Supply Belcher (March 29, 1751 – June 9, 1836) was an American composer, singer, and compiler of tune books. He was one of the so-called Yankee tunesmiths or First New England School, a group of mostly self-taught composers who created sacred vocal music for local choirs. He was active first in Lexington, Massachusetts, then eventually moved to Farmington, Maine. Like most of his colleagues, Belcher could not make music his main occupation, and worked as tax assessor, schoolmaster, town clerk, and so on; nevertheless he was considerably well known for his musical activities, and even dubbed 'the Handell [sic] of Maine' by a local newspaper. Most of his works survive in The Harmony of Maine, a collection Belcher published himself in Boston in 1794.

Life
Belcher was born in Stoughton, Massachusetts. In the early 1770s he moved to Boston to embark on a merchant's career, but returned to Stoughton just a few years later. He was a private during the Revolutionary War, part of the company of Stoughton Minutemen that marched to Cambridge on April 19, 1775 immediately after receiving the alarm from Lexington. Later, he was promoted to the rank of Captain under Washington. Around 1778 he bought a farm in Canton, Massachusetts and established a tavern there; he was known then as "Uncle Ply." It was at his tavern that some of the early singing meetings in the area were held, but contrary to some written accounts, Belcher never joined the Stoughton Musical Society. Also, he was not a pupil at the Stoughton singingschool, where William Billings taught in 1774.

After the war, in 1785, he moved first to Hallowell (now Augusta), Maine with his family, and then six years later they moved to Farmington, where Belcher remained until his death. He became a prominent citizen, serving as tax assessor, schoolmaster, town clerk, justice of the peace, magistrate, and even representative to the Massachusetts General Court. He was very successful in his musical activities as well: he apparently led Farmington's first choir, and attracted favourable reviews. When writing about the composer in his diary, Rev. Paul Coffin wrote: "Squire Belcher called his singers together and gave us an evening of sweet music." After the 1796 performance of Belcher's Ordination Anthem, parts of which bear resemblance to Handel's famous Messiah chorus, a Maine newspaper dubbed the composer 'the Handell of Maine'. Belcher was also active as violinist and singer. He died in Farmington on June 9, 1836.

Works
Most of Belcher's 75 extant works survive in a volume titled The Harmony of Maine, which the composer published in 1794 in Boston. That collection only includes pieces by Belcher. The music is firmly rooted in the tradition of New England psalmody and William Billings in particular, although it also shows other influences (e.g. Handel, as in Ordination Anthem). Most of the pieces are in four voices and based on sacred texts, with a few exceptions—some three-voice pieces and several works with secular texts, frequently with lavishly ornamented melodic lines. Belcher composed fuguing tunes rather like those of Billings, but often with more precise performance directions. His voice-leading is considerably smoother and follows the "rules" more frequently than the work of many of his contemporaries, for instance avoiding the parallel perfect intervals and open fifths which are a common feature of New England psalmody.

The Harmony of Maine was never widely reprinted, and, like all composers of the First New England School, by mid-19th century Belcher was forgotten everywhere except a few rural areas. His works, like those of his colleagues, were rediscovered in the second half of the 20th century. A 1978 work by American avant-garde composer John Cage, Some of the "Harmony of Maine", is a collection of organ pieces based on compositions from The Harmony of Maine.  Cage also adapted a number of Belcher's chorales for use in his Apartment House 1776, and these were subsequently arranged for string quartet by Irvine Arditti along with Cage's adaptations of works by William Billings, Jacob French, Andrew Law, and James Lyon as 44 Harmonies, and performed by the Arditti Quartet and issued on CD by Mode Records.

Editions
 Volume 5. Supply Belcher (1751–1836), The Collected Works, edited by Linda Davenport. 192 pages,

Notes

References
 Butler, Francis Gould. 1885. A History of Farmington, Franklin County, Maine, Farmington, Press of Knowlton, McLeary and Co.

 Hall, Roger L. 1997. Music in Early Canton: Historical Notes and Music, Stoughton: PineTree Press.

 Marrocco, W. Thomas, and Gleason, Thomas. 1964. Music in America, an Anthology from the Landing of the Pilgrims to the Close of the Civil War, 1620–1865.  New York, W.W. Norton & Co.

External links
Supply Belcher – "The Handel of Maine"
Singing Stoughton
Stoughton Massachusetts History Website

American male composers
American composers
1751 births
1836 deaths
People from Farmington, Maine
Shape note
People from Hallowell, Maine
People from Stoughton, Massachusetts
Musicians from Massachusetts
Massachusetts militiamen in the American Revolution
Musicians from Maine
18th-century American composers
18th-century male musicians
18th-century musicians

Supply Belcher


James Daly (1838, in County Mayo, Ireland – 21 January 1911, at his residence on Spencer St., Castlebar, County Mayo) was an Irish nationalist activist best known for his work in support of tenant farmers' rights and the formation of the Irish National Land League.

Beginnings
Daly was a conservative Catholic man from a comfortably-off Mayo farming family. He served from 1869 on the Castlebar Board of Guardians and as a guardian for the Litterbrick Division in Ballina union.

Daly took up the emerging political cause in the West to establish tenant farmers' rights against largely absentee landlords and participated in the meeting in Louisburgh, County Mayo in 1875, convened to establish a local tenants defence association.

From May 1876, Daly and Alfred O'Hea supported Matt Harris's Ballinasloe Tenants Defence Association.

In February 1876, together with Alfred O'Hea, he purchased the Mayo Telegraph, renamed The Connaught Telegraph in 1878, and became sole owner in 1879 on O'Hea's death. The Connaught Telegraph became the early publicity vehicle for what was initially a Mayo-based land movement.

On 26 October 1878, the Mayo Tenants' Defence Association (or Mayo Farmers' Club) was formed at Castlebar, with Westport barrister J. J. Louden as chairman and Daly as secretary. The local MP, John O'Connor Power, attended, giving the support of the "advanced" faction of the home rule movement to the growing land movement. This support was reinforced by Parnell himself when he joined Daly, O'Connor Power, James Kilmartin and Matt Harris at the Ballinasloe Tenants' Defence Association meeting on 3 November 1878.

The "Canon Bourke" controversy
The immediate trigger for the 20 April 1879 Irishtown mass meeting is disputed. According to one commonly quoted theory, in January 1879 local Irishtown tenant farmers asked Daly to take up their cause against a landowner variously referred to as 'Canon Ulick Burke' or Bourke, or 'Canon Burke' or 'Father Burke', who had inherited a property with 22 tenants, all in arrears, had increased rents and had taken legal steps to evict them. Burke is then said to have backed down after the mass meeting and decreased rents.

The historian T. W. Moody disputes this theory, claiming that this view is based on Michael Davitt's faulty recollection before the 1889 Times-Parnell Commission and his 1904 The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland, repeated by Sheehy-Skeffington in 1908; and that no contemporary accounts of the events mention a Canon Bourke as an issue. Moody claims that, in fact, Geoffrey James Bourke, the canon of Tuam Cathedral had nothing to do with the 'Bourke Estate', and that the tenants' dispute, if indeed there was one, would have been with the absentee landlord, his nephew Joseph Bourke; that Daly himself denounced the whole story and Davitt for his 'crass ignorance' of Mayo affairs and in fact the rents on the Bourke estate had been fixed in 1855 for 31 years and hence there could not have been any rack-renting; that Canon Bourke in fact supported the land movement and was on the platform and seconded John Dillon's resolution at the July 1879 Claremorris meeting; and remained to his death a much respected parish priest.

Moody presents Canon (alternatively he calls him Fr) Ulick Joseph Bourke, president of St Jarlath's College, Tuam, as a separate person who in fact was "far from unsympathetic to the fenians" and served on the committee of the Irish National Land League from its formation in October 1879. John Cunningham refers to 'Professor Ulick Bourke' as 'President of St Jarlath's', and quotes the fenian activist Mark Ryan's description of how Professor Bourke actively supported the 1868 election campaign of George Moore, a 'fenian sympathiser' and tenant right supporter.

Lead up to the 20 April 1879, Irishtown meeting
For many months the agriculture sector had been in recession due to bad harvests and cheap imports. The law as it stood was considered by many to unfairly favour landowners over struggling tenant farmers, leading to landowners evicting "unprofitable" tenant farmers and turning the land over to grazing. The traditionally somewhat conservative tenant farmers were becoming desperate for relief and willing to listen to aggressive nationalists who linked economic with political oppression in their messages and raised the question of who morally owned the land.

For Daly, by 1879 the time for action was right. He was expressing impatience in the Connaught Telegraph with achieving anything for the tenants, either through constitutional means or John Devoy's 'New Departure' (an 'unholy alliance' between pragmatic Fenians prepared to delay their resort to force, and radical Home Rulers). Delay could mean desperate men resorting to another failed uprising which he abhorred. Parnell was positioning himself to take over the Home Rule League after Isaac Butt died, and a growing land campaign would give him an issue for the coming election. Daly was not a Fenian but was prepared to accept any meaningful assistance short of violence from them. The current climate of the New Departure offered a perhaps short-lived opportunity to combine Fenian mass mobilisation and muscle, with activism within the constitutional system provided by Parnell and O'Connor Power, with Michael Davitt the key man in both camps.

Davitt was in Mayo at the time investigating land issues, assisted by and briefed by his cousin John Walshe. He is generally credited with having the vision to extend the scope of tenant land protests from the local to a coordinated national context. Davitt and a group of Fenians including John Walshe and P.W. Nally of Balla met with Daly and his local organizers, Fenian tenant farmers James Daly and Daniel O'Connor of Irishtown, and schoolteacher J.P. Quinn and two shopkeepers from Claremorris, Thomas Sweeney and John O'Kane.

A group of farmers from the Irishtown area had approached Daly in January 1879 during the Claremorris quarter-sessions about their treatment by landlords. To avoid libel, Daly refused to explicitly expose the landlords concerned but agreed to publish rent grievances in general. Daly publicised the grievances and advertised a mass protest meeting on 22 February 1879 in the Connaught Telegraph. The meeting had to be postponed until April. The day before the meeting, on Saturday 19 April 1879, Daly's announcement in the Connaught Telegraph read :-
IRISHTOWN TENANT-RIGHT MEETING

On to-morrow (Sunday) a mass meeting of the tenant farmers of Mayo, Galway, and Roscommon will be held at Irishtown, a few miles outside Claremorris, for the purpose of representing to the world the many and trying ordeals and grievances the tenant farmers labour under. There will be several leading gentlemen present who will speak on the occasion, amongst whom will be John O'C. Power, Esq., M.P., John Ferguson, Esq. Glasgow, and J.J.Louden, Esq. Westport. The meeting, it is considered, will be one of the largest ever held in Connaught.

The 20 April 1879, Irishtown meeting
The Connaught Telegraphs report of the meeting in its edition of 26 April 1879 began:-
Since the days of O'Connell a larger public demonstration has not been witnessed than that of Sunday last. About 1 o'clock the monster procession started from Claremorris, headed by several thousand men on foot – the men of each district wearing a laural leaf or green ribbon in hat or coat to distinguish the several contingents. At 11 o'clock a monster contingent of tenant-farmers on horseback drew up in front of Hughes's hotel, showing discipline and order that a cavalry regiment might feel proud of. They were led on in sections, each having a marshal who kept his troops well in hand. Messrs. P.W. Nally, J.W. Nally, H. French, and M. Griffin, wearing green and gold sashes, led on their different sections, who rode two deep, occupying, at least, over an Irish mile of the road. Next followed a train of carriages, brakes, cares, etc. led on by Mr. Martin Hughes, the spirited hotel proprietor, driving a pair of rare black ponies to a phæton, taking Messrs. J.J. Louden and J. Daly. Next came Messrs. O'Connor Power, J. Ferguson, and Thomas Brennan in a covered carriage, followed by at least 500 vehicles from the neighbouring towns. On passing through Ballindine the sight was truly imposing, the endless train directing its course to Irishtown – a neat little hamlet on the boundaries of Mayo, Roscommon, and Galway.

"Advanced" land-reformer and Home-Ruler John Ferguson's resolution stated the goal of the Land War:
That as the land of Ireland, like that of every other country, was intended by a just and all-providing God for the use and sustenance of those of his people to whom he gave inclination and energies to cultivate and improve it, any system which sanctions its monopoly by a privileged class, or assigns its ownership and control to a landlord caste, to be used as an instrument of usurious or political self-seeking, demands from every aggrieved Irishman an undying hostility, being flagrantly opposed to the first principle of their humanity – self-preservation.

Michael M. O'Sullivan, teacher at a Catholic College and early tenant right
activist from Galway, is said to have drawn the greatest audience response :-
. . . the past two seasons have been very bad, and disease in sheep has crept in to accumulate the distresses of the farmer. Under such circumstances does any man for a moment consider that the tenant farmers of Ireland can afford to pay the present exorbitant rents for their lands, or that the lands are worth those rents?
(Cheers, and cries of "They are not".)
It follows, then, that the present rents being too high, justice demands their reduction.
(cheers)
But, judging from the past, we know that, unfortunately, there are landlords. in Ireland who do not look to what is just, but to what the law will permit.
(hear, hear)
If, then, the landlords who are now demanding exorbitant rents
do not lower them to meet the requirements of the times and the altered
circumstances of the tenant farmers, let the tenant farmers themselves meet
together, and consult together, and settle among themselves what would be fair, equitable rent, and if that is not accepted by the landlord – why, let them pay none at all.
(great cheering, and loud cries of "None at all.")
A Voice – Let them do that (great cheering)
Mr. O'Sullivan – Let it not be considered that in councelling [sic] this I am acting thoughtlessly, unwisely, or impracticably.
(no, no)
I have given this question a great deal of thought. I have seen the Land Question in parliament brought forward with unanswerable eloquence, but with what result?
(Cheers, and a voice, "It was kicked out.")
What, then, are the people to do?
A Voice – Pay no rent at all.(cheers)
Mr. O'Sullivan – They cannot pay unreasonable rents, they wish to pay what is fair and just and it must be accepted. If not let the landlords who refuse take the consequences of refusal on their own heads.
(cheers)
It is...fearful to contemplate those consequences in their fullness ...extermination of the people on the one hand, and – we cannot shut our eyes to the lessons of the past – extermination of the exterminators on the other.
(applause)
"Ribbon Fenian" Thomas Brennan gave the following ominous address :
. . . I have read some history, and I find that several countries have from time to time been afflicted with the same land disease as that under which Ireland is now labouring, and although the political doctors applied many remedies, the one that proved effectual was the tearing out, root and branch, of the class that caused the disease. All right-thinking men would deplore the necessity of having recourse in this country to scenes such as have been enacted in other lands, although I for one will not hold up my hands in holy horror at a movement that gave liberty not only to France but to Europe. If excesses were at that time committed, they must be measured by the depth of slavery and ignorance in which the people had been kept, and I trust Irish landlords will in time recognise the fact that it is better for them at least to have this land question settled after the manner of a Stein or a Hardenberg than wait for the excesses of a Marat or a Robespierre.

T. M. Healy's view of the Irishtown meeting
T. M. Healy, eventually a bitter opponent of Parnell, presents a view of the Irishtown meeting in which Parnell had not yet seen the potential of a Land War, and also highlights the importance of the coverage provided by The Connaught Telegraph, one of only two newspapers (The Tuam Herald was the other) which covered the event:
No reporters attended the meeting. Power called on me when he returned to London to give an account of it. From what he said I realised that a new portent had arisen out of a leaden sky. He related that footmen in legions and horsemen in squadrons gathered round him to demand reductions of rent. The horsemen, he declared, were organised like cavalry regiments. The police were powerless, and Power foreshadowed that Ireland was on the verge of a movement which would end a dismal chapter. Yet his meeting was unnoted, save by a local weekly, the Castlebar Telegraph, owned by James Daly.

King-Harman, M.P. (afterwards Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Ireland), who read that paper, came upbraidingly to Power in the House of Commons. He and his class watched the trend of politics as stockbrokers do the money markets, for £ s.d. to them was the kernel of the Land question.
When Parnell heard of the success of the Irishtown meeting, he asked Davitt (who had been told to "boycott" it) to get up a second gathering there the following Sunday. At the second demonstration fresh speeches were made which attracted universal attention.

Davitt afterward explained that he would have attended Power's meeting only that he "missed the train." He was a lofty and generous character, yet James Daly, who helped at both gatherings, coined the jibe that Davitt would be "father of the Land League if he had not missed the train." Power refused to come to the second meeting, but the fire they kindled spread into a blaze which inflamed all Ireland.
T. W. Moody points out that Healy's comment about Davitt missing the train appears to come from A. M. Sullivan's 'New Ireland', p 434 and is otherwise uncorroborated; likewise his quoting of Daly's quip about Davitt is otherwise uncorroborated. However, it does appear that Daly and Davitt held differing views of their relative importance to the early land war. Moody points out that Daly's January 1881 account of the Irishtown meeting in the Connaught Telegraph claiming that Davitt was not involved until the June Westport meeting is untrue; similarly Davitt's July 1882 account left Daly out and claimed he himself was solely responsible, yet he told the 1889 Times-Parnell Commission that he (Davitt) was not responsible; then in his 1904 'Fall of Feudalism', when he was free to reveal all, he failed to give Daly any due.

Following the Irishtown meeting
Daly was chairman of the Westport meeting on 8 June 1879, addressed by Parnell and Davitt which finally gave national political impetus to the Land Reform movement.

Daly became vice-president of the new National Land League of Mayo on 16 August 1879, and was elected to the committee of the Irish National Land League founded in Dublin on 21 October 1879, when the Mayo Land League was absorbed into it.

The Bessborough Commission
"James Daly organised the presentation of Mayo evidence which strongly influenced the Bessborough Commission to recommend radical revision of the tenurial system, and thus provided Gladstone with immediate justification for the 1881 Land Act. In only thirty percent of cases did landlords challenge Daly's masterly command of his material concerning exorbitant rents, in less than ten percent did they seriously shake his evidence."

The "Gurteen three"
On 2 November 1879, Davitt addressed a land meeting at Gurteen, County Sligo, declaring of landlord-tenant relations : "the time has come when the manhood of Ireland will spring to its feet and say it will tolerate this system no longer".  Daly stated that "if anyone was evicted it was the duty of his fellows to assemble in their thousands and reinstate him the next day." James Bryce Killen ended his speech by wishing that "everyone at the meeting were armed with a rifle". On 19 November Davitt, Daly and Killen were arrested on a charge of using seditious language. Their arrest led to mass protest meetings, Parnell used it to launch a propaganda drive in Britain and the United States, and the authorities failed to achieve a conviction. Moody states that 'The government had thus incurred a great deal of ridicule'.

Davitt, Daly and Killen became known as 'The Gurteen Three'. President Mary McAleese has spoken thus of the incident :
The newspapers of the day throughout the western world were full of the trial of Davitt and his two colleagues for an allegedly inflammatory speech he had given at Gurteen, Co. Sligo. They were known as "The Gurteen Three" and the collapse of their trial spelt the end of feudal landlordism in Ireland.

Later years
Daly was not comfortable with the centralised control of the land movement and what he perceived as a drift away from the West, the real area of need, and also was concerned about use of physical force in pursuit of its aims. He returned to local politics and left the Land League. He sold the Connaught Telegraph to T.H. Gillespie in 1888 and became a full time farmer. He continued in local Government and served on Mayo County Council and Castlebar Urban District Council. Remaining a force in local politics, he supported the United Irish League and was President of the Connacht '98 Council.

Retrospective
Gerry Adams used the occasion of his Michael Davitt Centenary Lecture, 15 June 2006, to claim that land reform in the west of Ireland has since regressed.

Notes

References
Anne Kane. Constructing Irish National Identity: Discourse and Ritual during the Land War 1879–1882. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2012.
Gerard Moran, "James Daly and the rise and fall of the Land League in the west of Ireland, 1879–82" in Irish Historical Studies, 29''' (1994), pages 189–207.
The Forgotten Man of Irish History. http://www.mayo-ireland.ie/Mayo/News/ConnTel/CTHistry/JDaly.htm
Jane Stanford. That Irishman: The Life and Times of John O'Connor Power. The History Press, Ireland, May 2011.

External links

Fr Kevin Hegarty, James Daly in The Mayo News'', 26 September 2007

1838 births
1911 deaths
Irish land reform activists
Irish Nationalist politicians
People from Castlebar
Activists from County Mayo

James Daly (activist)


Belcourt is a former summer cottage designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt for Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont and located on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. Construction was begun in 1891 and completed in 1894, and it was intended to be used for only six to eight weeks of the year. Belcourt was designed in a multitude of European styles and periods; it features a heavy emphasis on French Renaissance and Gothic decor, with further borrowings from German, English, and Italian design. In the Gilded Age, the castle was noted for its extensive stables and carriage areas, which were incorporated into the main structure.

Construction

Belcourt is located on Bellevue Avenue at Lakeview Avenue, in Newport.  A 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m2), 60-room summer villa, it was designed by Richard Morris Hunt for 33-year-old Oliver Belmont, who during the construction was divorced from Sara Swan Whiting and the father of a daughter, Natica, for whom he denied paternity. It was based on the Louis XIII hunting lodge at Versailles, and incorporated Oliver's love of pageantry, history and horses in its magnificent interior halls, salons and ballrooms. The Belmont Stakes was named for his father, August Belmont Sr., and Oliver was known for his skill as a four-in-hand carriage driver. Belmont wanted Belcourt designed precisely to his specifications.  Hunt was hesitant, but concentrated on his guiding principle that it was his client's money he was spending. Construction cost $3.2 million in 1894, a figure of approximately $80 million in 2011 dollars. Belmont employed some thirty servants at Belcourt, with aggregate wages of approximately $100 per week, or approximately 40% of the national average wage at the time.

Belmont years
When construction finished in 1894, the entire first floor was composed of carriage space and a multitude of stables for Belmont's prized horses. Upstairs was a master bedroom with wall scenes depicting the life of a nobleman and a bathroom with Newport's first standing shower.
Scheduled to open for July 4 of that year, Belcourt would remain closed for the summer season while Belmont was hospitalized in New York City, the victim of a mugging. It would be a full year until Belmont saw his completed mansion.

The building was formed of a large quadrangle, with two-story wings connecting to a three-story main block (the north wing). The effect can be viewed today in the form of a large, 80-by-40-foot (24-by-12m) central courtyard with half timbers in the Norman style. The immense mansard roof is pierced by oval copper dormers and chimneys finished in the same manner as the walls. The symmetrical north façade is where the carriage entrances were located. A narrow wrought-iron balcony stretches 70 feet (20 m) on the second floor.

Belmont had disdain for the nouveau riche who, in splashy displays of wealth, built ostentatious mansions between Bellevue Avenue and the Atlantic coast. As a result, guests entered Belcourt through an entrance just off of Ledge Road, a short road that runs parallel to Bellevue Avenue.

Inside the castle was just as magnificent and somewhat eccentric. Belmont housed his vast collection of horses and carriages on the ground floor, accessed by two huge carriage entrances on either side of the north façade. To the west of this vast area was Belmont's Francis I Renaissance-style Grand Hall and foyer, which exited onto Ledge Road. The monumental Gothic rooms with their huge stained-glass windows were emblazoned with the Belmont coat of arms. The room's original damask, blood red in color, has long since been replaced with the same fabric in gold.

The Grand Staircase, now a replica of the stairs in the Cluny Museum in France, connects the Lower Grand Hall to Belmont's Upper Grand Hall on the second floor. The details are mostly the same as those of its partner room below. Myriad formal rooms open onto one another in varying periods of French style and decoration. The galleries and halls of the second floor employ the architect's trademark of vistas framing the views into various rooms.

Belmont married his neighbor Alva Vanderbilt, the former wife of William Kissam Vanderbilt, on January 11, 1896. Eager to reshape and redesign Belcourt, Alva made changes that morphed the already eccentric character of Belcourt into a yet more eccentric hybrid mixture of styles. Alva Belmont converted the carriage room into a banquet hall and transformed a study into a boudoir, importing 18th-century French paneling. In 1899, Belcourt was the host of the nation's first automobile parade.

Changes in ownership
Oliver Belmont died in 1908 and Mrs. Belmont died in France on January 26, 1933. Belcourt passed to 80-year-old Perry Belmont, the eldest Belmont child and Alva's brother-in-law. At the onset of World War II, Perry Belmont had most of the contents of Belcourt moved to his other estates as Newport was a naval base and potentially at risk of attack. Select pieces of Alva's were auctioned off, as Perry allegedly had no great love for her.

In 1940, Belmont decided to rid himself of Belcourt. Negotiations commenced with George Waterman, an entrepreneur. Waterman envisioned Belcourt as an antique auto museum. The only conditions of the sale were that Waterman had to restore the castle as close   as possible to Hunt's original plans. Waterman was responsible for the restoration of the third-floor roof and removal of an addition overlooking the courtyard. After paying $1,000 for the castle, Waterman was informed that zoning wouldn't allow his antique auto museum.

In 1943, Waterman sold Belcourt to Edward Dunn, who never lived at Belcourt during the eleven years that he owned it (up until 1954). During the war years when many of the grand mansions were being razed or converted into various institutions, Dunn rented the stables of the rundown castle to the military to use for repairing equipment.

Dunn sold Belcourt to Louis and Elaine Lorillard in 1954 for $22,500. The Lorillards, of tobacco fame, envisioned Belcourt as a seat for the Newport Jazz Festival. The lawns on Bellevue Avenue could accommodate over 10,000 and the masonry and stucco façade provided an acoustic background. The large central courtyard was the scene for concerts, with the open loggia providing further room for spectators. Inside, the massive rooms were used for workshops and lodging. However, the future for Belcourt as a permanent venue for the festival was dim due to protests from the neighbors.

Belcourt had deteriorated, largely uninhabited for over two decades. In November 1956, the Lorillards sold the rundown, mostly abandoned castle to the Tinney Family.

The Tinneys

The Tinney Family, of Cumberland, Rhode Island, bought Belcourt in 1956 for $25,000. In addition to changing the name from Belcourt to Belcourt Castle, the Tinneys filled the castle with their own collection of antiques and reproductions. Included are a coronation coach, which son Donald made, and a 1701 copy of a Hyacinthe Rigaud portrait of Louis XIV, which hung in the Green Room in the Palace of the Tuileries. The centerpiece of the Tinney additions was an enormous Imperial Russian-style chandelier, which holds 13,000 rock crystal prisms and 105 lights. The chandelier hangs a few feet above the rose marble mosaic floor of the banquet hall.

At the time that Belcourt was purchased in 1956, the Tinney family comprised Harold Tinney, his wife Ruth Tinney, their son Donald Tinney, and Ruth's aunt Nellie Fuller (a descendant of Mayflower passenger Edward Fuller). In 1960, Donald Tinney married Harle Hanson, who had been at Belcourt to work as a tour guide. Harle Tinney was the only surviving member of the family when Belcourt was sold in 2012.

Other artifacts within Belcourt included an immense collection of Persian rugs, French royal art and furnishings, Oriental art and furnishings, and numerous religious objets d'art.

Changes at Belcourt have been numerous in the years following 1956, when the Tinney family moved in. They raised the ceiling of the Organ Loft 11 feet (3.4 m) to accommodate a 26-rank tracker organ. Between 1966 and 1970, when the coronation coach was being built, an old kitchen area became a coach hall. In 1969, the open loggia became a French salon. In 1975, they transformed the north-west reception room into a chapel with the addition of German Renaissance stained glass. In the early 1980s, the Tinneys built gate piers on Bellevue Avenue and installed gates that they had acquired from the Taylor estate in Portsmouth. The overthrow was altered to make the gates the tallest of any estate entrance in Newport.

In 1983, robbers attempted a million-dollar heist of Belcourt's antiques. Police recovered many artifacts but not a 14-pound silver reliquary containing a relic from the third century.

The lawns contain many sculptural pieces in bronze, terra cotta, marble and stone. Depicting scenes from mythology, nymphs and cherubs, the collection is an informal contrast to the strong and robust lines of the French-style château. The driveways and pathways are lined with lush arborvitae, planted by the Tinneys a few years after they moved into Belcourt.

Belcourt is the third largest mansion in Newport, after The Breakers and Ochre Court. The castle has been the subject of an ongoing restoration project spanning from the beginning of the Tinney family's occupation of the castle up to and including the present day.

On May 26, 2009, it was reported that the then-owner of Belcourt, Harle Tinney, had put the residence up for sale. The home was put on the market for $US 7.2 million. As of June 2011, the price had been reduced twice to $US 5.1 million and then to $US 3.9 million. Subsequently, it was taken off of the market and re-listed for sale in two parcels totaling $US 4.625 million. Tinney said she was ready to part with the home after her husband's death in 2006.

Belcourt as a museum

Belcourt was open to the public as a museum of antiquities and architectural and social history. Of the 60 rooms at Belcourt, over a dozen were viewable on tour. A visit to the castle included viewings of an English library (added in 1910 by John Russell Pope; the ceiling is a replica of the one in Haddon Hall's Long Gallery), a banquet hall, a chapel, two of three grand halls, a music room, an Empire-style dining room, a French gothic-style ballroom, two principal bedrooms, a loggia and a gallery. All of the rooms are furnished with pieces from the Tinney family collections. The first tours of Belcourt were given in 1957 and, ever since then, the castle has been a fixture on Bellevue Avenue. The collections included furnishings, art and artifacts from 33 European and Asian countries and 37 other Newport mansions. The Tinney family's enormous collection earned Belcourt a notable status within Newport's thriving tourism industry. Belcourt was also the only mansion in Newport that was both open to the public and had a private owner in residence. Harle Tinney frequently guided tours through her home and was often present to greet visitors when she was in residence.

Rafaeilian
On November 12, 2012, Belcourt was purchased by Carolyn Rafaelian, owner of the Cranston, Rhode Island-based company Alex and Ani, for $3.6 million. Rafaelian is currently restoring and renovating the mansion, which she reopened in summer 2014 as a tour house, art gallery, and event space under the business name Belcourt of Newport. Rafaelian reports she has already spent $5 million on renovations, including $3 million for a new roof.

Materials

Belcourt's distinctive exterior appearance was achieved through the use of brick and Westerly granite to frame the windows, doors and fields of stucco. The roof is sheathed in Pennsylvania slate and is pierced by numerous ox-eye (elliptical) dormer windows. The interior, completed by 300 imported artisans, was created of carved oak with oak and mosaic marble floors. The numerous decorative ceilings were finished with sculpted and molded plaster and carved woods such as chestnut. The walls are finished with canvas paintings, carved oak, imported paneling and pure silk damasks. The numerous exterior railings and gates are composed of wrought iron and bronze, featuring a shell motif and the monogram "OB." The foundations are stone, brick and poured concrete with thick brick walls supporting enormous roof timbers and steel I-beams.

See also

 Buildings inspired by Versailles

References

External links
 Belcourt (official site)
 Belcourt Castle (former official site)
 Belcourt Castle - The History of a Newport Mansion
 The Battle of Belcourt (legal battle over ownership)

Vanderbilt family residences
Belmont family residences
Museums in Newport, Rhode Island
Historic house museums in Rhode Island
Houses completed in 1894
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island
Castles in the United States
John Russell Pope buildings
Richard Morris Hunt buildings
Gothic Revival architecture in Rhode Island
Baroque Revival architecture in the United States
Châteauesque architecture in the United States
Houses in Newport, Rhode Island
National Register of Historic Places in Newport, Rhode Island
Gilded Age mansions

Belcourt of Newport


Gustav Wentzel (1859–1927) was a Norwegian painter. He was best known for interiors and domestic and rural scenes. His artistic style was associated with Naturalism and noted for accurate observations and attention to detail.

Biography
He was the eldest of seven children. His father, Jørgen, was a farm owner and salmakermester (someone who makes transport accessories, such as harnesses and seats). While still a boy, his father went bankrupt and his mother, Anne, opened a meat store to support the family.

At the age of fifteen, he was apprenticed to a mason because he intended to become an architect. That same year, he began to take drawing lessons and decided to pursue art instead. From 1875 to 1878, he was a student at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry then, until 1880, studied painting with Knud Bergslien. His first, small, showing was at the bookstore owned by Albert Cammermeyer. He soon became part of a circle of artists that met at the studios of the sculptor, .

He took his first study trip in the summer of 1880, accompanied by  and . They visited Hardanger and Telemark. The following year, he went to Kvitsøy, supported by a grant from the Schäffers Legat, a fund for painters, sculptors and poets. On the advice of Andreas Aubert, he travelled to Valdres in 1882, where he painted landscapes and interiors; notably at the Hegge Stave Church.

He was in Paris in 1883 and again in 1884, with another grant from the Schäffers Legat, and studied with William Bouguereau at the Académie Julian. In 1888 and 1889, he was back in Paris on a state scholarship, studying with Léon Bonnat and Alfred Philippe Roll at the Académie Colarossi. While there, he met and married the writer, Christiane Marie Bætzmann (known as "Kitty"), daughter of Frederik Bætzmann, the Paris correspondent for Aftenposten. She had been studying at the Académie, but never painted professionally.

They returned to Norway and settled in an outlying neighbourhood of Christiania. Later, they moved to Asker, where they became close friends of Hulda and Arne Garborg. In 1901, a financial windfall enabled them and their two young children to travel to Italy, but a planned stay in Paris did not come to fruition. Upon their return in 1902, they settled in Vågå. The following year, he sent eighty-five works to an art auction, but twelve were never sold and the others were bought cheaply, which plunged him into doubts about his chosen profession.

Despite this failure, and his continued depression, he was awarded the Order of St. Olav in 1908. At home, however, things went less well. That same year, Kitty took their youngest son with her to the United States, where she worked as a governess. By 1910, their marriage was apparently one in name only and he began teaching at a painting school operated by Harriet Backer. She helped him receive a grant that enabled him to spend those difficult times in Munich. He returned to Norway in 1913. By that time, his family was living in Lom. He visited them often and opened his last studio near there, in 1919.

Although he had to produce low-quality paintings in large quantities to pay his bills, he was generally happy there and well-respected by the locals. In 1927, he went to the hospital in Lillehammer for the treatment of an oral inflammation and died there, of pneumonia, shortly after. Kitty spent much of the rest of her life promoting his works and wrote a biography of him in 1956. Their homes in Lom have been preserved and are partly open to the public. In 1999, a major exhibit was held commemorating Wentzel and the architect Bjarne Tøien (1899–1963), who is also associated with Lom.

Selected paintings

References

Further reading
 Kitty Wentzel. Gustav Wentzel. Gyldendal, 1956. Foreword by Leif Østby. Ny utgave: Lom 2009
 Kitty Wentzel. Fra mitt livs karusell. Cappelen, 1960. Ny utgave: Lom 2010
 Leif Østby. "Gustav Wentzel". I: Norsk kunstnerleksikon, Vol.4. Universitetsforlaget, 1986.

External links

 Biography @ the Norsk Biografisk Leksikon
 More works by Wentzel @ ArtNet
 Works by Wentzel @ the Nasjonalmuseet

1859 births
1927 deaths
Painters from Oslo
19th-century Norwegian painters
20th-century Norwegian painters
Norwegian male painters
Académie Julian alumni
Académie Colarossi alumni
19th-century Norwegian male artists
20th-century Norwegian male artists

Gustav Wentzel


Seven Sisters Road is a road in north London, England. The road runs within the boroughs of Islington, Hackney and Haringey. It is an extension of Camden Road, and runs from Holloway Road (the A1 road) at the Nags Head crossroads then on to another crossroads with Blackstock Road and Stroud Green Road. It carries on uphill alongside Finsbury Park to Manor House, and from there downhill to the junction with Tottenham High Road (the A10 road) at Seven Sisters Corner. The road was authorised in 1829 and constructed in 1833 by the Metropolitan Turnpike Trust. Seven Sisters Road is part of the A503. The stretch running past Finsbury Park is open to the park on the west side, and on the east side are large Victorian villas now used mainly as hotels.

References

Roads in London

Seven Sisters Road


Hernán Enrique Jiménez Pino (born May 7, 1983) is a Panamanian singer. He is better known by his stage name Makano. Makano in Panama means "strong like a tree". At the age of 12, Jiménez was part of a reggaeton group called "Los Makanos". The members of the group made a promise that the first of them to record a full disc would carry on the group's name.

When he was 16, Jiménez was writing quality music. His father discouraged him from music, saying he needed to get a real job. After several years of trying, Jimenez appeared on the CD La Alianza in 2004. Afterward, he was given the chance to record several songs which later became number one hits in Panama. In 2007, Jimenez signed with Panama Music. He recorded his first album as a solo singer, Te Amo, which features the songs "Yo Quisiera Vivir", "Te Va a Doler", "Te Amo" and "Déjame Entrar".

Discography

Studio albums
 2008: Te Amo
 2010: Sin Fronteras

Singles
 Atrévete (2004)
 Traición (2004)
 Si Tú No Le Dices (2008)
 Te Amo (2008)
 Déjame Entrar (2009)
 Su Nombre en Mi Cuaderno (feat. Josenid) (2009)
 Como Hago Para Olvidarte (2010)
 Somos Amantes (2010)
 Dejame Volver (2010)

Awards and nominations

  His first album, Te Amo, reached Gold for sales in the United States.
 Reached Platinum for digital download of his album Te Amo in Central America.
 Certification by RIAA for multiple weeks as a Number One Single for "Te Amo" in Billboard Magazine.
 "Best Breakthrough Artist" and "Best Hip Hop Artist" in Premios Texas 2009
 "Revelacion del Año Urbano" in Premios Lo Nuestro 2010
 Nominated for a Premio Billboard en Español as "Artist of the Year, Debut"

References

1983 births
Living people
Panamanian singers

Makano


Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (12 January 1918  5 February 2008) was an Indian guru (a teacher of spirituality). He was most famous for his development of Transcendental Meditation. He also was well known for his association with the rock bands, The Beatles and The Beach Boys.

Early life
His birth name was either  Mahesh Verma Shrivastava or Mahesh Prasad Varma. His parents were Hindus from the.
He was born in Raipur, India. He graduated from Allahabad University in Uttar Pradesh, and began his career as a physicist. His physics work made him interested in the sound vibrations made by spoken syllables, and how those vibrations could change a person's body or consciousness. In time, he became a disciple of Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, who was called "Guru Dev". He later became the swami's secretary. He could not become the swami's , because of India's caste system, but he could become a guru on his own. Guru Dev gave him the name "Bal Brahmachari Mahesh". Later he adopted the name Maharishi ("great teacher"), while "yogi" was a name given to teachers of yoga.

Transcendental Meditation
Transcendental Meditation (sometimes shortened to "TM") grew out of Guru Dev's teachings, and the Maharishi's own physics studies. A person practices Transcendental Meditation by sitting quietly, and mentally repeating a "", of syllables or names considered  or holy in Hinduism. In Transcendental Meditation, the sounds are used purely as sounds independent of any associated meanings in any language. Meditating helps a person to relax, and to concentrate on important things. During this meditation a person transcends conscious thought to a quieter state of mind, and this gives the technique its name.

The Maharishi began what he called the "Spiritual  Movement" in 1958. He traveled around the world, teaching Transcendental Meditation to ordinary people. Unlike many gurus, he did not require followers to give up their everyday lives, or move to an  to live and study. He believed that helping people to relieve stress and learn how to focus would improve their lives, and in time make a better world. He taught for nearly ten years, with little public notice. He also published a book, The Science of Being and the Art of Living, and recorded a spoken-word album, that explained his beliefs.

The Beatles
During 1967, during the last months of his ten-year "world tour", he visited England, and people there began to join his Spiritual Regeneration Movement. One person who joined was Pattie Boyd, the wife of George Harrison, who was a member of The Beatles. Harrison had learned to play the sitar, an Indian musical instrument, and was interested in Hinduism. He had not found a guru whose teachings interested him. When Pattie told him about the Maharishi, he became interested, and all four Beatles went to a lecture given by the Maharishi. They sent a message to him, asking to meet in person. All of the Beatles were interested in TM, because it was simple and they could continue on as musicians, instead of having to change their lifestyle. They each joined the movement, and began to promote the Maharishi and his teachings. They even announced that they gave up the use of drugs, which had earlier caused  for the band, because of what they learned.

Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, was also interested in TM, but had many problems in his personal life. He decided not to join the Beatles when they traveled to Wales to attend a weekend class given by the Maharishi, and stayed home. Later that weekend, Epstein overdosed on sleeping pills, and died in his sleep. The Beatles were very hurt by the news, and worried about what would happen to their careers. Maharishi tried to comfort them, telling them to think happy thoughts about Epstein, and let his spirit find peace.

The Beatles wanted to study with the Maharishi in India. They had just started their own company, Apple Corps, and with Epstein gone they had to work out many details for themselves. They could have found another manager, but decided they did not want one, and looked after Apple personally, until their helpers could take over running the company. Finally in early 1968, they made the trip to India.

The Beatles enjoyed the atmosphere in India, and the free time they had between classes, and began to write songs for a new album, which was later called the "White Album". One by one the Beatles lost interest. Ringo Starr, who had a sensitive stomach, became sick from the spicy food served at the ashram, and headed home after just a few days. Paul McCartney in time became bored, and also headed home. George Harrison and John Lennon stayed longer, but were upset when "Magic Alex", a friend who came to India with them, began to tell them stories about the Maharishi trying to have sexual intercourse with some of the women who came to the ashram. This  Harrison and Lennon, and they went home the next day.

The Beatles were earlier interested in making a movie about the Maharishi and his work. When they began to talk with him about it, he surprised them by knowing more about business matters than they ever expected, and by asking questions about his share of the movie's profits. They did not think a "holy man" would be interested in such things. Between this and Magic Alex's stories, the band decided the Maharishi was a . They publicly  him, telling the media they thought he was something other than what he proved to be. Lennon wrote a song about him, whose words went "Maharishi, what have you done? You made a fool of everyone." He later changed the name "Maharishi" to "Sexy Sadie", to keep the Maharishi from seeking revenge of some kind, or a lawsuit, against him.

Years later, the Beatles realized Magic Alex's  were false. McCartney and Harrison began again to say good things about the Maharishi, and to promote his work. Starr called him "one of the  I met in my life." Lennon never forgave Maharishi for letting him down personally, but still used TM from time to time. Lennon realized that he had been looking for a , and that any father figure he found was going to let him down in the end, so he was better off to work out his own problems.

Later life and career
The Beatles were not the only celebrities to get involved with the Maharishi and his work. Actress Mia Farrow, folk-rocker Donovan and Mike Love of the Beach Boys also studied with the Maharishi in India, and the Beach Boys later promoted TM, much more than the Beatles ever had. They toured together with the Maharishi, and Mike Love insisted people who worked for them meditate daily. The association did not work well for the Beach Boys, and an album they recorded at a school started by the Maharishi sold poorly. In time most of the Beach Boys lost interest, but Love continued to promote the Maharishi and his works.

Magician Doug Henning also became a follower of Transcendental Meditation. He campaigned to open a theme park called "Vedaland", based on Hinduism and the Maharishi's teachings. after his death, Doug Henning's widow continued the campaign.

Scientists studied people who meditated, and learned that TM really did help them to relax, and to think more clearly. A few  Christian ministers and writers denounced TM, calling it "a  into Eastern religions", and said that mantras were really a way of invoking the Devil or demons. Other Christians saw no harm in it, or encouraged people who wanted to meditate to instead chant the name of Jesus Christ, or a name for God, or a line from a psalm or Christian prayer. In any case, TM went on to help many people around the world, and it is still taught as a form of meditation.

Retirement
The Maharishi continued his teachings and work, later promoting the "Maharishi Technology of the " and other ideas. In time, he gave up his ashram in India, moving to The Netherlands in Europe. He announced his retirement in January 2008, only weeks before he died from natural causes.

References

 The Science of Being and the Art of Living, by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Signet Books)
 The Love You Make: an insider's story of the Beatles, by Peter Brown (McGraw-Hill)
 The Beach Boys, by Byron Preiss

1918 births
2008 deaths
New religious movements
Spiritual teachers

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi


T. Harv Eker (born June 10, 1954) is an author, businessman and motivational speaker known for his theories on wealth and motivation. He is the author of the book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind published by HarperCollins.

Early life
Eker was born in Toronto, Ontario, and lived there through his childhood. As a young adult, Eker moved to the United States and started a series of over a dozen different companies before having success with an early retail fitness store. After reportedly making millions through a chain of fitness stores and subsequently losing his fortune through mismanagement, Eker started analyzing the relationships rich people have with their money and wealth, leading him to develop the theories he advances in his writing and speaking today.

Theories
Eker's writing and speaking often focus on his concept of the "Millionaire Mind," a collection of "mental attitudes that facilitate wealth." This theory proposes that we each possess a "financial blueprint," or an "internal script that dictates how we relate to money," and that by changing this blueprint people can change their ability to accumulate wealth.

Other theories attributed to Eker include the concept that people unwilling to make major sacrifices in order to succeed "play the role" of the victim and deny that they have control of their own situations. Another concept is that guilt prevents seeking wealth and that "thinking about wealth as a means to help others" relieves this guilt and enables wealth accumulation.

In his book, Eker lists 17 ways in which the financial blueprints of the rich differ from those of the poor and the middle-class. One theme identified in this list is that the rich discard limiting beliefs while the unsuccessful succumb to them. Eker argues that: Rich people believe, "I create my life", while poor people believe, "Life happens to me"; rich people focus on opportunities while poor people focus on obstacles; and rich people admire other rich and successful people whereas poor people resent rich and successful people.

Businessman
Eker founded the seminar company, Peak Potentials Training. According to a Peak Potentials press release, the company was later acquired by Success Resources, an event production company, in 2011.

Eker has produced seminars since at least 2001. A 2005 The Wall Street Journal article cites Eker as an example of changes in non-fiction publishing. The WSJ article examined his use of his seminars, contacts, and personal following as a "platform" from which to promote sales of his own book.

Author
Eker is the author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind which appeared on the New York Times bestseller list and was #1 on the Wall Street Journal's business-book list. He has also written a self-published book titled SpeedWealth.

Controversy
A 2010 report in the Vancouver Sun claimed that Eker was named in a "prospective class-action lawsuit" involving two individuals who purchased residential properties from people they met while attending one of his seminars.
Another Vancouver Sun report from 2007 cites a claim that Eker's company Peak Potentials Training Inc. used "high-pressure sales tactics" during "Millionaire Mind Intensive" course at the Wall Centre in October 2005.  The plaintiffs alleged that Eker and his company violated the Canadian Consumer Act through wide variability in the pricing of seminar attendance.

References

External links

1954 births
Living people
American business writers
American motivational speakers
Writers from Toronto
Canadian emigrants to the United States

T. Harv Eker


A geosynchronous orbit is an orbit at a height of  above sea level on the Earth.  At this height, the orbit takes 24 hours, so it is in sync with the land on Earth (the 'geo' part of geosynchronous).

The geostationary orbit is the most common type of geosynchronous orbit.  This is right above the equator, so the satellites in this orbit do not swing north or south, but stay perfectly still above a point on the equator.  This is useful for communication satellites (including satellite TV).

Geosynchronous also includes orbits that are not above the equator, but since every orbit goes around the center of the Earth, the satellite must spend an equal amount of time north of the equator as it does south of the equator, so it appears to slide up and down when viewed from the Earth.

Satellites
Astrophysics

Geosynchronous orbit


Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was one of the greatest painters of the Florentine Renaissance. His The Birth of Venus and Primavera are often said to epitomize for modern viewers the spirit of the Renaissance. His most famous painting is Birth of Venus, however he does have a lot of famous artworks: Fortitude, Madonna and Child, Adoration of the kings and many more. His auction record tops 10 million. Sandro Botticelli was unique; he was influenced by the revival of Greek and roman ideas in Florence at the time, Botticelli was one of the first western artists since classical times to depict non religious subject matter

Young Botticelli

Botticelli was born in Florence in the working-class rione of Ognissanti. At first he did an apprenticeship to become a goldsmith. Following the boy's wishes, his doting father sent him to Fra Filippo Lippi. Lippi was working on frescoing the Convent of the Carmine. Lippi's synthesis of the new control of three-dimensional forms, tender expressiveness in face and gesture, and decorative details inherited from the late Gothic style were the strongest influences on Botticelli. Another influence were the Pollaiuolo brothers.They were doing a series of Virtues for the Tribunale or meeting hall of the Mercanzia. This hall was a cloth-merchants' confraternity.Botticelli contributed to this the Fortitude, dated 1470 in the Uffizi Gallery.

He was an apprentice too of Andrea del Verrocchio, where Leonardo da Vinci worked beside him, but he made his name in his local Church of Ognissanti, with a St. Augustine that successfully competed as a pendant with Domenico Ghirlandaio's Jerome on the other side "the head of the saint being expressive of profound thought and quick subtlety" (Vasari). In 1470 he opened his own independent studio.

Being discovered by the Medici
Lorenzo de' Medici was quick to employ his talent. Botticelli made consistent use of the circular tondo form and did many beautiful female nudes, according to Vasari. The Birth of Venus was at the Medici villa of Castello.

Influences of religion on Botticelli
Sandro was intensely religious. In later life, he was one of Savonarola's followers. Botticelli burned his own paintings on pagan themes in the notorious "Bonfire of the Vanities". Earlier, Botticelli had painted an Assumption of the Virgin for Matteo Palmieri in a chapel at San Pietro Maggiore. In this painting, it was rumored, both the patron who dictated the iconic scheme and the painter who painted it, were guilty of heresy. People did not say what kind of heresy it was. The ideas that could be seen as heresy seem to be gnostic in character:
"By the side door of San Piero Maggiore he did a panel for Matteo Palmieri. In it, a large number of figures represent the Assumption of Our Lady with zones of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, doctors, virgins, and the orders of angels, the whole from a design he received from Matteo. Matteo was a worthy and learned man. Botticelli executed this work with the greatest mastery and diligence. He introducing the portraits of Matteo and his wife on their knees. But although the great beauty of this work could find no other fault with it, people said that Matteo and Sandro were guilty of grave heresy. If this is true or not, I cannot say." (Vasari, about Botticelli)

This is a common misunderstanding. It is based on a mistake by Vasari. The painting referred to here, now in the National Gallery in London, is by the artist Botticini. Vasari confused their similar sounding names.

Other influences

The Adoration of the Magi for Santa Maria Novella, ca1476, contains portraits of Cosimo de' Medici ("the finest of all that are now extant for its life and vigour"), his grandson Giuliano de' Medici, and Cosimo's son Giovanni, were effusively described by Vasari:

"The beauty of the heads in this scene is indescribable, their attitudes all different, some full-face, some in profile, some three-quarters, some bent down, and in various other ways, while the expressions of the attendants, both young and old, are greatly varied, displaying the artist's perfect mastery of his profession. Sandro further clearly shows the distinction between the suites of each of the kings. It is a marvellous work in colour, design and composition."

In 1481, Pope Sixtus IV summoned him and prominent Florentine and Umbrian artists who had been summoned to fresco the walls of the Sistine Chapel. The iconological program was the supremacy of the Papacy. Sandro's contribution was moderately successful.
He returned to Florence, and "being of a sophistical turn of mind, he there wrote a commentary on a portion of Dante and illustrated the Inferno which he printed, spending much time over it, and this abstension from work led to serious disorders in his living." Thus Vasari characterized the first printed Dante (1481) with Botticelli's decorations; he could not imagine that the new art of printing might occupy an artist. As for the subject, when Fra Girolamo Savonarola began to preach hellfire and damnation, the susceptible Sandro Botticelli became one of his adherents, a piagnone left painting as a worldly vanity, burned much of his own early work, fell into poverty as a result, and would have starved but for the tender support of his former patrons.

Related pages
 List of Italian painters

References

1445 births
1510 deaths
15th-century Italian painters
People from Florence

Sandro Botticelli


The Midland Railway experimented with electrification on its Heysham–Morecambe–Lancaster line in Lancashire, England. Electric trains started to run over this route in 1908, using the overhead 6.6 kV, 25 Hz AC electric supply installed and generated at the MR's own power station in Heysham.

The electric multiple units consisted of three driving motor coaches and six driving trailer coaches. Since the DM cars had a cab at each end, this allowed trains of one, two, or three cars to be formed.

Driving motors
The three DM cars were built by the MR at their Derby Works and were  in length. Two had Siemens electrical equipment fitted, while the third had Westinghouse equipment.

LMS numbers for the motor coaches 28610-28612

Driving trailers
Of the six DT cars, four were built new by the MR at their Derby works, while the other two were converted from existing hauled stock compartment coaches.

Withdrawal
In February 1951, these venerable units were finally withdrawn from service. Steam locomotive-hauled trains operated passenger services over the Lancaster–Heysham Line from then until August 1953, when electric trains took over again, this time the prototype  Class AM1 units following the installation of the appropriate new equipment.

The line voltage remained at 6,600 but the frequency was altered to 50 Hz and this was transformed and rectified on the trains to supply DC traction motors.  This experiment led to the introduction of the 25 kV, 50 Hz system as standard for new electrification on British Railways.

Sources

 Marsden, Colin J. (1985) 100 Years of Electric Traction, Oxford Publishing Company,
 Ian Allan Ltd (1948) ABC Of British Electric Trains

MR
6600 V AC electric multiple units
Scrapped locomotives
Train-related introductions in 1908

MR electric units


Sedimentary rocks are rocks formed from sediment. They are deposited over time, and often show layers which can be seen in cliffs. Other types of rock are igneous rock and metamorphic rock.

Sediments are usually formed from matter which falls to the bottom of oceans and lakes. The matter includes tiny pieces of other rocks, and dead animals, plants and microorganisms. Also, inorganic chemicals may be precipitated from solution in the water. The three most common sedimentary rocks are limestone, sandstone and shale.

Sedimentary rocks cover 7580% of the Earth's land area, but they make up only 5% of the Earth's crust. The relative abundances of the different types of sedimentary rocks are:
Shale - 60%
Sandstone - 20%
Carbonate - 15%
All others - 5%

Consolidation
Squeezed and compressed over time, the sediments become 'consolidated' (made solid) into layers of rock. Stratigraphy is the study of those layers

Cementation occurs when dissolved mineral components deposit in the interstices of sediments. It is the sticking together of sediment that forms a rock.

Otherwise, rocks may have the water squeezed out, yet remain for long periods with their character unchanged. There are many quarries of unconsolidated deposits where sand and gravel are removed for the construction industry. Such quarries may be taking out sand which has lasted as sand since the Jurassic period. But consolidated sand, sandstone, can be a very hard rock.

Consolidated rocks may be changed some more, by water seeping through, or by heat and extreme pressure.

Types of sedimentary rock
Sediments are formed by three processes:
Solids swept down from the land.
Bits & pieces laid down in water, e.g. shells.
Chemicals in solution, which may be precipitated.

These sedimentary processes – weathering, transportation, and deposition – reach three final end products: quartz sand, shale (from clay), and limestone (CaCO3). Most sedimentary rocks are variations on this general pattern.

Chalk, limestone, and dolomite are all basically made from calcium carbonate. This comes from a mixture of minerals and pieces of animals (especially animal shells). They are mostly formed in oceans.
Shales, sandstones, and conglomerates are all clastic rocks. They are made from pieces of other rocks. The pieces may have come from erosion by water, ice or wind.
Coal is made from ancient plants; oil and natural gas is also organic in origin.

Some sedimentary rocks are made of just one type of sediment, all about the same size, such as sand.  Other sedimentary rocks will have large and small lumps, and pieces of different types of rock.  Well-known sedimentary rocks are sandstone and limestone.

Sedimentary rocks may be found anywhere on Earth. When sedimentary rocks are heated and squeezed, they become metamorphic rocks. Igneous rocks have a volcanic origin. Over a very long time, rocks get recycled, in two ways. When marine sediments are raised above sea level, they get weathered, and the pieces carried down to the sea. On a much longer time-scale continental plates may collide. Then one plate goes under the other (is subducted), and all its material is recycled, emerging much later.

Related pages
List of rocks
Igneous rock
Metamorphic rock
List of minerals
Unconformity

References

Blatt, Harvey and Tracy, Robert J. 1996. Petrology: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic, Freeman, 2nd Ed.
Folk R.L. 1965. Petrology of sedimentary rocks PDF version . Austin: Hemphill's Bookstore. 2nd ed. 1981,
Basic sedimentary rock classification

Sedimentology
Stratigraphy

Sedimentary rock


The Catalan independence or separatism is a political movement that supports the independence of Catalonia or the Catalan countries from Spain and France. The Catalan independence movement began in the 19th century. The separatists believe that Catalonia is a nation. Catalonia has its own language (Catalan language) and culture (Catalan culture).

During the Francisco Franco dictatorship, Catalans and the Catalan language were oppressed. Recently, the number of people who support Catalan independence has increased. In 2012 there was a demonstration in Barcelona with 1.500.000 people. The majority of the parliament in Catalunya wants to have a referendum on independence, and 55% identify as separatists.

The Estelada flag is the symbol of the Catalan independence movement.

References

Catalonia
Nationalist organizations in Europe
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Honiara is the capital city of Solomon Islands and of Guadalcanal Province. It has a population 84,520 (2017).

The town is on the island of Guadalcanal. It was built to replace the former capital of Tulagi at the end of World War II. Honiara became the capital of the Solomon Islands in 1952. The town is on the Kukum Highway, which connects Henderson field in the east of Honiara with the White River in the west, and passes the hospital Nambanaen and the burned down Chinatown. Honiara has a dock from which ships depart to other provinces. The gardens of the National Art Gallery are popular for afternoon strolls.

National capitals in Oceania
Geography of the Solomon Islands

Honiara


Asplenium × boydstoniae, commonly known as Boydston's spleenwort, is a rare, sterile, hybrid fern. It is formed by the crossing of Tutwiler's spleenwort (A. tutwilerae) with ebony spleenwort (A. platyneuron). The hybrid was produced in culture in 1954. It was not discovered in the wild until 1971, when it was found by Kerry S. Walter at Havana Glen, Alabama, the only known wild site for Tutwiler's spleenwort. Walter named it for Kathryn E. Boydston, an expert in fern culture. Except for the tip of its leaf blade, it largely resembles its ebony spleenwort parent.

Description
Asplenium × boydstoniae is a small fern, similar to ebony spleenwort. The stem is a shiny dark brown, its color extending almost to the tip of the leaf blade, where it becomes green. Most of the blade is cut into pinnae, but it has an elongated, lobed tip.

The fronds of A. × boydstoniae can be up to  or  long and  or  wide. The stipe (the stalk of the leaf, below the blade) is  long in medium-sized specimens and a glossy dark brown in color.

Overall, the blade is lance-shaped, and truncated at the base. It is pinnately cut, having from 15 up to 27 pinnae, or from 25 to 35 in larger, cultivated specimens, on each side of the rachis (leaf axis). The tip of the blade is elongated, with the pinnae diminishing into fused lobes and then curved edges before reaching the acute tip. The dark glossy color of the stipe extends into the rachis, going about seven-eighths of the way up the length of the frond (including the stipe), extending further along the underside of the rachis than the upper side. The pinnae are sessile (stalkless), and may have a variety of shapes: roughly triangular, with one side distinctly longer than the other, lance-shaped, or slightly curved. In specimens produced in culture, the pinnae were quite regular in size (that is, similar in size to their immediate neighbors) and in shape, while they were more irregular in wild specimens. Illustrations show a small auricle at the base of each pinna, pointing towards the blade tip.

Nonviable spores are borne in irregularly placed sori up to  long. The sporophyte is triploid and has a chromosome number of 108. The literature does not discuss whether the species possesses the frond dimorphism typical of its parent A. platyneuron.

Asplenium × boydstoniae can potentially be confused with other Asplenium hybrids and orthospecies (non-hybrids) in the Appalachian Asplenium complex. Among orthospecies, it is most similar to A. platyneuron, from which it can be distinguished by its elongated blade tip, the green color on the apical one-eighth of its rachis, and, microscopically, by its abortive spores. It is similar to two other hybrids in the complex, Graves' spleenwort (A. × gravesii) and Kentucky spleenwort (A. × kentuckiense). In both of these, the pinnae have short stalks, rather than being sessile; the pinnae are fewer, typically from 5 to 12 rather than 25 or more; and the dark color of the stipe and rachis extends only halfway up the frond. It is easily distinguished from A. tutwilerae, which has fewer pinnae which are more pointed and dramatically irregular, and a longer stipe and shorter leaf blade.

Taxonomy
The species was first discussed by Herb Wagner, who produced it in culture in 1954 by breeding gametophytes of Tutwiler's spleenwort with those of ebony spleenwort, although he did not bestow a specific epithet on it. Wagner noted that it was unlikely to be discovered in the wild, except possibly in Hale County, Alabama (site of the only wild population of Tutwiler's spleenwort). The species was, indeed, first discovered in the wild there, in 1971, by Kerry S. Walter. Walter described the species in 1982, naming it ×Asplenosorus boydstonae in honor of Kathryn E. Boydston, an expert in the artificial culture of spleenworts and other ferns. He placed it in ×Asplenosorus to indicate its descent from walking fern, one of the hybrid parents of Tutwiler's spleenwort, which was often placed in the genus Camptosorus instead of Asplenium. In the following year, John W. Short, who did not recognize Camptosorus as a separate genus, transferred the combination to Asplenium and corrected the grammar of Walter's epithet, making it Asplenium × boydstoniae. Since then, phylogenetic studies have shown that Camptosorus nests within Asplenium, and current treatments do not recognize it as a separate genus.

Distribution and habitat
Asplenium × boydstoniae was produced in culture in the laboratory before it was ever discovered in the wild, and was probably the first fern to be so described. It is known in the wild only from Havana Glen, Hale County, Alabama. The type specimens were found growing on a moss- and crustose lichen-covered rock. The local rock is a conglomerate, with siliceous pebbles cemented in sandstone of the Pottsville Formation, which contains iron and small amounts of calcium. The soil pH is slightly acid (5 to 6).

See also
Asplenium hybrids

Notes and references

Notes

References

Works cited

External links
NatureServe Explorer

boydstoniae
Plant nothospecies
Plants described in 1982
Flora of Alabama
Hale County, Alabama
Ferns of the United States
Endemic flora of the United States

Asplenium × boydstoniae


The Orto Botanico di Firenze (2.3 hectares), also known as the Giardino dei Semplici, the "Garden of simples", is a botanical garden maintained by the University of Florence. It is located at Via Micheli, 3, Florence, Italy, and open weekday mornings.

The garden was established on December 1, 1545, by Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and is Europe's third oldest, behind the Orto Botanico di Pisa and the Orto Botanico di Padova. It was first laid out by landscape gardener Niccolò Pericoli to a botanical system and plantings chosen by Luca Ghini, and rose to prominence under Cosimo III, with Pier Antonio Micheli as its director. As was typical of early European botanical gardens, its prime interest was in medicinal plants. However, as in 1753 the Società Botanica was formed, the garden's focus turned to "experimental agriculture" and its layout was revised accordingly. The garden grounds opened to the public in the mid-19th century, at about the same time that its glass houses (1694 m²) were constructed.

Today the garden contains some 9,000 plant specimens laid out in a roughly square site surrounded by walls, crossed by a grid of walkways, and with a central fountain. Some trees are quite old, including a Taxus baccata (1720) and Quercus suber (1805). Other species include:

Notes

See also
 List of botanical gardens in Italy
 Museo di Storia Naturale di Firenze
Certosa di Pisa

External links
Giardino dei semplici - Museo di Storia Naturale di Firenze
Giardino dei semplici -  Gruppo di Lavoro per gli Orti Botanici ed i Giardini Storici della Società Botanica Italiana
Botanical Garden Florence

1545 establishments in Italy
Botanical gardens in Italy
University of Florence
Gardens in Florence
Tourist attractions in Florence
Museo di Storia Naturale di Firenze

Orto Botanico di Firenze


The Treaties of Tilsit (, , ) were two agreements signed by French Emperor Napoleon in the town of Tilsit in July 1807 in the aftermath of his victory at Friedland. The first was signed on 7 July, between Napoleon and Russian Emperor Alexander, when they met on a raft in the middle of the Neman River. The second was signed with Prussia on 9 July. The treaties were made at the expense of King Frederick William III of Prussia, who had already agreed to a truce on 25 June after the  had captured Berlin and pursued him to the easternmost frontier of his realm. In Tilsit, he ceded about half of his pre-war territories.

From those territories, Napoleon had created French sister republics, which were formalized and recognized at Tilsit: the Kingdom of Westphalia, the Duchy of Warsaw and the Free City of Danzig; the other ceded territories were awarded to existing French client states and to Russia.

Napoleon not only cemented his control of Central Europe but also had Russia and the truncated Prussia ally with him against his two remaining enemies, the United Kingdom and Sweden, triggering the Anglo-Russian and Finnish wars. Tilsit also freed French forces for the Peninsular War. Central Europe became a battlefield again in 1809 when Austria and the UK engaged France in the War of the Fifth Coalition.

Franco-Russian treaty (7 July)

The treaty ended the war between Imperial Russia and the French Empire and began an alliance between the two empires that rendered the rest of continental Europe almost powerless. The two countries secretly agreed to aid each other in disputes. France pledged to aid Russia against the Ottoman Empire while Russia agreed to join the Continental System against the British Empire. Napoleon also convinced Alexander to enter into the Anglo-Russian War and to instigate the Finnish War against Sweden to force Sweden to join the Continental System. More specifically, the Tsar agreed to evacuate Wallachia and Moldavia, which had been occupied by Russian forces as part of the Russo-Turkish War, 1806-1812. The Ionian Islands and Cattaro (Kotor), which had been captured by Russian admirals Ushakov and Senyavin, were to be handed over to the French. In recompense, Napoleon guaranteed the sovereignty of the Duchy of Oldenburg and several other small states ruled by the Tsar's German relatives.

Franco-Prussian treaty (9 July)

The treaty with Prussia stripped the country of about half its territory: Cottbus passed to Saxony, the left bank of the Elbe was awarded to the newly created Kingdom of Westphalia, Białystok was given to Russia (which led to the creation of the Belostok Oblast), and most of the Polish lands in Prussian possession since the Second and Third Partitions became the quasi-independent Duchy of Warsaw. Prussia was to reduce the army to 43,000 and on 9 March 1808, France fixed its tribute to be levied from Prussia at 154,500,000 francs (= Prussian dollar 41.73 mio.), deducting 53,500,000, which had been raised so far during the ongoing French occupation. The sum was lowered in two steps to 120 million francs by 1 November 1808.

Talleyrand had advised Napoleon to pursue milder terms; the treaties marked an important stage in his estrangement from the emperor. Until 1812, the French occupants requisitioned in money and kind from various corporations and persons, especially by billetting soldiers on cities, further contributions additionally amounting to between 146 and 309 million francs, according to different calculations. The Prussian government indebtedness soared between 1806 and 1815 by thaler 200 million to altogether 180.09 million interest-bearing debts, 11.24 million non-interest-bearing unconsolidated treasury notes and another 25.9 million former provincial debts assumed by the royal government. The cities' debts, especially those of Berlin often billetted on, were not assumed by the Prussian government. Since the creditors deemed Prussia to be over-indebted in 1817, the 4-per cent state bonds were traded at the bourses with a disagio of 27 to 29 percent, in 1818 even with a discountor of 35 percent, causing the effective interest to rise to 6.15 percent. At restructuring part of the debts in 1818 by a £5 million loan (= thaler 30 million) at 5% at the London financial market, the Prussian government had to accept a disagio of 28⅓%, thus paying an annual effective rate of 6.98%.

When the Treaty was being formulated, it was noted by an observer that the Prussian king was pacing on the bank of the Neman river; Napoleon had to "but raise his hand, and Prussia would cease to exist" (McKay). Hence, many observers in Prussia and Russia viewed the treaty as unequal and as a national humiliation. The Russian soldiers refused to follow Napoleon's commands, as the Lisbon Incident demonstrated to all Europe. Napoleon's plans to marry the tsar's sister were stymied by Russian royalty. Cooperation between Russia and France eventually broke down in 1810 when the tsar began to allow neutral ships to land in Russian ports. In 1812, Napoleon crossed the Neman River and invaded Russia, ending any vestige of alliance.

Territorial and population losses suffered by Prussia

The Prussian state was diminished by more than half under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit, from 5,700 square miles to 2,800 square miles. Compared to the 9.75 million inhabitants Prussia had prior to the Treaties of Tilsit, no more than 4.5 million inhabitants remained within the new boundaries of the Prussian state.

The state revenue, which formerly amounted to forty million dollars per year, was decreased in a even greater proportion. The ceded provinces were rich and fertile, and many millions had been spent on their improvement. Almost all that Prussia had gained by the partitions of Poland (1772–1795) was taken away from Prussia. The Kingdom of Saxony, a former confederate of Prussia, was the recipient of the provinces. Russia, the more powerful of its erstwhile allies, gained territory with a population of 200,000 inhabitants. The following is a tabulation of the territorial and population losses that Prussia sustained, but not accounting for the Prussian acquisitions since 1772, under the terms of the Tilsit Treaties:

Aftermath

The War of the Fourth Coalition was over. The Peninsular War began on 19 November 1807 and the War of the Fifth Coalition began in 1809.

The Neman was crossed at the outset of the 1812 French invasion of Russia.

Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the Congress of Vienna would restore many Prussian territories.

By signing these treaties, France left Persia and the Ottomans, who had previously hoped for France's help under treaties with France (including Finckenstein), in the face of Russian aggression, and established the loss of parts of Persia in the Caucasus, such as the present-day republics Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia.

References

External links

Tilsit
Tilsit
Tilsit
Duchy of Warsaw
1807 in France
1807 in Germany
Tilsit
Tilsit
Tilsit
Tilsit
Tilsit
1807 in the Russian Empire
1807 in Prussia
July 1807 events
French rule in the Ionian Islands (1807–1814)
Alexander I of Russia
Frederick William III of Prussia

Treaties of Tilsit


A teletypewriter (TTY; also called a teletype or teleprinter) is a device that sends a typed message to another place. A teletypewriter has a typewriter keyboard, a local printer (so the user can see what has been typed) and a transmitter. Messages can be sent over wires or radio waves. Teletypes were used mostly in the early to mid-20th century. They were developed to improve telegraphs, some of which also used keyboards, though not typewriter keyboards.

Though teleprinters have been replaced by other technologies, TDDs (Telecommunications Devices for the Deaf), which are based on the idea and design of teletypes, are still used these days. Not all people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech-impaired have switched to using instant messaging or texting or other modern services. Many still type messages back and forth to one another by TDD.

Related pages
 Video Relay Service

Other websites
 About the TTY

Electronics
Writing

Telegraphy

Teletypewriter


Payazzo (or pajatso) is a traditional Finnish gambling arcade game, dating back to the 1920s, when it was introduced into Finland from Germany.  The object of payazzo is to flick a coin into one of the winning slots. When the attempt is successful, the machine rewards the player with a couple of coins. If the attempt is unsuccessful, the player loses the flicked coin.

Name

The game is called pajatso in Finnish. It is a Fennicized form of bajazzo, the name of the early German models. Bajazzo refers to an Italian-style clown (pagliaccio in Italian). Finland's Slot Machine Association (Finnish: Raha-automaattiyhdistys or RAY), the manufacturer of today's payazzo machines, uses payazzo in English for pajatso.

In Finland, the game is often referred to informally as Jasso. The popularity of the nickname was proven as the manufacturer decided to use only the informal form in the names of some models of payazzo combining coin flicking with an electronic game of luck. These models are Hedelmäjazzo (Fruit Jazzo) from the early nineties and Komeetta Jasso (The Comet-Jasso), which is used today.

Description of a payazzo machine

Physically, a payazzo machine looks like an arcade cabinet, but it is slightly wider than an ordinary video game arcade cabinet. The front panel of the machine is transparent to allow the player see the flight of the coin.

Behind the transparent front panel there is a vertical playing area that is less than a meter wide and approximately twenty centimeters high (for machines with a single row of winning slots). The thickness of the playing area is slightly more than the thickness of the coin. In the playing area, there are the winning slots, typically nine in modern models, in one row (two rows in some models). The row spans horizontally the entire length of the playing area, and it is slightly below the point where the coin enters the playing area.

A metal ring used to hit the coin is on the right side of the machine (rather than on the front panel) at the height of a typical user's chest. In traditional models, the slot for feeding coins into the machine is on the top of the machine.

In traditional models, also the supply of coins available for paying winnings is visible through the transparent front panel. This way the player can estimate whether there is enough money in the machine to pay potential winnings.

Description of the game

The player feeds a coin into the machine and flicks it by hitting a metal ring with a finger. The power of hitting controls the initial speed of the coin; determining the initial speed is the only way the player can control the movement of the coin. The initial flying direction of the coin is constant (to the left and slightly upwards).

The coin enters the playing area from the right side. It bounces off the edges of the playing area and gates, small obstacles next to the entries to the winning slots.

Eventually the coin either drops into one of the winning slots or it falls down between the slots. The positioning of the gates usually makes the latter possibility more likely. In the former case, the player gets a prize of a couple of coins, and in the latter case the player loses the flicked coin. The size of the prize for each winning slot is printed next to the winning slot, varying from two times the value of the flicked coin to ten or even one hundred times the flicked coin. The most valuable winning slots are in the middle of the playing area, and in modern machines the
most valuable slot has a variable payoff so that the best payoff may not be even in principle achievable with every flick.

History

The predecessors of payazzo machines, called bajazzo machines, were manufactured in Germany in the beginning of the 20th century. The game arrived in Finland in the middle of the 1920s, and Finns started calling it pajatso.

The bajazzo machines differed from payazzo machines. In a bajazzo game, a ball was dropped from the top of the machine and the player attempted to catch it into a hat held by a bajazzo figure. The first true payazzo machine was developed in Germany in the late 1920s, and it was called Blau Wunder. In Finland, the name pajatso was used also for this machine.

It became prohibited to operate payazzos in Finland in 1933, except to raise funds for charity. Since 1937, the state-owned operator of gambling machines, Raha-automaattiyhdistys has a monopoly for payazzos. The profits of Raha-automaattiyhdistys are distributed to various charity organizations who promote public health and social welfare.

Raha-automaattiyhdistys has manufactured payazzos since 1938. The basic structure of payazzo remained the same for a long time, except that the denomination of the coin the game was played with varied due to inflation. It is customary to identify the old machines by announcing the denomination of the coin used to play the game, these old machines include 20 penni payazzo (1958), 50 penni payazzo (1967), and one markka payazzo (1976).

With the introduction of the 50 penni payazzo, the gates were introduced. By adjusting the gates, the operator of payazzo can control the difficulty of the game more accurately.

The first electronic payazzo was introduced in 1982; older payazzos were completely mechanical. In electronic payazzos, the actual game is played with a real, physical coin, but the electronics are used to determine if the player feeds money into the machine, to register whether a coin falls into a winning slot and to pay winnings to the player. By using the electronics, it was possible program variable winning sums for each slot.

Today's models

Nowadays, Raha-automaattiyhdistys operates three models of payazzo machines. The first model is Pajatso, which provides a playing experience similar to the traditional mechanical games. The second model is Komeetta Jasso, which combines the payazzo-style coin flicking with an electronic game of luck. In Komeetta Jasso, the player can also change the winning sums the machine pays by flicking a coin into a designated slot. Both of these models are played with the 20 cent coin. The third model is Pajatso RAY, which is played with coin-like metal disks. In addition to the traditional single-flick game, Pajatso Ray has other games consisting of several flicks.

In Finland, payazzos can be found in special gambling arcades, and also in pubs, restaurants and supermarkets.

Outside Finland

During its history, Raha-automaattiyhdistys has exported payazzos into Norway, Soviet Union, Hungary, Australia, Netherlands, Las Vegas, Iceland and Sweden. Nowadays, payazzo can be played, in addition to Finland, in Chile, where a local operator uses Finnish electronic payazzos.

In popular culture

 In the song Iisalmen discossa Juice Leskinen sings that he skipped a slow dance while he played payazzo in a discotheque.
 In the song Raptori the rap group Raptori sings that they bought their leather jackets at a thrift store after winning a jackpot in payazzo.
 From December 2008 to September 2009, the Apple App Store contained the coin game entitled "Pajatzo".

See also

 Pachinko is a similar Japanese game, played with steel balls instead of coins.

References

 Finland's Slot Machine Association (Raha-automaattiyhdistys, RAY)
 Timo Vainikaisen automaatit
RAY: Gaming operations: Slot machines: Payazzo

External links
Playable electronic (Flash) version, no actual money involved (Finnish language)

Slot machines
Finnish games

Payazzo


If an item is produced in large quantities, this is usually called mass production. The item produced is called product, and it is usually made in a factory. The items produced will all be the same type. The process of making large quantities will usually require the use of standardized products or product groups. It also depends heavily on interchangeable parts.

Today, machines are often used to mass produce such items. Using division of labour, a greater number of items can be produced. Adam Smith used the example of a needle: With division of labour, it is possible to produce more needles in the same time. Frederick Winslow Taylor, the father of Taylorism also used the division of labour: he wanted to divide the tasks into planning tasks, and execution.

References

Economics

Mass production


The Lost Creek Wilderness is a  wilderness area located in central Colorado in Jefferson and Park counties, south of the town of Bailey. The area is situated entirely within the boundaries of the Pike National Forest.

The Lost Creek Scenic Area is a 16,798-acre National Natural Landmark within the Wilderness.

Wilderness

The area is named for Lost Creek, a perennial stream that disappears and reappears before finally joining Goose Creek, which empties into the South Platte River at Cheesman Reservoir just east of the Wilderness area. The entire water system of the area forms a watershed for the Platte River Basin. The area is notable for its many rock formations, natural arches, and rounded granite domes and knobs. These are contained in two ranges of low alpine foothills of the Rocky Mountains: the Kenosha Mountains and the Tarryall Mountains.  Bison Peak is the highest peak in the wilderness.

Because of its proximity to Denver, the area is quite popular for outdoor recreation in both the summer and winter months. Common activities in the area include hiking, backpacking, and rock climbing, as well as cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and winter camping. There are  of trails in the wilderness, including a section of the Colorado Trail that crosses Lost Creek then parallels the northeast boundary toward Kenosha Pass.

Lost Park, as the area is sometimes called, was one of the last refuges of the American bison in the United States.

Scenic area

The Lost Creek Scenic Area is a  site within the Lost Creek Wilderness that was created in 1963 under the 1939 "U-Regulations", which was the precursor of the Wilderness Act. The area was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1966. It is located in the Pike National Forest and is in both Park and Jefferson counties. Rock formations with pinnacles and spires are located in narrow gorges and on ridges. An underground stream "disappears and reappears" nine times or more at the site.

In popular culture
Episode 2 of Season 1 of the television series Supernatural takes place within the Lost Creek Wilderness area, specifically at the fictitious Blackwater Ridge.

Notes

References

IUCN Category Ib
Protected areas of Jefferson County, Colorado
Protected areas of Park County, Colorado
Wilderness areas of Colorado
Protected areas established in 1980
Pike National Forest
Natural arches of Colorado
Landforms of Jefferson County, Colorado
Landforms of Park County, Colorado

Lost Creek Wilderness


Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side (left bank) of the Orontes River on the site of the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.

It was founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals. Antioch became a rival of Alexandria as the chief city of the nearer East and the cradle of gentile Christianity. It was one of the four cities of the Syrian tetrapolis.

The geographical character of the district north and north-east of the elbow of Orontes makes it the perfect natural centre of Syria, so long as that country is held by a western power; and only Asiatic, and especially Arab, dynasties have neglected it for the oasis of Damascus. During the Crusades, the Christian crusaders laid siege to Antioch. One Wijerd Jelckamas ancestors from his father's side of the family had died at the Siege of Antioch.
The siege of Antioch (lost by the Crusaders, initially), was a turning point in the Crusades.

History of Antioch
Alexander the Great is said to have camped on the site of Antioch, and dedicated an altar to Zeus Bottiaeus

After Alexander's death in 323 BC, his generals divided up the territory he had conquered. Seleucus I Nicator won the territory of Syria, and he founded four "sister cities" in north-western Syria - Antioch, Seleucia Pieria, Apamea and Laodicea-on-the-Sea. Although Seleucia Pieria was at first the Seleucid capital city in north-western Syria, Antioch soon rose above it to become the Syrian capital.

The original city of Seleucus was laid out in imitation of the plan of Alexandria by the architect Xenarius.
The new city was populated by a mix of local settlers, Athenians brought from the nearby city of Antigonia, Macedonians, and Jews (who were given full status from the beginning). The total free population of Antioch at its foundation has been estimated at between 17,000 and 25,000, not including slaves and native settlers. During the late Hellenistic period and Early Roman period, the population reached its peak of over 500,000 inhabitants (estimates vary from 400,000 to 600,000) and it was the third largest city in the world after Rome and Alexandria. By the 4th century, Antioch's declining population was about 200,000 according to John Chrysostom, a figure which again does not include slaves.

Antioch became the capital and court-city of the western Seleucid empire under Antiochus I, its counterpart in the east being Seleucia on the Tigris.

The Romans both felt and expressed boundless contempt for the hybrid Antiochenes; but the Roman emperors favoured the city from the first, seeing in it a more suitable capital for the eastern part of the empire than Alexandria could ever be, because of the isolated position of Egypt. To a certain extent they tried to make it an eastern Rome.
The chief interest of Antioch under the empire lies in its relation to Christianity.
 Evangelized perhaps by Peter, according to the tradition upon which the Antiochene patriarchate still rests its claim for primacy (cf. Acts xi.), and certainly by Barnabas and Paul, who here preached his first Christian sermon in a synagogue, its converts were the first to be called Christians (Acts 11:26).

In 638, during the reign of the emperor Heraclius, Antioch was conquered by the Muslim Arabs during the Battle of Iron Bridge, and became known in Arabic as أنطاكيّة Antākiyyah.

Antakya

In recent years, what remains of the Roman and late antique city have suffered severe damage as a result of construction related to the expansion of Antakya. In the 1960s, the last surviving Roman bridge was demolished to make way for a modern two-lane bridge. The northern edge of Antakya has been growing rapidly over recent years, and this construction has begun to expose large portions of the ancient city, which are frequently bulldozed and rarely protected by the local museum.

Antakya was badly damaged and many people died in the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake.

References

Other websites

 Richard Stillwell, ed. Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, 1976: "Antioch on the Orontes (Antaky), Turkey"
 Antioch (Antakya) Includes timeline, maps, and photo galleries of Antioch's mosaics and artifacts
 Antakya Museum Many photos of the collection in Antakya's museum, in particular Roman mosaics
 The Ancient City of Antioch  Map

4th-century BC establishments
Hatay Province

Antioch