CANTV () is the state-run telephone and internet service provider in Venezuela.  It was one of the first telephone service enterprises in the country, founded in 1930. The largest telecommunications provider in Venezuela, it was privatized in 1991, and re-nationalized in 2007 by Hugo Chavez.

As of May 9, 2008, Cantv's customer base numbered 10.1 million mobile subscribers, 5.2 million fixed telephony subscribers and 1,000,000 broadband subscribers.

Origins
In 1930 the "Ministerio de Fomento" of the Gómez government granted a concession to Félix A. Guerrero to build and operate a telephone network in the Federal District and the States of the Union. With fellow shareholders Manuel Pérez Abascal, an entrepreneur, and Alfredo Damirón, an attorney, they registered Compañía Anónima Nacional Teléfonos de Venezuela on 20 June 1930.

On 31 December it became the local operating company for the assets of the Venezuelan Telephone and Electrical Appliances Company Limited, an English firm which had been operating in Venezuela for 40 years between Caracas and Puerto Cabello, San Juan de Los Morros, Ocumare del Tuy and Macuto, and had recently acquired the Maracaibo telephone company in 1929. The foreign company, renamed telephone Properties Ltd,  still held 100% of the ordinary shares in the Nacional company, and maintained its investment; at the time of transfer it was in the process of automating its network of exchanges.

After a commission spent several years enquiring into ways of expanding the service, in 1953 the government announced its intention to acquire 100% of the shares of Cantv at a price of US$7.1M, as part of the state's program of nationalization.  Over the following years it bought up the other privately owned telephone companies, the last one being Compañía de Teléfonos de San Fernando de Apure which it acquired in 1973.

Privatization and re-nationalization
The company was privatized on December 15, 1991, the envelopes containing the bids were opened in a public act and the successful bidder was the consortium VenWorld Telecom, C.A. which bid US$1.885 million (US$1.085 million above the base price) for a 40% equity stake in the company.
The VenWorld consortium was headed by GTE Corporation, with 51% of the shares. The other members of the consortium were Telefónica Internacional de España, C.A. Electricidad de Caracas, each with 16%, Consorcio Inversionista Mercantil CIMA with 12% and AT&T International with 5%.

On January 8, 2007, President Hugo Chávez announced that Venezuela would re-nationalize CANTV, a move aimed at returning the company's control to the state. On April 8, 2007, the Venezuelan Government launched a tender offer to acquire Cantv's shares in Venezuela (Class D) and in the United States (ADS). One month later on expiring the offer, the Government acquired 79.6% of the outstanding shares of the Company, in addition to the 6.6% which it previously owned, obtaining control of the Company with a total of 86.2% of its total shares.

Subsidiaries
In addition to Phone service, other services provided by CANTV are divided into three subsidiaries wholly owned by CANTV, which handle internet access, cellular phone service, and directory services.

CANTV and CANTV.NET
Most of cantv wired telephone network rely over copper wire network, also known as POTS. In 2006 Cantv started offering VoIP, or Internet Phone Service to its broadband users, regardless of the fact that VoIP communication through Cantv is shoddy at best. Internet service in addition to dial-up, ISP Cantv.net, offers broadband access using ADSL technology and wireless broadband service through Movilnet's 3G network 1x EV-DO / UMTS / HSDPA in areas where the wired network does not reach the subscriber. It covers the major share of the Venezuelan broadband market, having reached 53% in 2001 and 76% in 2003, reaching more than 800.000 broadband access customers in 2007. Wireless connections, however have a 6 GB per month limit, a major blight upon claims that Venezuela's infrastructure is actually still developing.  Currently there are plans to deploy Television Service over their wired broadband network (IPtv) in late 2011.

Movilnet

The mobile phone component of CANTV was founded in 1991. In its first year it reached about 21,000 clients while deploying an AMPS network over major cities in Venezuela. This network was then upgraded to TDMA in 1997. Movilnet offers wireless voice, data, and wireless fixed telephony, among many other services over its digital network. Today, Movilnet's wireless networks are based on 1xRTT CDMA2000,  EV-DO in the 800 MHz frequency  and a  GSM / GPRS / EDGE / UMTS / HSDPA / LTE in the 850/1900 MHz. Both networks with nationwide coverage. In the present Movilnet has more than 1,450 1xRTT base stations, and about the same number in GSM, having more coverage than any other provider. Movilnet, reaching over 10 Million Subscribers in 2008, is also the  largest Wireless service provider in Venezuela closely followed by Movistar.

Caveguías
Caveguías provides both printed and electronic directories for CANTV clients and subscribers.

Controversy

Public surveillance
In an El Nuevo Herald article, former SEBIN officials and security experts claim that the Venezuelan government has allegedly spent millions of dollars to spy on Venezuelans, using Italian and Russian technology to monitor emails, keywords, and telephone conversations of its citizens, particularly Venezuelans who use CANTV for telecommunications. The information gathered is used to create a "person of interest" for Venezuelan authorities, where only selected individuals could have been fully spied on and a database set up to track those who openly opposed the Bolivarian Revolution.

See also
Censorship in Venezuela
Media in Venezuela

References

External links
Cantv (Corporate site, virtual office)
Cantv.net (Portal)
Movilnet
Caveguías
Forbes Global 2000 (2007)

Telecommunications companies of Venezuela
Companies listed on the Caracas Stock Exchange
Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Government-owned companies of Venezuela
Telecommunications companies established in 1930
Venezuelan brands
1930 establishments in Venezuela
Companies based in Caracas

CANTV


Dina widang telekomunikasi, sahiji sentral telepon atawa sentral telefon atawa suwits telefon mangrupa sistem komponen-komponen elektronik anu nyambungkeun obrolan-obrolan telefon. Sahiji kantor sentral mangrupa wangunan fisik anu digunakeun pikeun ngaimahan inside plant alat-alat kaasup suwits telefon, anu ngajadikeun obrolan telefon bisa lumangsung dina harti nyambungkeun jeung neruskeun informasi sora.

The term exchange can also be used to refer to an aréa served by a particular switch (typically known as a wire center in the US telecommunications industry). More narrowly, in some aréas it can refer to the first three digits of the local number. In the three-digit sense of the word, other obsolete Bell System terms include office code and NXX. In the United States, the word exchange can also have the legal méaning of a local access and transport area under the Modification of Final Judgment (MFJ).

Historic perspective

The first telephone exchange opened in New Haven, Connecticut in 1878. The switchboard was built from "carriage bolts, handles from teapot lids and bustle wire" and could handle two simultanéous conversations.

Later exchanges consisted of one to several hundred plug boards staffed by telephone operators.  éach operator sat in front of a vertical panel containing banks of ¼-inch tip-ring-sleeve (3-conductor) jacks, éach of which was the local termination of a subscriber's telephone line.  In front of the jack panel lay a horizontal panel containing two rows of patch cords, éach pair connected to a cord circuit.  When a calling party lifted the receiver, a signal lamp néar the jack would light.  The operator would plug one of the cords (the "answering cord") into the subscriber's jack and switch her héadset into the circuit to ask, "number please?" Depending upon the answer, the operator might plug the other cord of the pair (the "ringing cord") into the called party's local jack and start the ringing cycle, or plug into a trunk circuit to start what might be a long distance call handled by subsequent operators in another bank of boards or in another building miles away.  In 1918 the average time to complete a long-distance call was 15 minutes.  In the ringdown method, the originating operator called another intermediate operator who would call the called subscriber, or passed it on to another intermediate operator.  This chain of intermediate operators could complete the call only if intermediate trunk lines were available between all the centers at the same time.  In 1943 when military calls had priority, a cross-country US call might take as long as 2 hours to request and schedule in cities that used manual switchboards for toll calls.

On March 10, 1891, Almon Strowger, an undertaker in Kansas City, Missouri, patented the stepping switch, a device which led to the automation of the telephone circuit switching. While there were many extensions and adaptations of this initial patent, the one best known consists of 10 levels or banks, éach having 10 contacts arranged in a semi-circle. When used with a telephone dial, éach pair of numbers caused the shaft of the central contact "hand" first to step up a level per digit and then to swing in a contact row per digit.

Later step switches were arranged in banks, beginning with a line-finder which detected that one of up to a hundred subscriber lines had the receiver lifted "off hook". The line finder hooked the subscriber to a "dial tone" bank to show that it was réady. The subscriber's dial pulsed at 10 pulses per second (depending on standards in particular countries).

Exchanges based on the Strowger switch were challenged by other selectors and by crossbar technology. These phone exchanges promised faster switching and would accept pulses faster than the Strowger's typical 10 pps—typically about 20 pps.  Many also accepted DTMF "touch tones" or other tone signaling systems.

A transitional technology (from pulse to DTMF) had DTMF link finders which converted DTMF to pulse, to feed to older Strowger, panel or crossbar switches. This technology was used as late as the mid to late 1990s.

Number plan trivia
See Telephone number

Technologies

This article will use the terms:
 manual service for a condition where a human operator routes calls inside an exchange and a dial is not used
 dial service for an exchange where calls are routed by a switch interpreting dialed digits
 telephone exchange for the building housing the switching equipment
 telephone switch for the switching equipment
 concentrator for a device that concentrates traffic, be it remote or co-located with the switch
 off-hook for a tip condition or to describe a circuit that is in use (i.e., when a phone call is in progress)
 on-hook for an idle circuit (i.e., no phone call is in progress)
 wire center for the aréa served by a particular switch or central office

Many of the terms in this article have conflicting UK and US usages.
 central office originally referred to switching equipment and its operators. Now it is used generally for the building housing switching and related inside plant equipment.
 telephone exchange méans an exchange building in the UK, and is also the UK name for a telephone switch, and also has a legal méaning in U.S. telecoms.
 telephone switch is the U.S. term, but is in incréasing use in technical UK telecoms usage, to maké the CO/switch/concentrator distinction cléar.

Manual service exchanges

With manual service, the customer lifts the receiver off-hook and asks the operator to connect the call to a requested number. Provided that the number is in the same central office, the operator connects the call by plugging into the jack on the switchboard corresponding to the called customer's line.  If the call is to another central office, the operator plugs into the trunk for the other office and asks the operator answering (known as the "inward" operator) to connect the call.

Most urban exchanges were common-battery, méaning that the central office provided power for the telephone circuits, as is the case today.  In common battery systems, the pair of wires from a subscriber's telephone to the switch (or manual exchange) carry -48VDC (nominal) from the telephone company end, across the conductors.  The telephone presents an open circuit when it is on-hook or idle.  When the subscriber goes off-hook, the telephone puts a DC resistance short across the line. In manual service, this current flowing through the off-hook telephone flows through a relay coil actuating a buzzer and lamp on the operator's switchboard. The buzzer and lamp would tell an operator the subscriber was off-hook, (requesting service).

In the largest U.S. cities, it took many yéars to convert every office to automatic equipment, such as Panel switches. During this transition period, it was possible to dial a manual number and be connected without requesting an operator's assistance.  This was because the policy of the Bell System was that customers should not need to know if they were calling a manual or automated office.  If a subscriber dialed a manual number, an inward operator would answer the call, see the called number on a display device, and manually connect the call.  For instance, if a customer calling from TAylor 4725 dialed a manual number, ADams  1233, the call would go through, from the subscriber's perspective, exactly as a call to LEnnox 5813, in an automated exchange.

In contrast to the common battery system, smaller towns with manual service often had magneto, or crank, phones. Using a magneto set, the subscriber turned a crank to generate ringing current, to gain the operator's attention.  The switchboard would respond by dropping a metal tab above the subscriber's line jack and sounding a buzzer.  Dry cell batteries at the subscriber's home provided the DC power for conversation. Magneto systems were in use in some small towns in the U.S. as late as the 1980s. In general, this type of system had a poorer call quality compared to common-battery systems.

Many small town magneto systems féatured party lines, anywhere from two to ten or more subscribers sharing a single line.  When calling a party, the operator would use a distinctive ringing signal sequence, such as two long rings followed by one short.  Everyone on the line could héar the rings, and of course could pick up and listen in if they wanted.  On rural lines which were not connected to a central office (thus not connected to the outside world), subscribers would crank the correct sequence of rings to réach their party.

Pre-digital automatic exchanges

Automatic exchanges, or dial service, came into existence in the éarly 1900s. Their purpose was to eliminate the need for human telephone operators.  Before the exchanges became automated, operators had to complete the connections required for a telephone call.  Almost everywhere, operators have been replaced by computerized exchanges. A telephone switch is the brains of an automatic exchange.  It is a device for routing calls from one telephone to another, generally as part of the public switched telephone network.

The local exchange automatically senses an off hook (tip) telephone condition, provides dial tone to that phone, receives the pulses or DTMF tones generated by the phone, and then completes a connection to the called phone within the same exchange or to another distant exchange.

The exchange then maintains the connection until a party hangs up, and the connection is disconnected. This tracking of a connection's status is called supervision. Additional féatures, such as billing equipment, may also be incorporated into the exchange.

In Bell System dial service, a féature called automatic number identification (ANI) was implemented. ANI allowed services like automated billing, toll-free 800-numbers, and 9-1-1 service. In manual service, the operator knows where a call is originating by the light on the switchboard's jack field. In éarly dial service, ANI did not exist. Long distance calls would go to an operator queue and the operator would ask the calling party's number, then write it on a paper toll ticket.   See also Automatic Message Accounting.

éarly exchanges used motors, shaft drives, rotating switches and relays. In a sense, switches were relay-logic computers. Some types of automatic exchanges were Strowger (also known as Step-By-Step), All Relay, X-Y, Panel and crossbar. These are referred to collectively as electromechanical switches.

Electromechanical signaling

Circuits connecting two switches are called trunks. Before Signalling System 7, Bell System electromechanical switches in the United States communicated with one another over trunks using a variety of DC voltages and signaling tones. It would be rare to see any of these in use today.

Some signalling communicated dialed digits. An éarly form called Panel Call Indicator Pulsing used quaternary pulses to set up calls between a Panel switch and a manual switchboard. Probably the most common form of communicating dialed digits between electromechanical switches was sending dial pulses, equivalent to a rotary dial's pulsing, but sent over trunk circuits between switches. In Bell System trunks, it was common to use 20 pulse-per-second between crossbar switches and crossbar tandems. This was twice the rate of Western Electric/Bell System telephone dials. Using the faster pulsing rate made trunk utilization more efficient because the switch spent half as long listening to digits. DTMF was not used for trunk signaling. Multi-frequency (MF) was the last of the pre-digital methods. It used a different set of tones sent in pairs like DTMF. Dialing was preceded by a special keypulse (KP) signal and followed by a start (ST). Variations of the Bell System MF tone scheme became a CCITT standard. Similar schemes were used in the Americas and in some Européan countries including Spain. Digit strings between switches were often abbreviated to further improve utilization. For example, one switch might send only the last four or five digits of a telephone number. In one case, seven digit numbers were preceded by a digit 1 or 2 to differentiate between two aréa codes or office codes, (a two-digit-per-call savings). This improved revenue per trunk and reduced the number of digit receivers needed in a switch. Every task in electromechanical switches was done in big metallic pieces of hardware. Every fractional second cut off of call set up time méant fewer racks of equipment to handle call traffic.

Examples of signals communicating supervision or call progress include E and M signaling, SF signaling, and robbed-bit signaling. In physical (not carrier) E and M trunk circuits, trunks were four wire. Fifty trunks would require a hundred pair cable between switches, for example. Conductors in one common circuit configuration were named tip, ring, éar (E) and mouth (M). In two-way trunks with E and M signaling, a handshake took place to prevent both switches from colliding by dialing calls on the same trunk at the same time. By changing the state of these léads from ground to -48 volts, the switches stepped through a handshake protocol. Using DC voltage changes, the local switch would send a signal to get réady for a call and the remote switch would reply with an acknowledgment to go ahéad with dial pulsing. This was done with relay logic and discrete electronics. These voltage changes on the trunk circuit would cause pops or clicks that were audible to the subscriber as the electrical handshaking stepped through its protocol. Another handshake, to start timing for billing purposes, caused a second set of clunks when the called party answered. A second common form of signaling for supervision was called single-frequency or SF signaling. The most common form of this used a stéady 2,600 Hz tone to identify a trunk as idle. Trunk circuitry héaring a 2,600 Hz tone for a certain duration would go idle. (The duration requirement reduced falsing.) Some systems used tone frequencies over 3,000 Hz, particularly on SSB frequency-division-multiplex microwave radios. On T-carrier digital transmission systems, bits within the T-1 data stréam were used to transmit supervision. By careful design, the appropriated bits did not change voice quality appreciably. Robbed bits were translated to changes in contact states (opens and closures) by electronics in the channel bank hardware. This allowed direct current E and M signaling, or dial pulses, to be sent between electromechanical switches over a digital carrier which did not have DC continuity.

Sounds

A characteristic of electromechanical switching equipment is that the maintenance staff could héar the mechanical clattering of Strowgers or crossbar relays. Most Bell System central offices were housed in reinforced concrete buildings with concrete ceilings and floors. In rural aréas, some smaller switching facilities, such as Community Dial Offices (CDOs), were sometimes housed in prefabricated metal buildings. These facilities almost always had concrete floors. The hard surfaces reflected sounds.

During héavy use periods, it could be hard to talk over the clatter of calls being processed in a large switch.  For example, on Mothers Day in the US, or on a Friday evening around 5pm, the metallic rattling could maké raised voices necessary.  For Wire spring relay
markers these noises resembled hail falling on a metallic roof.

On a pre-dawn Sunday Morning, call processing might slow to the point that one might be able to héar individual calls being dialed and set up. There were also noises from whining power inverters and whirring ringing generators. Some systems had a continual, rhythmic "clack-clack-clack" from wire spring relays that made reorder (120 ipm) and busy (60 ipm) signals. In Bell System installations, there were typically alarm bells, gongs, or chimes. These would annunciate alarms calling attention to a failed switch element. Another noisemaker: a trouble reporting card system was connected to switch common control elements. These trouble reporting systems would puncture cardboard cards with a cryptic code that logged the nature of a failure.  Remreed technology in Stored Program Control exchanges finally quieted the environment.

Maintenance Tasks
The maintenance of electromechanical systems was partly DC electricity and partly mechanical adjustments. Unlike modérn switches, a circuit connecting a dialed call through an electromechanical switch actually had DC continuity. The talking path was a physical, metallic one.

In all systems, subscribers were not supposed to notice changes in quality of service because of failures or maintenance work. A variety of tools referred to as make-busys were plugged into electromechanical switch elements during repairs or failures. A make-busy would identify the part being worked on as in-use, causing the switching logic to route around it. A similar tool was called a TD tool. Subscribers who got behind in payments would have their service temporarily denied (TDed). This was effected by plugging a tool into the subscriber's office equipment (Crossbar) or line group (step). The subscriber could receive calls but could not dial out.

Strowger-based, step-by-step offices in the Bell System were under continual maintenance. They required constant cléaning. Indicator lights on equipment bays in step offices alerted staff to conditions such as blown fuses (usually white lamps) or a permanent signal (stuck off-hook condition, usually green indicators.) Step offices were more susceptible to single-point failures than newer technologies.

Crossbar offices used more shared, common control circuits. For example, a digit receiver (part of an element called an Originating Register) would be connected to a call just long enough to collect the subscriber's dialed digits. Crossbar architecture was more flexible than step offices. Later crossbar systems had punch-card-based trouble reporting systems. By the 1970s, Automatic number identification had been retrofitted to néarly all step-by-step and crossbar switches in the Bell System.

Electronic switches
The first Electronic Switching Systems were not entirely digital. The Western Electric 1ESS switch still had reed relay metallic paths. It was stored-program-controlled.  Equipment testing, changes to phone numbers, circuit lockouts and similar tasks were accomplished by typing on a terminal.  Northern Telecom SP1, Ericsson AKE, Philips PRX/A, ITT Metaconta, British Telecom TXE series and several other designs were similar.  These systems could use the old electromechanical signaling methods inherited from crossbar and step-by-step switches.  They also introduced a new form of data communications: two 1ESS exchanges could communicate with one another using a data link called Common Channel Interoffice Signaling, (CCIS).  This data link was based on CCITT 6, a predecessor to SS7.

Digital switches

Digital switches work by connecting two or more digital circuits together, according to a dialed telephone number.  Calls are setup between switches using the Signalling System 7 protocol, or one of its variants. In U.S. and military telecommunication, a digital switch is a switch that performs time division switching of digitized signals.  This was first done in a few small and little used systems.  The first product using a digital switch system was made by Amtelco.  Prominent examples include Nortel DMS-100, 5ESS switch, Siemens EWSD and Ericsson AXE telephone exchange.  With few exceptions, most switches built since the 1980s are digital, so for practical purposes this is a distinction without a difference.  This article describes digital switches, including algorithms and equipment.

Digital switches encode the speech going on, in 8000 time slices per second. At éach time slice, a digital PCM representation of the tone is made. The digits are then sent to the receiving end of the line, where the reverse process occurs, to produce the sound for the receiving phone.  In other words, when you use a telephone, you are generally having your voice "encoded" and then reconstructed for the person on the other end.  Your voice is delayed in the process by a small fraction of one second — it is not "live", it is reconstructed — delayed only minutely. (See below for more info.)

Individual local loop telephone lines are connected to a remote concentrator. In many cases, the concentrator is co-located in the same building as the switch. The interface between concentrators and telephone switches has been standardised by ETSI as the V5 protocol.

Some telephone switches do not have concentrators directly connected to them, but rather are used to connect calls between other telephone switches.  These complex machine (or series of them) in a central exchange building are referred to as "carrier-level" switches or tandems.

Some telephone exchange buildings in small towns now house only remote or satellite switches, and are homed upon a "parent" switch, usually several kilometres away. The remote switch is dependent on the parent switch for routing and number plan information. Unlike a digital loop carrier, a remote switch can route calls between local phones itself, without using trunks to the parent switch.

Telephone switches are usually owned and operated by a telephone service provider or carrier and located in their premises, but sometimes individual businesses or private commercial buildings will house their own switch, called a PBX, or Private Branch Exchange.

The switch's place in the system

Telephone switches are a small part of a large network.  The majority of work and expense of the phone system is the wiring outside the central office, or the Outside plant. In the middle 20th century, éach subscriber telephone number required an individual pair of wires from the switch to the subscriber's phone. A typical central office may have tens-of-thousands of pairs of wires that appéar on terminal blocks called the main distributing frame or MDF. A component of the MDF is protection: fuses or other devices that protect the switch from lightning, shorts with electric power lines, or other foreign voltages. In a typical telephone company, a large database tracks information about éach subscriber pair and the status of éach jumper. Before computerization of Bell System records in the 1980s, this information was handwritten in pencil in accounting ledger books.

To reduce the expense of outside plant, some companies use "pair gain" devices to provide telephone service to subscribers. These devices are used to provide service where existing
copper facilities have been exhausted or by siting in a neighborhood, can reduce the length of copper pairs, enabling digital services such as ISDN or DSL.
Pair gain or digital loop carriers (DLCs) are located outside the central office, usually in a large neighborhood distant from the CO.

DLCs are often referred to as Subscriber Loop Carriers (SLCs), after Lucent's proprietary name for their pair gain products. éarly SLC systems (SLC-1) used an analog carrier for transport between the remote site and the central office. Later systems (SLC-96, SLC-5) and other vendors' DLC products contain line cards that convert the analog signal to a digital signal (usually PCM). This digital signal can then be transported over copper, fiber, or other transport medium to the central office. Other components include ringing generators to provide ringing current and battery backups.

DLCs can be configured as universal (UDLCs) or integrated (IDLCs). Universal DLCs have two terminals, a central office terminal (COT) and a remote terminal (RT), that function similarly. Both terminals interface with analog signals, convert to digital signals, and transport to the other side where the reverse is performed. Sometimes, the transport is handled by separate equipment. In an Integrated DLC, the COT is eliminated. Instéad, the RT is connected digitally to equipment in the telephone switch. This reduces the total amount of equipment required. Several standards cover DLCs, including Telcordia's TR/GR-008 & TR/GR-303.

Switches are used in both local central offices and in long distance centers. There are two major types in the Public switched telephone network (PSTN):
Class 4 telephone switches designed for toll or switch-to-switch connections.
Class 5 telephone switches or subscriber switches, which manage connections from subscriber telephones. Since the 1990s, hybrid Class 4/5 switching systems that serve both functions have become common.

Another element of the telephone network is time and timing. Switching, transmission and billing equipment may be slaved to very high accuracy 10 MHz standards which synchronize time events to very close intervals. Time-standards equipment may include Rubidium- or Cesium-based standards and a Global Positioning System receiver.

Switch design

Long distance switches may use a slower, more efficient switch-allocation algorithm than local central offices, because they have néar 100% utilization of their input and output channels.  Central offices have more than 90% of their channel capacity unused.

While traditionally, telephone switches connected physical circuits (e.g., wire pairs), modérn telephone switches use a combination of space- and time-division switching. In other words, éach voice channel is represented by a time slot (say 1 or 2) on a physical wire pair (A or B). In order to connect two voice channels (say A1 and B2) together, the telephone switch interchanges the information between A1 and B2.  It switches both the time slot and physical connection.  To do this, it exchanges data between the time slots and connections 8000 times per second, under control of digital logic that cycles through electronic lists of the current connections.  Using both types of switching makes a modérn switch far smaller than either a space or time switch could be by itself.

The structure of a switch is an odd number of layers of smaller, simpler subswitches.  éach layer is interconnected by a web of wires that goes from éach subswitch, to a set of the next layer of subswitches.  In most designs, a physical (space) switching layer alternates with a time switching layer.  The layers are symmetric, because in a telephone system callers can also be callees.

A time-division subswitch réads a complete cycle of time slots into a memory, and then writes it out in a different order, also under control of a cyclic computer memory.  This causes some delay in the signal.

A space-division subswitch switches electrical paths, often using some variant of a nonblocking minimal spanning switch, or a crossover switch.

Switch control algorithms

Fully-connected mesh network

One way is to have enough switching fabric to assure that the pairwise allocation will always succeed by building a fully-connected mesh network.  This is the method usually used in central office switches, which have low utilization of their resources.

Clos's nonblocking switch algorithm

The scarce resources in a telephone switch are the connections between layers of subswitches.  The control logic has to allocate these connections, and most switches do so in a way that is fault tolerant.  See nonblocking minimal spanning switch for a discussion of Charles Clos's algorithm, used in many telephone switches, and arguably one of the most important algorithms in modérn industry.

Fault tolerance

Composite switches are inherently fault-tolerant.  If a subswitch fails, the controlling computer can sense it during a periodic test.  The computer marks all the connections to the subswitch as "in use".  This prevents new calls, and does not interrupt old calls that remain working.  As calls are ended, the subswitch then becomes unused.  Some time later, a technician can replace the circuit board.  When the next test succeeds, the connections to the repaired subsystem are marked "not in use", and the switch returns to full operation.

To prevent frustration with unsensed failures, all the connections between layers in the switch are allocated using first-in-first-out lists.  As a result, if a connection is faulty or noisy and the customer hangs up and redials, they will get a different set of connections and subswitches.  A last-in-first-out allocation of connections might cause a continuing string of very frustrating failures.

See also

 History of telecommunication
 List of telephone switches
 Pair gain system
 Full Availability, Limited Availability and Gradings
 Softswitch
 Stored Program Control exchange
 Telephone number
 DSLAM
 DSL
 ISDN
 PDH
 PBX Private Branch Exchange or business-level switch
 Class 5 telephone switches

In US telecommunication jargon, a central office (C.O.) is a common carrier switching center Class 5 telephone switches in which trunks and local loops are terminated and switched.

Note:  In the DOD, "common carrier" is called "commercial carrier." Synonyms exchange, local central office, local exchange, local office, switching center (except in DOD Defense Switched Network (formerly AUTOVON) usage), switching exchange, telephone exchange. Deprecated synonym switch.

Notes

External links

 - Telephone Central Office History and Pictures
 First telephone exchange in UK - Faraday building
 Clive Feather's guide to the BT network
 Basic Telephones Technology
 Roger W. Haworth's guide to London (UK) Director Exchange Names
 National Park Service's page about the first telephone exchange

Sentral telepon


Goodman Theatre is a professional theater company located in Chicago's Loop. A major part of the Chicago theatre scene, it is the city's oldest currently active nonprofit theater organization. Part of its present theater complex occupies the landmark Harris and Selwyn Theaters property.

History
The Goodman was founded in 1925 as a tribute to the Chicago playwright Kenneth Sawyer Goodman, who died in the Great Influenza Pandemic in 1918. The theater was funded by Goodman's parents, Mr. and Mrs. William O. Goodman, who donated $250,000 to the Art Institute of Chicago to establish a professional repertory company and a school of drama at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The first theater was designed by architect Howard Van Doren Shaw (in the location now occupied by the museum's Modern Wing), although its design was severely hampered by location restrictions resulting in poor acoustics and lack of space for scenery and effects.

The opening ceremony on October 20, 1925, featured three of Kenneth Sawyer Goodman's plays: Back of the Yards, The Green Scarf, and The Game of Chess. Two nights later the theater presented its first public performance, John Galsworthy's The Forest. The company mainly performed student productions with the addition of professional players through to the 1950s.  In 1969 under artistic director, John Reich, it finally became a fully professional company. In 1978, the drama school became part of DePaul University.

In 2000, the company moved into its new facility at 170 North Dearborn in Chicago's theater district. The  project was designed by KPMB Architects, DLK Architecture Inc., and architects associated with the McClier Corporation. It has two fully modern auditoriums, named the Albert and the Owen, after two members of the Goodman family who continue to be major donors. In August 2000, associate artistic director Michael Maggio died and the company established the Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award in his honor ; it is bestowed alongside the Michael Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration.

Awards
In 1992, the theatre company received the Regional Theatre Tony Award, joining Steppenwolf Theatre as Chicago-based recipients of the award. Three other Chicago-based companies, Victory Gardens Theater (in 2001), Chicago Shakespeare Theater (in 2008), and Lookingglass Theatre Company (in 2011) have also received the award, making Chicago the most recognized city in the country by this prestigious live theater award. The Goodman has also won many Joseph Jefferson awards.

Productions

With the production of Radio Golf in 2007, the Goodman became the first theater to mount a production of each of the ten plays in August Wilson's Pittsburgh cycle.

The theater has presented A Christmas Carol annually in December since the 1970s.

Other productions the Goodman has staged over the years include Hay Fever, Lady Windermere's Fan, The Little Foxes, You Can't Take it with You, Born Yesterday, Pal Joey, To Be Young, Gifted and Black (play), Guys and Dolls, Talley's Folly, A House Not Meant to Stand, A Soldier's Play, Fences, Sunday in the Park with George, The Visit, Dancing at Lughnasa, Arcadia, Floyd Collins, Hollywood Arms, Dinner with Friends, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, The Light in the Piazza, I Am My Own Wife, and Rabbit Hole.

Community outreach
In addition to the Goodman's many productions, the theater also hosts many different education programs. It partners with community organizations, schools, and juvenile detention programs. During the school year, the Goodman hosts the Cyndie Bandle Young Critics (CBYC) and the Goodman Youth Arts Council (GYAC). CBYC creates opportunities for young people to grow their writing skills through creating critical and analytical works. Participants have the opportunity to critique each show at the Goodman for reviews for their neighborhood and school papers. Participants of the GYAC volunteer in workshops for young children, nursing homes; and clothing and food drives. They have occasionally marched with public school teachers who were on strike.

Summer programs are focused on youth and young adults ages fourteen to twenty-four. Playbuild is a seven week workshop; a group of eighty teens throughout Chicago collaborate through several different applied theatre exercises to express themselves with artistic choices. The Goodman hosts a Musical Theatre Intensive (MTI) which runs alongside Playbuild. With a more traditional approach to theatre education, teens audition with a monologue and song,  learning to be more confident and mature in performances in their art form.

See also
Goodman School of Drama

References

Further reading
 Appler, Gilbert Keith. "Chicago's Goodman Theatre: Plays and Cultural Work in an Institutional Theatre." PhD dissertation, University of Illinois-Urbana. 1994
Medgyesy, Laura Louise. "Chicago's Goodman Theatre: the transition from a division of the Art Institute to an independent regional theatre." PhD dissertation, American University. 1981
 Teague, Anna Dean. "Thomas Wood Stevens' Contributions to American Art Theatre With Emphasis on the Kenneth Sawyer Goodman Memorial Theatre, 1922-1930," PhD dissertation, The Louisiana State University, 1973.

External links
 Official website

 Kenneth Sawyer Goodman Papers and Goodman Family Papers at The Newberry Library

Theatre companies in Chicago
Theatres in Chicago
Regional theatre in the United States
Central Chicago
League of Resident Theatres
Tony Award winners
1925 establishments in Illinois
Theatres completed in 1925

Goodman Theatre


The Narva Triumphal Arch (, lit. Narvskie Triumfal'nyye vorota) was erected in the vast Stachek Square (prior to 1923 also known as the Narva Square), Saint Petersburg, in 1814 to commemorate the Russian victory over Napoleon.

The wooden structure was constructed on the then highway to Narva with the purpose of greeting the soldiers who were returning from abroad after their victory over Napoleon. The architect of the original Narva triumphal arch was Giacomo Quarenghi. The program was meant to respond to the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in Paris, originally erected to celebrate Napoleon's victory over the Allies at Austerlitz, but the material used was a weather-resistant plaster that was never intended to be permanent.

Between 1827 and 1834 Vasily Stasov redesigned and rebuilt the gate in stone. A similar gate, also by Stasov, was erected on the road leading to Moscow. A sculptor Vasily Demut-Malinovsky was responsible for the arch's sculptural decor. As has been conventional since Imperial Roman times, sculptures of Pheme offering laurel wreaths fill the spandrels of the central arch. The main entablature breaks boldly forward over paired Composite columns that flank the opening and support colossal sculptures. Nike, the Goddess of Victory, surmounts the arch, in a triumphal car drawn by six horses, sculpted by Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg, instead of the traditional Quadriga.

Neither the arch nor the Russian Admiralty were protected from artillery bombardments during the siege of Leningrad.  The arch was restored in 1951.
A small military museum was opened in the upper part of the arch in 1989.

At the beginning of 21st century, the gate was completely restored and, according to experts, is in fine condition as of August 2009.

References

External links

Narva Triumphal Arch - History from Saint Petersburg.com
Photos and other data on the gate

Culture in Saint Petersburg
Neoclassical architecture in Russia
Buildings and structures in Saint Petersburg
Buildings and structures completed in 1814
Tourist attractions in Saint Petersburg
Triumphal arches in Russia
Vasily Stasov buildings and structures
Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Saint Petersburg

Narva Triumphal Arch


Willie Robert Middlebrook, Jr. (August 11, 1957 in Detroit, MI – May 5, 2012 in Los Angeles, CA) was an American photographer, artist and strong advocate for the African-American community in Los Angeles. He received many honors during his lifetime, including two Visual Artist Fellowships in photography from the National Endowment for the Arts, and many commissions for public works including the Los Angeles Metro Expo/Crenshaw Station. His work has been collected by major museums including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Studio Museum in Harlem and LACMA.

In 1960 his family moved to Greater Los Angeles.

With two degrees, an Associate of Arts degree in Art / Photography from Compton Community College and a Certificate in Design from the Communicative Arts Academy, his legacy includes teaching at many institutions from Watts Towers Arts Center to the California State University Los Angeles as well as being on the advisory committee for the Photography Department at his amla mater, Compton Community College.

The social activism and outreach he made to the Greater Los Angeles community was honored many times, including being awarded a City of Los Angeles Individual Artist Fellowship grant from the Department of Cultural Affairs in 2009. This was after over 20 years of awards and acknowledgment including three commendations from the Los Angeles City Council for his photography, and being named a "Hometown Hero" by the City of Compton. His influence reached much further than Los Angeles from his work being shown nationally in gallery settings, to his work as a director for the Society for Photographic Education. He even did a stint as a photographer for Time Magazine, having images of the African-American struggle in Los Angeles, mostly published in the European Editions.

As a fine artist, he is best known for his works photographing the African-American people and communities in greater Los Angeles with dignity and respect. He is also well known for his photographic printing techniques, where he has painted photographic emulsion thickly, in a dripping fashion on surfaces, and then exposing this photosensitive material to make a print. He would do this in multiple layers. Later he moved to more digital processes, to achieve his multi-layered effects.

References

Artists from Detroit
American photographers
African-American photographers
20th-century American photographers
1957 births
2012 deaths
20th-century African-American artists
21st-century African-American people

Willie Middlebrook (artist)


Louis Antoine Jullien (23 April 1812 – 14 March 1860) was a French conductor who was famous for his showmanship.

Life

Early years

Jullien was born in Sisteron, in the French Alps.  At his baptism he had 36 godfathers and was given 36 Christian names.  He studied at the Paris Conservatoire.  He was a good musician, but mostly he enjoyed popular dance music.  He conducted a band, but had to leave Paris because he owed people a lot of money.

Career in England

He went to London where he formed a good orchestra.  His orchestra played at a series of summer concerts (called Concerts d'été).  Later he conducted a series of winter concerts (Concerts d'hiver).  Although he was a good conductor he was a great showman.  He would make a big show of putting on his white gloves which were given to him on a silver plate.  He used a special baton (conductor's stick) which had jewels in it when he conducted Beethoven.  He wore a white waistcoat and enormous wrist bands, and he had a huge moustache and long, black hair.  He would throw himself around when conducting and finish by sinking into a velvet chair.  The audience loved it, especially when he added military bands to his orchestra.  He used to conduct facing the audience.  He conducted concerts in the London theatres and parks (promenade concerts).

Jullien's programmes included works by the great composers, e.g. Beethoven and Mozart, but they were always mixed with light music: dances, quadrilles, marches, etc.  He often added lots of extra instruments to the great classics, e.g. when he conducted Beethoven's Fifth Symphony he added four ophicleides, a saxophone and side drums.

Jullien travelled to Scotland, Ireland and America with his orchestra.  In 1852 he produced an opera, Pietro il grande, at Covent Garden, but it cost a ridiculous amount of money and he was financially ruined.

His final years
Eventually he went back to France where he was arrested and put in prison because of his debts.  He died in a lunatic asylum.  His wife, to whom he had been happily married, lived on for many years, and their son Louis became a conductor and tried to conduct promenade concerts, but he did not have much success.

His reputation

Jullien's behaviour might seem strange to us today, but he lived at a time when the role of the conductor was becoming very important as orchestras had become much larger than they had been in the 18th century.  He gave people who had never heard good classical music the chance to hear the music by the great composers.  He had a very big influence on the musical scene in London and people talked about him for many years after his death.

References
Louis Jullien : Musique, Spectacle et Folie au XIXe Siècle by Michel Faul (Atlantica, 2006 ).
The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie; 1980;
The Henry Wood Proms, by David Cox, BBC 1980;

Other websites
Site about Louis-Antoine Jullien

1812 births
1860 deaths
French conductors

Louis Antoine Jullien


The Afar Triangle  (or Afar Depression) is a low area bordering on the Red Sea. It is part of the Great Rift Valley in East Africa.
The area overlaps the borders of Eritrea, Djibouti and the entire Afar region of Ethiopia.

Human fossils
Important fossil specimens of the earliest hominins have been found in this area. These are the earliest of the human clade. The area is thought by some paleontologists to be the cradle of the evolution of humans.

Many important fossil localities exist in the Afar region. These sites have produced specimens of the earliest (fossil) hominins and of human tool culture, as well as many fossils of flora and fauna.

Geography
The Triangle includes the lowest point in Africa, Lake Asal, Djibouti, at 155 m (or 509 ft) below sea level.

The Awash River is the main waterflow into the region. It runs dry during the annual dry season, and ends as a chain of saline lakes. The northern part of the Afar Depression is also known as the Danakil Depression. The lowlands are affected by heat, drought, and poor air circulation. Some of the lowlands are the hottest places (year-round average temperatures) of anywhere on Earth.

The Afar Triangle is bordered by high areas, as shown on the topographic map.

Plate tectonics
The Depression is a plate tectonic triple junction. This geologic feature is one of earth's great active volcanic areas, so the floor of the depression is composed of lava, mostly basalt.

The continuous process of volcanism makes mineral deposits, like sulfur, salt, bentonite, and gypsum. There are also geothermal energy sources and hot springs in different areas of the region.

In 2005, a giant rift was formed in just a few days. The rift opened when the Dabbahu Volcano erupted. The rift is part of the process of the Arabian and African plates moving apart. This new crack,  long, and  deep, opened when the lava from the erupting volcano flowed underground and cooled. It left a  long,  wide dike within days.

References

East Africa
Archaeological sites in Africa

Afar Triangle


Daniel Bigelow (24 March 1824 – 15 September 1905) was a pioneer lawyer and politician in Olympia, Washington.

Biography
Daniel Richardson Bigelow was born March 24, 1824, in Belleville a hamlet in the township of Ellisburg, New York, a part of Jefferson County, New York. His parents were Jotham Bigelow (1784-1860) (son of Joel and Sarah (née Stowell) Bigelow)  and Celinda Bullock ( d. 22 Apr 1824).   He graduated from Union College in 1846 and attended Harvard Law School from 1847 to 1849.  After graduation he began practice in Dodgeville, Wisconsin.  News of the California Gold Rush sparked Bigelow's interest in relocating to the Pacific Coast.  In 1851 Bigelow joined a wagon train headed west and crossed the Oregon Trail with his law books and desk, arriving in Portland in September.  After determining Portland already had enough lawyers, he sailed up the coast in the schooner Exact to Puget Sound in November 1851 on the same voyage that carried the Denny Party.  He continued south to Smithfield (later renamed Olympia), then part of the northern Oregon Territory.  There he established a law office.  At the time there were fewer than 200 American settlers.

Bigelow was a gifted orator whose July 4, 1852 speech in Olympia contributed to the movement to create Washington Territory out of the part of the Oregon territory north of the Columbia River. Bigelow also served as one of the three commissioners who revised the laws of Oregon Territory at Salem during the summer of 1853.

Daniel served as the first Treasurer of Thurston County, a member of the first legislature of Washington Territory in 1854, the first Superintendent of the Olympia School, and President of the Board of Trustees of Puget Sound Wesleyan Institute, the forerunner of the University of Puget Sound.

On June 18, 1854, Bigelow married Ann Elizabeth White, one of the first school teachers in the area. Ann was born November 3, 1836 in Illinois and settled with her family on Chambers Prairie, now part of Lacey, Washington, Thurston County, Washington southeast of Olympia in what is now Lacey Township, in late 1851. Her father, William White, was one of two casualties in Thurston County of the 1855-56 Indian War.

Daniel and Ann Elizabeth were devout Methodists and helped found the ME church in Olympia.  They were also strident advocates of women's suffrage.  Bigelow supported extending the right to vote to women in the 1854 legislature and in 1871, while serving as a Territorial Representative, gave a speech to the Washington Legislature advocating voting rights for women.  Suffragist Susan B. Anthony visited Olympia to promote the cause and dined with the Bigelows at their home.

The Bigelows were also instrumental in promoting public education in the territory.  Daniel helped found the Olympia School District and assisted in the construction of the first school in the early 1850s.  Bigelow also served as a regent of the University of Washington in 1866 and later founded the Olympia Collegiate Institute, forerunner of the University of Puget Sound.

Daniel Bigelow died September 15, 1905, at Olympia, the last surviving member of the first territorial legislature. Ann Elizabeth Bigelow died February 8, 1926. The Bigelows had 9 children.

See also
 Bigelow Neighborhood
 History of Olympia, Washington

References

External links
Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum
Bigelow Family Mementos available from the Washington State Library

The Bigelow Society

History of Olympia, Washington
1824 births
1905 deaths
Members of the Washington Territorial Legislature
19th-century American politicians
Oregon Territory officials
Union College (New York) alumni
Harvard Law School alumni
Regents of the University of Washington
People from Ellisburg, New York

Daniel Bigelow


Greg Thomey (born May 8, 1961) is a Canadian comedian, actor and playwright and a founding member of the long-running television program This Hour Has 22 Minutes. He has been a recipient of numerous Gemini Awards.

Born in St. John's, Newfoundland, Thomey has been part of the comedy scene there for many years beginning as a writer and performer with the comedy troupe CODCO and as an actor and playwright.

He played the role of Brother Glackin in the film The Boys of St. Vincent. His original stage play Hanlon House, which was first produced by the Resource Centre for the Arts in St. John's, went on to be produced as a short film, winning the Best Short Film award at the Atlantic Film Festival in 1992. Hanlon House was aired on CBC-TV's Arts program later that year.

In 1992, he began to work with Cathy Jones, Rick Mercer and Mary Walsh to create a new television series, which became This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Thomey played anchorperson Frank MacMillan and created many memorable characters such as Jerry Boyle (of the Newfoundland Separation Federation) and Eddie from "That Show Sucked". He left the show as an on-screen performer in 2005 but he returned to This Hour as a writer for the 2013/2014 season.

In addition to his work on 22 Minutes, in 1996 Thomey also starred in a six-part series called Daily Tips for Modern Living that aired on CBC TV.

Thomey was not hired back for 22 Minutes in August 2018, as several other long-time talent such as Shaun Majumder and multiple veteran writers were also not hired back.

Personal life
In 2014, he was a co-complainant in a legal case in Nova Scotia in which a couple was accused of defrauding several investors including Thomey.

References

The CBC's Personality Greg Thomey page

1961 births
Living people
Canadian television personalities
Canadian Screen Award winners
Writers from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
Male actors from Newfoundland and Labrador
This Hour Has 22 Minutes
Canadian sketch comedians
Canadian television writers
Canadian male television writers
Comedians from Newfoundland and Labrador
Canadian male comedians
Canadian Comedy Award winners

Greg Thomey


Dafydd ap Llywelyn (c. March 1212 – 25 February 1246) was Prince of Gwynedd from 1240 to 1246. He was the first ruler in Wales to claim the title Prince of Wales.

Birth and descent

Though birth years of 1208, 1206, and 1215 have been put forward for Dafydd, it has recently been persuasively argued that he was born shortly after Easter 1212. Born at Castell Hen Blas, Coleshill, Bagillt in Flintshire, he was the only son of Llywelyn the Great by his wife, Joan (daughter of King John). His grandfather was facing trouble in England against his Barons when he was born. In his final years, Llywelyn went to great lengths to have Dafydd accepted as his sole heir. By Welsh law, Dafydd's older half-brother Gruffydd had a claim to be Llywelyn's successor. Llywelyn had Dafydd recognised as his named heir by his uncle King Henry III in 1220, and also had Dafydd's mother Joan declared legitimate by the Pope to strengthen Dafydd's claim.

Conflict

There was considerable support for Gruffydd in Gwynedd. Although Dafydd lost one of his most important supporters when his mother died in 1237, he retained the support of Ednyfed Fychan, the Seneschal of Gwynedd who wielded great political influence. Llywelyn suffered a paralytic stroke in 1237, and Dafydd took an increasing role in government. Dafydd ruled Gwynedd following his father's death in 1240.

Although Henry III had accepted his claim to rule Gwynedd, he was not disposed to allow him to retain his father's conquests outside Gwynedd. As the diplomatic situation deteriorated, Dafydd began to explore alliances with others against Henry, and is known to have sent ambassadors to the court of Louis IX of France. In August 1241, however, the King invaded Gwynedd, and after a short campaign, Dafydd was forced to submit. Under the terms of the Treaty of Gwerneigron, he had to give up all his lands outside Gwynedd, and also to hand over to the King his half-brother Gruffydd, whom he had imprisoned. Henry thereby gained what could have been a useful weapon against Dafydd, with the possibility of setting Gruffydd up as a rival to Dafydd in Gwynedd, but in March 1244 Gruffydd fell to his death while trying to escape from the Tower of London by climbing down a knotted sheet.

Later reign and death

This freed Dafydd's hands, and he entered into an alliance with other Welsh princes to attack English possessions in Wales. He enjoyed several successes in the north: by March 1245 he had recovered the castle of Mold along with his former possessions in modern-day Flintshire, and it is possible that the castle of Dyserth also fell to his men in the summer. In August 1245 King Henry again invaded Gwynedd, but his army suffered a defeat in a narrow pass by Dafydd's men. Undaunted, Henry proceeded as far as the river Conwy, and began building a new castle at Deganwy.

Dafydd also began diplomacy with Pope Innocent IV, the result of which was a recognition by the Vatican of his right to rule over north Wales. After a flurry of diplomatic activity by Henry, the decision was reversed in 1245. Savage fighting continued at Deganwy until Henry, some of whose supplies had been captured by the Welsh, ran short of provisions. A truce was agreed and Henry's army withdrew in the autumn. The truce remained in effect throughout the winter, but the war was effectively ended by the sudden death of Dafydd in the royal home at Abergwyngregyn, in February 1246. He was buried with his father at the abbey of Aberconwy. The writer of Brut y Tywysogyon described him as tarian Cymru – the shield of Wales. The poet Dafydd Benfras composed an elegy in his honour.

Succession

Since Dafydd's marriage to Isabella de Braose, daughter of William de Braose, had failed to produce an heir (though some early modern genealogists record him as having sired sons, including Dafydd) the two elder sons of Gruffydd, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and Owain ap Gruffydd, divided Gwynedd between them and continued the war with King Henry until April 1247, when Llywelyn and Owain met the King at Woodstock and came to terms with him at the cost of the loss of much territory. The pair would continue to rule over Gwynedd jointly until Llywelyn's victory over Owain at the battle of Bryn Derwin in 1255.

References

Cussans, Thomas, The Times Kings & Queens of The British Isles, .
Edwards, J. G. (ed.), Calendar of Ancient Correspondence concerning Wales (Cardiff, 1935).
Stephenson, David and Craig Owen Jones, 'The date and the context of the birth of Dafydd ap Llywelyn', Flintshire Historical Society Journal 39 (2012).

1212 births
1246 deaths
Monarchs of Gwynedd
Burials at Aberconwy Abbey
13th-century Welsh monarchs

Dafydd ap Llywelyn


In statistics, a sample is part of a population. The sample is carefully chosen. It should represent the whole population fairly, without bias.

When treated as a data set, a sample is often represented by capital letters such as  and , with its elements being represented in lowercase (e.g., ), and the sample size being represented by the letter .

The reason samples are needed is that populations may be so large that counting all the individuals may not be possible or practical. Therefore, solving a problem in statistics usually starts with sampling. Sampling is about choosing which data to take for later analysis. As an example, suppose the pollution of a lake should be analysed for a study. Depending on where the samples of water were taken, the studies can have different results.

As a general rule, samples need to be random. This means the chance or probability of selecting one individual is the same as the chance of selecting any other individual.

In practice, random samples are always taken by means of a well-defined procedure. A procedure is a set of rules, a sequence of steps written down and exactly followed. Even so, some bias may remain in the sample. Consider the problem of designing a sample to predict the result of an election poll. All known methods have their problems, and the results of an election are often different from predictions based on a sample. If you collect opinions by using telephones, or by meeting people in the street, you won't ask people who don't answer phone calls or who don't walk on the street. Therefore, in cases like this a completely neutral sample is never possible. In such cases a statistician will think about how to measure the amount of bias, and there are ways to estimate this.

A similar situation occurs when scientists measure a physical property, say the weight of a piece of metal, or the speed of light. If we weigh an object with sensitive equipment we will get minutely different results. No system of measurement is ever perfect. We get a series of estimates, each one being a measurement. These are samples, with a certain degree of error. Statistics is designed to describe error, and carry out analysis on this kind of data.

There are different kinds of samples:
A complete sample includes all the elements that have a given property.
An unbiased or representative sample is produced by taking a complete sample and selecting elements from it, in a process that does not depend on the properties of the elements.
The way the sampling is obtained, along with the sample size, will have an impact on how the data is viewed.

Stratified sampling
If a population has obvious sub-populations, then each of the sub-populations needs to be sampled. This is called stratified sampling. Stratified sampling is also known as stratified random sample. Stratified sampling is often represented as proportion, such as percent (%).

Suppose an experiment set out to sample the incomes of adults. Obviously, the incomes of college graduates might differ from that of non-graduates. Now suppose the number of male graduates was 30% of the total male adults (imaginary figures). Then you would arrange for 30% of the total sample to be male graduates picked at random, and 70% of the total to be male non-graduates. Repeat the process for females, because the percentage of female graduates is different from males. That gives a sample of the adult population stratified by sex and college education. The next step would be to divide each of your sub-populations by age groups, because (for example) graduates might gain more income relative to non-graduates in middle age.

Another type of stratified sample deals with variation. Here larger samples are taken from the more variable sub-populations so that the summary statistics such as the means and standard deviations, are more reliable.

Related pages

 Mean (statistics)
 Standard deviation

References

Statistics

Sample


This Tuesday in Texas was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on December 3, 1991, at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Texas. The event was an attempt by the WWF to establish Tuesday as a secondary pay-per-view night. Lukewarm reaction and a disappointing 1.0 buyrate rendered the experiment a failure, and the company shelved its plans until October 2004, when it held Taboo Tuesday (with exception of the emergency second night of In Your House 8: Beware of Dog in 1996, after the original Sunday showing suffered from power failures).

Five professional wrestling matches were scheduled on the card. The main event was a rematch for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, which saw Hulk Hogan defeat the champion, The Undertaker, to regain the title. Hogan had lost the championship six days earlier at Survivor Series in a controversial finish. The featured bout on the undercard saw Randy Savage, in his first match since WrestleMania VII, defeat Jake Roberts.

Production

Background
In 1991, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) scheduled a pay-per-view titled This Tuesday in Texas. It was held on December 3, 1991, at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Texas. It was a one-off event and was the WWF's attempt to establish Tuesday as a secondary pay-per-view night.

Storylines
This Tuesday in Texas featured professional wrestling matches involving different wrestlers from existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that were played out on Superstars of Wrestling, Wrestling Challenge and Prime Time Wrestling — the World Wrestling Federation's television programs. Wrestlers portrayed a villain or a hero as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated into a wrestling match or series of matches.

During the late summer of 1991, Ric Flair, a multi-time world champion in the rival National Wrestling Alliance and World Championship Wrestling, signed with the WWF and, appearing on television with his "Big Gold Belt," began targeting WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan and declaring himself "The Real World Champion." A feud with Hogan, long-anticipated by fans since the late 1980s, was quickly conceived, and escalated at Survivor Series when he helped The Undertaker defeat Hogan for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. Due to Flair's involvement in the match, a rematch was immediately signed, with WWF president Jack Tunney announcing he would be present at ringside to make sure there was no outside interference.

Another feud leading into the event was between Jake Roberts and Randy Savage. The feud had its roots in an earlier feud that The Undertaker had been having with The Ultimate Warrior, where Roberts had offered to help Warrior conquer Undertaker but instead turned heel and revealed he had been working with Undertaker all along. However, circumstances led to Warrior leaving the company after SummerSlam in August. At the same event, Roberts' and Savage's new feud started when he and Undertaker crashed the wedding reception for Savage and Miss Elizabeth (in kayfabe, as they had been married in real life for nearly seven years). Roberts then began insulting Savage in a series of promos across the country, with Savage precluded from doing anything about it due to his forced retirement from the ring after losing to Warrior at WrestleMania VII earlier in the year. The insults grew more personal and vicious through the fall of 1991, but despite Savage's best efforts to get himself reinstated Tunney continued to hold him to the retirement stipulation. Eventually, Savage had enough and, while doing color commentary duties on WWF Superstars, came to the ring to confront Roberts, who was delivering an anti-Savage promo. However, Roberts caught Savage and severely beat him before tying him into the ring ropes and allowing a cobra to bite his arm. This incident was the last straw for Tunney regarding Roberts, and he reinstated Savage to the active roster.

Event
The first match to air live on pay-per-view (PPV) was a standard singles match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship between the challenger, Skinner and the champion, Bret Hart. Hart controlled the first few minutes of the match until Skinner rammed Hart's shoulder into the ring post. Skinner then retained control for most of the match until he attempted a move from the middle rope which was countered when Hart raised his leg and connected with a boot to Skinner's face. Shortly afterward, Skinner climbed the ropes again but was grabbed and slammed to the mat. Hart then applied his finishing move, the Sharpshooter, and forced Skinner to submit, therefore retaining the championship.

The next match was a singles match between Jake Roberts and Randy Savage. While Roberts was making his entrance, Savage rushed down the aisle and attacked Roberts from behind. Savage spent the next few minutes on the offense until the referee stepped between the two competitors, which allowed Roberts to deliver a blow to Savage's lower abdomen. Roberts then tossed Savage over the top rope to the floor, giving himself time to recover from Savage's relentless attack. Roberts took control of the match, focusing the majority of his punishment on Savage's injured arm. At about the six-minute mark of the match, Roberts grabbed Savage in preparation for his finishing move, the DDT, when Savage countered by driving him backwards into the corner, ramming his shoulder into Roberts' ribs. This caused Roberts to stumble out of the corner and fall to the mat in pain, allowing Savage to climb the ropes and perform his diving elbow drop finisher and pin Roberts for the victory. After the match, Savage wanted to inflict more punishment on Roberts and grabbed a steel chair but it was taken away by a ringside official. Savage then grabbed the timekeeping bell but became caught in a tug-of-war with the referee, which allowed Roberts to perform a DDT on Savage. About a minute later, Roberts delivered a second DDT to Savage. Roberts then reached under the ring and pulled out a bag, similar to the one that normally contained his King Cobra. Miss Elizabeth then ran to the ring and draped herself over Savage, attempting to prevent Roberts from harming him any further. It did not work however, as Roberts got hold of him and delivered a third DDT and followed that up with a slap to Elizabeth's face. A second referee then arrived to help escort Roberts out of the ring. WWF President (kayfabe) Jack Tunney finally came to ringside to make sure Roberts left without any further incident.

The following match was a singles match in which The Warlord (with Harvey Wippleman) battled The British Bulldog. The action was back-and-forth for a majority of the match until Warlord gained a more prolonged control and attempted to perform his finishing hold, a full nelson, but could not get his hands locked to fully apply the hold. Eventually, Warlord released the hold and threw Bulldog to the mat. Warlord picked up Bulldog, sent him into the corner and charged after him. Bulldog countered with a boot to the face, followed by a clothesline from the middle rope. Bulldog performed his signature delayed suplex and attempted a pinfall but Warlord powered out by tossing Bulldog off of him. Bulldog then attempted his finishing move, a running powerslam, but Warlord blocked it by grabbing hold of the top rope. Bulldog tried to jerk him loose but pulled too hard and Warlord fell on top of him for a two count. Warlord then sent Bulldog into the ropes but Bulldog stepped around him and applied a crucifix and scored the victory.

The next match was a tag team match featuring The Repo Man and Ted DiBiase (with Sensational Sherri) versus El Matador and Virgil. The opening few minutes of the match were controlled by El Matador and Virgil until DiBiase hit Virgil, who was charging towards him in the corner, with an elbow to the chest. Repo Man and DiBiase then took turns wearing down Virgil until he managed to hit DiBiase with a neckbreaker and tagged in El Matador. After a flurry of attacks, El Matador attempted his finishing move, a running leaping forearm club, but was tripped from the outside of the ring by DiBiase. El Matador was then knocked over the top rope by Repo Man, where DiBiase threw him into the steel ring steps while the referee was occupied with Repo Man and Virgil on the other side of the ring. After a double-clothesline, Repo Man and El Matador each made a tag to their teammate. Soon all four participants were in the ring when Sherri climbed the apron and attempted to hit Virgil with her high-heel shoe, however, he ducked and the shoe hit DiBiase instead. Virgil, angry with Sherri's attempted interference, grabbed her but was nailed with a knee to the kidney by Repo Man. This allowed DiBiase to cover Virgil for the pinfall and the win.

The following was the last match of the event, contested for the WWF Championship between the champion, The Undertaker (with Paul Bearer) and the challenger, Hulk Hogan. Jack Tunney was present at ringside to ensure there would be no outside interference. Undertaker was introduced first, followed by Hogan who slid into the ring underneath the ropes and was met by Undertaker and Bearer who both began kicking him. After a few kicks, Hogan got to his feet, grabbed them and knocked their heads into one another. Bearer rolled out of the ring, leaving 'Taker and Hogan in the ring to begin the match. Hogan began with a series of attacks but had little to no effect on the Undertaker. After being clotheslined over the top rope, Undertaker grabbed Hogan's ankles, dragged him out of the ring and delivered a thrust to the throat. Undertaker took control of the match until Hogan began a comeback, which prompted Ric Flair to arrive at ringside. He was confronted by Jack Tunney who tried to stop him from getting involved. Hogan took it upon himself to stop Flair by giving him a chair shot to the back, which knocked him into Tunney, sending both of them to the ground, with Flair landing on top of Tunney. With Tunney temporarily knocked-out, Flair climbed onto the apron and held up a steel chair for 'Taker to ram Hogan into. However, Hogan was able to stop his momentum and instead flung Undertaker into the chair. The Undertaker recovered and grabbed Hogan from behind to let Bearer hit him with the urn, but Hogan ducked and Bearer struck Undertaker. Hogan took the urn, opened it, and grabbed a handful of ashes which he threw into Undertaker's eyes. Meanwhile, Flair had begun to revive Tunney enough for him to see what was occurring. Hogan then pinned Undertaker with a roll up to win the WWF Championship.

Reception
The WWF earned approximately $100,000 in ticket sales with an attendance of 8,000. The pay-per-view received a buyrate of 1.0, which is the equivalent of approximately 400,000 buys. The event was featured on the WWF Supertape '92 home video, which was released on VHS in the United States on January 23, 1992, by Coliseum Video.

Aftermath
The following weekend, Tunney stripped Hogan of the WWF Championship and declared the title vacant due to the controversial circumstances that had surrounded the two Hogan-Undertaker matches. He then declared that the upcoming Royal Rumble match, which was scheduled for January 1992, would be contested for the vacant title and the winner of the match would become the new champion. Tunney gave Hogan and Undertaker an advantage and reserved two of the final eleven entry spots (20-30) for them to draw. The Undertaker drew number 20 while Hogan, the two-time defending Rumble winner, drew number 26. Flair drew number 3. Hogan went on to eliminate Undertaker, while he himself was turned on and eliminated by his own ally Sid Justice. Unhappy with Justice's actions, Hogan remained at ringside arguing with Sid and repaid the favor by assisting Ric Flair in eliminating the big man from the Rumble match, resulting in Flair winning the match and the vacant WWF Championship. The events surrounding the Rumble would lead to a match between Hogan and Justice at WrestleMania VIII, which Hogan won by disqualification.

Jake Roberts and Randy Savage continued to feud for the next couple months. This included Savage eliminating Roberts during the Royal Rumble match and ended following a match between the two on the February 8, 1992 Saturday Night's Main Event XXX. After losing the match, an enraged Roberts waited backstage for Savage and Elizabeth to arrive while announcing that he was going to hit with a steel chair whoever entered first. Roberts reared back when he saw Elizabeth come through the entrance, but The Undertaker grabbed the chair and refused to let Roberts hit Elizabeth. The act resulted in The Undertaker becoming a hero for the first time in his career and began a feud between him and his former ally Roberts that culminated at WrestleMania VIII when Undertaker emerged victorious. The feud, however, was brief as Roberts left the WWF almost immediately after WrestleMania due to issues with Vince McMahon.

Although their match against the Legion of Doom was not broadcast as part of the pay-per-view event, This Tuesday In Texas marked one of the final major appearances of The Rockers as a tag team. A day earlier, "The Barber Shop" segment wherein Shawn Michaels turned heel by sneak-attacking Marty Jannetty was taped for airing on television in early January 1992. Michaels and Janetty would continue to team, mostly at untelevised house shows with their "dissention in the ranks" storyline continuing, until the "Barber Shop" segment was aired on WWF Wrestling Challenge.

Results

References

External links

Events in San Antonio
WWE pay-per-view events
1991 in Texas
Professional wrestling in San Antonio
1991 WWF pay-per-view events
December 1991 events in the United States

This Tuesday in Texas


Sandpaper is a piece of paper with an abrasive glued to it. Sandpapers come in various types. Some are very rough, while others are very smooth. They are used to clean wood and metal and make them smooth. Some sandpaper is made to go on a machine that rubs very fast, while other sandpaper is used by hand.

Construction

Sandpaper


When talking about cars, a tuner is a car with many parts changed so the car can go very fast. The word "tune" here means "to adjust" or "to change". Typically, people call any vehicle that has been modified for performance reasons a tuner car regardless of make or model.

When people want to drive fast cars but don't want to buy a very expensive car, they change some parts for an ordinary car to make it go faster.

Making a tuner
For basic tuning, the engine intake and exhaust are changed, which means the process that takes air into the engine and out of the engine happens faster. People can also make the frame of the car stronger, to help it go around corners better. A spoiler or wing helps air push the car down onto the ground, which means more grip.

Some types of tuned cars

 A hot rod is a classic American car with lots of engine upgrades to help it go fast in a straight line.
 A lowrider is a very low car, often with fancy paint and decals. Lowriders are popular in the United States.
 JDM means "Japanese domestic market" and is used for cars that are made for Japan before being brought into other countries.

Related pages
Auto racing

References

Car classifications

Tuner (car)


Coriaria myrtifolia, called in English redoul,  is a shrub that grows to 2–3 m tall. Myrtifolia means myrtle-like leaves.

The fruit is a fleshy black berry achene slightly similar to a blackberry but toxic. Coriaria myrtifolia has the largest fruits in the genus Coriaria. It is especially dangerous for children, who may eat it if they confuse it with edible berries. It should be recognized as one of the most neurotoxic plants in the western Mediterranean area.

Range
Geographically, this species is confined to northern Mediterranean coastal Spain and Southern France (from the Gironde to the Alpes Maritimes), penetrating into Italy as far as part of the Apennines.  The species reappears in the western Rif and Algeria, and in the Balearic islands it appears only in Ibiza. The oldest known mention of this plant, dating from 932, is in a place name and implies its presence in the County of Manresa, north-west of Barcelona.

In all this range, this plant plays an important role in preventing soil erosion and serves as understory vegetation. It is extraordinarily abundant in the less dense woodlands of the Spanish provinces of Girona and Barcelona (eastern part) at altitudes of 200–600 m, reaching occasionally to 1,000 m.

Name
The Spanish name emborrachacabras (i.e. makes goats drunk) refers to the leaves' intoxicating effect on goats that eat them. The French name is Corroyère à feuilles de myrte. The Occitan name (rodor) and Catalan name (roldor) derive from Latin Rhus tyrius (Rhus coriaria), referring to the leaves' use in the traditional tannery industry. In Morocco, it's called arwaz (أرواز) in Berber as well as the spoken Moroccan Arabic.

Description
The root nodules of this plant carry out symbiotic nitrogen fixation, Coriaria myrtifolia is one of the 13 Coriaria species known to bear actinorhizae.

The redoul is a shrub with branches greyish square section. The leaves are sessile, mostly opposite but sometimes in groups of three or more, oblong, acuminate, with three ribs. The small greenish flowers, which appear from April to June in racemes, have five reddish highlights styles, five sepals and five petals, with ten stamens. The black fruits are formed of five fleshy carpels, each containing one seed.

Toxicity
The leaves and fruits of Coriaria myrtifolia contain coriamyrtin, a typical convulsant substance one member of  sesquiterpenes, was first isolated in 1864.

Toxic effects are characterized by digestive (nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain), neurological (obnubilation, convulsions and their complications), and respiratory disorders (polypnea, respiratory problems, apnea, short and superficial respiration) together with myositis of the pupils. Treatment of this poisoning is purely symptomatic. In the case of convulsions, rapid resuscitation in an intensive care unit is necessary. Coriamyrtin also has a pharmacological action.

The honeydew from redoul is also toxic.

Uses
Traditionally, leaves of redoul were intensively collected for their tannin content, for tanning and dyeing purposes.
During the medieval period, ecclesiastical institutions and the aristocracy clearly sought to establish some royalties on this resource, the samples are being especially on the distribution and sale of material first. These uses are due to the wealth of Coriaria spp tannin, particularly concentrated in the root and the bark of the stem, but also present in leaves, where they coexist with yellow dyes from the chemical group of flavonoids. These tannins are part of the group of hydrolyzable tannins, such as gall tannins. The chemical composition of redoul thus makes a tanning substance, capable of transforming recently flayed animal skins into leather, which is rot resistant, flexible and relatively impermeable, known as Basil leather.  These properties allow for its widespread use in many industries. Moreover, the well-known chemical reaction of tannins with iron salts, producing black precipitates, is the basis for the manufacture of some inks used since the Middle Ages, and is also used to dye a variety of textiles black or gray. Until the mid-fourteenth century, the material was the subject of extensive trade between the north of Catalonia and Languedoc. The Māori used species of Coriaria from New Zealand: they produced traditional tattoo inks from the fruit juice, made musical instruments from the hollow stems, and despite its extreme toxicity ate the fruit sparingly due to its sweet taste; using it to sweeten drinking water or jellies made from seaweed.

Coriaria myrtifolia is also used as an ornamental plant.

References

Coriariaceae
Flora of North Africa
Flora of Southeastern Europe
Flora of Southwestern Europe
Plants described in 1753
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
Medicinal plants of Africa
Medicinal plants of Europe

Coriaria myrtifolia


Constitutional law is an area of law that shows how the institutions of a country are organised, and the basic rights rights of citizens. In most countries, such as the United States, this is found in a written text called a constitution. Some countries use a lot of different texts and unwritten rules instead, such as the United Kingdom.

State structure
Constitutional law explains how different institutions relate to each other. For example, the relationship between the legislature, executive, and judiciary. In a federal country, constitutional law explains what the powers of the central government and state governments are.

Human rights
Constitutional law shows citizens what rights they have. Some examples are the United States Bill of Rights, or the European Convention on Human Rights.

Related pages
Constitution
Constitution of the United States
Constitutionalism
Political science

Types of law

Constitutional law


Bratislava I (; ) is a district in the city of Bratislava. It is identical with its sole borough, Bratislava's Old Town (; ; ). With an area of 10 square kilometers, it is the smallest district of Slovakia. It is completely surrounded by other Bratislava districts: Bratislava II, Bratislava III, Bratislava IV and Bratislava V.

Location
For administrative purposes, according to VZN No. 6/2001, the Old Town of Bratislava has total area of 124 meters squared. Old Town's western boundary is the eastern wall of the original Botanical Garden of the Comenius University area, today running partly though a parking lot underneath the Lafranconi Bridge, the boundary then crosses the tram lines of the Nábr. arm. gen. L. Svobodu Street and continues through the eastern side of the Mlynská dolina Street until the State Geological Institute of Dionýz Štúr on Patrónka where the boundary crosses to the other side of the street, continuing to the junction of Lamačská cesta – Cesta na Červený most, then it crosses the railway line Malacky - Bratislava near Bratislava Železná studienka railway station where it sharply turns towards south-east.

Old Town's northern boundary is the northern side of the Malacky - Bratislava railway line, it continues through the eastern part of Opavská Street, it crosses the Limbová Street at the place of the underpass underneath the railway tracks, continues through the northern side of the railway line and the southern side of Opavská Street. At the crossing of Opavská Street and Ďurgalova Street it bends northwards and continues through the northern side of the Pražská Street, it crosses the Stromová Street and again continues through the northern side of the Malacky - Bratislava railway line. The boundary then continues around the northern edge of the Bratislava main railway station and at the crossing of Jaskov Rad Street and Pod Strážami Street it turns to the southeast. It continues through the western side of the underpass underneath the railway tracks and then it turns to the northeast and continues through the northern side of the Dobšinského Street until its crossing with Smrečianska Street.

References

Sources
 Všeobecne záväzné nariadenie hlavného mesta Slovenskej republiky Bratislavy č. 6/2001 zo 7. júna 2001 ktorým sa podrobne vymedzujú územia mestských častí hlavného mesta Slovenskej republiky Bratislavy (in Slovak)

Districts of Slovakia
Boroughs of Bratislava
Geography of Bratislava Region

Bratislava 1


In Ancient Greece the Gymnasion (or Gymnasium, romanized name) was a place where athletes could train for the competitions in public games, such as the Olympic Games. Gymnos means naked. Only men were allowed to enter, and train; they did so fully naked (as the name implies). Athletes also competed in the nude. This was said to encourage aesthetic appreciation of the male body. It was believed to be a tribute to the Gods. Gymnasia and palestrae were under the protection and patronage of Heracles, Hermes and, in Athens, Theseus.

Layout
 The picture above shows the Pompeii gymnasium from the top of the stadium wall. The depression in the center-left of the picture was filled with water and used for swimming practice as well. Mock sea battles (naumachiae) took place in the flooded arena floor or a specially dug pool in the arena. According to Oscar Brockett in his History of the Theatre, 5th Ed. (1987), p. 70, "Perhaps the most spectacular of all entertainments were the naumachiae, or sea battles. The first was given in 46 B.C. by Julius Caesar on a lake dug for the occasion; it featured a battle involving 2,000 marines and 6,000 oarsmen. Later the amphitheatres were sometimes flooded for such events. By far the most ambitious of all the naumachiae was given in 52 A.D. on the Fucine Lake east of Rome to celebrate the completion of a water conduit. On that occasion, 19,000 participants fought and many died. To the right of the picture (partially behind a tree trunk) is a line of carbonized tree stumps. These are the remains of trees (each hundreds of years old) that were part of the palaistra. They were burned in the volcanic eruption of 79. Between these and the colonnade is a line of saplings recently planted as a replacement.

References

Sports buildings
Nudity

Ancient sports
Buildings and structures in Ancient Greece

Gymnasium (ancient Greece)


Newington Butts is a former hamlet, now an area of the London Borough of Southwark, London, England, that gives its name to a segment of the A3 road running south-west from the Elephant and Castle junction. The road continues as Kennington Park Road leading to Kennington; a fork right is Kennington Lane, leading to Vauxhall Bridge. Michael Faraday was born in Newington Butts.

It is believed to take its name from an archery butts, or practice field. The area gave its name to an Elizabethan theatre which saw the earliest recorded performances of some Shakespearean plays.

The famous scientist Michael Faraday was born in Newington Butts in 1791.

Toponymy
The Middle English word "butt" referred to an abutting strip of land, and is often associated with medieval field systems. The 1955 Survey of London published by London County Council could find no historical reference to archery butts in Newington although the connection is mentioned elsewhere (e.g., in 1792). The name may have alternatively derived from the triangle of land between the roads, as the word "butts" is used elsewhere in Surrey to refer to odd corners or ends of land.

History

Newington was a rural village that grew up on the Walworth Road at its junction with the Portsmouth Road, about a mile south of London Bridge. Being outside the jurisdiction of the City of London it became home to activities such as plays that were banned near London during hot weather, for fear of spreading infection.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the triangle of ground between the roads was known as the Three Falcons and was copyhold of the manor of Walworth. In 1791 the leading scientist Michael Faraday was born at Newington Butts. In 1802, Thomas Hardwick reported that the estate consisted of a number of small tenements in bad condition.

In the spring of 2008, St Mary's Churchyard, the green open space on the northern border of Newington Butts, was given a face lift. The largely grassy area now contains a children's playground. Dotted about within the playground and on the grass elsewhere are concrete mounds with rubber (safety) surfaces which were designed to add interest and topography to the developed area. These mounds might recall archery butts but this has been denied by the Elephant and Castle Regeneration Team.

In Cockney rhyming slang, 'Newington Butts' means 'guts'.

Theatre
The Newington Butts Theatre was one of the earliest Elizabethan theatres, possibly predating even The Theatre of 1576 and the Curtain Theatre, which are usually regarded as the first dedicated playhouses in London.

See also
 English Renaissance theatre
 Newington, London
 Newington Causeway

Notes and references

Further reading
  transcribes the original manuscripts relating to Newington Butts playhouse.
Shakespearean Playhouses, by Joseph Quincy Adams, Jr. from Project Gutenberg

External links
 Newington Butts, Kennington photograph, c. 1870.

Streets in the London Borough of Southwark
Archery venues
Archery in the United Kingdom
Medieval archery

Newington Butts