolby Stereo (optical soundtrack on 35mm film prints)
 * Matrixed+SR content: Dolby SR (optical soundtrack on 35mm film prints)
 * Matrixed content: Dolby Surround (outside cinema context, eg TV, DVD)
 * Dematrixing systems: Dolby Surround / Dolby Pro Logic / Dolby Pro Logic II / Dolby Pro Logic IIx (all outside cinema - cinema dematrixing system has no marketing name, but is basically equivalent to the consumer Dolby Pro Logic; the original "Dolby Surround" decoders were cheap passive decoders designed to get some result out of a Dolby Surround soundtrack - the name Pro Logic had to be invented to describe the proper, active decoder when a consumer version became available)

Also, there's Dolby Stereo 70mm Six Track, but that's a totally separate 6-channel magnetic system on 70mm prints. That too has changed from using A noise reduction to SR, but with no associated name change. That naming dates from the days when everything they did was "Dolby Stereo XXX" - they did once use the names "Dolby Stereo SR" and "Dolby Stereo Digital".

Now, this sort of information really needs to be in the article, and again that goes back to merging Dolby Stereo and Dolby Surround. Dolby SR has its own article, but that's also a little wrong - it talks almost solely about noise reduction, but then there is a whole separate Dolby noise reduction system for that...

I'd suggest having one "Dolby Surround" article about matrixing covering all of Dolby Surround, Dolby Stereo and Dolby SR, with appropriate links to the noise reduction page. Titling the page would be awkward though, as Dolby don't really have a name for the matrixing itself; "Dolby Surround" is closest, but in Dolby's usage that pretty much implies a non-cinema context... --KJBracey 08:16, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

 * (I was addressing Martin.lees when I asked about ambiguity...in our side discussion of whether SRD displaced A...; but anyhow...) One possibility is to use the term "Dolby Stereo SR" to talk about SR and matrixing. This is possibly a bad idea since the term is basically unused (but does appear in some Dolby literature). I don't know if this is a good idea or not.
 * Don't you think that "Dolby Pro-Logic" is really the right name for the matrixing? Another problem is that this needs to integrate with Dolby noise reduction system (which redirects from Dolby A, but doesn't mention dematrixing). Maybe we need "Dolby Surround (cinema)"? I'm not sure how to solve this problem, but Be Bold :) jhawkinson 08:38, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Dolby keeps changing terminology over time. They only ever used to use "Pro Logic" for the 2nd-gen (and later) decoders, and even then the logo said "Dolby Surround Pro Logic". As far as I can see, "Dolby Surround" was the label they stuck on matrixed TV programmes. They used to be very consistent about Dolby Surround being the content, and Pro Logic specifically referring to the advanced decoder. But with the advent of 5-channel Pro Logic II (whose logo drops the "Surround"), they started talking about Pro Logic II encoders. But anyway, I don't think Pro Logic is a good name to use for the basic matrixing system itself. But I note that there's a Dolby Pro Logic page too. Another merge candidate. --KJBracey 09:24, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
 * So, the pickle we're in is that there is no historically accurate term. So we can 1) Fudge a term in use at the time ("Dolby Surround" and variants) 2) Use the term that makes sense now ("Pro-Logic"), 3) choose a generic term ("Cinema sound dematrixing"). I think I'd favor 2 or 3 over 1, but I don't think either of is quibbling about the name...Another problem page is Surround sound. Maybe we could just assert it doesn't cover cinema sound and not worry about it? Bleh... jhawkinson 13:53, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
 * You can pick your way through Dolby's sites and not be left much the wiser. It's not that any of the technologies have been renamed as such, it's just that each incremental improvement, or consumer version of the same, gets a new name, even if it incorporates a lot of the previous system. Then the corollary is that the old name implies the absence of the new improvement. But they're very bad at naming the underlying components.
 * I really don't like "Dolby Pro Logic" to describe the technology though. Dolby have never used this naming to refer to encoders or to label content, that I'm aware of. All LCRS-encoded material is Dolby Surround/Stereo/SR, and when pressed to talk about the encoding, they refer to 2-channel content as "Dolby Surround encoded". "Pro Logic" on its own refers specifically to decoders.
 * However, they have used "Dolby Pro Logic II" to refer to content, encoding and decoding; there's even a "Dolby Pro Logic II" 4-second trailer available. So "Dolby Pro Logic II" is the name which covers the latest version of the entire technology, but it hasn't totally displaced "Dolby Surround". But it feels a little specific for a general article. Ah, and of course "Dolby Pro Logic IIx" is back to just being decoders again. --KJBracey 16:29, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Ah...semantics. You folks do know that Pro Logic is a term used on the CP500, right?  Of course that long post-dates "Dolby Stereo" (meaning A type) but I thought I'd mention it.Filmteknik (talk) 14:42, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Dolby SR
I changed the date for SR to the 1990's not 1980's. (I didn't notice I wasn't logged in so that was me.)  SR noise reduction came in in the early 1990's and it was dual inventory; separate prints for Dolby Stereo SR (Dolby SR for short) and Dolby Stereo (meaning A-type). SR became the standard around the mid 1990's.Filmteknik (talk) 14:42, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Reading Culture
I added a citation to the part that requires a reliable source about the cost of CinemaScope and edited the part on the coworking history of Uhlig with Dolby. Also, a marketing strategy on Dolby Stereo. That's all I got from my readings about the history of Dolby Stereo :^). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Juuyuau (talk • contribs) 00:10, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

 * You are a scholar and a titan in your field, my friend. Well done. I cleaned up some. Technically, the lead section does not have citations, but rather is a standalone summary of the body which is already fully written and cited WP:LEADCITE. But I'm not familiar with the sources, and that stuff is pretty darn technical ;). — Smuckola(talk) 01:02, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Dolby Stereo