History.

Parva and "22" (2000–2003).

When they were around eleven years old, Nick Hodgson, Nick Baines and Simon Rix met in the same class at St. Mary's Catholic High School, Menston, West Yorkshire. After leaving school, Rix and Baines left for university in 1996 whereas Hodgson remained in the Leeds area, meeting both Andrew White and Ricky Wilson. Hodgson, White and Wilson formed the band Runston Parva, its name a deliberate misspelling of a small East Yorkshire hamlet called Ruston Parva. After Runston Parva failed to secure a record deal, the group re-formed as Parva upon the return of Rix and Baines from university. Parva's career went beyond the boundaries of Leeds, and the band was able to obtain both a record and publishing deal. However, after Beggars Banquet closed the Mantra label, Parva were dropped and left desolate and without any direction after the release of an album ("22") and three singles ("Heavy", "Good Bad Right Wrong" and "Hessles").  According to manager James Sandom in an interview with HitQuarters, as a dropped band they had become damaged goods, "No one would touch them because they had a history. A lot of people used their history against them." The band decided that they would aim for a longer term record deal and started afresh with new songs and a new name: Kaiser Chiefs. The new name was taken from South African football club Kaizer Chiefs, the first club of ex-Leeds United captain Lucas Radebe.  Manager James Sandom was tipped off about the band by Drowned in Sound founder Sean Adams and persuaded him to go and see them live. Sandom said: "I went to see a couple of shows and you were just bombarded by a series of potential hit singles." Soon after Sandom became their manager, Kaiser Chiefs signed to B-Unique Records. Atlantic Records had also made an offer for the band.

"Employment" (2004–2005).

In July 2004, while still relatively unknown inside the UK, Kaiser Chiefs performed their first festival outside the UK at a festival in Moscow. One of the major factors in the band's breakthrough in 2005 was their involvement in the NME Awards Tour at the beginning of the year. Like Coldplay and Franz Ferdinand before them, their position as opening act proved an influential one, attracting a lot of positive media attention.  The group's debut album "Employment" was released in March 2005, being primarily inspired by new wave and punk rock music of the late 1970s and 1980s. The album was well received by music critics, described as "thrilling from beginning to end" and "quintessentially British, without pretension and most importantly, a whole lot of fun". It reached number two on the UK albums chart, and was certified five times platinum. In 2005, "Employment" was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize, an annual music prize awarded for the best British or Irish album from the previous year. Bookmakers made it favourite to win the award, but they eventually lost out to Antony and the Johnsons. In 2006, "Employment" won the Ivor Novello award for 'Best Album'  The first single released from the album was "Oh My God" in 2004, which reached number six on the UK singles chart when it was reissued in February 2005. In 2007, the song was covered by Mark Ronson and Lily Allen for Ronson's album "Version". "I Predict a Riot" soon followed as the album's second release. In 2007, the song was ranked number thirty-six on the "NME" "Greatest Indie Anthems Ever" countdown. The top twenty singles "Everyday I Love You Less and Less" and "Modern Way" followed in late 2005. The band opened and performed several of their singles at the Philadelphia Live Eight concert in 2005. The song "Saturday Night" was featured in a pre-release video for the Xbox 360 gaming console. It was posted on the official Xbox 360 page before its launch.  In 2006, the band received NME awards for 'Best Album' for Employment and 'Best Dressed' for Ricky Wilson.

"Yours Truly, Angry Mob" (2006–2007).

Kaiser Chiefs' second album "Yours Truly, Angry Mob" was released in February 2007. The group recorded the album throughout the September and October 2006 at Hookend Recording Studios in Oxfordshire, England. The group took inspiration from Led Zeppelin and American rock music, and recorded over twenty-two songs.  "Yours Truly, Angry Mob" reached number one on the UK albums chart and number forty-five on the "Billboard" 200 albums chart. The album went on to be the band's second Million Seller including the UK and European #1 Airplay Hit of 2007 "Ruby".  "Ruby", the album's lead single, became Kaiser Chiefs' first UK number one single and received the 2007 'Q Award' for 'Best Video'. "Everything Is Average Nowadays" was released as the album's second single, and reached No. 19 in the UK. The album's third single "The Angry Mob", described by "The Sun" as a "clever, accessible pop" song, peaked at number twenty-two in the UK. The fourth single, "Love's Not a Competition (But I'm Winning)", was released on 12 November as a collector's edition 7" only single via their website.  In December 2007, Kaiser Chiefs played two sold-out shows at Earl's Court in London to a capacity crowd of 30,000.

"Off with Their Heads" (2008–2009).

On 4 August 2008, the band confirmed the name of their third album as "Off with Their Heads". It was released on 20 October 2008. The first single "Never Miss a Beat" was released on 6 October 2008.  The band also released a DVD of their live performance at Elland Road from 24 May where they played to a sold out capacity crowd of 40,000 people. The DVD contains the full set from the home of Leeds United as well as highlights from the Kaiser Chiefs performance for the 2007 BBC Electric Proms.  Kaiser Chiefs set out on a UK tour in October 2008 with Castle Donington band Late of the Pier and The Hair. The tour started at Leeds Academy, a new venue where they were the first headlining band to play. Other dates included Manchester Academy, Southampton Guildhall, Reading Rivermead, Glasgow Barrowlands, Leicester De Montfort Hall and London Forum.  Kaiser Chiefs headed out on a UK Arena tour between February and March 2009, kicking off in Nottingham and ending in London. The tour visited Sheffield, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff and Dublin. This was the new album tour to promote "Off with Their Heads". The band featured on several shows over Christmas 2008 including performing "Never Miss a Beat" with Girls Aloud on their TV Special and playing the same song on the Christmas Day edition of "Top of the Pops".  On 16 July 2009, they played at Marés Vivas in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal as headliners on that day. They, along with Republic of Loose, opened for U2 in Croke Park in Dublin on 25 July 2009. They then opened for Green Day from 27 July to 7 August 2009, and the final shows before their 2-year hiatus were performed at Reading and Leeds Festival 2009.

"The Future Is Medieval" (2010–2011).

Following a hiatus, Kaiser Chiefs announced that they expected to release their fourth studio album in mid-2011. The album was recorded over a period of eighteen months at various locations including drummer Nick Hodgson's self-built east-London studio. The album's producers included Tony Visconti, Ethan Johns and Owen Morris, in addition to Nick Hodgson himself. On 3 June 2011, Kaiser Chiefs launched their new album from their website. Using a create-your-own album technique, fans were able to choose 10 out of 20 songs to create "their album" for £7.50; the band provides streams of roughly one minute to preview each track before selection. Many celebrities including, Radio One DJ Chris Moyles, The Guardian Newspaper, and frontman Ricky Wilson, created their own version of the album, donating the £1 reimbursement for each copy sold to the Alzheimer's Society.  On 27 June 2011, Kaiser Chiefs released an official track listing for the album, featuring 12 of the 20 available tracks and including a previously unheard track 'Kinda Girl You Are' which did not make the initial launch as it was not ready in time. They played two sell out comeback gigs at Falmouth Princess Pavilion. Then followed by appearances at Germany's Hurricane and Southside Festivals in June, Switzerland's Gurten Festival, Pinkpop in The Netherlands, Belgium's Rock Werchter, Portuguese festival Optimus Alive! in July, V Festival in August, Hard Rock Calling in June, the Isle of Wight Festival in June and at Terres Rouges Festival in Luxembourg in September. They also played at Tennants Vital in Bangor, Northern Ireland and in September they played two sold-out home town shows at Kirkstall Abbey in Leeds. They also be played in October in Festa das Latas, Coimbra – Portugal.  On 6 March 2012 the album was re-released under the title "Start The Revolution Without Me" for the US market. The track list differs significantly from the initial release, including the track "On The Run", which is exclusive to the US album and served as its lead single in early 2012.

"Souvenir", Hodgson's departure (2012–2013).

In early 2012, Kaiser Chiefs played a 20 date tour of the United Kingdom, followed by a tour of North America.  Kaiser Chiefs released their first compilation album, "", in the UK on 4 June 2012. The album features all of the singles released by the band from 2004 to 2012, as well as a new track titled "Listen to Your Head".  Drummer Nick Hodgson revealed via his Twitter account on 4 December 2012 that he had left the band to concentrate on other projects. The band later issued a statement on their website confirming this. On 7 February 2013 it was announced that Vijay Mistry from the band Club Smith would be joining the Kaiser Chiefs as their new drummer.  The band were one of two support bands for Green Day's one-off concert at the Emirates Stadium in London on 1 June 2013 along with All Time Low. The band's UK tour included 13 shows, beginning at Carlisle Sands Centre on 11 February and ending at London's O2 Academy Brixton on 1 March. The run of shows also includes gigs in Glasgow, Dunfermline, Manchester, Bridlington, Newcastle, Preston, Cheltenham, Wolverhampton, Southampton, Margate and Cambridge. They then went on to headline one of the Eden Sessions at the Eden Project, Cornwall. They played a hometown concert at the First Direct Arena in September 2013, being one of the first artists to perform at the new venue.

"Education, Education, Education & War" (2014–2015).

The band's fifth studio album, titled "Education, Education, Education & War" was released on 31 March 2014. "Education, Education, Education & War" is the first album featuring the new Kaiser Chiefs drummer, Vijay Mistry, after Nick Hodgson left the group in December 2012. The album was produced by Ben H. Allen III (who has previously worked with Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective, and Deerhunter), and recorded at The Maze Studio in Atlanta. Three songs were co-written with Fraser T Smith (CeeLo Green, Adele). It was mixed by Michael Brauer (My Morning Jacket, Coldplay) at Electric Lady Studios in New York City in November 2013. On 5 December 2013, Kaiser Chiefs released a song titled "Misery Company" onto their SoundCloud account. The song had previously been performed live during the band's 2013 summer tour. On 3 January 2014, "Bows & Arrows" premiered on "Rolling Stone" magazine's website.  "Education, Education, Education & War" was toured across Europe and the Americas throughout 2014 and 2015.  In 2015, they supported the "Foo Fighters" during the South Africa, South America and Ireland legs of their "Sonic Highways World Tour". They also released stand alone single 'Falling Awake' on 27 January 2015 via their YouTube channel.

"Stay Together" (2016–2017).

"Stay Together", the band's sixth studio album, was released on 7 October 2016. It was co-written and produced by Brian Higgins, whose production company Xenomania has worked with the likes of Girls Aloud and Pet Shop Boys. The album's name is a reference to the song "We Stay Together". The first single from the album, "Parachute", was released on 14 June 2016. The second single, "Hole In My Soul" was released 18 August 2016 and the third and final single, "We Stay Together" was released on 9 December 2016.  This welcome return to the limelight saw ‘Stay Together’ push new boundaries to "take this nondescript sound and stuff it impressively full of sing-a-long hooks, covering topics including monogamy (We Stay Together) and shagging (Good Clean Fun)" as it marked an entirely new direction for the band, who went for a more dance-oriented sound. While "Education, Education, Education and War" was more focused on politics and the perils of war, the Kaiser Chiefs made the album with a focus on love and relationships. Wilson elaborated further on the stark contrast between this last album and 'Stay Together': "The thing about writing a protest album is it's straightforward. Only an idiot would disagree with you. You're just saying war is bad. But when you start talking about relationships like on this record it's harder because there’s a lot more blurred line. There's no right or wrong."  The band performed a string of best of forest shows in the summer of 2016 as part the "Forestry Commission"'s "Forest Live" series. Stay Together was toured across Europe in early 2017.

"Duck" (2018-Present).

The band signed with their original label Polydor Records for their seventh studio album, "Duck", which released on 26 July 2019. For the album the band reunited with Ben H. Allen, the producer who worked on the band's 2014 album "Education, Education, Education & War". The album was preceded by a UK tour in January and February, including concerts at London's O2 Academy Brixton and O2 Academy Birmingham, where several new songs from the album were premiered. The band also played a homecoming show at Elland Road in Leeds on 8 June 2019. Duck was later toured around arenas in the UK and Europe in early 2020.  The first single from the album, "Record Collection", was released on 23 May 2019, with "People Know How To Love One Another" released as a second single on 6 June 2019. "Golden Oldies" was released as the third single in October 2019. All failed to chart.  The name sparked interest with fans which was the opposite of what the band wanted. According to Wilson, they had always had trouble naming records so went with a random title suggested by White.  Duck debuted at number three in the UK charts<ref

Kaiser Chiefs are an English indie rock band from Leeds who formed in 2000 as Parva, releasing one studio album, "22", in 2003, before renaming and establishing themselves in their current name that same year. Since their formation the band has consisted of lead vocalist Ricky Wilson, guitarist Andrew "Whitey" White, bassist Simon Rix, keyboardist Nick "Peanut" Baines and since 2013 drummer Vijay Mistry, who replaced founding drummer Nick Hodgson following his departure from the band in late 2012.

凯撒首领(Kaiser Chiefs) 是英国的一个另类摇滚乐队。乐队于1997年在利兹成立。名称来自于南非的一家足球俱乐部凯撒酋长,前利兹联后卫球员卢卡斯·拉迪比曾效力过这家球队。该乐队的首张专辑Employment在2005年发行,其的创作灵感主要来自新潮流音乐和1970年代后期的庞克摇滚,销量超过300万张。这种专辑在2005年获得了水星音乐奖的提名。此后他们又在2007年发行了第二张专辑Yours Truly, Angry Mob,其中的单曲Ruby获得了英国单曲排行榜第一。2008年10月他们又发行了第三张专辑Off with Their Heads。


Historical overview.

While the firm of Ernst Leitz of Wetzlar established the 24 mm × 36 mm negative format on perforated 35 mm movie film as a viable photographic system, Zeiss Ikon of Dresden decided to produce a competitor designed to be superior in every way. The name Contax was chosen after a poll among Zeiss employees. Dr. Ing. Heinz Küppenbender was its chief designer.  Made between 1932 and 1936, the original Contax, known as Contax I after later models were introduced, was markedly different from the corresponding Leica. Using a die-cast alloy body it housed a vertically travelling metal focal-plane shutter reminiscent of the one used in Contessa-Nettel cameras, made out of interlocking blackened brass slats somewhat like a roll-up garage door. This complex shutter became the characteristic of the Contax camera and its Super-Nettel derivative. By contrast, the competitive Leica followed the established design of using rubberized fabric shutter curtains wound around rollers, moving horizontally. The Contax design allowed a higher maximum shutter speed: the top speed was 1/1000s, then increased to 1/1250s in the Contax II. The fact the shutter ran across the shorter dimension of the format area was a significant factor for achieving this technical feat. The interlocking slats were aligned by specially woven silk ribbons, which were very strong but subject to wear. Replacing these ribbons was difficult but, contrary to modern cameras, made for a 400,000-cycle life. Zeiss also invented the System Camera, with all sorts of near-photo, wide-angle, mirror-house, long-focal-length lenses for specific situations. However Zeiss called it Universalkamera. One of the key design features was a coupled rangefinder with a very long baseline, with its own eyepiece next to that of the viewfinder. To enhance accuracy, a novel rotating wedge system was employed instead of the common swinging mirror mechanism. Other main features included focusing drive built into the camera body for use with standard lens, removable back, shutter-speed knob integral with film-wind knob placed at the front of the camera body, and black-enamelled finish.  The young lens designer Ludwig Bertele, formerly of Ernemann, was charged with the responsibility of designing the lenses. The greatest advantage of the Zeiss lenses was the reduced number of air-to-glass surfaces in Bertele's designs. In the years before lens coating was generally practiced, this had advantages for contrast and resistance to lens flare. Zeiss also pioneered glass coating, and before the war coated lenses were offered. After lens coating became universal post WW2, designers were given more freedom in using extra air-to-glass surfaces in correcting lens aberrations, without fear of the ill effects of surface reflections.  In 1936 the Contax II and III models were introduced; the only difference between them was the integral exposure meter on the latter model. They introduced the combined eyepiece for both viewfinder and rangefinder, the shutter speed and film wind knob placed on the top plate, fastest shutter speed at 1/1250 s. and finished in chrome plating. They became very popular among professional photographers, especially photojournalists who demanded high-performance, large-aperture lenses for available-light work and a workhorse. The vertical shutter had both variations in speed, slit and a brake at the end of travel that was again a Zeiss first. After the Second World War, a few Contax cameras were produced at the original Dresden factory, and some were assembled at the Carl Zeiss optical works at Jena, before production was transferred to Kiev in Ukraine. During the war years, the chief designer, Hubert Nerwin, tried to convert the Contax into a single-lens reflex camera but was hindered by the presence of the upper roller of the vertical focal-plane shutter. The postwar design chief Wilhelm Winzenberg started with a clean slate, which became the Contax S (Spiegelreflex), even though the "S" was not marked on the camera.  The Contax S can be said to be the camera that defined the configuration of the modern 35mm SLR camera. Not only did it introduce the M42 lens mount which became an industry standard, but it was also equipped with a horizontal focal-plane shutter, and also removed a major objection against the reflex camera by offering an unreversed, eye-level viewing image by employing a pentaprism. Introduced in 1949, the S was followed by numerous models including D, E, F, FB, FM and FBM. During that period, VEB Zeiss Ikon, as the firm became known, was gradually under pressure from the new Zeiss Ikon AG in the US zone, so the original Zeiss Ikon and Contax names and trademarks gradually disappeared and were replaced by the new name of Pentacon, which never really caught on. Finally, this camera line was abandoned.  Meanwhile, in the US zone, the three main Zeiss concerns – Carl Zeiss Stiftung (Carl Zeiss Foundation), Carl Zeiss optical, and Zeiss Ikon – were reestablished. With Hubert Nerwin in charge as design chief, Zeiss Ikon produced heavily revised Contax models, the IIa and IIIa, at a new plant at Stuttgart, and they were made until 1962.  With the emergence of the Japanese camera industry, mainly a consequence of the US pressure on West Germany's Zeiss to cease collaboration with the East-German Zeiss, and also the lack of raw materials the former was enduring, it was in a way forced to form an alliance with a Japanese maker. Asahi, maker of the Pentax, was engaged first; and it went as far as Zeiss designing a common lens mount, which constituted a detour from Pentax's adoption of the East German M42 mount, named for many years as the "Pentax Mount" to avoid any accreditation to the Eastern Bloc, and which became the Pentax K-mount after the two firms parted company. An alliance was then formed with Yashica, and a new line of Contax single-lens reflex cameras was born, starting from the RTS of 1975. Numerous models followed, which also included compacts, medium-format reflex cameras, and digital cameras.  Rival Leica in the 1970s and 1980s used West German Zeiss-designed wide-angle lenses for their own cameras. The 15 mm Hologon was the first super-wide lens on a Leica, and the Leica reflex had access to the 15 mm Distagon lens as part of the Leitz supplied range.  Kyocera took over Yashica in 1983 and continued to manufacture products under the Yashica and Contax brands. In the mid-90s came their Contax G1 with outstanding lenses and a little later the G2, both fully manual or automatic, The first zoom lens to a RF camera, lenses from 16 mm to 90 mm. However, by 2002 the company's film camera products were declining in sales, and its newer digital camera products failed to make serious inroads into the digital-photographic market. In 2005, Kyocera discontinued all photographic equipment manufacture, including the Contax brand in 2005, thus, for now, bringing the Contax story to a close.

Original rangefinder models.

In contrast to the contemporary Leica which was evolved from its original concept into a photographic system, the Contax was designed as the heart of a photographic system from the start. A heavily engineered machine of tremendous complexity, it was Zeiss Ikon's showcase of the technology it possessed.  The Contax I had six identifiable variants, but fundamentally identical; every aspect was designed to be better than the Leica. For instance, the removable back was for faster loading and reloading, the bayonet lens mount was designed for rapid lens interchangeability, the long-base rangefinder was for more accurate focusing with large aperture lenses, and the vertical metal shutter not only gave a faster maximum speed but also banished the problem of shutter blinds burning.  However, its operation was something of an acquired taste, which explains the more conventional successors, the Contax II and III models. Not only was the combined shutter speed dial and film advance knob placed at the more conventional position, but it became much easier and quicker to operate. The combined viewfinder and rangefinder was not the first one on the market, but it was the first on a system camera which offered significant operational advantage, a lead ahead of the Leica until the Leica M3 of 1954.  Since the Contax was produced at the Dresden works before the war, the new Zeiss Ikon firm in Stuttgart did not have the tools to recommence production. The resultant Contax IIa and IIIa models, while sharing many similarities with the prewar forebears, also showed significant simplification and cost-cutting by using cheaper materials, due to the lack of resources. However, these simplifications were also largely responsible for making them somewhat more reliable.  Designed to retain backward compatibility, the IIa and IIIa (introduced in 1950 and 1951 respectively) used the same lens mount as the prewar models, but due to the smaller dark chamber inside the lens throat, the pre-war Biogon 35/2.8 wide-angle lens could not be fitted.

IIa and IIIa.

The Zeiss Ikon Model 563/24 was a complete redesign of the previous II/III cameras, and was sold by Zeiss Ikon from 1950 to 1961. Gone were the troublesome silk shutter straps; in their place were straps made of nylon; a flash synch was added; and the body's size and weight were reduced. Shutters were still guaranteed for 400,000 cycles. The same internal/external bayonet mount was kept. This line was an engineering and manufacturing tour de force, and is considered by many to be the finest camera ever made. As with the II and III, the IIa was the base camera, and the IIIa had an added exposure meter attached on top of the camera. The shutter lammels were changed to duraluminium, lighter and faster to start and stop; however, they were thicker, too. The old Biogon did not fit, so a new one was designed together with the new Biogon 21 mm f 4, gave new perspectives to wide angle photographing. Two basic variations of the IIa/IIIa were made: the so-called "black dial" and "color dial" cameras. The black dial cameras used a special flash synch cord for either flash bulbs (1361) or strobe flash (1365). On the color dial cameras the ability to use the flash bulbs was eliminated; a P/C connector was added, and strobe synchronization was the only option. Where the Leicas of the day had only electronic flash synch at 1/25s second shutter speed, the Contax IIa/IIIa was synched at 1/50s and all slower speeds. Further, with the adjustment on the 1365 flash cable used with the Black Dial camera, the user could tune the flash to the individual shutter, and synch strobe to the 1/100s! At the time, this sort of shutter speed with a strobe was unheard of, and was a major technological feat. On the later color dial cameras, the 1/50s marking on the shutter speed dial was painted chromate yellow, while the speeds of T, B, 1, 2, 5, 10, and 25 were black, and 100, 250, 500, and 1250 red.  The Contax IIa/IIIa ceased production in 1960 and was removed from the company catalog in 1961, replaced by the Contarex SLR. Ed Shoenecker, the owner of Hollywood Camera in Portland, Oregon, from 1947 to the present, and a Zeiss dealer, described it thus: "We could not keep the Contax bodies and lenses on the shelf, people were buying all they could afford, and putting things they couldn't afford on lay-away. Then the new catalog came out, and the Contax was gone. No explanation at all. We were in shock. The camera that replaced it (the Contarex SLR) was a fine camera, but it cost so much more money, it never made the inroads into the market the Contax did. Then, we had to stop carrying the Contarex because they were just too much money."  There is a demand for good working examples of the IIa/IIIa by collectors and users alike. As user cameras, they are highly versatile, compact, easy to handle, and give many years of trouble-free service. The range of lenses made over the very long period of time the lens mount was in use, adds to the usefulness of this design.

Dresden-built SLR models.

The loss of the Contax production tools at the Dresden factories turned out to be a blessing, as it prevented the use of the existing toolings and parts. The new design chief Wilhelm Winzenberg was not involved in the camera side of Zeiss-Ikon, this also allowed a brand-new Contax design to be developed, to follow Hubert Nerwin's wartime plan to make a Contax SLR camera.  As the traditional vertical-run Contax shutter required considerable space both above and below the film gate for the drum rollers, the upper roller takes up the critical space required for the reflex housing mechanism, making it dimensionally impossible to use it for a satisfactory SLR camera. Winzenberg solved the problem by the use of a completely new horizontal-run focal-plane shutter, thus allowing space for the reflex housing.  While the 35 mm SLR camera had already appeared before the war, its major disadvantage was the waist-level finder which gave a laterally reversed image, taking away the immediacy between the photographer and his subject. In the Contax reflex, to be called the Contax S, a pentaprism was positioned directly above the focusing screen, which offered an eye-level, unreversed view of the viewfinder. This major technical advantage was critical in establishing the 35 mm SLR as the definitive camera type for the decades that followed.  Since a larger lens mount would be desirable, the Contax S adopted a screw mount of M42X1mm specification, which was to become the de facto industry standard.  When introduced in 1949, the Contax S was not marked as such, only "Contax", but increasing pressure from the new Zeiss Ikon company in Stuttgart induced Zeiss Ikon in Dresden to progressively abandon the use of the established trademark and names. The following model, known as "Contax D", first appeared with a little "D" marked under the Zeiss Ikon logo to signify its source as Dresden, but that was not good enough: in some markets it was sold as "Pentacon", a name contrived from "Pentaprism" and "Contax". The name "Pentax" had been thought of before but, as with Germany's capitulation in 1945 all German patents and trademarks were declared void, the Japanese seized it and registered it. Subsequent models were also made wearing both Contax and Pentacon nameplates, the former were meant for markets where Zeiss Ikon Dresden still held the rights to its name. Eventually, the company went on to form the Pentacon VEB conglomerate (which included companies as Meyer-Optik Görlitz, Ihagee Dresden, and KW, among others) that would start the long line of Praktica cameras, high quality but affordable, in accordance with the Communist ideal. In all, 22 Contax/Pentacon models were built in Dresden.

Yashica/Kyocera-built models.

35 mm SLR models.

The Contax name was revived in 1975 (officially it was styled 'CONTAX' by Yashica/Kyocera, instead of 'Contax') after the production of the Contax rangefinder cameras ended in Stuttgart more than a decade before. Like the first attempt at forging an alliance with Pentax, Zeiss designed a new common lens mount, known as Contax/Yashica mount (C/Y) to be used on cameras bearing both marques. The first model, the Contax RTS (short for "Real Time System"), was designed by Prof. Dr. Katsuiko Sugaya, styled by the Porsche Design studio, and manufactured by Yashica as "Top Secret Project 130". with a comprehensive use of electronics, it was the beginning of the new Contax line of SLR cameras which brought 13 different models, with the exception of the S2 and S2b (named as a spiritual successor to the original Dresden-built camera) being fully mechanical. The following is a brief rundown of the major models:  Some special models were also made, for example  Some additional information

G series.

The G series was a unique 35 mm autofocus rangefinder system with interchangeable lenses. Rather than displaying a typical rangefinder focusing patch and brightlines, the first G1 had a zooming viewfinder with a focus confirmation light activated by the autofocus system if manual focus was required. The actual AF system, unlike AF for SLR cameras, used a twin-window rangefinder, but the alignment determination was electronic.  The G2 was the second camera body in the series, and displayed manual focus distance directly on a viewfinder LCD. The G2 was generally considered more rugged and controllable than the earlier G1. Another improvement over the G1 was its full parallax correction viewfinder. A limited edition run of black G2 bodies and lenses were produced, differing from the standard titanium finish found on the original G1 and G2.  The lenses used optical formulae not often used by Zeiss, which had specialized in SLR photographic lenses for many decades prior to the G Series. (These formulae appear to be repeated in the later Zeiss Ikon M-mount rangefinder cameras.) The G series also boasted the only true zoom available for a rangefinder system, made possible by the mechanical coupling of the camera's viewfinder and the lens.

T-series compact cameras.

Kyocera introduced a series of highly successful T-series compact cameras, offering Zeiss-designed lenses which appealed to photographers desiring high quality optics in a compact form.  They were introduced between 1984 and 2002, have Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* lenses and a titanium body. The T and T2 have a fixed 38 mm wide-angle Sonnar lens (5 elements in 4 groups), while the T3 uses a redesigned 35mm Sonnar lens (6 elements in 5 groups). The T-VS and T-VS II use a 28–56 mm Vario-Sonnar lens (where the "VS" in T-VS comes from), while the T-VS III has a 30–60 mm Vario-Sonnar lens. All analog T and T-VS cameras use 35 mm film. The Tix uses APS film and has a fixed 28 mm wide-angle lens.

645.

A departure from the 35 mm format, the Contax 645 was an autofocus medium format SLR system introduced in 1999, featuring an array of Zeiss lenses and interchangeable film and digital backs. One of its unique features was a 220 film back equipped with the vacuum system originally developed for the 35 mm RTSIII SLR, which was claimed to increase sharpness by keeping the film perfectly flat in the plane of focus. By using the adaptor 'MAM-1' produced by Contax, Hasselblad V-series lenses including C, CF, CFE, CFI, F and FE can be mounted on Contax 645 as well.  In addition to 120 and 220 medium format backs with film inserts for quick loading, including the previously mentioned vacuum back, as well as a Polaroid/instant film back, many manufacturers offer a variety of interchangeable digital backs for the Contax 645 system:

N series.

The Contax N series was an autofocus 35 mm SLR system, based around an entirely new electronic bayonet mount that was not compatible with previous Contax C/Y mount lenses. Three models were made: the N1, the NX and the N Digital, the first full-frame digital SLR.  The N Digital was one of the very first digital cameras to feature a full-frame 24×36 mm CCD sensor. The Contax NX was the prosumer 35mm model for advanced-amateur protographers, while the N1 was aimed at professional users. The series was made in Japan by Kyocera.  The N-series bodies used new N-mount lenses made by Kyocera, with electronically controlled aperture and autofocus. Nine lenses were produced for the mount, a mixture of primes and zooms. Contax did sell an adapter (NAM-1) allowing lenses from their 645 medium format system to be used on N bodies.

Electronic flash units.

Not all Contax flash units are compatible with all cameras. There are essentially three groups of flash guns; those made for the G system, those made for the early (Yashica made) SLRs and those for the later (Kyocera made) SLRs.  Flash units available included (GNs stated at ISO 100):  Metz SCA adapters:

Contax interchangeable lenses.

Originally designed to be a system camera, many lenses were made for the original Contax, and this tradition carried on for all models with interchangeable lenses.

Lenses for the original rangefinder models.

Traditionally, lens makers like to mark the location of the company conspicuously on their lenses. Therefore, from the beginning of lens manufacture up to the end of the Second World War, all Zeiss lenses were marked "Carl Zeiss Jena". Since the new Oberkochen-based Carl Zeiss Optical company is not in Jena, its products are simply marked "Carl Zeiss", while the original factory carried on using the "Carl Zeiss Jena" marking. For the first few years Carl Zeiss of Oberkochen used the "Zeiss-Opton" marking.  The original series of lenses for Contax were mainly new designs by Ludwig Bertele, under the Sonnar name which was previously used by Contessa-Nettel. These lenses were mainly advanced Unar/Protar derivatives of markedly asymmetrical designs, for the purpose of maintaining maximum image contrast by reducing lens flare before the era of anti-reflective surface coating, many of them also offering large maximum apertures as well. Apart from these, some existing designs were also adapted for use too.  The Contax I-III lenses were initially finished in black (for Contax I), but later in chrome (for Contax II and III), and offered in a wide range of focal lengths. These included the following:  One of the most important lenses for the Contax II and Contax III was the 180/2.8 Sonnar, designed for sports photographers covering the 1936 Berlin Olympics allowing fast speed, and the longest lenses also reached a focal length of 30 cm and 50 cm, delivered with their own mirror housing.  Zeiss developed also some experimental/prototype wide-angle lenses that never saw the market, because they were either 1) too expensive for production, 2) the market was not appropriate. 3) they were outcompeted by other lenses of the series. These were:  During the war, CZ (Zeiss) made some special Military lenses like Sonnar 1.5/9 cm, Sonnar 1.5/12.5 cm, Biotar 2.0/13 cm, 1,5/40 cm (project UHU), still very rare constructions. Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe demanded CZ and CZ lenses for their Leicas and Robots too.  While Jena continued to make some lenses for the pre-war Contax for a few years, lenses were also made for the Stuttgart-built post-war models, some were of new designs:  Apart from refining existing designs, Carl Zeiss of Oberkochen also designed new lenses for the post-war Contax IIa/IIIa too:

Lenses for the Dresden-built SLR models.

Lenses for the Dresden-built Contax single-lens reflex cameras used the M42X1mm screw mount, but as existing designs intruded too far into the camera body, making the swivelling mirror unable to clear the back of the lenses, a new series of lenses were made by Carl Zeiss of Jena, and later on, Hugo Meyer of Görlitz was also engaged as the second official supplier of original lenses. The following is a list of lenses made by Carl Zeiss:

Lenses for Yashica/Kyocera-built SLR models.

The Yashica/Kyocera-built Contax cameras employed a new family of lenses. The names of these lenses generally reflect the designs and functions:  Most of these lenses were marked T✻ referring to their T✻ coating (pronounced "Tee Star"), a highly developed Zeiss multi-coating process. The 'T' came from a German word 'Tarnung', which means 'camouflaging', as in making invisible, used here in reference to making flare invisible.  While these lenses were designed by Zeiss and manufacture shared between Zeiss and Yashica's optical division Tomioka, Zeiss increasingly allowed Tomioka to take responsibility of their manufacture.

Lenses for SLR models.

These cameras used the "C/Y" lens mount, short for "Contax/Yashica": Yashica being the lower-end consumer brand SLR system made by Yashica/Kyocera that shared its lens mount with Contax SLRs. Zeiss lenses in the C/Y mount came in either AE or MM varieties. MM lenses were more recent, with a setting that allowed the camera to select the aperture as part of its autoexposure system, while the older AE lenses did not. There was often no difference between an older AE and a newer MM lens apart from this feature. Sometimes, the older AE lens may be worth more on the used market because it may be a Germany-made example, while the newer lens may be Japan-made, despite their optical formula and build quality being identical.  In addition, with the use of an optional adaptor (special ordered from Kyocera), Hasselblad V-series lenses including C, CF, CFE, CFI, F and FE can also be used on Contax C/Y mount cameras.

Lenses for G-series.

G-series Contax models used a unique bayonet mount offering auto-focus coupling mechanism. Noted Hologon was the only manual-focus lens and the only Germany-made lens in the lineup. Also, apart from Hologon, all lenses were available in both Gold Titanium (standard) and Black (limited) colors.

Lenses for 645.

The following lenses were made for the Contax 645 systems which offered auto-focus function (apart from A-M-P 120/4 which was a manual-focus lens). Additionally, with the use of MAM-1 adaptor, Hasselblad V-series lenses including C, CF, CFE, CFI, F and FE can be used (manual-focus) as well.

Lenses for N series.

The following lenses were made for the N-mount systems which offered auto-focus function. With the use of NAM-1 adaptor, all lenses of the "645" systems can be mounted on N-series cameras which offered auto-focus function. If uses both NAM-1 and MAM-1 adaptors simultaneously, Hasselblad V-series lenses including C, CF, CFE, CFI, F and FE (manual-focus) can be mounted on N-series cameras as well.

Contax (stylised as CONTAX in the Kyocera era) began as a camera model in the Zeiss Ikon line in 1932, and later became a brand name. The early cameras were among the finest in the world, typically featuring high quality Zeiss interchangeable lenses. The final products under the Contax name were a line of 35 mm, medium format, and digital cameras engineered and manufactured by Kyocera, and featuring modern Zeiss optics. In 2005, Kyocera announced that it would no longer produce Contax cameras. The rights to the brand are currently part of Carl Zeiss AG, but no Contax cameras are currently in production, and the brand is considered dormant.

康泰时、或译作康泰克斯(CONTAX)原为德国蔡司公司(德文为Zeiss Ikon,蔡司.依康)于1932年生产旁轴相机(Range Finder)所使用的品牌,头一个字母大写,其余小写。二战后,随着德国的分裂,蔡司公司也一分为二。西德蔡司以Contax品牌继续生产旁轴相机,东德蔡司则开始生产M42接环的单反相机(SLR)。东德蔡司后来商标改用Pentacon或Praktica,而西德蔡司制造的Contax相机后来于1961年停止生产,Contax历史进入沉睡期。到了1971年,西德蔡司与日本Yashica公司合作,CONTAX就此复活,并成为Yashica公司制造贩售、并采用卡尔.蔡司镜头的高级相机品牌(此时的CONTAX一字所有的字母均为大写)。Yashica公司于1983年被京瓷公司并购,京瓷公司继续负责康泰时相机的生产和销售。2004年,京瓷缩减数码相机事业,并于隔年4月11日正式宣布自该年9月起终止康泰时相机业务,停产镜头。康泰时品牌再度沉寂。


Geography.

The park stretches for about along the southwest-northeast direction of the Southern Alps, covering on the southeastern side of the main spine of the Alps. The valleys of the Tasman, Hooker, and Godley glaciers are the only entrances into this alpine territory that lie below.  Glaciers cover 40% of the park area, notably the Tasman Glacier in the Tasman Valley east of Aoraki / Mount Cook. Eight of the twelve largest glaciers in New Zealand lie within Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, all of which terminate at proglacial lakes formed in recent decades due to a sustained period of shrinking.  In the area surrounding Aoraki / Mount Cook, the Tasman Glacier, Hooker Glacier, Murchison Glacier, and Mueller Glacier all terminate in lakes, while further north in the park, the Godley Glacier, Classen Glacier, Grey Glacier and Maud Glacier also end in proglacial lakes. Tasman Lake and Hooker Lake are easily accessible via walking tracks and are the only two of these lakes that have official names. At an area of 7 km2, Tasman Lake is the largest of the proglacial lakes and hosts boat trips for tourists.  Of New Zealand's 20 peaks over 3,000 metres, all except Mount Aspiring / Tititea lie in the park. These include New Zealand's highest mountain, Aoraki / Mount Cook, at 3,724 metres. Other prominent peaks include Mt Tasman, Mt Hicks, Mt Sefton and Mt Elie de Beaumont. The mountains of the Southern Alps in general are young, less than ten million years old, and are still building. Uplift in the region of the national park is at the rate of 5–10 mm per year. It's estimated that approximately 25 km of uplift has occurred, however the rate of uplift has been countered by erosion.  The park borders Westland Tai Poutini National Park along the Main Divide. Together they form part of Te Wahipounamu South Westland World Heritage Site, recognised for its outstanding natural values.

Flora and fauna.

More than 400 species of plants make up the vegetation in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, which include more than 100 introduced plant species such as the colourful Russell lupin, the wild cherry and wilding pines. Under normal circumstances, forest grows to about 1,300 m, however, most parts of the park are either at higher altitudes above the tree line or in the proglacial valleys such as the Hooker Valley and Tasman Valley, where the rocky soil of the valley floors and moraine walls do not support forest growth. As a result, the only pockets of forest and native bush in the park are along the southern edge of the Hooker Valley and the lower slopes of Sealy Range.  The plant life in the majority of the park consists mostly of alpine plants. Between 1,300 m and 1,900 m and in the valleys, the vegetation is predominately snow tussock grassland, as well as golden speargrass, large mountain daisies/tikumu ("Celmisia semicordata", "Celmisia coriacea"), and Mount Cook lily, ("Ranunculus lyallii"), the largest buttercup in the world. All of these plants flower in the warmer months from November to February – early in the season in the valley floors, and late at higher altitudes. At the highest rocks of Aoraki / Mount Cook, around 14 species of lichen have been found.  The native vegetation continues to be under threat by introduced plant species ranging from non-native trees through to lupins, broom and non-native grasses. These are mostly contained in the valley floors of the Tasman and Hooker Valley, since they are the most accessible parts of the park.  There are about 35 to 40 species of birds in the park and include the kea, the only alpine parrot, and the well-camouflaged pipit. The tiny rock wren/pïwauwau, a threatened species, is the only permanent resident high on the mountains. It is unrelated to the rock wren of North America. Small insectivores such as the riflemen/tïtitipounamu and the New Zealand fantails/pïwakawaka live in the low forest and scrub, along with small numbers of two larger birds, the wood pigeon and morepork. Introduced species such as finches and sparrows live throughout the bush near Mount Cook Village. The black stilt or kakī, rarest wading bird in the world, lives in the braided riverbed of the Tasman.  The park is home to many invertebrates, including large dragonflies, crickets, grasshoppers, 223 recorded moth species and 7 native butterflies. A black alpine weta, also known as the Mount Cook flea is found above the snowline. The jewelled gecko lives in the park but is rarely seen. Introduced red deer, chamois and Himalayan tahr can be hunted.

Climate.

Temperatures in Mount Cook Village range from to, and typically fall just over 1 °C for every 200 metres of altitude.  Rainfall is similarly variable, with the driest months receiving around precipitation per month, but recorded maxima of in one day and in a single month. Snow falls on about 21 days per year.  During the coldest months of the year, Mueller Glacier Lake, Hooker Lake, and Tasman Lake usually freeze over at least partially.  The weather conditions in the park, in particular at higher altitudes can be unpredictable and change rapidly. Anyone venturing further than the walking tracks is strongly advised to notify their intentions at the Visitor Centre on the day you start. This is part of a formal intentions process that operates in the park and is used to initiate formal search operations.

Recreation.

The park is popular for mountaineering, hunting, tramping/hiking, skiing and ski touring. The Department of Conservation administers activities in the park, including the White Horse Hill camping ground.  Mount Cook Village is the start of several walks ranging from easy walking tracks such as the popular Hooker Valley Track to tramping tracks like the steep track to the Sealy Tarns. Some of these tracks also offer guided walking tours, and the nearby Tasman Lake hosts boat trips for tourists. The park contains close to twenty huts, mostly in alpine terrain. The huts range from basic shelters to serviced huts, with the most accessible hut being Mueller Hut, which can be reached from Mount Cook Village within 4 hours.  A visitor centre in the village features interpretation exhibits about the area's natural environment and history as well as an artwork collection.

Mountaineering.

The spectacular peaks of the Aoraki / Mount Cook region have attracted climbers from all over the world for the last 100 years. The dramatic nature of these mountains provides a rare challenge. The combination of heavy glaciation, tremendous vertical scale and unpredictable weather means that they are not readily won. To climb successfully here requires skill, fitness, patience, and a great respect for the mountains. Mountaineering on the Aoraki / Mount Cook massif is a hazardous activity.  Other mountaineering routes include crossing the Aroarokaehe Range via the Copland Pass, the Mount Cook Range via the Ball Pass, and routes crossing the Tasman Saddle further north. All of these routes still require significant alpine mountaineering experience.  On the opposite side of the Hooker Valley, Mt Ollivier was Sir Edmund Hillary's first major climb, in 1939, and since the establishment of a tramping track to Mueller Hut, not far below the summit, is now one of the easiest accessible mountains in the park.  Another mountain popular for mountaineers of intermediate skills is Sebastopol, the closest mountain to Mount Cook Village. At 1,468 m height, it is only 750 m above Mount Cook Village, with the lower half of the ascent following the Red Tarns tramping track. Sebastopol offers one of few view points taking in both the Hooker Valley and the Tasman Valley.

Area history.

At the end of the most recent ice age, around 13,000 years ago, the Mueller Glacier, Hooker Glacier, and Tasman Glacier were all tributaries to a much larger glacier covering all of Hooker Valley and Tasman Valley in hundreds of metres of ice and reaching as far as the extent of today's Lake Pukaki, up to south of Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park.  As the glacier retreated, it filled the hollowed out valleys with rocks and gravel, leaving behind the flat-bottomed valleys seen today.

Transport.

Rodolph Wigley's Mount Cook Motor Co was formed in 1906 to provide services to the area from the railhead at Fairlie. A small airfield, Mount Cook Aerodrome, southeast of Mount Cook Village has been served by the Wigley family's New Zealand Aero Transport Company and successor Mount Cook Airline sporadically since 1921.  Road access into the park is via State Highway 80, along the western shore of Lake Pukaki. The road ends at Mount Cook Village, with a connecting road leading to the White Horse Hill camping ground. Another small road leads to a car park near Tasman Lake, the start of a short walking track and the Ball Hut Route.  Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park is the starting point of the Alps to Ocean Cycle Trail to Oamaru. The 300 kilometre cycle trail has been constructed from 2010 onwards by the New Zealand Cycle Trail project. the cycle trail still includes 15 kilometres along public roads.

Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park is in the South Island of New Zealand, near the town of Twizel. Aoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand's highest mountain, and Aoraki/Mount Cook Village lie within the park. The area was gazetted as a national park in October 1953 and consists of reserves that were established as early as 1887 to protect the area's significant vegetation and landscape.

奥拉基/库克山国家公园位于南阿尔卑斯山脉的东南部,与西部区国家公园、亚斯派灵山国家公园,及峡湾国家公园相邻。境内有近二十座超过三千米的高山,以及多达360条的冰河,其中海拔3,753米的库克山是新西兰最高峰,而长达27公里的塔斯曼冰河则是新西兰最长的冰河。


History.

Foundation and origins.

Merton College was founded in 1264 by Walter de Merton, Lord Chancellor and Bishop of Rochester. It has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford, a claim which is disputed between Merton College, Balliol College and University College. One argument for Merton's claim is that it was the first college to be provided with "statutes", a constitution governing the college set out at its founding. Merton's statutes date back to 1264, whereas neither Balliol nor University College had statutes until the 1280s. Additionally, Merton was also the first college to be conceived as a community working to achieve academic ends, rather than just a place for the housing of scholars. Merton has an unbroken line of wardens dating back to 1264. Of these, many had great influence over the development of the college. Henry Savile was one notable leader who led the college to flourish in the early 17th century by extending its buildings and recruiting new fellows.

St Alban Hall.

St Alban Hall was an independent academic hall owned by the convent of Littlemore until it was purchased by Merton College in 1548 following the dissolution of the convent. It continued as a separate institution until it was finally annexed by the college in 1881.

Parliamentarian sympathies in the Civil War.

During the English Civil War, Merton was the only Oxford college to side with Parliament. This was due to an earlier dispute between the Warden, Nathaniel Brent, and the Visitor of Merton and Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud. Brent had been Vicar-General to Laud, who had held a visitation of Merton College in 1638, and insisted on many radical reforms: his letters to Brent were couched in haughty and decisive language.  Brent, a parliamentarian, moved to London at the start of the Civil War: the college's buildings were commandeered by the Royalists and used to house much of Charles I's court when Oxford was the Royalists' capital. This included the King's French wife, Queen Henrietta Maria, who was housed in or near what is now the Queen's Room, the room above the arch between Front and Fellows' Quads. A portrait of Charles I hangs near the Queen's Room as a reminder of the role it played in his court.  Brent gave evidence against Laud in his trial in 1644. After Laud was executed on 10 January 1645, John Greaves, one of the subwardens of Merton and Savilian Professor of Astronomy, drew up a petition for Brent's removal from office; Brent was deposed by Charles I on 27 January 1646 and replaced by William Harvey.  Thomas Fairfax captured Oxford for the Parliamentarians after its third siege in 1646 and Brent returned from London. However, in 1647, a parliamentary commission (visitation) was set up by Parliament "for the correction of offences, abuses, and disorders" in the University of Oxford. Nathaniel Brent was the president of the visitors. Greaves was accused of sequestrating the college's plate and funds for king Charles. Despite a deposition from his brother Thomas, Greaves had lost both his Merton fellowship and his Savilian chair by 9 November 1648.

Buildings and grounds.

The "House of Scholars of Merton" originally had properties in Surrey (in present-day Old Malden) as well as in Oxford, but it was not until the mid-1260s that Walter de Merton acquired the core of the present site in Oxford, along the south side of what was then St John's Street (now Merton Street). The college was consolidated on this site by 1274, when Walter made his final revisions to the college statutes.  The initial acquisition included the parish church of St John (which was superseded by the chapel) and three houses to the east of the church which now form the north range of Front Quad. Walter also obtained permission from the king to extend from these properties south to the old city wall to form an approximately square site. The college continued to acquire other properties as they became available on both sides of Merton Street. At one time, the college owned all the land from the site that is now Christ Church to the south-eastern corner of the city. The land to the east eventually became the current Fellows' garden, while the western end was leased by Warden Richard Rawlins in 1515 for the foundation of Corpus Christi (at an annual rent of just over £4).

Chapel.

By the late 1280s the old church of St John the Baptist had fallen into "a ruinous condition", and the college accounts show that work on a new church began in about 1290. The present choir, with its enormous east window, was complete by 1294. The window is an important example (because it is so well dated) of how the strict geometrical conventions of the Early English Period of architecture were beginning to be relaxed at the end of the 13th century. The south transept was built in the 14th century, the north transept in the early years of the 15th. The great tower was complete by 1450. The chapel replaced the parish church of St. John and continued to serve as the parish church as well as the chapel until 1891. It is for this reason that it is generally referred to as Merton Church in older documents, and that there is a north door into the street as well as doors into the college. This dual role also probably explains the enormous scale of the chapel, which in its original design was to have a nave and two aisles extending to the west.  A new choral foundation was established in 2007, providing for a choir of sixteen undergraduate and graduate choral scholars singing from October 2008. The choir is directed by Peter Phillips, currently also director of the Tallis Scholars, and Benjamin Nicholas, a former director of music at Tewkesbury Abbey. In 2013, the installation of a new organ, designed and built by Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, was completed. The chapel is famous for its splendid, ethereal acoustics. A spire from the chapel has resided in Pavilion Garden VI of the University of Virginia since 1928, when "it was given to the University to honor Jefferson's educational ideals."

Front quad and the hall.

The hall is the oldest surviving college building, but apart from the door which has medieval ironwork almost no trace of the ancient structure has survived the successive reconstruction efforts, first by James Wyatt in the 1790s and then again by Gilbert Scott in 1874. The hall is still used daily for meals and houses a number of important portraits. It is not usually open to visitors.  Front quad itself is probably the earliest collegiate quadrangle, but its informal, almost haphazard, pattern cannot be said to have influenced designers elsewhere. A reminder of its original domestic nature can be seen in the north east corner where one of the flagstones is marked "Well". The quad is formed of what would have been the back gardens of the three original houses that Walter acquired in the 1260s.

Mob Quad and library.

Visitors to Merton are often told Mob Quad, built in the 14th century, is the oldest quadrangle of any Oxford or Cambridge college and set the pattern for future collegiate architecture, but Front Quad was enclosed earlier (albeit with a less unified design) and other colleges, for example Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, can point to their own older examples.  The old library occupies the upper floor of the south and west ranges of Mob Quad, and the original archive room is still in the north-east corner; it houses one of the most complete sets of college records in Europe.

Fellows' Quad.

The grandest quadrangle in Merton is the Fellows' Quadrangle, immediately south of the hall. The quad was the culmination of the work undertaken by Sir Henry Savile at the beginning of the 17th century. The foundation stone was laid shortly after breakfast on 13 September 1608 (as recorded in the college Register), and work was complete by September 1610 (although the battlements were added later). The southern gateway is surmounted by a tower of the four Orders, probably inspired by Italian examples that Warden Savile would have seen on his European travels. The main contractors were from Yorkshire (as was Savile); John Ackroyd and John Bentley of Halifax supervised the stonework, and Thomas Holt the timber. This group were also later employed to work on the Bodleian Library and Wadham College.

Other buildings.

Most of the other buildings are Victorian or later and include: St. Alban's Quad (or "Stubbins"), designed by Basil Champneys, built on the site of the medieval St. Alban Hall (elements of the older façade are incorporated into the part that faces onto Merton Street); the Grove building, built in 1864 by William Butterfield but "chastened" in the 1930s; the buildings beyond the Fellows' Garden called "Rose Lane"; several buildings north of Merton Street, including a real tennis court, and the Old Warden's Lodgings (designed by Champneys in 1903); and a new quadrangle in Holywell Street, some distance away from the college.

T.S. Eliot lecture theatre.

A new lecture theatre named after T.S. Eliot, a former member of the college, was opened in 2010. It has a bust of the writer by Jacob Epstein, presented by Frank Brenchley, a former member and Fellow of the college. Brenchley presented his collection of Eliot first editions and ephemera to the college, which is believed to be the second largest collection of such material worldwide. The foyer is illuminated by a lighting display representing three constellations that were visible on the night of 14 September 1264, the day the college was founded.

Gardens.

The garden fills the southeastern corner of the old walled city of Oxford. The walls may be seen from Christ Church Meadows and Merton Field (now used by Magdalen College School, Oxford as a playing field for cricket, rugby, and football). The gardens are notable for a mulberry tree planted in the early 17th century, an armillary sundial, an extensive lawn, a Herma statue, and the old Fellows' Summer House (now used as a music room and rehearsal space).

Student life.

Merton admits both undergraduate and graduate students. It admitted its first female students in 1980 and was the second former male college to elect a female head of house (in 1994). Merton has traditionally had single-sex accommodation for first-year undergraduates, with female students going into the Rose Lane buildings and most male students going into three houses on Merton Street. This policy was abandoned in 2007, with all accommodation now mixed by gender and course.  Undergraduate admission to the college, like other Oxford colleges, is based solely on academic potential. In 2010, it was (incorrectly) reported that Merton had not admitted a black student in the previous five years. A university spokeswoman commented that black students were more likely to apply for particularly oversubscribed subjects. The university also reported that Merton had admitted at least one black undergraduate since 2005.

Reputation.

Since the introduction of an official Norrington Table published by the university in 2004, Merton occupied one of the top three positions every year (often coming in 1st), until 2012 when it dropped to 14th. In 2014, it regained the first position, preserving its status as one of the most academically successful colleges of the last twenty years. Due to its academic success, Merton is often humorously referred to as "the place where fun goes to die" by members of the other Oxford colleges.

Traditions.

At the 'Time Ceremony', students dressed in formal academic dress walk backwards around the Fellows' Quad drinking port. Traditionally participants also held candles, but this practice has been abandoned in recent years. Many students have now adopted the habit of linking arms and twirling around at each corner of the quad. The alleged purpose of this tradition is to maintain the integrity of the space–time continuum during the transition from British Summer Time to Greenwich Mean Time, which occurs in the early hours of the last Sunday in October. However, the ceremony (invented by two undergraduates in 1971) mostly serves as a spoof of other Oxford ceremonies, and historically as a celebration of the end of the experimental period of British Standard Time from 1968 to 1971 when the UK stayed one hour ahead of GMT all year round. There are two toasts associated with the ceremony, the first is "to good old times!", or "to a good old time!", whilst the second is "long live the counter-revolution!"  Merton is the only college in Oxford to hold a triennial winter ball, instead of the more common Commemoration ball. The most recent of these was held on 30 November 2019.

Societies.

Merton has a number of drinking and dining societies, along the lines of other colleges. These include the all-male Myrmidons, the female-equivalent Myrmaids and L'Ancien Régime.  Merton is host to a number of subject-specific societies, the most notable being the Halsbury Society (Law) and the Chalcenterics (Classics). Other academic societies include the Neave Society, which aims to discuss and debate political issues, and the Bodley Club, founded in 1894 as a forum for undergraduate papers on literature but now a speaker society.

The Bodley Club.

The Bodley Club is a speaker society at Merton College, Oxford. Founded in 1894 as a forum in which undergraduates delivered academic papers on literature, the Club has changed form over the years, and was reformed in the 1980s as a speaker society. All members of the College, and usually members of the university as a whole, are invited to their events.  The Club began on 19 May 1894 (though it was not christened 'The Bodley Club' until June). The initial constitution contained a rule (Rule 7) which stated that 'a written paper is preferred, but any member may speak on any literary subject instead or may propose that any literary work be read at the meeting.' It was not long before this provision was required, as the minute-book reveals in its entry for 19 October 1894: 'Owing to unpardonable slackness on the part of members, the four months of vacation proved insufficient to collect coherent ideas on any particular subject...However an agreeable and instructive evening was passed in reading Tennyson's 'Maud'.' From early years the Club has maintained a troubled existence, and the Secretary noted on 1 November 1900 a motion of censure 'against a person or persons unknown who were responsible for the undoubted blackness which is creeping over the Bodley Club.' Nevertheless, the Club has continued in one form or another to the present day.  Among the notable papers delivered to the Bodley Club are those by Frederic Harrison, Harold Henry Joachim, Henry Hamilton Fyfe (brother of the Secretary, William), Northrop Frye, Sir Alister Clavering Hardy, and Ronald Knox. Several of the Club's first members went on to become significant figures, including Herbert George Flaxman Spurrell and William Hamilton Fyfe.

Sports.

Merton has a long-standing sporting relationship with Mansfield College, with the colleges fielding amalgamated sports teams for many major sports.  In rowing, Merton College Boat Club has been Head of the River in Summer Eights once; its men's 1st VIII held the headship in 1951. Merton's women have done better in recent years, gaining the headship in Torpids in 2003 and rowing over to defend the title in 2004.

Grace.

The college preprandial grace is amongst the longest in Oxford, and is always recited before formal dinners in Hall, usually by the senior postmaster present. The first two lines of the Latin text are based on verses 15 and 16 of Psalm 145. Roughly translated it means:<poem>  For the relevant verses of the Psalm, the Authorized Version has:  In contrast, Merton's post-prandial grace is brief: "Benedictus benedicat" ("Let him who has been blessed, give blessing"). The latter grace is spoken by the senior Fellow present at the end of dinner on High Table.  At the University of Cambridge, a slightly different version of the Latin text of these verses is painted around Old Hall in Queens' College, Cambridge, and is "commonly in use at other Cambridge colleges".

People associated with Merton.

Merton alumni (Mertonians) and fellows have pursued careers in a variety of disciplines.

1264 to 1900.

Among the earliest people that have been claimed as Merton fellows are William of Ockham and Duns Scotus, outstanding academic figures from the early 14th century (however, these claims are disputed). Other early fellows include the Oxford Calculators, a group of 14th-century thinkers associated with Merton who took a logico-mathematical approach to philosophical problems. Theologian and philosopher John Wycliffe was another early fellow of the college.  Founder of the Bodleian Library, Thomas Bodley, was admitted as fellow in 1564. Another significant figure, Henry Savile, was appointed Warden some years later in 1585 (held the position until 1621) and had great influence of the development of the college. William Harvey, who was the first to describe in detail the systemic circulation, was warden from 1645 to 1646. Lord Randolph Churchill, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons (and father of Winston Churchill), matriculated in October 1867, while Max Beerbohm, an English essayist, parodist, and caricaturist studied at Merton in the 1890s and was Secretary of the Myrmidon Club.

1900 to today.

Merton has also produced notable alumni in more recent times. In science, Merton is associated with three Nobel prize winners: chemist Frederick Soddy (1921), zoologist Nikolaas Tinbergen (1973) and physicist Sir Anthony Leggett (2003). Other Mertonians in science include Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield, mathematician Sir Andrew Wiles who proved Fermat's Last Theorem, computer scientist Tony Hoare, chemist Sir George Radda, economist Catherine Tucker, geneticist Alec Jeffreys and cryptographer Artur Ekert.  Notable Mertonians within the field of literature include poet T. S. Eliot, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, and author J. R. R. Tolkien who was Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton from 1945 to 1959.  Former students with careers as politicians include British politicians Reginald Maudling, Airey Neave, Jesse Norman, Ed Vaizey, Denis MacShane, Elizabeth Truss and Sir Peter Tapsell, while international alumni include Bob Krueger, former U.S. Senator from Texas, and Arthur Mutambara, former Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.  In business, former Director-General of the BBC and current CEO of the New York Times Company Mark Thompson, CEO of Stonewall Ben Summerskill and former CEO of Sony Sir Howard Stringer are alumni. In law, Henry Litton served as one of the very first Permanent Judges of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong (Hong Kong's court of last resort), while Brian Leveson is currently both President of the Queen's Bench Division and Head of Criminal Justice.  Other alumni include the composer Lennox Berkeley, actor and singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson, mountaineer Andrew Irvine, RAF pilot Leonard Cheshire, former athlete Roger Bannister, journalist Tanya Gold and Naruhito, Emperor of Japan.  The current Warden of the college is Irene Tracey, who was elected in succession to Sir Martin J. Taylor, former Professor of pure mathematics at the University of Manchester on his retirement in 2018.

Women at Merton.

Just like the other ancient colleges of Oxford, Merton was originally an all-male college. It admitted its first female students in 1980 and became the second former male college to elect a female head of house when Jessica Rawson was appointed as Warden in 1994.  Alumnae of Merton include British Conservative Party politician Elizabeth Truss, writer Leana Wen and Princess Akiko of Mikasa.

References.

Bibliography

Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to support it. An important feature of Walter's foundation was that this "college" was to be self-governing and the endowments were directly vested in the Warden and Fellows.

墨顿学院(英语:Merton College, Oxford)位于牛津市墨顿街,是牛津大学最古老的学院之一。学院于1264年建立,以悠久的历史、出色的学术著称。


Effects.

Protection of those without immunity.

Some individuals either cannot develop immunity after vaccination or for medical reasons cannot be vaccinated. Newborn infants are too young to receive many vaccines, either for safety reasons or because passive immunity renders the vaccine ineffective. Individuals who are immunodeficient due to HIV/AIDS, lymphoma, leukemia, bone marrow cancer, an impaired spleen, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy may have lost any immunity that they previously had and vaccines may not be of any use for them because of their immunodeficiency.  A portion of those vaccinated may not develop long-term immunity. Vaccine contraindications may prevent certain individuals from being vaccinated. In addition to not being immune, individuals in one of these groups may be at a greater risk of developing complications from infection because of their medical status, but they may still be protected if a large enough percentage of the population is immune.  High levels of immunity in one age group can create herd immunity for other age groups. Vaccinating adults against pertussis reduces pertussis incidence in infants too young to be vaccinated, who are at the greatest risk of complications from the disease. This is especially important for close family members, who account for most of the transmissions to young infants. In the same manner, children receiving vaccines against pneumococcus reduces pneumococcal disease incidence among younger, unvaccinated siblings. Vaccinating children against pneumococcus and rotavirus has had the effect of reducing pneumococcus- and rotavirus-attributable hospitalizations for older children and adults, who do not normally receive these vaccines. Influenza (flu) is more severe in the elderly than in younger age groups, but influenza vaccines lack effectiveness in this demographic due to a waning of the immune system with age. The prioritization of school-age children for seasonal flu immunization, which is more effective than vaccinating the elderly, however, has been shown to create a certain degree of protection for the elderly.  For sexually transmitted infections (STIs), high levels of immunity in one sex induces herd immunity for both sexes. Vaccines against STIs that are targeted at one sex result in significant declines in STIs in both sexes if vaccine uptake in the target sex is high. Herd immunity from female vaccination does not, however, extend to homosexual males. If vaccine uptake among the target sex is low, then the other sex may need to be immunized so that the target sex can be sufficiently protected. High-risk behaviors make eliminating STIs difficult since even though most infections occur among individuals with moderate risk, the majority of transmissions occur because of individuals who engage in high-risk behaviors. For these reasons, in certain populations it may be necessary to immunize high-risk persons or individuals of both sexes to establish herd immunity.

Evolutionary pressure.

Herd immunity itself acts as an evolutionary pressure on certain viruses, influencing viral evolution by encouraging the production of novel strains, in this case referred to as escape mutants, that are able to "escape" from herd immunity and spread more easily. At the molecular level, viruses escape from herd immunity through antigenic drift, which is when mutations accumulate in the portion of the viral genome that encodes for the virus's surface antigen, typically a protein of the virus capsid, producing a change in the viral epitope. Alternatively, the reassortment of separate viral genome segments, or antigenic shift, which is more common when there are more strains in circulation, can also produce new serotypes. When either of these occur, memory T cells no longer recognize the virus, so people are not immune to the dominant circulating strain. For both influenza and norovirus, epidemics temporarily induce herd immunity until a new dominant strain emerges, causing successive waves of epidemics. As this evolution poses a challenge to herd immunity, broadly neutralizing antibodies and "universal" vaccines that can provide protection beyond a specific serotype are in development.

Serotype replacement.

Serotype replacement, or serotype shifting, may occur if the prevalence of a specific serotype declines due to high levels of immunity, allowing other serotypes to replace it. Initial vaccines against "Streptococcus pneumoniae" significantly reduced nasopharyngeal carriage of vaccine serotypes (VTs), including antibiotic-resistant types, only to be entirely offset by increased carriage of non-vaccine serotypes (NVTs). This did not result in a proportionate increase in disease incidence though, since NVTs were less invasive than VTs. Since then, pneumococcal vaccines that provide protection from the emerging serotypes have been introduced and have successfully countered their emergence. The possibility of future shifting remains, so further strategies to deal with this include expansion of VT coverage and the development of vaccines that use either killed whole-cells, which have more surface antigens, or proteins present in multiple serotypes.

Eradication of diseases.

If herd immunity has been established and maintained in a population for a sufficient time, the disease is inevitably eliminated—no more endemic transmissions occur. If elimination is achieved worldwide and the number of cases is permanently reduced to zero, then a disease can be declared eradicated. Eradication can thus be considered the final effect or end-result of public health initiatives to control the spread of infectious disease.  The benefits of eradication include ending all morbidity and mortality caused by the disease, financial savings for individuals, health care providers, and governments, and enabling resources used to control the disease to be used elsewhere. To date, two diseases have been eradicated using herd immunity and vaccination: rinderpest and smallpox. Eradication efforts that rely on herd immunity are currently underway for poliomyelitis, though civil unrest and distrust of modern medicine have made this difficult. Mandatory vaccination may be beneficial to eradication efforts if not enough people choose to get vaccinated.

Free riding.

Herd immunity is vulnerable to the free rider problem. Individuals who lack immunity, particularly those who choose not to vaccinate, free ride off the herd immunity created by those who are immune. As the number of free riders in a population increases, outbreaks of preventable diseases become more common and more severe due to loss of herd immunity. Individuals may choose to free ride for a variety of reasons, including the perceived ineffectiveness of a vaccine, believing that the risks associated with vaccines are greater than those associated with infection, mistrust of vaccines or public health officials, bandwagoning or groupthinking, social norms or peer pressure, and religious beliefs. Certain individuals are more likely to choose not to receive vaccines if vaccination rates are high enough so as to convince a person that he or she may not need to be vaccinated, since a sufficient percentage of others are already immune.

Mechanics.

Individuals who are immune to a disease act as a barrier in the spread of disease, slowing or preventing the transmission of disease to others. An individual's immunity can be acquired via a natural infection or through artificial means, such as vaccination. When a critical proportion of the population becomes immune, called the "herd immunity threshold" (HIT) or "herd immunity level" (HIL), the disease may no longer persist in the population, ceasing to be endemic.  The critical value, or threshold, in a given population, is the point where the disease reaches an endemic steady state, which means that the infection level is neither growing nor declining exponentially. This threshold can be calculated from the effective reproduction number "R", which is obtained by taking the product of the basic reproduction number "R", the average number of new infections caused by each case in an entirely susceptible population that is homogeneous, or well-mixed, meaning each individual can come into contact with every other susceptible individual in the population, and "S", the proportion of the population who are susceptible to infection, and setting this product to be equal to 1:  "S" can be rewritten as (1 − "p"), where "p" is the proportion of the population that is immune so that "p" + "S" equals one. Then, the equation can be rearranged to place "p" by itself as follows:  With "p" being by itself on the left side of the equation, it can be renamed as "p", representing the critical proportion of the population needed to be immune to stop the transmission of disease, which is the same as the "herd immunity threshold" HIT. "R" functions as a measure of contagiousness, so low "R" values are associated with lower HITs, whereas higher "R"s result in higher HITs. For example, the HIT for a disease with an "R" of 2 is theoretically only 50%, whereas a disease with an "R" of 10 the theoretical HIT is 90%.  When the effective reproduction number "R" of a contagious disease is reduced to and sustained below 1 new individual per infection, the number of cases occurring in the population gradually decreases until the disease has been eliminated. If a population is immune to a disease in excess of that disease's HIT, the number of cases reduces at a faster rate, outbreaks are even less likely to happen, and outbreaks that occur are smaller than they would be otherwise. If the effective reproduction number increases to above 1, then the disease is neither in a steady state nor decreasing in incidence, but is actively spreading through the population and infecting a larger number of people than usual.  An assumption in these calculations is that populations are homogeneous, or well-mixed, meaning that every individual comes into contact with every other individual, when in reality populations are better described as social networks as individuals tend to cluster together, remaining in relatively close contact with a limited number of other individuals. In these networks, transmission only occurs between those who are geographically or physically close to one another. The shape and size of a network is likely to alter a disease's HIT, making incidence either more or less common.  In heterogeneous populations, "R" is considered to be a measure of the number of cases generated by a "typical" infectious person, which depends on how individuals within a network interact with each other. Interactions within networks are more common than between networks, in which case the most highly connected networks transmit disease more easily, resulting in a higher "R" and a higher HIT than would be required in a less connected network. In networks that either opt not to become immune or are not immunized sufficiently, diseases may persist despite not existing in better-immunized networks.

Overshoot.

The cumulative proportion of individuals who get infected during the course of a disease outbreak can exceed the HIT. This is because the HIT does not represent the point at which the disease stops spreading, but rather the point at which each infected person infects fewer than one additional person on average. When the HIT is reached, the number of additional infections begins to taper off, but it does not immediately drop to zero. The difference between the cumulative proportion of infected individuals and the theoretical HIT is known as the overshoot.

Boosts.

Vaccination.

The primary way to boost levels of immunity in a population is through vaccination. Vaccination is originally based on the observation that milkmaids exposed to cowpox were immune to smallpox, so the practice of inoculating people with the cowpox virus began as a way to prevent smallpox. Well-developed vaccines provide protection in a far safer way than natural infections, as vaccines generally do not cause the diseases they protect against and severe adverse effects are significantly less common than complications from natural infections.  The immune system does not distinguish between natural infections and vaccines, forming an active response to both, so immunity induced via vaccination is similar to what would have occurred from contracting and recovering from the disease. To achieve herd immunity through vaccination, vaccine manufacturers aim to produce vaccines with low failure rates, and policy makers aim to encourage their use. After the successful introduction and widespread use of a vaccine, sharp declines in the incidence of diseases it protects against can be observed, which decreases the number of hospitalizations and deaths caused by such diseases.  Assuming a vaccine is 100% effective, then the equation used for calculating the herd immunity threshold can be used for calculating the vaccination level needed to eliminate a disease, written as "V". Vaccines are usually imperfect however, so the effectiveness, "E", of a vaccine must be accounted for:  From this equation, it can be observed that if "E" is less than (1 − 1/"R"), then it is impossible to eliminate a disease, even if the entire population is vaccinated. Similarly, waning vaccine-induced immunity, as occurs with acellular pertussis vaccines, requires higher levels of booster vaccination to sustain herd immunity. If a disease has ceased to be endemic to a population, then natural infections no longer contribute to a reduction in the fraction of the population that is susceptible. Only vaccination contributes to this reduction. The relation between vaccine coverage and effectiveness and disease incidence can be shown by subtracting the product of the effectiveness of a vaccine and the proportion of the population that is vaccinated, "p", from the herd immunity threshold equation as follows:  It can be observed from this equation that, all other things being equal (""ceteris paribus""), any increase in either vaccine coverage or vaccine effectiveness, including any increase in excess of a disease's HIT, further reduces the number of cases of a disease. The rate of decline in cases depends on a disease's "R", with diseases with lower "R" values experiencing sharper declines.  Vaccines usually have at least one contraindication for a specific population for medical reasons, but if both effectiveness and coverage are high enough herd immunity can protect these individuals. Vaccine effectiveness is often, but not always, adversely affected by passive immunity, so additional doses are recommended for some vaccines while others are not administered until after an individual has lost his or her passive immunity.

Passive immunity.

Individual immunity can also be gained passively, when antibodies to a pathogen are transferred from one individual to another. This can occur naturally, whereby maternal antibodies, primarily immunoglobulin G antibodies, are transferred across the placenta and in colostrum to fetuses and newborns. Passive immunity can also be gained artificially, when a susceptible person is injected with antibodies from the serum or plasma of an immune person.  Protection generated from passive immunity is immediate, but wanes over the course of weeks to months, so any contribution to herd immunity is temporary. For diseases that are especially severe among fetuses and newborns, such as influenza and tetanus, pregnant women may be immunized in order to transfer antibodies to the child. In the same way, high-risk groups that are either more likely to experience infection, or are more likely to develop complications from infection, may receive antibody preparations to prevent these infections or to reduce the severity of symptoms.

Cost–benefit analysis.

Herd immunity is often accounted for when conducting cost–benefit analyses of vaccination programs. It is regarded as a positive externality of high levels of immunity, producing an additional benefit of disease reduction that would not occur had no herd immunity been generated in the population. Therefore, herd immunity's inclusion in cost–benefit analyses results both in more favorable cost-effectiveness or cost–benefit ratios, and an increase in the number of disease cases averted by vaccination. Study designs done to estimate herd immunity's benefit include recording disease incidence in households with a vaccinated member, randomizing a population in a single geographic area to be vaccinated or not, and observing the incidence of disease before and after beginning a vaccination program. From these, it can be observed that disease incidence may decrease to a level beyond what can be predicted from direct protection alone, indicating that herd immunity contributed to the reduction. When serotype replacement is accounted for, it reduces the predicted benefits of vaccination.

History.

Herd immunity was first recognized as a naturally occurring phenomenon in the 1930s when A. W. Hedrich published research on the epidemiology of measles in Baltimore, and took notice that after many children had become immune to measles, the number of new infections temporarily decreased, including among susceptible children. In spite of this knowledge, efforts to control and eliminate measles were unsuccessful until mass vaccination using the measles vaccine began in the 1960s. Mass vaccination, discussions of disease eradication, and cost–benefit analyses of vaccination subsequently prompted more widespread use of the term "herd immunity". In the 1970s, the theorem used to calculate a disease's herd immunity threshold was developed. During the smallpox eradication campaign in the 1960s and 1970s, the practice of "ring vaccination", of which herd immunity is integral to, began as a way to immunize every person in a "ring" around an infected individual to prevent outbreaks from spreading.  Since the adoption of mass and ring vaccination, complexities and challenges to herd immunity have arisen. Modeling of the spread of infectious disease originally made a number of assumptions, namely that entire populations are susceptible and well-mixed, which do not exist in reality, so more precise equations have been developed. In recent decades, it has been recognized that the dominant strain of a microorganism in circulation may change due to herd immunity, either because of herd immunity acting as an evolutionary pressure or because herd immunity against one strain allowed another already-existing strain to spread. Emerging or ongoing fears and controversies about vaccination have reduced or eliminated herd immunity in certain communities, allowing preventable diseases to persist in or return to these communities.

Herd immunity (also called herd effect, community immunity, population immunity, or social immunity) is a form of indirect protection from infectious disease that occurs when a large percentage of a population has become immune to an infection, whether through vaccination or previous infections, thereby providing a measure of protection for individuals who are not immune. In a population in which a large proportion of individuals possess immunity, such people being unlikely to contribute to disease transmission, chains of infection are more likely to be disrupted, which either stops or slows the spread of disease. The greater the proportion of immune individuals in a community, the smaller the probability that non-immune individuals will come into contact with an infectious individual, helping to shield non-immune individuals from infection. Individuals can become immune by recovering from an earlier infection or through vaccination. Some individuals cannot become immune because of medical conditions, such as an immunodeficiency or immunosuppression, and for this group herd immunity is a crucial method of protection. Once a certain threshold has been reached, herd immunity gradually eliminates a disease from a population. This elimination, if achieved worldwide, may result in the permanent reduction in the number of infections to zero, called eradication. Herd immunity created via vaccination contributed to the eventual eradication of smallpox in 1977 and has contributed to the reduction of the frequencies of other diseases. Herd immunity does not apply to all diseases, just those that are contagious, meaning that they can be transmitted from one individual to another. Tetanus, for example, is infectious but not contagious, so herd immunity does not apply. Herd immunity was recognized as a naturally occurring phenomenon in the 1930s when it was observed that after a significant number of children had become immune to measles, the number of new infections temporarily decreased, including among susceptible children. Mass vaccination to induce herd immunity has since become common and proved successful in preventing the spread of many infectious diseases. Opposition to vaccination has posed a challenge to herd immunity, allowing preventable diseases to persist in or return to communities that have inadequate vaccination rates.

群体免疫(英语:herd immunity或英语:community immunity)是指人或动物群体中的很大比例获得免疫力,使得其他没有免疫力的个体因此受到保护而不被传染。拥有抵抗力的个体的比例越高,易感个体与受感染个体间接触的可能性便越小。但要令群体免疫较有效,需要基本传染数(R0)低、死亡率低、病毒变异率低、病毒变异能力增强率低(包括毒力改变、条件致死的改变、宿主适应性的改变等)、地方人口少、地方面积小、人口平均健康水准高、康复后终生免疫率高等等的因素配合,所以群体免疫的成效,一直受到各方科学家的争议,而且到目前为止,并没有足够科学证据证实群体免疫方法的可靠性及可实践性。