title: Night Hunter (2018 film)

text: Roger Moore of "Movie Nation" described the film as "cracked and incoherent" and criticized it for "[having] a lot of clutter, convoluted craziness and head-slappingly illogical turns in here, too", concluding that "whatever coherence the players saw on the screenplay page was lost in the trip from page to the shoot on set, and from the set to the editing bay". He gave the film 1.5/4 stars. Justin Lowe, writing for "The Hollywood Reporter", described the film's plot as "overly complicated", further stating that "Narrative and stylistic references to "Se7en, Split, The Silence of the Lambs" and other serial-killer thrillers only manage to demonstrate how inadequately "Nomis" rates by comparison."


title: Fountain pen

text: A fountain pen is a writing instrument which uses a metal nib to apply a water-based ink to paper. It is distinguished from earlier dip pens by using an internal reservoir to hold ink, eliminating the need to repeatedly dip the pen in an inkwell during use. The pen draws ink from the reservoir through a feed to the nib and deposits the ink on paper via a combination of gravity and capillary action. Filling the reservoir with ink may be achieved manually, via the use of an eyedropper or syringe, or via an internal filling mechanism which creates suction (for example, through a piston mechanism) or a vacuum to transfer ink directly through the nib into the reservoir. Some pens employ removable reservoirs in the form of pre-filled ink cartridges.


title: Fountain pen

text: According to Qadi al-Nu'man al-Tamimi (d. 974) in his "Kitab al-Majalis wa 'l-musayarat", the Fatimid caliph Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah in Arab Egypt demanded a pen that would not stain his hands or clothes, and was provided with a pen that held ink in a reservoir, allowing it to be held upside-down without leaking.


title: Fountain pen

text: There is compelling evidence that a working fountain pen was constructed and used during the Renaissance by artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo's journals contain drawings with cross-sections of what appears to be a reservoir pen that works by both gravity and capillary action. Historians also took note of the fact that the handwriting in the inventor's surviving journals is of a consistent contrast throughout, rather than exhibiting the characteristic fading pattern typical of a quill pen caused by expending and re-dipping. While no physical item survives, several working models were reconstructed in 2011 by artist Amerigo Bombara that have since been put on display in museums dedicated to Leonardo.


title: Fountain pen

text: The fountain pen was available in Europe in the 17th century and is shown by contemporary references. In "Deliciae Physico-Mathematicae" (a 1636 magazine), German inventor Daniel Schwenter described a pen made from two quills. One quill served as a reservoir for ink inside the other quill. The ink was sealed inside the quill with cork. Ink was squeezed through a small hole to the writing point. In 1663 Samuel Pepys referred to a metal pen "to carry ink". Noted Maryland historian Hester Dorsey Richardson (1862–1933) documented a reference to "three silver fountain pens, worth 15 shillings" in England during the reign of Charles II, c. 1649–1685. By the early 18th century such pens were already commonly known as "fountain pens". Hester Dorsey Richardson also found a 1734 notation made by Robert Morris the elder in the ledger of the expenses of Robert Morris the younger, who was at the time in Philadelphia, for "one fountain pen". Perhaps the best-known reference, however, is that of Nicholas Bion (1652–1733), whose illustrated description of a "plume sans fin" was published in 1709 in his treatise published in English in 1723 as "The Construction and Principal Uses of Mathematical Instruments". The earliest datable pen of the form described by Bion is inscribed 1702, while other examples bear French hallmarks as late as the early 19th century.


title: Fountain pen

text: Progress in developing a reliable pen was slow until the mid-19th century because of an imperfect understanding of the role that air pressure plays in the operation of pens. Furthermore, most inks were highly corrosive and full of sedimentary inclusions. The first English patent for a fountain pen was issued in May 1809 to Frederick Fölsch, with a patent covering (among other things) an improved fountain pen feed issued to Joseph Bramah in September 1809. John Scheffer's patent of 1819 was the first design to see commercial success, with a number of surviving examples of his "Penographic" known. Another noteworthy pioneer design was John Jacob Parker's, patented in 1832 – a self-filler with a screw-operated piston. The Romanian inventor Petrache Poenaru received a French patent on May 25, 1827, for the invention of a fountain pen with a barrel made from a large swan quill.


title: Fountain pen

text: In 1828, Josiah Mason improved a cheap and efficient slip-in nib in Birmingham, England, which could be added to a fountain pen and in 1830, with the invention of a new machine, William Joseph Gillott, William Mitchell, and James Stephen Perry devised a way to mass manufacture robust, cheap steel pen nibs (Perry & Co.). This boosted the Birmingham pen trade and by the 1850s, more than half the steel-nib pens manufactured in the world were made in Birmingham. Thousands of skilled craftsmen were employed in the industry. Many new manufacturing techniques were perfected, enabling the city's factories to mass-produce their pens cheaply and efficiently. These were sold worldwide to many who previously could not afford to write, thus encouraging the development of education and literacy.


title: Fountain pen

text: In 1848, American inventor Azel Storrs Lyman patented a pen with "a combined holder and nib". From the 1850s, there was a steadily accelerating stream of fountain pen patents and pens in production. However, it was only after three key inventions were in place that the fountain pen became a widely popular writing instrument. Those were the iridium-tipped gold nib, hard rubber, and free-flowing ink.


title: Fountain pen

text: The first fountain pens making use of all these key ingredients appeared in the 1850s. In the 1870s Duncan MacKinnon, a Canadian living in New York City, and Alonzo T. Cross of Providence, Rhode Island, created stylographic pens with a hollow, tubular nib and a wire acting as a valve. Stylographic pens are now used mostly for drafting and technical drawing but were very popular in the decade beginning in 1875. In the 1880s the era of the mass-produced fountain pen finally began. The dominant American producers in this pioneer era were Waterman, of New York City, and Wirt, based in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Waterman soon outstripped Wirt, along with many companies that sprang up to fill the new and growing fountain pen market. Waterman remained the market leader until the early 1920s.


title: Fountain pen

text: At this time, fountain pens were almost all filled by unscrewing a portion of the hollow barrel or holder and inserting the ink by means of an eyedropper – a slow and messy procedure. Pens also tended to leak inside their caps and at the joint where the barrel opened for filling. Now that the materials' problems had been overcome and the flow of ink while writing had been regulated, the next problems to be solved were the creation of a simple, convenient self-filler and the problem of leakage. In 1890, W. B. Purvis patented a self-filler. Self-fillers began to arrive around the turn of the century; the most successful of these was probably the Conklin crescent-filler, followed by A. A. Waterman's twist-filler. The tipping point, however, was the runaway success of Walter A. Sheaffer's lever-filler, introduced in 1912, paralleled by Parker's roughly contemporary button-filler.


title: Fountain pen

text: Meanwhile, many inventors turned their attention to the problem of leakage. Some of the earliest solutions to this problem came in the form of a "safety" pen with a retractable point that allowed the ink reservoir to be corked like a bottle. The most successful of these came from Francis C. Brown of the Caw's Pen and Ink Co. and from Morris W. Moore of Boston.


title: Fountain pen

text: In 1898, George Safford Parker released the Parker Jointless, named so because its barrel was single-piece to prevent leakage. The section assembly fit into the pen's end like a cork stopper; any leaked ink was kept inside the nib.


title: Fountain pen

text: In 1908, Waterman began marketing a popular safety pen of its own. For pens with non-retractable nibs, the adoption of screw-on caps with inner caps that sealed around the nib by bearing against the front of the section effectively solved the leakage problem (such pens were also marketed as "safety pens", as with the Parker Jack Knife Safety and the Swan Safety Screw-Cap).


title: Fountain pen

text: In Europe, the German supplies company which came to be known as Pelikan was started in 1838, and they first introduced their pen in 1929. This was based upon the acquisition of patents for solid-ink fountain pens from the factory of Slavoljub Penkala from Croatia (patented 1907, in mass production since 1911), and the patent of the Hungarian Theodor Kovacs for the modern piston filler by 1925.


title: Fountain pen

text: The decades that followed saw many technological innovations in the manufacture of fountain pens. Celluloid gradually replaced hard rubber, which enabled production in a much wider range of colors and designs. At the same time, manufacturers experimented with new filling systems. The inter-war period saw the introduction of some of the most notable models, such as the Parker Duofold and Vacumatic, Sheaffer's Lifetime Balance series, and the Pelikan 100.


title: Fountain pen

text: During the 1940s and 1950s, fountain pens retained their dominance: early ballpoint pens were expensive, were prone to leaks and had irregular inkflow, while the fountain pen continued to benefit from the combination of mass production and craftsmanship. (Bíró's patent, and other early patents on ball-point pens often used the term "ball-point fountain pen," because at the time the ball-point pen was considered a type of fountain pen; that is, a pen that held ink in an enclosed reservoir.)


title: Fountain pen

text: This period saw the launch of innovative models such as the Parker 51, the Aurora 88, the Sheaffer Snorkel, and the Eversharp Skyline and (later) Skyliner, while the Esterbrook J series of lever-fill models with interchangeable steel nibs offered inexpensive reliability to the masses.


title: Fountain pen

text: By the 1960s, refinements in ballpoint pen production gradually ensured its dominance over the fountain pen for casual use. Although cartridge-filler fountain pens are still in common use in France, Italy, Germany, Austria, India, and the United Kingdom, and are widely used by young students in most private schools in England, at least one private school in Scotland, and public elementary schools in Germany, a few modern manufacturers (especially Montblanc, Graf von Faber-Castell, and Visconti) now depict the fountain pen as a collectible item or a status symbol, rather than an everyday writing tool. However, fountain pens continue to have a growing following among many who view them as superior writing instruments due to their relative smoothness and versatility. Retailers continue to sell fountain pens and inks for casual and calligraphic use. Recently, fountain pens have made a resurgence, with many manufacturers of fountain pens saying sales are climbing. This has led to a new wave of casual use fountain pens and custom ink manufacturers, who utilize online stores to easily sell fountain pens to a wider audience.


title: Fountain pen

text: The feed of a fountain pen is the component that connects the nib of the pen with its ink reservoir. It not only allows the ink to flow to the nib (in what is often described as a "controlled leak") but also regulates the amount of air flowing backwards up to the reservoir to replace this lost ink.


title: Fountain pen

text: The feed uses of a series of narrow channels or "fissures" that run down its lower edge. As ink flows down these fissures, air is simultaneously allowed to flow upwards into the reservoir in an even exchange of volumes. The feed allows ink to flow when the pen is being put to paper but ensures ink does not flow when the pen is not in use. The feed makes use of capillary action; this is noticeable when a pen is refilled with a brightly coloured ink. The ink is taken up and into the feed by way of capillary action (and is often visible in clear demonstrator pens), but is not dispensed onto the paper until the nib makes contact.


title: Fountain pen

text: How the feed is shaped may determine the wetness and flow of a particular pen. For this reason, feed material alone and its surface roughness may have a significant effect on the way two pens of the same nib size write.


title: Fountain pen

text: Pen feeds are crucial to preventing ink from dripping or leaking. Feeds often feature finned structures intended for buffering fountain pen ink. Buffering is the capacity to catch and temporarily hold an overflow of ink, caused by conditions other than writing. When a fountain pen nib receives such an overflow it will result in ink blobbing or dripping also known as burping. A pen with a misconfigured feed might fail to deposit any ink whatsoever.


title: Fountain pen

text: Some fountains pens use a fiber wick underneath the nib. They often have a plastic part that looks like a feed that is only used to hold the fiber wick in place and does not assist with ink flow. The mechanism of action is like a felt pen, just with a fountain pen nib on top of it. The fiber feeds offer plenty of ink flow and can stay wet for extended periods. Cleaning fiber feed pens can require longer soaking in water.


title: Fountain pen

text: According to Mathur et al., "the modern fountain pen nib may be traced back to the original gold nib which had a tiny fragment of ruby attached to form the wear-point." Following the discovery of the platinum group of metals which include ruthenium, osmium, and iridium, "a small quantity of iridium was isolated and used on the iridium-tipped gold dip pen nibs of the 1830s." Today, nibs are usually made of stainless steel or gold alloys, with the most popular gold content being 14 carat (58⅓%) and 18 carat (75%). Titanium is a less common metal used for making nibs. Gold is considered the optimum metal for its flexibility and its resistance to corrosion, although gold's corrosion resistance is less of an issue than in the past because of better stainless steel alloys and less corrosive inks.


title: Fountain pen

text: Visconti used to use nibs made out of palladium, as it acts like gold, but have now changed to using gold for most of their nibs as it is easier to source.


title: Fountain pen

text: Further gold plating provides favorable wettability, which is the ability of a solid surface to reduce the surface tension of a liquid in contact with it such that it spreads over the surface.


title: Fountain pen

text: Gold and most steel and titanium nibs are tipped with a hard, wear-resistant alloy that typically includes metals from the platinum group. These metals share qualities of extreme hardness and corrosion resistance. The tipping material is often called "iridium", but there are few, if any, nib or pen manufacturers that used tipping alloys containing iridium metal since the mid-1950s. The metals osmium, rhenium, ruthenium, and tungsten are used instead, generally as an alloy, with a little bit of osmium, rhenium, ruthenium, and tungsten in a mix of other materials, produced as tiny pellets which are soldered or welded onto a nib tip prior to cutting the nib slit and grinding the tip into its final shape. Untipped steel and titanium points will wear more rapidly due to abrasion by the paper.


title: Fountain pen

text: The nib usually has a tapering or parallel slit cut down its centre, to convey the ink down the nib by capillary action, as well as a "breather hole" of varying shape. The breather hole has no actual function regarding controlling the ink or air flow. Its main function is to provide an endpoint to the nib slit and forestall inaccuracies during nib slit cutting. Adding distance between the breather hole and the nib tip adds elasticity or flexibility to the nib. The breather hole also acts as a stress relieving point, preventing the nib from cracking longitudinally from the end of the slit as a result of repeated flexing during use.


title: Fountain pen

text: The whole nib narrows to a point where the ink is transferred to the paper. Broad calligraphy pens may have several slits in the nib to increase ink flow and help distribute it evenly across the broad point. Nibs divided into three 'tines' are commonly known as music nibs. This is because their line, which can be varied from broad to fine, is suited for writing musical scores.


title: Fountain pen

text: Although the most common nibs end in a round point of various sizes (extra fine, fine, medium, broad), various other nib shapes are available. Examples of this are double broad, music, oblique, reverse oblique, stub, italic, and 360-degree nibs.


title: Fountain pen

text: Broader nibs are used for less precise emphasis, with the benefit of a greater level of ink shading, a property wherein ink pools in parts of a stroke to cause variations in color or sheen – where dyes in ink crystallize on a page instead of absorbing into the paper, which leads to a different color being seen on less absorbent paper due to thin film interference. Finer nibs (e.g. extra fine and fine) may be used for intricate corrections and alterations, at the expense of shading and sheen. Oblique, reverse oblique, stub, and italic nibs may be used for calligraphic purposes or for general handwritten compositions. The line width of a particular nib may vary based on its country of origin; Japanese nibs are often thinner in general.


title: Fountain pen

text: Flexibility is given to nibs in several ways. First, the thickness of the nib metal changes flex. When the nib alloy has been pressed thick it will result in a hard nib, while thinly pressed nibs are more flexible. Nibs can be pressed so that they are thinner at the tip and thicker at the feed to mitigate stiffness or to give a more controlled flex. Second, the curve of the nib determines in part how stiff the nib will be.


title: Fountain pen

text: Nibs pressed into more deeply convex curves, or into three or five faceted curves, will be stiffer than flatter nibs. Third, the "breather hole" size, shape, and position alter the stiffness. Heart-shaped holes will improve flex as they widen, while round, small holes stiffen the pen. Fourth, the length of the tines determines how far they can spread under pressure, shorter tines make a stiffer nib. Fifth, the alloy used can affect stiffness: as mentioned before, gold is considered superior for its flex compared to steel. Moreover, purer gold (18k and 21k) is softer than most lower gold concentration (14k) alloys.


title: Fountain pen

text: Fountain pens dating from the first half of the 20th century are more likely to have flexible nibs, suited to the favored handwriting styles of the period (e.g. Copperplate script and Spencerian script). By the 1940s, writing preferences had shifted towards stiffer nibs that could withstand the greater pressure required for writing through carbon paper to create duplicate documents.


title: Fountain pen

text: Furthermore, competition between the major pen brands such as Parker and Waterman, and the introduction of lifetime guarantees, meant that flexible nibs could no longer be supported profitably. In countries where this rivalry was not present to the same degree, such as the UK and Germany, flexible nibs are more common.


title: Fountain pen

text: Nowadays, stiff nibs are the norm as people exchange between fountain pens and other writing modes. These more closely emulate the ballpoint pens most modern writers are experienced with. Despite being rigid and firm, the idea that steel nibs write "horribly" is a misconception. More flexible nibs can be easily damaged if excessive pressure is applied to them. Ideally, a fountain pen's nib glides across the paper using the ink as a lubricant, and writing requires no pressure.


title: Fountain pen

text: Good quality nibs that have been used appropriately are long lasting, often lasting longer than the lifetime of the original owner. Many vintage pens with decades-old nibs can still be used today.


title: Fountain pen

text: Other styles of fountain pen nibs include hooded (e.g. Parker 51, Parker 61, 2007 Parker 100, Lamy 2000, and Hero 329), inlaid (e.g. Sheaffer Targa or Sheaffer P.F.M) or integral Nib (Parker T-1, Falcon, and Pilot Myu 701), which may also be ground to have different writing characteristics.


title: Fountain pen

text: Users are often cautioned not to lend or borrow fountain pens as the nib "wears in" at an angle unique to each individual person. A different user is likely to find that a worn-in nib does not write satisfactorily in their hand and, furthermore, creates a second wear surface, ruining the nib for the original user. This, however, is not a point of concern in pens with modern, durable tipping material, as these pens take many years to develop any significant wear.


title: Fountain pen

text: The reservoirs of the earliest fountain pens were mostly filled by eyedropper. This was a cumbersome and potentially messy process, which led to the commercial development of alternative methods that quickly dominated the industry. However, newer, more convenient filling mechanisms have never entirely displaced "eyedropper-filling" pens in the marketplace, and they remain widely manufactured today. For some the simplicity of the mechanism, coupled with the large volume of ink it can encapsulate, compensates for the inconvenience of ink transfer.


title: Fountain pen

text: After the eyedropper-filler era came the first generation of mass-produced self-fillers, almost all using a rubber sac to hold the ink. The sac was compressed and then released by various mechanisms to fill the pen.


title: Fountain pen

text: The Conklin crescent filler, introduced c. 1901, was one of the first mass-produced self-filling pen designs. The crescent filling system employs an arch-shaped crescent attached to a rigid metal pressure bar, with the crescent portion protruding from the pen through a slot and the pressure bar inside the barrel. A second component, a C-shaped hard rubber ring, is located between the crescent and the barrel.


title: Fountain pen

text: Ordinarily, the ring blocks the crescent from pushing down. To fill the pen, one simply turns the ring around the barrel until the crescent matches up to the hole in the ring, allowing one to push down the crescent and squeeze the internal sac.


title: Fountain pen

text: Several other filling mechanisms were introduced to compete, such as the coin-filler (where a coin or 'medallion' was supplied along with the pen), match-filler (using a matchstick) and a 'blow-filler' which unsurprisingly required the pen owner to blow into the barrel to depress the internal sac.


title: Fountain pen

text: In 1907, Walter A. Sheaffer patented the Lever filler, using a hinged lever set into the pen barrel which pressed down onto a bar which in turn compressed the rubber sac inside, creating a vacuum to force ink into the pen. Introduced in 1912, this innovation was rapidly imitated by the other major pen makers. Parker introduced the button filler, which had a button hidden beneath a blind cap on the end of the barrel; when pressed, it acted on a pressure bar inside to depress the ink sac.


title: Fountain pen

text: Following the crescent filler came a series of systems of increasing complexity, reaching their apogee in the Sheaffer Snorkel, introduced in 1952. The Sheaffer "Snorkel" system filled the ink sac through a retractable tube above and behind the pen point. This eliminated the need to dunk the point in ink, and the subsequent need to wipe it. With the advent of the modern plastic ink cartridge in the early 1950s, though, most of these systems were phased out in favour of convenience (but reduced capacity).


title: Fountain pen

text: Screw-mechanism piston-fillers were made as early as the 1820s, but the mechanism's modern popularity begins with the original Pelikan of 1929, based upon a Croatian patent. The basic idea is simple: turn a knob at the end of the pen, and a screw mechanism draws a piston up the barrel, sucking in ink. Thus they were easier to fill, and pens with this mechanism remain very popular today. Some of the earlier models had to dedicate as much as half of the pen length to the mechanism.


title: Fountain pen

text: The advent of telescoping pistons has improved this; the Touchdown Filler was introduced by Sheaffer in 1949. It was advertised as an "Exclusive Pneumatic Down-stroke Filler."


title: Fountain pen

text: To fill it, a knob at the end of the barrel is unscrewed and the attached plunger is drawn out to its full length. The nib is immersed in ink, the plunger is pushed in, compressing and then releasing the ink sac by means of air pressure. The nib is kept in the ink for approximately 10 seconds to allow the reservoir to fill. This mechanism is very closely modeled after a similar pneumatic filler introduced by Chilton over a decade earlier.


title: Fountain pen

text: A capillary filling system was introduced by Parker in the Parker 61 in 1956. There were no moving parts: the ink reservoir within the barrel was open at the upper end, but contained a tightly rolled length of slotted, flexible plastic. To fill, the barrel was unscrewed, the exposed open end of the reservoir was placed in ink and the interstices of the plastic sheet and slots initiated capillary action, drawing up and retaining the ink. The outside of the reservoir was coated with Teflon, a repellent compound that released excess ink as it was withdrawn. Ink was transferred through a further capillary tube to the nib. No method of flushing the device was offered, and because of problems from clogging with dried and hardened ink, production was eventually stopped.


title: Fountain pen

text: Around the year 2000, Pelikan introduced a filling system involving a valve in the blind end of the pen, which mates with a specially designed ink bottle. Thus docked, ink is then squeezed into the pen barrel (which, lacking any mechanism other than the valve itself, has nearly the capacity of an eyedropper-fill pen of the same size). This system had been implemented only in their "Level" line, which was discontinued in 2006.


title: Fountain pen

text: Most pens today use either a piston filler, squeeze-bar filler or cartridge. Many pens are also compatible with a "converter", which has the same fitting as the pen's cartridge and has a filling mechanism and a reservoir attached to it. This enables a pen to fill either from cartridges or from a bottle of ink. The most common type of converters are piston-style, but many other varieties may be found today. Piston-style converters generally have a transparent round tubular ink reservoir. Fountain pen inks feature differing surface tensions that can cause an ink to adhere or "stick" against the inside of the reservoir. Common solutions for this problem are adding a small (rust-proof) ink agitating object like a 316 or 904L stainless steel or zirconium dioxide bearing ball, spring or hollow tube in the tubular reservoir to mechanically promote free movement of the contained ink and ink/air exchange during writing. Adding a very small amount of surfactant such as Triton X-100 used in Kodak Photo-Flo 200 wetting agent to the ink will chemically promote free movement of the contained ink and ink/air exchange during writing. However, ink might react adversely to adding a surfactant.


title: Fountain pen

text: Vacuum fillers, such as those used by Pilot in the Custom 823, utilize air pressure to fill the ink chamber. In this case, while the nib is submerged in ink, a plunger is pushed down the empty chamber to create a vacuum in the space behind it. The end of the chamber has a section wider than the rest, and when the plunger passes this point, the difference in air pressure in the area behind the plunger and the area ahead of it is suddenly evened out and ink rushes in behind the plunger to fill the chamber.


title: Fountain pen

text: A patent for an ink cartridge system for fountain pens was filed in 1890. In the early 20th century, cartridges were made from glass and thin copper tubing. However, the concept only became successful and popular after the introduction of moulded plastic cartridges, firstly by Waterman in 1953.


title: Fountain pen

text: Modern plastic cartridges can contain small ridges on the inside to promote free movement of the contained ink and ink/air exchange during writing. Often cartridges are closed with a small ball that gets pressed into the cartridge during insertion into the pen. This ball also aids free movement of the contained ink.


title: Fountain pen

text: Most European fountain pen brands (for example Caran d'Ache, Faber-Castell, Michel Perchin, DuPont, Montegrappa, Stipula, Pelikan, Montblanc, Europen, Monteverde, Sigma, Delta, Italix, and Rotring) and some pen brands of other continents (for example Acura, Bexley, Retro51, Tombow, and Platinum (with adaptor)) use so called "international cartridges" (AKA "European cartridges" or "standard cartridges" or "universal cartridges"), in short (38 mm in length, about 0.75 ml of capacity) or long (72 mm, 1.50 ml) sizes, or both. It is to some extent a standard, so the international cartridges of any manufacturer can be used in most fountain pens that accept international cartridges.


title: Fountain pen

text: Also, converters that are meant to replace international cartridges can be used in most fountain pens that accept international cartridges. Some very compact fountain pens (for example Waterman Ici et La and Monteverde Diva) accept only short international cartridges. Converters can not be used in them (except for so-called mini-converters by Monteverde). Some pens (such as the modern Waterman models) have intentional fittings which prevent the usage of short cartridges. Such pens can only take a proprietary cartridge from the same manufacturer, in this case the long Waterman cartridges.


title: Fountain pen

text: Many fountain pen manufacturers have developed their own proprietary cartridges, for example Parker, Lamy, Sheaffer, Cross, Sailor, Platinum, Platignum, Waterman, and Namiki. Fountain pens from Aurora, Hero, Duke, and Uranus accept the same cartridges and converters that Parker uses and vice versa (Lamy cartridges, though not officially, are known to interchange with Parker cartridges also). Cartridges of Aurora are slightly different from cartridges by Parker.


title: Fountain pen

text: Corresponding converters to be used instead of such proprietary cartridges are usually made by the same company that made the fountain pen itself. Some very compact fountain pens accept only proprietary cartridges made by the same company that made that pen, such as Sheaffer Agio Compact and Sheaffer Prelude Compact. It is not possible to use a converter in them at all. In such pens the only practical way to use another brand of ink is to fill empty cartridges with bottled ink using a syringe.


title: Fountain pen

text: Standard international cartridges are closed by a small ball, held inside the ink exit hole by glue or by a very thin layer of plastic. When the cartridge is pressed into the pen, a small pin pushes in the ball, which falls inside the cartridge. The Parker and Lamy cartridges do not have such a ball. They are closed by a piece of plastic, which is broken by a sharp pin when inserted in the pen.


title: Fountain pen

text: Pen manufacturers using a proprietary cartridge (which in almost all cases are the more expensive ones like the ones mentioned above) tend to discourage the use of cheaper internationally standardised short/long cartridges or adaptations thereof due to their variance in ink quality in the cartridges which may not offer as much performance, or be of lesser quality than the manufacturer of the pen; ink that has been designed specifically for the pen. In addition, cheaper ink tends to take longer to dry on paper, may skip or produce uneven colour on the page and be less "tolerant" on lower, thinner grades of paper (e.g. 75gs/m).


title: Fountain pen

text: While cartridges are mess-free and more convenient to refill than bottle filling, converter and bottle filling systems are still sold. Non-cartridge filling systems tend to be slightly more economical in the long run since ink is generally less expensive in bottles than in cartridges. Advocates of bottle-based filling systems also cite less waste of plastic for the environment, a wider selection of inks, easier cleaning of pens (as drawing the ink in through the nib helps dissolve old ink), and the ability to check and refill inks at any time.


title: Fountain pen

text: Inks intended for use with fountain pens are water-based. These inks are commonly available in bottles. Plastic cartridges came into use in the 1960s, but bottled inks are still the mainstay for most fountain pen enthusiasts. Bottled inks usually cost less than an equivalent amount in cartridges and afford a wider variety of colors and properties.


title: Fountain pen

text: Fountain pens are not as tightly coupled with their inks as ballpoints or gel pens are, yet some care must be taken when selecting their inks. Contemporary fountain pen inks are almost exclusively dye-based because pigment particles usually clog the narrow passages.


title: Fountain pen

text: Traditional iron gall inks intended for dip pens are not suitable for fountain pens as they will corrode the pen (a phenomenon known as flash corrosion) and destroy the functionality of the fountain pen. Instead, modern surrogate iron gall formulas are offered for fountain pens. These modern iron gall inks contain a small amount of ferro gallic compounds, but are gentler for the inside of a fountain pen, but can still be corrosive if left in the pen for a long period. To avoid corrosion on delicate metal parts and ink clogging a more thorough than usual cleaning regime – which requires the ink to be flushed out regularly with water – is sometimes advised by manufacturers or resellers.


title: Fountain pen

text: Some pigmented inks do exist for fountain pens, such as "Carbon Black" made by the brand Platinum, but these are uncommon. Normal India ink cannot be used in fountain pens because it contains shellac as a binder which would very quickly clog such pens.


title: Fountain pen

text: Inks ideally should be fairly free-flowing, free of sediment, and non-corrosive, though this generally excludes permanence and prevents large-scale commercial use of some colored dyes. Proper care and selection of ink will prevent most problems.


title: Fountain pen

text: While no longer the primary writing instrument in modern times, fountain pens are still used for important official works such as signing valuable documents. Today, fountain pens are often treated as luxury goods and sometimes as status symbols. Fountain pens may serve as an everyday writing instrument, much like the common ballpoint pen. Good quality steel and gold pens are available inexpensively today, particularly in Europe and China, and there are "disposable" fountain pens such as the Pilot Varsity. In France and Germany, in particular, the use of fountain pens is widespread. To avoid mistakes, special ink can be used that can be made invisible by applying an ink eraser.


title: Fountain pen

text: Fountain pens can serve various artistic purposes such as expressive penmanship and calligraphy, pen and ink artwork, and professional art and design. Many users also favor the air of timeless elegance, personalization, and sentimentality associated with fountain pens, which computers and ballpoint pens seem to lack, and often state that once they start using fountain pens, ballpoints become awkward to use due to the extra motor effort needed and lack of expressiveness.


title: Fountain pen

text: For ergonomics, fountain pens may relieve physiological stress from writing; alternatives such as the ballpoint pen can induce more pain and damage to those with arthritis. Some also believe they could improve academic performance. In some countries, fountain pens are usual in lower school grades, believed to teach children better control over writing as many common mistakes of people not used to handwriting (like too much pressure or incorrect hold) feel unnatural or are almost impossible when using traditional pen tips.


title: Fountain pen

text: Some fountain pens are treated as collectibles. Ornate pens may be made of precious metals and jewels with cloisonné designs. Some are inlaid with lacquer designs in a process known as maki-e. Avid communities of pen enthusiasts collect and use antique and modern pens and also collect and exchange information about old and modern inks, ink bottles, and inkwells. Collectors may decide to use the antiques in addition to showcasing them in closed spaces such as glass displays.


title: Fountain pen

text: News outlets report that, rather than declining, fountain pen sales have been steadily rising over the last decade. There is a clear resurgence in the appeal and culture of the fountain pen, whether for purposes of collection, enjoyment or as a "lifestyle item". Many agree that the "personal touch" of a fountain pen has led to such a resurgence with modern consumers looking for an alternative in a world of digital products and services.


title: Fountain pen

text: Amazon reported "sales so far this year [2012] have doubled compared with the same period in 2011. They are four times higher than 2010." The popularity of fountain pens continues to show growth. The market-research firm Euromonitor reported that fountain pen retail sales were up 2.1% in 2016 from a year earlier, reaching $1.046 billion.


title: Morgana Robinson

text: Morgana Robinson (born 7 May 1982) is an Australian-born English impressionist, comedian, writer and actress, who is best known for her comedy sketch programme "The Morgana Show", "Morgana Robinson's The Agency", appearances on "The TNT Show", "House of Fools" and "Very Important People".


title: Morgana Robinson

text: Robinson was born in Shepparton, Victoria, in Australia. Her family moved to England when she was three. She was educated at Benenden School in Kent.


title: Morgana Robinson

text: On her father's side, Robinson has four elder half-siblings, one of whom is Brody Dalle (born Bree Joanna Alice Robinson) of the punk rock band the Distillers and alternative rock band Spinnerette. They first met as adults, backstage at one of Dalle's 2004 concerts at the Brixton Academy.


title: Morgana Robinson

text: Robinson's television debut came in 2007, as she played an Eastern European internet bride in BBC One's comedy "The Green Green Grass". She then starred in the TV pilot "Eight Steps to Enlightenment and a Nervous Breakdown", an improvised mockumentary, playing Rachel, a self-obsessed glamour model, trying to rid herself of cellulite. In 2009, she appeared as Anna in the BBC One comedy "My Family" in the episode "It's Training Men".


title: Morgana Robinson

text: In 2009, she appeared in a running sketch segment ("Gilbert's Special Report") in "The TNT Show" as Gilbert, a teenage 'special needs' boy who interviews celebrities, alongside his disabled crew members.


title: Morgana Robinson

text: In 2010, Channel 4 commissioned a five-part comedy sketch show – "The Morgana Show". Channel 4's head of comedy, Shane Allen, said: "Discovering, supporting and nurturing new talent is at the heart of Channel 4 comedy’s remit, and in Morgana we really feel we’ve found a fresh performer with a huge amount of potential." Her stand-out characters being giant-glasses wearing Gilbert ("Grandad!") making TV shows from his bedroom and her impressions of Fern Cotton and mockumentary of Natalie Cassidy "Sonia off Eastenders"


title: Morgana Robinson

text: In 2012, Robinson starred in the Channel 4 sketch show "Very Important People" also starring Terry Mynott. In the show, she impersonates a variety of performers, including Frankie Boyle, Danny Dyer, Amy Childs, and Adele.


title: Morgana Robinson

text: In 2014 to 2015, she appeared as sexy nymphomaniac cafe-owner Julie in Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer's 2-series surreal BBC Two television comedy sitcom "House of Fools" in which her scene-stealing appearances include an obsessive attraction to Vic's character "Vic Reeves".


title: Morgana Robinson

text: In 2016, she appeared as Pippa Middleton in "The Windsors", a comedy parody of the British Royal Family in which she uses her sexiness to try to ensnare her sister's brother-in-law Prince Harry.


title: Morgana Robinson

text: In 2021, Robinson played Hilary Bowden in series 2, episode 4 of "Intelligence". That same year, she participated in the 10 episode, 12th series of Channel 4 comedy game show "Taskmaster" and won the series.


title: Morgana Robinson

text: In March 2022, Robinson appeared as Maxine in Gold comedy "Newark, Newark". Also in 2022, Robinson co-starred with Dylan Moran in the BBC Two sitcom "Stuck".


title: Morgana Robinson

text: In 2018, she won the BAFTA Award in the Best Short Form Programme category for "Morgana Robinson's Summer".


title: Publix

text: Publix Super Markets, Inc., commonly known as Publix, is an employee-owned American supermarket chain headquartered in Lakeland, Florida. Founded in 1930 by George W. Jenkins, Publix is a private corporation that is wholly owned by present and past employees and members of the Jenkins family. Publix operates throughout the Southeastern United States, with locations in Florida (838), Georgia (197), Alabama (83), South Carolina (65), Tennessee (53), North Carolina (51), and Virginia (19).


title: Publix

text: Publix maintains 1,305 store locations across the Southeast. As of October 2022, Florida has the largest number of stores, with 836, representing about 65.8% of total locations. As of September 2022, Publix employs about 230,000 people at its 1,305 retail locations, cooking schools, corporate offices, nine grocery distribution centers, and eleven manufacturing facilities. The manufacturing facilities produce its dairy, deli, bakery, and other food products. Publix is the largest employee-owned company in the United States.


title: Publix

text: George Jenkins previously worked as a stock clerk and a manager at Piggly Wiggly from 1926 to 1930. When Jenkins decided to open his own grocery store, he adopted the name "Publix" from a struggling New York-based movie theater company (with 19 opulently decorated movie houses in Florida) called Publix Theatres Corporation. Jenkins stated “Most of the theaters were closing up, and I liked the sound of the name, so I just took it for my store.” Jenkins opened the first Publix Food Store in Winter Haven, Florida, on September 6, 1930, a 3,000 square foot building located at 58 Northwest 4th Street. In 1934, that store made $120,000 in sales. In 1935, he opened a second market, the Economy Food Store, also in Winter Haven. Despite the Great Depression, his stores were financially successful.


title: Publix

text: In 1940, Jenkins, called "Mr. George" by his employees, mortgaged an orange grove to build Florida's first supermarket. On November 8, 1940, his "food palace" opened at 199 West Central Avenue, having piped-in music, air conditioning, cold cases for frozen and refrigerated items, in-store doughnut and flower shops, and electric-eye automatic doors. During World War II, material shortages prevented him from building additional stores. In 1945, Jenkins purchased the 19-store All American chain of food stores and converted them into Publix Super Markets.


title: Publix

text: In 1951, Publix moved its headquarters from Winter Haven to Lakeland, Florida, and built its first distribution warehouse there. At the same time, they began to close the All American stores, replacing them with Publix markets. In 1956, Publix achieved $50 million in sales, and $1 million in profit. In 1957, the donut shop in each store was expanded into a full-service bakery.


title: Publix

text: By 1959, Publix was the dominant supermarket chain in Central Florida, and began expansion to South Florida, opening a store in Miami and acquiring six stores from Grand Union. In 1963, the company built a distribution center in Miami, and began providing deli services. In 1970, sales surpassed $500 million; they reached $1 billion in 1974, when the chain expanded to include Jacksonville, Florida.


title: Publix

text: In 1982, the company launched the "Presto!" ATM network; it soon installed ATMs in every Publix. Sales exceeded $5 billion in 1989.


title: Publix

text: In 1983, Carol Jenkins Barnett joined the Publix Board of Directors and served in that role until 2016. During her time at Publix, the company grew into the largest supermarket chain in Florida, and expanded into five other states.


title: Publix

text: Publix Super Markets bought 49 Florida stores from Albertsons. The deal was announced on June 9, 2008, and was completed on September 9, 2008. It included 15 locations in North Florida, 30 in Central Florida, and four in South Florida. The sale allowed Publix to operate four stores in a new market area for the company, Escambia County, Florida (the Pensacola area).


title: Publix

text: On February 5, 2009, Publix opened its 1,000th store in St. Augustine, Florida, becoming one of only five U.S. grocery retailers to achieve that number of stores. The St. Augustine store is among Publix's first stores designed to be energy-efficient. The store includes motion sensor lights throughout the store, including on the freezer doors, and an overhead light system that can be controlled by each department.


title: Publix

text: The first Publix outside Florida opened in Savannah, Georgia, in 1991; distribution and manufacturing facilities in Dacula, Georgia (a northeastern suburb of Atlanta) soon followed, as it entered metro Atlanta in 1993. Publix further expanded into South Carolina (1993), Alabama (1996), Tennessee (2002), North Carolina (2014), and Virginia (2017), and has announced plans to expand into Kentucky (2023).


title: Publix

text: In 2011, Publix announced it was expanding into North Carolina, initially by opening stores in the Charlotte metropolitan area, and later announced construction of a new store in Asheville. The first Charlotte-area Publix stores (on the South Carolina side of the metropolitan area, opened in 2012); the first North Carolina Publix store opened in Ballantyne in 2014. Concurrently, Publix purchased seven Charlotte-area locations from competitor BI-LO stores. Publix completed the purchase of property in Boone, North Carolina on November 20, 2015, with plans to open in 2017.


title: Publix

text: In February 2016, Publix announced their entry into the Virginia market, with the signing of two store leases, the first in Bristol scheduled to open in 2017 and the second in metropolitan Richmond scheduled for 2018. In July 2016, it was announced that Publix had entered into a purchase agreement with Ahold and Delhaize Group for 10 Martin's Food Markets locations in the Richmond market as part of the divestiture of stores to gain clearance from the Federal Trade Commission for the impending Ahold/Delhaize merger.


title: Publix

text: In April 2016, Ed Crenshaw, grandson of founder George Jenkins, retired from his position as CEO. President Todd Jones, a 36-year Publix employee whose first job was as a front service clerk (bagger), took on Crenshaw's responsibilities as CEO. Jones is the first member outside of the Jenkins family to have assumed the position. Ed Crenshaw will remain with Publix as chairman of the board of directors.


title: Publix

text: On September 7, 2021, Publix announced its first Kentucky location, expected to open in late 2023 in northeast Louisville near the intersection of the Gene Snyder Freeway and Old Henry Road. The first Publix Liquors location outside Florida will be adjacent to this supermarket. Exactly three months later, Publix announced plans for a second northeast Louisville location, this one near the intersection of Ballardsville and Brownsboro Roads in the Worthington community. Expected to open in early 2024, this location will also feature an adjacent Publix Liquors store. On June 23, 2022, the same day that ground was broken for the Old Henry Road store, the company announced that it had signed a lease for a future store in Lexington at a development on the corner of Harrodsburg Road and Man o' War Boulevard. The Lexington store, including an adjacent Publix Liquors location, is planned to open in late 2024.


title: Publix

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Publix started working with the federal and state agencies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) beginning in late January 2020. The chain closed food demonstrations, increased sanitation and routine cleaning, as well as installing plexiglas partitions at registers and customer service desks. As of July 21, 2020, face masks were required for all customers in all Publix facilities.


title: Publix

text: During the pandemic, Publix said it would purchase milk and fresh produce from farmers and dairies in Florida who faced reduced demand as a result of school and restaurant closures. Publix said the produce, which would otherwise be discarded, would be donated to food banks of Feeding America.


title: Publix

text: Publix started to administer COVID-19 vaccines in early January 2021, with a 22-store pilot in the state of Florida with a focus on long-term care residents and staff, seniors, and health-care personnel. As of mid-February, Publix had provided more than 300,000 vaccines for customers in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia. Publix has faced criticism over its extensive involvement in the distribution of vaccines in Florida, including allegations that it had curried favor with the Ron DeSantis administration by making a campaign donation through an affiliated PAC, and that Publix as exclusive distributor disproportionately favored wealthy neighborhoods.


title: Publix

text: Publix and the DeSantis administration deny that there was a pay to play arrangement; in an April 2021 interview with "60 Minutes", DeSantis stated that Publix "were the first one to raise their hand" when Florida sought distribution partners for vaccines in retail (noting that CVS Health and Walgreens were largely focusing on vaccination at long-term care facilities), and that 90% of Florida's senior population lived in close proximity to a Publix location, especially in Palm Beach (which has 65 locations, and was identified by the Governor as "one of the most elderly counties"). These remarks were not included in the version of the interview aired by CBS, which has led to allegations that the interview had been edited to create a false narrative. The Democratic Party Mayor of Palm Beach County Dave Kerner stated, "The reporting was not just based on bad information — it was intentionally false. I know this because I offered to provide my insight into Palm Beach County's vaccination efforts and "60 Minutes" declined."


title: Publix

text: Each store provides products and services in its grocery, deli, bakery, produce, floral, meat, and seafood departments. Some stores have valet parking, cafés, sushi bars, pharmacy departments, and/or a liquor store. The submarine sandwiches sold at Publix delis are often referred to as "Pub subs".


title: Publix

text: The customer service counter also provides check cashing, money orders, Western Union services, Rug Doctor rentals, and lottery tickets. Some stores also provide DVD rental services. In December 2005, Publix discontinued its photo processing service, replacing it with an online or mail-order service via the Snapfish program. The Snapfish agreement has since been terminated, and Publix no longer offers photo services.


title: Publix

text: The schools offer cooking demonstrations in which customers are encouraged to sample a variety of dishes prepared at in-store kiosks and take a recipe card with them. All recipes are developed in-house, using easy-to-prepare or prepackaged ingredients, often available at the Aprons kiosk.


title: Publix

text: In 2005, Publix introduced its Aprons make-ahead meals concept. Customers could purchase meals that they could assemble in-store or, for an extra charge, an Aprons associate would prepare and assemble the meals. These were standalone stores located in Jacksonville and Lithia, Florida. In summer 2009, Publix closed both locations citing lack of customer interest.


title: Publix

text: GreenWise Market is a retail concept the company introduced in 2007 in response to the increase in the number and profitability of health food stores such as Whole Foods Market. GreenWise Markets were created to increase awareness of nutrition; products under the GreenWise brand are free from added dyes, flavors, hormones, raised without antibiotics, or are USDA organic. These stores are similar to the Whole Foods Market chain. In addition to organic and traditional products, GreenWise Markets include salad and hot bars. The first six stores were set to be in Palm Beach Gardens, Boca Raton, Vero Beach, Tampa, Naples, and Coral Springs, Florida.


title: Publix

text: The first GreenWise Market opened on September 27, 2007, in Palm Beach Gardens. The second Publix GreenWise Market opened in Boca Raton on May 29, 2008, located in Boca Village Square. The third Publix GreenWise Market opened November 6, 2008, in Tampa's Hyde Park neighborhood.


title: Publix

text: From 2008 to 2016, the company focused on a "hybrid" concept instead, integrating the GreenWise concept into traditional Publix stores. Approximately half of locations built since 2008 are considered hybrid stores.


title: Publix

text: In 2017, the company announced they would resume building standalone GreenWise locations, the first of which will be near the campus of Florida State University in Tallahassee, opening in 2018.


title: Publix

text: Publix operated seven stores, branded "Publix Sabor" ("sabor" is Spanish for "flavor"), which cater to Latinos living in South Florida and offer products from Latin America. Located in Miami-Dade County in Greater Miami, the seven themed stores are spread between Miami and Hialeah. They have since been closed and replaced by newly built locations or merged with existing stores that are not part of the Sabor sub-brand. Two other Publix Sabor locations in Kissimmee and Lake Worth


title: Publix

text: Publix Sabor locations have bilingual English-Spanish employees, open seating cafés, and a wider selection of prepared foods from the deli and bakery catering to Hispanic flavors.


title: Publix

text: The first Publix in-store pharmacy was opened on October 30, 1986, in Altamonte Springs, Florida. By 1995, one-third of Publix stores had a pharmacy and today, approximately 90% of Publix stores include a pharmacy. Publix Pharmacies consistently ranked number one for customer satisfaction in supermarket pharmacies in several surveys conducted by independent research companies.


title: Publix

text: Publix announced in August 2007, that it would offer several types of antibiotics free to its customers. Customers must have a prescription; they are given a maximum of a two-week supply. Several medical professionals expressed concerns that this could contribute to an overuse of antibiotics which leads to antibiotic resistance, a serious public health concern. These medications include:


title: Publix

text: These antibiotics are offered to customers regardless of their prescription insurance provider. Doxycycline Hyclate was removed from the list because of cost increases. In May 2014, Cephalexin was removed from the list due to cost increases.


title: Publix

text: In March 2010, Publix announced the launch of another free prescription, Metformin for Type II Diabetes, the generic of Glucophage. Publix provides the medication in 500 mg, 850 mg, and 1000 mg strengths. The only restriction is a 90-day supply or up to 360 500-mg, 270 850-mg, or 225 1000-mg tablets, but refills are not limited.


title: Publix

text: In August 2011, Publix began offering Lisinopril, an ACE inhibitor that is used to prevent, treat, or improve symptoms of high blood pressure, certain heart conditions, diabetes, and certain chronic kidney conditions, as another free prescription. Customers can get a 90-day supply of this prescription for free at any Publix Pharmacy, up to a maximum of 180 tablets. Lisinopril-HCTZ combination products are excluded.


title: Publix

text: In May 2014, Publix began offering Amlodipine, a calcium channel blocker used to treat high blood pressure and chest pain (angina) as a free medication. Customers can get a 90-day supply of this medication (up to 180 2.5-mg or 5-mg tablets, or 90 10-mg tablets) free of charge.


title: Publix

text: Montelukast, a medicine used for the treatment of allergies and asthma, was added to the free medication program in February 2017, but discontinued at the end of 2018.


title: Publix

text: In early 2006, Publix and The Little Clinic signed an exclusive agreement to open medical clinics within Publix stores. The first clinics were opened in the Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa markets in the first half of 2006. The Little Clinic health-care centers were staffed by nurse practitioners who can write prescriptions, provide diagnosis and treatment of common ailments and minor injuries, and offer wellness care like physicals, screenings, and vaccinations. Effective May 9, 2011, Publix closed the Little Clinics in its stores in order to focus on its core pharmacy and grocery business.


title: Publix

text: Publix and BayCare Health System announced a collaboration to provide telehealth and telemedicine services at specialized pharmacies in four Tampa Bay-area counties in March 2017. Pharmacies participating in the program have private rooms for patients to speak with a board-certified physician in BayCare's network via teleconferencing, plus diagnostic tools that can be used by the patient, with or without assistance from pharmacy staff. Doctors will be able to perform basic exams and write prescriptions for minor illnesses and conditions for patients.


title: Publix

text: In October 2001, Publix launched its first online shopping site called PublixDirect that would deliver groceries directly to the customer. Their first distribution center was situated in Pompano Beach, Florida. Customers who lived in Broward along with parts of Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties were the first areas to have access to their new service. Service was intended to be expanded to Orlando, Atlanta and other areas. However, the service never saw expansion past the South Florida area. Due to low demand, it was announced that PublixDirect would cease operations on August 22, 2003. The remaining deliveries were made the next day with the remaining orders being canceled or redirected to the customer's nearest Publix store.


title: Publix

text: After PublixDirect, Publix made a second attempt in 2010 at e-commerce with the introduction of Publix Curbside. Customers had the ability to browse and purchase groceries online, then drive to a participating location where an associate will have selected their items and would bring them out to the buyer's vehicle. Announced as a pilot program with locations in the Atlanta area and Tampa, the program was ended in January 2012 after its performance reportedly did not meet expectations.


title: Publix

text: The company later resurrected its curbside concept, this time using its delivery partner, Instacart, to manage the online ordering portion of the service. Currently in a trial stage, the second iteration of Publix Curbside began with two pilot locations in the greater Tampa area in September 2017, and is expected to expand to the greater Atlanta area by the end of the year.


title: Publix

text: In July 2016, Publix announced another pilot program with Instacart to offer online shopping and delivery services in the greater Miami area. Customers in 37 ZIP codes from Hallandale Beach to South Miami are able to participate in the program. Not all products available at stores, [such as tobacco, gift cards, prescriptions] and age-restricted items, are able to be delivered by the service. Beer and wine can be delivered in Florida and North Carolina only.


title: Publix

text: As of February 2017, Instacart deliveries from Publix are available in the metro areas of Atlanta, Charlotte, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, Raleigh, Richmond, Tampa, Jacksonville, and Nashville, as determined by ZIP code.


title: Publix

text: Later in 2017, Publix announced its intent to expand its delivery program, and expects to have the service available from more than 90 percent of stores by the end of the year.


title: Publix

text: In response to other grocery stores' aggressive discounting across the Florida market, Publix opened its first Food World store in September 1970 in Orlando, Florida. The store marked the first under the Food World banner for Publix and would become the first of 22 more of the type.


title: Publix

text: In November 1977, in Lakeland, Florida, Publix opened the Lake Miriam Food World, which, at 57,000 sq. ft., was its largest store in the company and also the largest store in the Southeastern United States. The store was the company's first to feature barcode scanners.


title: Publix

text: The brand was retired in 1985 because the stores were unable to turn a profit for Publix or give workers a percentage of their store's profits.


title: Publix

text: Starting in 2001, Publix operated 14 PIX (stylized in all-capitals) gasoline-convenience stores in Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee. Locations were limited during the trial period of the concept. In 2014, all Florida and Georgia locations were sold to Circle K, the sole Tennessee location was sold to another entity, and the concept was discontinued. The locations were converted to other brands, as Publix retains the rights to "PIX."


title: Publix

text: In 2002, Publix invested in the Lakeland-based restaurant chain Crispers, which concentrates on health-conscious fare. It increased its stake in 2004 before purchasing the remainder of the company in 2007. In May 2011, Publix announced it had sold the Crispers chain to Healthy Food Concepts LLC. The stores had not performed well during the downturn and in recent years Publix closed several units, leaving the chain with 36 stores when the sale was announced.


title: Publix

text: Publix tested the market response to liquor stores in the late 1980s, but closed its test sites in 1989. It re-entered the liquor sales market again in 2003 and has met with success since. The liquor store is in an area accessed via a separate entrance as required by local laws, modeled after many other grocery chains. All Publix Liquors locations to date have been in Florida; the first such stores outside that state are planned to open in late 2023 and early 2024 in Louisville, Kentucky.


title: Publix

text: In 2005, Publix began installing The New Release DVD rental kiosks within eight of its South Florida stores with expansion to other South Florida stores by 2006. The movie rentals were priced at $1 per day in addition to sales tax.


title: Publix

text: Following the purchase of The New Release by NCR in 2009, a partnership was formed with the NCR company and Blockbuster to replace the existing kiosks with Blockbuster Express kiosks. This replacement began the same year with additional kiosks being installed at all of the other Publix locations which was completed by 2010. The cost of the rentals remained the same.


title: Publix

text: In 2012, NCR sold its entertainment division, which includes the Blockbuster Express kiosks, to Coinstar, the owner of the Redbox DVD rental kiosks. Blockbuster Express machines were replaced with Redbox machines in most stores by the end of 2012.


title: Publix

text: In December 2016, Publix opened its first in-store Starbucks location in the Orlando area, with five more opening throughout 2017.


title: Publix

text: "Presto!" is an automated teller machine (ATM) network owned and operated by Publix Super Markets. There are over 1,100 "Presto!" ATMs in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, all located at Publix retail stores. This network includes point of sale (POS) capabilities, meaning that debit, credit, electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cash, or EBT food stamp cards can be used to make purchases at any Publix store.


title: Publix

text: In 1995 Publix was sued "for sex discrimination in job assignments, promotions and allocation of hours" and settled for $81.5 million in 1997. Publix had claimed that the suit was simply an effort by the United Food and Commercial Workers to unionize the company, but the judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and required Publix to "correct some of its statements."


title: Publix

text: Publix announced that effective January 1, 2015, health coverage would be available to same-sex couples regardless of place of marriage, as long as they are legally married. In early 2018, Publix came under fire by the Human Rights Campaign and other LGBT rights organizations for refusing to cover PrEP HIV prevention drugs under its employee health plans. Shortly after the furor, Publix changed its health plans to cover PrEP.


title: Publix

text: Publix Political giving is coordinated through their Political Action Committee (PAC), which the company leverages to promote business interests. As with other large corporations, the company operates independently of the Jenkins family as a separate entity. The ideas and contributions of these members does not reflect the views or business operations of Publix Super Markets.


title: Publix

text: According to the Miami New Times, Publix' recent political leanings favor conservative causes, such as opposing the legalization of medical marijuana and the regulation of polystyrene, better known by the brand name Styrofoam. Publix also contributes to the PAC supporting Ron Desantis, whom some conservatives argue is a business-friendly governor. Following the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, contributions to other conservative leaders - specifically Adam Putnam - resulted in local protests in the Miami Area. ". Moments before the protests began, the company announced that it would suspend corporate-funded political contributions and reevaluate their political funding practices. Six days after halting political contributions, the Florida Retail Federation, a trade group heavily funded (>80% in 2017) by Publix, donated an additional $100,000 to Putnam's Florida Grown PAC.


title: Publix

text: In December 2020, Publix gave $100,000 to Florida governor Ron DeSantis' PAC. While many attribute to this donation Publix's ability to provide some of the first access to the vaccine for Florida residents, both the Governor and Publix spokeswoman Maria Brous rejected this claim as "baseless and ridiculous". Publix was able to distribute vaccines to seniors in their markets, while national providers like Walgreens and CVS focused on broader efforts.


title: Publix

text: Publix stock is privately owned and restricted: it can only be purchased by current employees or board members during designated offering periods, and cannot be sold to anyone without first being offered back to Publix for repurchase.


title: Publix

text: Employees can acquire stock through three programs: an ESOP "PROFIT" plan, 401(k) "SMART" (Saving Makes A Richer Tomorrow) plan, and an employee stock purchase plan.


title: Publix

text: As of May 1, 2022, Publix stock is valued at $13.76 per share after a 5/1 stock split April 1, 2022. Publix stock was quoted on the US OTC market under the code PUSH. It is listed on the 2021 Fortune 500 list at #69. As of November 2019, the stock is no longer listed on the OTC.


title: Publix

text: In 2003, Publix supported a successful bill that prevents owners from suing if their land is polluted by dry cleaning chemicals dumped on an adjacent property, if the adjacent property owners are on a state clean-up list. Publix lost a 2001 lawsuit filed by an owner whose property had been contaminated in this manner.


title: Publix

text: On October 4, 2005, Publix sued Visa and MasterCard, citing unfair business practices over their unannounced and non-negotiable increases in merchant account fees. Wal-Mart won a similar lawsuit against Visa in 2004.


title: Publix

text: In 2014, Publix was fined by the Board of Human Rights of Broward County, Florida for discrimination involved in the termination of an LGBT employee. Upon appeal, the 17th Circuit Court found that the decision by the Board of Human Rights of Broward County was "not supported by competent, substantial evidence" and quashed the order.


title: Weak interaction

text: In nuclear physics and particle physics, the weak interaction, which is also often called the weak force or weak nuclear force, is one of the four known fundamental interactions, with the others being electromagnetism, the strong interaction, and gravitation. It is the mechanism of interaction between subatomic particles that is responsible for the radioactive decay of atoms: The weak interaction participates in nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. The theory describing its behaviour and effects is sometimes called quantum flavourdynamics (QFD); however, the term QFD is rarely used, because the weak force is better understood by electroweak theory (EWT).


title: Weak interaction

text: The effective range of the weak force is limited to subatomic distances and is less than the diameter of a proton.


title: Weak interaction

text: The Standard Model of particle physics provides a uniform framework for understanding electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions. An interaction occurs when two particles (typically, but not necessarily, half-integer spin fermions) exchange integer-spin, force-carrying bosons. The fermions involved in such exchanges can be either elementary (e.g. electrons or quarks) or composite (e.g. protons or neutrons), although at the deepest levels, all weak interactions ultimately are between elementary particles.


title: Weak interaction

text: In the weak interaction, fermions can exchange three types of force carriers, namely , , and  bosons. The masses of these bosons are far greater than the mass of a proton or neutron, which is consistent with the short range of the weak force. In fact, the force is termed "weak" because its field strength over any set distance is typically several orders of magnitude less than that of the electromagnetic force, which itself is further orders of magnitude less than the strong nuclear force.


title: Weak interaction

text: The weak interaction is the only fundamental interaction that breaks parity symmetry, and similarly, but far more rarely, the only interaction to break charge–parity symmetry.


title: Weak interaction

text: Quarks, which make up composite particles like neutrons and protons, come in six "flavours" up, down, strange, charm, top and bottom which give those composite particles their properties. The weak interaction is unique in that it allows quarks to swap their flavour for another. The swapping of those properties is mediated by the force carrier bosons. For example, during beta-minus decay, a down quark within a neutron is changed into an up quark, thus converting the neutron to a proton and resulting in the emission of an electron and an electron antineutrino. Another important example of a phenomenon involving the weak interaction is the fusion of hydrogen into helium, which powers the Sun's thermonuclear process.


title: Weak interaction

text: Most fermions decay by a weak interaction over time. Such decay makes radiocarbon dating possible, as carbon-14 decays through the weak interaction to nitrogen-14. It can also create radioluminescence, commonly used in tritium luminescence, and in the related field of betavoltaics (but "not" similar radium luminescence).


title: Weak interaction

text: The electroweak force separated into the electromagnetic and weak forces during the quark epoch of the early universe.


title: Weak interaction

text: In 1933, Enrico Fermi proposed the first theory of the weak interaction, known as Fermi's interaction. He suggested that beta decay could be explained by a four-fermion interaction, involving a contact force with no range.


title: Weak interaction

text: However, it is better described as a non-contact force field having a finite range, albeit very short. In the 1960s, Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg unified the electromagnetic force and the weak interaction by showing them to be two aspects of a single force, now termed the electroweak force.


title: Weak interaction

text: Due to their large mass (approximately 90 GeV/"c") these carrier particles, called the and  bosons, are short-lived with a lifetime of under  seconds. The weak interaction has a coupling constant (an indicator of how frequently interactions occur) between and , compared to the electromagnetic coupling constant of about and the strong interaction coupling constant of ; consequently the weak interaction is "weak" in terms of intensity. The weak interaction has a very short effective range (around to  m (0.01 to 0.1 fm)). At distances around  meters (0.001 fm), the weak interaction has an intensity of a similar magnitude to the electromagnetic force, but this starts to decrease exponentially with increasing distance. Scaled up by just one and a half orders of magnitude, at distances of around 3 m, the weak interaction becomes 10,000 times weaker.


title: Weak interaction

text: The weak interaction affects all the fermions of the Standard Model, as well as the Higgs boson; neutrinos interact only through gravity and the weak interaction. The weak interaction does not produce bound states, nor does it involve binding energy something that gravity does on an astronomical scale, the electromagnetic force does at the molecular and atomic levels, and the strong nuclear force does only at the subatomic level, inside of nuclei.


title: Weak interaction

text: Its most noticeable effect is due to its first unique feature: The charged weak interaction causes flavour change. For example, a neutron is heavier than a proton (its partner nucleon) and can decay into a proton by changing the flavour (type) of one of its two "down" quarks to an "up" quark. Neither the strong interaction nor electromagnetism permit flavour changing, so this can only proceed by weak decay; without weak decay, quark properties such as strangeness and charm (associated with the strange quark and charm quark, respectively) would also be conserved across all interactions.


title: Weak interaction

text: In the process known as beta decay, a "down" quark in the neutron can change into an "up" quark by emitting a virtual  boson, which then decays into an electron and an electron antineutrino. Another example is electron capture a common variant of radioactive decay wherein a proton and an electron within an atom interact and are changed to a neutron (an up quark is changed to a down quark), and an electron neutrino is emitted.


title: Weak interaction

text: Due to the large masses of the W bosons, particle transformations or decays (e.g., flavour change) that depend on the weak interaction typically occur much more slowly than transformations or decays that depend only on the strong or electromagnetic forces.


title: Weak interaction

text: For example, a neutral pion decays electromagnetically, and so has a life of only about  seconds. In contrast, a charged pion can only decay through the weak interaction, and so lives about  seconds, or a hundred million times longer than a neutral pion. A particularly extreme example is the weak-force decay of a free neutron, which takes about 15 minutes.


title: Weak interaction

text: All particles have a property called "weak isospin" (symbol ), which serves as an additive quantum number that restricts how the particle can interact with the of the weak force. Weak isospin plays the same role in the weak interaction with as electric charge does in electromagnetism, and color charge in the strong interaction; a different number with a similar name, "weak charge", discussed below, is used for interactions with the . All left-handed fermions have a weak isospin value of either or ; all right-handed fermions have 0 isospin. For example, the up quark has and the down quark has A quark never decays through the weak interaction into a quark of the same : Quarks with a of only decay into quarks with a of and conversely.


title: Weak interaction

text: In any given strong, electromagnetic, or weak interaction, weak isospin is conserved: The sum of the weak isospin numbers of the particles entering the interaction equals the sum of the weak isospin numbers of the particles exiting that interaction. For example, a (left-handed) with a weak isospin of +1 normally decays into a (with ) and a (as a right-handed antiparticle, ).


title: Weak interaction

text: For the development of the electroweak theory, another property, weak hypercharge, was invented, defined as


title: Weak interaction

text: where is the weak hypercharge of a particle with electrical charge (in elementary charge units) and weak isospin . Weak hypercharge is the generator of the U(1) component of the electroweak gauge group; whereas some particles have a weak isospin of zero, all known spin- particles have a non-zero weak hypercharge.


title: Weak interaction

text: There are two types of weak interaction (called "vertices"). The first type is called the "charged-current interaction" because the "weakly interacting" fermions form a current with total "electric" charge that is nonzero. The second type is called the "neutral-current interaction" because the "weakly interacting" fermions form a current with total "electric" charge of zero. It is responsible for the (rare) deflection of neutrinos. The two types of interaction follow different selection rules. This naming convention is often misunderstood to label the electric charge of the and bosons, however the naming convention predates the concept of the mediator bosons, and clearly (at least in name) labels the charge of the current (formed from the fermions), not necessarilly the bosons.


title: Weak interaction

text: In one type of charged current interaction, a charged lepton (such as an electron or a muon, having a charge of −1) can absorb a  boson (a particle with a charge of +1) and be thereby converted into a corresponding neutrino (with a charge of 0), where the type ("flavour") of neutrino (electron, muon or tau) is the same as the type of lepton in the interaction, for example:


title: Weak interaction

text: Similarly, a down-type quark ("d" with a charge of −) can be converted into an up-type quark ("u", with a charge of +), by emitting a  boson or by absorbing a  boson. More precisely, the down-type quark becomes a quantum superposition of up-type quarks: that is to say, it has a possibility of becoming any one of the three up-type quarks, with the probabilities given in the CKM matrix tables. Conversely, an up-type quark can emit a  boson, or absorb a boson, and thereby be converted into a down-type quark, for example:


title: Weak interaction

text: In the so-called beta decay of a neutron (see picture, above), a down quark within the neutron emits a virtual boson and is thereby converted into an up quark, converting the neutron into a proton. Because of the limited energy involved in the process (i.e., the mass difference between the down quark and the up quark), the virtual boson can only carry sufficient energy to produce an electron and an electron-antineutrino – the two lowest-possible masses among its prospective decay products. At the quark level, the process can be represented as:


title: Weak interaction

text: In neutral current interactions, a quark or a lepton (e.g., an electron or a muon) emits or absorbs a neutral boson. For example:


title: Weak interaction

text: Unlike the charged-current interaction, whose selection rules are strictly limited by chirality, electric charge, weak isospin, the neutral-current interaction can cause any two fermions in the standard model to deflect: Either particles or anti-particles, with any electric charge, and both left- and right-chirality, although the strength of the interaction differs.


title: Weak interaction

text: The quantum number "weak charge" () serves the same role in the neutral current interaction with the that electric charge (, with no subscript) does in the electromagnetic interaction: It quantifies the vector part of the interaction. Its value is given by:


title: Weak interaction

text: Since the weak mixing angle formula_9 the parenthetic expression formula_10 with its value varying slightly with the momentum difference (called “"running"”) between the particles involved. Hence


title: Weak interaction

text: since by convention formula_12 and for all fermions involved in the weak interaction formula_13 The weak charge of charged leptons is then close to zero, so these mostly interact with the  boson through the axial coupling.


title: Weak interaction

text: The Standard Model of particle physics describes the electromagnetic interaction and the weak interaction as two different aspects of a single electroweak interaction. This theory was developed around 1968 by Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam, and Steven Weinberg, and they were awarded the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work. The Higgs mechanism provides an explanation for the presence of three massive gauge bosons (, , , the three carriers of the weak interaction), and the massless photon (, the carrier of the electromagnetic interaction).


title: Weak interaction

text: According to the electroweak theory, at very high energies, the universe has four components of the Higgs field whose interactions are carried by four massless gauge bosons – each similar to the photon – forming a complex scalar Higgs field doublet. Likewise, there are four massless electroweak bosons. However, at low energies, this gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken down to the symmetry of electromagnetism, since one of the Higgs fields acquires a vacuum expectation value. Naïvely, the symmetry-breaking would be expected to produce three massless bosons, but instead those "extra" three Higgs bosons become incorporated into the three weak bosons, which then acquire mass through the Higgs mechanism. These three composite bosons are the , , and  bosons actually observed in the weak interaction. The fourth electroweak gauge boson is the photon () of electromagnetism, which does not couple to any of the Higgs fields and so remains massless.


title: Weak interaction

text: This theory has made a number of predictions, including a prediction of the masses of the and  bosons before their discovery and detection in 1983.


title: Weak interaction

text: On 4 July 2012, the CMS and the ATLAS experimental teams at the Large Hadron Collider independently announced that they had confirmed the formal discovery of a previously unknown boson of mass between 125 and 127 GeV/², whose behaviour so far was "consistent with" a Higgs boson, while adding a cautious note that further data and analysis were needed before positively identifying the new boson as being a Higgs boson of some type. By 14 March 2013, a Higgs boson was tentatively confirmed to exist.


title: Weak interaction

text: In a speculative case where the electroweak symmetry breaking scale were lowered, the unbroken interaction would eventually become confining. Alternative models where becomes confining above that scale appear quantitatively similar to the Standard Model at lower energies, but dramatically different above symmetry breaking.


title: Weak interaction

text: The laws of nature were long thought to remain the same under mirror reflection. The results of an experiment viewed via a mirror were expected to be identical to the results of a separately constructed, mirror-reflected copy of the experimental apparatus watched through the mirror. This so-called law of parity conservation was known to be respected by classical gravitation, electromagnetism and the strong interaction; it was assumed to be a universal law. However, in the mid-1950s Chen-Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee suggested that the weak interaction might violate this law. Chien Shiung Wu and collaborators in 1957 discovered that the weak interaction violates parity, earning Yang and Lee the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics.


title: Weak interaction

text: Although the weak interaction was once described by Fermi's theory, the discovery of parity violation and renormalization theory suggested that a new approach was needed. In 1957, Robert Marshak and George Sudarshan and, somewhat later, Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann proposed a V − A (vector minus axial vector or left-handed) Lagrangian for weak interactions. In this theory, the weak interaction acts only on left-handed particles (and right-handed antiparticles). Since the mirror reflection of a left-handed particle is right-handed, this explains the maximal violation of parity. The "V − A" theory was developed before the discovery of the Z boson, so it did not include the right-handed fields that enter in the neutral current interaction.


title: Weak interaction

text: However, this theory allowed a compound symmetry CP to be conserved. CP combines parity P (switching left to right) with charge conjugation C (switching particles with antiparticles). Physicists were again surprised when in 1964, James Cronin and Val Fitch provided clear evidence in kaon decays that "CP" symmetry could be broken too, winning them the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1973, Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa showed that "CP" violation in the weak interaction required more than two generations of particles, effectively predicting the existence of a then unknown third generation. This discovery earned them half of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics.


title: Weak interaction

text: Unlike parity violation, "CP" violation occurs only in rare circumstances. Despite its limited occurrence under present conditions, it is widely believed to be the reason that there is much more matter than antimatter in the universe, and thus forms one of Andrei Sakharov's three conditions for baryogenesis.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, (10 May 1915 – 26 June 2003) was an English businessman and the husband of Margaret Thatcher, who served as the first female British prime minister from 1979 to 1990; in turn, he became the first male prime ministerial spouse.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: Thatcher was granted the Thatcher baronetcy in 1990, the only baronetcy created since 1964, and remains the most recent commoner to have been awarded a hereditary title.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: Denis Thatcher was born on 10 May 1915 at 26 Southbrook Road, Lee, Lewisham, London, as the first child of New Zealand-born British businessman Thomas Herbert "Jack" Thatcher (15 October 1885 – 24 June 1943) and Lilian Kathleen Bird At age eight, Denis entered a preparatory school as a boarder in Bognor Regis, following which he attended the nonconformist public school Mill Hill School in north London. At school he excelled at cricket, being a left-handed batsman.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: Thatcher left Mill Hill School in 1933 and joined the family paint and preservatives business, Atlas Preservatives. He also studied accountancy to improve his grasp of business, and in 1935 he was appointed works manager. He joined the Territorial Army shortly after the Munich crisis, as he was convinced war was imminent a view reinforced by a visit he made to Nazi Germany with his father's business in 1937.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: During the Second World War, Thatcher was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the 34th Searchlight (Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment) of the Royal Engineers. He transferred to the Royal Artillery on 1 August 1940. During the war he was promoted to war substantive captain and temporary major. He served throughout the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Italian campaign and was twice mentioned in dispatches, and in 1945 was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). The first mention in dispatches came on 11 January 1945, for service in Italy, and the second on 29 November 1945, again for Italian service.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: His MBE was gazetted on 20 September 1945, and was awarded for his efforts in initiating and supporting Operation Goldflake, the transfer of I Canadian Corps from Italy to the north-west European theatre of operations. By this time, Thatcher was based in Marseille, attached to HQ 203 sub-area. In the recommendation for the MBE (dated 28 March 1945), his commanding officer wrote: "Maj. Thatcher set an outstanding example of energy, initiative and drive. He deserves most of the credit for [...] the excellence of the work done."


title: Denis Thatcher

text: Thatcher also received the French approximate equivalent of a mention when he was cited in orders at "Corps d'Armée" level for his efforts in promoting smooth relations between the Commonwealth military forces and the French civil and military authorities. He was promoted to substantive lieutenant on 11 April 1945. Demobilised in 1946, he returned to run the family business his father having died (aged 57) on 24 June 1943, when Thatcher was in Sicily. Because of army commitments, Thatcher was unable to attend the funeral.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: He remained in the Territorial Army reserve of officers until reaching the age limit for service on 10 May 1965, when he retired, retaining the honorary rank of major.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: Thatcher married twice, during wartime to Margot Kempson in 1942 (divorced in 1948), and in 1951 to Margaret Roberts.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: On 28 March 1942, Thatcher married Margaret Doris "Margot" Kempson, the daughter of a businessman, at St Mary's Church in Monken Hadley. They met at an officers' dance at Grosvenor House the year before.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: Although initially very happy, Thatcher and his first wife never lived together. Their married life became confined to snatched weekends and irregular leaves as Thatcher was often abroad during the war. When Thatcher returned to England after being demobilised in 1946, his wife told him she had met someone else and wanted a divorce.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: Thatcher was so traumatised by the event that he completely refused to talk about his first marriage or the separation, even to his daughter, as she states in her 1996 biography of him. Thatcher's two children found out about his first marriage only in 1976, by which time their mother was Leader of the Opposition, and only when the media revealed it.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: In February 1949, at a Paint Trades Federation function in Dartford, he met Margaret Hilda Roberts, a chemist and newly-selected parliamentary candidate. When she met Denis for the first time she described him as "not a very attractive creature" and "very reserved but quite nice". They married on 13 December 1951, at Wesley's Chapel in City Road, London; the Robertses were Methodists. Margaret Thatcher was elected Leader of the Conservative Party in 1975 and went on to win the 1979 general election to become the first female prime minister in British history. Denis became the first husband of a British prime minister.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: In 1953, they had twin children (Carol and Mark), who were born on 15 August at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in Hammersmith, seven weeks premature. Thatcher was watching the deciding Test of the 1953 Ashes series at the time of the twins' birth. They had watched the Coronation earlier in the year from Parliament Square.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: Not long after the 1964 general election, Thatcher suffered a nervous breakdown which put a severe strain on his marriage. The breakdown was probably caused by the increasing pressure of running the family business, caring for his relatives, and his wife's preoccupation with her political career, which left him lonely and exhausted. Thatcher sailed to South Africa and stayed there for two months to recuperate. His wife's biographer David Cannadine described it as "the greatest crisis of their marriage", but immediately after, he recovered and returned home, he maintained a happy marriage for the rest of his life.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: This second marriage for Thatcher led to the future prime minister being sometimes referred to as "Mrs Denis Thatcher" in such sources as selection minutes, travel itineraries, and society publications such as "Queen", even after her election as a Member of Parliament. As Margaret's political career progressed, she preferred to be known only as "Mrs Thatcher".


title: Denis Thatcher

text: According to John Campbell, a biographer of his wife, "their marriage was more a partnership of mutual convenience than a romance", quoting their daughter Carol in her biography of Denis:


title: Denis Thatcher

text: Thatcher was already a wealthy man when he met Margaret and financed her training as a barrister, and a home in Chelsea, London; he also bought a large house in Lamberhurst, Kent, in 1965. His firm employed 200 people by 1957.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: Thatcher became managing director of his family's firm Atlas in 1947 and chairman in 1951, and led its overseas expansion. By the early 1960s he found being in sole control of the family company difficult; this, his wife's political career, and their desire for financial security caused Thatcher to sell Atlas to Castrol in 1965 for £530,000 (£ today). He continued to run Atlas and received a seat on Castrol's board; after Burmah Oil took over Castrol in 1966, Thatcher became a senior divisional director, managing the planning and control department. He retired from Burmah in June 1975, four months after his wife won the Conservative Party leadership election.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: In addition to being a director of Burmah Oil, Thatcher was a director and deputy chairman of Attwoods from July 1983 until January 1994. He was also a director of Quinton Hazell and a consultant to Amec and CSX.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: Thatcher refused press interviews and made only brief speeches. When he did speak to the press, he called his wife "The Boss". Margaret Thatcher often acknowledged her husband's support. In her autobiography, she wrote: "I could never have been Prime Minister for more than 11 years without Denis by my side." Thatcher saw his role as helping her survive the stress of the job, which he urged her to resign on the tenth anniversary of her becoming prime minister in 1989, sensing that otherwise she would be forced out.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: In an interview with "The Times" in October 1970, Thatcher said: "I don't pretend that I'm anything but an honest-to-God right-wingerthose are my views and I don't care who knows 'em." His public image was shaped by the satirical "Dear Bill" columns appearing since 1979 in "Private Eye", which portrayed him as a "juniper-sozzled, rightwing, golf-obsessed halfwit", and Thatcher found it useful to play along with this image to avoid allegations of unduly influencing his wife in political matters.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: Given his professional background, Thatcher served as an advisor on financial matters, warning Margaret about the poor condition of British Leyland after reviewing its books. He often insisted that she avoid overwork, to little avail, sometimes pleading, "Bed, woman!" They otherwise usually kept their careers separate; an exception was when Thatcher accompanied his wife on a 1967 visit to the United States sponsored by the International Visitor Leadership Program.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: Thatcher was consistent in his strong opposition to the death penalty, calling it "absolutely awful" and "barbaric". He said that he was against it because of innocent people being wrongly hanged, and because juries could also be afraid to convict for fear of making a mistake. Like his wife, Thatcher was consistently anti-socialist. He told his daughter in 1995 that he would have banned trade unions altogether in Britain. He had low regard for the BBC, thinking it was biased against his wife and her government, as well as unpatriotic. In his most famous outburst about the corporation, he claimed his wife had been "stitched up by bloody BBC poofs and Trots" when she was questioned by a member of the public about the sinking of the on "Nationwide" in 1983.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: Thatcher was reported by New Zealand (NZ) broadcaster and former diplomat Chris Laidlaw—at the time NZ High Commissioner to Zimbabwe—as leaning towards him during a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, asking "So, what do you think the fuzzy wuzzies are up to?"


title: Denis Thatcher

text: In December 1990, following the resignation of his wife as prime minister, it was announced that Thatcher would be created a baronet (the first such creation since 1964). The award was gazetted in February 1991, giving his title as Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, of Scotney in the County of Kent. Thus his wife was entitled to style herself Lady Thatcher, while retaining her seat in the House of Commons; however she made it known that she preferred to remain addressed as "Mrs Thatcher", and would not use the style. She was created a life peeress as Baroness Thatcher (Lady Thatcher in her own right) shortly after she retired from the Commons in 1992.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: In July 1991, Thatcher was created a Commander of the Order of St John; his wife was also made a Dame of the order.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: Thatcher's baronetcy was a hereditary title that was to be inherited by his son on his death. The first British baronetage to be granted since 1964, there have been no baronetages created thereafter.


title: Denis Thatcher

text: In the autumn of 1992, Thatcher was diagnosed with prostate cancer but it was caught early. He responded well to treatment.