Overview.

Ornamentation and coloration.

Common and easily identified types of dimorphism consist of ornamentation and coloration, though not always apparent. A difference in coloration of sexes within a given species is called sexual dichromatism, which is commonly seen in many species of birds and reptiles. Sexual selection leads to the exaggerated dimorphic traits that are used predominantly in competition over mates. The increased fitness resulting from ornamentation offsets its cost to produce or maintain suggesting complex evolutionary implications, but the costs and evolutionary implications vary from species to species. The

Physiological differentiation.

In redlip blennies, only the male fish develops an organ at the anal-urogenital region that produces antimicrobial substances. During parental

Plants.

Most flowering plants are hermaphroditic but approximately 6% of species have separate males and females (dioecy). Males and females in insect-pollinated species generally look similar to one another because plants provide rewards (e.g. nectar) that encourage pollinators to visit another similar flower, completing pollination. "Catasetum" orchids are one interesting exception to this rule. Male "Catasetum" orchids violently attach pollinia to euglossine bee pollinators. The bees will then avoid other male flowers but may visit the female, which look different from the males.  Various other dioecious exceptions, such as "Loxostylis alata" have visibly different genders, with the effect of eliciting the most efficient behaviour from pollinators, who then use the most efficient strategy in visiting each gender of flower instead of searching say, for pollen in a nectar-bearing female flower.  Some plants, such as some species of "Geranium" have what amounts to serial sexual dimorphism. The flowers of such species might for example present their anthers on opening, then shed the exhausted anthers after a day or two and perhaps change their colours as well while the pistil matures; specialist pollinators are very much inclined to concentrate on the exact

Insects.

Insects display a wide variety of sexual dimorphism between taxa including size, ornamentation and coloration. The female-biased sexual size dimorphism observed in many taxa evolved despite intense male-male competition for mates. In "Osmia rufa", for example, the female is larger/broader than males, with males being 8–10 mm in size and females being 10–12 mm in size. In the hackberry emperor females are similarly larger than males. The reason for the sexual dimorphism is due to provision size mass, in which females consume more pollen than males.  In some species, there is evidence of male dimorphism, but it appears to be for the purpose of distinctions of roles. This is seen in the bee species "Macrotera portalis" in which there is a small-headed morph, capable of flight, and large-headed morph, incapable of flight, for males. "Anthidium manicatum" also displays male-biased sexual dimorphism. The selection for larger size in males rather than females in this species may have resulted due to their aggressive territorial behavior

Spiders and sexual cannibalism.

Many arachnid groups exhibit sexual dimorphism, but it is most widely studied in the spiders. Size dimorphism shows a correlation with sexual cannibalism, which is prominent in spiders (it is also found in insects such as praying mantises). In the size dimorphic wolf spider, food-limited females cannibalize more frequently. Therefore, there is a high risk of low fitness for males due to pre-copulatory cannibalism, which led to male selection of larger females for two reasons:

Fish.

Ray finned fish are an ancient and diverse class, with the widest degree of sexual dimorphism of any animal class. Fairbairn notes that "females are generally larger than males but males are often larger in species with male-male combat or male paternal care... [sizes range] from dwarf males to males more than 12 times heavier than females."  There are cases where males are substantially larger than females. An example is "Lamprologus callipterus", a type of cichlid fish. In this fish, the males are characterized as being up to 60 times larger than the females. The male's increased size is believed to be advantageous because males collect and defend empty snail shells in each of which a female breeds. Males must be larger and more powerful in order to collect the largest shells. The female's body size must remain small because in order for her to breed, she must lay her eggs inside the empty shells. If she grows too large, she will not fit in the shells and will be unable to breed. Another example is the dragonet, in which males are considerably larger than females and possess longer fins.  The female's small body size is also likely beneficial to her chances of finding an unoccupied shell. Larger shells, although preferred by females, are often limited in availability. Hence, the female is limited to the growth of the size of the shell and may actually change her growth rate according to shell size availability. In other words, the male's ability to collect large shells depends on his size. The larger the male, the larger the shells he is able to collect. This then allows for females to be larger in his

Amphibians and non-avian reptiles.

In amphibians and reptiles, the degree of sexual dimorphism varies widely among taxonomic groups. The sexual dimorphism in amphibians and reptiles may be reflected in any of the following: anatomy; relative length of tail; relative size of head; overall size as in many species of vipers and lizards; coloration as in many amphibians, snakes, and lizards, as well as in some turtles; an ornament as in many newts and lizards; the presence of specific sex-related behaviour is common to many lizards; and vocal qualities which are frequently observed in frogs.  Anole lizards show prominent size dimorphism with males typically

Birds.

Sexual dimorphism in birds can be manifested in size or plumage differences between the sexes. Sexual size dimorphism varies among taxa with males typically being larger, though this is not always the case, e.g. birds of prey, hummingbirds, and some species of flightless birds. Plumage dimorphism, in the form of ornamentation or coloration, also varies, though males are typically the more ornamented or brightly colored sex. Such differences have been attributed to the unequal reproductive contributions of the sexes. This difference produces a stronger female choice since they have more risk in producing offspring. In some species, the male's contribution to reproduction ends at copulation, while in other species the male becomes the main caregiver. Plumage polymorphisms have evolved to reflect these differences and other measures of reproductive fitness, such as body condition or survival. The male phenotype sends signals to females who then choose the 'fittest' available male.  Sexual dimorphism is a product of both genetics and environmental factors. An example of sexual polymorphism determined by environmental conditions exists in the red-backed fairywren. Red-backed fairywren males can be classified into three categories during breeding season: black breeders, brown breeders, and brown auxiliaries. These differences arise in response to the bird's body condition: if they are healthy they will produce more androgens thus becoming black breeders, while less healthy birds produce less androgens and become brown auxiliaries. The reproductive success of the male is thus determined by his success during each year's non-breeding season, causing reproductive success to vary with each year's environmental conditions.  Migratory patterns and behaviors also influence sexual dimorphisms. This aspect also stems back to the size dimorphism in species. It has been shown that the larger males are better at coping with the difficulties of migration and thusly are more successful in reproducing when reaching the breeding destination. When viewing this in an evolutionary standpoint many theories and explanations come to consideration. If these are the result for every migration and breeding season the expected results should be a shift towards a larger male population through sexual selection. Sexual selection is strong when the factor of environmental selection is also introduced. The environmental selection may support a smaller chick size if those chicks were born in an area that allowed them to grow to a larger size, even though under normal conditions they would not be able to reach this optimal size for migration. When the environment gives advantages and disadvantages of this sort, the strength of selection is weakened and the environmental forces are given greater morphological weight. The sexual dimorphism could also produce a change in timing of migration leading to differences in mating success within the bird population. When the dimorphism produces that large of a variation

Mammals.

In a large proportion of mammal species, males are larger than females. Both genes and hormones affect the formation of many animal brains before "birth" (or hatching), and also behaviour of adult individuals. Hormones significantly affect human brain formation, and also brain development at puberty. A 2004 review in "Nature Reviews Neuroscience" observed that "because it is easier to manipulate hormone levels than the expression of sex chromosome genes, the effects of hormones have been studied much more extensively, and are much better understood, than the direct actions in the brain of sex chromosome genes." It concluded that while "the differentiating effects of gonadal secretions seem to be dominant," the existing body of research "support the idea that sex differences in neural expression of X and Y genes significantly contribute to sex differences in brain functions and disease."

Pinnipeds.

Marine mammals show some of the greatest sexual size differences of mammals, because of sexual selection. The mating system of pinnipeds varies from polygamy to serial monogamy. Pinnipeds are known for early differential growth and maternal investment since the only nutrients for newborn pups is the milk provided by the mother. For example, the males are significantly larger than the females at birth in sea lion

Primates.

Humans.

In humans, sex is determined by five factors present at birth: the presence or absence of a Y chromosome, the type of gonads, the sex hormones, the internal reproductive anatomy (such as the uterus in females), and the external genitalia. Generally, the five factors are either all male or all female. Sexual ambiguity is rare in humans, but wherein such ambiguity does occur, the individual is biologically classified as intersex.  Sexual dimorphism among humans includes differentiation among gonads, internal genitals, external genitals, breasts, muscle mass, height, the endocrine (hormonal) systems and their physiological and behavioral effects. Human sexual differentiation is effected primarily at the gene level, by the presence or absence of a Y-chromosome, which encodes biochemical modifiers for sexual development in males. According to Clark Spencer Larsen, modern day "Homo sapiens" show a range of sexual dimorphism, with average body mass difference between the sexes being roughly equal to 15%.  The average basal metabolic rate is about 6 percent higher in adolescent males than females and increases to about 10 percent higher after puberty. Females tend to convert more food into fat, while males convert more into muscle and expendable circulating energy reserves. Aggregated data of absolute strength indicates that females have, on average, 40–60% the upper body strength of males, and 70–75% the lower body strength. The difference in strength relative to body mass is less pronounced in trained individuals. In Olympic weightlifting, male records vary from 5.5× body mass in the lowest weight category to 4.2× in the highest weight category, while female records vary from 4.4× to 3.8×, a weight adjusted difference of only 10–20%, and an absolute difference of about 30% (i.e. 472 kg vs 333 kg for unlimited weight classes)(see Olympic weightlifting records). A study, carried about by analyzing annual world rankings from 1980–1996, found that males' running times were, on average, 11% faster than females'.  Females are taller, on average, than males in early adolescence, but males, on average, surpass them in height in later adolescence and adulthood. In the United States, adult males are, on average, 9% taller and 16.5% heavier than adult females. There is no comparative evidence of differing levels of sexual selection having produced sexual size dimorphism between human populations.  Males typically have larger tracheae and branching bronchi, with about 30 percent greater lung volume per body mass. On average, males have larger hearts, 10 percent higher red blood cell count, higher

Cells.

Phenotypic differences between sexes are evident even in cultured cells from tissues. For example, female muscle-derived stem cells

Reproductively advantageous.

In theory, larger females are favored by competition for mates, especially in polygamous species. Larger females offer an advantage in fertility, since the physiological demands of reproduction are limiting in females. Hence there is a theoretical expectation that females tend to be larger in species that are monogamous. Females are larger in many species of insects, many spiders, many fish, many reptiles, owls, birds of prey and certain mammals such as the spotted hyena, and baleen whales such as blue whale. As an example, in some species, females are sedentary, and so males must search for them. Fritz Vollrath and Geoff Parker argue that this difference in behaviour leads to radically different selection pressures on the two sexes, evidently favouring smaller males. Cases where the male is larger than the female have been studied as well, and require alternative explanations.  One example of this type of sexual size dimorphism is the bat "Myotis nigricans", (black myotis bat) where females are substantially larger than males in terms of body weight, skull measurement, and forearm length. The interaction between the sexes and the energy needed to produce viable offspring make it favorable for females to be larger in this species. Females bear the energetic cost of producing eggs, which is much greater than the cost of making sperm by the males. The fecundity advantage hypothesis states that a larger female is able to

Evolution.

Sexual dimorphism by size is evident in some extinct species such as the velociraptor. In the case of velociraptors the sexual size dimorphism may have been caused by two factors: male competition for hunting ground to attract mates, and/or female competition for nesting locations and mates, males being a scarce breeding resource.  In 1871, Charles Darwin advanced the theory of sexual selection, which related sexual dimorphism with sexual selection.  It has been proposed that the earliest sexual dimorphism is the size differentiation of sperm and eggs (anisogamy), but the evolutionary significance of sexual dimorphism is more complex than that would suggest. Anisogamy and the usually large number of small male gametes relative to the larger female gametes usually lies in the development of strong sperm competition, because small sperm enable organisms to produce a large number of sperm, and make males (or male function of hermaphrodites) more redundant. This intensifies male competition for mates and promotes the evolution of other sexual dimorphism in many species, especially in vertebrates including mammals. However, in some species, the females can be larger than males, irrespective of gametes, and in some species females (usually of species in which males invest a lot in rearing offspring and thus no longer considered as so redundant) compete for mates in ways more usually associated with males.  In many non-monogamous species, the benefit to a male's reproductive fitness of mating with multiple females is large, whereas the benefit to a female's reproductive fitness of mating with multiple males is small or nonexistent. In these species, there is a selection pressure for whatever traits enable a male to have more matings. The male may therefore come to have different traits from the female. These traits could be ones that allow him to fight off other males for control of territory or a harem, such as large size or weapons; or they could be traits that females, for whatever reason, prefer in mates. Male-male competition poses no deep theoretical questions but mate choice does.  Females may choose males that appear strong and healthy, thus likely to possess "good alleles" and give rise to healthy offspring. In some species, however, females seem to choose males with traits that do not improve offspring survival rates, and even traits that reduce it (potentially leading to traits like the peacock's tail). Two hypotheses for explaining this fact are the sexy son hypothesis and the handicap principle.  The sexy son hypothesis states that females may initially choose a trait because it improves the survival of their young, but once this preference has become widespread, females must continue to choose the trait, even if it becomes harmful. Those that do not will have sons that are unattractive to most females (since the preference is widespread) and so receive few matings.  The handicap principle states that a male who survives despite possessing some sort of handicap thus proves that the rest of his genes are "good alleles". If males with "bad alleles" could not survive the handicap, females may evolve to choose males with this sort of handicap; the trait is acting as a hard-to-fake signal of fitness.

Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the two sexes of the same species exhibit different characteristics beyond the differences in their sexual organs. The condition occurs in many animals and some plants. Differences may include secondary sex characteristics, size, weight, colour, markings, and may also include behavioral and cognitive differences. These differences may be subtle or exaggerated, and may be subjected to sexual selection and natural selection. The opposite of dimorphism is "monomorphism".

Pohlavní dimorfismus, pohlavní dvojtvárnost či sexuální dimorfismus je výraz, který se používá u živočichů a označuje, že samice vypadá jinak než samec. Rozdíl je tedy nejen v pohlaví jedince a jeho pohlavních orgánech, ale též v sekundárních pohlavních znacích, jako je velikost těla, zbarvení, tvar aj.


History.

Early history.

The town was founded as a defensive stronghold on an Old Prussian site. In 1224 at Catania, Emperor Frederick II declared Prussia directly subordinate to the church and Holy Roman Empire. Later in the same year the pope assigned Bishop William of Modena as the papal legate to Prussia. With the imperial Golden Bull of Rimini, the Teutonic Knights were granted control of the region, which they subsequently conquered. According to local legend, the Old Prussian inhabitants were baptised by Anselm of Meissen, a priest of the Teutonic Knights and the first Bishop of the Bishopric of Warmia which was created in 1242 by William of Modena.  Supposedly when the stronghold's lord died, his widow Gertruda offered the settlement to the bishop, and in her honor it was named "Frauenburg" (German for "Our Lady's fortress", "Castrum Dominae Nostrae" in Latin). This name is not unique in German, as it usually originates in the construction of a fortified chapel, church, or monastery dedicated to the Virgin Mary or inhabited by nuns. Several places were thus named Frauenburg or Marienburg, like the nearby Marienburg castle and city (now Malbork).  The village was first mentioned in a 1278 document signed by Bishop Heinrich Fleming. On 8 July 1310, Bishop Eberhard of Neisse granted the town Lübeck city rights, as used by many member cities of the Hanseatic League. It was described, still rather unspecifically, as "Civitas Warmiensis" ("Warmian city").  In 1329-1388, the magnificent Brick Gothic cathedral (now the Archcathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Andrew) was built, and was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, or "Our Lady" (in Latin, "Domina Nostra"; in German, "Unsere Frau"). Hence, the town was called "Frauenburg".  Over the centuries, the cathedral has been expanded and rebuilt repeatedly. There are also several other historic churches, dedicated to St. Nicholas, St. George, and St. Anne, all built in the 13th century.

Copernican era.

In 1414 the city was plundered and burned during the Hunger War between the Teutonic Knights and Poland. In 1454, the Warmian Chapter paid homage to Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon, recognizing him as rightful ruler. In retaliation the Teutonic Knights invaded the city in the same year. In 1455, Czech mercenaries in the service of Poland, commanded by Jan Skalski, took back the city. The town was recognized as part of Poland by the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) and it became an important city of the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia and part of the Polish province of Royal Prussia. The city was also devastated after a raid by Albert, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights in 1520.  In the Middle Ages, the inhabitants were mainly merchants, farmers and fishermen. The most famous resident was the astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus, who lived and worked here as a canon (1512–16 and 1522–43). Copernicus is said to have jokingly called it ""Weiberstadt"" ("Wives' Town") or ""Gynepolis"" (in Medieval Greek). In 1519 Copernicus wrote to the King of Poland, asking for help against the Teutonic Knights who were threatening the city. The letter however was intercepted, and the Teutonic Knights took and burned the city (Copernicus and other canons had left the city shortly before). The astronomer wrote his epochal work, "De revolutionibus orbium cœlestium" in Frombork. In his book, written in Latin, Copernicus used the Latin name of the town and region - "Frueburgo Prussiae" Shortly after its 1543 publication, Copernicus died there and was buried in the town's cathedral, where his grave was thought to have been found by archaeologists in 2005. This was subsequently confirmed in November 2008 by the publication of the results of DNA tests on fragments of bone and hair found on the skeleton: hair that matched two strands of hair which belonged to Copernicus and are currently located in Uppsala University.  In the northwest corner of the cathedral grounds is Copernicus' tower, and in the southwest corner an octagonal building with a square bell tower and a small planetarium and a Foucault's pendulum. From atop the tower one can survey the town, the tiny harbor, the great panorama of the Baltic Sea, and much of Warmia's countryside.  The city also suffered destruction and heavy population losses during the Polish–Swedish wars. Between 1626 and 1635 it was occupied by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden who looted the cathedral and shipped many cultural artifacts, including Copernicus' manuscripts to Sweden. Further destruction followed during the Deluge (Swedish invasion of Poland), the Great Northern War and the War of the Fourth Coalition.

Modern history.

After the first partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1772) the town was taken over by the Kingdom of Prussia and in 1773 it became part of the newly established province of East Prussia. Subsequently, in 1871 Frauenburg became part of the German Empire. The "Preußische Ostbahn" railway line was opened in 1899 connecting Elbing (present-day Elbląg) and Braunsberg (present-day Braniewo) via Frauenburg, leading further to the Russian border at Eydtkuhnen (present-day Chernyshevskoye). Passenger services on the railway line ceased in early 2006.  Towards and after the end of World War II the German inhabitants were either evacuated or expelled. After Germany's defeat in the war, the town became part of Poland, and was resettled by Poles, many of whom were expelleés from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union.  In 1959 Frombork regained its city rights. Having been heavily (70%) damaged in World War II, it was rebuilt by Polish Boy Scouts and others in 1966-1973, in time for the 500th anniversary of Copernicus' birth.  Today, Frombork is regaining its importance as a tourist destination, abetted by its key location just south of the frontier with the Russian district of Kaliningrad. Although the railway through Frombork closed in 2006, the port has seasonal ferry connections with Elbląg, Krynica Morska and Kaliningrad.

Monuments.

Several monuments are on display in Frombork (see external links):

Twin towns – sister cities.

Frombork is twinned with three cities:

Frombork (; ) is a town in northern Poland, situated on the Vistula Lagoon in Braniewo County, within Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. It had a population of 2,415.

Frombork ( ) je přímořským městem nad Viselským zálivem ve Varmijsko-mazurském vojvodství v Polsku. Je to malé město, které má pouze 2 440 obyvatel (2008), ale značný historický význam.


History.

Throughout its history, Banff National Park has been shaped by tension between conservationist and land exploitation interests. The park was established on 25 November 1885 as Banff Hot Springs Reserve, in response to conflicting claims over who discovered hot springs there and who had the right to develop the hot springs for commercial interests. The conservationists prevailed when Prime Minister John A. Macdonald set aside the hot springs as a small protected reserve, which was later expanded to include Lake Louise and other areas extending north to the Columbia Icefield.

Indigenous peoples.

Archaeological evidence found at Vermilion Lakes indicates the first human activity in Banff to 10,300 B.P. Prior to European contact, the area that is now Banff National Park, was home to many Indigenous Peoples, including the Stoney Nakoda, Ktunaxa, Tsuut'ina, Kainaiwa, Piikani, Siksika, and Plains Cree. Indigenous Peoples utilized the area to hunt, fish, trade, travel, survey and, practice culture. Many areas within

Rocky Mountains Park established.

With conflicting claims over the discovery of hot springs in Banff, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald decided to set aside a small reserve of around the hot springs at Cave and Basin as a public park known as the "Banff Hot Springs Reserve" in 1885. Under the "Rocky Mountains Park Act", enacted on 23 June 1887, the park was expanded to and named "Rocky Mountains Park". This was Canada's first national park, and the third established in North America, after Yellowstone and Mackinac National Parks. The Canadian Pacific Railway built the Banff Springs Hotel and Lake Louise Chalet to attract tourists and increase the number of rail passengers.  The Stoney Nakoda First Nation were removed from Banff National Park between the years 1890 and 1920. The park was designed to appeal to sportsmen, and tourists. The exclusionary policy met the goals of sports hunting, tourism, and game conservation, as well as of those attempting to "civilize" the First Nations of the area.  Early on, Banff

Coal mining.

In 1887, the First Nations of the area signed Treaty 7, which gave Canada rights to explore the land for resources. At the beginning of the 20th century, coal was mined near Lake Minnewanka

Internment camps.

During World War I, immigrants from Austria, Hungary, Germany and Ukraine were sent to Banff to work in internment camps. The main camp was located at Castle Mountain, and was moved to Cave and Basin during winter. Much early infrastructure and road construction was done by men of various Slavic origins although Ukrainians constituted a majority of those held in Banff. Historical plaques and a statue erected by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association commemorate those interned at Castle Mountain, and at Cave and Basin National Historic Site where an interpretive pavilion dealing with Canada's first national internment operations opened in September 2013. In 1931, the Government of Canada enacted

Winter tourism.

Winter tourism in Banff began in February 1917, with the first Banff Winter Carnival. It was marketed to a regional middle class audience, and became the centerpiece of local boosters aiming to attract visitors, which were a low priority for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). The carnival featured a large ice palace, which in 1917 was built by World War I internees. Carnival events included cross-country skiing, ski jumping, curling, snowshoe, and skijoring. In the 1930s, the first downhill ski resort, Sunshine Village, was developed by the Brewsters. Mount Norquay ski area was also developed during the 1930s, with the first chair lift installed there in 1948.  Since 1968, when the Banff Springs Hotel was winterized, Banff

Conservation.

Since the original Rocky Mountains Park Act, subsequent acts and policies placed greater emphasis on conservation. With public sentiment tending towards environmentalism, Parks Canada issued major new policy in 1979, which emphasized conservation. The "National Parks Act" was amended in 1988, which made preserving ecological integrity the first priority in all park management decisions. The "Act" also required each park to produce a management plan, with greater public participation.  In 1984, Banff was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site, together with the other national

Geography.

Banff National Park is located in the Rocky Mountains on Alberta's western border with British Columbia in the Alberta Mountain forests ecoregion. By road, the town of Banff is west of Calgary and southwest of Edmonton. Jasper National Park borders Banff National Park to the north, while Yoho National Park is to the west and Kootenay National Park is to the south. Kananaskis Country, which includes Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park, Spray Valley Provincial Park, and Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, is located to the south and east of Banff. The Trans-Canada Highway passes through Banff National Park, from the eastern boundary near Canmore, through the towns of Banff and Lake Louise, and into Yoho National Park in British Columbia. The Banff townsite is the main commercial centre in the national park. The village of Lake Louise is located at the junction of the Trans-Canada Highway and the Icefields Parkway, which extends north to the Jasper townsite.

Banff.

Banff, established in 1885, is the main commercial centre in Banff National Park, as well as a centre for cultural activities. Banff is home to several cultural institutions, including the Banff Centre, the Whyte Museum, the Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum, Cave and Basin National Historic Site, and several art galleries. Throughout its history, Banff has hosted many annual events, including Banff Indian

Lake Louise.

Lake Louise, a hamlet located northwest of the town of Banff, is home to the landmark Chateau Lake Louise at the edge of Lake Louise. Located from Lake Louise, Moraine Lake provides a scenic vista of the Valley

Icefields Parkway.

The Icefields Parkway is a road connecting Lake Louise to Jasper, Alberta. The Parkway originates at Lake Louise, and extends north up the Bow Valley, past Hector Lake, which is the largest natural lake in the park. Other scenic lakes near the parkway include Bow Lake, and Peyto Lakes, both north of Hector Lake. The Parkway then crosses Bow Summit (), and follows the Mistaya River to Saskatchewan Crossing, where

Geology.

The Canadian Rockies consist of several northwest-southeast trending ranges. Two main mountain ranges are within the park, each consisting of numerous subranges. The western border of the park follows the crest of the Main Ranges (also known as the "Park Ranges"), which is also the continental divide. The Main Ranges in Banff National Park include from north to south, the Waputik, Bow and Blue Ranges. The high peaks west of Lake Louise are part of the Bow Range. The eastern border of the park includes all of the Front Ranges consisting of from north to south, the Palliser, Sawback and Sundance Ranges. The Banff townsite is located in the Front Ranges. Just outside of the park to the east lie the foothills that extend from Canmore at the eastern entrance of the park eastward into the Great Plains. Well west of the park, the Western Ranges of the Rockies pass through Yoho and Kootenay National Parks. Though the tallest peak entirely within the park is Mount Forbes at, Mount Assiniboine on the Banff-Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park border is slightly higher at.  The Canadian Rockies are composed of sedimentary rock, including shale, sandstone, dolomite and limestone. The vast majority of geologic formations in Banff range in age from Precambrian to the Jurassic periods (600–145 m.y.a.). However, rocks as young as the lower Cretaceous (145–66 m.y.a.) can be found near the east entrance and on Cascade Mountain above the Banff townsite. These sedimentary rocks were laid down in shallow seas between 600 and 175 m.y.a. and were pushed east during the Laramide orogeny. Mountain building in Banff National Park ended approximately 55 m.y.a.  The Canadian Rockies may have rose up to approximately 70 m.y.a. Once mountain formation ceased, erosion carved the mountains into their present rugged shape. The erosion was first due to water, then was greatly accelerated by the Quaternary glaciation 2.5 million years ago. Glacial landforms dominate Banff's geomorphology, with examples of all classic glacial forms, including cirques, arêtes, hanging valleys, moraines, and U-shaped valleys. The pre-existing structure left over from mountain-building strongly guided glacial erosion: mountains in Banff include complex, irregular, anticlinal, synclinal, castellate, dogtooth, and sawback mountains.  Many of the mountain ranges trend northwest to southeast, with sedimentary layering dipping down to the west at 40–60 degrees. This leads to dip slope landforms, with generally steeper east and north faces, and trellis drainage, where rivers and old glacial valleys followed the weaker layers in the rocks as they were relatively easily weathered and eroded. Classic examples are found at the Banff townsite proper: Mount Rundle is a classic dip slope mountain. Just to the north of the Banff townsite, Castle Mountain is composed of numerous Cambrian age rock formations. The uppermost section of the peak consists of relatively harder dolomite from the Eldon Formation. Below that lies the less dense shales of the Stephen Formation and the lowest exposed cliffs are limestones of the Cathedral Formation. Dogtooth mountains, such as Mount Louis, exhibit sharp, jagged slopes. The Sawback Range, which consists of nearly vertical dipping sedimentary layers, has been eroded by cross gullies. The erosion of these almost vertical layers of rock strata in the Sawback Range has resulted in formations that appear like the teeth on a saw blade. Erosion and deposition of higher elevation rock layers has resulted in scree deposits at the lowest elevations of many of the mountains.

Climate.

Under the Köppen climate classification, the park has a subarctic climate ("Dfc") with cold, snowy winters, and mild summers. The climate is influenced by altitude with lower temperatures generally found at higher elevations. Located on the eastern side of the Continental Divide, Banff National Park receives of precipitation annually. This is considerably less than in Yoho National Park on the western side of the divide in British Columbia, where is received at Wapta Lake and at Boulder Creek annually. Being influenced by altitude,

Ecology.

Ecoregions.

Banff National Park spans three ecoregions, including montane, subalpine, and alpine. The subalpine ecoregion, which consists mainly of dense forest, comprises 53 percent of Banff's area. 27 percent of the park is located above the tree line, in the alpine ecoregion. The tree line in Banff lies approximately at, with open meadows at alpine regions and some areas

Wildlife.

The park has 56 recorded mammal species. Grizzly bears and black bears inhabit the forested regions. Cougar, lynx, wolverine, red fox, weasel, river otter, coyote, and wolf are the primary predatory mammals. Elk, mule deer, and white-tailed deer are common in the valleys of the park, including around (and sometimes in) the Banff townsite, while moose tend to be more elusive, sticking primarily to wetland areas and near streams. In the alpine regions, mountain goat, bighorn sheep, marmot and pika are widespread. Other mammals such as beaver, porcupine, squirrel, chipmunk, snowshoe hare, and Columbian ground squirrel are the more commonly observed smaller mammals. Caribou were the rarest large mammals in the park,

Mountain pine beetles.

Mountain pine beetles have caused a number of large-scale infestations in Banff National Park, feeding on the phloem of mature lodgepole pines.

Tourism.

Banff National Park is the most visited Alberta tourist destination and one of the most visited national parks in North America, with more than three million tourists annually. Tourism in Banff contributes an estimated C$6 billion annually to the economy.  A park pass is required for stopping in the park, and permit checks are common during the summer months, especially at Lake Louise and the start of

General management.

Banff National Park is managed by Parks Canada, under the "National Parks Act" which was passed in 1930. Over time, park management policies have increasingly emphasized environmental protection over development. In 1964, a policy statement was issued that reiterated ideals of conservation laid out in the 1930 act. With the controversial bid for the 1972 Winter Olympics, environmental groups became more influential, leading Parks Canada to withdraw its support for the bid. The 1979 Beaver Book was a

Wildlife management.

Previous management.

The park was originally considered as a recreational area for visitors offering multiple leisure activities – the original wildlife policy viewed wildlife in Banff only as game or pests up until the 1960s and 1970s. As ecological awareness increased, management procedures expanded with the inclusion of public participation in many management decisions. Simultaneously, the increase

Large species management.

Elk are a very important species in Banff National Park, partly because they represent a source of food for declining wolves. However they also have harsh impacts on the environment. Large elk populations cause vegetation degradation, human–animal conflicts and destabilization of biological interactions. In 1999, the implementation of the Banff National Park Elk Management Strategy by Parks Canada and the Elk Advisory Committee aimed to monitor and control the population to decrease conflicts and aid ecological process recovery.  Elk handling facilities are areas of pens with loading and unloading ramps where

Strategies.

Wildlife crossings have been successful in Banff National Park at reducing the number of animals killed on the roads. There is also 82 km of fencing at the edge of the highway in the park to prevent animals from getting onto the roads. Since it was put up, this has reduced collisions between wildlife and vehicles by over 80 per cent.  Train tracks still pose challenges to conservationists. Many bears have been killed by trains, often because they are attracted to grain spills along the tracks. Transportation corridors provide openings for plants which are also utilised by bears. A partnership between Parks Canada and Canadian

Human impact.

Environment.

Since the 19th century, humans have impacted Banff's environment through introduction of non-native species, controls on other species, and development in the Bow Valley, among other human activities. Bison once lived in the valleys of Banff, but were hunted by indigenous people and the last bison were killed off in 1850s. In 2017 a small herd of sixteen plains Bison were reintroduced into an eastern section of the park. Elk are not indigenous to Banff, and were introduced in 1917 with 57 elk brought in from Yellowstone National Park. The introduction of elk to Banff, combined with controls on coyote and wolves by Parks Canada beginning in the 1930s, has caused imbalance of the ecosystem. Other species that have been displaced from the Bow Valley include grizzly bears, cougars, lynx, wolverine, otter,

Fire management.

Parks Canada management practices, notably fire suppression, since Banff National Park was established have impacted

Transportation.

Banff National Park is bisected by two highways that cross the Alberta/British Columbia border while another provides a third access within Alberta. The Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1) bisects the park in an east-west direction, connecting it to Vancouver to the west and Calgary to the east. Highway 93 bisects the park in a north-south direction, connecting it to Cranbrook to the south and Jasper to the

Development.

In 1978, expansion of Sunshine Village ski resort was approved, with added parking, hotel expansion, and development of Goat's Eye Mountain. Implementation of this development proposal was delayed through the 1980s, while environmental assessments were conducted. In 1989, Sunshine Village withdrew its

Banff-Bow Valley Study.

While the "National Parks Act" and the 1988 amendment emphasize ecological integrity, in practice Banff has suffered from inconsistent application of the policies. In 1994, the Banff-Bow Valley Study was mandated by Sheila Copps, the minister responsible for Parks Canada, to provide recommendations on how to better manage human use and development, and maintain ecological integrity. While the two-year Banff-Bow Valley Study was underway, development projects were halted, including the expansion of Sunshine Village, and the twinning of the Trans-Canada Highway between Castle Junction and Sunshine.  The panel issued over 500 recommendations, including

Canmore.

With the cap on growth in the town of Banff, Canmore, located just outside the Banff boundary, has been growing rapidly to serve increasing demands of

Banff National Park () is Canada's oldest national park and was established in 1885. Located in Alberta's Rocky Mountains, west of Calgary, Banff encompasses of mountainous terrain, with many glaciers and ice fields, dense coniferous forest, and alpine landscapes. The Icefields Parkway extends from Lake Louise, connecting to Jasper National Park in the north. Provincial forests and Yoho National Park are neighbours to the west, while Kootenay National Park is located to the south and Kananaskis Country to the southeast. The main commercial centre of the park is the town of Banff, in the Bow River valley. The Canadian Pacific Railway was instrumental in Banff's early years, building the Banff Springs Hotel and Chateau Lake Louise, and attracting tourists through extensive advertising. In the early 20th century, roads were built in Banff, at times by war internees from World War I, and through Great Depression-era public works projects. Since the 1960s, park accommodations have been open all year, with annual tourism visits to Banff increasing to over 5 million in the 1990s. Millions more pass through the park on the Trans-Canada Highway. As Banff has over three million visitors annually, the health of its ecosystem has been threatened. In the mid-1990s, Parks Canada responded by initiating a two-year study which resulted in management recommendations and new policies that aim to preserve ecological integrity.

Národní park Banff je nejstarší kanadský národní park zaujímající rozlohu 6 640 km2. Rozkládá se v jihozápadní Albertě 120km od Calgary a byl založen roku 1885. Tento park nabízí krásné scenérie Skalnatých hor a krásné pohledy na jezero Louise. Na území parku leží městečko Banff, jež je považováno za turistické centrum oblasti.


Early life and education.

Füle was born on 24 May 1962 in Sokolov, then in Czechoslovakia. He studied at the Charles University in Prague (1980–1981, two semesters at the Faculty of Philosophy) and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (1981–1986).

Diplomatic career.

He has held several positions within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Füle served as First Secretary of Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic (until 1993 Czechoslovakia) to the UN in New York City from 1990 to 1995. His next assignment was at the headquarters of the Ministry in Prague until 1998. Then he served as the Czech Ambassador to Lithuania (1998–2001), also being the NATO contact point there. In 2000, Füle accepted the position of the First Deputy Minister of Defense but later returned to diplomatic work. He had served as the nation's Ambassador to the United Kingdom (2003–2005) before being appointed as the Permanent Representative of his country to NATO (11 July 2005–7 May 2009).

European Commissioner.

Füle served as the Minister for European Affairs in the caretaker government of Jan Fischer in 2009, and has served as the Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy under the second Barroso Commission since February 2010.

Nomination.

Fischer's government waited for political parties to agree on one candidate to become the next European Commissioner for the Czech Republic, but they were not able to agree on one name. Social Democrats nominated Vladimír Špidla and Civic Democrats endorsed Alexandr Vondra; Jan Švejnar and Pavel Svoboda were candidates of the minority Green Party and Christian Democrats, respectively. The Czech Republic was urged to announce a person's name by the President of the European Commission José Barroso. Prime Minister Jan Fischer was also offered the post but refused. There were rumors about Vladimír Dlouhý and Zdeněk Tůma being offered the post. Dlouhý was willing to accept the nomination and Tůma refused it. On 10 November 2009, the Cabinet made the decision of approving Füle's nomination.

Issues.

Füle has argued that "enlargement is the most important transformation instrument the EU has" and attributes the "difficult reforms" that brought about Central and Southeastern Europe's political and economic transformations to the fact that they were "tak[ing[ place within the wider enlargement strategy".  He has been working hard to bring six of the EU's neighbors, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, under its wing, but the anticipated summit in Vilnius, Lithuania in November 2013 only saw Georgia and Moldova initial association agreements, with Ukraine's last-minute cold feet a major disappointment.  On July 18, 2014, Füle was present to hear the Parliament of Georgia unanimously vote (123-0, 27 abstained) to ratify its association agreement. Before the vote, Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili told Füle his country had formulated a "Georgia 2020 social-democratic development strategy", aimed at easing European integration.  On Turkey's accession, Füle is optimistic in a long-term way: “Whenever I am asked if I could imagine Turkey in the EU, my answer is ‘Yes, absolutely.’ But it will be a different Turkey and it will be a different European Union”.  In 2015, news media reported that Füle was included in a Russian blacklist of prominent people from the European Union who are not allowed to enter the country.  From the year 2016 Füle is a member of Prague Society for International Cooperation, a respected NGO whose main goals are networking and the development of a new generation of responsible, well-informed leaders and thinkers.

Štefan Füle (born 24 May 1962 in Sokolov) is a former Czech diplomat who served as the European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy from February 2010 until October 2014.

Štefan Füle (* 24. května 1962 Sokolov) je bývalý český diplomat a politik, od května do listopadu 2009 ministr pro evropské záležitosti ve vládě Jana Fischera. Od února 2010 do října 2014 zastával post eurokomisaře zodpovědného za rozšiřování EU a politiku sousedství.


Life.

Leopold was born at Babenberg castle in Gars am Kamp, the son of Margrave Leopold II and Ida of Formbach-Ratelnberg. The Babenbergs had come to Austria from Bavaria where the family had risen to prominence in the 10th Century. He grew up in the diocese of Passau under the influence of the reformer Bishop Altmann of Passau.  In 1096 Leopold succeeded his father as margrave of Austria at the age of 23. He married twice. His first wife, who died in 1105, may have been one of the von Perg family. The following year he married Agnes, the widowed sister of Emperor Henry V whom he had supported against her father Henry IV. This connection to the Salians raised the importance of the House of Babenberg, to which important royal rights over the margravate of Austria were granted. Also, Agnes had influential connections through her previous marriage to Frederick of Hohenstaufen, one of her sons being Conrad III of Germany.  Leopold called himself "Princeps Terræ", a reflection of his sense of territorial independence. He was considered a candidate in the election of the Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire in 1125, but declined this honour.  He is mainly remembered for the development of the country and, in particular, the founding of several monasteries. His most important foundation is Klosterneuburg (1108). According to legend, the Virgin Mary appeared to him and led him to a place where he found the veil of his wife Agnes, who had lost it years earlier. He established the Klosterneuburg Monastery there. He subsequently expanded the settlement to become his residence.  Leopold also founded the monasteries of Heiligenkreuz, Kleinmariazell and Seitenstetten which developed a territory still largely covered by forest. All of these induced the church to canonize him in 1485.  Leopold also fostered the development of cities, such as Klosterneuburg, Vienna and Krems. The last one was granted the right to mint but never attained great importance.  The writings of Henry of Melk and Ava of Göttweig, which are the first literary texts from Austria, date back to Leopold's time.  He is buried in the Klosterneuburg Monastery, which he founded. His skull is kept in an embroidered reliquary, which leaves the forehead exposed; it also wears an archducal hat.  In 1663, under the rule of his namesake Emperor Leopold I, he was declared patron saint of Austria instead of Saint Koloman.  The brothers Joseph and Michael Haydn, each of whom sang in the choir of St. Stephen's Cathedral, both sang in that capacity at Klosterneuburg on this day. Joseph Haydn later became the more famous composer of the two. Michael Haydn later (1805) wrote a Mass in honour of Leopold, the "Missa sub titulo Sancti Leopoldi."  Since the death of King Leopold I, the King's Feast is celebrated in Belgium on Leopold's feast day.

Children.

By his first marriage, possibly to a lady of the Perg family: By his second wife, Agnes of Germany, widow of Frederick I, Duke of Swabia: According to the "Continuation of the Chronicles of Klosterneuburg", there may have been up to seven others (possibly from multiple births) stillborn or died in infancy.

Saint Leopold III (, 1073 – 15 November 1136), known as Leopold the Good, was the Margrave of Austria from 1095 to his death in 1136. He was a member of the House of Babenberg. He was canonized on 6 January 1485 and became the patron saint of Austria, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, and Vienna. His feast day is 15 November.

Leopold III. Babenberský (1073, Melk – 15. listopadu 1136, Klosterneuburg) byl v letech 1096 až 1136 rakouský markrabě. Je patron Rakouska, Dolních Rakous, Horních Rakous a Vídně. Byl svatořečen (lat. kanonizován) 6. ledna 1485. Jeho svátek se slaví 15. listopadu.


Biography.

Bodorová studied composition at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (JAMU) in Brno and later as a post-graduate at the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. She continued her studies in Gdańsk and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena (with Professor Franco Donatoni) and from 1987 she attended Professor Ton de Leeuw's composition courses in Amsterdam. She taught at JAMU in Brno and, in the 1990s, at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she was visiting professor for the 1994–95 and 1995-96 academic years. In 1993 she had made her first visit to the United States for a week-long residency in the School of Fine Arts at Miami University, Ohio. The music library at the University of Cincinnati contains several of Bodorová's published scores, as well as copies of manuscript scores of her works.  Bodorová's works have been performed on every continent, including the Antarctic, where there was a performance of her ""Homage to Columbus"" for guitar in 1997. She has received several competition prizes (Mannheim, Czech Radio Prague) and several commissions from the Warwick Festival: "Megiddo - Piano Trio" - 2001, for the same festival -"Terezin Ghetto Requiem" - Škampa Quartet - 1998, "Ama me" for baritone and piano - 1999 and "Vertumnus - Brass Quintet" in 2005.  In 1999 she also wrote compositions for Buenos Aires – "Concierto de Estío" for Guitar and Orchestra – and for Bochum in Germany – "Saturnalia for Orchestra". After the success of "Terezín Ghetto Requiem", the Prague Spring International Music Festival commissioned the oratorio "Juda Maccabeus" for a performance in St. Vitus Cathedral (with Gabriela Beňačková,, Ivan Kusnjer and the Prague Philharmonic Choir) in May 2002 and then at the Litomyšl International Festival in June 2002. "Concerto dei fiori for Violin and Strings" was premiered at the Prague Spring Festival 1997, then performed in the United States in 1998 and the PONTES Festival in Prague.  "Terezin Ghetto Requiem" for Baritone and String Quartet was performed at the Warwick and Leamington Festival in July 1998, Wigmore Hall in London in October 1998, again in Warwick in July 1999, other festivals in UK, in Berlin (November 1999), in Halle (Saale), Terezín, at the Prague Spring Festival 2000, Coventry and Huddersfield (November 2000). In 2003 Bodorová finished a commission by the Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival – a composition for Harp and Strings "Mysterium druidum". She composed "Rotationes for clarinet, violin, viola and cello" for the same festival in 2012.  She finished the commission for Camerata Bern (Bern Concerto, Silberwolke) – "Concerto for Violin, Viola and Strings", which was performed in Bern and Germany in August and September 2005. She wrote the piano concerto "Come d'accordo" for Prague Philharmonia and pianist, premiered in February 2006, the song cycle "Slovak Songs" for Štefan Margita and Gabriela Beňačková – the cycle was recorded in 2006 – and "Amor tenet omnia" – a cycle of choruses on the texts from Carmina Burana premiered in Luxembourg and France in August 2007.  The oratorio "Moses" was commissioned by the International Litomyšl Smetana Festival and premiered in 2008. In 2009 she wrote "Carmina lucemburgiana" for strings. It was commissioned by the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and its embassy in Prague. In May 2012 Bodorová finished Lingua angelorum – a song cycle for baritone and large symphony orchestra inspired by Rudolf II. The composition was commissioned by and was dedicated to Thomas Hampson. She wrote the orchestral version of Dvořák's "Gypsy Melodies", Op. 55, for Thomas Hampson and Wiener Virtuosen, which premiered at the Musikverein in Vienna in February 2013.  Bodorová was a member of "Quattro", a group of Czech composers formed in 1996, also featuring Otmar Mácha (1922–2006), Luboš Fišer (1935–1999) and Zdeněk Lukáš (1928–2007). She is also involved in the restoration of Gustav Mahler's birthplace in Kaliště near Humpolec in the Czech Republic. She has also composed and arranged many compositions for children. Her music often features references to Johann Sebastian Bach's music (such as a quotation of his choral "Schmücke dich o liebe Seele" at the end of Concerto dei fiori and transcriptions of Preludium C moll from Wohl Temperiertes Klavier, Toccata D minor), and to Roma and Eastern European rhythms (her ancestors are from Hungary).

List of compositions.

Chamber music.

"Strings:"  Solo:  Duets:  Trios:  Quartets and Quintets:  More than five performers:  "Winds:"  Solo:  Duets:  More performers:

Vocal and vocal-instrumental works.

"Choir works"  commissioned by Thomas Hampson with Wiener Virtuosi

Sylvie Bodorová (born 31 December 1954, České Budějovice) is a Czech composer. During a career spanning from the late 1970s to the present day she has composed a large number of works for various instruments, both solo and orchestral pieces, and produced commissions for cities, festivals and organisations around the world. She was a founder (and only surviving) member of the Czech classical group "Quattro", formed in 1996.

Sylvie Bodorová (* 31. prosince 1954 České Budějovice) je česká hudební skladatelka. Její orchestrální, koncertantní, komorní i další skladby jsou provozovány doma i v zahraničí.


History.

Cocteau's play.

Cocteau finished writing " in 1928, and the monodrama was premiered two years later. Having been previously criticized for using mechanical effects in his plays, Cocteau sought to reduce his drama to the "simplest of forms". Indeed, the one-act play involves a single character in a single room with a telephone. The character—an anonymous woman referred to only as "Elle" ("she" in French)—has been abandoned by her lover and reveals that she has attempted to commit suicide. The play consists of her last conversation with her lover. As a one-act play, the drama lacks the breaks that would traditionally determine its structure. Instead, Cocteau suggests that the actress's different poses represent different "phases" of the monologue. The structure of the play is further delineated by the phone cutting off frequently without warning.

Motivation.

Upon the success of his second opera "Dialogues des Carmélites" in 1957, Poulenc was encouraged to compose more works in the genre. Hervé Dugardin, the Paris director of Ricordi Publishers, suggested that Poulenc set Cocteau's monodrama to music, with Greek-American soprano Maria Callas singing the role of Elle. Poulenc, however, wrote the opera specifically for Denise Duval, who had starred as Blanche de la Force in the Paris Opéra premiere of "Dialogues". Poulenc's close work with Duval helped his compositional process because he "knew the details of the soprano's stormy love life, and this helped to cultivate a sense of specificity in the opera." Poulenc also identified with Elle's situation, which allowed him to "pour immense anguish into his opera... Like her he abused sleeping pills, tranquilizers and anti-depressants." He thus immersed himself in a deeply personal project with which he easily connected.

Adapting Cocteau's text.

Poulenc met Cocteau early in his career because of the latter's close relationship with Les Six, a group of six French composers of which Poulenc was a member. The two maintained a close friendship throughout their lives, but Poulenc did not set many of Cocteau's texts prior the composition of "La voix humaine", about forty years after their first encounter. Poulenc himself explained that he waited so many years to set Cocteau's play because he felt that he needed a great deal of experience to perfectly construct such a work.  In composing "", Poulenc strove to maintain the emotional effectiveness of Cocteau's original drama. He very carefully adapted Cocteau's text, omitting only those passages that he believed would reduce the emotional tension of the opera. In his article on Poulenc and Cocteau, Denis Waleckx proposes that there are five types of "phases" in Cocteau's play. These phases deal with chronology, psychological evolution, social interaction, telephone problems, and the "remembrance of past happiness." Poulenc left the chronology, telephone problem, and past happiness phases mostly intact, but cut down on or entirely omitted many of the psychological or social phases. This resulted in a protagonist who was "quieter, more modest, less hysterical, less unbearable, and thereby probably more touching than Cocteau's." Poulenc thereby focused on the relationship of the woman and her lover, while still retaining the key points and overall character of Cocteau's play.

Collaboration.

Poulenc viewed the soprano singing the role of Elle as "a co-composer" of the part. Because Poulenc wrote the role specifically for Duval, the French soprano was his original "co-composer." Duval also helped Poulenc with his adaptation of Cocteau's text. Upon the opera's completion, Poulenc and Duval visited Cocteau, who was responsible for directing and designing costumes and stage décor for the premiere. Cocteau worked closely with Duval and adapted his directions for lighting and costuming to complement her physical attributes.

Premiere.

Poulenc finished his score for voice and piano on 2 June 1958 and spent the next two months orchestrating the work, completing the version for full orchestra on 7 August 1958. The "tragédie-lyrique" was premiered on 6 February 1959 at the Opéra-Comique, Paris, with Georges Prêtre conducting and Duval performing the role of Elle. The opera met immediate success and went on to be performed at La Scala in Milan, as well as in Portugal, Britain, and the United States.

Synopsis.

The curtain opens to reveal a bedroom where a woman (Elle) lies unmoving on the ground. She changes position once before finally rising. Although she makes to leave the room, the phone rings and she returns to answer it. The woman receives two wrong numbers before her ex-lover is able to get through to her. She lies to him, saying that she went out with her friend Marthe the previous night, and that she took one pill to help her fall asleep when she returned. The couple discuss their past relationship, and Elle blames herself for their problems, claiming, "Tout est ma faute." Throughout their conversation, they experience numerous telephone problems, and their connection finally cuts out completely. When Elle calls her lover's home phone, she discovers that he is not there and assumes that he is at a restaurant. He calls her back, and Elle reveals that she has lied during their conversation; instead of going out with Marthe the previous night, she took twelve sleeping pills in an attempted suicide. She then called Marthe, who arrived with a doctor to save her. Elle suddenly hears music in the background, and she grows suspicious that her lover is at the home of his new girlfriend. She expresses her suspicions to him several times until the end of the opera, but he never admits to his true location. Elle also reveals her obsession with the telephone, explaining that she has slept with it in her bed for the past two nights. Their connection fails once again, and Elle panics. Her lover calls her back once more, and she informs him that she now has the telephone cord wrapped around her neck. Telling him she loves him over and over, she sinks into her bed and drops the receiver, possibly strangling herself with its cord in the process.

Instrumentation.

"La voix humaine" is scored for full symphony orchestra with reduced dimensions, so that the sung text is easily understandable. The entire orchestra rarely plays at once; such moments occur only when the soprano does not sing, or when her voice lyrically rises above the orchestra. Poulenc writes coloristically, using different combinations of instruments to achieve certain effects. The instrumentation listed in Poulenc's score is as follows:

Musical structure.

Treatment of the voice.

Poulenc's writing for the voice is recitative-like in style, representing the natural inflections of speech and, in the case of this particular drama, imitating a phone conversation through its frequent pauses and silences. Poulenc rejects his previous lyricism, opting for a fragmentary, declamatory approach to the voice. Common characteristics of Poulenc's vocal lines include multiple repeated notes, few intervals greater than a fifth, much step-wise motion and motion by a third, and rhythm and accents designed to reflect actual speech patterns, especially "the pauses and hesitations of a phone conversation." Keith W. Daniel notes that out of the 780 measures of music in Poulenc's work, 186 are for solo voice without orchestral accompaniment, adding to the impression of a real telephone conversation. Many of the techniques described above are present in Example 1. Poulenc strays from the recitative in highly dramatic passages, including when Elle sings of her suicide attempt of the previous night. This section is more lyrical and tonal, as can be seen in Example 2. Here, the vocal line more resembles an aria, especially as it builds toward its high point in the nine-eight measure, and the orchestra accompanies the voice in a waltz. The harmony, meanwhile, is a dominant prolongation in C (minor), and indeed, the orchestra resolves to C (major) in the following measure. Poulenc's vocal writing shows a strong dedication to maintaining the dramatic effect of Cocteau's text. The recitative-like passages clearly deliver the libretto, while the aria-like passages illustrate the soprano's passion and anguish.

Treatment of the orchestra.

Poulenc uses the orchestra to connect the soprano's fragmented vocal lines, unifying the piece as a whole. Unlike his treatment of the soprano voice, Poulenc gives the orchestra many lyrical motifs, writing in the preface his score, "L'œuvre entière doit baigner dans la plus grande sensualité orchestrale" ("The entire work must bathe in the largest orchestral sensuality"). He unifies the opera through these motifs, of which Denis Waleckx identifies fourteen. These motifs relate to Elle's state of mind, such as those representing her "exasperated waiting," and to situations out of her control, such as her "happy memory." The first of these motifs is shown in Example 3. Daniel, however, suggests that only nine of Waleckx's examples are true motifs, while the remaining one- or two-bar phrases employ a cellular technique in which a short phrase is presented, then repeated once or twice. What Waleckx cites as the "Endurance" motif (see Example 4), Daniel uses to illustrate Poulenc's cellular technique. Despite their different interpretations, both authors agree that the primary function of the orchestra is to unify the opera into a cohesive work. As Daniel explains, "If "La voix humaine" succeeds as a drama, it is because of the vocal writing; but if it succeeds as a piece of music, as an opera, it is because of the orchestra."

Use of tonality.

"La voix humaine" stands out from Poulenc's previous works because it is marked by a certain tonal ambiguity. Poulenc achieves this sensation through the avoidance of traditional harmonic functions and the preponderance of unresolved dissonances, diminished structures, and progressions of chromatically-related chords. Although some passages—most often those in which the voice becomes more lyrical—have a clear tonal center, the tonally ambiguous sections are much more frequent in Poulenc's score. Grover-Friedlander suggests that the music is motivically, rather than tonally, driven. Yet in these motives, she identifies a number of tonal references, including "half steps or leading notes, sevenths, or appoggiaturas, which raise expectations for tonal functioning and tonal resolutions. Poulenc's motivic, cell-like aesthetics does not undermine a sense of totality, but treats it as constantly deferred, or in motion." Poulenc thereby uses tonal techniques in a more modern, tonally ambiguous harmonic language.

Notes, references and sources.

Notes References Sources

The libretto consists of a woman's last phone conversation with her lover, who now loves someone else. During the call, the woman reveals that she has attempted suicide because her lover has abandoned her.

Lidský hlas (ve francouzštině: "La voix humaine") je jednoaktová monoopera pro jednu roli od Francise Poulenca na libreto, které vytvořil Jean Cocteau podle své stejnojmenné hry z roku 1930.


Plot summary.

William Legrand has relocated from New Orleans to Sullivan's Island in South Carolina after losing his family fortune, and has brought his African-American servant Jupiter with him. The story's narrator, a friend of Legrand, visits him one evening to see an unusual scarab-like bug he has found. The bug's weight and lustrous appearance convince Jupiter that it is made of pure gold. Legrand has lent it to an officer stationed at a nearby fort, but he draws a sketch of it for the narrator, with markings on the carapace that resemble a skull. As they discuss the bug, Legrand becomes particularly focused on the sketch and carefully locks it in his desk for safekeeping. Confused, the narrator takes his leave for the night.  One month later, Jupiter visits the narrator on behalf of his master and asks him to come immediately, fearing that Legrand has been bitten by the bug and gone insane. Once they arrive on the island, Legrand insists that the bug will be the key to restoring his lost fortune. He leads them on an expedition to a particular tree and has Jupiter climb it until he finds a skull nailed at the end of one branch. At Legrand's direction, Jupiter drops the bug through one eye socket and Legrand paces out to a spot where the group begins to dig. Finding nothing there, Legrand has Jupiter climb the tree again and drop the bug through the skull's other eye; they choose a different spot to dig, this time finding two skeletons and a chest filled with gold coins and jewelry. They estimate the total value at $1.5 million, but even that figure proves to be below the actual worth when they eventually sell the items.  Legrand explains that on the day he found the bug on the mainland coastline, Jupiter had picked up a scrap piece of parchment to wrap it up. Legrand kept the scrap and used it to sketch the bug for the narrator; in so doing, though, he noticed traces of invisible ink, revealed by the heat of the fire burning on the hearth. The parchment proved to contain a cryptogram, which Legrand deciphered as a set of directions for finding a treasure buried by the infamous pirate Captain Kidd. The final step involved dropping a slug or weight through the left eye of the skull in the tree; their first dig failed because Jupiter mistakenly dropped it through the right eye instead. Legrand muses that the skeletons may be the remains of two members of Kidd's crew, who buried the chest and were then killed to silence them.

The cryptogram.

The story involves cryptography with a detailed description of a method for solving a simple substitution cipher using letter frequencies. The encoded message is:  The key (with letter frequency) is: The decoded message is: The decoded message with spaces, punctuation, and capitalization is:  Legrand determined that the "bishop's hostel" referred to the site of an ancient manor house, where he found a narrow ledge that roughly resembled a chair (the "devil's seat"). Using a telescope and sighting at the given bearing, he spotted something white among the branches of a large tree; this proved to be the skull through which a weight had to be dropped from the left eye in order to find the treasure.

Analysis.

"The Gold-Bug" includes a cipher that uses a simple substitution cipher. Though he did not invent "secret writing" or cryptography (he was probably inspired by an interest in Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe"), Poe certainly popularized it during his time. To most people in the 19th century, cryptography was mysterious and those able to break the codes were considered gifted with nearly supernatural ability. Poe had drawn attention to it as a novelty over four months in the Philadelphia publication "Alexander's Weekly Messenger" in 1840. He had asked readers to submit their own substitution ciphers, boasting he could solve all of them with little effort. The challenge brought about, as Poe wrote, "a very lively interest among the numerous readers of the journal. Letters poured in upon the editor from all parts of the country." In July 1841, Poe published "A Few Words on Secret Writing" and, realizing the interest in the topic, wrote "The Gold-Bug" as one of the few pieces of literature to incorporate ciphers as part of the story. Poe's character Legrand's explanation of his ability to solve the cipher is very like Poe's explanation in "A Few Words on Secret Writing". The actual "gold-bug" in the story is not a real insect. Instead, Poe combined characteristics of two insects found in the area where the story takes place. The "Callichroma splendidum", though not technically a scarab but a species of longhorn beetle (Cerambycidae), has a gold head and slightly gold-tinted body. The black spots noted on the back of the fictional bug can be found on the "Alaus oculatus", a click beetle also native to Sullivan's Island.  Poe's depiction of the African servant Jupiter is often considered stereotypical and racist. Jupiter is depicted as superstitious and so lacking in intelligence that he cannot tell his left from his right. Poe probably included the character after being inspired by a similar character in "Sheppard Lee" (1836) by Robert Montgomery Bird, which he had reviewed. Black characters in fiction during this time period were not unusual, but Poe's choice to give him a speaking role was. Critics and scholars, however, question if Jupiter's accent was authentic or merely comic relief, suggesting it was not similar to accents used by blacks in Charleston but possibly inspired by Gullah.  Though the story is often included amongst the short list of detective stories by Poe, "The Gold-Bug" is not technically detective fiction because Legrand withholds the evidence until after the solution is given. Nevertheless, the Legrand character is often compared to Poe's fictional detective C. Auguste Dupin due to his use of "ratiocination". "Ratiocination", a term Poe used to describe Dupin's method, is the process by which Dupin detects what others have not seen or what others have deemed unimportant.

Publication history and reception.

Poe originally sold "The Gold-Bug" to George Rex Graham for "Graham's Magazine" for $52 but asked for it back when he heard about a writing contest sponsored by Philadelphia's "Dollar Newspaper". Incidentally, Poe did not return the money to Graham and instead offered to make it up to him with reviews he would write. Poe won the grand prize; in addition to winning $100, the story was published in two installments on June 21 and June 28, 1843, in the newspaper. His $100 payment from the newspaper may have been the most he was paid for a single work. Anticipating a positive public response, the "Dollar Newspaper" took out a copyright on "The Gold-Bug" prior to publication.  The story was republished in three installments in the "Saturday Courier" in Philadelphia on June 24, July 1, and July 8, the last two appeared on the front page and included illustrations by F. O. C. Darley. Further reprintings in United States newspapers made "The Gold-Bug" Poe's most widely read short story during his lifetime. By May 1844, Poe reported that it had circulated 300,000 copies, though he was probably not paid for these reprints. It also helped increase his popularity as a lecturer. One lecture in Philadelphia after "The Gold-Bug" was published drew such a large crowd that hundreds were turned away. As Poe wrote in a letter in 1848, it "made a great noise." He would later compare the public success of "The Gold-Bug" with "The Raven", though he admitted "the bird beat the bug".  The "Public Ledger" in Philadelphia called it "a capital story". George Lippard wrote in the "Citizen Soldier" that the story was "characterised by thrilling interest and a graphic though sketchy power of description. It is one of the best stories that Poe ever wrote." "Graham's Magazine" printed a review in 1845 which called the story "quite remarkable as an instance of intellectual acuteness and subtlety of reasoning". Thomas Dunn English wrote in the "Aristidean" in October 1845 that "The Gold-Bug" probably had a greater circulation than any other American story and "perhaps it is the most "ingenious" story Mr. POE has written; but... it is not at all comparable to the 'Tell-tale Heart'—and more especially to 'Ligeia'". Poe's friend Thomas Holley Chivers said that "The Gold-Bug" ushered in "the Golden Age of Poe's Literary Life".  The popularity of the story also brought controversy. Within a month of its publication, Poe was accused of conspiring with the prize committee by Philadelphia's "Daily Forum". The publication called "The Gold-Bug" an ""abortion"" and ""unmitigated trash"" worth no more than $15. Poe filed for a libel lawsuit against editor Francis Duffee. It was later dropped and Duffee apologized for suggesting Poe did not earn the $100 prize. Editor John Du Solle accused Poe of stealing the idea for "The Gold-Bug" from "Imogine; or the Pirate's Treasure", a story written by a schoolgirl named Miss Sherburne.  "The Gold-Bug" was republished as the first story in the Wiley & Putnam collection of Poe's "Tales" in June 1845, followed by "The Black Cat" and ten other stories. The success of this collection inspired the first French translation of "The Gold-Bug" published in November 1845 by Alphonse Borghers in the "Revue Britannique" under the title, "Le Scarabée d'or", becoming the first literal translation of a Poe story into a foreign language. In the French version, the enciphered message remained in English, with a parenthesized translation supplied alongside its solution. The story was translated into Russian from that version two years later, marking Poe's literary debut in that country. In 1856, Charles Baudelaire published his translation of the tale in the first volume of "Histoires extraordinaires". Baudelaire was very influential in introducing Poe's work to Europe and his translations became the definitive renditions throughout the continent.

Influence.

"The Gold-Bug" inspired Robert Louis Stevenson in his novel about treasure-hunting, "Treasure Island" (1883). Stevenson acknowledged this influence: "I broke into the gallery of Mr. Poe... No doubt the skeleton [in my novel] is conveyed from Poe."  Poe played a major role in popularizing cryptograms in newspapers and magazines in his time period and beyond. William F. Friedman, America's foremost cryptologist, initially became interested in cryptography after reading "The Gold-Bug" as a child—interest that he later put to use in deciphering Japan's PURPLE code during World War II. "The Gold-Bug" also includes the first use of the term "cryptograph" (as opposed to "cryptogram").  Poe had been stationed at Fort Moultrie from November 1827 through December 1828 and utilized his personal experience at Sullivan's Island in recreating the setting for "The Gold-Bug". It was also here that Poe first heard the stories of pirates like Captain Kidd. The residents of Sullivan's Island embrace this connection to Poe and have named their public library after him. Local legend in Charleston says that the poem "Annabel Lee" was also inspired by Poe's time in South Carolina. Poe also set part of "The Balloon-Hoax" and "The Oblong Box" in this vicinity.  O. Henry alludes to the stature of "The Gold-Bug" within the buried-treasure genre in his short story "Supply and Demand". One character learns that the main characters are searching for treasure, and he asks them if they have been reading Edgar Allan Poe. The title of Richard Powers' 1991 novel "The Gold Bug Variations" is derived from "The Gold-Bug" and from Bach's composition "Goldberg Variations", and the novel incorporates part of the short story's plot.  Jewish Russian author David Shrayer-Petrov published "The House of Edgar Allan Poe" in "2011 Prose", with "The Gold-Bug" serving as a major influence. Shrayer-Petrov includes a beetle, also tied to a string, which finds treasure in the basement of the house of Sarah Helen Whitman, Poe's love interest who lived in Providence, Rhode Island.  "The Gold-Bug" is praised by Red Reddington, the central character of the NBC show "The Blacklist", in Season 5, Episode 11. ("It has everything - a delirious search for treasure, the descent into madness, along with ciphers and bugs, a skull nailed to a tree. What a yarn!").

Adaptations.

The story proved popular enough in its day that a stage version opened on August 8, 1843. The production was put together by Silas S. Steele and was performed at the American Theatre in Philadelphia. The editor of the Philadelphia newspaper "The Spirit of the Times" said that the performance "dragged, and was rather tedious. The frame work was well enough, but wanted filling up".  In film and television, an adaptation of the work appeared on "Your Favorite Story" on February 1, 1953 (Season 1, Episode 4). It was directed by Robert Florey with the teleplay written by Robert Libott. A later adaptation of the work appeared on "ABC Weekend Special" on February 2, 1980 (Season 3, Episode 7). This version was directed by Robert Fuest with the teleplay written by Edward Pomerantz. A Spanish feature film adaptation of the work appeared in 1983 under the title "En busca del dragón dorado". It was written and directed by Jesús Franco, using the alias "James P. Johnson".  The 1956 film "Manfish" was adapted from "The Gold-Bug."  "The Gold Bug" episode on the 1980 "ABC Weekend Special" series starred Roberts Blossom as Legrand, Geoffrey Holder as Jupiter, and Anthony Michael Hall. It won three Daytime Emmy Awards: 1) Outstanding Children's Anthology/Dramatic Programming, Linda Gottlieb (executive producer), Doro Bachrach (producer); 2) Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children's Programming, Steve Atha (makeup and hair designer); and, 3) Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children's Programming, Alex Thomson (cinematographer). It was a co-production of Learning Corporation of America.  A simplified version of the story was included in "Murders in the Rue Morgue, and The Gold Bug" (1973) by Robert James Dixson, published by Regents Pub. Co.  A "post-modern", anti-racist radio dramatization of the story was transmitted on BBC Radio 4 in 2001. It was written by Gregory Evans, produced and directed by Ned Chaillet, and starred Clarke Peters, Rhashan Stone, and William Hootkins.  The cipher used in "The Gold-Bug" was also used in the novel "The Man who Was Poe" by Avi. It was used in the story for the antagonists to communicate and is decrypted by its writer, Edgar Allan Poe.  "The Gold-Bug" was produced as a full cast audio drama on the "Journey Into..." podcast. (2014) Producer: Marshal Latham. Voice actors: Big Anklevich and Rish Outfield.  It was adapted into a hidden object puzzle video game for PC and Mac by ERS Studios, published by Big Fish Games, in 2016. The story is altered to have Poe's character Dupin working alongside the player to solve the mystery, and is the fourth installment in the developer's "Dark Tales" games based on the works of Poe.

"The Gold-Bug" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in 1843. The plot follows William Legrand, who was bitten by a gold-colored bug. His servant Jupiter fears that Legrand is going insane and goes to Legrand's friend, an unnamed narrator, who agrees to visit his old friend. Legrand pulls the other two into an adventure after deciphering a secret message that will lead to a buried treasure.

Zlatý brouk nebo také Zlatý skarabeus (v anglickém originále The Gold-Bug) je dobrodružná povídka amerického spisovatele a literárního teoretika Edgara Allana Poea z roku 1843. Dochází v ní k řadě zdánlivě nevysvětlitelných náhod hraničících až s magií, pro které se ovšem najde logické a racionální vysvětlení.


History.

Early wagonways were industrial railways for transporting goods—initially bulky and heavy items, particularly mined stone, ores and coal—from one point to another, most often to a dockside to be loaded onto ships. These early wagonways used a single point-to-point track, and when operators had to move a truck to another wagonway, they did so by hand. The lack of switching technology seriously limited the weight of any loaded wagon combination.  The first railway switches were in fact wagon turnplates or sliding rails. Turnplates were initially made of two or four pieces of wood, circular in form, that replicated the track running through them. Their diameter matched that of the wagons used on any given wagonway, and they swung around a central pivot. Loaded wagons could be moved onto the turnplate, and rotating the turnplate 90 degrees allowed the loaded wagon to be moved to another piece of wagonway. Thus, wagon weight was limited only by the strength of the wood used in the turnplates or sliding rails. When iron and later steel replaced stone and wood, weight capacity rose again.  However, the problems with turnplates and sliding rails were twofold. First, they were relatively small (often no more than in length), which limited the wagon length that could be turned. Second, their switching capacity could only be accessed when the wagon was on top of them and still, which limited the total capacity of any wagonway. The railway switch, which overcame both of these problems, was patented by Charles Fox in 1832.  As steam locomotives replaced horses as the preferred means of power, they became optimised to run in only one direction for operational ease and to provide some weather protection. The resulting need to turn heavy locomotives required an engineering upgrade to the existing turnplate technology. Like earlier turnplates, most new turntables consisted of a circular pit in which a steel bridge rotated. The bridge was typically supported and balanced by the central pivot, to reduce the total load on the pivot and to allow easy turning. This was most often achieved by a steel rail running around the floor of the pit that supported the ends of the bridge when a locomotive entered or exited. The turntables had a positive locking mechanism to prevent undesired rotation and to align the bridge rails with the exit track. Rotation of the bridge could be accomplished manually (either by brute force or with a windlass system), by an external power source, or by the braking system of the locomotive itself, though this required a locomotive to be on the table for it to be rotated.  The turntable bridge (the part of the turntable that included the tracks and that swivelled to turn the equipment) could span from, depending on the railway's needs. Larger turntables were installed in maintenance facilities for longer locomotives, while short line and narrow gauge railways typically used smaller turntables. Turntables as small as in diameter have been installed in some industrial facilities where pieces of equipment are small enough to be pushed one at a time by humans or horsepower.

Roundhouse.

In engine maintenance facilities, a turntable was usually surrounded, in part or in whole, by a roundhouse. It was more common for the roundhouse to only cover a portion of the land around a turntable but fully circular roundhouses exist, such as these preserved roundhouses:

By country.

North America.

Due to the asymmetric design of many locomotives, turntables still in use are more common in North America than in Europe, where locomotive design favors configurations with a controller cabin on both ends or in the middle. In San Francisco, USA, the Powell cable car line uses turntables at the end of the routes, since the cable cars have operating controls at only one end of the car. The Long Island Rail Road still has a turntable and roundhouse at the Richmond Hills yard.

Great Britain.

In Britain, where steam hauled trains generally have vacuum operated brakes, it was quite common for turntables to be operated by vacuum motors worked from the locomotive's vacuum ejector or pump via a flexible hose or pipe although a few manually and electrically operated examples exist. The major manufacturers were Ransomes and Rapier, Ipswich and Cowans Sheldon, Carlisle. The GWR was the railway company that built several tables for its own use; there is little evidence any other companies did so.

India.

There was a turntable at the Talaguppa end of the Shimoga-Talaguppa railway, and one at Howbagh Railway Station near Jabalpur on the Balaghat-Jabalpur Narrow Gauge Line. Both were used to turn the railbuses serving on these lines. After railbuses were replaced by MEMUs, turntables were dismantled.  In 2012, Mumbai Metro One, the BOT operator of the Mumbai Metro Line 1, announced that it had procured turntables to be used on the Rapid Transit system.

Sri Lanka.

In Sri Lanka, most turntables which were used in the steam area have been abandoned. Most were situated at the major railway yards like Kandy, Galle, Nanu Oya, Anuradhapura, Maho, Galoya, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Polgahawela Jnc, Badulla, Puttulam, and Bandarawela and depots in Dematagoda 2no. and Maradana. All turntables in Sri Lanka Railways were operated manually. They were used to turn some rolling stock and non-dual cab locomotives. Most turntables were later scrapped, though some have been preserved in museums.

Israel.

The Israel Railway Museum, Haifa, has a turntable which was made by Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon & Finance Company, Old Park Works, Wednesbury. It was found buried in the grounds of the Israel Defense Forces History Museums, which is on the site of the old Jaffa railway station yard.

Surviving turntables.

Several working examples remain, many on heritage railways in Great Britain, and also in the United States. Some examples include: The following are in storage, awaiting installation at UK sites:  New build turntable. Hitachi Rail Europe's rolling stock plant at Newton Aycliffe in County Durham has an 80 tonne locomotive turntable and a bogie test turntable; supplied by Lloyds British Somers Group in 2016.  The former Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific (Milwaukee Road) in Janesville, Wisconsin. Used now by the regional Wisconsin & Southern

Accidents.

In the United States, when deciding liability for turntable accidents, most state courts followed the precedent set by the United States Supreme Court in "Sioux City & Pacific R.R. v. Stout" (1873). In that case, a six-year-old child was playing on the unguarded, unfenced turntable when his friends began turning it. While attempting to get off, his foot became stuck and was crushed. The Court held that although the railroad was not bound by the same duty of care to strangers as it was to its passengers, it would be liable for negligence "if from the evidence given it might justly be inferred by the jury that the defendant, in the construction, location, management, or condition of its machine has omitted that care and attention to prevent the occurrence of accidents which prudent and careful men ordinarily bestow."  In the case of "Chicago B. & Q.R. Co. v. Krayenbuhl" (1902), a four-year-old child was playing on an unlocked, unguarded railroad turntable. Other children set the turntable in motion, and it severed the ankle of the young child. The child's family sued the railroad company on a theory of negligence and won at trial. The Nebraska Supreme Court held that the railroad company may have been liable for negligence after considering the "character and location of the premises, the purpose for which they are used, the probability of injury therefrom, the precautions necessary to prevent such injury, and the relations such precautions bear to the beneficial use of the premises." However, the Supreme Court reversed the trial court's decision based on an improper jury instruction as to the evidence.  Accidents to locomotives sometimes occurred. For example, if the turntable was incorrectly set and a locomotive was accidentally started or failed to stop, it might fall into the turntable pit.  On rare occasions, a turntable would spin too fast during high winds, like what happened in the UK around the early 1900s

Multiple turntables.

Stations housing large numbers of engines may have more than one turntable:

In rail terminology, a railway turntable or wheelhouse is a device for turning railway rolling stock, usually locomotives, so that they can be moved back in the direction from which they came.<ref name="Locomotive/Railway Turntables"> This is especially true in areas where economic considerations or a lack of sufficient space have served to weigh against the construction of a turnaround wye. In the case of steam locomotives, railways needed a way to turn the locomotives around for return trips as their controls were often not configured for extended periods of running in reverse and in many locomotives the top speed was lower in reverse motion. In the case of diesel locomotives, though most can be operated in either direction, they are treated as having "front ends" and "rear ends" (often determined by reference to the location of the crew cab). When operated as a single unit, the railway company often prefers, or requires, that a diesel locomotive is run "front end" first. When operated as part of a multiple unit locomotive consist, the locomotives can be arranged so that the consist can be operated "front end first" no matter which direction the consist is pointed. Turntables were also used to turn observation cars so that their windowed lounge ends faced toward the rear of the train.

Točna je zařízení, které na železnici zajišťuje otáčení vozidel, především lokomotiv. Patřila k obvyklému vybavení výtopen s půlkruhovými remízami, kde umožňovala vjezd na mnoho stání uspořádaných paprskovitě kolem točny, existovaly ale i samostatné točny s minimem kolejí po obvodu. Před vynálezem výhybky roku 1832 byla nádraží vybavena točnami, které umožňovaly přesuny vozidel mezi jednotlivými kolejemi. Toto použití přežilo až do nedávné minulosti na důlních a podobných drážkách, kde se ručně posunovaly jednotlivé vozíky. Hlavním účelem točny však bylo otáčení parních lokomotiv, které měly při jízdě tendrem vpřed omezenou maximální rychlost.