Borinquen Air, also doing business as Amber Service, Air Puerto Rico or Diaz Aviation, is a charter airline from Puerto Rico, which operates regional passenger and cargo flights. The company was founded in 1961 and is based at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport.

The airline, which since 1985 has also been in the business of selling aviation fuel, is led by Sixto Diaz Saldaña, a member of the airline's founding family, who is the airline general manager, the sole shareholder and also a licensed attorney.

Fleet

, Borinquen Air operated two aircraft: a Beechcraft Model 18, which can accommodate 7 passengers, and a cargo-configured Douglas DC-3. Formerly, airplanes of the types Douglas DC-6, Douglas DC-9, Martin 4-0-4 and Short 330 had been included in the fleet.

Delta Ship 41
One of the DC-3s flown by Air Puerto Rico turned out to be a legendary airplane: During 1990, a group of retirees started searching for one of Delta Airlines's five original DC-3 aircraft. Shortly after, they found out that the airplane that had become famous as "Delta Ship 41" was still flying in Puerto Rico, flying cargo for Air Puerto Rico with the registration of N29PR. The plane had been the second DC-3 acquired by Delta. Air Puerto Rico sold the aircraft back to Delta and it was flown to Atlanta in 1993. It is now on exhibit at Delta's Air Transport Heritage Museum.

McDonald Douglas DC-9
During the 1980s Air Puerto Rico operated one McDonald Douglas DC-9, N931EA. The plane would operate flights from Miami, Montego Bay JA and Santo Domingo DR. The plane was shortly retired from the fleet in 1987.

Accidents and incidents
On 22 July 1986 at 13:53 local time, a Borinquen Air Douglas DC-3 (registered N27PR) crashed into a lagoon on approach to Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport. The cargo aircraft had been on a flight to Golden Rock Airport, Saint Kitts and Nevis when the starboard engine failed shortly after take-off and the decision was made to return to the departure airport. One of the two pilots on board died in the accident.
On 1 March 1989, a DC-3, registered N28PR ditched into the sea off Isla Verde, Puerto Rico. The cargo airplane had been on an Diaz Aviation branded flight from Golden Rock Airport to Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, when the port engine failed during landing approach. Although the landing gear was retracted, the crew did not feather the propeller, which resulted in an increased air drag and thus made further flight maneuvers impossible. There were no fatalities among the two occupants of the airplane.

References

1961 establishments in Puerto Rico
Companies based in San Juan, Puerto Rico
Airlines established in 1961
Airlines of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican brands
Charter airlines

Borinquen Air


Aschland (Ashland)
 Beintgroof (Pine Grove)
 Beind Busch (Pine Grove)
 Mahoning Barig (Mahoning Mountain; the mountain extends from West Penn Twp. south of the Mahoning Creek into Mahoning Twp, Carbon, PA, and terminates just below Lehighton before it reaches the Lehigh River)
 Mahoning Grick (Mahoning Creek; the creek rises in West Penn Twp - 4 miles south of Tamaqua - and it flows generally northeast through farmland and several municipalities, West Penn Twp., Mahoning Twp. and Lehighton; it flows into the Lehigh River between Lehighton and Weissport in Carbon County)
 Peintgroof (Pine Grove)
 Pilgers Ruh ("Pilgrim's Rest" - on Route 501 between Pine Grove and Bethel)
 Pottswill (Pottsville)
 Schmalzdaal ("Lard Valley", East Brunswick Twp; a valley running from east to west and north of State Game Lands Number 222)
 Schullkillkaundidaal (Schuylkill County Vaelley)
 Aschland (Ashland)

Pennsylvaanisch-Deitsche Blatznaame

Pennsylvaanisch-Deitsche Blatznaame in Schulkill Kaundi (Schuylkill County, PA)


The Mark 30 torpedo was a British 18-inch air dropped anti-submarine passive acoustic homing torpedo. The torpedo was air dropped from the Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod and Avro Shackleton aircraft.

The Mark 30, also referred to by its project name as Dealer B, was an eight-fin passive homing torpedo using conventional propellers. Issued in June 1954, Mark 30 production saw approximately 1,200 being built. It served in both the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force until 1975. Development on a variant, the Mark 30 Mod 1, was cancelled in 1955 after the Royal Navy decided to purchase the American Mark 43 torpedo as a replacement.

References

Aerial torpedoes
Torpedoes of the United Kingdom

18" Mark 30 torpedo


Professor Michael Arthur Laughton FREng (born 18 December 1934) is Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering at Queen Mary, University of London, and currently Visiting Professor at the Department of Environmental Science and Technology at Imperial College.

Early life
He attended King Edward VI Five Ways, a grammar school in Birmingham, then moved to Canada. Laughton attended Etobicoke Collegiate Institute in Toronto, Ontario. At the University of Toronto, he gained a BASc in 1957. From the University of London, he gained a PhD in 1965 and a DSc (Eng) in 1976.

Career
Laughton was formerly Pro-Principal of Queen Mary and Westfield College and Dean of Engineering of the University of London. Together with D. F. Warne, Laughton coedited a book, Electrical Engineer's Reference Book, by M. G. Say that is presently in its 16th edition.

As a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Laughton is currently the UK representative on the Energy Committee of the European Council of Applied Sciences and Engineering (EuroCASE), a member of the energy and environment policy advisory groups of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society and the Institution of Electrical Engineers, as well as the Power Industry Division Board of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Laughton has acted as Specialist Adviser to UK Parliamentary Committees in both upper and lower Houses on alternative and renewable energy technologies and on energy efficiency. He put great emphasis on the fact that the United Kingdom is an island and therefore cannot rely significantly on imported energy.

Apart from participating in many international forums and writing many technical papers relating to the field of energy, Laughton has spent the last decade informally scouring Britain for out-of-the-way inventors. Part of Laughton's motivation is sheer Christian charity, but there's also a more fundamental message he wants to convey to his academic colleagues. He says, "The industrial revolution happened because of craftsmen-inventors... It did not spring from the minds of university-educated people. For too long have we worshipped at the altar of paper qualifications to the exclusion of a wider view. We must recognise the enormous value of the true innovator in effecting the technical changes in society which create real wealth."

Personal life
He married Margaret Coleman in 1960. They divorced in 1994 and have two daughters and two sons.

Academic qualification
 Royal Academy of Engineering BASc, PhD, DSc (Eng), FREng, CEng, FIEE

References

External links
 World Energy Council
 Department of Electronic Engineering, Queen Mary, University of London
 The Scientific Alliance

Academics of Queen Mary University of London
Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering
Living people
1934 births
University of Toronto alumni
People from Birmingham, West Midlands
Alumni of the University of London
Electrical engineering academics
British electrical engineers
Fellows of the Institution of Engineering and Technology
People educated at King Edward VI Five Ways

Michael Laughton


Anas Canon is an American audio engineer, producer, DJ, songwriter and media consultant. He lectures at conferences, universities, and embassies on cultural diplomacy, globalization, sound arts, and the music industry.

Career

Decorative Audio/Very Necessary
Canon currently serves as the creative director for the record label "Decorative Audio" as well as the chief creative consultant for its multimedia branch.

Remarkable Current
Canon served as the artistic director and executive producer for the independent music collective Remarkable Current, which he founded in 2001. Since 2001, Remarkable Current has released 15 full-length albums ranging in genres.

Hip Hop Ambassadors

As an extension of Decorative Audio, Canon developed the 'Hip Hop Ambassadors' program which presents positive examples of Urban American musicians to the international community. The Hip Hop Ambassadors have toured Indonesia, The UK, Turkey, Jerusalem, The UAE, Morocco, Egypt, Tanzania, Tunisia and Algeria Their Indonesian tour in 2010, sponsored by the US State Department's Performance Arts Initiative, broke US Embassy press records in the region and reached millions of viewers.

Music: Producing, Recording and Touring
Canon has toured and recorded with artists in America, Europe, Africa,. the Middle East, and Asia. In addition to producing records, he creates music for film, television, and commercials.

Distinctions
His client list includes: Aloe Blacc, The Black Eyed Peas, Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco, Talib Kweli, Common, Zion I, Erik Rico, Amir Sulaiman, Native Deen, and Poetic Pilgrimage.

Canon is highlighted in the documentary film Deen Tight. The documentary continues to be screened around the globe at embassies, universities and cultural centers.

Canon has been published in the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN.com and has been aired on PBS, BBC and MTV.

Canon broadcasts a monthly DJ set called The Center of Intention.

Since 2006 Canon has been employed by Apple Inc as a Creative.

References

External links
 http://www.anascanon.com
 http://www.remarkablecurrent.com
 https://web.archive.org/web/20110915090255/http://www.hiphopambassadors.com/
 http://remarkablecurrent.bandcamp.com
 https://soundcloud.com/djanascanon
 http://www.thecenterofintention.com

American audio engineers
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)

Anas Canon


Hermann Rolfus (24 May 1821 at Freiburg – 27 October 1896 at Bühl, near Offenburg) was a German Roman Catholic priest and educator.

Life

After attending the gymnasium at Freiburg, he studied theology and philology at the university there from 1840 to 1843, and was ordained priest on 31 August 1844. After he had served for brief periods at various places, he was appointed curate at Thiengen in 1851, curate-in-charge at Reiselfingen in 1855, parish priest at the last named place in 1861, parish priest at Reuthe near Freiburg in 1867 at Sasbach in 1875, and at Buhl in 1892. In 1867 the theological faculty at Freiburg gave him the degree of Doctor of Theology.

Works

Rolfus contributed to practical Catholic pedagogics by the work which he edited in conjunction with Adolf Pfister, "Real-Encyclopädie des Erziehungsund Unterrichtswesens nach katholischen Principien" (4 vols., Mainz, 1863–1866; 2nd. ed. 1872-74). A fifth volume ("Ergänzungsband", 1884) was issued by Rolfus alone.

Another influential publication was the "Suddeutsches katholisches Schulwochenblatt", which he edited, also jointly with Pfister, from 1861 to 1867. Among other works were:

"Der Grund des katholischen Glaubens" (Mainz, 1862);
"Leitfaden der allgemeinen Weltgeschichte" (Freiburg, 1870; 4th ed., 1896);
"Die Glaubens- und Sittenlehre der katholischen Kirche" (Einsiedeln, 1875; frequently re-edited), jointly with F. J. Brändle;
"Kirchengeschichtliches in chronologischer Reihenfolge von der Zeit des letzten Vaticanischen Concils bis auf unsere Tage" (2 vols., Mainz, 1877–82; 3rd vol. by Sickinger, 1882);
"Geschichte des Reiches Gottes auf Erden" (Freiburg, 1878–80; 3rd. ed., 1894–95);
"Katholischer Hauskatechismus" (Emsiedeln, 1891–92).

In addition, he wrote a large number of pedagogic, political, apologetic, and polemical brochures, ascetic treatises, and works for the young.

References

Attribution
 The entry cites:
Keller, Festschrift zum funfzigjahrigen Priesterjubilaum, des hochw. Herrn. Pfarrers u. Geistl. Rats Dr. Hermann Rolfus (Freiburg, im Br., 1894), with portrait;
Knecht in Badische Biographien, V (Heidelberg, 1906), 670 sq.

1821 births
1896 deaths
19th-century German Roman Catholic priests
German theologians
Clergy from Freiburg im Breisgau

Hermann Rolfus


The Seal of the City of Los Angeles is, since 1905, the official seal of the City of Los Angeles, a city located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California.

The escutcheon is encircled by the legal name of the city (City of Los Angeles) and year founded (1781). It was adopted on March 27, 1905, via Ordinance 10,834.

Symbolism
The heraldic blazon of the coat of arms, as declared in the 1905 ordinance, is: Inside the ribbon, flanking the escutcheon, are grapes, olives, and oranges, major crops of California, on their plants. These are also symbolized in the colors of the flag of Los Angeles. The fruit are on a field or, bordered with a 77-bead rosary, which represents Spanish missions in California.

The arms are quarterly:
 1st quarter: the lesser coat of arms of the United States. A field paleways of thirteen pieces argent and gules; chief, azure charged with thirteen five rays argent.
 2nd quarter: the flag of the California Republic (1846) A field argent with a bear gules at bay, five rays gules, and fess base gules, sans text and ground.
 3rd quarter: the coat of arms of Mexico (1823-1864). An eagle displayed reguardant and biting a serpent, symbolizing Mexican rule from 1822 until 1846.
 4th quarter: the lesser coat of arms of Spain (1785-1873). The coats of arms of Castile and León, symbolizing Spanish rule from 1542 until 1821.

See also
 List of U.S. county and city insignia

References
 The City Seal of Los Angeles at the University of Dayton
 The Forgotten Legacy of Los Angeles, the "City of Vines" at the California Historical Society
 Understanding The Los Angeles City Seal at Los Angeles Times

External links

 Seal of the City of Los Angeles at the City of Los Angeles (lacity.org)

1905 establishments in California
Coats of arms with bears
Coats of arms with buildings
Coats of arms with cacti
Coats of arms with crowns
Coats of arms with eagles
Coats of arms with flags
Coats of arms with fruit
Coats of arms with grapes
Coats of arms with lions
Coats of arms with snakes
Coats of arms with stars
Seal
Municipal coats of arms in California
Official seals of places in California
Symbols introduced in 1905

Seal of Los Angeles


Events from the year 1787 in the United States. The United States Constitution was written and the ratification process began.

Incumbents

Confederal government
President: Arthur St. Clair (February 2-October 29)
Second Continental Congress

Governors
Governor of Delaware: Thomas Collins (no political party) (starting December 7)
Governor of New Jersey: William Livingston (Federalist) (starting December 18)
Governor of Pennsylvania: Benjamin Franklin (Independent) (starting December 12)

Events

January–March
 January 6 – The North Carolina General Assembly authorizes nine commissioners to purchase  of land for the county seat of Chatham County.  The town is named Pittsborough (later shortened to Pittsboro) for William Pitt the Younger.
 February 28 – A charter is granted establishing the institution known today as the University of Pittsburgh.

April–June
 May 14 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates begin arriving to write a new Constitution for the United States.
 May 25 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates begin to convene a Constitutional Convention intended to amend the Articles of Confederation. However, a new Constitution for the United States is eventually produced. George Washington presides over the Convention.
 June 6 – Franklin College, named for Benjamin Franklin, opens in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It later merges with Marshall College to become Franklin and Marshall College.
 June 20 – Oliver Ellsworth moves at the Federal Convention that the government be called the United States.

July–September
 July 13 – The U.S. Congress enacts the Northwest Ordinance establishing governing rules for the Northwest Territory. It also establishes procedures for the admission of new states including gridded townships and limits the expansion of slavery.
 August 27 – Launching a  steam powered craft on the Delaware River, John Fitch demonstrates the first U.S. patent for his design.
 September 17 – The United States Constitution is adopted by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

October–December
 October 27 – The first of The Federalist papers, a series of essays, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay calling for ratification of the U.S. Constitution, is published in a New York paper.
 December 7 – Delaware ratifies the Constitution and becomes the first U.S. state (see History of Delaware).
 December 8 – Mission La Purisima Concepcion is founded by Father Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, becoming the 11th mission in the California mission chain.
 December 12 – Pennsylvania becomes the second U.S. state (see History of Pennsylvania).
 December 18 – New Jersey becomes the third U.S. state (see History of New Jersey).

Undated
 The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates Waynesborough and designates it the county seat for Wayne County, North Carolina.

Ongoing
 Articles of Confederation in effect (1781–1788)
 Northwest Indian War (1785–1795)

Births
 January 10 – Robert C. Nicholas, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1836 to 1841 (died 1857)
 February 13 – James P. Carrell, minister, singing teacher, composer and songbook compiler (died 1854)
 February 23 – Emma Willard, women's rights activist and educator (died 1870)
 March 7 – George Bethune English, explorer and writer (died 1828)
 March 28 – Theodore Frelinghuysen, running mate of Henry Clay in 1844 (born 1862)
 May 7 – Thomas Buck Reed, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1826 to 1827 and in 1829 (died 1829)
 June 27 – Thomas Say, naturalist (died 1834)
 July 31? – Oliver H. Prince, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1828 to 1829 (died 1837)
 August 20 – John Milton Niles, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1835 to 1839 and from 1843 to 1849 (died 1856)
 September 10 – John J. Crittenden, U.S. Senator from Kentucky 1817-1819, 1835-1841, 1842-1848 & 1855-1861 (died 1863)
 October 18 – Robert L. Stevens, inventor and president of the Camden and Amboy Railroad (died 1856)
 November 15 – Richard Henry Dana Sr., poet, critic and lawyer (died 1879)
 December 10 – Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, minister, educator, co-founder of the first permanent school for the deaf in North America (died 1851)

Deaths
 January 1 – Arthur Middleton, politician (born 1742)
 April 3 – George William Fairfax, planter and member of the landed gentry of late colonial Virginia (born 1729)
 August 27 – Charles DeWitt, planter and member of the landed gentry of late colonial Virginia (born 1727)
 October 5 – Thomas Stone, planter and lawyer, signatory of U.S. Declaration of Independence (born 1743)
 William Savery, cabinetmaker (born 1721 or 1722)

See also
Timeline of the American Revolution (1760–1789)

External links

1780s in the United States
United States
United States
Years of the 18th century in the United States

1787 in the United States


Benjamin Franklin Keith (January 26, 1846 – March 26, 1914) was an American vaudeville theater owner, who played an important role in the evolution of variety theater into vaudeville.

Biography

Early years
Keith was born in Hillsboro Bridge, New Hampshire. He joined the circus (as a "candy butcher") after attending Van Amburg's Circus and then worked at Bunnell's Museum in New York City in the early 1860s. He later joined P.T. Barnum and then joined the Forepaugh Circus, before he opened a curio museum in Boston, in 1883, with Colonel William Austin. In 1885 he joined Edward Franklin Albee II, who was selling circus tickets and operating the Boston Bijou Theatre. Their opening show was on July 6, 1885. The theatre was one of the early adopters of the continuous variety show which ran from 10:00 in the morning until 11:00 at night, every day. Previously, shows ran at fixed intervals with several hours of downtime between shows. With the continuous show, you could enter the theatre at any time, and stay until you reached the point in the show where you arrived. Attractions included "The Circassian Beauties".

Moving pictures
Albee and Keith opened the Union Square Theatre in New York City, and it was the site of the first American exhibition of the Lumière Cinématographe. They had obtained the exclusive American rights to the Lumière apparatus and their film output, and the first showing was on June 29, 1896. They then opened theatres in Philadelphia, and Boston, and then smaller theatres in the East and Midwest of the United States, buying out rival smaller chains. They signed a contract with Biograph Studios in 1896 which lasted until July 1905 when they switched to Edison Studios as their supplier of motion pictures. Keith and Albee merged their theatre circuit with Frederick Freeman Proctor in June 1906.

Death
Keith withdrew from business in 1909 and married for a second time on October 29, 1913, to Ethel Bird Chase (1887-1971). She was 26 years old and Keith was 67. Her father was P. B. Chase.

Keith died at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida in 1914. After his son, Andrew Keith, died in 1918, control of the company went to Albee.

Legacy
In 1928, the B. F. Keith Circuit merged with the Orpheum Circuit to form the Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) corporation in Marysville, Washington. In a few months, this organization became the major motion picture studio Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO). Also in 1928 the B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre opened in Boston. Keith Academy and Keith Hall in Lowell, Massachusetts were named for his family in 1926. His son A. Paul Keith had donated family money to Cardinal William O'Connell.

Timeline
1846 Birth in Hillsboro Bridge, New Hampshire on January 26
1883 Partnered with Colonel William Austin in Boston
1885 Partnered with Edward Franklin Albee II
1894 Opens Keith's Theatre in Boston
1896 Opens Union Square Theatre in New York City
1906 Partnered with Frederick Freeman Proctor
1909 Retires
1913 Marriage to Ethel Bird Chase (1887-1971)
1914 Death in Palm Beach, Florida on March 26
1918 Death of his son Andrew Keith (c1870-1918)
1928 His company merges with Orpheum Circuit, Inc. on January 28

References

Further reading

External links

Benjamin Franklin Keith at IMDb

1846 births
1914 deaths
People from Hillsborough, New Hampshire
Vaudeville producers
Film exhibitors

Benjamin Franklin Keith


Francis II (; 19 January 1544 – 5 December 1560) was King of France from 1559 to 1560. He was also King of Scotland as the husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, from 1558 until his death in 1560.

He ascended the throne of France at age 15 after the accidental death of his father, Henry II, in 1559. His short reign was dominated by the first stirrings of the French Wars of Religion.

Although the royal age of majority was 14, his mother, Catherine de' Medici, entrusted the reins of government to his wife Mary's uncles from the House of Guise, staunch supporters of the Catholic cause. They were unable to help Catholics in Scotland against the progressing Scottish Reformation, however, and the Auld Alliance was dissolved.

After dying of an ear infection, Francis was succeeded by two of his brothers in turn, both of whom were also unable to reduce tensions between Protestants and Catholics.

Childhood and education (1544–1559)
Francis was born 11 years after his parents' wedding. The long delay in producing an heir may have been due to his father's repudiation of his mother in favour of his mistress Diane de Poitiers, but this repudiation was mitigated by Diane's insistence that Henry spend his nights with Catherine. Francis was at first raised at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He was baptised on 10 February 1544 at the Chapelle des Trinitaires in Fontainebleau. His godparents were Francis I (who knighted him during the ceremony), Pope Paul III, and his great-aunt Marguerite de Navarre. He became governor of Languedoc in 1546 and Dauphin of France in 1547, when his grandfather Francis I died.

Francis's governor and governess were Jean d'Humières and Françoise d'Humières, and his tutor was Pierre Danès, a Greek scholar originally from Naples. He learned dancing from Virgilio Bracesco and fencing from Hector of Mantua.

King Henry II, his father, arranged a remarkable betrothal for his son to the five year old Mary, Queen of Scots, in the Châtillon agreement of 27 January 1548, when Francis was only four years old. Mary had been crowned Queen of Scotland in Stirling Castle on 9 September 1543 at the age of nine months, following the death of her father James V. Mary was a granddaughter of Claude, Duke of Guise, a very influential figure at the court of France. Once the marriage agreement was formally ratified, the five-year-old Mary was sent to France to be raised at court until the marriage. She was tall for her age and eloquent, and Francis was unusually short and stuttered. Henry II said, "from the very first day they met, my son and she got on as well together as if they had known each other for a long time".

On 24 April 1558, Francis and Mary married in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. It was a union that could have given the future kings of France the throne of Scotland and also a claim to the throne of England through Mary's great-grandfather, King Henry VII of England. As a result of the marriage, Francis became king consort in Scotland until his death. The marriage produced no children, and may never even have been consummated, possibly due to Francis's illnesses or undescended testicles.

Becoming king
A little over a year after his marriage, on 10 July 1559, Francis became king at age 15 upon the death of Henry II, who had been killed in a jousting accident. On 21 September 1559, Francis II was crowned king in Reims by his wife's uncle Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine. The crown was so heavy that nobles had to hold it in place for him. The court then moved to the Loire Valley, where the Château de Blois and the surrounding forests were the new king's home. Francis II took the sun for his emblem and for his mottoes Spectanda fides (This is how faith should be respected) and Lumen rectis (Light for the righteous).

According to French law, Francis was an adult who did not need a regent; but since he was young, inexperienced, and in fragile health, he delegated his power to his wife's uncles from the noble House of Guise: Francis, Duke of Guise, and Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine. His mother, Catherine de' Medici, agreed to this delegation. On the first day of his reign, Francis II instructed his four ministers to take orders from his mother, but since she was still in mourning for her husband, she directed them to the House of Guise.

The two eldest brothers of the House of Guise had already had major roles in the reign of Henry II. Francis, Duke of Guise, was one of the most famous military commanders in the royal army, and the Cardinal of Lorraine had participated in the most important negotiations and matters of the kingdom. After Francis II ascended the throne, the two brothers split the custody of the kingdom: Duke Francis became head of the army and Charles the head of finance, justice, and diplomacy.

The rise of the House of Guise worked to the detriment of its old rival, Anne de Montmorency, Constable of France. At the new king's suggestion, he left the court for his estates to get some rest. Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of the previous king, was asked not to appear at court. Her protégé Jean Bertrand had to surrender his title Keeper of the Seals of France to chancellor François Olivier, whom Diane had removed from this position a few years earlier. It was a palace revolution.

The transition has been described as brutal, but while it no doubt caused the Constable considerable frustration, there were no confrontations or reprisals. Montmorency remained tied to power. As soon as the day after the death of the king, he was present at the council meeting and was also at the coronation. Later he supported the repression of the Amboise conspiracy of 1560, notably by going to the Parlement to communicate to its members the measures taken by the king. In July 1560 he came back to court and to the council, although in a much less flamboyant manner than before. The Guises were now the new masters of the court. The king granted them numerous favours and privileges, one of the most significant being the title of Grand Master of France, a title until then held by the son of the Constable, François de Montmorency.

Reign (1559–1560)

Domestic policy

Kingdom on the death of Henri II
With the peace of Cateau Cambresis in 1559, the crown had been left on the cusp of bankruptcy. The public deficit stood at 40 million livres, of which 19 million was owed immediately. The interest rates on these loans were not insignificant, as lenders had grown wary of the crown's inability to pay over the years and this lack of confidence would only be furthered with Henry II's death. Henri's religious policy had also proved ineffective, his persecutory edicts failing to stop the growth of Calvinism in France. Religious violence was increasing, with attacks in Paris, first in response to the loss at the Battle of Saint-Quentin (1557) and then around the trial of the heretic parlementaire Anne du Bourg.

Guise administration

From the beginning of their assumption of government, the Guises faced opposition from several factions. Their rise to dominance had come at the expense of Anne de Montmorency and the House of Bourbon who resented their total ascendency to varying degrees.

The political decisions of the government were also contested. To try and set about fixing the realm's finances, they embarked upon an aggressive campaign of cost cutting, scaling down the size of the army from its height in the wars, and deferring payments to the troops, who angrily protested against the Guises. This would not however be enough, so they were moved to raise forced loans from the provinces, such as 800,000 livres from Normandy, to cover shortfalls. They further suppressed Venal office.

Forced loans would continue into 1560, with 100,000 crowns being demanded of the Parlement and merchants of Paris in October 1560, shortly after the convoking of the estates had taken place.

In religion, the Guises initially continued the repression of Protestantism started by King Henry II. From July 1559 to February 1560 they would pass four more persecutory edicts, including such provisions as the razing of any house which a Protestant meeting occurred in, and the prosecution of landlords who knowingly harboured heretics as tenants.

Amboise conspiracy

Opposition to the Guise administration which had been bubbling under the surface during Francis II's reign, coalesced around two primary axes. Firstly there was religious opposition from Protestants such as La Roche Chandieu, secondly there was opposition from military men of the minor gentry, such as Castlenau; these groups came together under the leadership of the seigneur de la Renaudie to form a conspiracy to seize the king and arrest or kill the Cardinal de Lorraine and the Duke de Guise. The group planned to push for Antoine of Navarre to lead them, and become a 'regent' for Francis II. When he proved uninterested in their plot, they moved to the more dubious claim of his brother Condé. He was more receptive to the plan.

As details of the conspiracy were finalised and arms raised for the day, rumours began to leak out to the court of what was happening. Finally on 12 February while the court was travelling to Amboise, the Duke's secretary arrived, bringing a lawyer who had got cold feet about the direction of the conspiracy. The secretary revealed all the details to the Guise and Francis, including the name of the leader, La Renaudie.

With this knowledge to hand, and suspecting the involvement of Condé, the Guise summoned much of the high nobility to Amboise, and began fortifying the castle in preparation. In March the court struck, arresting a band of the conspirators who had assembled to discuss the delivery of money for the operation. Several days later a larger host of soldiers were bloodily repulsed from Amboise. On 17 March, Francis II made the duke of Guise the Lieutenant General of the kingdom, giving him final authority for all military matters. Realising the motley nature of the conspiracy, a mixture of fairly harmless heretics and hardened military men, an amnesty was declared on 17 March for those who laid down their arms and went home within 48 hours. Operations would continue as the court began to fan out troops into the countryside to mop up stragglers.

The court was left with a tricky situation as to how to deal with those captured alive. Interrogations began, attempting to prove a connection between Condé and the conspiracy. Condé denounced accusations thrown at him as the work of 'scum' and more pressingly for honour in aristocratic circles, propagated by 'liars.' The Queen mother assured him that no one doubted his innocence. However on 18 April his chambers were raided while he was attending the kings levée. Unable to find proof however, he was allowed to leave court. Condé hurried south, uniting with his brother Antoine in the south-west.

For the military conspirators who had remained under arms there would be little mercy, many would be executed in the following days, and hanged from the battlements as a warning. To the shock of members of the court, this included men of 'good birth' such as the baron de Castlenau. Nevertheless the court was conscious its religious policy had been a failure, and as early as 8 March, the Edict of Amboise was propagated, offering a retroactive amnesty for those convicted of heresy, on the condition they live as good Catholics. This began the distinction between the crimes of heresy and the crime of sedition, which had during the reign of Henri II been treated as a unified crime.

Amboise in the provinces
Whilst the rebellion outside the castle of Amboise may have been crushed, the situation was deteriorating in the provinces. Troops raised for the conspiracy in Dauphine, Provence, and the Lyonnais were left without central direction, creating the nucleus of guerrilla armies that caused chaos in their localities. Beyond the planned regional elements of Amboise, many Protestants began seizing churches independently, and engaging in acts of unauthorised iconoclasm, as in Rouen and Provence.  During the summer, this rebellious movement gained intensity; several cities in southern France were by now engulfed in revolt.

The climax of the regional disorder came in the early Autumn, where on 4 September in Lyon, a large stockpile of weapons was discovered in the city of Lyon by the authorities, after a brief firefight with a group of Protestants the weapons were seized, narrowly foiling a planned coup in the city by several days. The narrow foiling of this conspiracy only further enraged the king and his administration who suspected the involvement of Condé in this affair. This was confirmed when an agent of his carrying papers that implicated him was intercepted.

The king's reaction was fierce and determined: he mobilised his troops, sent the army to the rebellious areas to quell the sedition, and ordered governors to return to their positions. To isolate the renegade princes of the blood further the administration created two super-governorships giving one to Charles, Prince of La Roche-sur-Yon and the other to Louis, Duke of Montpensier, thus divorcing their interests from those of their cousins. Heavily outnumbered Condé and Navarre decided making a stand and fighting would be pointless, and they departed their southern regional powerbase at the kings request to attend the forthcoming Estates General.

Romorantin and the Estates General

This distinction between heresy and sedition, represented a new religious policy for the monarchy of France. While there was to be no allowance for heretical worship, it was hoped this would avoid needless bloodshed, and reunify the kingdom around the crown. This changing of the political winds was furthered when in April the former Guise client Michel de l'Hôpital became Lord Chancellor of France replacing the ailing François Olivier. Hôpital was a humanist Catholic, little interested in the persecution that had defined the administration in the 1550s. In conjunction with Charles Cardinal of Lorraine, Catherine de Medici and Admiral Coligny, he began pushing this new religious policy further.

In May 1560 a further edict was passed, the Edict of Romorantin. This edict denounced the spread of heresy in the kingdom, but also noted the failure of the policies on the 1550s. The edict proposed that going forth trial for heresy would be handled by the ecclesiastical courts instead of the Parlement. This was significant as the ecclesiastical courts lacked the ability to provide death sentences, and while they could technically still refer cases to the Parlements for sentencing, this acted as a de facto abolition of the death penalty for heresy. For more 'seditious' offences, such as heretical preaching, pamphlet producing and services, the Présidaux courts would have jurisdiction.

Conscious that the financial and religious problems of the crown had not yet gone away, and desiring to create a more definitive solution, the Guise oversaw the calling of an Assembly of Notables. Conscious that they were liable to be arrested, Condé and Navarre were not among the leading nobility who attended. Lorraine intended to guide the assembly towards his proposed idea of a national religious council, to reunify the two faiths peacefully, this was however taken off course by Coligny, who presented a petition from the Norman church seeking the right to establish temples. The duke of Guise was infuriated by this proposal, suggesting if two religions were tolerated 'his sword would not remain sheathed for long.' The assembly drew up a reform package of tax ideas, and closed by convening the Estates General to whom this package would be presented.  It was initially intended to host this at Meaux before a location change to Orléans due to religious troubles at the former city.

Afraid the proposed council might be highly Gallican , the Pope decided to reopen the general council of Trent, but rejected the attendance of any Protestant, the demands of the French crown to scrap their proposed national council.

The calling of the Estates General presented an opportunity to bring Condé into line, and in October he was summoned to present himself at the Estates General. Upon arrival he and several associates were promptly arrested and put on trial. After filibustering the proceedings Condé would eventually be found guilty, and given an indeterminate sentence, likely imprisonment at Loches.

Foreign policy
In foreign policy, Francis II continued peace efforts Henry II had begun with the signing of the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis in April 1559, which ended 40 years of war between France and the Habsburg empire. At the expense of its influence in Europe, France continued to restore lands conquered over the previous 40 years. In this sense, Francis II's reign began the decline of French influence throughout Europe, to the benefit of Spain.

When Henry II died, the restitution of these territories was well under way. Francis II, aware of the kingdom's weaknesses, reassured Spain of its intention to fulfill the treaty just signed. The Maréchal de Brissac, who displayed some unwillingness to evacuate Piedmont, was asked to change his behaviour and accelerate the withdrawal. By the autumn of 1559, France had completely left Savoy, and Piedmont, except for the five locations agreed upon in the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis. If these were returned to the Duke of Savoy Emmanuel Philibert, Montferrat would be returned to Guglielmo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. Both were allies of Spain. Finally, Valenza, which Brissac was grumbling about releasing, was to be returned to the Spanish Duchy of Milan. On the Spanish side, King Philip II showed some unwillingness to return four locations in the northeast of the kingdom as required by the treaty. Border disputes renewed tensions between the two nations, but after months of protests Francis II finally obtained these territories.

Along with restitution of territories, the government of Francis II had to negotiate, pay, or claim compensations for people whose properties were taken or destroyed during the war. It also had to reach an agreement with Spain about the prisoners of war held by both sides. Many noblemen were still prisoners and unable to pay their ransom. Common soldiers were consigned to use as rowers on the royal galleys. Even after a reciprocal release compromise was signed, Spain was not eager to lose its prisoners.

When Francis II died, France withdrew from Scotland, Brazil, Corsica, Tuscany, Savoy and most of Piedmont.

Loss of Scotland

With the marriage of Francis II and Mary Stuart, the future of Scotland was linked to that of France. A secret clause signed by the queen provided that Scotland would become part of France if the royal couple did not have children. The queen's mother, Marie of Guise, was already regent for Scotland.

Because of French control over their country, a congregation of Scottish lords organised an uprising and made the regent and her French councils leave the capital, Edinburgh, in May 1559. Having taken refuge at the fortress of Dunbar, Marie of Guise asked France for help. Francis II and Mary Stuart sent troops right away. By the end of 1559, France had regained control of Scotland.

Nothing seemed to stand in the way of French control of Scotland apart from English support for the Scottish nobles. Queen Elizabeth I of England was still offended that Francis II and Mary Stuart had put on their coat of arms those of England, thus proclaiming Mary's claims on the throne of England. In January 1560, the English fleet blockaded the port of Leith, which French troops had turned into a military base. They were supported by the arrival in April of 6000 soldiers and 3000 horsemen, which began the siege of the city.

Just as English troops were not particularly successful, the French troops found themselves in a better strategic position. But the French government's poor financial situation and internal turmoil in the French kingdom prevented any military reinforcements from being sent. When the Bishop of Valence and Charles de La Rochefoucault, sieur of Randan, sent by the king to negotiate, arrived in Scotland, they were treated almost like prisoners. With Marie of Guise shut up in an Edinburgh fortress, the two men were forced to negotiate a peace that was disadvantageous to France. On 6 July 1560, they signed the Treaty of Edinburgh, which ended French occupation of Scotland. Francis II and Mary Stuart had to withdraw French troops and stop displaying England's arms.

A few weeks later, the Parliament of Scotland established Protestantism as the state religion. When Francis II and Mary Stuart were presented with the Treaty of Edinburgh, they were outraged and refused to sign it; they also challenged the legitimacy of the Scottish parliament's decision.

Death

The king's health deteriorated in November 1560. On 16 November he fainted. After only 17 months on the throne, Francis II died on 5 December 1560 in Orléans, Loiret, from an ear condition. Multiple diseases have been suggested, such as mastoiditis, meningitis, or otitis exacerbated into an abscess. Ambroise Paré, the royal surgeon, considered performing a trepanation. Some suspected Protestants of having poisoned the king, a view held by Catholics as the tensions between them and Protestants were on the rise, but this has not been proven.

Francis II died childless, so his younger brother Charles, then ten years old, succeeded him. On 21 December, the council named Catherine de' Medici, Regent of France. The Guises left the court, while Mary Stuart, Francis II's widow, returned to Scotland. Louis, Prince of Condé, who was jailed and awaiting execution, was freed after some negotiations with Catherine de Médici.

On 23 December 1560, Francis II's body was interred in the Basilica of St Denis by the Prince of La Roche-sur-Yon.

Posterity
Francis II had a brief reign. He became king as an inexperienced teenager, at a time when the kingdom was struggling with religious troubles. Historians agree that Francis II was fragile, both physically and psychologically, and his frail health led to his early death. The question of whether his marriage was consummated or not remains unanswered.

Arms

Portrayals

Francis is portrayed by Toby Regbo in the CW show Reign, by Richard Denning in Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), by Sebastian Stragiotti-Axanciuc in Mary, Queen of Scots (2013), and by George Jaques in the TV drama The Serpent Queen.

Ancestry

See also

References

Bibliography

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1544 births
1560 deaths
16th-century kings of France
Burials at the Basilica of Saint-Denis
Dauphins of France
Dauphins of Viennois
French Roman Catholics
House of Valois-Angoulême
Kings consort
Knights of the Golden Fleece
People from Fontainebleau
Husbands of Mary, Queen of Scots
French people of Italian descent

Francis II of France


Thomas Powell (1641–1721/22) was a landowner in the middle section of Long Island in the Province of New York during the colonial period of American history. He secured the land transaction known as the Bethpage Purchase with local native tribes on Long Island.

Early life
Powell was born in August or October 1641. Puritans Thomas Powell (1616–1681) and Priscilla Powell (nee Whitson) are sometimes given as the names of his parents. Sources disagree on whether Powell was born in Wales, United Kingdom or in Connecticut. Some sources say that Powell's parents were involved with the Reverend John Davenport, who led a group of Puritans to settle in the New Haven Colony in present-day New Haven, Connecticut. Several sources say Powell's father was involved with the sack and rum trade.

Court records from 1662 for the Town of Huntington, New York, indicate that thomas Powell indentured servant in the Jonas Halifax Wood home living with them nine years. After almost nine years of service to Master Good Wood, and Good Higbe, Powell gave written testimony for the inventory books against the estate of Jonas Halifax Wood of Hempstead regarding an unpaid debt for rum and wine at Daniel Whiteheads store following Wood's death.
Records from 1666 show Powell acting as attorney for Matthews in the sale of lands in Oyster Bay. Some sources say Powell married Wood's daughter in 1663 and purchased his first home December 1663; while others list Powell's first wife's name as unknown. after completing his service, Powell lived for several years in Huntington.
Powell filled positions within the administration of Huntington, including town recorder in the year 1658 and is listed as doing so in the Huntington town history timeline., constable, surveyor, overseer, and trustee. In 1682, Powell declined to serve again as constable, because the job required the officer to swear to levy and collect rates for the Church of England, and he had, by then, become a Quaker.

Historical background

Founded by a group of Separatists and Anglicans, who together later came to be known as the Pilgrims, Plymouth Colony (in Massachusetts) was founded in 1620 by those who sailed aboard the Mayflower. The colony was one of the earliest successful colonies to be founded by the English in North America, and the first sizeable permanent English settlement in what is now the New England region. Soon other colonies were established in New England.

A Puritan minister named John Davenport led his flock from exile in the Netherlands back to England and finally to America in the spring of 1637. The group arrived in Boston on the ship Hector on June 26, but decided to strike out on their own, based on their impression that the Massachusetts Bay Colony was lax in its religious observances. In April 1638, the main party of five hundred Puritans left Massachusetts under the leadership of Davenport and the London merchant Theophilus Eaton, and sailed into their new haven.  The Quinnipiac Native Americans, who were under attack by neighboring Pequots, had sold their land to Eaton and the settlers in return for protection. These settlers established the New Haven Colony. In 1662, the colony merged with the Connecticut Colony.

The English Civil War took place from 1642 to 1651, and England was without a monarch until 1660.
Quakerism was founded by George Fox (1624–1691) in England in the late 1640s.
The first Quaker missionaries arrived on America in Boston in 1656, and 1657 on Long Island.
Quakers were officially persecuted in England under the Quaker Act (1662) and the Conventicle Act 1664. This was relaxed after the Declaration of Indulgence (1687–1688) and stopped under the Act of Toleration 1689. Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch Director-General of New Netherland, had also banned Quaker worship despite the 1657 Flushing Remonstrance. Many Quakers settled further east in Oyster Bay, which was near the boundary between Dutch and British land. George Fox later visited Oyster Bay in 1672.

Until 1664, Long Island was split, roughly at the present border between Nassau County and Suffolk County, between the Dutch in the west and Connecticut claiming the east.  The Dutch did grant an English settlement in Hempstead (now in Nassau), but drove settlers from Oyster Bay as part of a boundary dispute.
In 1664, all of Long Island became part of the Province of New York within the Shire of York. Present-day Suffolk County was the East Riding of Yorkshire, while present-day Queens and Nassau were just part of the larger North Riding. In 1683, Yorkshire was dissolved and Suffolk County and Queens County were established. (Nassau County was not formed until 1899, when it split from Queens County.)

Land purchases
In 1686, Governor Thomas Dongan of New York urged the Town of Huntington to complete the purchase from the local Native Americans of any lands not already purchased.  Powell, who had substantial holdings of land in Huntington, was chosen by the town to offer to buy more lands from the Native Americans.

The Bethpage Purchase was a 1687 land transaction in which Powell bought more than  (about 10,000 acres) in central Long Island, New York for £140 (English pounds sterling) from local Native Americans in the United States tribes, including the Marsapeque, Matinecoc, and Sacatogue. It is approximately  east to west and  north to south.
This land covers both sides of the present-day border between Nassau and Suffolk counties  all or parts of present-day Bethpage, Farmingdale, Old Bethpage, Plainedge, Plainview, and South Farmingdale (all in Nassau), and East Farmingdale and Melville (both in Suffolk). Nassau County was not a separate county until 1899, and was, at the time of the purchase, part of Queens County. Most of the Bethpage Purchase is in the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau. The portions in Suffolk were all then within the Town of Huntington. In 1872, the Town of Huntington was subdivided, and East Farmingdale became part of the Town of Babylon.

Almost eight years later, on October 18, 1695, Mawmee (alias Serewanos), William Chepy, Seurushung, and Wamussum made their marks on the sheepskin deed for the purchase. The deed, which recognizes Powell had already been in possession of part of the land for more than seven years, is recorded in the Queens County Clerks office, and in it, the Native Americans reserved the right to pick berries and hunt on the property sold.

Powell called the land he purchased "Bethphage", because it was situated between two other places on Long Island, Jericho and Jerusalem, just as the biblical town of Bethphage (meaning "house of figs") was situated between Jericho and Jerusalem in Israel. Today, the Long Island place formerly called "Jerusalem" is known as Wantagh and Island Trees, while the placename Jericho, also a Quaker settlement at that time, still has that name. Over time, the second "H" was dropped from the name, to spell "Bethpage".

Sources also mention he made a second purchase, in 1699, called the "Rim of the Woods Purchase", which includes land to the west of the original Bethpage Purchase; including most of present-day Bethpage and all the land in the northern section of present-day Plainedge (Boundary Avenue, north to Old Motor Parkway, and Hicksville Road east to Cedar Drive). By 1700, very little of Long Island had not been purchased from the Native Americans by the English colonists, and townships controlled whatever land had not already been distributed.

Later life and legacy
Powell and his first wife Abigail Wood had eight children, including another Thomas Powell (1665–1731), the fourth Thomas Powell. His first wife died before 1688 in Westbury, after which Powell married Elizabeth Phillips, of Jericho, Long Island, February 9, 1690, in Westbury. They had seven children. Most sources, when mentioning where Powell himself resided, state Westbury.  Powell sold pieces of Bethphage to other Quaker farmers. His sons did live in the Bethpage Purchase. One of two houses Powell built in the area (circa 1700) still stands on Merritts Road in Farmingdale, just north of the Bethpage-Hempstead Turnpike.

Powell died , in Westbury, New York, another Quaker settlement. He is buried in Bethpage Cemetery, Farmingdale, N.Y. His remaining property was split among his children and their heirs, in accordance with his will. Children mentioned in the will are Thomas, Abigail Willets, John, Jonas, Caleb, Wait, Elisha, Solomon, Elizabeth Titus, Sarah, Amey, Mercy, Hannah Willis, Phebe Willis, and Rachel Willets. As a result, several farming communities developed. Three separate communities within the original Bethpage Purchase have, at one time or another, been named Bethpage. The first community was centered in present-day Farmingdale around Merritts Road, just north of the Hempstead-Bethpage Turnpike; the second was present-day Old Bethpage; and the latest is present-day Bethpage.

Bibliography

Annotations

References

External links

1641 births
1722 deaths
American Quakers
English Quakers
Converts to Quakerism
History of New York (state)
People from Oyster Bay (town), New York
People from Westbury, New York

Thomas Powell (1641–1722)


The bay-and-gable is a distinct residential architectural style that is ubiquitous in the older portions of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The most prominent feature of the style is a large bay window that usually covers more than half the front façade of the home, surmounted by a gable roof. The bay window typically extends from the ground level towards the roof, although a variant of the housing form exists where the bay window fronts only the first level; known as a half-bay-and-gable. The housing form may be built as a stand-alone structure, although it is more often built as a semi-detached, or as terraced houses.

The form emerged during the 1860s, with architects adopting elements commonly associated with English villas and Gothic-styled buildings due to their popularity with residents during that period. As the city underwent significant population growth in the latter half of the 19th century, scaled versions of the bay-and-gable design were built by developers as they proved to be efficient housing forms that could be built at a pace that kept up with Toronto's population growth. The housing form was also popular amongst homeowners who sought more ornamentations on their homes, with the gables and large windows providing areas that could be decorated with minimal investment. A large number of bay-and-gable homes were built until the late 1890s when it was supplanted by other housing styles.

The housing form re-emerged in the late 20th and early 21st century, with several residential developments within the city and the Greater Toronto Area being infilled with bay-and-gable variants.

Description

The bay-and-gable design was first employed on freestanding, detached homes in Toronto, although the design was later adopted with semi-detached homes. From the mid-to-late 19th century, the semi-detached bay-and-gable design became a popular residential style with developers and residents in Toronto. The design was widely adopted for several reasons; due to its efficient use of spaces and windows and local building materials, the design's ability to be easily mass-produced, and because it could be adapted for stand-alone buildings, semi-detached, or as terrace houses. Bay-and-gable homes were viewed by its occupants as a home whose façade could be improved and somewhat individualized with minimal investment. Most homes were further decorated by homeowners to some degree with additional bargeboards with detailing, terracotta tiles, or stained-glass windows. Conversely, the housing form was viewed by property developers as particularly cheap and efficient buildings to build, as well as scale down on narrow properties. The housing form were typically built to take advantage of the length of a narrow property, with the length of some bay-and-gable homes extending  in length. The average lot for most bay-and-gables are .

Most 19th-century bay-and-gables have the lines of the two-storey bay window aligned with the crowning gable of the home, the bay window often taking up more than half the front of the façade of the house; resulting in most bay-and-gables to appear skinny, but tall. The use of large bay windows are necessary to allow natural light to reach the depths of narrow lots, and to allow air to circulate; a necessity for 19th-century homes that had coal-burning fireplaces. To allow light into the home, many bay-and-gables had their kitchen wings narrowed compared to the front of the home, allowing for windows to be placed in the rear. Windows were also placed on top of the front door to further increase the amount of natural light that entered the building. However, variants of the style exist, where the bay window only fronts the first level of the building. The half-bay-and-gable variant is typically used to allow for a balcony to extend along the frontage of the second level. The variant is also used for smaller lots, with the two-storey bay window variant requiring a larger lot size. The front façade of most bay and gables also typically feature carved gable boards, supporting brackets, and Italianate and Gothic architectural ornamentation. Many semi-detached and terraced bay-and-gable homes in Toronto had polychromatic brickwork around its windows and gables, a common element of High Victorian Gothic architecture.

The bay-and-gable design has proliferated throughout Toronto, becoming a ubiquitous style found in many of the city's neighbourhoods. The term bay-and-gable was first coined by historian Patricia McHugh, in her 1985 book Toronto: A City Guide.

Semi-detached

Semi-detached bay-and-gables from the mid-to-late 19th century typically featured a two-and-one-half-storey façade clad in brick; with a ground-floor bay window fronting the principal room and its entrance sheltered by a small porch. The second level is typically flat with two or three windows aligned with the bay window and doorway on the level below it. The gabled roof is centred over the bay windows on the ground level.

Although these architects sought to replicate early Elizabethan and Gothic designs, the interior of many of these structures was based on Georgian-styled terrace houses that were common in Toronto during the period. This resulted in a Tudor-like structure with Gothic elements, that was "overlaid onto a common Georgian mews house plan". However, the arrangements of the interior were dependent on the budget and the width of the property lot; the width of most late-19th century semi-detached bay-and-gables ranging from . Semi-detached bay-and-gables built on narrower properties typically only had windows on two sides of the structure; although older variants of the design built on larger properties were afforded windows on three sides of the structure. The interior ground level of a semi-detached bay-and-gable unit typically included a side hall opening into two small or one large room, with an offset kitchen wing in the rear of the house. In the narrowest semi-detached bay-and-gables, a flight of stairs providing access to the second level of the unit is typically placed in the front section of the hall.

History

Background
Architects based in Toronto in the 19th century were largely influenced by the architectural literary works published in that period, including Andrew Jackson Downing's Architecture of Country Houses, Francis Goodwin's Rural Architecture, John Claudius Loudon's Encyclopedia of Cottage, Farm and Villa Architecture, and Robert Lugar's Architectural Sketches for Cottages, Rural Dwellings, and Villas, in the Grecian, Gothic, and Fancy Styles. The English Antique/Elizabethan and Gothic architectural styles described in these works served as the foundations for the development of bay-and-gable; namely the symmetrical arrangement of twin gables, cross-gabled roofs, and a central entrance.

The adoption of Elizabethan and Gothic elements into the bay-and-gable design is largely credited to the emergence of an upwardly mobile middle class in Toronto, and their desire to replicate the styling commonly associated with "old money" country homes; as opposed to adopting Neoclassical designs commonly associated with "new money" during that period. In particular, the descendants of the United Empire Loyalists in Upper Canada preferred using architectural styles that were popular in the United Kingdom, like Elizabethan and Gothic; as opposed to the Greek Revival style of architecture that was popular in the United States during the same period.

Most residences in Toronto during the early 19th century were two-or-three-storey Georgian-styled homes, although a small number of English-styled villas were also built in the city, such as the two-gabled wing Berkeley House. However, the larger adoption of other architectural styles in Toronto only emerged after William Thomas moved from the UK to Toronto in 1841, and became the city's third working architect. Thomas quickly built his own home in Toronto, the symmetrical English-styled Oakham House. The stylings of these English villas were later appropriated by local developers for mass-produced bay-and-gable homes in the mid-to-late 19th century; with the earliest bay-and-gable built retaining the massing of an Elizabethan villa, its gabled peaks, and Gothic ornaments throughout the buildings. However, the interiors of most bay-and-gables primarily copied the layouts of Georgian-styled terrace homes in Toronto, as opposed to the layout of an English villa.

19th century models
The earliest known example of the bay-and-gable design is the Blaikie and Alexander houses at 404 Jarvis Street, designed by architectural firm Gundry and Langley and built in 1863. However, early examples of bay-and-gables, like the Blaikie and Alexander houses, retained more elements of an English villa than later bay-and-gable homes built in later decades. Developers like Gundry and Langley later produced a substantial number of detached one-and-a-half storey bay-and-gables during the 1870s; with many of these homes based in Cabbagetown, The Annex, and Yorkville. Many of these homes were built for the upper-middle class, and were designed to be customized for their occupants. The earliest semi-detached bay-and-gable was built on 33-35 Elm Street in 1871. Many of these homes were later used as models for mass-produced terraced bay-and-gables built for the working class during the late 19th century given the design's inexpensive but expressive facades. Earlier homes were influenced by a mix of Italianate and Gothic Revival elements, such as round-headed windows, angled bays, and steep gables.

During the latter half of the 19th century, Toronto underwent large population growth, resulting in a significant housing shortage in the city. The resulting shortage and demand for housing led to speculative developers building out rows of bay-and-gables in the city. The bay-and-gable style was selected by developers in Toronto as the design could be scaled to fit narrow lots, and could therefore be built in quantities that could keep pace with the population boom.  These developments largely benefited from local investors, with housing developments being viewed as a safe investment amid the recession caused by the Panic of 1857.

Areas near the periphery of urbanized Toronto, like Cabbagetown, were viewed as ideal places to develop housing for Toronto's growing migrant population, leading to these areas being developed in large piecemeal fashion by speculative developers. During the building boom in the 1880s, nearly half of the 3,000 homes built in Cabbagetown were bay-and-gables, with many of these homes initially owned by a select number of speculative developers. Many mass-produced 19th century units only bricked the building's façade, with the building's largely being built on mass-produced timbers filled with furring strips, lath and stucco, or veneer. Mass-produced timber frames were used to speed up the construction of units without compromising the stability of the buildings; with developers having expected the eventual homeowners to brick the remaining portions when they could afford it. Many later opted to cover the wood siding with fake brick known as Insulbrick. Although early bay-and-gables were symmetrical and were built as mirrored pairs; by 1878, rows of identical semi-detached bay-and-gable units were built.

By the 1880s, some developers replaced the English villa elements with elements associated with Queen Anne style. Many of Toronto's 19th century bay-and-gables were fronted using either red or white bricks. The use of bright colours in Victorian-era homes was an attempt to offset the industrialized "grey soot" of the 19th century. During this period, new bay-and-gable models were built on narrower lots as the rapid development and speculation caused real estate prices in these former periphery areas to rise; resulting in the diminishment of the lot's width.

By 1895, most developers in Toronto had ceased to build mass-produced bay-and-gables; with several homeowners of the style making their own substantial changes to these structures.

Some bay-and-gable homes were demolished in downtown Toronto to make way for new developments during the 1960s. Several homes were also modified or reworked by the 1970s. However bay-and-gable homes remain common throughout the residential areas of downtown Toronto. In particular, Cabbagetown retained many bay-and-gable homes as local public housing authorities had used those homes during that period. Local appreciation for the bay-and-gable housing type did not emerge until several heritage conservation districts were established in the late 20th century; encouraging the restoration of the local streetscapes and the façade of these buildings.

Contemporary variants
During the late 20th century, the façade format of the bay-and-gable style remerged with new infill construction in the city, as it underwent another period of densification. These modern bay-and-gable variants are typically more tightly packed onto their lots than even traditional bay-and-gable homes; and feature square bay windows, use of a palette of contemporary building materials, and a flatter roof with a walkout.

During the early 21st century, in the neighbouring municipality of Markham, subdivisions were filled with bay-and-gable houses modified to incorporate a two-car garage.

See also
Architecture of Toronto
Annex style house
Gablefront house

References

Further reading

External links

House types
Canadian architectural styles
Victorian architecture
Edwardian architecture
Culture of Toronto

Bay-and-gable


Thornlie is a large residential suburb of Perth, the capital city of Western Australia, located  south-east of the city's central business district. It is a part of the City of Gosnells local government area. The Canning River runs through the northern side of the suburb. Since the 1950s the suburb has developed in approximately five stages; north-east Thornlie (1950s–60s), south Thornlie (1970s–80s), Crestwood (1970s), Castle Glen (1980s) and Forest Lakes (1980s to present).

History
Captain Peter Pégus was the original settler of the area now known as Thornlie, which he had called "Coleraine" when granted the land in 1829. Prior to this the area would have been used by the indigenous Noongar population. In 1834 Pégus' premises and belongings were burned in a fire that was to prove the end of his settlement.

The name Thornlie was derived from a farm "Thornlie Park", established in 1884 by Frank and Amy James, Amy being a niece of Walter Padbury, who financed the property.

The James family subsequently sold the estate, which had been a productive dairy farm, in 1937 to the mine-manager and investor, Nat Harper. When Harper died in 1954, the  Thornlie estate was put up for auction in two lots.  of Lot 1 were purchased by D. and M. O'Sullivan, and by June 1956 the Gosnells Roads Board had provided approval for the development of the area. By March 1957 forty houses had been completed, and by May 1958 there were 100 occupied homes. Thornlie was thus established as a residential suburb in the late 1950s as a housing estate aimed mainly at middle-income earners and inner city dwellers.

The first homes in the area included a section of  residences constructed in the 1950s and early 1960s, to the north of the intersection of Thornlie Avenue and Spencer Road, and residences to the south of Thornlie Avenue between Spencer Road and the Canning River, constructed in the 1960s and 1970s. During this time Thornlie's development was aimed at inner city dwellers who might want to live in a more spacious semi-urban-rural setting. It is one reason why Thornlie has typically large blocks of  and is often described as one of Perth's leafy suburbs.

The more upmarket Crestwood Estate, which was an experiment in providing fully integrated facilities and services to home-owners, was established from the early 1970s in the southern part of Thornlie, an experiment that was rarely replicated in later Perth subdivisions.  From the 1980s the newer Castle Glen and Forest Lakes housing estates, which were at that time to some extent in competition with one another for land purchasers, were established in the remaining land in the western and south-western portions of Thornlie.. The focus of these developments was on providing affordable housing for new home buyers, generally young families.

Some semi-rural land in the western portion, mainly utilised for horse agistment and chicken-farming, was developed in the early 2000s. At one time there were several industrial activities taking place in the north-western portion. The last of these to close, about 2004, was the Inghams chicken-processing factory, the site of which was redeveloped for a residential estate.

Facilities

Thornlie is primarily a dormitory suburb with strong transport links to employment elsewhere in the metropolitan region. Albany Highway connects the suburb to the CBD, Roe Highway links it the regional road network. Thornlie is also home to the terminus of the Thornlie line, which is a spur line off of the Armadale line. There are also frequent bus services that serve Thornlie railway station, such as the high frequency route 930 to Elizabeth Quay bus station. There are many other bus services that connect Thornlie Station to other stations on the Transperth Network, such as route 210 and 211 both operating to Gosnells railway station. Also route 206 which serves Cannington railway station. In the future Thornlie Station will be upgraded as part of the Thornlie-Cockburn Link works by Metronet, Which will mean that Thornlie station will no longer be the terminus of the Thornlie line. Retail services are provided through local and neighbourhood centres, the largest of which are Thornlie Square Shopping Centre (1970s) and the Forest Lakes Forum (1990s). A range of sporting facilities are available for community use include lawn bowls, tennis courts, a skate park, swimming pool, gyms and ovals for cricket and football. Baseball Park, built in 2007, is the home of Perth Heat, a team in the Australian Baseball League.

Community
Thornlie has two local papers distributed fortnightly, the Comment News and the Gosnells Examiner. 107.3 Heritage FM is a volunteer-run radio station for Thornlie and the City of Gosnells as a whole. Community programmes include the annual Safe City awards including the Community Initiative Award, the Constable Peter Ball Memorial Youth Award and the Community Kids Award.

Demographics
The percentage of residents born overseas (39.4%) is greater than both the national (27%) and metropolitan (31.3%) average.  11.3% of residents were born in England; 3% in New Zealand, and significant smaller percentages from Malaysia, India and Scotland. 14% of residents speak a language other than English at home. Unemployment (3.4%) is lower than the regional average (3.7%) and socio-economic disadvantage less than the City of Gosnells as whole. Weekly household incomes are characterised by a lower proportion of both low and higher income households compared with the Perth average. There are no major differences between the religious affiliation of Thornlie and the Perth region as a whole. The dominant religion is Catholicism (22.4%) followed by Anglicanism (19.5%), Islam (4.6%) and Buddhism (3.5%). Since 2001 there has been a mild decline in the number of Catholics and Anglicans and an increase in the number of Muslims, by 2002 Thornlie had the highest population of Muslims in Perth.

Crestwood Estate
Thornlie contains Crestwood Estate, a model housing development still noted for its successful implementation of the Radburn design principles. Original Radburn architect Clarence Stein reportedly described it as the "first perfect Radburn scheme in the world", and from 1973 to 1976 it received both national and international recognition. Whilst the Radburn principles flavoured many other post-war developments across Australia including the Perth suburbs of City Beach and Karawara, it remains one of the few suburbs that has not undergone a sustained process of "de-Radburnisation" since the 1990s. From a heritage perspective Crestwood is a highly significant link to a major twentieth century urban design movement and a prime example of 1970s progressive suburban design.

Crestwood was based on the ideas of Paul Ritter, the City of Perth's first city planner. Ritter had spent many years advocating the idea that "it takes a village to raise a child". One of his lectures on creating innovative urban environments to meet the needs of family and community life captured the imagination of property developer Ron Sloan. Together Sloan, Ritter and planner Hugh Reynolds designed a residential estate according to a strict design brief.

Crestwood was to be equally efficient and economical as a conventional subdivision, with the same density of homes (), but 8% additional open space. Every house was to face a park and roads were to be designed to limit the speed of vehicles. There was to be passive surveillance of recreational areas, and pedestrian traffic through the estate was to be separated from vehicular. Each house was individually designed, some through a design competition organised by the Institute of Architects. The landscaping of the estate was designed by renowned landscape architect John Oldham.

Originally, Crestwood was intended to be built to about five times the size that was eventually constructed. It was to be built around a large pool complex with administration buildings and a recreational area. However, the collapse of land values in the early 1970s led to slow takeup of the allotments and significant losses for Sloan. Opposition from the City of Gosnells, on the grounds that they would not fund the maintenance of any future subdivisions built along the same lines, led to Sloan abandoning the design concept and the subdivision never progressed as envisioned. The remaining land was used in the 1980s and 1990s for two more conventional subdivisions, Forest Lakes and Castle Glen Estates.

The significance of the subdivision was recognised at the time. In 1973 the developer won the Award of Merit from the Urban Development Institute of Australia. In 1975 the Federal Minister for Urban Planning visited the site, and later went on to use the concept for three projects in Canberra. Other delegates visited throughout the 1970s, including academics from the University of Sydney and America.

Gallery

References

External links
 City of Gosnells official website
 Australian Bureau of Statistics Thornlie (SA2)

Suburbs of Perth, Western Australia
Suburbs in the City of Gosnells

Thornlie, Western Australia


A ball valve is a flow control device which uses a hollow, perforated, and pivoting ball to control fluid flowing through it.  It is open when the hole through the middle of the ball is in line with the flow inlet, and closed when it is pivoted 90 degrees by the valve handle, blocking the flow. The handle lies flat in alignment with the flow when open, and is perpendicular to it when closed, making for easy visual confirmation of the valve's status. The shut position 1/4 turn could be in either clockwise or counter-clockwise direction.

Ball valves are durable, performing well after many cycles, and reliable, closing securely even after long periods of disuse. These qualities make them an excellent choice for shutoff and control applications, where they are often preferred to gates and globe valves, but they lack the fine control of those alternatives, in throttling applications.

The ball valve's ease of operation, repair, and versatility lend it to extensive industrial use, supporting pressures up to  and temperatures up to , depending on design and materials used. Sizes typically range from 0.2 to 48 in (5 to 1200 mm). Valve bodies are made of metal, plastic, or metal with a ceramic; floating balls are often chrome plated for durability. One disadvantage of a ball valve is that when used for controlling water flow, they trap water in the center cavity while in the closed position. In the event of ambient temperatures falling below freezing point, the sides can crack due to the expansion associated with ice formation. Some means of insulation or heat tape in this situation will usually prevent damage. Another option for cold climates is the "freeze tolerant ball valve". This style of ball valve incorporates a freeze plug in the side so in the event of a freeze-up, the freeze plug ruptures, acting as a 'sacrificial' fail point, allowing an easier repair. Instead of replacing the whole valve, all that is required is the fitting of a new freeze plug.

For cryogenic fluids, or product that may expand inside of the ball, there is a vent drilled into the upstream side of the valve. This is referred to as a vented ball.

A ball valve should not be confused with a "ball-check valve", a type of check valve that uses a solid ball to prevent undesired backflow.

Other types of quarter-turn valves include the butterfly valve and plug valve and freeze proof ball valve.

Types
There are five general body styles of ball valves: single body, three-piece body, split body, top entry, and welded. The difference is based on how the pieces of the valve—especially the casing that contains the ball itself—are manufactured and assembled. The valve operation is the same in each case.

The one-piece bodies provide a very rigid construction, in some versions the ball is removable from the valve without taking the entire valve out of the line however multi-piece bodies offer greater scope for ingenuity of design.

In addition, there are different styles related to the bore of the ball mechanism itself. And depending on the working pressure, the ball valves are categorized as low-pressure ball valves and high-pressure ball valves. In most industries, the ball valves with working pressures higher than  are considered high-pressure ball valves. Usually the maximum working pressure for the high-pressure ball valves is  and depends on the structure, sizes and sealing materials. The maximum working pressure of high-pressure ball valves can be up to . High-pressure ball valves are often used in hydraulic systems, so they are also known as hydraulic ball valves.

Ball valves in sizes up to  generally come in a single piece, two or three-piece designs. One-piece ball valves are almost always reduced bore, are relatively inexpensive, and are generally replaced instead of repaired. Two-piece ball valves generally have a slightly reduced (or standard) bore, and can be either throw-away or repairable. The three-piece design allows for the center part of the valve containing the ball, stem and seats to be easily removed from the pipeline. This facilitates efficient cleaning of deposited sediments, replacement of seats and gland packings, polishing out of small scratches on the ball, all this without removing the pipes from the valve body. The design concept of a three-piece valve is for it to be repairable. Each valve is heated to a certain degree, while the excess material is trimmed from the body.

Full bore
A full bore (sometimes full port) ball valve has an oversized ball so that the hole in the ball is the same size as the pipeline resulting in lower friction loss.  Flow is unrestricted but the valve is larger and more expensive so this is only used where free flow is required, for example in pipelines that require pigging.

Reduced bore, or reduced port
In reduced bore (sometimes reduced port) ball valves, flow through the valve is one pipe size smaller than the valve's pipe size resulting in the flow area being smaller than the pipe. As the flow discharge remains constant and is equal to the area of flow (A) times velocity (V),  the velocity increases with reduced area of flow.

V port
A V port ball valve has either a 'v' shaped ball or a 'v' shaped seat. This allows for linear and even equal percentage flow characteristics. When the valve is in the closed position and opening is commenced the small end of the 'v' is opened first allowing stable flow control during this stage. This type of design requires a generally more robust construction due to higher velocities of the fluids, which might damage a standard valve. When machined correctly these are excellent control valves, offering superior leakage performance.

Cavity filler
Many industries encounter problems with residues in the ball valve. Where the fluid is meant for human consumption, residues may also be a health hazard, and where the fluid changes from time to time contamination of one fluid with another may occur. Residues arise because in the half-open position of the ball valve a gap is created between the ball bore and the body in which fluid can be trapped. To avoid the fluid getting into this cavity, the cavity has to be plugged, which can be done by extending the seats in such a manner that it is always in contact with the ball. This type of ball valve is known as Cavity Filler Ball Valve.

There are a few types of ball valves related to the attachment and lateral movement of the ball:

Trunnion, floating and actuated
A trunnion ball valve has additional mechanical anchoring of the ball at the top and the bottom, suitable for larger and higher pressure valves (generally above  and ).

A floating ball valve is one where the ball is not held in place by a trunnion. In normal operation, this will cause the ball to float downstream slightly. This causes the seating mechanism to compress under the ball pressing against it. Furthermore, in some types, in the event of some force causing the seat mechanism to dissipate (such as extreme heat from fire outside the valve), the ball will float all the way to metal body which is designed to seal against the ball providing a somewhat failsafe design.

Manually operated ball valves can be closed quickly and thus there is a danger of water hammer. Some ball valves are equipped with an actuator that may be pneumatically, hydraulically or motor operated. These valves can be used either for on/off or flow control. A pneumatic flow control valve is also equipped with a positioner which transforms the control signal into actuator position and valve opening accordingly.

Multiport

 Three- and four-way have an L- or T-shaped hole through the middle. The different combinations of flow are shown in the figure.  It is easy to see that a T valve can connect any pair of ports, or all three, together, but the 45 degree position which might disconnect all three leaves no margin for error.  The L valve can connect the center port to either side port, or disconnect all three, but it cannot connect the side ports together.
Multi-port ball valves with 4 ways, or more, are also commercially available, the inlet way often being orthogonal to the plane of the outlets. For special applications, such as driving air-powered motors from forward to reverse, the operation is performed by rotating a single lever four-way valve. The 4-way ball valve has two L-shaped ports in the ball that do not interconnect, sometimes referred to as an "×" port.

Materials of construction

Body materials may include, but are not limited to, any of these materials:

 Stainless steel
 Brass
 Bronze
 Chrome
 Titanium
 PVC
 CPVC
 PFA-lined

There are many different types of seats and seals that are used in ball valves as well. Valves are usually manufactured with different materials, each with specific applications they are good for due to their chemical compatibility, pressures, and temperatures. Some of the commonly used materials include brass, stainless steel, bronze etc. These material choices ensure that valves are suitable for their respective functions, providing efficient and reliable performance in various industries and applications.

 TMF (valve seat)
 Delrin
 Reinforced PTFE (RTFE)
 Polychlorotrifluoroethene (PCTFE; Kel F)
 Metal
 Nylon
 PEEK
 50/50 (valve seat)
 Virgin (unfilled) PTFE
 Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE)
 Graphoil
 Viton

See also

 Butterfly valve
 Control valve
 Gate valve
 Globe valve
 Hydrogen valve
 Needle valve
 Pinch valve
 Piston valve
 Plastic pressure pipe systems
 Thermal expansion

References

Plumbing valves
Valves

Ball valve


Gargantuavis (meaning 'gargantuan bird') is an extinct genus of large, primitive bird containing the single species Gargantuavis philoinos. It is the only member of the monotypic family Gargantuaviidae. Its fossils were discovered in several formations dating to 73.5 and 71.5 million years ago in what is now northern Spain, southern France, and Romania. Gargantuavis is the largest known bird of the Mesozoic, a size ranging between the cassowary and the ostrich, and a mass of  like modern ostriches, exemplifying the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs was not a necessary condition for the emergence of giant terrestrial birds. It was once thought to be closely related to modern birds, but the 2019 discovery of a pelvis from what was Hateg Island (present-day Romania) shows several primitive features.

Its femur shows that it was a graviportal form rather than cursorial, not adapted for running. Due to fragmentary remains, many aspects of its biology and ecology are unknown, such as its diet. It coexisted with large predators like abelisaurid theropods, herbivores such as ankylosaurians and titanosaurian sauropods, as well as pterosaurs, crocodylomorphs, turtles, fish, and various archaic birds.

Discovery

The first Gargantuavis fossil was found in 1995 in Var, southeastern France. This first specimen, a fragmentary set of pelvic vertebrae (synsacrum), was uncovered near the village of Fox-Amphoux in a paleontological excavation and described by French paleontologists Eric Buffetaut and Jean Le Loeuff, who noted the synsacrum's similarity to that of modern birds. Several other specimens were later found further west, near the villages of Villespassans, Cruzy, and Campagne-sur-Aude, providing enough fossil material to describe and name the species in 1998. The genus name refers to Gargantua, the giant and protagonist of the 16th-century French novel The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais, and the Latin avis. The species name philoinos, meaning "one who likes wine", was chosen because several of the first Gargantuavis bones were found in and around vineyards and wineries.

Gargantuavis specimens are known from six localities in Europe:
 The Bastide-Neuve locality, near Fox-Amphoux (Var), yielded the initial specimen reported in 1995, two other partial pelvic fragments (BN 758 and BN 763) described in 2015, and a possible rib fragment found in association with BN 763.
 The Bellevue locality, near Campagne-sur-Aude (Aude), yielded another partial pelvis (MDE C3-525), which was deemed the holotype in the 1998 description of the genus. This site has been dated to the early Maastrichtian, about 71.5 million years ago.
 The Combebelle locality, near Villespassans (Hérault), yielded a large femur lacking the distal end (MDE A-08), which was referred to the genus in its initial 1998 description.
 The Montplo-Nord locality, near Cruzy (Hérault), yielded a single neck vertebra (MC-MN 478) which was referred to the genus in 2013. A synsacrum fragment (MC-MN 1165) and an incomplete left ilium (MC-MN 431), both described in 2016, were also found at this locality. More recently, this site has also yielded a complete femur of 23 cm, belonging to an individual of about .
 A quarry near the village of Laño in northern Spain (Condado de Treviño) yielded a partial syncranum (MCNA 2538) described in 2017, the only specimen known outside of France. This locality has been dated to the late Campanian age of the late Cretaceous, about 72 to 73.5 million years ago.
 The Sânpetru Formation of Romania–what was Hateg Island–yielded a pelvis in 2019. Its discovery here revises earlier ideas of the bird being endemic to the Ibero-Armorican Island.

Description

Though Gargantuavis is only known from a few isolated fossil bones, some information about its life appearance and ecology have been inferred by studying their details. Gargantuavis is known from several specimens representing a few limited parts of the skeleton: synsacra (the fused vertebrae above the hip), ilia (hip bones), at least one cervical vertebra, and two femora (upper leg bone), which was referred to the species based on the fact that it seems to fit well with the hip. No cranial remains have been found, so the shape of the head is unknown. However, the only known cervical vertebra suggests that Gargantuavis had a rather long and slender neck, which seems to preclude the presence of a massive skull.

Other than its large size, the most unusual feature of Gargantuavis was its pelvis. It was originally reported to be extremely wide, like that of a moa, though a better preserved specimen described in 2015 showed that this interpretation was due to crushing in the original. The hips of Gargantuavis, while still broad, were narrower and more bird-like than originally thought. In addition to their unusual width, which prevented the two ilia from meeting at the front of the pelvis, the hip socket was set close to the front rather than to the middle of the pelvis. The rather broad pelvis shows that Gargantuavis was not a fast runner.

Paleoecology
During the Late Cretaceous, Europe was an archipelago. Southern France and north-western Spain where its fossils are found was part of the large Ibero-Armorican island in the prehistoric Tethys Sea. The rock formations that have yielded Gargantuavis fossils have also produced abundant remains of fish, turtles, crocodylomorphs, pterosaurs, various titanosaurian sauropods (including Ampelosaurus and Lirainosaurus), ankylosaurians, ornithopods, and theropods, including other early avialans, like enantiornithes. The association of abundant fossils of the ornithopod Rhabdodon, and the lack of any hadrosaurid fossils, have been used as index fossils to roughly date these formations to the late Campanian-early Maastrichtian interval. An age confirmed later by magnetostratigraphic evidence in two localities. The type locality of Gargantuavis, the Bellevue site in the Marnes Rouges Inferieures Formation, is 71.5 million years old (earliest Maastrichtian). The Spanish site of Laño is slightly older with an age of 72 to 73.5 Ma (latest Campanian).

Since no skull remains have been found, the diet of the animal is uncertain. Contrary to the giant terrestrial Cenozoic birds that lived in ecosystems without predators (or including only small carnivores), Gargantuavis cohabited with abelisaurids and dromaeosaurids theropods, so the place of this giant terrestrial bird in the Late Cretaceous ecosystems of the Ibero-Armorican island is unclear. Gargantuavis seems to have been an uncommon part of the fauna in its region. Despite numerous digs at sites where its bones have been found since its discovery, most have yielded only single specimens. Although its fossils are rare, the presence of Gargantuavis from southeastern France to north-western Spain shows that this bird had a wide distribution in the Ibero-Armorican island. It is possible that Gargantuavis lived mainly in an environment that was not compatible with fossilization, such as areas far from the rivers and floodplains, which represent most of the fossiliferous deposits in the late Campanian-early Maastrichtian of France and Spain.

Bone histology showed that Gargantuavis had a rapid early growth followed by an extended period (of at least 10 years) of slow cyclical growth before to attain skeletal maturity. A similar pattern is known in extinct dinornithiformes and in the extant kiwi, which are also insular birds. The titanosaur Ampelosaurus, found together with Gargantuavis in the Bellevue site, shows also a reduction in its growth rate, possibly linked to some environmental pressure like periodic food shortages. This is supported by sedimentological and mineralogical studies which indicate episodes of semi-arid and strongly seasonal climate during the Late Cretaceous in Southern France.

Classification
The systematic position of Gargantuavis with other birds is uncertain because of the fragmentary nature of its remains. Some researchers suggested that Gargantuavis was not a stem-bird at all, but rather a giant pterosaur, but this was rejected based on the presence of more bird-like conditions. The shape of its femur suggested that Gargantuavis was not a giant representative of the enantiornithes, a group of archaic birds, rather more advanced because of the higher number of vertebrae in the synsacrum and the more advanced heterocoelous condition (saddle-shaped joint) of the only known cervical vertebra. It was once thought to be closely related to the archaic Patagopteryx, but a study of the complete femur suggested that the species belongs to Ornithuromorpha, and probably Ornithurae, being more closely related to moderns birds than to, belonging to its own monotypic family Gargantuaviidae.

However, the discovery of a pelvis from what was Hateg Island shows supratrochanteric processes on the femora, a lack of a glycogen body, and a lack of fusion of the pelvic bones around the hip socket, meaning it was not closely related to Ornithurae, and likely not even a member of Ornithothoraces which includes modern birds and their closest ancestors. The archaic Hateg avian theropods Elopteryx and Balaur bear some similarity to Gargantuavis remains, which may indicate the three form some clade native to the Late Cretaceous European archipelago, though they have ambiguous affinities.

References

Cretaceous birds of Europe
Prehistoric avialans
Extinct flightless birds
Flightless birds

Gargantuavis