The Caecilians are an order (Gymnophiona or Apoda) of amphibians. Most of them look like either earthworms or snakes. They burrow in the ground. For this reason, they are the least explored order of amphibians.

Anatomy
Caecilians have no limbs. For this reason, the smaller species look like worms, while the larger species with lengths up to 1.5 m look similar to snakes. The tail is short and the cloaca is near the end of the body. Their skin is smooth and usually dark in colour. Some species have colorful skins, though. Inside the skin are calcite scales. Due to their underground life the eyes are small. Skin often covers them, to protect them. This has led to the idea that they are blind, which is not the case. Because of the skin cover, their seeing is limited to simple dark-light perception. They can tell the difference between dark and light. All Caecilians have two tentacles at their head. The tentacles are probably used for a second smelling capability in addition to the normal sense of smell based in the nose.

Most Caecilians have lungs, except for two lungless species. Those that have lungs also use the skin or the mouth to get oxygen. Often the left lung is much smaller than the right one. This is an adaptation to the shape of the body, which is also be found in snakes.

Distribution
They are mostly distributed in the tropics of South and Central America, Africa, and South Asia. The diet of caecilians is not well known. They live in the moist, lower habitats. In South America they can be found well into the temperate north of Argentina. They can be seen as far south as Buenos Aires, when they are carried by the flood waters of the Paraná River coming from farther north. No studies have been made in central Africa, but it is likely that caecilians are found in the tropical rainforests there. The northernmost distribution is of the species Ichthyophis sikkimensis of Northern India. In Africa caecilians are found from Guinea Bissau (Geotrypetes) to Northern Zambia (Scolecomorphus). In South-East Asia the Wallace Line is not crossed, and they are not found in Australia or the islands in between. Ichthyophis is also found in South China and North-Vietnam.

Reproduction

Caecilians are the only order of amphibians which only use internal insemination. The male Caecilians have a penis-like organ, the phallodeum, which is inserted into the cloaca of the female for 2 to 3 hours. About 25% of the species are oviparous (egg-laying); the rest are ovoviviparous, with eggs hatching inside the mother. The eggs are guarded by the female. For some species the young caecilians are already metamorphosed when they hatch, other hatch as larvae. The larvae are not fully aquatic, but spend the daytime in the soil near the water.

In ovoviviparous species the foetus is fed inside the female with special cells of the oviduct, which are eaten by the foetus with special scraping teeth. Some larvae, such as those of Typhlonectes, are born with enormous external gills which are shed almost immediately. The egg laying species Boulengerula taitanus feeds its young by developing a special outer layer of skin, which the young peel off with similar teeth. Ichthyophis is oviparous and is known to show maternal care.

Diet
The diet of caecilians is not known well, though it seems it mostly consists of insects and invertebrates found in the habitat of the respecitive species. The stomach content of 14 specimens of Afrocaecilia taitana consisted of mostly  organic material and plant remains. Where identifiable remains were most abundant, they were found to be termite heads. Caecilians in captivity can be easily fed with earthworms, and worms are also common in the habitat of many caecilian species.

Origin of the name
The name Caecilian derives from the Latin word caecus = blind, referring to the small or sometimes non-existing eyes. The name dates back to the taxonomic name of the first species described by Carolus Linnaeus, which he gave the name Caecilia tentaculata. The taxonomic name of the order derives from the Greek words γυμνος (gymnos, naked) and οφις (ophis, snake), as the caecilians were originally thought to be related to snakes.

Taxonomy

Taxonomically the caecilians are divided into ten families. The species numbers are approximate and many of these species are identified on the basis of only one specimen. It is likely that not all species have been described yet, and that some of the species described below as different may be combined into one species in future reclassifications.
 Beaked Caecilians (Rhinatrematidae) – 2 genera, 9 species
 Fish Caecilians (Ichthyophiidae) – 2 genera, 39 species
 Indian Caecilians (Uraeotyphlidae) – 1 genus, 5 species
 Tropical Caecilians (Scolecomorphidae) – 2 genera, 6 species
 Aquatic Caecilians (Typhlonectidae) – 5 genera, 13 species
 Common Caecilians (Caeciliidae) – 26 genera, 99 species

The recent discovery of a tenth family in north-east India has been announced.

Recent discoveries
A Swiss researcher Daniel Hofer has recently found that certain caecilians produce potent skin poisons from specialized poison glands. The poison prevents predation and the poison of the bright yellow caecilian of São Tomé Island (Schistometopum thomense) in West Africa kills other animals kept in the same tank within a few days. The chemical contents of caecilian poison have not been well studied. Werner Himstedt has shown that the skin glands of Ichthyophis protects the eggs from germs and fungi. It has also been shown that these poisons are very different from those from other amphibians such as the arrow poison frogs.

In 2020, scientists from the University of Utah said some caecilians have venom glands in their mouths that come out near their teeth.  They did not see any muscles to push the venom out the way snakes have.  The scientists said they thought the caecilian would have to hold on to its prey for a long time and thrash its body around to get the venom out.

The hatchlings of the oviparous East African Boulengerula taitanus have special teeth that allow them to peel and eat their mother's skin. The mother's skin in this species was found to be thicker than normal and contained a high level of fat and other nutrients.

References

 Werner Himstedt, Die Blindwühlen,  (German)

Other websites
 Image of Grandisonia alternans, a Seychelles caecilain
 New Scientist article on Boulengerula taitanus
 Video of Boulengerula behaviour

Caecilian


Arthur Alfred Lynch (16 October 1861 – 25 March 1934) was an Irish Australian civil engineer, physician, journalist, author, soldier, anti-imperialist and polymath. He served as MP in the UK House of Commons as member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, representing Galway Borough from 1901 to 1902, and later West Clare from 1909 to 1918. Lynch fought on the Boer side during the Boer War in South Africa, for which he was sentenced to death but later pardoned. He supported the British war effort in the First World War, raising his own Irish battalion in Munster towards the end of the war.

Australian years
Lynch was born at Smythesdale near Ballarat, Victoria, the fourth of 14 children. His father, John Lynch, was an Irish Catholic surveyor and civil engineer and his mother Isabella (née MacGregor) was Scottish. John Lynch was a founder and first president of the Ballarat School of Mines, and a captain of Peter Lalor at the Eureka Stockade rebellion (1854) and John Lynch wrote a book, Austral Light (1893–94), about it – later republished as The Story of the Eureka Stockade.

Arthur Lynch was educated at Grenville College, Ballarat, (where he was "entranced" by differential calculus) and the University of Melbourne, where he took the degrees of BA in 1885 and MA in 1887. Lynch qualified as a civil engineer and practised this profession for a short period in Melbourne.

Europe and Ireland
Lynch left Australia and went to Berlin, where he studied physics, physiology and psychology at the University of Berlin in 1888–1889. He had a particular respect for Hermann von Helmholtz. Moving to London, Lynch took up journalism. In 1892, he contested Galway as a Parnellite candidate, but was defeated.

Lynch met Annie Powell (daughter of the Rev. John D. Powell) in Berlin and they were married in 1895. They were to have no children. In Lynch's words, the marriage "never lost its happiness" (My Life Story, p. 85).

In 1898, he was Paris correspondent for the London Daily Mail.

Boer brigade
When the Second Boer War broke out, Lynch was sympathetic to the Boers and decided to go to South Africa as a war correspondent. In Pretoria, he met General Louis Botha, and decided to join the Boer side. Lynch raised the Second Irish Brigade, which consisted of Irishmen, Cape colonists and others opposed to the British. He was given the rank of Colonel and saw limited active service. In his comprehensive history on the Australia's Boer War, Wilcox said, it was misleading to call the 70 or so men in the Irish unit raised by Lynch "a brigade", rather he suggested that "the publicity that comes from spectacular gestures..." made Lynch appear "a romantic warrior" and that his actions "flattered many Irishmen and women...". In contrast, O'Brien's fictional Bye-Bye Dolly Gray, is kinder to Lynch's showy South African exploits and his uitlanders. Michael Davitt who travelled to South Africa has photos of Lynch with his brigade on the veldt in The Boer Fight for Freedom.

Conviction and pardon

From South Africa, Lynch went to the United States, and then returned to Paris, from where he again stood for Galway Borough in November 1901 and was elected in his absence as MP. On going to London, Lynch was arrested for his pro-Boer activities and on remand for eight months. Lynch was tried for treason before three judges, and on 23 January 1903 was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. This sentence was immediately commuted to a life sentence, and a year later Lynch was released "on licence" by the Balfour government.

In July 1907, Lynch was pardoned, and in 1909 he was again elected Member of Parliament, this time for West Clare, in Ireland.

Munster battalion
During World War I, Lynch volunteered for the New British Army. He raised a private 10th Battalion, Royal Munster Fusiliers and was given the rank of colonel, although he and his unit never saw active front service. At the end of the war, Lynch chose to stand as a Labour candidate in newly created Battersea South for the 1918 General election. He finished second to the Conservative candidate.

He had qualified as a physician many years earlier, and began to practise medicine in London, at Haverstock Hill. He died in London on 25 March 1934.

Publications
Lynch wrote and published a large number of books ranging from poetry to a sophisticated attempt to refute Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. His verse was clever and satirically Byronic, and his essays and studies show much reading and acuteness of mind. E. Morris Miller, himself a professor of philosophy, mentions Lynch's "high reputation as a critical and philosophical writer especially for his contributions to psychology and ethics" (Australian Literature, p. 273). His publications include:

Modern Authors (1891)
Approaches the Poor Scholar's Quest of a Mecca (1892)
A Koran of Love (1894)
Our Poets (1894)
Religio Athletae (1895)
Human Documents (1896)
Prince Azreel (1911)
Psychology; A New System (two vol.; 1912)
Purpose and Evolution (1913)
Sonnets of the Banner and the Star (1914)
Ireland: Vital Hour (1915)
Poppy Meadows, Roman Philosophique (1915)
La Nouvelle Ethique (1917)
L'Evolution dons ses Rapports avec l'ethique (1917)
Moments of Genius (1919)
The Immortal Caravel (1920)
Moods of Life (1921)
O'Rourke the Great (1921)
Ethics, an Exposition of Principles (1922)
Principles of Psychology (1923)
Seraph Wings (1923)
My Life Story (1924)
Science, Leading and Misleading (1927)
The Rosy Fingers (1929)
The Case Against Einstein (1932)

Notes

References

John Lynch, The Story of the Eureka Stockade: Epic Days of the Early Fifties at Ballarat, (1895). Republished 1947(?) and later by Ballarat Heritage Services, Ballarat, 1999.

Popular culture
Antony O'Brien, Bye-Bye Dolly Gray, Artillery Publishing, Hartwell, 2006. (a novel includes several sympathetic scenes involving Lynch's exploits on the Colenso, Johannesburg and Transvaal front during 1899 and 1900)

At the Boer War
Craig Wilcox. (2002), Australia's Boer War: The War in South Africa, 1899-1902, Oxford. A blunt appraisal of A.A's action in the war
Michael Davitt. (1902) The Boer Fight For Freedom: From the Beginning of Hostilities to the Peace of Pretoria, Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 3rd ed.

External links

1861 births
1934 deaths
University of Melbourne alumni
Australian non-fiction writers
Australian poets
Royal Munster Fusiliers officers
Irish Parliamentary Party MPs
UK MPs 1900–1906
UK MPs 1906–1910
UK MPs 1910
UK MPs 1910–1918
Australian prisoners sentenced to death
People convicted of treason against the United Kingdom
Prisoners sentenced to death by the United Kingdom
Boer military personnel of the Second Boer War
Australian civil engineers
Recipients of British royal pardons
Relativity critics
People from Smythesdale, Victoria
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Galway constituencies (1801–1922)
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Clare constituencies (1801–1922)
Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates
Writers from the Colony of Victoria

Arthur Lynch (politician)


Tor House and Hawk Tower are buildings in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, United States.  They were the home of poet Robinson Jeffers and family from 1919 to 1999.

The two structures, often referred to jointly as Tor House, are generally believed to have played a crucial role in the development of Robinson Jeffers as a poet, and have inspired many a visitor. Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, describes Tor House as "a poem-like masterpiece" with "more direct intelligence per square inch than any other house in America".

Tor House

The Jeffers family moved into Tor House in August 1919—after Robinson Jeffers had worked as an apprentice in its construction—and lived there for the remainder of their lives. Donnan Jeffers, one of the couple's two sons, lived with his family in the neighboring east wing of the house. They remained there until Donnan and his wife Lee died.

Jeffers named it Tor House after the type of ground on which the house was situated, a granite outcrop that might have been known as a "tor" in southwest England. He described the land he chose as the site for the house as being like a "prow and plunging cutwater" of a ship. The Carmel area's influence in Robinson Jeffers' work becomes apparent in his poems such as his work "The Purse Seine", a poem about the local fishing industry.

Jeffers' routine was to work on his poetry in the attic in the morning and to work on his building projects, such as Hawk Tower and expanding Tor House, in the afternoon.

Construction

Robinson Jeffers and his wife Una bought land at Carmel Point in Spring 1919, and in mid-May they contracted Mike Murphy, an established Carmel developer, to build them a stone cottage at Carmel Point. Murphy's stonemason began work on the house immediately and, with Jeffers signing on later as an apprentice, was able to complete the project by mid-August. Initially the house had one bedroom, a kitchen, a living room, a bathroom, and an attic.

Soon after the cottage was complete, Jeffers himself would begin building a detached garage and a low, enclosing wall for a courtyard. He completed these in 1920, and then began to work on a tower that would take him four years to complete. After ceasing his stonework for a year or two, he then began work on a dining hall that would be completed in 1930. In 1937, Jeffers began work on an east wing that he intended to serve as a home for his sons, who were both in their 20s by then. He was unable to finish this last project due to declining health, but his son Donnan managed to complete it.

The style of stonework on the property varies widely, from rectangular, cut stone of the original cottage, to the pick-a-rock-that-fits stonework of the garage and house extensions, to the wildly pocked and twisting character of Hawk Tower, to the minimalistic work performed by Donnan Jeffers on the East Wing. Stonework from 1924 onward tends to include a wealth of fragments from around the world, including stones, tiles, and various carvings. Quite a number of quotations are also etched in the stone and woodwork of the house.

The cottage was lit by oil lamps until 1949, when Una, dying from cancer, permitted the house to be wired for electricity.

Hawk Tower

After completing a stone garage and wall on his own, Jeffers started work on a tower that would take him four years to complete. He began construction in 1920 at the behest of his wife Una. The stonework for the tower was completed in late 1924. The woodwork was completed by a paid carpenter in 1925. Jeffers named the tower Hawk Tower, purportedly after a hawk that appeared often while he was building the tower, but stopped appearing after he finished construction. He appeared to adopt the hawk as his symbol at the time, placing Una's symbol (a unicorn) above her second-floor door and a hawk above the door to his third-floor lookout.

It was while Jeffers was engaged in building Hawk Tower between 1920 and 1924 that Jeffers is thought to have discovered his voice as a poet. He compiled and printed a limited run of the book Tamar and Other Poems well into the final year of tower stonework. He was not able to find a major publisher for the book until several editors from the Book Club of California discovered him.

The Kuster House

The Kuster House, or the Kuster Castle, is often mistaken for Tor House. It, like Tor House, was built with granite stones from the surf at Carmel Point, but it is a good deal larger. It was built by Una Jeffers' ex-husband Edward "Teddie" Kuster after he followed Una and Robinson Jeffers from Southern California to Carmel. When Kuster built his house (in 1920), he built it next to the Jeffers property. Since that time, most of the Jeffers estate has been sold off, and many houses have been built between the two. The appearance of Kuster's house was generally seen as a scandalous act by the townsfolk, a transparent attempt to win Una back (or at least out-compete her) with a bigger Tor House. In spite of this, Kuster and Jeffers are said to have remained on good terms. Kuster also built (and rebuilt) Carmel's Golden Bough Playhouse.

Visiting Tor House

Tor House is owned by the Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation and has been preserved as it looked during Robinson Jeffers' life. Tours are limited to six people and are available hourly from 10am to 3pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Reservations are required.

References

External links

Biographical museums in California
Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
Houses completed in 1919
Houses completed in 1962
Houses in Monterey County, California
Historic house museums in California
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in California
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Monterey County, California
Literary museums in the United States
Museums in Monterey County, California
National Register of Historic Places in Monterey County, California
History of Monterey County, California
History of the Monterey Bay Area

Tor House and Hawk Tower


The Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) was a corps of the British Army. At its renaming as a Royal Corps in 1918 it was both a supply and repair corps.  In the supply area it had responsibility for weapons, armoured vehicles and other military equipment, ammunition and clothing and certain minor functions such as laundry, mobile baths and photography. The RAOC was also responsible for a major element of the repair of Army equipment.  In 1942 the latter function was transferred to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) and the vehicle storage and spares responsibilities of the Royal Army Service Corps were in turn passed over to the RAOC.  The RAOC retained repair responsibilities for ammunition, clothing and certain ranges of general stores.  In 1964 the McLeod Reorganisation of Army Logistics resulted in the RAOC absorbing petroleum, rations and accommodation stores functions from the Royal Army Service Corps as well as the Army Fire Service, barrack services, sponsorship of NAAFI (EFI) and the management of staff clerks from the same Corps.  On 5 April 1993, the RAOC was one of the corps that amalgamated to form The Royal Logistic Corps (RLC).

The permanent establishment of an Ordnance Office long predated that of a standing army in Britain; it has therefore been claimed that 'in a wide sense, as heirs to the master-bowyers, master-fletchers, master-carpenters and master-smiths who, in mediaeval days, were responsible as Officers of Ordnance for the care and provision of warlike matériel, and to their successors the storekeepers, clerks, artificers, armourers and storemen of the Board of Ordnance, the R.A.O.C. can claim a far longer continuous history and more ancient lineage than any other unit of the British Army'.

Predecessors of the RAOC

Supply and repair of technical equipment, principally artillery and small arms, was the responsibility of the Master General of the Ordnance and the Board of Ordnance from the Middle Ages until they lost their independence in 1855.  Thereafter followed thirty years of fluctuating allocation of responsibilities and a great variety of titles of both corps and individuals. This complex, convoluted and largely unsatisfactory period insofar as Army logistics was concerned was summarised in 1889 as follows:

Before Crimea

The Board of Ordnance had its own military establishment consisting of the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers (who were not at that time part of the British Army). The Storekeeper's department, on the other hand, was part of the civil establishment, though (as with much of the Board's activity) troops were involved in various aspects of its operation when not deployed elsewhere. In any case, modern distinctions between civilian and military personnel were not so clear cut for those serving under the Board: its officers, engineers and artillerymen received their commissions or patents from the Master-General of the Ordnance, as did the Storekeepers, artificers and storemen. Though civilians, the Storekeepers were provided with uniform, akin to that of the Royal Artillery, described in 1833 as a blue coat with red stand-collar and cuffs, gold epaulettes indicating rank and blue trousers with a gold stripe, worn with a gold-hilted sword and a cocked hat; Clerks on the establishment wore the same uniform but without epaulettes. After Waterloo they were given relative rank (for the purpose of allotting appropriate quarters): Storekeepers to rank as lieutenant colonel, Deputy Storekeepers as major (if in independent charge) or else captain, Assistant Storekeepers as lieutenant and Clerks as a non-commissioned officer. The Storekeepers and their Deputies had oversight of the Ordnance Yards, both at home and abroad, however they were never deployed in the theatre of war.

Field Train Department of the Board of Ordnance
By the mid-eighteenth century, Woolwich Warren (the future Royal Arsenal) had outgrown the Tower of London as the main ordnance storage depot in the realm. In times of war, the Board of Ordnance Storekeepers found themselves responsible for conveying guns, ammunition and certain other items to the troops in the field (whereas provision of food, supplies and other equipment was largely dependent on the Commissariat, a department of HM Treasury). Until 1792, the transport and issue of weapons and ammunition to troops in the theatre of war was achieved by the formation of artillery trains, as and where required. In that year, with Britain about to engage in the French Revolutionary Wars, the Board sought to place this ad hoc arrangement on a permanent footing by establishing a Field Train Department. A Lieutenant-General of the Royal Artillery served as its Commandant and a Major-General as his Deputy, but otherwise its personnel were uniformed civilians: under a Senior Commissary based at Woolwich were Commissaries, Assistant Commissaries, Clerks of Stores and Conductors of Stores (equivalent to Majors, Captains, subalterns and NCOs respectively). In peace time nothing more than a small cadre of officers was maintained (at the headquarters in Woolwich), but in time of war they were supplemented by recruits from the Ordnance Storekeeper's department to serve in the field; thus the strength of the Department varied dramatically, from 4 or 5 (during the peaceful years 1828-1853) to 346 at its peak in 1813. Each recruit received special training in the handling of munitions. During the Crimean War a number of Sergeants were seconded from the Royal Artillery to serve as Military Conductors in addition to the civilian staff.

With regard to the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers, the Field Train Department had additional responsibilities: it provided them with pay, clothing, medical supplies and camp equipment when deployed (while the Commissariat provided their food and forage). The Field Train Department provided the Royal Engineers with their pontoon bridges and other specialist equipment, and (until the formation of a separate Corps of Artillery Drivers) provided for the movement of artillery pieces in the field (other than those pertaining to the Royal Horse Artillery). For the duration of conflict the Department's personnel accompanied the Artillery and Engineer units in the field providing them with logistic support (including repair facilities).

Between 1795 and 1815, the Field Train served in thirty expeditions and campaigns. In peacetime, the civilians and sergeants returned to their former duties, but the cadre of officers was retained; they were based initially in the Royal Arsenal, and then in the Grand Depot (just off Woolwich Common) where the guns were stored ready for deployment. At the start of the Crimean War, the Ordnance Field Train was mobilized once again. An parallel supply corps within the Army (the Royal Waggon Train, first established in 1794) had been disbanded as a cost-cutting measure in 1833, however, and its responsibilities devolved again to the Commissariat (which was by now more attuned to peacetime operations than warfare); after a well-publicised series of logistical failings the Commissariat and the Board of Ordnance, as well as the command-structure of the army itself, were all strongly criticised, leading (among other things) to the abolition of the Board (in 1855) and its Field Train Department (in 1859, its officers having transferred to the new Military Store Department).

After Crimea
In the years following the Crimean War three corps can be identified as the direct predecessors of the RAOC.  The Military Store Department (MSD) created in 1861 granted military commissions and provided officers to manage stores inventories.  In parallel a subordinate corps of warrant officers and sergeants, the Military Store Clerks Corps (MSC), was also created to carry out clerical duties.  These small corps (235 officers in the MSD and 44 MSC) were based largely at the Tower of London, Woolwich Arsenal and Weedon Bec, but were also deployable on active service. They were supplemented in 1865 by the establishment at Woolwich of a Military Store Staff Corps  (MSSC) to provide soldiers: initially 200-strong, it had more than doubled in size by 1869, with units in Portsmouth, Devonport, Aldershot, Dublin and Chatham as well as at Woolwich and the Tower.

In 1870 a further reorganisation, ostensibly to simplify management, resulted in the MSD, MSC and MSSC being grouped with the Army Service Corps (ASC) under the Control Department.  The officers remained a separate branch (Ordnance or Military Stores) in the Control Department but the soldiers were absorbed into the ASC.  This arrangement lasted until 1876.

The Control Department was disbanded in 1876.  The Ordnance/Military Store officers joined a newly created Ordnance Stores Department (OSD).  Five years later, in 1881, the soldiers also left the ASC and became the Ordnance Store Corps (OSC).  In 1894 there were further changes.  The OSD was retitled the Army Ordnance Department (AOD) and absorbed the Inspectors of Machinery from the Royal Artillery (RA).  In parallel the OSC was retitled the Army Ordnance Corps (AOC) and at the same time absorbed the Corps of Armourers and the RA's Armament Artificers.

In 1918 the AOD and AOC amalgamated to form the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, and for the first time officers and soldiers served in the same organisation; the Corps received the "Royal" prefix in 1922 in recognition of its service during the First World War.

Ordnance Services Organisation before 1914

Depots and other installations
The earliest depot for military stores was the Tower of London, headquarters of the Ordnance Office, which for many centuries sufficed to hold the country's central stocks of artillery, gunpowder, small arms and ammunition albeit in unsatisfactory circumstances. The Tower continued to be used for storage into the 19th century, but in 1671 the Board of Ordnance acquired a parcel of land at Woolwich which soon supplanted the Tower to become the Board's main ordnance storage depot; manufacture as well as storage of guns and ammunition took place on the site, which was later named the Royal Arsenal. In 1760 the Royal Gunpowder Magazine was established at Purfleet, replacing the Tower as Britain's central repository of gunpowder. In 1808 a modern purpose-built depot was constructed at Weedon, alongside the Grand Union Canal, to serve as a safe repository for guns and ammunition; and in 1813 a new Grand Storehouse was opened in the Royal Arsenal, containing multiple warehouses for all kinds of military stores. When Woolwich Dockyard closed in 1869, the entire dockyard site was taken over by the War Office to become a vast ordnance stores complex, annexed (and linked by rail) to the ordnance stores in the Royal Arsenal; large stocks of barrack stores, harnesses, accoutrements and other general stores were transferred to Woolwich Dockyard from the Tower at this time. At the same time the Military Store Department moved its headquarters from the Tower to the Red Fort at Woolwich (which had originally been built as the infirmary for the adjacent Royal Marine Barracks, linked to the nearby Dockyard); as Red Barracks, it would continue to serve as the regimental Depot, headquarters and home of the ordnance corps for the next fifty years. Finally, by about 1887, large stocks of small arms were moved from the Tower of London to Weedon, leaving the Tower to serve as a repository of ancient arms and armour and as a small Ordnance centre for troops in London.

In addition to these central depots, ordnance yards in the naval and garrison towns of Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth held reserve stocks of camp equipment, entrenching tools, small-arms and ammunition, accoutrements, harness and saddlery (similar stores were also provided at Dublin, Gibraltar and Malta). During the Crimean War, however, these arrangements proved unequal to the task of equipping an army with speed at a time of mobilization. After the war an Ordnance station was established as part of the new training camp at Aldershot: a hutted encampment was provided for troops to practise combined training, alongside a depot to furnish them with field stores. In the 1880s an effort was made to decentralise the reserves of equipment; as many as sixty-two small regional centres were set up, in an effort to bring stores closer to the units that would use them. Later, with the establishment of larger camps and garrisons in the early 20th century, these were consolidated into eighteen larger Ordnance stations. At the same time, during the period from the 1860s to 1914, various depots were established to support the Army throughout the world (with the notable exception of India where the Indian Army managed its own parallel organisation in Ordnance Depot Quetta, Rawalpindi and Karachi (then British India and now Pakistan), the Indian Army Ordnance Corps (IAOC). In 1881 there were detachments in Dublin, Jersey, Gibraltar, Malta, Bermuda, Canada, St Helena, Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius and Straits Settlements. There was also a substantial detachment supporting the Anglo-Zulu War in Natal.

In 1895 the Royal Army Clothing Department, with its factory and depot at Pimlico, was taken over by the AOD which then became responsible for the provision of uniforms and other items of clothing for much of the army.

Field units

In 1855 Captain Henry Gordon (brother of the famous Gordon of Khartoum) left the Army and joined the Ordnance department; From March that year until July 1856 he was sent to Balaklava to take charge of all stores for all branches of the army: the first time an Ordnance Storekeeper had been appointed in the field of battle. The following year, a memorandum was issued making it clear that, in future, a staff of Military Store officers, clerks, artificers and labourers should accompany troops at time of war to ensure abundant provision of equipment for immediate use together with effective maintenance of reserve stocks in the field. These arrangements were put into practice both in China and in New Zealand in 1860. The labourers and artificers were civilians, until the establishment of the Military Store Staff Corps in 1865.

There was substantial support by the RAOC's predecessors for every late Victorian expedition with the major efforts being the campaigns in Egypt and the Sudan (1882-5 and 1898) and the Boer War (1899-1902).  All campaigns required the support of very large numbers of troops, animals and equipment in hostile environments.  They produced a well-developed system of stores dumps and repair facilities along extended lines of communication.

First World War

As with the rest of the British Army the AOD/AOC was transformed by the First World War.  Both the sheer scale of the war and the increasing technical complexity created an organisational structure that, in its outlines, survives until today.  The depots at Woolwich, Weedon and Pimlico were supplemented by the wholesale takeover of warehouses throughout the country and in early 1915 a depot was established at Didcot to be the major focus for the receipt and distribution of RAOC stores.  Ammunition storage was also expanded dramatically and the former peacetime magazines at places such as Purfleet, Portsmouth and Plymouth were supplemented by purpose built depots at Bramley, Altrincham, Credenhill and Didcot.

On the Western Front a highly successful logistic infrastructure, largely rail based, was created to support the front.  Parallel systems, but of less complexity, supported operations in Italy. Other expeditions such as Gallipoli, Salonika, Palestine and Mesopotamia brought supply challenges and a large logistic bases were established on the Egyptian Canal Zone and Basra.

1920–1945

After the war there was considerable retrenchment. In the 1920s the RAOC's principal depots were Bramley (ammunition), Chilwell (general and surplus stores), Hereford (ammunition), Pimlico (clothing), Woolwich (gun stores and ammunition) and Weedon (small arms). In 1922 the RAOC headquarters, regimental depot and School of Instruction moved from Woolwich to Hilsea Barracks on the edge of Portsmouth. (The School provided education and training in all aspects of the Corps' work, with the exception of ammunition which was taught at Bramley, where the Army School of Ammunition was opened that same year.) The Royal Army Clothing Depot, Pimlico, closed in 1932 and its stock was mostly transferred to Didcot.

In the 1930s re-armament and the mechanisation of the Army led to a redesign of the UK base.  A Central Ordnance Depot (COD) and workshop to support vehicles, built on the site of the First World War National Shell Filling Factory, Chilwell, opened in 1937.  The operation of this depot was notable in that it mirrored and tried to improve on best civilian practice at the time; this became a hallmark of RAOC development in the following decades. COD Branston was established in 1938, initially to serve as the Army's main clothing store, freeing up space at COD Didcot. At the outbreak of the Second World War there were five CODs: Branston, Chilwell, Didcot, Weedon and Woolwich.

Woolwich was prone to aerial bombardment, so from September 1939 the War Department leased part of an industrial estate in Greenford, which provided 632,000 square feet of covered accommodation. A further COD to hold non-vehicle technical stores opened at Donnington, Shropshire in 1940 (in order to remove critical items from Woolwich to a less vulnerable site) and purpose-built depots for both tracked and wheeled vehicles were opened across the country. Woolwich then ceased operating as a COD (though by the end of 1942 it was again being used for bulk storage, albeit as a sub-depot of COD Greenford).

In the 1930s virtually all the Army's stockpile of ammunition was held at Bramley, which was vulnerable to air attack, so three new Central Ammunition Depots (CAD) were built: Serving south, central and northern England respectively, these were CAD Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire (also known as CAD Corsham, an underground depot); CAD Nesscliffe, Shropshire; and CAD Longtown, Cumbria. By 1942 more storage capacity was required and another CAD was opened: Kineton. That same year a very large COD, widely spread out across the Oxfordshire countryside to mitigate the risk of bomb damage, opened at Bicester to hold stores principally to support the invasion of France.

Forward of the UK base, a huge array of temporary depots were built to meet the rapidly changing pace of war.  Base Ordnance Depots (BOD) and Base Ammunition Depots (BAD) sprung up all over the world wherever a major line of communication was established.

Major changes took place after 1942 when the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) absorbed most of the RAOC repair functions and the RAOC in turn took over the RASC's vehicle organisation.  The more mobile nature of the Second World War also led to the creation of units at divisional and corps level with higher levels of mobility.  The most notable of these was the ordnance field park, principally carrying vehicle and technical stores spares.

Post-war to 1993

During the war the RAOC HQ (together with the RAOC School) had moved from Hilsea to Middleton Stoney (Bicester); in 1946 it moved again to Matthew Barracks, Tidworth and shortly afterwards to Deepcut. The regimental depot was also moved from Hilsea, in 1946, to Feltham Barracks, Middlesex; in 1955 it too moved to Deepcut. Hilsea, which had been used by the US Army during the war, continued to be used (alongside Deepcut) as a training facility for RAOC-enlisted National Service recruits; with National Service coming to an end the Barracks closed in 1962 (but not before serving again, temporarily, as the regimental depot from 1960-1962 while Deepcut was being rebuilt).

A major task that fell to the RAOC in the wake of the war was disposal of ammunition. As well as disposing of large amounts of surplus stock from depots at home, and returning in good order sites that had been requisitioned for the duration of the war, RAOC units were heavily involved in clearing ammunition from Germany's former depots and dealing with live devices still in the field. The RAOC's skills in bomb disposal were later put to increasing use in dealing with terrorist devices at home as well as in conflict zones overseas. The training of Ammunition Examiners, Ammunition Technicians and Ammunition Technical Officers at the Army School of Ammunition became progressively more specialised during the 1950s and '60s. In May 1970 a section of 321 EOD Unit was sent to Northern Ireland to support the local ammunition inspectorate in dealing with improvised explosive devices; what was initially a 6-month deployment marked the start of a much longer involvement through the Troubles.

In the period 1945–93 the RAOC, as with the rest of the Army, reduced greatly in size and closed its worldwide bases as garrisons withdrew. At the same time, there was considerable development of warehousing techniques and information technology (the first move towards computerisation came with the opening of an Automated Data Processing Installation at Chilwell in 1963 and one at Bicester the following year.)

The Free Officers Movement (Egypt) concluded the Anglo–Egyptian Agreement of 1954, signed on 19 October, with Great Britain. The agreement stipulated a phased evacuation of British troops from the Suez base, agreed to withdrawal of all troops within 20 months (that is, June 1956); maintenance of the base was to be continued; and allowed Britain to hold the right to return for seven years. The compromise solution to retain British influence over the Suez Canal base area, seen as vital in the event of any future Middle East war with the Soviet Union, was to arrange the Canal Zone depot area to be taken over by specially arranged British civilian contractors. As the risk of British-Egyptian ruptures over the Suez Canal rose, between September 20, 1955, and December 30, 1955, almost all the Middle East Land Forces Canal Zone depots and workshops were handed over to the contractors. Among them were 2 Base Workshop, 5 Base Ordnance Depot, and the Base Vehicle Depot all at Tel el Kebir; 9 Base Ammunition Depot at Abu Sultan near Deversoir Air Base; and the engineering base group (probably including Nos 8 and 9 Engineer Stores Base Depots at Suez and Fanara respectively). Other establishments included 33 Supply Reserve Depot and 10 Base Ordnance Depot.

In the mid-1960s new recruits were informed that 'The RAOC occupies nearly 90 different locations in the UK alone and world wide uses 86,000,000 square feet of storage space. Over 1,000,000 different items are held in stock and over 11,000,000 issues are made in a year'. By 1980 the RAOC was reduced to two CODs at Bicester and Donnington (COD Chilwell was closing, CODs Branston and Didcot had closed in 1963 and Weedon in 1965 after being downgraded from a COD in 1957), two CADs at Kineton and Longtown (Nesscliffe had closed in 1959, Corsham in 1963 and Bramley in 1974) and three Central Vehicle Depots: Ludgershall for 'A' (armoured) vehicles, and Ashchurch and Hilton for 'B' ('soft-skinned') vehicles (CVD Marchington having closed in 1965, CVDs Feltham and Irvine in the early 1970s).

Across the UK the structure of smaller Regional Depots, Ordnance Support Units (OSUs), Training Materiel Parks, supply depots and Ammunition Sub-Depots was steadily run down. A reconfiguration in the late 1960s provided four Regional Depots (Thatcham, Hereford, Catterick and Stirling) and nine OSUs: Aldershot, Ashford, Burscough, Colchester, Feltham, Old Dalby, Thetford, Tidworth and Woolwich (which had been downgraded following the closure of the Royal Ordnance Factory and the sale of the old Dockyard). At the height of the Northern Ireland troubles Ordnance Depot Kinnegar was a major logistic facility but is now much reduced.

Overseas, 3 BOD in Singapore closed in 1972 leaving a Composite Ordnance Depot in Hong Kong (that finally closed shortly before handover in 1997). The Middle East logistic base withdrew from Egypt in 1956 – 5 BOD and 9 BAD closing in 1955 – and was partially re-established in Aden; in turn this closed in 1967 with facilities being established in Sharjah and Bahrain (these, in turn, closed in 1971). The Ordnance depot in Gibraltar, where the Board of Ordnance had first established a facility in 1704, was transferred to the Royal Navy in 1964; and the depot in Malta, dating from the 1830s, closed in March 1972. The Ordnance Depot in Cyprus became part of the Joint Logistic Unit in 1988.  In Germany, 15 BOD and 3 Base Ammunition and Petrol Depot (BAPD) closed in 1992.

Two post-war campaigns (Falklands 1982 and Gulf 1990/1) were unique in being fought in areas completely outside existing theatres.  Temporary lines of communication were rapidly established that successfully managed huge surges in matériel.

Formation of Royal Logistic Corps
On 5 April 1993, following the Options for Change review, the Royal Army Ordnance Corps united with the Royal Corps of Transport, the Royal Pioneer Corps, the Army Catering Corps, and the Postal and Courier Service of the Royal Engineers, to form the Royal Logistic Corps. Later that year the RLC withdrew from the Tower of London, where the RAOC had continued to maintain a centuries-old link; and the following year the last vestige of the once-vast ordnance depot left Woolwich, with the closure of Royal Arsenal (West) and departure of the Ordnance QAD (Quality Assurance Directorate).

Appointments in the RAOC

Appointments in the RAOC
Prior to 1981/82 the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, in common with the rest of the British Army, used the idiosyncratic system of staff titles that was unique to British and most Commonwealth armies. After 1981 in NATO assigned units, principally those in British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), the standard NATO system was adopted with all appointments elsewhere changing the following year.

The senior RAOC appointment was Director Equipment and Ordnance Stores (DEOS) − always a Major-General − which during the 1920s became Director Ordnance Services (DOS). DOS was also a title given to senior RAOC officers at major commands such as Middle East Command, 21st Army Group and in more recent times BAOR.  After the Somerville Logistic Reorganisation Committee Report of 1977 the head of the corps was re-titled Director General Ordnance Services (DGOS). Following the huge expansion of the RAOC in the Second World War the senior RAOC major general was designated Controller Ordnance Services (COS) from 1942 to 1948
 Deputy Director Ordnance Services (DDOS), usually a brigadiers' appointment, were found in the War Office (MOD after 1964) and in large headquarters throughout the Army.
 Chief Ordnance Officer (COO) was a brigadiers' or colonels' appointment and was used as an alternative to DOS, e.g. COO United Kingdom Land Forces
 Colonel Ordnance (Col Ord), a title principally used in the Ministry of Defence, this title was retained in DGOS after 1981 despite the fact that Supply was in general use elsewhere.
 Assistant Director of Ordnance Services (ADOS), usually a lieutenant colonel's, but occasionally a colonel's, appointment on the staff.
 Deputy Assistant Director of Ordnance Services (DADOS), a major's appointment on the staff.
 Corps Commander Royal Army Ordnance Corps (CCRAOC), a unique title for the brigadier in I (British) Corps held for only one year until the appointment was retitled Comd Sup 1 (Br) Corps.
 Commander Royal Army Ordnance Corps (CRAOC), a lieutenant colonel - occasionally a colonel in UK districts - and senior RAOC officer in a two star headquarters.
 Brigade Ordnance Officer (BOO), an officer, usually a captain, attached to a brigade.
 Brigade/District Ordnance Warrant Officer (B/DOWO) a warrant officer Class 1 - frequently a conductor - attached to a headquarters.
 Chief Ammunition Technical Officer (CATO), the senior ammunition officer in a large headquarters and was usually a lieutenant colonel, in a smaller headquarters the appointment was called Senior Ammunition Technical Officer (SATO) and usually held the rank of major.
 Before 1942 the senior Ordnance Mechanical Engineer in a headquarters was designated Principal Ordnance Mechanical Engineer (POME).
 Until 1920 the AOC and later RAOC, in common only with the Royal Engineers, maintained a rank of Second Corporal.

After 1980/1 most of these titles disappeared with the notable exception of CATO/SATO and DOWO/BOWO. All RAOC appointments gave the staff grade (e.g. Staff Officer Grade 2: SO2 suffixed with the word Sup), the head of corps in a headquarters irrespective of rank was titled Comd Sup. In MOD the titles of DGOS and DDOS were retained.

General Ordnance Services heads
This is a list of heads of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps

Controller of Ordnance Services
Major General Sir Basil Hill KBE CB DSO (25 May 1939 to 31 December 1940)
Major General Sir Leslie Williams KBE CB MC (28 June 1942 to 20 April 1946)
Major General WW Richards CB CBE MC (21 April 1946 to 17 July 1947)

Director of Ordnance Services
Major General LH Williams MC                      23 April 1940 to 27 June 1942
Major General KM Body CB CMG OBE                  1 January 1941 to 27 June 1942
Major General William W Richards CB CBE MC        18 July 1947 to 20 April 1948
Major General Gerald TW Horne CB CBE              21 April 1948 to 20 April 1951
Major General Sir Neville Swiney KBE CB MC        21 April 1951 to 21 April 1955
Major General Sir Lionel Cutforth KBE CB          22 April 1955 to 21 April 1958
Major General George O Crawford CB CBE            22 April 1958 to 21 April 1961
Major General Sir John C Hildreth KBE             22 April 1961 to 19 November 1964
Major General George le F Payne CB CBE            20 November 1964 to 18 March 1968
Major General Alexander Young CB                  19 March 1968 to 8 April 1971
Major General Leonard TH Phelps CB OBE            9 April 1971 to 8 November 1973
Major General Norman H Speller CB                 9 November 1973 to 17 October 1976
Major General Michael Callan                      18 October 1976 to 3 April 1977

Director General of Ordnance Services
Major General Michael Callan CB                   4 Apr 1977 to 14 March 1980
Major General James Brown CB                      15 March 1980 to 11 March 1983
Major General William L Whalley CB                12 March 1983 to September 1985
Major General Gerald B Berragan CB                September 1985 to March 1988
Major General JA Hulme CB                         March 1988 to July 1990
Major General David FE Botting CB CBE             July 1990 to 4 April 1993

Directors of Supply Management

This is a list of directors of Supply Management of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps

 Brigadier David J Porter                   1983 to 1988

Regimental Matters

The RAOC's motto was that of the Board of Ordnance: Sua tela tonanti (literally "His [i.e. Jupiter's] Missiles to the one who is Thundering", but commonly translated as "To the Warrior his Arms").

The full-dress uniform of the RAOC had evolved from that worn by the Field Train Department in the eighteenth century, itself derived from the uniform of the Royal Artillery. Consisting of a blue tunic with red collar and cuffs and blue trousers with a double red stripe, it continued to be worn by the band (and in mess-dress form) until the corps' amalgamation.

The RAOC Band had first been formed in 1922; the regimental march (chosen by its first Bandmaster, WOI R. T. Stevens, as appropriate to the Corps' role and to its artisans) was The Village Blacksmith.

In common with the Royal Artillery, the RAOC had St Barbara as its patron saint. The garrison church, first at Hilsea and then at Deepcut, was dedicated in her name; the pulpit, organ, stained glass windows and several memorials were transferred from the former to the latter when Hilsea Barracks closed in 1962. There was also a St Barbara's Church at CAD Bramley, which had originally come from the depot in Pimlico; having done service in Bramley for 52 years it was again disassembled in 1978 and moved to Didcot.

The RAOC Gazette
The official journal of the corps was the RAOC Gazette.

Recruiting
Before the Second World War, RAOC recruits were required to be at least 5 feet 2 inches tall (5 feet 4 inches for Driver Mechanics) and could enlist up to 25 years of age. They initially enlisted for three years with the colours and a further nine years with the reserve. Fitters could also choose six years with the colours and six years in the reserve, or eight and four years. Clerks and Storemen enlisted for six years and six years. They trained at the RAOC Depot, Hilsea Barracks, Portsmouth, before proceeding to specialist trade training. Armourers were only recruited from boy entrants and enlisted for twelve years. Armament Artificers trained at the Military College of Science, Woolwich for fifteen months. Half of them were serving soldiers who were already qualified fitters. Armament Artificers had to be at least 22 years of age and could enlist up to 30; they enlisted for twelve years and were promoted to Staff Sergeant as soon as they had completed training.

See also
 Conductor (British Army)
 Staff Sergeant Major
 Allum Green
 Army engineering maintenance

References

External links

 RAOC Forum
 RAOC Association
 RAOC ex Boy Soldiers Association
 Sua Tela Tonanti Lodge No 8003 under the United Grand Lodge of England - the Corps (and RLC) associated Freemason's lodge

British administrative corps
Royal Logistic Corps
Ordnance (stores) units and formations
Military units and formations disestablished in 1993
Military units and formations established in 1918

Royal Army Ordnance Corps


Editus is a Costa Rican  music group. The group included Ricardo Ramírez, Edín Solís and Carlos "Tapado" Vargas. Their music styles were a combination of modern, jazz, new age, classical music, and the unique sound of Latin America.

Editus went to over 30 countries in North America, Europe and Latin America to give shows. They performed in places like The New York's Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center Washington D.C., The Olimpia in Paris, the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, Monterrey Jazz Festival, Auditorio Nacional and Plaza del Sócalo in Mexico City.

They have worked with famous artists like León Gieco, Danilo Pérez, Aterciopelados, Tania Libertad, Armando Manzanero, Pedro Aznar, and Rubén Blades. They won the Grammy Award in 2000 with Blades for "Best Latin Pop Presentation" for the song called "Tiempos." They have also won awards in the categories "Best World Music Album" and "Best Tropical Contemporary Album" for their album Mundo.

They have received national awards like "Ancora" given by "La Nación" newspaper; the National Association of Authors and Musical Composers (ACAM) named them "The group with Best International Projection," TELETICA named Editus as the "Artist of the Year 2000" and the newspaper "La República" awarded this group "Personality of the Year."

Albums
During their career they have produced eleven albums, they are:
Ilusiones (1994)
Siempre Vol. I (1995)
Inéditus (1996)
Dibujando Memorias (1997)
Calle del Viento (1998)
De cada uno (2001)
Poética (2002)
Siempre Vol. II (2003)
Lo mas " New Age" (2004)
Editus Clásico (2005)
360 (2009)

Members Information

Ricardo Ramírez (Violinist)
He was born in November 11th, 1967 in San José, Costa Rica. He is graduated from the University of Costa Rica in 1990.

From 1983 to 1988 he was part of the Juvenile Symphonic Costa Rican Orchestra. He won the "Soloist teenagers" contest. In 1989 he worked as a soloist with the National Symphonic Orchestra.

Nowadays, he and his brothers are part of the "Trio de Cuerdas," "Akustic Ensamble" as well as Trio "Ménage d Trois" with Martha Fonseca and Bernal Villegas.

He has played in national performances like "Inconsciente Colectivo," "Gandhi," Bernardo Quesada, María Prétiz, Patricia Torres, Duvalier Quirós, Cantoamérica, and Arnoldo Castillo. Out of the country, he record productions with "Son Miserables," "Congreso" group and Alvaro Aguilar.

Edín Solís (Guitarist)
Solís was born in Zarcero on November 22nd, 1963. He is graduated in Classical Guitar from the University of Costa Rica Conservatory. He learned how to play the guitar with the Argentinean teachers Jorge Cardoso and Miguel A. Girolet, a Spanish teacher Demetrio Ballesteros, Francisco Ortíz and Víctor Monge.
In 1991 he won the National Prize Contest of guitar and toured Spain, France, and Germany.

From 1985 through 1990 he toured with Cantoamérica Guitarist. He traveled to the United States and Guatemala to show their music style. In 1991, he went to Europe to give his tour as a soloist in Paris, Santiago de Compostela in Spain, Bonn and Köln, both cities of Germany.

Carlos "Tapado" Vargas (Percussionist)
He was born in January 22nd, 1971 in San José, Costa Rica. He is graduated in 1987 from the Castella Conservatory. He studied with the percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo and in the teen program of the National Symphonic Orchestra.

He is part of the National Symphonic Orchestra and The Juvenile Symphonic Orchestra of Costa Rica. Also he has participated in Marfil, Gaviota y Amarillo and Cian Magenta groups. He has played for Paquita D'Rivera and Victor Monge (known as Serranto), Abraham Laboriel, Alvaro López, Justo Almario, Diego Urcola. He was part of Cantoamérica and Cono Sur and also Probus Ensamble Group. At present, he is the percussionist of Malpaís, Kool Jazz and Jazz Latino Sextet.

Organizations based in Costa Rica
Jazz bands

Editus


Easter, also called Resurrection Day and Pascha, is a Christian holiday celebrating Jesus Christ returning from the dead. Christians believe that it is the holiest day in the year. Some people who are not Christians celebrate it as a cultural holiday.

Easter is not held on the same date every year. This is called a moveable feast. Currently all Christian churches agree on how the date is calculated. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday following the first full moon which is on or after March 21st. This means it is celebrated in March or April. It can occur as early as March 22 and as late as April 25. Western churches, like the Roman Catholic Church, use the Gregorian calendar, while Eastern churches, like the Eastern Orthodox Church, use the Julian calendar. Because of this, the date of Easter celebrations is different for these two types of churches even though the way they calculate the date is similar. In 2015 Easter was celebrated on April 5 for both the Gregorian calendar and Julian calendar. In 2019 Easter was celebrated on the 21st of April.

Eastertime includes a period of 50 days, beginning from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday. The first Sunday after Easter is celebrated the  Divine Mercy Sunday.

The word "Easter" is derived from Eastra, the name of the ancient German Goddess of Spring. Her festival occurred at the vernal equinox.  The French word for Easter, Pâcques, comes from the Greek word for Passover, which is the Jewish holiday celebrated at about the same time of the year.

Importance to Christians
Jesus died roughly 2000 years ago in a city called Jerusalem (most of Jerusalem is in the modern country of Israel). The people who killed him did so because they believed that he was causing trouble for the government and because he was claiming to be the Messiah. When they crucified him (meaning they nailed him to a cross), they even hung a sign over his head, which said, "King of the Jews." The day he was crucified is known by Christians as Good Friday.

The New Testament states that on the Sunday after Jesus was killed, his body was no longer in the tomb where he was laid. Later, Jesus is said to have appeared to over 500 people and preached to them. The New Testament teaches that the resurrection of Jesus is what Christianity is based on. The resurrection made people believe that Jesus was the powerful Son of God. It is also spoken of as proof that God will judge the world fairly. Christians believe that God has given Christians "a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead". Christians believe that through faith in God they are spiritually made alive with Jesus so that they may lead a new life.

Customs and traditions

Easter is celebrated in several ways in northern Europe and the US Most of these celebrations have nothing to do with the Christian meaning of the holiday. These celebrations are related more to the pagan festivals of ancient Germany. Children are given baskets to fill with candy. Eggs are decorated and hidden for children to find that the "Easter Bunny" supposedly laid. People wear new clothes and go to church. Greeting cards are exchanged. An Easter Egg Roll is held on the lawn of the White House on the day after Easter. Small leafless trees or branches are carried indoors and decorated with coloured eggs, paper trims, and lights. Some shopping malls offer children a chance to visit with an adult costumed as the Easter Bunny. Forced tulips, hyacinths and lilies are given as gifts. Week-long vacations are taken following Easter Day, giving families the chance to visit with distant relatives. In America, many families leave the cold of northern states to visit amusement parks or sunny beaches in the south. Spring break for American high school and college students usually occurs about Easter time.

Related pages
 Advent
 Epiphany (holiday)
 Carnival
 Computus
 Ash Wednesday
 Lent
 Pentecost
 Trinity
 Sacred Heart

References

Easter


The Year of the Four Emperors was a year in the history of the Roman Empire, AD 69, in which four emperors ruled in a remarkable turnover. The four emperors were  Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian.

The suicide of emperor Nero, in 68, was followed by a brief period of civil war, the first Roman civil war since Mark Antony's death in 30 BC. Between June of 68 and December of 69, Rome witnessed the successive rise and fall of Galba, Otho and Vitellius until the final accession of Vespasian, the first ruler of the Flavian Dynasty.

This was an example of the political disturbances which occurred in the history of the  Roman Empire. The military and political anarchy created by this civil war had serious repercussions, such as the outbreak of the Batavian rebellion. The Jewish Revolt was already ongoing.

The succession

Nero to Galba

By June of 68, the Senate took the initiative to rid itself of Nero, declaring him a public enemy and Galba emperor. The Praetorian Guard were bribed to betray Nero, and Nero committed suicide. Galba was recognized as emperor and welcomed into the city at the head of his legions

Galba did not remain popular for long. On his march to Rome, he either destroyed or took enormous fines from towns that did not accept him immediately. In Rome, Galba cancelled all the reforms of Nero, including benefits for many important persons. The army was not happy either. After his safe arrival in Rome, Galba refused to pay the rewards he had promised to soldiers who had supported him. The Roman treasury was indeed in a bad way after Nero's extravagances, but Galba did not handle the situation well.

Like Nero, Galba had a fear of conspirators and executed many senators and equites without trial. Moreover, in the start of the civil year of 69 on January 1, the legions of Germania Inferior refused to swear allegiance and obedience to the new emperor. On the following day, the legions acclaimed Vitellius, their governor, as emperor.

Marcus Salvius Otho bribed the Praetorian Guard, already very unhappy with the emperor, to his side. When Galba heard about the coup d'état he went to the streets in an attempt to normalize the situation. It proved a mistake, because he could attract no supporters. Shortly afterwards, the Praetorian Guard killed him in the Forum.

Otho to Vitellius

Otho was recognized as emperor by the Senate that same day. The new emperor was saluted with relief. Although ambitious and greedy, Otho did not have a record for tyranny or cruelty and was expected to be a fair emperor. However, trouble in the form of Vitellius was marching down on Italy from Germany.

Vitellius had behind him the finest elite legions of the empire, composed of veterans of the Germanic Wars. These would prove to be his best arguments to gain power. Otho was not keen to begin another civil war and sent emissaries to propose a peace and inviting Vitellius to be his son-in-law. It was too late to reason; Vitellius' generals had half of his army heading to Italy. After a series of minor victories, Otho was defeated in the Battle of Bedriacum. Rather than flee and attempt a counter-attack, Otho decided to put an end to the anarchy and committed suicide. He had been emperor for a little more than three months.

Vitellius to Vespasian

On the news of Otho's suicide, Vitellius was recognised as emperor by the Senate. Given this recognition, Vitellius set out for Rome. He faced problems from the start of his reign. The city was left very skeptical when Vitellius chose a day of bad auspices (according to Roman superstition) to accept the office of Pontifex Maximus.

Events would seemingly prove them right. With the throne tightly secured, Vitellius engaged in a series of feasts, banquets and triumphal parades that drove the imperial treasury close to bankruptcy. Debts were quickly accrued and money-lenders started to demand repayment.

Vitellius showed his violent nature by ordering the torture and execution of those who dared to make such demands. Vitellius took the step of killing citizens who named him as their heir, often together with any co-heirs. Moreover, he engaged in a pursuit of every possible rival, inviting them to the palace with promises of power only to have them assassinated.

Vespasian had been given a special command in Judaea by Nero in 67 with the task of putting down the Great Jewish Revolt. He gained the support of the governor of Syria, Gaius Licinius Mucianus. A strong force drawn from the Judaean and Syrian legions marched on Rome under the command of Mucianus. Vespasian himself travelled to Alexandria where he had been acclaimed Emperor on July 1, thereby gaining control of the vital grain supplies from Egypt. Vespasian's son Titus remained in Judaea to deal with the Jewish rebellion. Before the eastern legions could reach Rome, the Danubian legions of the provinces of Raetia and Moesia also acclaimed Vespasian as Emperor in August, and led by Marcus Antonius Primus invaded Italy. In October, the forces led by Primus won a crushing victory over Vitellius' army at the Second Battle of Bedriacum.

Surrounded by enemies, Vitellius made a last attempt to win the city to his side, distributing bribes and promises of power where needed. The Danube army was now very near Rome. Vitellius went into hiding and prepared to flee, but decided on a last visit to the palace. There he was caught by Vespasian's men and killed. In seizing the capital, they burned down the temple of Jupiter.

The Senate acknowledged Vespasian as emperor on the following day. It was 21 December 69, the year that had begun with Galba on the throne.

Chronology

68
 April – Servius Sulpicius Galba, governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, and Vindex, governor of Gallia Lugdunensis rebel against Nero
 May – The Rhine legions defeat and kill Vindex in Gaul
 June – Nero is declared a public enemy (hostis) by the senate (June 8) and commits suicide (June 9); Galba is recognized emperor.
 November – Vitellius nominated governor of Germania Inferior

69
 January 1 – The Rhine legions refuse to swear loyalty to Galba
 January 2 – Vitellius acclaimed emperor by the Rhine
 January 15 – Galba killed by the Praetorian Guard; in the same day, the senate recognizes Otho as emperor
 April 14 – Vitellius defeats Otho
 April 16 – Otho commits suicide; Vitellius recognized emperor
 July 1 – Vespasian, commander of the Roman army in Judaea, proclaimed emperor by the legions of Egypt under Tiberius Julius Alexander
 August – The Danubian legions announce support to Vespasian (in Syria) and invade Italy in September on his behalf
 October – The Danube army defeats Vitellius and Vespasian occupies Egypt
 December 20 – Vitellius killed by soldiers in the Imperial Palace
 December 21 – Vespasian recognized as emperor.

Related pages
Tacitus, Histories
Year of the Five Emperors (193)
Year of the Six Emperors (238)

References
Roman Warfare, Adrian Goldsworthy
Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Suetonius, available from Project Gutenberg: The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete
 The year of the four emperors'', Peter Greenhalgh (1975)

1st-century Roman emperors
69

Year of the Four Emperors


Eyjafjallajökull (pronounced: "Ei-ya-fyat-LA-yer-kitle) is a volcano in Iceland. The name means "island-mountains glacier".

The south end of the mountain was once part of the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean. The sea gradually moved about 5km south. Now there are beautiful cliffs and waterfalls.

The volcano erupted several times in 1821 and 1822. Some cattle and sheep died, presumably because of fluoride poisoning.

The 2010 eruption

At Christmas 2009 the volcano started to show signs of being active again. On 27 March 2010, it started to erupt. On 14 April 2010, Eyjafjallajökull started to erupt heavily from the top crater in the bottom left of the glacier. This made meltwater floods rush down the nearby rivers. Many people had to be evacuated. Volcanic ash was thrown several kilometres into the atmosphere. The dust blew over northwest Europe on the 15th and 16th April 2010. It became very dangerous for aeroplanes to fly and so all commercial flights were stopped in most parts of northern Europe. This caused chaos for travellers, many of whom were trying to return home after their Easter vacation. The chaos continued for many days.

In Popular Culture
The volcano was featured in 2013's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty in a scene where Walter had to run from an eruption after pursuing Sean O'Connell to Iceland.

Related pages
 Glacier
 Volcano

Volcanoes of Iceland

Eyjafjallajökull


Amanita crenulata, also known as the poison champagne amanita, is a species of fungus that is very common in the Northeast United States.

Description
Cap: 2 – 9 cm wide, hemispheric at first, then becoming flatter. Pale tan, sometimes grayish or yellowish. The volva is distributed over the wide cap as powdery, somewhat paler warts. The color of the warts lends the mushroom the name "champagne."
Gills: narrowly adnate, close to subcrowded, and white to cream. The short gills are truncate to subtruncate or (occasionally) subattenuate.
Stipe: The stipe is 17 - 100 × 3.5 - 16 mm and has a skirt-like annulus that is often quickly lost or left in torn fragments on the pileus margin. The notable bulb usually bears a distinct ring of champagne volval powder on its "shoulder."
Odour: Not distinct.

It is an ectomycorrhizal fungus, living in root symbiosis with a tree.

Biochemistry
Amanita crenulata when ingested can produce symptoms associated with ibotenic acid/muscimol intoxication. It is considered poisonous.

See also

List of Amanita species

References

External links
 Amanita crenulata at amanitaceae.org
 Powdery Amanitas, at mushroomthejournal.com
 "Amanita crenulata, a common, poisonous, misunderstood mushroom," R. Tulloss, 1990, accessed Sep. 2019

crenulata
Fungi of North America
Poisonous fungi
Fungi described in 1900

Amanita crenulata


Urban contemporary or urban music is a kind of music played on the radio. It comes from cities. The first person to use this word was the now dead New York DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid 1970s. Urban contemporary radio stations play only hip hop/rap, contemporary R&B, more urban-styled pop, and on occasion, Caribbean music such as reggae and reggaeton. Urban contemporary came from R&B and Soul. Almost all Urban contemporary type radio stations are found in cities that have lots of African-American people. Some cities that have Urban contemporary stations are; Los Angeles, California, New York City, Atlanta, Georgia, Chicago, Fayetteville, North Carolina, Charlotte, and Norfolk, Virginia, etc.

The words "urban contemporary" make people think of African American music, like R&B. For Latino people, the music is more like music from Latin neighborhoods, such as Reggaeton, Hip hop from South America, or bachata.

These stations try to sell their music to African-Americans between the ages of 18 and 34. Their playlists are mainly singles by popular hip hop and R&B artists. Sometimes, an urban contemporary station will play classic soul music songs from the '70s and early '80s to make old people happy.

Some radio stations in cities, like KJLH, KMEL, KDAY, and WVEE, will play gospel and Christian R&B/hip-hop music on Sundays.

References

Music genres
African-American history

Urban contemporary


Luis Adalberto Puenzo (born 19 February 1946) is an Argentine film director, producer and screenplay writer. He works mainly in the cinema of Argentina, but has also worked in the United States.

Biography
Puenzo was born in Buenos Aires in 1946. He began a successful career in 1965 producing television advertising spots in Argentina. He founded Luis Puenzo Cinema, a production company, with Sergio Tamburri (film editor and trombone player of the famous Porteña Jazz Band); the firm's name was changed to Cinemanía S.A. in 1974.

During Argentina's Civic-military dictatorship of Argentina in the mid 1970s and early 1980s many filmmakers became victims of repression and some went into exile; some disappeared. During this difficult time, Puenzo decided to work in advertising.

In the United States he is known for his film Old Gringo (1989), starring Gregory Peck, Jane Fonda and Jimmy Smits.

His film The Official Story (1985) won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and many other accolades.

He was the president of the INCAA under the presidency of Alberto Fernández.

Observations
The Official Story, arguably Puenzo's best work, has been lauded by film critics and scholars for bringing to the screen a story that "[is] an excellent point of departure to explore some of Argentina and Latin America's most salient problems today. As the film deals with its various themes, it shows their impact on individuals in a very personal way, thus making them more immediate."  Today, Puenzo's film has become "a staple in many Latin American culture courses throughout the U.S. and Europe, keeping its relevance intact even though it is now well into its second decade."

According to Sandra Brennan most of his films "offer probing, metaphorical portraits of characters and relationships in the face of larger sociopolitical issues."

Filmography
Luces de mis zapatos (1973)
Las Sorpresas (1975), segment "Cinco años de vida"
La Historia oficial (1985), aka The Official Story
Old Gringo (1989)
With Open Arms (1990)
La Peste (1992), The Plague (USA). Based on Albert Camus' novel of the same name.
Broken Silence (2002), Mini-TV Series, segment "Some Who Lived."
La Puta y la Ballena (2004), The Whore and the Whale

Awards for The Official Story
Wins
 Academy Awards: Best Foreign Language Film, 1985.
 Argentinian Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor, Best Director and Best Screenplay, 1986.
 Berlin International Film Festival: Interfilm Award, Otto Dibelius Film Award, Luis Puenzo, 1986.
 Cannes Film Festival: Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Luis Puenzo (1986).
 Toronto International Film Festival: People's Choice Award, Luis Puenzo, 1985.
 Association of Latin Entertainment Critics: Premio ACE, 1985.

Nominations
 Academy Awards: Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, 1985.
 Cannes Film Festival: Golden Palm, Luis Puenzo, 1985.

References

External links

 Luis Puenzo at Spanish Wikipedia

1946 births
Living people
Film people from Buenos Aires
Argentine film directors
Argentine film producers
Argentine screenwriters
Argentine male screenwriters
Directors of Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winners

Luis Puenzo


In grammar, the genitive case is the grammatical case used when talking about possession: something that belongs to someone. For example, in the sentence "the boy's bike was red," the bike belongs to the boy. The word "boy's" is in the genitive case.

References

Grammar

Genitive case