Edward Ernest H. Bruneteau (August 1, 1919 — July 30, 2002) was a Canadian ice hockey right winger. Bruneteau played 181 games with the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League over seven seasons between 1941 and 1948. He also coached the Omaha Lancers of the United States Hockey League for 21 games in the 1986–87 season leading the team to a 0–21 record. Ed is the younger brother of "Mud" Bruneteau, famous for ending the longest overtime game in NHL history.

Professional career

Minor league hockey
Brunetau was born in St. Boniface, Manitoba. He played junior hockey with the Winnipeg Rangers of the MJHL and the Duluth Zephyrs of the TBSHL. He showed promise as a scorer and his rights were traded to the Detroit Red Wings on October 2, 1939 for cash. Detroit allowed Bruneteau to remain in the minors, as a member of the American Hockey Association's Omaha Knights, who were formed after the Zephyrs home rink roof collapsed during a heavy snowstorm in the winter of 1939. He went on to score 28 points in 37 games that season and along with chipping in two goals during a short playoff run.

Playing for the Red Wings
The following season saw Bruneteau starting again with the Knights, being transferred for a short time to the Indianapolis Capitals of the American Hockey League, and then heading into the big leagues by starting in 11 games for the Red Wings. He rejoined his older brother, Mud, who had joined the team the preceding season. Bruneteau finished the season with a goal and an assist and played in Detroit's first three playoff games before being let go.

Back in the minors
Bruneteau was signed as a free agent by the Quebec Aces of the Quebec Senior Hockey League on November 13, 1941 and began play on the top line for the 1941–42 season. He scored 28 points in the 38 games of the regular season and the Allan Cup championship. Bruneteau also scored four goals and an assist in the Aces' playoff run. The following season, Bruneteau worked on increasing his speed and it showed. Bruneteau ended the 1942–43 season with 37 points in the 31-game regular season and 23 points in the 9-game Allan Cup Championship. In 1943–44, He scored 41 points in just 25 games and helped the Aces win the Allan Cup by adding another 26 points in their 15 playoff games.

Playing for the Red Wings, take two
Bruneteau had made himself valuable again and the Quebec Aces traded him back to the Detroit Red Wings for Bob Thorpe on November 16, 1944. This time Bruneteau made himself a staple on the big team and played three full seasons for Detroit. He often formed a solid line with Carl Liscombe and Murray Armstrong and ended with 77 points over a three-year span. After the 1946–47 season, Bruneteau began spending less time in Detroit a more time in the minors. In 1948–49, Bruneteau played his last NHL game, but remained a scoring threat playing for Indianapolis. He knocked in 38 points in 61 games before being moved to rejoin with the Omaha Knights, now of the USHL. He again was reunited with his older brother who was head coach of the Knights. Under his brother's leadership, Bruneteau would score 149 points for Omaha in the two following seasons, including leading the team in scoring in 1949–50 and being named to the USHL Second All-Star Team both years. For the 1951–52 season, Bruneteau would be back with the Indianapolis Capitals, scoring 41 points in 56 games. Detroit released Bruneteau after that season and he found his way to the Milwaukee Clarks of the International Hockey League where he again went on a scoring frenzy, putting up 51 points and being named to the IHL Second All-Star Team. Bruneteau felt he had one more good season in him and spent it playing with the Sherbrooke Saints of the Quebec Hockey League. After scoring 49 points that year, Bruneteau retired from playing ice hockey. He died in Omaha, Nebraska in 2002.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Awards and achievements
Allan Cup Championship (1944)
USHL Second All-Star Team (1950 & 1951)
USHL Championship (1951)
IHL Second All-Star Team (1953)
Honoured Member of the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame

References

External links

 Ed Bruneteau's  biography at Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame

1919 births
2002 deaths
Canadian expatriates in the United States
Canadian ice hockey right wingers
Detroit Red Wings players
Franco-Manitoban people
Indianapolis Capitals players
Milwaukee Chiefs players
Omaha Knights (AHA) players
Omaha Knights (USHL) players
People from Saint Boniface, Winnipeg
Quebec Aces (QSHL) players
Sherbrooke Saints players
Ice hockey people from Winnipeg
Winnipeg Rangers players
20th-century Canadian people

Ed Bruneteau


Juggernaut is a 1974 British crime suspense film starring Richard Harris, Omar Sharif, and Anthony Hopkins. The film, which was directed by Richard Lester, was largely shot on location aboard the TS Hamburg in the North Sea. It was inspired by real events aboard QE2 in May 1972 when Royal Marines and Special Boat Service personnel parachuted onto the ship because of a bomb hoax.

In the film, Richard Harris leads a team of Naval bomb disposal experts sent to disarm several large barrel bombs that have been placed aboard an ocean liner crossing the North Atlantic. Meanwhile, ashore, the police race against time to track down the mysterious bomb maker, who calls himself "Juggernaut", who will agree to a ransom in order to reveal the information that will disarm the bombs.

Plot
The ocean liner SS Britannic is voyaging through the North Atlantic with 1200 passengers on board when the shipping line's owner Nicholas Porter in London receives a call from someone with an Irish accent styling himself as "Juggernaut", who claims to have placed high explosives aboard which are timed to explode and sink the ship at dawn on the following day. The drums are booby-trapped in various ways, and he warns that any attempt to move them will result in detonation, and offers that technical instructions in how to render the bombs safe will be given in exchange for a ransom of £500,000. As an indication of his seriousness, he sets off a demonstration attack with small bombs behind the ships funnel, which injure one crewman. Unable to order an evacuation of passengers via lifeboats due to rough seas, the shipping line's management is inclined to yield to the ransom demand, however British government officials inform the company that if it does so they will withdraw the company's operating subsidy in line with the Government's policy of non-appeasement of terrorism.

Instead, a Royal Navy officer, Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Fallon, leading a bomb-disposal unit, is dispatched, arriving on the scene by air transit and parachuting, to board the ship and defuse the barrel-bombs before the deadline. Meanwhile, back in London, Supt. McCleod, whose wife and two children happen to be holidaying on board the ship, leads Scotland Yard's investigation to capture the criminal master-bomber.

After an attempt to drill a hole into a barrel-bomb fails, setting it off and damaging the ship, Fallon decides to split up his team with each man working simultaneously on each of the remaining devices around the ship, Fallon going first with each stage of the defusing operation and coordinating his men by radio link, with the aim that if he fails and his bomb explodes, his men will know what went wrong and continue the process onwards, with his second in command taking up the lead. If two more bombs go off, the ship will sink. Fallon proceeds to disarm the bomb he is working on, apparently successfully, with his men following each step. However, it contains a hidden mechanism, which one of his men, close friend Charlie Braddock, accidentally triggers, resulting in his death when it explodes, causing further damage to the ship. A distraught Fallon abandons the operation and tells the ship's captain, Alex Brunel, to advise the shipping line to pay the ransom to avoid any more carnage. However, when negotiations with Juggernaut break down (in part because Juggernaut sees the trap police set for him when he goes to collect the ransom) Fallon is ordered by the captain to continue disarming the bombs.

Meanwhile, a police search back in London captures the bomber posing as Juggernaut, who is revealed to be an embittered former British military bomb-disposal officer, Sidney Buckland. When told of the news, Fallon, still working on disabling the bombs, reveals that Buckland had trained him and once saved his life. He insists that Buckland be put in contact with him. Buckland is escorted to the police situation room. By this time Fallon has worked out the important details of his procedure but has no way of knowing which of two options (cutting a red or blue wire) will disable the bombs, and if he chooses the wrong one it will detonate them. Time is running out and dawn is fast approaching. Fallon and Juggernaut talk, and, because of their former comradeship, Juggernaut agrees to tell Fallon how to safely disarm the bombs. Juggernaut orders to 'cut the blue wire' over audio. Fallon, sensing he is being lied to, cuts the red wire instead and manages to disable the bomb. The rest of the bomb-disposal unit follow Fallon's example, and the ship and its passengers are saved.

Cast

 Richard Harris as Lieutenant Commander Anthony Fallon
 Omar Sharif as Captain Alex Brunel
 David Hemmings as Charlie Braddock
 Anthony Hopkins as Superintendent John McLeod
 Shirley Knight as Barbara Bannister
 Ian Holm as Nicholas Porter
 Clifton James as Corrigan
 Roy Kinnear as Ship's Social Director Curtain
 Caroline Mortimer as Susan McLeod
 Mark Burns as Hollingsworth
 John Stride as Hughes
 Freddie Jones as Sidney Buckland
 Julian Glover as Commander Marder
 Cyril Cusack as O'Neil (uncredited)
 Michael Hordern as Baker (uncredited)
 Jack Watson as Chief Engineer Mallicent
 Roshan Seth as Azad
 Kenneth Colley as Detective Brown
 Kenneth Cope as Bridgeman
 John Bindon as Driscoll
 Ben Aris as The Walker
 Tom Chadbon as Juggernaut's Contact
 Gareth Thomas as Liverpool Joiner
 Simon MacCorkindale as #1 Helmsman
 Andrew Bradford as Jim Hardy, 3rd Officer
 Paul Antrim as Digby
 Adam Bridges as David McCleod
 Rebecca Bridge as Nancy McCleod
 Michael Egan as Mr. Fowlers
 Freddie Fletcher as 2nd Radio Officer
 Terence Hillyer as Menzies
 Barnaby Holm as Christopher Porter
 Kristine Howarth as Mrs. Buckland
 Victor Lucas as Detective
 Paul Luty as Clerk
 David Purcell as 1st Detective
 Eric Mason as 2nd Detective
 Michael Melia as Navigator
 Doris Nolan as Mrs. Corrigan
 Liza Ross as Laura Kellogg
 Bob Sessions as Jerry Kellogg
 Colin Thatcher as Henning
 Ivy Moy-Loader as Extra

Production

Development
Richard Alan Simmons' script was inspired by a real life bomb threat against the Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1972, which resulted in Special forces (one SAS, two from the Special Boat Squadron and a Welsh bomb disposal expert of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps) being parachuted into the Atlantic to board and search the liner, as dramatized in the film.

The film was the second in what was meant to be a 13-film slate produced by David V. Picker after he resigned as head of production for United Artists (the first was Lenny). It was made by his company, Two Roads. United Artists would distribute. In November 1973 it was reported that Bryan Forbes was to direct, with Simmons producing and Richard Harris starring, with filming set to begin in January 1974.

On 6 December 1973, it was reported that Bryan Forbes had left the project and been replaced by Don Medford. On 5 February 1974, it was reported that Medford, too, had left the project. Picker then turned to Richard Lester, with whom he had made a number of films at United Artists, notably A Hard Day's Night. Lester was finishing work on the Musketeers films in Spain when he got a call from Denis O'Dell saying "We just fired our second director and I've got a Russian ship and we've got to leave on 18 February. Will you take it on?"

On taking over the film, Lester completely rewrote the script with writer Alan Plater. Omar Sharif, Richard Harris and David Hemmings were already cast; Lester cast the rest. He wound up filming three weeks after his original call.

"I think if I'd sat carefully and thought about it I wouldn't have done it," said Lester later. "It was very exciting. And I think that energy of getting it right carried it through. It was a wonderful experience, great fun."

The film's writer/producer, Richard Alan Simmons, was so unhappy with the reworked script that he had himself credited as Richard DeKoker on the finished film.

Filming
Filming took place in March and April 1974.

The film was shot mainly aboard the real cruise ship TS Hamburg. The German vessel had recently been sold to the Soviet Black Sea Shipping Company and renamed TS Maxim Gorkiy. Before the Soviets began operating the ship for paying passengers, the British production company chartered the ship.

Advertisements were run in British papers, soliciting extras who would take a lengthy cruise in the North Sea for free, but with the knowledge that the ship would actually seek out the worst possible weather, as the story demanded seas too rough for the lifeboats to be lowered, trapping the passengers on board. They received 2,500 applicants and had to select 250. Weather was bad; Ian Holm did not go on location but says he heard "reports of horrible storms off Iceland and everybody getting drunk to deal with it. The story was the bar closed only between seven and seven-thirty in the morning."

The ship's charter was negotiated at a set rate in February 1974, while oil prices were continuously skyrocketing due to the still-ongoing 1973 oil crisis. As a result, the Soviets, who paid the vessel's operating costs during filming, ended up losing money on the deal.

Lester says the film was scheduled for ten weeks and completed in six.

Some interior filming was completed on stages at Pinewood Studios. Location shooting was also done in and around London. A room at St Thomas' Hospital in Lambeth overlooking the River Thames doubled as the office of the Managing Director of the shipping line.

The movie marked the film debut of Simon MacCorkindale.

Reception

Critical reception
The New York Times called it "a movie without any style and without any characters." Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote- 'Juggernaut missed the boat, but its editing and photography were in themselves thrilling'. Pauline Kael said: "The only disaster picture that has redeemed the genre is Richard Lester's 'Juggernaut,' which kidded the threadbare pants off the same clichés that the other pictures still try to make work."

Juggernaut holds an 80% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 10 reviews.

Box Office
Lester thought the film was hurt by the fact people thought it was a disaster movie when "that wasn't what it was at all."

Home media
The 2005 UK DVD release used the alternate title Terror on the Britannic. The film was released on Blu Ray by Kino Lorber on 9 September 2014.

References

Notes

External links

1974 films
1970s crime thriller films
1970s disaster films
British crime thriller films
British disaster films
Films directed by Richard Lester
Films set in London
Films set in the Atlantic Ocean
Films set on ships
Films shot at Pinewood Studios
Seafaring films
United Artists films
Films scored by Ken Thorne
1970s English-language films
1970s British films
Films set on ocean liners

Juggernaut (1974 film)


Long-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic (LFRTs) is a type of easily mouldable thermoplastic used to create a variety of components used primarily in the automotive industry. LFRTs are one of the fastest growing categories in thermoplastic technologies. Leading this expansion is one of the oldest forms, glass mat thermoplastic (GMT) and two of the segment's newest: precompounded (pelletized) LFRTs (long-fiber-reinforced thermoplastics), also known as LFTs, and inline compounded (ILC) or direct LFTs (D-LFTs).

LFRTs differ from the composite structures used in the aerospace industry for components such as aircraft parts. The fibers in LFRTs are relatively short (6.35 mm/0.25 in. or greater) compared to the fibres contained in composite aircraft components. High performance composites usually contain fibers as long as the component  itself (6 metres or longer).

Their structural properties and low cost per part have enabled LFRTs to replace metal parts in the automotive industry. In addition, some new organic fibers can even be recyclable. With the independence of choosing the reinforcement from a wide range of fibers and the matrix from a wide range of thermoplastics polymer in the LFRTs, its property can be changed according to customer needs. LFRTs have become an increasingly valuable and popular part of building envelope components such as windows and doors.

Manufacture
LFRT components or semi-finished products are made by compression or injection molding. Fibers are contained in the polymer matrix, often in the form of a granulate raw material.
Long Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Compounds are typically 10–12 mm in length.  Fiber is unidirectional along the length of the 12 mm pellet.

See also
FRP tanks and vessels (The strength of the fibres is used to make a tank extra strong in the tangential direction, where it is double the longitudinal direction due to the stresses)
Fibre-reinforced plastic

References

Composite materials
Polymers
Fibre-reinforced polymers

Long-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic


Batt O'Keeffe (born Aprile 1945) is a politeecian in the Republic o Ireland, an a member o the Irish pairlament in Dublin, representin the pairty Fianna Fáil.  He represents the Sooth Central Cork consteetuency in Dáil Éireann.

1945 births
Livin fowk
Alumni o Varsity College Cork
Cork inter-coonty Gaelic fitbawers
Fianna Fáil politeecians
Local cooncillors in Coonty Cork
Members o the 25t Dáil
Members o the 27t Dáil
Members o the 28t Dáil
Members o the 29t Dáil
Members o the 30t Dáil
Members o the 19t Seanad
Fowk eddicatit at St. Brendan's College, Killarney
Politeecians frae Coonty Cork
Teachtaí Dála
Meenisters for Eddication (Ireland)
Meenisters o State o the 30t Dáil
Meenisters o State o the 29t Dáil

Batt O'Keeffe


Cork City F.C. is a professional Irish football club in Cork and competing in the FAI League of Ireland. They are one of the most successful clubs in Ireland, having won the league twice and numerous FAI Cups, as well as nine Munster Senior Cups in a row.

Irish football clubs
Cork (city)

Cork City F.C.


Sexology is the scientific study of human sexual behavior. This includes things like sexual development, gender identity, sexual orientation, and the question of what a normal sexual behavior is. Sexologists also look at questions as to how mentally ill or disabled people see their sexuality, or how the views on sex change during the life of a person. An old person has different motivations to have sex than a young one or a child. Sexology also looks at sexual dysfunctions, offers hints for therapies, and helps people manage them.

Related pages
 Child sexuality

Human sexuality

Sexology


Roberto Ruscitti (Cansano, L'Aquila, December 12, 1941), was an Italian-Venezuelan composer, soloist and pianist, Nationally and internationally recognized for his compositions and for his interpretations of Venezuelan folk music. As a matter of fact, one can still regularly hear his Tango in Paradise in Japan.

He studied under  the tutelage of Vicente Emilio Sojo and Moises Moleiro at the Escuela Nacional de Música de Caracas, Venezuela, and graduates as Soloist and Composer for piano. Under the tutelage of Cristóbal Gornés, graduates as Teacher of Musical Pedagogy at the Escuela de música Nacional "Sebastián Echeverría Lozano" in Valencia, Venezuela.

Ruscitti decided not to lock himself into only one musical style, causing the enrichment of music, with the tango and the tarantella, as well as the joropo, merengue, and salsa. Clips of some of his compositions and renderings can be heard at his website. He directed several orchestras and for several years produced his own radio program, in which he played requests from the listeners.

He founded the Academia Venezolana de Música Smith, as well as the Orquesta Juvenil Venezolana de acordeonistas which performed on Venezuelan television. Many of his students work professionally, developed projects for the diffusion of Venezuelan music in London (with the London Symphony Orchestra and the National Philharmonic,  with the direction of Frank Barber), Madrid, Rome, United States and Canada. He has given many concerts with national and international artists like the tenors Carlos Almenar Otero, Roberto Aranguren and accordion players like, Pietro Deiro, Domingo Doglio.

Ruscitti died in 2014.

Prizes and recognitions
1st Prize at the Certamen Nacional de Música clásica on accordion (1962)
1st Prize at the Certamen Nacional de Música clásica on accordion (1964)
Gold Medal as Best Interpreter on accordion (1964), Silver and Bronze Medals at the World Championship of accordion, in Toronto, Canada (1964)
Premio Nacional de la música (1985), as Director of the Orquesta Juvenil de Venezuela
Copa Presidente de la República Dr. Raúl Leoni (1964, 1965, 1966), Best interpreter and artist on the accordion
Andrés Bello National Order (1989), In recognition of his valuable labor promoting Venezuelan popular music and culture.
El Sol dorado (1989), In recognition of his valuable labor promoting Venezuelan popular music and culture.

Discography
 2000 - Ensueño
 2006 - Mi Mundo
 2009 - Gocce d'Oro
 2012 - Gotas de Oro

See also
Venezuela
Venezuelan music

References

1941 births
Italian emigrants to Venezuela
Venezuelan classical musicians
Venezuelan composers
Male composers
Venezuelan pianists
People from the Province of L'Aquila
Living people
Male pianists
21st-century pianists
21st-century male musicians

Roberto Ruscitti


The Barnsley Public Hall disaster took place on Saturday 11 January 1908 in a public hall in Barnsley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. It resulted in the deaths of sixteen children. At least 40 others were seriously injured. A number of children were entering the hall to see a show when a staircase became overcrowded, and there was a crush as they tried to get inside. The survivors were taken to Beckett Hospital.

Incident
The accident occurred during a penny performance for children at a public hall in Barnsley, West Riding of Yorkshire, on 11 January 1908. Children from across Barnsley had come to watch a film, walking to the public hall through falling snow.  According to news reports at the time, a large number of children showed up, and the hall quickly became overcrowded.  With the ground floor seats full, children packed into the gallery to such an extent that the aisles of the gallery were filled and children were pressed against the lower gallery railing. In order to relieve some of the crowding, and concerned about the press of bodies against the gallery railing, an attendant in the hall called for some of the children to descend the stairs to the main floor.

This precipitated a mass rush for the stairs as children pushed to gain access to the ground level. As the crowd surged down the narrow staircase, a number of children fell and were trampled or were crushed by other children. Other children, under pressure from the crowd behind them, had to climb or walk over the fallen children to escape danger. Even children who had not originally joined the stampede became panicked because of the screams of those on the stairs. Theatre attendants and police who were quickly called managed to keep the children on the main floor safe and evacuate them. They then worked to extricate those children who had been injured.

According to a wire news report at the time, "When the reserve police arrived they found the narrow stairway practically blocked with bodies." Many of the victims had broken bones or lacerations as a result of being trampled.

Victims
Of the children in the hall, 16 died and more than 40 were injured. Following the accident, women from across the area rushed to the scene of the disaster trying to find their children.  The bodies of the dead were later identified by family members at a local mortuary.  Wire services carried news of the disaster far and wide, and newspapers as far away as New York City covered the story, sometimes in a sensational manner and with graphic detail about the injuries of the victims.

Commemoration
The disaster was commemorated on its 100th anniversary, 11 January 2008, with a civic ceremony. During the ceremony, a plaque was unveiled inside the building, now called the Civic, which listed the names of the sixteen victims of the tragedy, all of whom were under the age of ten at the time of their deaths.  Among the attendees was a younger sister of two of the victims, now elderly.  The town archives have in their research collection memorabilia of the event, including condolence cards and other materials donated by relatives of the victims.

See also
 Victoria Hall disaster
 Italian Hall disaster
 Royal Surrey Gardens
 Shouting fire in a crowded theatre

References

Disasters in Yorkshire
Human stampedes in the United Kingdom
1908 in England
History of South Yorkshire
History of Barnsley
1900s in Yorkshire
1908 disasters in the United Kingdom
January 1908 events

Barnsley Public Hall disaster


Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow under atmospheric pressure, and can be thought of as artificial rivers.

In most cases, a canal has a series of dams and locks that create reservoirs of low speed current flow. These reservoirs are referred to as slack water levels, often just called levels. A canal can be called a navigation canal when it parallels a natural river and shares part of the latter's discharges and drainage basin, and leverages its resources by building dams and locks to increase and lengthen its stretches of slack water levels while staying in its valley.

A canal can cut across a drainage divide atop a ridge, generally requiring an external water source above the highest elevation. The best-known example of such a canal is the Panama Canal.

Many canals have been built at elevations, above valleys and other waterways. Canals with sources of water at a higher level can deliver water to a destination such as a city where water is needed. The Roman Empire's aqueducts were such water supply canals.

The term was once used to describe linear features seen on the surface of Mars, Martian canals, an optical illusion.

Types of artificial waterways

A navigation is a series of channels that run roughly parallel to the valley and stream bed of an unimproved river. A navigation always shares the drainage basin of the river. A vessel uses the calm parts of the river itself as well as improvements, traversing the same changes in height.

A true canal is a channel that cuts across a drainage divide, making a navigable channel connecting two different drainage basins.

Structures used in artificial waterways

Both navigations and canals use engineered structures to improve navigation:
 weirs and dams to raise river water levels to usable depths;
 looping descents to create a longer and gentler channel around a stretch of rapids or falls;
 locks to allow ships and barges to ascend/descend.

Since they cut across drainage divides, canals are more difficult to construct and often need additional improvements, like viaducts and aqueducts to bridge waters over streams and roads, and ways to keep water in the channel.

Types of canals
There are two broad types of canal:
 Waterways: canals and navigations used for carrying vessels transporting goods and people. These can be subdivided into two kinds:
 Those connecting existing lakes, rivers, other canals or seas and oceans.
 Those connected in a city network: such as the Canal Grande and others of Venice; the grachten of Amsterdam or Utrecht, and the waterways of Bangkok.
 Aqueducts: water supply canals that are used for the conveyance and delivery of potable water, municipal uses, hydro power canals and agriculture irrigation.

Importance

Historically, canals were of immense importance to commerce and the development, growth and vitality of a civilization. In 1855 the Lehigh Canal carried over 1.2 million tons of anthracite coal; by the 1930s the company which built and operated it over a century pulled the plug. The few canals still in operation in our modern age are a fraction of the numbers that once fueled and enabled economic growth, indeed were practically a prerequisite to further urbanization and industrialization. For the movement of bulk raw materials such as coal and ores are difficult and marginally affordable without water transport. Such raw materials fueled the industrial developments and new metallurgy resulting of the spiral of increasing mechanization during 17th–20th century, leading to new research disciplines, new industries and economies of scale, raising the standard of living for any industrialized society.

The surviving canals
Most ship canals today primarily service bulk cargo and large ship transportation industries, whereas the once critical smaller inland waterways conceived and engineered as boat and barge canals have largely been supplanted and filled in, abandoned and left to deteriorate, or kept in service and staffed by state employees, where dams and locks are maintained for flood control or pleasure boating. Their replacement was gradual, beginning first in the United States in the mid-1850s where canal shipping was first augmented by, then began being replaced by using much faster, less geographically constrained & limited, and generally cheaper to maintain railways.

By the early 1880s, canals which had little ability to economically compete with rail transport, were off the map. In the next couple of decades, coal was increasingly diminished as the heating fuel of choice by oil, and growth of coal shipments leveled off.  Later, after World War I when motor-trucks came into their own, the last small U.S. barge canals saw a steady decline in cargo ton-miles alongside many railways, the flexibility and steep slope climbing capability of lorries taking over cargo hauling increasingly as road networks were improved, and which also had the freedom to make deliveries well away from rail lined road beds or ditches in the dirt which could not operate in the winter.

The longest extant canal today, the Grand Canal in northern China, still remains in heavy use, especially the portion south of the Yellow River. It stretches from Beijing to Hangzhou at 1,794 kilometres (1,115 miles).

Construction
Canals are built in one of three ways, or a combination of the three, depending on available water and available path:
Human made streams
 A canal can be created where no stream presently exists. Either the body of the canal is dug or the sides of the canal are created by making dykes or levees by piling dirt, stone, concrete or other building materials. The finished shape of the canal as seen in cross section is known as the canal prism. The water for the canal must be provided from an external source, like streams or reservoirs. Where the new waterway must change elevation engineering works like locks, lifts or elevators are constructed to raise and lower vessels. Examples include canals that connect valleys over a higher body of land, like Canal du Midi, Canal de Briare and the Panama Canal.
 A canal can be constructed by dredging a channel in the bottom of an existing lake. When the channel is complete, the lake is drained and the channel becomes a new canal, serving both drainage of the surrounding polder and providing transport there. Examples include the . One can also build two parallel dikes in an existing lake, forming the new canal in between, and then drain the remaining parts of the lake. The eastern and central parts of the North Sea Canal were constructed in this way. In both cases pumping stations are required to keep the land surrounding the canal dry, either pumping water from the canal into surrounding waters, or pumping it from the land into the canal.
Canalization and navigations

 A stream can be canalized to make its navigable path more predictable and easier to maneuver. Canalization modifies the stream to carry traffic more safely by controlling the flow of the stream by dredging, damming and modifying its path. This frequently includes the incorporation of locks and spillways, that make the river a navigation. Examples include the Lehigh Canal in Northeastern Pennsylvania's coal Region, Basse Saône, Canal de Mines de Fer de la Moselle, and canal Aisne. Riparian zone restoration may be required.

Lateral canals
 When a stream is too difficult to modify with canalization, a second stream can be created next to or at least near the existing stream. This is called a lateral canal, and may meander in a large horseshoe bend or series of curves some distance from the source waters stream bed lengthening the effective length in order to lower the ratio of rise over run (slope or pitch). The existing stream usually acts as the water source and the landscape around its banks provide a path for the new body. Examples include the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Canal latéral à la Loire, Garonne Lateral Canal, Welland Canal and Juliana Canal.

Smaller transportation canals can carry barges or narrowboats, while ship canals allow seagoing ships to travel to an inland port (e.g., Manchester Ship Canal), or from one sea or ocean to another (e.g., Caledonian Canal, Panama Canal).

Features
At their simplest, canals consist of a trench filled with water. Depending on the stratum the canal passes through, it may be necessary to line the cut with some form of watertight material such as clay or concrete. When this is done with clay, it is known as puddling.

Canals need to be level, and while small irregularities in the lie of the land can be dealt with through cuttings and embankments, for larger deviations other approaches have been adopted. The most common is the pound lock, which consists of a chamber within which the water level can be raised or lowered connecting either two pieces of canal at a different level or the canal with a river or the sea. When there is a hill to be climbed, flights of many locks in short succession may be used.

Prior to the development of the pound lock in 984 AD in China by Chhaio Wei-Yo and later in Europe in the 15th century, either flash locks consisting of a single gate were used or ramps, sometimes equipped with rollers, were used to change the level. Flash locks were only practical where there was plenty of water available.

Locks use a lot of water, so builders have adopted other approaches for situations where little water is available. These include boat lifts, such as the Falkirk Wheel, which use a caisson of water in which boats float while being moved between two levels; and inclined planes where a caisson is hauled up a steep railway.

To cross a stream, road or valley (where the delay caused by a flight of locks at either side would be unacceptable) the valley can be spanned by a navigable aqueduct – a famous example in Wales is the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site) across the valley of the River Dee.

Another option for dealing with hills is to tunnel through them. An example of this approach is the Harecastle Tunnel on the Trent and Mersey Canal. Tunnels are only practical for smaller canals.

Some canals attempted to keep changes in level down to a minimum. These canals known as contour canals would take longer, winding routes, along which the land was a uniform altitude. Other, generally later, canals took more direct routes requiring the use of various methods to deal with the change in level.

Canals have various features to tackle the problem of water supply. In cases, like the Suez Canal, the canal is open to the sea. Where the canal is not at sea level, a number of approaches have been adopted. Taking water from existing rivers or springs was an option in some cases, sometimes supplemented by other methods to deal with seasonal variations in flow. Where such sources were unavailable, reservoirs – either separate from the canal or built into its course – and back pumping were used to provide the required water. In other cases, water pumped from mines was used to feed the canal. In certain cases, extensive "feeder canals" were built to bring water from sources located far from the canal.

Where large amounts of goods are loaded or unloaded such as at the end of a canal, a canal basin may be built. This would normally be a section of water wider than the general canal. In some cases, the canal basins contain wharfs and cranes to assist with movement of goods.

When a section of the canal needs to be sealed off so it can be drained for maintenance stop planks are frequently used. These consist of planks of wood placed across the canal to form a dam. They are generally placed in pre-existing grooves in the canal bank. On more modern canals, "guard locks" or gates were sometimes placed to allow a section of the canal to be quickly closed off, either for maintenance, or to prevent a major loss of water due to a canal breach.

Canal falls
A canal fall, or canal drop, is a vertical drop in the canal bed. These are built when the natural ground slope is steeper than the desired canal gradient. They are constructed so the falling water's kinetic energy is dissipated in order to prevent it from scouring the bed and sides of the canal.

A canal fall is constructed by cut and fill. It may be combined with a regulator, bridge, or other structure to save costs.

There are various types of canal falls, based on their shape. One type is the ogee fall, where the drop follows an s-shaped curve to create a smooth transition and reduce turbulence. However, this smooth transition does not dissipate the water's kinetic energy, which leads to heavy scouring. As a result, the canal needs to be reinforced with concrete or masonry to protect it from eroding.

Another type of canal fall is the vertical fall, which is "simple and economical". These feature a "cistern", or depressed area just downstream from the fall, to "cushion" the water by providing a deep pool for its kinetic energy to be diffused in. Vertical falls work for drops of up to 1.5 m in height, and for discharge of up to 15 cubic meters per second.

History

The transport capacity of pack animals and carts is limited. A mule can carry an eighth-ton [] maximum load over a journey measured in days and weeks, though much more for shorter distances and periods with appropriate rest. Besides, carts need roads. Transport over water is much more efficient and cost-effective for large cargoes.

Ancient canals

The oldest known canals were irrigation canals, built in Mesopotamia circa 4000 BC, in what is now Iraq. The Indus Valley civilization of ancient India (circa 3000 BC) had sophisticated irrigation and storage systems developed, including the reservoirs built at Girnar in 3000 BC. This is the first time that such planned civil project had taken place in the ancient world. In Egypt, canals date back at least to the time of Pepi I Meryre (reigned 2332–2283 BC), who ordered a canal built to bypass the cataract on the Nile near Aswan.

In ancient China, large canals for river transport were established as far back as the Spring and Autumn Period (8th–5th centuries BC), the longest one of that period being the Hong Gou (Canal of the Wild Geese), which according to the ancient historian Sima Qian connected the old states of Song, Zhang, Chen, Cai, Cao, and Wei. The Caoyun System of canals was essential for imperial taxation, which was largely assessed in kind and involved enormous shipments of rice and other grains. By far the longest canal was the Grand Canal of China, still the longest canal in the world today and the oldest extant one. It is  long and was built to carry the Emperor Yang Guang between Zhuodu (Beijing) and Yuhang (Hangzhou). The project began in 605 and was completed in 609, although much of the work combined older canals, the oldest section of the canal existing since at least 486 BC. Even in its narrowest urban sections it is rarely less than  wide.

In the 5th century BC, Achaemenid king Xerxes I of Persia ordered the construction of the Xerxes Canal through the base of Mount Athos peninsula, Chalkidiki, northern Greece. It was constructed as part of his preparations for the Second Persian invasion of Greece, a part of the Greco-Persian Wars. It is one of the few monuments left by the Persian Empire in Europe.

Greek engineers were also among the first to use canal locks, by which they regulated the water flow in the Ancient Suez Canal as early as the 3rd century BC.
There was little experience moving bulk loads by carts, while a pack-horse would [i.e. 'could'] carry only an eighth of a ton. On a soft road a horse might be able to draw 5/8ths of a ton. But if the load were carried by a barge on a waterway, then up to 30 tons could be drawn by the same horse.— technology historian Ronald W. Clark referring to transport realities before the industrial revolution and the Canal age.

Hohokam was a society in the North American Southwest in what is now part of Arizona, United States, and Sonora, Mexico. Their irrigation systems supported the largest population in the Southwest by 1300 CE. Archaeologists working at a major archaeological dig in the 1990s in the Tucson Basin, along the Santa Cruz River, identified a culture and people that may have been the ancestors of the Hohokam. This prehistoric group occupied southern Arizona as early as 2000 BCE, and in the Early Agricultural Period grew corn, lived year-round in sedentary villages, and developed sophisticated irrigation canals.
The large-scale Hohokam irrigation network in the Phoenix metropolitan area was the most complex in ancient North America. A portion of the ancient canals has been renovated for the Salt River Project and now helps to supply the city's water.

Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, water transport was several times cheaper and faster than transport overland. Overland transport by animal drawn conveyances was used around settled areas, but unimproved roads required pack animal trains, usually of mules to carry any degree of mass, and while a mule could carry an eighth ton, it also needed teamsters to tend it and one man could only tend perhaps five mules, meaning overland bulk transport was also expensive, as men expect compensation in the form of wages, room and board. This was because long-haul roads were unpaved, more often than not too narrow for carts, much less wagons, and in poor condition, wending their way through forests, marshy or muddy quagmires as often as unimproved but dry footing. In that era, as today, greater cargoes, especially bulk goods and raw materials, could be transported by ship far more economically than by land; in the pre-railroad days of the industrial revolution, water transport was the gold standard of fast transportation. The first artificial canal in Western Europe was the Fossa Carolina built at the end of the 8th century under personal supervision of Charlemagne.

In Britain, the Glastonbury Canal  is believed to be the first post-Roman canal and was built in the middle of the 10th century to link the River Brue at Northover with Glastonbury Abbey, a distance of about . Its initial purpose is believed to be the transport of building stone for the abbey, but later it was used for delivering produce, including grain, wine and fish, from the abbey's outlying properties. It remained in use until at least the 14th century, but possibly as late as the mid-16th century.More lasting and of more economic impact were canals like the Naviglio Grande built between 1127 and 1257 to connect Milan with the river Ticino. The Naviglio Grande is the most important of the lombard "navigli" and the oldest functioning canal in Europe.Later, canals were built in the Netherlands and Flanders to drain the polders and assist transportation of goods and people.

Canal building was revived in this age because of commercial expansion from the 12th century. River navigations were improved progressively by the use of single, or flash locks. Taking boats through these used large amounts of water leading to conflicts with watermill owners and to correct this, the pound or chamber lock first appeared, in the 10th century in China and in Europe in 1373 in Vreeswijk, Netherlands. Another important development was the mitre gate, which was, it is presumed, introduced in Italy by Bertola da Novate in the 16th century. This allowed wider gates and also removed the height restriction of guillotine locks.

To break out of the limitations caused by river valleys, the first summit level canals were developed with the Grand Canal of China in 581–617 AD whilst in Europe the first, also using single locks, was the Stecknitz Canal in Germany in 1398.

Africa
In the Songhai Empire of West Africa, several canals were constructed under Sunni Ali and Askia Muhammad I between Kabara and Timbuktu in the 15th century. These were used primarily for irrigation and transport. Sunni Ali also attempted to construct a canal from the Niger River to Walata to facilitate conquest of the city but his progress was halted when he went to war with the Mossi Kingdoms.

Early modern period

Around 1500–1800 the first summit level canal to use pound locks in Europe was the Briare Canal connecting the Loire and Seine (1642), followed by the more ambitious Canal du Midi (1683) connecting the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. This included a staircase of 8 locks at Béziers, a  tunnel, and three major aqueducts.

Canal building progressed steadily in Germany in the 17th and 18th centuries with three great rivers, the Elbe, Oder and Weser being linked by canals. In post-Roman Britain, the first early modern period canal built appears to have been the Exeter Canal, which was surveyed in 1563, and open in 1566.

The oldest canal in the European settlements of North America, technically a mill race built for industrial purposes, is Mother Brook between the Boston, Massachusetts neighbourhoods of Dedham and Hyde Park connecting the higher waters of the Charles River and the mouth of the Neponset River and the sea. It was constructed in 1639 to provide water power for mills.

In Russia, the Volga–Baltic Waterway, a nationwide canal system connecting the Baltic Sea and Caspian Sea via the Neva and Volga rivers, was opened in 1718.

Industrial Revolution

 See also: History of the British canal system
 See also: History of turnpikes and canals in the United States

The modern canal system was mainly a product of the 18th century and early 19th century. It came into being because the Industrial Revolution (which began in Britain during the mid-18th century) demanded an economic and reliable way to transport goods and commodities in large quantities.

By the early 18th century, river navigations such as the Aire and Calder Navigation were becoming quite sophisticated, with pound locks and longer and longer "cuts" (some with intermediate locks) to avoid circuitous or difficult stretches of river. Eventually, the experience of building long multi-level cuts with their own locks gave rise to the idea of building a "pure" canal, a waterway designed on the basis of where goods needed to go, not where a river happened to be.

The claim for the first pure canal in Great Britain is debated between "Sankey" and "Bridgewater" supporters. The first true canal in what is now the United Kingdom was the Newry Canal in Northern Ireland constructed by Thomas Steers in 1741.

The Sankey Brook Navigation, which connected St Helens with the River Mersey, is often claimed as the first modern "purely artificial" canal because although originally a scheme to make the Sankey Brook navigable, it included an entirely new artificial channel that was effectively a canal along the Sankey Brook valley. However, "Bridgewater" supporters point out that the last quarter-mile of the navigation is indeed a canalized stretch of the Brook, and that it was the Bridgewater Canal (less obviously associated with an existing river) that captured the popular imagination and inspired further canals.

In the mid-eighteenth century the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, who owned a number of coal mines in northern England, wanted a reliable way to transport his coal to the rapidly industrializing city of Manchester. He commissioned the engineer James Brindley to build a canal for that purpose. Brindley's design included an aqueduct carrying the canal over the River Irwell. This was an engineering wonder which immediately attracted tourists. The construction of this canal was funded entirely by the Duke and was called the Bridgewater Canal. It opened in 1761 and was the first major British canal.

The new canals proved highly successful. The boats on the canal were horse-drawn with a towpath alongside the canal for the horse to walk along. This horse-drawn system proved to be highly economical and became standard across the British canal network. Commercial horse-drawn canal boats could be seen on the UK's canals until as late as the 1950s, although by then diesel-powered boats, often towing a second unpowered boat, had become standard.

The canal boats could carry thirty tons at a time with only one horse pulling – more than ten times the amount of cargo per horse that was possible with a cart. Because of this huge increase in supply, the Bridgewater canal reduced the price of coal in Manchester by nearly two-thirds within just a year of its opening. The Bridgewater was also a huge financial success, with it earning what had been spent on its construction within just a few years.

This success proved the viability of canal transport, and soon industrialists in many other parts of the country wanted canals. After the Bridgewater canal, early canals were built by groups of private individuals with an interest in improving communications. In Staffordshire the famous potter Josiah Wedgwood saw an opportunity to bring bulky cargoes of clay to his factory doors and to transport his fragile finished goods to market in Manchester, Birmingham or further away, by water, minimizing breakages. Within just a few years of the Bridgewater's opening, an embryonic national canal network came into being, with the construction of canals such as the Oxford Canal and the Trent & Mersey Canal.

The new canal system was both cause and effect of the rapid industrialization of The Midlands and the north. The period between the 1770s and the 1830s is often referred to as the "Golden Age" of British canals.

For each canal, an Act of Parliament was necessary to authorize construction, and as people saw the high incomes achieved from canal tolls, canal proposals came to be put forward by investors interested in profiting from dividends, at least as much as by people whose businesses would profit from cheaper transport of raw materials and finished goods.

In a further development, there was often out-and-out speculation, where people would try to buy shares in a newly floated company to sell them on for an immediate profit, regardless of whether the canal was ever profitable, or even built. During this period of "canal mania", huge sums were invested in canal building, and although many schemes came to nothing, the canal system rapidly expanded to nearly 4,000 miles (over 6,400 kilometres) in length.

Many rival canal companies were formed and competition was rampant. Perhaps the best example was Worcester Bar in Birmingham, a point where the Worcester and Birmingham Canal and the Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line were only seven feet apart. For many years, a dispute about tolls meant that goods travelling through Birmingham had to be portaged from boats in one canal to boats in the other.

Canal companies were initially chartered by individual states in the United States. These early canals were constructed, owned, and operated by private joint-stock companies. Four were completed when the War of 1812 broke out; these were the South Hadley Canal (opened 1795) in Massachusetts, Santee Canal (opened 1800) in South Carolina, the Middlesex Canal (opened 1802) also in Massachusetts, and the Dismal Swamp Canal (opened 1805) in Virginia. The Erie Canal (opened 1825) was chartered and owned by the state of New York and financed by bonds bought by private investors. The Erie canal runs about  from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie. The Hudson River connects Albany to the Atlantic port of New York City and the Erie Canal completed a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of around 565 ft. (169 m). The Erie Canal with its easy connections to most of the U.S. mid-west and New York City soon quickly paid back all its invested capital (US$7 million) and started turning a profit. By cutting transportation costs in half or more it became a large profit center for Albany and New York City as it allowed the cheap transportation of many of the agricultural products grown in the mid west of the United States to the rest of the world. From New York City these agricultural products could easily be shipped to other U.S. states or overseas. Assured of a market for their farm products the settlement of the U.S. mid-west was greatly accelerated by the Erie Canal. The profits generated by the Erie Canal project started a canal building boom in the United States that lasted until about 1850 when railroads started becoming seriously competitive in price and convenience. The Blackstone Canal (finished in 1828) in Massachusetts and Rhode Island fulfilled a similar role in the early industrial revolution between 1828 and 1848. The Blackstone Valley was a major contributor of the American Industrial Revolution where Samuel Slater built his first textile mill.

Power canals
 See also: Power canal
A power canal refers to a canal used for hydraulic power generation, rather than for transport.  Nowadays power canals are built almost exclusively as parts of hydroelectric power stations. Parts of the United States, particularly in the Northeast, had enough fast-flowing rivers that water power was the primary means of powering factories (usually textile mills) until after the American Civil War. For example, Lowell, Massachusetts, considered to be "The Cradle of the American Industrial Revolution," has  of canals, built from around 1790 to 1850, that provided water power and a means of transportation for the city. The output of the system is estimated at 10,000 horsepower. Other cities with extensive power canal systems include Lawrence, Massachusetts, Holyoke, Massachusetts, Manchester, New Hampshire, and Augusta, Georgia. The most notable power canal was built in 1862 for the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company.

19th century

Competition, from railways from the 1830s and roads in the 20th century, made the smaller canals obsolete for most commercial transport, and many of the British canals fell into decay. Only the Manchester Ship Canal and the Aire and Calder Canal bucked this trend. Yet in other countries canals grew in size as construction techniques improved. During the 19th century in the US, the length of canals grew from  to over 4,000, with a complex network making the Great Lakes navigable, in conjunction with Canada, although some canals were later drained and used as railroad rights-of-way.

In the United States, navigable canals reached into isolated areas and brought them in touch with the world beyond. By 1825 the Erie Canal,  long with 36 locks, opened up a connection from the populated Northeast to the Great Lakes. Settlers flooded into regions serviced by such canals, since access to markets was available. The Erie Canal (as well as other canals) was instrumental in lowering the differences in commodity prices between these various markets across America. The canals caused price convergence between different regions because of their reduction in transportation costs, which allowed Americans to ship and buy goods from farther distances much cheaper. Ohio built many miles of canal, Indiana had working canals for a few decades, and the Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River system until replaced by a channelized river waterway.

Three major canals with very different purposes were built in what is now Canada. The first Welland Canal, which opened in 1829 between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, bypassing Niagara Falls and the Lachine Canal (1825), which allowed ships to skirt the nearly impassable rapids on the St. Lawrence River at Montreal, were built for commerce. The Rideau Canal, completed in 1832, connects Ottawa on the Ottawa River to Kingston, Ontario on Lake Ontario. The Rideau Canal was built as a result of the War of 1812 to provide military transportation between the British colonies of Upper Canada and Lower Canada as an alternative to part of the St. Lawrence River, which was susceptible to blockade by the United States.

In France, a steady linking of all the river systems – Rhine, Rhône, Saône and Seine – and the North Sea was boosted in 1879 by the establishment of the Freycinet gauge, which specified the minimum size of locks. Canal traffic doubled in the first decades of the 20th century.

Many notable sea canals were completed in this period, starting with the Suez Canal (1869) – which carries tonnage many times that of most other canals – and the Kiel Canal (1897), though the Panama Canal was not opened until 1914.

In the 19th century, a number of canals were built in Japan including the Biwako canal and the Tone canal. These canals were partially built with the help of engineers from the Netherlands and other countries.

A major question was how to connect the Atlantic and the Pacific with a canal through narrow Central America. (The Panama Railroad opened in 1855.) The original proposal was for a sea-level canal through what is today Nicaragua, taking advantage of the relatively large Lake Nicaragua. This canal has never been built in part because of political instability, which scared off potential investors. It remains an active project (the geography has not changed), and in the 2010s Chinese involvement was developing.

The second choice for a Central American canal was a Panama canal. The De Lessups company, which ran the Suez Canal, first attempted to build a Panama Canal in the 1880s. The difficulty of the terrain and weather (rain) encountered caused the company to go bankrupt. High worker mortality from disease also discouraged further investment in the project. DeLessup's abandoned excavating equipment sits, isolated decaying machines, today tourist attractions.

Twenty years later, an expansionist United States, that just acquired colonies after defeating Spain in the 1898 Spanish–American War, and whose Navy became more important, decided to reactivate the project. The United States and Colombia did not reach agreement on the terms of a canal treaty (see Hay–Herrán Treaty). Panama, which did not have (and still does not have) a land connection with the rest of Colombia, was already thinking of independence. In 1903 the United States, with support from Panamanians who expected the canal to provide substantial wages, revenues, and markets for local goods and services, took Panama province away from Colombia, and set up a puppet republic (Panama). Its currency, the Balboa – a name that suggests the country began as a way to get from one hemisphere to the other – was a replica of the US dollar. The US dollar was and remains legal tender (used as currency). A U.S. military zone, the Canal Zone,  wide, with U.S. military stationed there (bases, 2 TV stations, channels 8 and 10, Pxs, a U.S.-style high school), split Panama in half. The Canal – a major engineering project – was built.  The U.S. did not feel that conditions were stable enough to withdraw until 1979. The withdrawal from Panama contributed to President Jimmy Carter's defeat in 1980.

Modern uses

Large-scale ship canals such as the Panama Canal and Suez Canal continue to operate for cargo transportation, as do European barge canals. Due to globalization, they are becoming increasingly important, resulting in expansion projects such as the Panama Canal expansion project. The expanded canal began commercial operation on 26 June 2016. The new set of locks allow transit of larger, Post-Panamax and New Panamax ships.

The narrow early industrial canals, however, have ceased to carry significant amounts of trade and many have been abandoned to navigation, but may still be used as a system for transportation of untreated water. In some cases railways have been built along the canal route, an example being the Croydon Canal.

A movement that began in Britain and France to use the early industrial canals for pleasure boats, such as hotel barges, has spurred rehabilitation of stretches of historic canals. In some cases, abandoned canals such as the Kennet and Avon Canal have been restored and are now used by pleasure boaters. In Britain, canalside housing has also proven popular in recent years.

The Seine–Nord Europe Canal is being developed into a major transportation waterway, linking France with Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Canals have found another use in the 21st century, as easements for the installation of fibre optic telecommunications network cabling, avoiding having them buried in roadways while facilitating access and reducing the hazard of being damaged from digging equipment.

Canals are still used to provide water for agriculture. An extensive canal system exists within the Imperial Valley in the Southern California desert to provide irrigation to agriculture within the area.

Cities on water

Canals are so deeply identified with Venice that many canal cities have been nicknamed "the Venice of…". The city is built on marshy islands, with wooden piles supporting the buildings, so that the land is man-made rather than the waterways. The islands have a long history of settlement; by the 12th century, Venice was a powerful city state.

Amsterdam was built in a similar way, with buildings on wooden piles. It became a city around 1300. Many Amsterdam canals were built as part of fortifications. They became grachten when the city was enlarged and houses were built alongside the water. Its nickname as the "Venice of the North" is shared with Hamburg of Germany, St. Petersburg of Russia and Bruges of Belgium.

Suzhou was dubbed the "Venice of the East" by Marco Polo during his travels there in the 13th century, with its modern canalside Pingjiang Road and Shantang Street becoming major tourist attractions. Other nearby cities including Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuxi, Jiaxing, Huzhou, Nantong, Taizhou, Yangzhou, and Changzhou are located along the lower mouth of the Yangtze River and Lake Tai, yet another source of small rivers and creeks, which have been canalized and developed for centuries.

Other cities with extensive canal networks include: Alkmaar, Amersfoort, Bolsward, Brielle, Delft, Den Bosch, Dokkum, Dordrecht, Enkhuizen, Franeker, Gouda, Haarlem, Harlingen, Leeuwarden, Leiden, Sneek and Utrecht in the Netherlands; Brugge and Gent in Flanders, Belgium; Birmingham in England; Saint Petersburg in Russia; Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Szczecin and Wrocław in Poland; Aveiro in Portugal; Hamburg and Berlin in Germany; Fort Lauderdale and Cape Coral in Florida, United States, Wenzhou in China, Cần Thơ in Vietnam, Bangkok in Thailand, and Lahore in Pakistan.

Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City was a UNESCO World Heritage Site near the centre of Liverpool, England, where a system of intertwining waterways and docks is now being developed for mainly residential and leisure use.

Canal estates (sometimes known as bayous in the United States) are a form of subdivision popular in cities like Miami, Florida, Texas City, Texas and the Gold Coast, Queensland; the Gold Coast has over 890 km of residential canals. Wetlands are difficult areas upon which to build housing estates, so dredging part of the wetland down to a navigable channel provides fill to build up another part of the wetland above the flood level for houses. Land is built up in a finger pattern that provides a suburban street layout of waterfront housing blocks.

Boats

Inland canals have often had boats specifically built for them. An example of this is the British narrowboat, which is up to  long and  wide and was primarily built for British Midland canals. In this case the limiting factor was the size of the locks. This is also the limiting factor on the Panama canal where Panamax ships were limited to a length of  and a beam of  until 26 June 2016 when the opening of larger locks allowed for the passage of larger New Panamax ships. For the lockless Suez Canal the limiting factor for Suezmax ships is generally draft, which is limited to . At the other end of the scale, tub-boat canals such as the Bude Canal were limited to boats of under 10 tons for much of their length due to the capacity of their inclined planes or boat lifts. Most canals have a limit on height imposed either by bridges or by tunnels.

Lists of canals

Africa
 Bahr Yussef
 El Salam Canal Egypt
 Ibrahimiya Canal Egypt
 Mahmoudiyah Canal Egypt
 Suez Canal Egypt
Asia
 see List of canals in India
 see List of canals in Pakistan
 see History of canals in China
 Europe
 Danube–Black Sea Canal (Romania)
 North Crimean Canal (Ukraine)
 Canals of France
 Canals of Amsterdam
 Canals of Germany
 Canals of Ireland
 Canals of Russia
 Canals of the United Kingdom
 List of canals in the United Kingdom
 Great Bačka Canal (Serbia)
 North America
 Canals of Canada
 Canals of the United States

Lists of proposed canals

 Eurasia Canal
 Istanbul Canal
 Nicaragua Canal
 Salwa Canal
 Thai Canal
 Sulawesi Canal
 Two Seas Canal
 Northern river reversal
 Balkan Canal or Danube–Morava–Vardar–Aegean Canal
 Iranrud

See also

 Barges of all types
 Beaver, a non-human animal also known for canal building
 Canal elevator
 Calle canal
 Canal & River Trust
 Canal tunnel
 Channel
 Ditch
 Environment Agency
 History of the British canal system
 Horse-drawn boat
 Infrastructure
 Irrigation district
 Lists of canals
 List of navigation authorities in the United Kingdom
 List of waterways
 List of waterway societies in the United Kingdom
 Lock
 Mooring
 Navigable aqueduct
 Navigation authority
 Narrowboat
 Power canal
 Proposed canals
 River
 Ship canal
 Tow path
 Roman canals – (Torksey)
 Volumetric flow rate
 Water bridge
 Waterscape
 Water transportation
 Waterway
 Waterway restoration
 Waterways in the United Kingdom
 Weigh lock

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

 British Waterways' leisure website – Britain's official guide to canals, rivers and lakes
 Leeds Liverpool Canal Photographic Guide
 Information and Boater's Guide to the New York State Canal System
 "Canals and Navigable Rivers" by James S. Aber, Emporia State University
 National Canal Museum (US)
 London Canal Museum (UK)
 Canals in Amsterdam
 Canal du Midi
 Canal des Deux Mers
 Canal flow measurement using a sensor.

Coastal construction
Water transport infrastructure
Artificial bodies of water
Infrastructure

Canal


Argentine rock is a type of rock music sung in Argentina. Locally, the Argentine's call their form of rock music "Rock Nacional". Argentine rock music has the tango and Argentine folk music. Argentine rock music began in the mid-1960s, after Richie Valens recorded "La Bamba", which became a popular folk song.

Rock music
Argentine culture

Argentine rock


Bhalwal Tehsil is a subdivision (tehsil) of Sargodha District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is administratively subdivided into 53 union councils, four of which form the tehsil capital Bhalwal.

The boundaries of the tehsil are marked by the Jhelum River and the Chenab River. According to the 1998 census the total population of the tehsil was 132,600.

Tehsils of Sargodha District

Bhalwal Tehsil


From November 15 to 16, 2006, a series of tornadoes broke out across the southern United States. Most of the tornadoes happened on November 15, but ended with a deadly tornado in North Carolina on the morning of November 16.

Synopsis
A moderate risk of severe weather was issued for the Southeast for the night of November 14 and November 15. It began in the overnight hours in Louisana and Arkansas. One tornado killed one person, another tornado in Mississippi led to several injuries, and in Montgomery, Alabama it destroyed a skating rink, but none of the 30 children inside suffered injuries.

As the squall line pushed into Georgia and northern Florida, it allowed for supercells to form. A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Riegelwood, North Carolina and a tornado warning was issued at 6:29 a.m. ET. At 6:37 a.m., a F3 tornado touched down and struck a mobile home park, killing eight people including a 6-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy and 20 people were injured.

2006
Tornado outbreaks
2006 in the United States
2006 in weather

Tornado outbreak of November 14–16, 2006


Nothing but the Truth is a 1941 American comedy film starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard, their third movie together in three years. The movie was directed by Elliott Nugent.

The premise of the film, that the protagonist must tell the truth for the next 24 hours, is based on a play of the same name written by James Montgomery, itself loosely adapted from the 1914 novel Nothing But the Truth by Frederic S. Isham.  The book and play had previously formed the basis of a 1929 movie, also called Nothing But the Truth, starring Richard Dix and Wynne Gibson.  The 1941 film follows the plot of the play much more closely than the 1929 version. The same premise was used for a 1997 Jim Carrey movie, Liar Liar.

Plot
Steve Bennett is a stockbroker in Miami, Florida who has just accepted a position working for a man named T.T. Ralston. He is persuaded by Ralston's beautiful niece, Gwen Saunders, to invest a sum of $10,000 that she needs doubled in 24 hours.  Ralston has promised Gwen that if she raises $20,000 he will double it, but has been working behind her back to prevent her from raising the initial funds.

When Steve objects to Ralston's practice of pushing bad stocks onto his clients, he claims that he could get by just as well by telling the truth as by lying. Ralston and his partner Dick Donnelly, along with client Tom van Dusen (Gwen's boyfriend), bet Steve that he can't be completely honest for twenty-four hours straight. Steve bets the $10,000 he got from Gwen. One of the conditions is that no one can reveal the bet to an outsider and it can't be cancelled.

Steve is meticulously watched by the three men during the next twenty-four hours. They are entertaining guests and clients on Ralston's yacht during much of this time, and when Steve is honest with everyone he meets, he manages to insult several of them. In the late evening, an exotic dancer named Linda Graham enters the yacht, looking for Dick, who has promised her backing for her show. Linda meets and talks to Steve, telling him about the show. Mrs. Ralston and another distinguished woman overhear the conversation and mistakenly believes Linda is Steve's wife.

During the night, the partners steal Steve's clothes to prevent him from leaving the ship, but he borrows a dress from Linda. In disguise, Steve sneaks into Gwen's room at her invitation. He tells her that he isn't married to Linda and that he is in love with her.

The next day Steve gets heat from every direction. Gwen finds out that he has been in Linda's room during the night, the ladies sees him as indecent, and Tom because he is in love with Gwen and jealous. On top of this Linda is telling everyone that she is indeed married to Steve and that they have a child together, being in cahoots with Dick to make things harder for Steve.

Close to when the twenty-four hours are up, a man named Mr. Bishop enters the ship. He is the head of the charity organization to which Gwen intended to give the $40,000. Mr. Bishop asks to see the money, and Gwen, who has learned about the bet, tries to keep the man occupied, buying some extra time to help Steve win the bet.

The clocks on the boat have been put forward by the partners, and when they strike four Steve is able to lie to Mr. Bishop about the money. The partners celebrate since they have won the bet, but it turns out Steve's valet had reset the clocks when he noticed they were wrong. Thus, Steve wins the bet and has managed to double Gwen's money after all. He tells everyone on the yacht that he had made a bet that he would lie for the past twenty-four hours, and his honor is restored. Gwen takes a liking to him and awards him a kiss.

Cast

 Bob Hope as Steve Bennett
 Paulette Goddard as Gwen Saunders
 Edward Arnold as T.T. Ralston
 Leif Erickson as Van
 Helen Vinson as Linda Graham
 Willie Best as Samuel
 Glenn Anders as Dick Donnelly
 Grant Mitchell as Mr. Bishop
 Catherine Doucet as Mrs. Van Dusen
 Rose Hobart as Mrs. Donnelly
 Clarence Kolb as Mr. Van Dusen
 Mary Forbes as Mrs. Ralston
 Leon Belasco as Dr. Zarak
 Helene Millard as Miss Turner

Radio adaptation
Nothing but the Truth was presented on Old Gold Comedy Theatre January 14, 1945. The adaptation starred Anne Baxter and Alan Young.

References

External links

1941 films
1941 comedy films
American comedy films
American black-and-white films
Films directed by Elliott Nugent
Paramount Pictures films
Films based on American novels
1940s English-language films
1940s American films

Nothing but the Truth (1941 film)


Discounts and allowances are when the price of goods or services is made lower. Discounts and allowances can be a change of the price that the manufacturer sells the product for, the retail price (set by the retailer and often attached to the product with a sticker), or the list price (which is quoted to a potential buyer, usually in written form).  The market price (also called effective price) is the amount that the customer pays. The purpose of discounts is to increase short-term sales,  move out-of-date stock, reward valuable customers, encourage distribution. Some discounts and allowances are forms of sales promotion.

Related pages
Multi-use tickets for public transport

References

Marketing

Discounts and allowances


Henry Meiggs (July 7, 1811 – September 30, 1877), was a promotor/entrepreneur and railroad builder born in Boston, Massachusetts.

Business career

Lumber
Meiggs came to New York City in 1835 and began a lumber business that was ruined by the Panic of 1837.  He restarted his business in Brooklyn, but again met with failure.  Finding success in sending lumber to the Pacific Coast, he relocated to San Francisco during the peak of the California Gold Rush on the cargo ship, Albany, laden with lumber, which he sold there for 20 times its cost. He established his first sawmill in Mendocino County, California, which became the Mendocino Lumber Company.

Real estate

When Meiggs arrived in San Francisco in 1849, he, like many others, got into
real estate speculation.  In Meiggs' case, he promoted the possibility of piers along the north shore area, on the grounds that it was closer to the Golden Gate than the usual harbor, located just south of Broadway Street on the shore of what is today downtown San Francisco.  Today, the site of Meiggs' Wharf, in its day a marvel extending two thousand feet into the Bay, is occupied by part of Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, and Pier 45. To that end, he built warehouses, streets and piers in the area, and constructed sawmills and schooners.

Meiggs became over-extended financially in trying to do this.  In order to make ends meet, he illicitly obtained a book full of warrants on the Street Fund (which had little money in it), which the city's controller and mayor had fallen into the habit of signing by the book in advance.  Meiggs forged the remaining information and raised money.

Railroads

Before his fraud was discovered, Meiggs left San Francisco on October 6, 1854, in the brig American, heading for South America.  According to him, he landed with only $8,000 (his fraud raised, by some accounts, half a million), lost it immediately, and had to pawn his watch.

Meiggs became a successful railroad builder, building the second railroad in Chile, between Santiago and Valparaíso.  After building himself a mansion in Chile with his immense fortunes, he moved his career on to Peru in the mid-1860s. He built a railroad from Lima – the capital city – to the Altiplano, which has an altitude of 14,000 feet.  He built many railroads in Peru, and died in 1877 in Lima, Peru while constructing a railroad in Costa Rica which was completed by his nephew, Minor C. Keith.  He is said to have been the virtual dictator of Peru by that time, known as "Don Enrique," with interests ranging from silver mines to cleaning up the city of Lima by building a seven-mile-long park.

In 1876–1877, he financed French adventurer Théodore Ber for an archaeological expedition to Tiwanaku, Bolivia, against the promise that Ber would donate the artifacts he found, on behalf of Meiggs, to Washington's Smithsonian Institution and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

While his Peruvian contracts were wildly profitable, by 1876, his financial situation had begun to disintegrate.  He found it more difficult to obtain credit.  His 1877 death only worsened the economic chaos in Peru. He was buried at Cementerio Presbítero Matías Maestro in downtown Lima.

Legacy
Meiggs is said to have paid back every cent he obtained by the warrant fraud, and his other debts, amounting to as much as a million dollars, refusing only to pay back speculators who obtained the warrants at deep discounts.  In preparation for his never-to-occur return to San Francisco, he got the State Legislature to pass a bill making it illegal to try him for offenses occurring before 1855.  The bill was vetoed by the governor.

As a result of Meiggs' adventures and escapades in Latin America, he left the economies of many countries in desperate conditions.  Meiggs allowed for the economic systems of Chile and Peru to be ruled by exports to European nations, which weakened their abilities to develop their domestic trade systems.  However, his endeavors to make money for himself proved futile, for the majority of his money was sent out of the country.

In 1977, one hundred years after Meiggs' death, Judge Harry W. Low of the California Superior Court, in San Francisco, granted a motion to quash the indictment against Meiggs stemming from the fraud, on the grounds that Meiggs had rehabilitated himself, and had gone to a Higher Court.  This marked the conclusion of a lengthy campaign by Meiggs' supporters to clear him.

An EC2 type Liberty Ship would also carry his name.  The USS Henry Meiggs, hull 2788  was launched on April 17, 1944.  She was scrapped in 1971.

Meiggs is credited with founding the town of Meiggsville, later renamed Mendocino.

In popular culture
Monumental Mysteries, a 2013 Travel Channel program, featured a segment on Meiggs centering on the financing of the construction of Fisherman's Wharf.  Meiggs was portrayed by Paul Meltzer.

References
Notes

Bibliography
 Elisabeth P Myers, South America's Yankee Genius, Henry Meiggs. New York, Messner, 1969.
 Watt Stewart, Henry Meiggs, Yankee Pizarro, Durham, N.C., Duke University Press, 1946.

External links

1811 births
1877 deaths
American fraudsters
People from San Francisco
People of the California Gold Rush
American expatriates in Peru
People from Mendocino, California
American expatriates in Chile

Henry Meiggs


The Geo Prizm was a small car sold by Chevrolet from 1990 to 1997. Replacing the Chevrolet Nova, it was based on a Toyota Corolla Sprinter with the Geo name on it. The Prizm was produced alongside the Corolla and the Tacoma pickup truck at New United Motor Manufacturing in Fremont, California which was jointly owned by General Motors and Toyota from 1985-2010. From 1989-1992 it was sold as a subcompact sedan and hatchback, but in 1992 it was redesigned and sold solely as a compact sedan (this was due to Toyota Corolla and Sprinter being redesigned). The Prizm and the Corolla shared the same parts and engines. It is the only Geo model not sold in Canada under Pontiac. In 1998, the name of the car was changed to Chevrolet Prizm. Due to the discontinued Toyota Sprinter and a loss in sales General Motors replaced the Prizm with the Pontiac Vibe and the Chevrolet Cobalt.

sedans
1990s automobiles
2000s automobiles
Chevrolet automobiles

Geo/Chevrolet Prizm


is a media franchise that spawned from the Gundam franchise.  SD Gundam takes the mecha (and characters) from Gundam and expresses them in super deformed and anthropomorphic style.

Overview

SD Gundam originated from a contributed illustration of a junior student from Nagoya by the name of Koji Yokoi to the "Model News" magazine that Bandai was issuing in the 1980s. The illustration is of a Gundam but with an unusual proportion where the overall height of the Gundam is equal to twice that of its head. This illustration interested the chief editor and led to Koji Yokoi serializing SD Gundam in 4 frame comics in "Model News".

The super deformed designs were suitable for capsule toys, and so they were first merchandised as small SD Gundam-shaped erasers as part of the Gashapon series SD Gundam World in 1985. Built with a hole so they could be skewered into a pencil, the series was a hit with Japanese schoolchildren, and the concept soon expanded to other forms of merchandising and media, including models, manga, trading cards, anime and video games.

The popularity of SD Gundam was such that between the late '80s and early '90s, sales from the SD Gundam franchise far exceeded the rest of Gundam.  And whereas Gundam pioneered the real robot branch of mecha anime, SD Gundam's more comical and exaggerated approach to the genre served to move it away from the ultra-realism that it was shifting towards in the '80s, and inspired a new flood of super-deformed robot shows between the late '80s and early '90s such as Sunrise's Mashin Hero Wataru and Haō Taikei Ryū Knight, as well as video games such as the Super Robot Wars franchise.

Although the SD Gundam franchise initially started out featuring characters and mecha from the mainstream Gundam series, by the 1990s SD Gundam spawned numerous spin-off series, SD Gundam Sengokuden (Musha Gundam) which has a Sengoku setting, SD Gundam Gaiden (Knight Gundam) which has a fantasy medieval setting and SD Command Chronicles which has a modern military style to name a few.

Animated works
Animated works based on SD Gundam are generally adapted from existing toy lines or manga and are animated by Sunrise.
  (movies, OVAs & TV series, 1988 to 1993)
A series of animated short and feature-length films released during the height of SD Gundam's popularity in Asia.  Initially feature characters and mecha from the Gundam franchise,  before spinning off to a regularly appearing set of SD Gundam characters, notably from the Command Gundam, Knight Gundam, and Musha Gundam sub-franchises.
 Doozy Bots (promo short, 1989)
A proposed animated series intended for the North American market, based on SD Gundam designs. The series was scrapped after only the trailer was released.
  (promo short, 2001)
A short music video produced by Sunrise D.I.D. (Digital Imaging Department?) that first appeared in Tokyo Hobby Show in 2001/10/13. The video uses cel-shaded versions of SD Gundam Mushamaruden characters. The video is bundled with the limited special color clear version of BB Senshi #178.
  (promo short, 2003)
Debuted in 42nd Shizuoka Hobby show 2003 on 2003/5/17, this video uses SD Gundam Mushamaruden 2 and 3 characters.
  (TV series, 2004)
A TV series entirely animated in 3DCG and initially targeted at the North American audience.  Based on the settings from SD Command Chronicles, Knight Gundam, and Musha Gundam.
  (promo short, 2004)
Part of the Gundam Evolve series of 3DCG promotional shorts.  Featurings Rekka Musha Gundam fighting against evil Zaku bandits.
  (movie & TV series, 2010)
An animated addition to the BB Senshi Sangokuden manga and model series. The series is an adaptation of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel with slightly altered plot and names.
  (webseries, 2019)
A reboot of the BB Senshi Sangokuden concept released for Gundam's 40th anniversary. The series retains the Romance of the Three Kingdoms theme while having new Gundams in the roles of the characters and the addition of a zombie plague.
  (webseries, 2021)A sequel to Sangoku Soketsuden with additional characters. It incorporates historical and fictional elements from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, RoboCop/SD Command Chronicles, Journey to the West, King Kong, Arsène Lupin, the King Arthur mythos and Robin Hood/Knight Gundam, Sanada Ten Braves, the Golden Age of Piracy, Japan's Sengoku period/Musha Gundam and the reign of Cleopatra VII Philopator.

Manga works

Musha Gundam series

 are Gundam  units modelled after samurai, ninja, or other forms of feudal Japanese warriors. Musha Gundam first appeared in "Plamo-Kyoshiro"<プラモ狂四郎> (Story by Craft dan and art by Koichi Yamato). In the story, the SD Gundam is an original Gundam created by Kyoshiro (protagonist) for a showdown with Shigeru (antagonist). The original design of the SD form Musha Gundam is credited to Koichi Yamato, and Yasui Hisashi. The story of Musha Gundam, SD Sengokuden, originated from the manga "Seven Gundams" of the "Comic World" series by MARSHI (a.k.a. Susumu Imaishi). The Musha Gundam series is the longest running SD Gundam series, since the series is set in the Warring States period the use of katakana is avoided, and kanji is used heavily.

Knight Gundam series

 is part of the SD Gundam franchise, a sub-franchise of the popular Gundam anime. In Knight Gundam, Gundam mecha and characters are reimagined as knights, sorcerers and other fantasy and medieval European character types. Knight Gundam is a series that took elements from Japanese role playing games, such as the Dragon Quest series, into SD Gundam. The knight style SD Gundam designs are devised by Koji Yokoi and soon Knight Gundam became an independent series like Musha Gundam.

The series first started on Carddas trading cards with the story set in the "Saddarc World" (Carddas spelt backwards). Soon after it expanded to Gashapons, plastic models, manga and games. The Gundams in the Knight Gundam series are portrayed as living beings just like in the Musha Gundam series. But later on in the series giant robots known as "Kihei"(機兵) were introduced thus creating a weird picture of a Gundam piloting a Gundam. Also different from Musha Gundam, Knight Gundam has important human characters like Knight Amuro and Princess Frau throughout the whole series.

Others
SD Gundam Daibokan G Vehicle (serialized in Comic World and Comic Bom Bom Special Edition)
SD Gundam Fullcolor Gekijou by Azuma Yuki <あずま 勇輝> (9 volumes, ongoing)
this series is based on the SD Gundam Fullcolor Gashapon toy line, which are capsule toys for SD Gundam figures.

Game works
In the past most of the SD Gundam games are turn-based strategy video games and brawling-type games with shooting. However, the recent SD Gundam games started appearing in other genres.

Below is a rough list of game works, a more accurate and complete list is available at the Japanese wiki entry.

 SD Gundam Gachapon Senshi series
 SD Sengokuden series
 SD Gundam Side Story series
 SD Gundam Eiyūden series
 SD Gundam Arcade series
 SD Gundam G Generation series
 SD Gundam Force
 SD Gundam Force: Showdown!
 SD Gundam Dimension War - a turn-based strategy game for the Virtual Boy. It is one of the console's rarest games. Along with Virtual Bowling this game was the last video game officially released for the Virtual Boy in Japan. Dimension War is notable for the video game debut of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

Through not treated as a title from the SD Gundam series, the RPG Gundam True Odyssey (MS Saga: A New Dawn in the US) also used super-deformed graphics for the mobile weapons that were found in the game.

The SD Gundam designs were also used throughout the earlier Super Robot Wars games (up through SRW F and F Final, stopping at SRW Alpha for the PS1), as can be seen by the pupils present in the eyes of the various Mobile Suits that appeared. From SRW Alpha and beyond, however, the eyes of Mobile Suits remain blank, though the robots themselves are still super-deformed (just as all mechs represented in typical SRW games are). The only exceptions are in Shin Super Robot Wars and the Scramble Commander series, where all series featured in these games used real-sized designs instead of the traditional SD-sized ones.

A real-sized Musha Gundam has been placed as a hidden, unlockable unit in Dynasty Warriors: Gundam series. Particular SD Gundams that has been converted to normal sizes are confirmed to participate in the Gundam War trading card game.

Model kits

While regular Gundam model lines strive for realism by introducing High Grade, Master Grade, and Perfect Grade models, SD Gundam models are designed for (and sometimes by) the customization crowd. Many SD Gundam models are designed such that variations of the stock models, as seen by SD Gundam comics, can be made by using parts from other SD Gundam kits. Modifying SD models is very popular in Japan, more so than the full-sized counterparts. In addition to made-up robots contributed to SD Gundam comics, Bandai also held monthly contests for custom Gundam (usually Musha-based) models.

The model kit series is called .  The "BB" in the title comes from the fact that, initially, BB Senshi models came with airguns that shot BB gun pellets.  Due to product liability and safety regulations, the feature was soon removed. 2007 saw the release of the 300th kit in the series. Forming the bulk of the series are Musha Gundam kits; the Musha kits have standard gimmicks like detachable armour and others, such as combination and compatibility of parts between kits. In recent years the G Generation kits have introduced a new proportion and enhanced poseability.

Scale is often inconsistent, especially in older kits where many characters from the same storyline are out of scale with one another. However, as the line continued these issues have mostly been addressed and sometimes been intentional. Dai-Shogun characters have often seen their final form released as a much larger figure (in some cases, this is included in the storyline by the character growing to giant size to combat an equally large foe).

Another model kit series called , though discontinued in the 1990s, covered all the SD Gundam series but mainly focus on Knight Gundam kits. These kits are made from more durable plastic and are bigger than the BB Senshi kits. They can currently be found at auction sites, usually with high prices.

Century number releases (100, 200, 300, etc.) are often marked as special occasions. 2007 saw the release of the 300th BB Senshi kit in official numbering. However, the previous kit had been BB 295. Bandai retroactively filled in the missing five kits alongside releases of kits with the 300+ numbering. These retroactive kits were of units from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, many being recolors of existing kits. Additionally, popular SD Gundam kits have been re-released in waves at around the same time as new kits. These re-releases are broken down by series (Musha, Knight, Command, G-Generation). The popularity of these older kits is such that many have been included in later re-release waves.

A limited subline titled Chi-Bi Senshi (a pun on the mainline's 'BB' and 'chibi', meaning small) consisted of thirteen kits based on Super G-ARMS, Knight Gundam, Gundlaner and Musha. The kits were smaller and less complex than full BB Senshi, built on a five-point skeleton block which allowed for parts swapping between the kits. This gimmick was also utilized with some of the Knight kits to allow them to combine with larger BB Senshi versions of the 'Kihei' mobile weapons they piloted. Additionally, nine of the Chi-Bi Senshi were released in three triple boxsets, depicting them in widely different transparent colours. The Comic World chapters included with these sets referred to these 'Crystal' versions as doppelgangers made from sentient alien crystals who had chosen to copy the real Gundams.

A related line of merchandise has included the designs from SD Gundam works presented as 'real type' versions, lacking the deformed proportions. This concept has seen a resurgence in recent years, with Bandai issuing a Master Grade model kit of Hajime Katoki's Shin Musha Gundam (appearing in Dynasty Warriors: Gundam) and Banpresto releasing toys and mini-statues based on 'real type' versions of Musha and Knight characters.

SDX
Starting in 2008, the SDX line is a collector aimed series of action figures based on SD Gundam characters. The first figure released, Knight Gundam, was based on a scratch-built model of the character made by Hobby Japan for his appearance in Musha Retsuden Zero. Following this was a release of 'Full Armor Knight Gundam' (depicting the character's upgraded form), with figures of Satan Gundam and Command Gundam announced for later in 2009.
Being a collector aimed line, the series focuses on high detail, option parts and updating popular SD Gundam characters who are only otherwise represented by decades old model kits and toys. For example, Knight Gundam was released with a display base, alternate facial expressions and armor pieces produced from metal.

SD Ex-Standard
This is the most recent model kit series which aims for styled proportions, weapon customization, budget friendliness, and connecting every single SD Gundam Kit, and possibly even make kits from other grades that doesn't have SD versions of it; one example is the Try Burning Gundam, which currently has a HG (High Grade) version of it, and unlike its past counterpart, the Build Burning Gundam has its own BB Senshi counterpart. So far, this kit series has ten sets, which contains (orderly) RX-78-2, Aile Strike Gundam, Gundam Exia, Wing Gundam Zero EW, Gundam Unicorn (Destroy Mode), Strike Freedom Gundam, Astray Red Frame, OO Gundam, Destiny Gundam, Gundam Barbatos (form 4), Try Burning Gundam, Gundam Deathscythe Hell EW, Sinanju, and Gundam Barbatos Lupus. This kit series is really similar to the BB Senshi sets, but this kit series is a lot smaller than the BB sets or any other SD kit series.

References

External links

Official sites
 SD Gundam Portal Site "We Love SD Gundam" (Japanese)
 Bandai Hobby Site (Japanese)

Information sites

 Gundam Comic Chronicle - detailed information on all SD Gundam comics ever published (Japanese)
 Inugoya's homepage - information on all SD Gundam timelines (Japanese)
 SD Gundam history page (Japanese)
 STRIPE's home page (Japanese)
 ToYaMeI's homepage (Chinese)
 Raptorial's SD Gundam World (Chinese) - Detailed collection of all SD Gundam BB Senshi Model Kits

Publisher links
 Comic Bom Bom official site (Japanese)
 Hobby JAPAN magazine official site (Japanese)
 Rightman Publishing Ltd. official site (Chinese)

Bandai Namco franchises
Sunrise (company)
Video games developed in Japan

SD Gundam


Cao Que (曹確), courtesy name Gangzhong (剛中), was an official of the Chinese Tang dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Yizong.

Background
It is not known when Cao Que was born.  His family was from the Tang dynasty eastern capital Luoyang.  His traceable ancestry went back only to his grandfather Cao Zhou (), and neither Cao Zhou nor his father Cao Jingbo () was listed with any offices, although Cao Jingbo was said to have passed the imperial examinations in the Jinshi class in 803, during the reign of Emperor Dezong.  Cao Que had at least one younger brother, Cao Fen (), who would also eventually serve in the imperial government.

Early career
Cao Que himself passed the imperial examinations in the Jinshi class in 837, during the reign of Emperor Dezong's great-great-grandson Emperor Wenzong, and subsequently served on the staffs of several regional governors.  He was later recalled to the capital Chang'an to serve as an imperial censor with the title Shi Yushi (), and later, he was given the office of Gongbu Yuanwailang (), a low-level official at the minister of public works (工部, Gongbu), and put in charge of drafting edicts.  He was promoted to the supervisory position of Gongbu Langzhong (), and also made an imperial scholar (翰林學士, Hanlin Xueshi).  He was later made Zhongshu Sheren (), a mid-level official at the legislative bureau of government (中書省, Zhongshu Sheng).  He went on to serve as the acting mayor of Henan Municipality (河南, i.e., the Luoyang region), before being recalled serving as the deputy minister of defense (兵部侍郎, Bingbu Shilang).

Chancellorship
In 863, by which time Cao Que was, in addition to being deputy minister of defense, the director of finances, then-reigning Emperor Yizong (Emperor Wenzong's cousin) gave him the designation Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi (), making him a chancellor de facto.  It was said that Cao was well-learned in Confucian regulations, was cautious, and followed the laws.  In 867, when Emperor Yizong made his favorite musician Li Keji () a general of the imperial guards, Cao pointed out that such a title was inappropriate for a musician, but Emperor Yizong did not listen to him.

After chancellorship
Cao Que served as chancellor until 870, when he was sent out of Chang'an to serve as the military governor (Jiedushi) of Zhenhai Circuit (鎮海, headquartered in modern Zhenjiang, Jiangsu), continuing to carry the Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi title as an honorary title. He later served as the military governor of Hezhong Circuit (河中, headquartered in modern Yuncheng, Shanxi) and died while at Hezhong, but it is not known when that occurred.

Son
 Cao Xifu (), courtesy name Songchen ()

Notes and references

 Old Book of Tang, vol. 177.
 New Book of Tang, vol. 181.
 Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 250, 252.

Chancellors under Emperor Yizong of Tang
Tang dynasty historians
Tang dynasty jiedushi of Zhenhai Circuit
Tang dynasty jiedushi of Hezhong Circuit
Year of death unknown
Politicians from Luoyang
Historians from Henan
Year of birth unknown
Tang dynasty generals from Henan
Writers from Luoyang

Cao Que


Roll film is the name for a number of formats for photographic film. Roll film is wound on a spool, as opposed to sheet film which comes in cartridges. The most common formats of roll film are the format 120, and the format 220, which are both used in medium format cameras. Even though the common 35 mm film is also wound on a spool, it is not called roll film.

Photographic film formats

Roll film