Engine operation.

Since the axes of the cylinders are coplanar, the connecting rods cannot all be directly attached to the crankshaft unless mechanically complex forked connecting rods are used, none of which have been successful. Instead, the pistons are connected to the crankshaft with a master-and-articulating-rod assembly. One piston, the uppermost one in the animation, has a master rod with a direct attachment to the crankshaft. The remaining pistons pin their connecting rods' attachments to rings around the edge of the master rod. Extra "rows" of radial cylinders can be added in order to increase the capacity of the engine without adding to its diameter.  Four-stroke radials have an odd number of cylinders per row, so that a consistent every-other-piston firing order can be maintained, providing smooth operation. For example, on a five-cylinder engine the firing order is 1, 3, 5, 2, 4, and back to cylinder 1. Moreover, this always leaves a one-piston gap between the piston on its combustion stroke and the piston on compression. The active stroke directly helps compress the next cylinder to fire, making the motion more uniform. If an even number of cylinders were used, an equally timed firing cycle would not be feasible. The prototype radial Zoche aero-diesels (below) have an even number of cylinders, either four or eight; but this is not problematic, because they are two-stroke engines, with twice the number of power strokes as a four-stroke engine per crankshaft rotation.  The radial engine normally uses fewer cam lobes than other types. As with most four-strokes, the crankshaft takes two revolutions to complete the four strokes of each piston (intake, compression, combustion, exhaust). The camshaft ring is geared to spin slower and in the opposite direction to the crankshaft. The cam lobes are placed in two rows for the intake and exhaust. For example, four cam lobes serve all five cylinders, whereas 10 would be required for a typical inline engine with the same number of cylinders and valves.  Most radial engines use overhead poppet valves driven by pushrods and lifters on a cam plate which is concentric with the crankshaft, with a few smaller radials, like the Kinner B-5 and Russian Shvetsov M-11, using individual camshafts within the crankcase for each cylinder. A few engines use sleeve valves such as the 14-cylinder Bristol Hercules and the 18-cylinder Bristol Centaurus, which are quieter and smoother running but require much tighter manufacturing tolerances.

History.

C. M. Manly constructed a water-cooled five-cylinder radial engine in 1901, a conversion of one of Stephen Balzer's rotary engines, for Langley's "Aerodrome" aircraft. Manly's engine produced at 950 rpm.  In 1903–1904 Jacob Ellehammer used his experience constructing motorcycles to build the world's first air-cooled radial engine, a three-cylinder engine which he used as the basis for a more powerful five-cylinder model in 1907. This was installed in his triplane and made a number of short free-flight hops.  Another early radial engine was the three-cylinder Anzani, originally built as a W3 "fan" configuration, one of which powered Louis Blériot's Blériot XI across the English Channel. Before 1914, Alessandro Anzani had developed radial engines ranging from 3 cylinders (spaced 120° apart) — early enough to have been used on a few French-built examples of the famous Blériot XI from the original Blériot factory — to a massive 20-cylinder engine of, with its cylinders arranged in four rows of five cylinders apiece.  Most radial engines are air-cooled, but one of the most successful of the early radial engines (and the earliest "stationary" design produced for World War I combat aircraft) was the Salmson 9Z series of nine-cylinder water-cooled radial engines that were produced in large numbers during the First World War. Georges Canton and Pierre Unné patented the original engine design in 1909, offering it to the Salmson company; the engine was often known as the Canton-Unné.  From 1909 to 1919 the radial engine was overshadowed by its close relative, the rotary engine, which differed from the so-called "stationary" radial in that the crankcase and cylinders revolved with the propeller. It was similar in concept to the later radial, the main difference being that the propeller was bolted to the engine, and the crankshaft to the airframe. The problem of the cooling of the cylinders, a major factor with the early "stationary" radials, was alleviated by the engine generating its own cooling airflow.  In World War I many French and other Allied aircraft flew with Gnome, Le Rhône, Clerget, and Bentley rotary engines, the ultimate examples of which reached although none of those over were successful. By 1917 rotary engine development was lagging behind new inline and V-type engines, which by 1918 were producing as much as, and were powering almost all of the new French and British combat aircraft.  Most German aircraft of the time used water-cooled inline 6-cylinder engines. Motorenfabrik Oberursel made licensed copies of the Gnome and Le Rhône rotary powerplants, and Siemens-Halske built their own designs, including the Siemens-Halske Sh.III eleven-cylinder rotary engine, which was unusual for the period in being geared through a bevel geartrain in the rear end of the crankcase "without" the crankshaft being firmly mounted to the aircraft's airframe, so that the engine's internal working components (fully internal crankshaft "floating" in its crankcase bearings, with its conrods and pistons) were spun in the opposing direction to the crankcase and cylinders, which still rotated as the propeller itself did since it was still firmly fastened to the crankcase's frontside, as with regular "umlaufmotor" German rotaries. By the end of the war the rotary engine had reached the limits of the design, particularly in regard to the amount of fuel and air that could be drawn into the cylinders through the hollow crankshaft, while advances in both metallurgy and cylinder cooling finally allowed stationary radial engines to supersede rotary engines. In the early 1920s Le Rhône converted a number of their rotary engines into stationary radial engines.  By 1918 the potential advantages of air-cooled radials over the water-cooled inline engine and air-cooled rotary engine that had powered World War I aircraft were appreciated but were unrealized. British designers had produced the ABC Dragonfly radial in 1917, but were unable to resolve the cooling problems, and it was not until the 1920s that Bristol and Armstrong Siddeley produced reliable air-cooled radials such as the Bristol Jupiter and the Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar.  In the United States the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) noted in 1920 that air-cooled radials could offer an increase in power-to-weight ratio and reliability; by 1921 the U.S. Navy had announced it would only order aircraft fitted with air-cooled radials and other naval air arms followed suit. Charles Lawrance's J-1 engine was developed in 1922 with Navy funding, and using aluminum cylinders with steel liners ran for an unprecedented 300 hours, at a time when 50 hours endurance was normal. At the urging of the Army and Navy the Wright Aeronautical Corporation bought Lawrance's company, and subsequent engines were built under the Wright name. The radial engines gave confidence to Navy pilots performing long-range overwater flights.  Wright's J-5 Whirlwind radial engine of 1925 was widely claimed as "the first truly reliable aircraft engine". Wright employed Giuseppe Mario Bellanca to design an aircraft to showcase it, and the result was the Wright-Bellanca WB-1, which first flew later that year. The J-5 was used on many advanced aircraft of the day, including Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, in which he made the first solo trans-Atlantic flight.  In 1925 the American Pratt & Whitney company was founded, competing with Wright's radial engines. Pratt & Whitney's initial offering, the R-1340 Wasp, was test run later that year, beginning a line of engines over the next 25 years that included the 14-cylinder, twin-row Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp. More Twin Wasps were produced than any other aviation piston engine in the history of aviation; nearly 175,000 were built. In the United Kingdom the Bristol Aeroplane Company was concentrating on developing radials such as the Jupiter, Mercury, and sleeve valve Hercules radials. Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union started with building licensed versions of the Armstrong Siddeley, Bristol, Wright, or Pratt & Whitney radials before producing their own improved versions. France continued its development of various rotary engines but also produced engines derived from Bristol designs, especially the Jupiter.  Although other piston configurations and turboprops have taken over in modern propeller-driven aircraft, Rare Bear, which is a Grumman F8F Bearcat equipped with a Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone radial engine, is still the fastest piston-powered aircraft.

World War II.

Aircraft.

125,334 of the American twin-row, 18-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp, with a displacement of 2,800 in3 (46 L) and between 2,000 and 2,400 hp (1,500-1,800 kW), powered the American single-engine Vought F4U Corsair, Grumman F6F Hellcat, Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, twin-engine Martin B-26 Marauder, Douglas A-26 Invader, Northrop P-61 Black Widow, etc. The same firm's aforementioned smaller-displacement (at 30 litres), "Twin Wasp" 14-cylinder twin-row radial was used as the main engine design for the B-24 Liberator, PBY Catalina, and Douglas C-47, each design being among the production leaders in all-time production numbers for each type of airframe design.  The American Wright Cyclone series twin-row radials powered American warplanes: the nearly-43 litre displacement, 14-cylinder "Twin Cyclone" powered the single-engine Grumman TBF Avenger, twin-engine North American B-25 Mitchell, and some versions of the Douglas A-20 Havoc, with the massive twin-row, nearly 55-litre displacement, 18-cylinder "Duplex-Cyclone" powering the four-engine Boeing B-29 Superfortress and others.  The Soviet Shvetsov "OKB-19" design bureau was the sole source of design for all of the Soviet government factory-produced radial engines used in its World War II aircraft, starting with the Shvetsov M-25 (itself based on the American Wright "Cyclone 9"'s design) and going on to design the 41-litre displacement Shvetsov ASh-82 fourteen cylinder radial for fighters, and the massive, 58-litre displacement Shvetsov ASh-73 eighteen-cylinder radial in 1946 - the smallest-displacement radial design from the Shvetsov OKB during the war was the indigenously designed, 8.6 litre displacement Shvetsov M-11 five cylinder radial.  Over 28,000 of the German 42-litre displacement, 14-cylinder, two-row BMW 801, with between 1,560 and 2,000 PS (1,540-1,970 hp, or 1,150-1,470 kW), powered the German single-seat, single-engine Focke-Wulf Fw 190 "Würger", and twin-engine Junkers Ju 88.  In Japan, most airplanes were powered by air-cooled radial engines like the 14-cylinder Mitsubishi Zuisei (11,903 units, e.g. Kawasaki Ki-45), Mitsubishi Kinsei (12,228 units, e.g. Aichi D3A), Mitsubishi Kasei (16,486 units, e.g. Kawanishi H8K), Nakajima Sakae (30,233 units, e.g. Mitsubishi A6M and Nakajima Ki-43), and 18-cylinder Nakajima Homare (9,089 units, e.g. Nakajima Ki-84). The Kawasaki Ki-61 and Yokosuka D4Y were rare examples of Japanese liquid-cooled inline engine aircraft at that time but later, they were also redesigned to fit radial engines as the Kawasaki Ki-100 and Yokosuka D4Y3.  In Britain, Bristol produced both sleeve valved and conventional poppet valved radials: of the sleeve valved designs, more than 57,400 Hercules engines powered the Vickers Wellington, Short Stirling, Handley Page Halifax, and some versions of the Avro Lancaster, over 8,000 of the pioneering sleeve-valved Bristol Perseus were used in various types, and more than 2,500 of the largest-displacement production British radial from the Bristol firm to use sleeve valving, the Bristol Centaurus were used to power the Hawker Tempest II and Sea Fury. The same firm's poppet-valved radials included: around 32,000 of Bristol Pegasus used in the Short Sunderland, Handley Page Hampden, and Fairey Swordfish and over 20,000 examples of the firm's 1925-origin nine-cylinder Mercury were used to power the Westland Lysander, Bristol Blenheim, and Blackburn Skua.

Tanks.

In the years leading up to World War II, as the need for armored vehicles was realized, designers were faced with the problem of how to power the vehicles, and turned to using aircraft engines, among them radial types. The radial aircraft engines provided greater power-to-weight ratios and were more reliable than conventional inline vehicle engines available at the time. This reliance had a downside though: if the engines were mounted vertically, as in the M3 Lee and M4 Sherman, their comparatively large diameter gave the tank a higher silhouette than designs using inline engines.  The Continental R-670, a 7-cylinder radial aero engine which first flew in 1931, became a widely used tank powerplant, being installed in the M1 Combat Car, M2 Light Tank, M3 Stuart, M3 Lee, and LVT-2 Water Buffalo.  The Guiberson T-1020, a 9-cylinder radial diesel aero engine, was used in the M1A1E1, while the Continental R975 saw service in the M4 Sherman, M7 Priest, M18 Hellcat tank destroyer, and the M44 self propelled howitzer.

Modern radials.

A number of companies continue to build radials today. Vedeneyev produces the M-14P radial of as used on Yakovlev and Sukhoi aerobatic aircraft. The M-14P is also used by builders of homebuilt aircraft, such as the Culp Special, and Culp Sopwith Pup, Pitts S12 "Monster" and the Murphy "Moose". 7-cylinder and 9-cylinder engines are available from Australia's Rotec Aerosport. HCI Aviation offers the R180 5-cylinder () and R220 7-cylinder (), available "ready to fly" and as a build-it-yourself kit. Verner Motor of the Czech Republic builds several radial engines ranging in power from. Miniature radial engines for model airplanes are available from O. S. Engines, Saito Seisakusho of Japan, and Shijiazhuang of China, and Evolution (designed by Wolfgang Seidel of Germany, and made in India) and Technopower in the US.

Comparison with inline engines.

Liquid cooling systems are generally more vulnerable to battle damage. Even minor shrapnel damage can easily result in a loss of coolant and consequent engine overheating, while an air-cooled radial engine may be largely unaffected by minor damage. Radials have shorter and stiffer crankshafts, a single-bank radial engine needing only two crankshaft bearings as opposed to the seven required for a liquid-cooled, six-cylinder, inline engine of similar stiffness.  While a single-bank radial permits all cylinders to be cooled equally, the same is not true for multi-row engines where the rear cylinders can be affected by the heat coming off the front row, and air flow being masked.  A potential disadvantage of radial engines is that having the cylinders exposed to the airflow increases drag considerably. The answer was the addition of specially designed cowlings with baffles to force the air between the cylinders. The first effective drag-reducing cowling that didn't impair engine cooling was the British Townend ring or "drag ring" which formed a narrow band around the engine covering the cylinder heads, reducing drag. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics studied the problem, developing the NACA cowling which further reduced drag and improved cooling. Nearly all aircraft radial engines since have used NACA-type cowlings.  While inline liquid-cooled engines continued to be common in new designs until late in World War II, radial engines dominated afterwards until overtaken by jet engines, with the late-war Hawker Sea Fury and Grumman F8F Bearcat, two of the fastest production piston-engined aircraft ever built, using radial engines.

Other types of radial engine.

Multi-row radials.

Originally radial engines had one row of cylinders, but as engine sizes increased it became necessary to add extra rows. The first radial-configuration engine known to use a twin-row design was the 160 hp Gnôme "Double Lambda" rotary engine of 1912, designed as a 14-cylinder twin-row version of the firm's 80 hp Lambda single-row seven-cylinder rotary, however reliability and cooling problems limited its success.  Two-row designs began to appear in large numbers during the 1930s, when aircraft size and weight grew to the point where single-row engines of the required power were simply too large to be practical. Two-row designs often had cooling problems with the rear bank of cylinders, but a variety of baffles and fins were introduced that largely eliminated these problems. The downside was a relatively large frontal area that had to be left open to provide enough airflow, which increased drag. This led to significant arguments in the industry in the late 1930s about the possibility of using radials for high-speed aircraft like modern fighters.  The solution was introduced with the BMW 801 14-cylinder twin-row radial. Kurt Tank designed a new cooling system for this engine that used a high-speed fan to blow compressed air into channels that carry air to the middle of the banks, where a series of baffles directed the air over all of the cylinders. This allowed the cowling to be tightly fitted around the engine, reducing drag, while still providing (after a number of experiments and modifications) enough cooling air to the rear. This basic concept was soon copied by many other manufacturers, and many late-WWII aircraft returned to the radial design as newer and much larger designs began to be introduced. Examples include the Bristol Centaurus in the Hawker Sea Fury, and the Shvetsov ASh-82 in the Lavochkin La-7.  For even greater power, adding further rows was not considered viable due to the difficulty of providing the required airflow to the rear banks. Larger engines were designed, mostly using water cooling although this greatly increased complexity and eliminated some of the advantages of the radial air-cooled design. One example of this concept is the BMW 803, which never entered service.  A major study into the airflow around radials using wind tunnels and other systems was carried out in the US, and demonstrated that ample airflow was available with careful design. This led to the R-4360, which has 28 cylinders arranged in a 4 row "corncob" configuration. The R-4360 saw service on large American aircraft in the post-World War II period. The US and Soviet Union continued experiments with larger radials, but the UK abandoned such designs in favour of newer versions of the Centaurus and rapid movement to the use of turboprops such as the Armstrong Siddeley Python and Bristol Proteus, which easily produced more power than radials without the weight or complexity.  Large radials continued to be built for other uses, although they are no longer common. An example is the 5-ton Zvezda M503 diesel engine with 42 cylinders in 6 rows of 7, displacing and producing. Three of these were used on the fast Osa class missile boats.

Diesel radials.

While most radial engines have been produced for gasoline, there have been diesel radial engines. Two major advantages favour diesel engines — lower fuel consumption and reduced fire risk.  Packard designed and built a 9-cylinder 980 cubic inch (16.06 litre) displacement diesel radial aircraft engine, the DR-980, in 1928. On 28 May 1931, a DR-980 powered Bellanca CH-300, with 481 gallons of fuel, piloted by Walter Edwin Lees and Frederick Brossy set a record for staying aloft for 84 hours and 32 minutes without being refueled. This record stood for 55 years until broken by the Rutan Voyager.  The experimental Bristol Phoenix of 1928–1932 was successfully flight tested in a Westland Wapiti and set altitude records in 1934 that lasted until World War II.  In 1932 the French company Clerget developed the 14D, a 14-cylinder two-stroke diesel radial engine. After a series of improvements, in 1938 the 14F2 model produced at 1910 rpm cruise power, with a power-to-weight ratio near that of contemporary gasoline engines and a specific fuel consumption of roughly 80% that for an equivalent gasoline engine. During WWII the research continued, but no mass-production occurred because of the Nazi occupation. By 1943 the engine had grown to produce over with a turbocharger. After the war, the Clerget company was integrated in the SNECMA company and had plans for a 32-cylinder diesel engine of, but in 1947 the company abandoned piston engine development in favour of the emerging turbine engines.  The Nordberg Manufacturing Company of the United States developed and produced a series of large two-stroke radial diesel engines from the late 1940s for electrical production, primarily at aluminum smelters and for pumping water. They differed from most radials in that they had an even number of cylinders in a single bank (or row) and an unusual double master connecting rod. Variants were built that could be run on either diesel oil or gasoline or mixtures of both. A number of powerhouse installations utilising large numbers of these engines were made in the U.S.  Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) built the "pancake" engines 16-184 and 16-338 for marine use.

Compressed air radial engines.

A number of radial motors operating on compressed air have been designed, mostly for use in model airplanes and in gas compressors.

Model radial engines.

A number of multi-cylinder 4-stroke model engines have been commercially available in a radial configuration, beginning with the Japanese O.S. Max firm's FR5-300 five-cylinder, 3.0 cu.in. (50 cm) displacement "Sirius" radial in 1986. The American "Technopower" firm had made smaller-displacement five- and seven-cylinder model radial engines as early as 1976, but the OS firm's engine was the first mass-produced radial engine design in aeromodelling history. The rival Saito Seisakusho firm in Japan has since produced a similarly sized five-cylinder radial four-stroke model engine of their own as a direct rival to the OS design, with Saito also creating a series of three-cylinder methanol and gasoline-fueled model radial engines ranging from 0.90 cu.in. (15 cm) to 4.50 cu.in. (75 cm) in displacement, also all now available in spark-ignition format up to 84 cm displacement for use with gasoline. The German Seidel firm formerly made both seven- and nine-cylinder "large" (starting at 35 cm displacement) radio control model radial engines, mostly for glow plug ignition, with an experimental fourteen-cylinder twin-row radial being tried out - the American Evolution firm now sells the Seidel-designed radials, with their manufacturing being done in India.

The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is called a "star engine" in some languages (German "Sternmotor", French "moteur en étoile", Japanese, Italian "motore stellare"). The radial configuration was commonly used for aircraft engines before gas turbine engines became predominant.

Hvězdicový motor je koncepce pístového spalovacího motoru s válci rozmístěnými okolo klikové skříně v kruhu. U jednodušších a méně výkonných motorů jsou válce pouze v jedné rovině (tj. hvězdici) kolmé k ose klikového hřídele tak, že sousední válce spolu svírají stejný úhel. Dříve (ještě po druhé světové válce) byly motory s tímto uspořádáním válců rozšířené v roli pohonných jednotek letadel. Podstatně méně časté (či spíše zcela okrajové) bylo jiné užití, například u vozidel, ale některé typy amerických tanků za druhé světové války byly poháněny upravenými leteckými hvězdicovými motory.


History.

The band was established in 1990 and consists of survivors of Dublin's prolific early 1990s rock-and-roll scene. Through support slots, the band was central to the development of many emerging Irish rock bands of the time, including Turn and Bell X1, and a host of singer-songwriters such as Mundy, Paddy Casey, David Kitt and Damien Dempsey. In December 2004, Hansard appeared on stage to collaborate with Paddy Casey and The Dublin Gospel Choir. In 2007 The Frames toured Australia and New Zealand as the support act for Bob Dylan.  The name "The Frames" arose from Hansard's habit of fixing bicycles of his friends. The large number of bicycle frames lying around his house led neighbours to dub it the "house with the frames". In a 2001 interview, Hansard said, "I worked in a bicycle shop for a little while, but the name came from... my back garden was so full of frames, my house became known as The Frames house, much to my mother's distaste, she hated it. But my garden was full of frames, old bikes, I would make up bikes for my friends out of all the old bikes. So it sort of became known if anybody found a bike up on the hill on the way home they would throw it into my garden, a graveyard for old bikes."  The band has had many members over the years, some of whom have also been, or later became, members of other Dublin rock bands. Colm Mac Con Iomaire and Dave Odlum both were founding members of folk group Kíla. Graham Downey, son of Thin Lizzy drummer Brian Downey, played bass for the band between 1993 and 1996.  The Frames have always collaborated closely with other groups that emerged from the buskers on Grafton Street, Dublin, where Hansard started his music career. Among these groups were the aforementioned Kíla, and Mic Christopher. When Christopher died in 2001, Hansard and his band were heavily involved in organising the Skylarkin' concert to commemorate his life and release the album. The Frames still occasionally perform Mic's songs—chiefly "Heyday"—as a tribute.  The band is also known for interspersing snippets of songs by other artists into their own as a form of homage; notable examples are "Redemption Song" by Bob Marley, "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash, "Lilac Wine" by James Shelton (as made popular by Jeff Buckley / Elkie Brooks) and "Pure Imagination" from "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'.  In 1991, Hansard came to public attention after taking the part of "Outspan" Foster in the film "The Commitments". However, Hansard regretted this role as he felt it distracted from his music career. Mac Con Iomaire also had a cameo in the movie as a violinist auditioning for the band. Bronagh Gallagher, one of Hansard's colleagues, can be seen wearing a Frames T-shirt in her appearance in the film "Pulp Fiction". Hansard appeared on screen as the principal character parodied by Irish music comedy Web site Eyebrowy.com and in 2007 as the lead in the movie "Once" which featured his songs.  As of 2007, the band consisted of Glen Hansard, Joe Doyle, Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Rob Bochnik and Johnny Boyle. Various people played drums during 2003 and 2004, including Graham Hopkins who drummed "Dance the Devil", "Burn the Maps", and the band's latest album "The Cost". On one version of the album "Fitzcarraldo", the band used the name The Frames DC, to avoid confusion with an American band.  The band released its sixth studio album, "The Cost", on 22 September 2006. They appeared on the setlist at Lollapalooza 2006 just 12 days afterward.  The band's song "Dream Awake" was used in the pilot episode of NBC's "Life". Also, "Finally" was prominently featured in the 11th episode of the show, when the title character reaped the rewards of the detective work which he had been doing all season. However, a different song is used in the version of the episode on nbc.com. The band's song "Seven Day Mile" was used in the season six premiere of House on Fox.  The band's ex-bassist, John Carney, is now a film director, best known for writing and directing the film "Once", which stars Hansard, who wrote much of the music for the film. Hansard and Marketa Irglova won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Falling Slowly" from "Once".  On 13 May 2008 the US iTunes store released a Deluxe Edition of "The Cost". This edition included three extra songs—"The Blood," "No More I Love Yous," and "This Low." It also included the music videos for "Falling Slowly," "Sad Songs," and "The Side You Never Get To See."  In late 2009 the band appeared on The Swell Season's album, Strict Joy. On 24 March 2010 the band announced their first concert in three years at Electric Picnic to celebrate their 20th anniversary.  The Song "Rise" from the Album "The Cost" was featured at the end of season 3, episode 13 of the ABC series "Castle".  On 1 December 2012 the band announced that the documentary "In The Deep Shade" would be released in 2013. The film, which captured their 2010 20th Anniversary Tour, was shot by Conor Masterson.  Since shooting to stardom in the wake of 'Once' and his Oscar win, Hansard has played primarily solo concerts (often with several members of the Frames) in recent years. The Frames have continued to play a handful of gigs; in June 2014 they played Whelan's in honor of its 25th anniversary, surprising the audience by buying all of their drinks. The venue's owners had lent money to the band in the 1990s to enable them to record Fitzcarraldo.  In 2015, the band played a pair of shows at Iveagh Gardens in Dublin. On 4–5 July they treated an enthusiastic and loyal fan base to such rarities as 15 Seafort Parade. On 11 July they played the Marquee Festival in Cork.

The Frames are an Irish rock band based in Dublin. Founded in 1990 by Glen Hansard, the band has been influential in the Dublin rock music scene. The group has released six studio albums. In addition to Hansard, the band's current line-up includes original member Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Dave Hingerty, Joe Doyle, and Rob Bochnik.

The Frames jsou irská hudební skupina z Dublinu, která vznikla v roce 1990. V současné době ji tvoří Glen Hansard (zpěv, kytara), Joe Doyle (baskytara, zpěv), Colm Mac Con Iomaire (housle, klávesy a zpěv) a Rob Bochnik (sólová kytara). Za bicí soupravou se vystřídalo a střídá několik různých hudebníků. Skupina byla někdy označovaná také jako The Frames DC, aby nedocházelo k záměně se shodně pojmenovanou americkou skupinou.


Life.

Sources and birthplace.

The sources for the life of Silius Italicus are primarily Letter 3.7 of Pliny the Younger, which is a description of the poet's life written on the occasion of his suicide, some inscriptions, and several epigrams by the poet Martial. Silius is believed to have been born between AD 23 and 35, but his birthplace has not been securely identified. Italica, in the Roman province of Hispania, (modern Spain), was once considered the prime candidate, based on his cognomen Italicus, but, if that were the case, Latin usage would have demanded the form "Italicensis", and it is highly improbable that Martial would have failed to name him among the literary celebrities of Spain in the latter half of the 1st century. The city of Patavium, Padua in northern Italy, has been suggested by J. D. Campbell based on a seeming bias in favor of the region in the "Punica" and the prevalence of the name Asconius in inscriptions from the region.

Political career.

In early life Silius was a renowned forensic orator, later a safe and cautious politician. Silius was generally believed to have voluntarily and enthusiastically become an informer under Nero, prosecuting in court persons whom the emperor wished condemned. He was consul in the year of Nero's death (AD 68), and afterward became a close friend and ally of the emperor Vitellius, whom he served, according to Pliny "sapienter et comiter", wisely and amicably. He is mentioned by Tacitus as having been one of two witnesses who were present at the conferences between Vitellius and Flavius Sabinus, the elder brother of Vespasian, when the legions from the East were marching rapidly on the capital. Silius became proconsul of Asia AD 77-78 as attested in an inscription from Aphrodisias which describes his activities in maintaining the institutions of the city. According to Pliny ("Ep". 3.7), he performed his duties well and earned himself a place of importance in the empire.

Campanian retirement and suicide.

After his proconsulship in Asia, Silius seems to have left politics in favor of a leisurely life; despite his wealth and importance in the state, he seems to have exercised little power and avoided offense. Thus, he outlived the Flavian dynasty without incident.  Pliny depicts him spending time in learned conversation at his villas, writing, passionately collecting books and sculpture, and giving recitations of his works. Silius was evidently writing poems as early as AD 88. It is firmly believed that the "Punica" was written during this retirement period of Silius' life. Martial 7.63 indicates that some of the "Punica" had been published by AD 92 and that Silius was no longer making speeches in court. Book 14 has been dated tentatively to after AD 96 based on the poet's treatment of Domitian. His poem contains several passages relating to the Flavians, and Domitian is eulogized as a warrior and as a singer whose lyre is sweeter than that of Orpheus himself. The poem mentions primarily Domitian but later seems to discuss the emperor Nerva, although Domitian may be meant by the latter reference. The poet's attitude to Domitian tends to be laudatory and friendly, employing the full spectrum of Virgilian panegyrical language and imagery.  Silius was considered highly educated by contemporaries. The philosopher Epictetus judged him to be the most philosophic spirit among the Romans of his time, and Cornutus, the Stoic, rhetorician and grammarian, dedicated to Silius a commentary upon Virgil. He had two sons, one of whom, Severus, died young. The other, Decianus, went on to become consul. As he aged, he moved permanently to his villas in Campania, not even leaving to attend the accession ceremony of Trajan. Silius idealized and almost worshipped two great Romans of the past, Cicero and Virgil. He purchased Cicero's estate at Tusculum and the tomb of Virgil in Naples, which he restored. Pliny records that Silius especially revered Virgil, celebrating Virgil's birthday more lavishly than his own and treating the poet's tomb as a shrine. His dual interests in composing epic poetry and discussing philosophical questions have been compared to the intellectual efforts of his heroes, Virgil and Cicero, respectively.  Silius was one of the numerous Romans of the early empire who had the courage of their opinions, and carried into perfect practice the theory of suicide developed in Stoicism; "Punica" 11.186-88 contains a praise of suicide. Stricken by an incurable tumour after the age of 75, he starved himself to death around 103 AD, keeping a cheerful countenance to the end. Pliny remarks that Silius was the last person to die who was consul under Nero.

Works.

Whether Silius committed his philosophic dialogues and speeches to writing or not, we cannot say. His only preserved work is his epic poem entitled "Punica", about the Second Punic War (218–201 BC) in seventeen books, comprising some twelve thousand lines, making it the longest preserved poem in Latin literature.

The "Punica".

The dating of the "Punica" has been a difficult issue for classical scholars, but two passages, 3.594 and 14.680ff., along with several poems of Martial cited above, indicate that it was composed sometime between 83 and 103, with Book 3 being dated to AD 84 and Book 14 around AD 96. Other books cannot be dated with any precision. The poem is divided into 17 books and is composed in dactylic hexameter. It has been thought that the poem was initially planned in hexads and that the original intent was to round off the composition in 18 books.  The poem takes Virgil as its primary stylistic and dramatic inspiration throughout; from its opening, the "Punica" is configured as the continuation of Juno's grudge against Rome developed in the "Aeneid". Livy and Ennius are important sources for historical and poetic information, and Homer specifically is declared an important model by Silius who remarks of him at 12.788-9, "his [Homer's] poetry embraced the earth, sea, stars, and shades and he rivaled the Muses in song and Phoebus in glory." Lucan is also an important model for the writing of historical epic, geographical excursus, and Stoic tone, although Silius' approach toward the gods in much more traditional.  The poem opens with a discussion of Juno's wrath against Rome on account of Aeneas' treatment of Dido and of Hannibal's character and upbringing. Hannibal attacks Saguntum and receives a Roman embassy. In Book 2, the Roman legation is heard at Carthage, but Hannibal takes the city after the defenders heroically commit suicide. The Carthaginians are catalogued, Hannibal crosses the Alps, and Jupiter reveals that the Punic War is a test of Roman manliness in Book 3. In 4 and 5 the Romans suffer defeat at Ticinus, Trebia, and Lake Trasimene. Book 6 looks back to the exploits of Marcus Atilius Regulus in the First Punic War, while Book 7 describes Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus' delaying strategy. Books 8-10 describe in vivid detail the battle of Cannae; Juno prevents Hannibal from marching on Rome. In Book 11, Hannibal's army winters in Capua, where Venus enfeebles them with luxury. Hannibal is defeated at Nola in 12, emboldening the Romans. He makes an attempt on the city, but Juno stops him, revealing that the gods are against him. Book 13 reports the Romans' invasion of Capua and the death of two Scipios, which leads to Scipio Africanus' journey to the underworld ("nekyia"), his meeting with famous dead heroes, and a prophecy by the Sibyl of Hannibal's defeat. In 14 the Marcellus' successful Sicilian campaign and the siegecraft of Archimedes are described. In 15, Scipio, choosing Virtue over Vice, has a successful campaign in Spain, while at the Battle of the Metaurus, Hannibal's brother is killed. 16 describes the alliance between Rome and Masinissa and Scipio's crossing into Africa, while 17 describes the bringing of the statue of Cybele to Rome, Hannibal's stormy crossing into Africa, Juno's appeal to Jupiter for the life of Hannibal, and the Battle of Zama. The poem ends with Scipio's triumphal return to Rome.  Silius' style is unlike Virgil in that he does not focus on a few central characters but divides his action up between many significant heroes. This encourages him to present important events from the Roman past as a reflection on the characters and their actions in the poem's present, echoing the Roman tradition of using "exempla". While many important set pieces of epic are included, such as elaborated similes, "ekphrases" of objects, such as Hannibal's shield in 2.391-456, a "nekyia", and divine participation in and prophecy of events, there are also important elements of historiography such as paired contrasting speeches and detailed geographical description. Allegory is particularly important in Silius, and he includes such figures as Fides, faith, in Book 2, Italia in 15, and Virtus and Voluptas also in Book 15, continuing a trend towards allegory which was significant in Statius, Silius' contemporary. Silius' metrics and language can be closely compared to Virgilian usage, especially his use of spondees. Stoicism and stoic ethical thought are significant themes in the "Punica". The war is configured as a trial of Roman "virtus" which must be overcome with hard work, akin to the Stoic ideal of overcoming adversity with inner courage and trial. The "choice of Hercules", a favorite Stoic parable, is given to Scipio in Book 15, and everywhere the war brings out moral lessons and discussions of Stoic concepts like emotion, reason, and destiny.

Influence.

The only ancient authors to refer to Silius are Martial, Pliny, and Sidonius Apollinaris. Pliny's judgment that Silius wrote poetry "maiore cura quam ingenio" (with more eagerness than genius) has encouraged the view that Silius is a talented but mediocre and uninspired poet. The poem seems to have been mostly unknown in the Middle Ages. Petrarch's "Africa" was composed independently of the "Punica", as the manuscript was discovered by Poggio Bracciolini in 1417 at the Abbey of Saint Gall during the Council of Constance. Julius Caesar Scaliger's harsh opinion of Silius damaged his reputation. Many authors were familiar with Silius' work, such as Montaigne, Milton, Dryden (who considered him better than Lucan), Gibbon, and Alexander Pope. Joseph Addison particularly includes many quotations of Silius in his "Dialogue on Medals" as does Thomas Macaulay in his works.  Interest in Silius mostly vanished in the 19th century. As for visual arts, Raphael's "Vision of the Knight" is a treatment of Silius' choice of Scipio. Despite Silius' poor reputation, classical scholars with their renewed interest in later Imperial epic seem to be finally turning their attentions to Silius' poetry.

Silius Italicus, in full Tiberius Catius Asconius Silius Italicus (c. 28 – c. 103 AD), was a Roman consul, orator, and Latin epic poet of the 1st century AD (Silver Age of Latin literature). His only surviving work is the 17-book "Punica", an epic poem about the Second Punic War and the longest surviving poem in Latin at over 12,000 lines.

Titus Catius Asconius Silius Italicus (25 Padova – 101 Neapol), byl římský právník, řečník, filosof a básník. Studoval rétoriku a právo, nejprve dělal obhájce u soudu a později, za vlády Nerona, vykonával funkci veřejného žalobce. Roku 68 se stal konsulem a poté prokonsulem v Asii. V této funkci ukončil kariéru.


Background.

After sitting in on the editing process of their music videos, and having been less involved in their previous concert video, "Live After Death", the band's bassist, Steve Harris, decided that he would direct and edit their next film. According to Harris, the band decided to document the Birmingham concerts because he "wanted to film with 10 cameras so we needed to do it in a place where that amount of equipment wouldn't get in the way of the paying punters." This narrowed the band's options down to the NEC and Wembley Arena, but eventually chose the former as they were more "amenable about the idea". According to manager Rod Smallwood, Harris' briefing to the camera crew was to try and film "as the fans saw it", with Harris arguing that this would be a good way to capture the concert's atmosphere.  So that he could edit the video at his own pace, Harris bought all of the necessary equipment himself and installed it at his home in Essex, where he worked on the film for six months. Although they occasionally visited Harris to check on his progress, the rest of the band were largely uninvolved in the project, although, at his insistence, a piece of footage showing guitarist Dave Murray mouthing the lyrics to the opening song was removed.  A DVD re-issue of the concert film was first mentioned by Iron Maiden in September 2007, with a release date set for 2008, but was later delayed. In an interview with German magazine "Rock Hard" in August 2012, Harris confirmed that "Maiden England" will be re-released in 2013, with the concert footage expanded to comprise the show's encores which were not included in the original VHS. On 12 February 2013, Iron Maiden announced that "Maiden England" would be re-released on DVD, CD and picture disc on 25 March 2013 under the title "Maiden England '88". Along with the aforementioned encores, the new video also includes the third part of the "History of Iron Maiden" documentary series (continuing from 2004's "" and 2008's "Live After Death" re-issue) as well as promo videos and the 1987 documentary "12 Wasted Years".  From 2012 to 2014, Iron Maiden undertook the Maiden England World Tour, which is largely based around the original video in setlist and stage design.

Critical reception.

AllMusic gave the original VHS 4 out of 5, deeming it "a strong effort", but also stating that it is "risky... because it doesn't rely on hits" and that it "doesn't have the seminal power of [their] own extraordinary "Live After Death" from four years earlier". They also gave four marks to the 2013 reissue, arguing that the additional songs "help to turn the live set into a more well-rounded listening experience", concluding that it is "a solid concert that shows one of the most influential bands in heavy metal getting down to business and bringing some epic metal to an enthralled crowd".  "Classic Rock" gave the 2013 DVD a score of 8 out of 10, remarking that the concert footage is "a succinct encapsulation of how great Maiden are when all the gears mesh together", concluding that "when it comes to creating a fan-pleasing effort, no one does it with quite the same degree of thought as Maiden."

Personnel.

Production and performance credits are adapted from the VHS cover, reissue DVD and CD, and AllMusic.

Maiden England (re-released in 2013 as Maiden England '88) is a live video by the band Iron Maiden during their "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" world tour, which was dubbed Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour.

Maiden England je živá videonahrávka britské heavymetalové skupiny Iron Maiden, nahraná během "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son tour" a vydaná roku 1989.


Early career.

Filippo, the son of a destitute Florentine nobleman, was born at Tizzano, near Florence. He is first mentioned in Hungary around 1382, when he entered the service of Sigismund's treasurer and was awarded the castle in Simontornya ("Simonsthurm").  Further services to the Crown, such as providing resources to fight the Ottomans, led to his appointment as administrator of all gold mines in the kingdom. Present in Bosnia, in the context of a Hungarian nobles' rebellion and King Tvrtko I of Bosnia's death (1391), Pippo managed to subdue the main leaders of the revolt.  He took part in the unfortunate anti-Ottoman final Crusade of September 1396 at Nicopolis in Bulgaria, and, unlike most on the Christian side, managed to flee after the defeat. He, the King, and a number of high dignitaries sailed a small boat up the Danube, all the way to Hungarian and Croatian lands.  He married Barbara, daughter and heir of Andrew of Ozora, in 1398.  During the new period of trouble with the claim to the throne of Charles II's son Ladislaus of Naples, Lo Scolari exposed acts of treason on the part of some noblemen. He was however forced to give in to most of their demands, as the King was taken prisoner in Visegrád Castle (1401).  After Sigismund reasserted control briefly, the nobles openly recognized Ladislaus as King. The forces of the Kingdom of Naples took Zadar in 1403, and Pippo had to retreat; the same year, he regained Veszprém and, in September, took Esztergom and again raided Bosnia - breaking up contacts between Sicilian and rebel armies and forcing the invaders to flee. He persuaded the rebels to seek Sigismund's pardon.  While in Vienna, Pippo was made Count of Temesvár (Timișoara). In this capacity, he initiated the building of the Hungarian border castle system to contain the Ottoman aggression; immediately, Pippo started confronting the Turks, but also moving against the Bosnian armies of Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić that had been besieging the town of Šibenik in Dalmatia, regaining parts of today's Croatia.

In Italy.

In 1408, Pippo became the Ban of Szörény and member of the prestigious Order of the Dragon; by that time, he had become wealthy and powerful. In 1410, Sigismund sent him to persuade Italian city-states to cut off their links with Naples: he traveled in great pomp to his native Florence, then to Ferrara (meeting Niccolò III d'Este). In August, he was received by Pisan Antipope John XXIII. In September, present in Venice, Pippo is said to have backed a conspiracy.  As part of the anti-Venetian campaign of 1411, Lo Scolari entered Friuli at the head of an army, conquered Aquileia and, in December, he took Udine and several fortresses in Romagna, then Vittorio Veneto - capturing a high official from the Barbarigo family. In January 1412, the renewed attack ensured Pippo a supply of high-ranking Venetian prisoners, whom he ordered mutilated to avenge a Hungarian killed by the enemy.  He suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Motta in August 1412 against the Venetian Republic under Carlo Malatesta. Pippo intended to besiege Padua in January, but he could not maintain his army on the spot, and moved towards the Brenta, in Cartigliano and Marostica, leading an unsuccessful attack on Vicenza. Further failures provoked his retreat to Friuli, and then to Hungary, in February. This outcome made Venetian accounts imply a settlement with the Most Serene Republic, and even the mythical execution of Pippo as revenge by the Emperor King (he supposedly had molten gold poured down his throat).  Lo Scolari returned to Friuli in September, in order to aid Florence against Ladislaus' troops. At Lodi (in Lombardy), he attended the meeting between Sigismund and the ruler of the city, Giovanni da Vignate.

Later assignments.

Pippo took part in the March 1414 initial proceedings of the Council of Constance, where the Emperor King charged him with guarding John XXIII - an assignment he did not fully accomplish, as the Antipope soon managed to flee. In 1415, the Count of Temesvár witnessed the rebel Jan Hus' execution in Konstanz.  He fought the Turks again in 1417 in Wallachia, in 1418 around Belgrade, and in 1419 in Bosnia (where he agreed to a five-year truce); the King Emperor awarded him Severin, Mehadia and Orşova. He was called to Bohemia, where he dealt with the Hussite insurrection from 1420 (see Battle of Vítkov Hill), being severely beaten by Jan Žižka at Havlíčkův Brod (see Battle of Německý Brod), in January 1422.  The rumor that Pippo had been killed in Bohemia led to an Ottoman attack in Wallachia against his ally Prince Dan II. Prompted by requests from Stefan Lazarević, he moved into Serbia and won a large-scale battle. През 1425 Scolari, Dan II and Bulgarian prince Frujin Asen, cross river Danube, defeat the othomans near Vetren and takeover Silistra. However, he soon suffered a stroke and remained impaired, being carried away to Lipova. He was buried in Székesfehérvár, next to the tombs of Hungarian Kings. His funeral was attended by King Sigismund himself.

Legacy.

He was enumerated in South Slavic epic poetry, known as "Filip the Magyar (Hungarian)" (, ).

Filippo Buondelmonti degli Scolari (1369 – December 1426), known as Pippo Spano, was an Italian magnate, general, strategist and confidant of King Sigismund of Hungary, born in the Republic of Florence. The personal friend of Sigismund and member of the Order of the Dragon, he was buried in the Székesfehérvár Basilica beside the Hungarian kings.

Pippo Spano z Ozory (celým jménem Filippo Buondelmonti degli Scolari, česky zvaný "Pípa Vlach") (1369 – 1426) byl italský válečník, kondotiér a rytíř Dračího řádu. Proslavil se jako znamenitý válečník ve službách uherského, římského a českého krále Zikmunda Lucemburského v bojích s Turky, Benátčany a husity.


Service outline.

Trains run from 04:26 to 01:18 the next day at intervals as short as 2 minutes during peak periods and four minutes at other times. A complete loop takes 59 to 65 minutes. All trains stop at each station. Trains are put into and taken out of service at (which for timetabling purposes is the line's start and terminus) and sometimes. Certain trains also start from Tamachi in the mornings and end at in the evenings. Trains which run clockwise are known as and those counter-clockwise as. (Trains travel on the left in Japan, as with road traffic.)  The line also acts as a fare zone destination for JR tickets from locations outside Tokyo, permitting travel to any JR station on or within the loop. This refers to stations on the Yamanote Line as well as the Chūō-Sōbu and Chūō Rapid Lines and between and.  The line colour used on all rolling stock, station signs and diagrams is JNR Yellow Green No.6 (■, Munsell code 7.5GY 6.5/7.8), known in Japanese as.

Ridership and overcrowding.

Due to the Yamanote Line's central location connecting most of Tokyo's major commuter hubs and commercial areas, the line is very heavily used. Sections of the line were running over 250% capacity in the 1990s, remained above 200% for most of the 2000s with most sections dropping below 150% in 2018. This is due to larger and more frequent trains being introduced to the Yamanote Line and the opening of parallel relief lines such as the Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin Line and Ueno–Tokyo Line. The maximum overcrowding during rush hour is about 167%.  The ridership of the Yamanote Line in 2018 is 1,134,963. However, in this case the "Yamanote Line" refers to JR East's internal definition of the entire rail corridor between Shinagawa and Tabata stations via Shinjuku which includes the ridership of the Saikyō and Shōnan–Shinjuku Lines on the parallel Yamanote freight line. While the ridership of the Yamanote Line services between Tabata and Shinagawa Station via Tokyo is excluded and counted as part of the Tōhoku and Tōkaidō Main Lines.  The ridership of the Yamanote Line cited in a 2015 MLIT National Transit report was 4,098,582 trips per day, but it is unclear what constitutes as the Yamanote Line and what, if any, ridership of parallel JR East railway services were included. A 2015 JR East ridership report using JR East's internal definition of the Yamanote Line reports a ridership of 1,097,093.

Name.

"Yamanote" literally refers to inland, hillier districts or foothills (as distinct from areas close to the sea). In Tokyo, "Yamanote" lies along the western side of the Yamanote Line loop. The word consists of the Japanese morphemes "yama", meaning'mountain', the genitive suffix "no", and "te", meaning 'hand', thus literally translating as "mountain's hand", analogous to the English term "foothills".  "Yamanote-sen" is officially written in Japanese without the "kana", which makes its pronunciation ambiguous in print. The characters may also be pronounced "yamate", as in Yamate-dōri (Yamate Street), which runs parallel to the west side of the Yamanote Line. The Seishin-Yamate Line in Kobe and the Yamate area of Yokohama also use this pronunciation.  After World War II, SCAP ordered all train placards to be romanized, and the Yamanote Line was romanized as "Yamate Line". It was thus alternatively known as "Yamanote" and "Yamate" until 1971, when the Japanese National Railways changed the pronunciation back to "Yamanote". Some older people still refer to the line as the "Yamate Line".

Station list.

Legend

Rolling stock.

, the line's services are operated exclusively by a fleet of 50 11-car E235 series EMUs, the first of which was introduced on the line on 30 November 2015. However, a number of technical faults, including problems with door close indicators, resulted in the train being taken out of service the same day. The E235 series returned to service on the Yamanote Line on 7 March 2016.

Former rolling stock.

Prior to the E235 series, the line's services were operated by E231-500 series EMUs, which were in use from April 21, 2002 to January 20, 2020. These trains originally each included two "six-door cars" with six pairs of doors per side and bench seats that were folded up to provide standing room only during the morning peak until 10 a.m. From February 22, 2010, the seats were no longer folded up during the morning peak, and all trains were standardized with newly built four-door cars by 31 August 2011. This was due to reduced congestion on the line as well as preparation for the installation of platform doors on all stations by 2017.  The E231 series supported a new type of traffic control system, called digital Automatic Train Control (D-ATC). The series also had a more modern design and has two 15-inch LCD monitors above each door, one of which is used for displaying silent commercials, news and weather; and another which is used for displaying information on the next stop (in Japanese, English, Korean and more) along with notification of delays on Shinkansen and other railway lines in the greater Tokyo area. The E231-500 series trains were based at Tokyo General Rolling Stock Centre near Ōsaki Station.

History.

The predecessor of the present-day Yamanote Line was opened on 1 March 1885 by the Nippon Railway Company, operating between Shinagawa Station in the south and Akabane Station in the north. The top part of the loop between and (a distance of 3.3 km) opened on 1 April 1903, and both lines were merged to become the Yamanote Line on 12 October 1909.  The line was electrified on December 16, 1909, soon after the Osaki – Shinagawa section was double-tracked on November 30th. The loop was completed in 1925 with the opening of the double track, electrified section between and on 1 November, providing a north-south link via Tokyo Station through the city's business centre. A parallel freight line, also completed in 1925, ran along the inner side of the loop between Shinagawa and Tabata.  During the prewar era, the Ministry of Railways did not issue permits to private suburban railway companies for new lines to cross the Yamanote Line from their terminal stations to the central districts of Tokyo, forcing the companies to terminate services at stations on the line. This policy led to the development of around major transfer points on the Yamanote Line, most notably at and (which are now the two busiest passenger railway stations in the world).  The contemporary Yamanote Line came into being on 19 November 1956 when it was separated from the Keihin-Tōhoku Line and given its own set of tracks along the eastern side of the loop between Shinagawa and. However, Yamanote Line trains continued to periodically use the Keihin-Tōhoku tracks, particularly on holidays and during off-peak hours, until rapid service trains were introduced on the Keihin-Tōhoku Line in 1988.  A major explosion on the Yamanote Freight Line in Shinjuku in 1967 led to the diversion of freight traffic to the more distant Musashino Line. To address severe undercapacity, the freight line was repurposed for use by Saikyo Line and Shōnan-Shinjuku Line trains, as well as certain limited express trains such as the "Narita Express" and some liner services. Likewise, from 14 March 2015 onwards, the Ueno-Tokyo Line starts services, which connects the Tohoku Main Line and Joban Line to the Tokaido Main Line, to provide further relief on the busiest portion of the Yamanote Line today, the segment between Ueno and Tokyo stations.  Automatic train control (ATC) was introduced from 6 December 1981, and digital ATC (D-ATC) was introduced from 30 July 2006.  Station numbering was introduced on JR East stations in the Tokyo area from 20 August 2016, with Yamanote Line stations numbered using the prefix "JY".  A new station, Takanawa Gateway Station, opened on 14 March 2020, in time for the 2020 Summer Olympics to be held in Tokyo. Takanawa Gateway was built on the Yamanote Line and Keihin-Tohoku Line between Shinagawa and Tamachi stations, becoming the first new station on the line since Nishi-Nippori was built in 1971. The distance between Shinagawa and Tamachi stations was 2.2 km, making it the longest stretch of track between stations on the Yamanote Line. The new station was constructed on top of the 20-hectare former railyard, which is undergoing rationalization and redevelopment by JR East; it is roughly parallel to the existing Sengakuji Station on the Toei Asakusa and Keikyu Main lines. The Yamanote Line and the Keihin-Tohoku Line tracks were moved slightly to the east to be aligned closer to the Tokaido Shinkansen tracks. The area on the west side of the yard made available will be redeveloped with high-rise office buildings, creating an international business center with good connections to the Shinkansen and Haneda Airport.

Notes.

a. Crowding levels defined by the transport ministry:  b. Ridership of the section between Shinagawa-Tabata (via Shinjuku) including ridership from the Saikyo and Shonan-Shinjuku Lines operating through this section.

The is a railway loop line in Tokyo, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It is one of Tokyo's busiest and most important lines, connecting most of Tokyo's major stations and urban centres, including Marunouchi, the Yūrakuchō/Ginza area, Shinagawa, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro and Ueno, with all but two of its 30 stations connecting to other railway or underground (subway) lines.

Linka Jamanote (: 山手線, "Jamanote-sen") je okružní rychlodráha, jezdící v uzavřené smyčce o délce 34,5 km v centru Tokia. Je jednou z nejdůležitějších a nejfrekventovanějších železničních linek a spojuje všechna hlavní tokijská nádraží a významné městské čtvrti. Pouze 6 z celkových 29 stanic nemá návaznost na jinou železnici nebo na metro. Provoz zajišťuje Východojaponská železniční společnost.


Origins.

Diesel fuel originated from experiments conducted by German scientist and inventor Rudolf Diesel for his compression-ignition engine he invented in 1892. Diesel originally designed his engine to use coal dust as fuel, and experimented with other fuels including vegetable oils, such as peanut oil, which was used to power the engines which he exhibited at the 1900 Paris Exposition and the 1911 World's Fair in Paris.

Types.

Diesel fuel is produced from various sources, the most common being petroleum. Other sources include biomass, animal fat, biogas, natural gas, and coal liquefaction.

Petroleum diesel.

Petroleum diesel, also called "petrodiesel", or fossil diesel is the most common type of diesel fuel. It is produced from the fractional distillation of crude oil between and at atmospheric pressure, resulting in a mixture of carbon chains that typically contain between 9 and 25 carbon atoms per molecule.

Synthetic diesel.

Synthetic diesel can be produced from any carbonaceous material, including biomass, biogas, natural gas, coal and many others. The raw material is gasified into synthesis gas, which after purification is converted by the Fischer–Tropsch process to a synthetic diesel.  The process is typically referred to as biomass-to-liquid (BTL), gas-to-liquid (GTL) or coal-to-liquid (CTL), depending on the raw material used.  Paraffinic synthetic diesel generally has a near-zero content of sulfur and very low aromatics content, reducing unregulated emissions of toxic hydrocarbons, nitrous oxides and particulate matter (PM).

Biodiesel.

Biodiesel is obtained from vegetable oil or animal fats (biolipids) which are mainly Fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), and transesterified with methanol. It can be produced from many types of oils, the most common being rapeseed oil (rapeseed methyl ester, RME) in Europe and soybean oil (soy methyl ester, SME) in the US. Methanol can also be replaced with ethanol for the transesterification process, which results in the production of ethyl esters. The transesterification processes use catalysts, such as sodium or potassium hydroxide, to convert vegetable oil and methanol into biodiesel and the undesirable byproducts glycerine and water, which will need to be removed from the fuel along with methanol traces. Biodiesel can be used pure (B100) in engines where the manufacturer approves such use, but it is more often used as a mix with diesel, BXX where XX is the biodiesel content in percent.  FAME used as fuel is specified in DIN EN 14214 and ASTM D6751 standards.  Fuel equipment manufacturers (FIE) have raised several concerns regarding biodiesel, identifying FAME as being the cause of the following problems: corrosion of fuel injection components, low-pressure fuel system blockage, increased dilution and polymerization of engine sump oil, pump seizures due to high fuel viscosity at low temperature, increased injection pressure, elastomeric seal failures and fuel injector spray blockage. Pure biodiesel has an energy content about 5–10% lower than petroleum diesel. The loss in power when using pure biodiesel is 5–7%.  Unsaturated fatty acids are the source for the lower oxidation stability; they react with oxygen and form peroxides and result in degradation byproducts, which can cause sludge and lacquer in the fuel system.  As biodiesel contains low levels of sulfur, the emissions of sulfur oxides and sulfates, major components of acid rain, are low. Use of biodiesel also results in reductions of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate matter. CO emissions using biodiesel are substantially reduced, on the order of 50% compared to most petrodiesel fuels. The exhaust emissions of particulate matter from biodiesel have been found to be 30% lower than overall particulate matter emissions from petrodiesel. The exhaust emissions of total hydrocarbons (a contributing factor in the localized formation of smog and ozone) are up to 93% lower for biodiesel than diesel fuel.  Biodiesel also may reduce health risks associated with petroleum diesel. Biodiesel emissions showed decreased levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and nitrited PAH compounds, which have been identified as potential cancer-causing compounds. In recent testing, PAH compounds were reduced by 75–85%, except for benz(a)anthracene, which was reduced by roughly 50%. Targeted nPAH compounds were also reduced dramatically with biodiesel fuel, with 2-nitrofluorene and 1-nitropyrene reduced by 90%, and the rest of the nPAH compounds reduced to only trace levels.

Hydrogenated oils and fats.

This category of diesel fuels involves converting the triglycerides in vegetable oil and animal fats into alkanes by refining and hydrogenation, such as H-Bio. The produced fuel has many properties that are similar to synthetic diesel, and are free from the many disadvantages of FAME.

DME.

Dimethyl ether, DME, is a synthetic, gaseous diesel fuel that results in clean combustion with very little soot and reduced NOx emissions.

Storage.

In the US, diesel is recommended to be stored in a yellow container to differentiate it from kerosene, which is typically kept in blue containers, and gasoline (= petrol), which is typically kept in red containers. In the UK, diesel is normally stored in a black container, to differentiate it from unleaded petrol (which is commonly stored in a green container) and leaded petrol (which is stored in a red container).

Measurements and pricing.

Cetane number.

The principal measure of diesel fuel quality is its cetane number. A cetane number is a measure of the delay of ignition of a diesel fuel. A higher cetane number indicates that the fuel ignites more readily when sprayed into hot compressed air. European (EN 590 standard) road diesel has a minimum cetane number of 51. Fuels with higher cetane numbers, normally "premium" diesel fuels with additional cleaning agents and some synthetic content, are available in some markets.

Fuel value and price.

As of 2010, the density of petroleum diesel is about 0.832 kg/L (6.943 lb/US gal), about 11.6% more than ethanol-free petrol (gasoline), which has a density of about 0.745 kg/L (6.217 lb/US gal). About 86.1% of the fuel mass is carbon, and when burned, it offers a net heating value of 43.1 MJ/kg as opposed to 43.2 MJ/kg for gasoline. However, due to the higher density, diesel offers a higher volumetric energy density at 35.86 MJ/L (128,700 BTU/US gal) vs. 32.18 MJ/L (115,500 BTU/US gal) for gasoline, some 11% higher, which should be considered when comparing the fuel efficiency by volume. The CO emissions from diesel are 73.25 g/MJ, just slightly lower than for gasoline at 73.38 g/MJ. Diesel is generally simpler to refine from petroleum than gasoline, and contains hydrocarbons having a boiling point in the range of 180–360 °C (360–680°F). The price of diesel traditionally rises during colder months as demand for heating oil rises, which is refined in much the same way. Because of recent changes in fuel quality regulations, additional refining is required to remove sulfur, which contributes to a sometimes higher cost. In many parts of the United States and throughout the United Kingdom and Australia, diesel may be priced higher than petrol. Reasons for higher-priced diesel include the shutdown of some refineries in the Gulf of Mexico, diversion of mass refining capacity to gasoline production, and a recent transfer to ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD), which causes infrastructural complications. In Sweden, a diesel fuel designated as MK-1 (class 1 environmental diesel) is also being sold; this is a ULSD that also has a lower aromatics content, with a limit of 5%. This fuel is slightly more expensive to produce than regular ULSD.

Taxation.

Diesel fuel is very similar to heating oil, which is used in central heating. In Europe, the United States, and Canada, taxes on diesel fuel are higher than on heating oil due to the fuel tax, and in those areas, heating oil is marked with fuel dyes and trace chemicals to prevent and detect tax fraud. "Untaxed" diesel (sometimes called "off-road diesel" or "red diesel" due to its red dye) is available in some countries for use primarily in agricultural applications, such as fuel for tractors, recreational and utility vehicles or other noncommercial vehicles that do not use public roads. This fuel may have sulfur levels that exceed the limits for road use in some countries (e.g. US).  This untaxed diesel is dyed red for identification, and using this untaxed diesel fuel for a typically taxed purpose (such as driving use), the user can be fined (e.g. US$10,000 in the US). In the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands, it is known as red diesel (or gas oil), and is also used in agricultural vehicles, home heating tanks, refrigeration units on vans/trucks which contain perishable items such as food and medicine and for marine craft. Diesel fuel, or marked gas oil is dyed green in the Republic of Ireland and Norway. The term "diesel-engined road vehicle" (DERV) is used in the UK as a synonym for unmarked road diesel fuel. In India, taxes on diesel fuel are lower than on petrol, as the majority of the transportation for grain and other essential commodities across the country runs on diesel.  Taxes on biodiesel in the US vary between states; some states (Texas, for example) have no tax on biodiesel and a reduced tax on biodiesel blends equivalent to the amount of biodiesel in the blend, so that B20 fuel is taxed 20% less than pure petrodiesel. Other states, such as North Carolina, tax biodiesel (in any blended configuration) the same as petrodiesel, although they have introduced new incentives to producers and users of all biofuels.

Uses.

Unlike gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas engines, diesel engines do not use high-voltage spark ignition (spark plugs). An engine running on diesel compresses the air inside the cylinder to high pressures and temperatures (compression ratios from 14:1 to 18:1 are common in current diesel engines); the engine generally injects the diesel fuel directly into the cylinder, starting a few degrees before top dead center (TDC) and continuing during the combustion event. The high temperatures inside the cylinder cause the diesel fuel to react with the oxygen in the mix (burn or oxidize), heating and expanding the burning mixture to convert the thermal/pressure difference into mechanical work, i.e., to move the piston. Engines have glow plugs and grid heaters to help start the engine by preheating the cylinders to a minimum operating temperature. Diesel engines are lean burn engines, burning the fuel in more air than is needed for the chemical reaction. They thus use less fuel than rich burn spark ignition engines which use a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio (just enough air to react with the fuel). As Professor Harvey of the University of Toronto notes, "due to the absence of throttling [constant amount of air admitted, per unit fuel, with no user-determined variation], and the high compression ratio and lean fuel mixture, diesel engines are substantially more efficient than spark-ignited engines", generally; Harvey cites the side-by-side comparisons of Schipper et al. and the estimates of >20% lower fuel use and (given differences in energy content between fuel types) >15% lower energy use. Gas turbine and some other types of internal combustion engines, and external combustion engine, both can also be designed to take diesel fuel.  The viscosity requirement of diesel fuel is usually specified at 40°C. A disadvantage of diesel as a vehicle fuel in cold climates is that its viscosity increases as the temperature decreases, changing it into a gel (see Compression Ignition – Gelling) that cannot flow in fuel systems. Special low-temperature diesel contains additives to keep it liquid at lower temperatures, but starting a diesel engine in very cold weather may still pose considerable difficulties. Another disadvantage of diesel engines compared to petrol/gasoline engines is the possibility of diesel engine runaway failure. Since diesel engines do not need spark ignition, they can run as long as diesel fuel is supplied. Fuel is typically supplied via a fuel pump. If the pump breaks down in an open position, the supply of fuel will be unrestricted, and the engine will run away and risk terminal failure.  With turbocharged engines, the oil seals on the turbocharger may fail, allowing lubricating oil into the combustion chamber, where it is burned like regular diesel fuel. In vehicles or installations that use diesel engines and also bottled gas, a gas leak into the engine room could also provide fuel for a runaway, via the engine air intake.  The crank case ventilation of modern road-use diesel engines is diverted into the intake manifold, because ventilating the crank case into outside air is inadvisable due to lubricant mist it contains. If the engine's piston rings malfunction, this will cause excessive pressure in the crank case forcing mist of engine lubricant into the intake manifold. Since most engines use oil which can be burnt in the same fashion as diesel, this will result in diesel engine runaway. To prevent that, more premium crank case ventilation solutions are fitted with a filter to catch out lubricant mist.  Most modern road use diesel engines are provided with an FRP valve in the intake manifold (sometimes misidentified as a petrol engine throttle body). In most basic applications this valve will close a flow of air to the engine when the vehicle is switched off, preventing diesel engine runaway by starving the engine of oxygen; this will also make standard shutdown much smoother by eliminating compression and decompression rattle by making the pistons effectively work in vacuum. In more advanced control systems this FRP valve can be shut by an electronic control unit when it senses runaway scenario.

Trucks.

Diesel fuel is widely used in most types of transportation. Trucks and buses, which were often gasoline-powered in the 1920s through 1950s, are now almost exclusively diesel-powered. The gasoline-powered passenger automobile is the major exception; diesel cars are less numerous worldwide.

Railroad.

Diesel displaced coal and fuel oil for steam-powered vehicles in the latter half of the 20th century, and is now used almost exclusively for the combustion engines of self-powered rail vehicles (locomotives and railcars).

Aircraft.

The first diesel-powered flight of a fixed-wing aircraft took place on the evening of 18 September 1928, at the Packard Proving Grounds near Utica, Michigan. With Captain Lionel M. Woolson and Walter Lees at the controls the first "official" test flight was taken the next morning, flying a Stinson SM-1B (X7654), powered by a Packard DR-980 9-cylinder diesel radial engine, designed by Woolson. Charles Lindbergh flew the same aircraft and in 1929, it was flown nonstop from Detroit to Langley Field, near Norfolk, Virginia. In 1931, Walter Lees and Fredrick Brossy set the nonstop flight record flying a Bellanca powered by a Packard diesel for 84 hours and 32 minutes. "X7654" is now owned by Greg Herrick and is at the Golden Wings Flying Museum near Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Diesel engines for airships were developed in both Germany and the United Kingdom by Daimler-Benz and Beardmore produced the Daimler-Benz DB 602 and Beardmore Typhoon respectively. The LZ 129 Hindenburg rigid airship was powered by four Daimler-Benz DB 602 16-cylinder diesel engines, each with available in bursts and available for cruising. The Beardmore Typhoon powered the ill-fated R101 airship, built for the Empire airship programme in 1931.  With a production run of at least 900 engines, the most-produced aviation diesel engine in history was probably the Junkers Jumo 205. Similar developments from the Junkers Motorenwerke and licence-built versions of the Jumo 204 and Jumo 205, boosted German diesel aero-engine production to at least 1000 examples, the vast majority of which were liquid-cooled, opposed-piston, two-stroke engines.  In the Soviet Union significant progress towards practical diesel aero-engines was made by the TsIAM ("Tsentral'nyy Institut Aviatsionnovo Motorostroyeniya" – central institute of aviation motors) and particularly by A.D. Charomskiy, who nursed the Charomskiy ACh-30 into production and limited operational use.

Military vehicles.

Armored fighting vehicles use diesel because of its lower flammability risks and the engines' higher provision of torque and lower likelihood of stalling.

Cars.

Diesel-powered cars generally have a better fuel economy than equivalent gasoline engines and produce less greenhouse gas emission. Their greater economy is due to the higher energy per-litre content of diesel fuel and the intrinsic efficiency of the diesel engine. While petrodiesel's higher density results in higher greenhouse gas emissions per litre compared to gasoline, the 20–40% better fuel economy achieved by modern diesel-engined automobiles offsets the higher per-litre emissions of greenhouse gases, and a diesel-powered vehicle emits 10–20 percent less greenhouse gas than comparable gasoline vehicles. Biodiesel-powered diesel engines offer substantially improved emission reductions compared to petrodiesel or gasoline-powered engines, while retaining most of the fuel economy advantages over conventional gasoline-powered automobiles. However, the increased compression ratios mean there are increased emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NO) from diesel engines. This is compounded by biological nitrogen in biodiesel to make NO emissions the main drawback of diesel versus gasoline engines.

Tractors and heavy equipment.

Today's tractors and heavy equipment are mostly diesel-powered. Among tractors, only the smaller classes may also offer gasoline engines. The dieselization of tractors and heavy equipment began in Germany before World War II but was unusual in the United States until after that war. During the 1950s and 1960s, it progressed in the US as well. Diesel is commonly used in oil and gas extracting equipment, though some places use electric or natural gas powered equipment to help reduce environmental effects such as pollution from exhaust gases and spills.  Tractors and heavy equipment were often multifuel in the 1920s through 1940s, running spark-ignition and low-compression engines. Thus many farm tractors of the era could burn gasoline, alcohol, kerosene, and any light grade of fuel oil such as diesel fuel, heating oil, or tractor vaporising oil, according to whichever was most affordable in any region at any given time. On U.S. farms during this era, the name "distillate" often referred to any of the aforementioned light fuel oils. The engines did not start as well on distillate, so typically a small auxiliary gasoline tank was used for cold starting, and the fuel valves were adjusted several minutes later, after warm-up, to switch to distillate. Engine accessories such as vaporizers and radiator shrouds were also used, both with the aim of capturing heat, because when such an engine was run on distillate, it ran better when both it and the air it inhaled were warmer rather than at ambient temperature. Dieselization with dedicated diesel engines (high-compression with mechanical fuel injection and compression ignition) replaced such systems and made more efficient use of the diesel fuel being burned.

Other uses.

Poor quality diesel fuel has been used as an extraction agent for liquid–liquid extraction of palladium from nitric acid mixtures. Such use has been proposed as a means of separating the fission product palladium from PUREX raffinate which comes from used nuclear fuel. In this system of solvent extraction, the hydrocarbons of the diesel act as the diluent while the dialkyl sulfides act as the extractant. This extraction operates by a solvation mechanism. So far, neither a pilot plant nor full scale plant has been constructed to recover palladium, rhodium or ruthenium from nuclear wastes created by the use of nuclear fuel.  Diesel fuel is also often used as the main ingredient in oil-base mud drilling fluid. The advantage of using diesel is its low cost and its ability to drill a wide variety of difficult strata, including shale, salt and gypsum formations. Diesel-oil mud is typically mixed with up to 40% brine water. Due to health, safety and environmental concerns, Diesel-oil mud is often replaced with vegetable, mineral, or synthetic food-grade oil-base drilling fluids, although diesel-oil mud is still in widespread use in certain regions.  During development of rocket engines in Germany during World War II J-2 Diesel fuel was used as the fuel component in several engines including the BMW 109-718. J-2 diesel fuel was also used as a fuel for gas turbine engines.

Chemical analysis.

Chemical composition.

Petroleum-derived diesel is composed of about 75% saturated hydrocarbons (primarily paraffins including "n", "iso", and cycloparaffins), and 25% aromatic hydrocarbons (including naphthalenes and alkylbenzenes). The average chemical formula for common diesel fuel is CH, ranging approximately from CH to CH.

Chemical properties.

Most diesel fuels freeze at common winter temperatures, while the temperatures greatly vary. Petrodiesel typically freezes around temperatures of −8.1 °C (17.5 °F), whereas biodiesel freezes between temperatures of 2° to 15 °C (35° to 60 °F). The viscosity of diesel noticeably increases as the temperature decreases, changing it into a gel at temperatures of −19 °C (−2.2 °F) to −15 °C (5 °F), that cannot flow in fuel systems. Conventional diesel fuels vaporise at temperatures between 149 °C and 371 °C.  Conventional diesel flash points vary between 52 and 96 °C, which makes it safer than petrol and unsuitable for spark-ignition engines. Unlike petrol, the flash point of a diesel fuel has no relation to its performance in an engine nor to its auto ignition qualities.

Hazards.

NO.

Diesel engines, like other lean-burn (excess of oxygen in proportion to the fuel) forms of combustion, recombine the atmospheric oxygen (O) and nitrogen (N) into mono-nitrogen oxides and, collectively known as NO, due to the high temperature and pressure. While naturally present in the atmosphere, their excess can contribute to smog and acid rain, as well as influence human health after reacting with ammonia, moisture, and other compounds. Modern diesel engines (Euro 6 & US EPA standards) use exhaust gas recirculation into the intakes to reduce excess oxygen present in combustion, and urea injection to turn NO into N and water.

Particles.

Small particles (PM 2.5) can penetrate deeply into lung tissue and damage it, causing premature death in extreme cases. Inhalation of such particles may cause or worsen respiratory diseases, such as emphysema or bronchitis, or may also aggravate existing heart disease. Unlike petrol engines, modern diesel engines are fitted with diesel particulate filters that help to reduce PM 10 and PM 2.5 emissions. However, those filters tend to get clogged easily with soot and are often removed by car owners.

Environment hazards of sulfur.

High levels of sulfur in diesel are harmful for the environment because they prevent the use of catalytic diesel particulate filters to control diesel particulate emissions, as well as more advanced technologies, such as nitrogen oxide (NO) adsorbers (still under development), to reduce emissions. Moreover, sulfur in the fuel is oxidized during combustion, producing sulfur dioxide and sulfur trioxide, that in presence of water rapidly convert to sulfuric acid, one of the chemical processes that results in acid rain. However, the process for lowering sulfur also reduces the lubricity of the fuel, meaning that additives must be put into the fuel to help lubricate engines. Biodiesel and biodiesel/petrodiesel blends, with their higher lubricity levels, are increasingly being utilized as an alternative. The U.S. annual consumption of diesel fuel in 2006 was about 190 billion litres (42 billion imperial gallons or 50 billion US gallons).  In the past, diesel fuel contained higher quantities of sulfur. European emission standards and preferential taxation have forced oil refineries to dramatically reduce the level of sulfur in diesel fuels. In the European Union, the sulfur content has dramatically reduced during the last 20 years. Automotive diesel fuel is covered in the European Union by standard EN 590. In the 1990s specifications allowed a content of 2000 ppm max of sulfur, reduced to a limit of 350 ppm by the beginning of the 21st century with the introduction of Euro 3 specifications. The limit was lowered with the introduction of Euro 4 by 2006 to 50 ppm (ULSD, Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel). The standard currently in force in Europe for diesel fuel is the Euro 5, with a maximum content of 10 ppm.  In the United States, more stringent emission standards have been adopted with the transition to ULSD starting in 2006, and becoming mandatory on June 1, 2010 (see also diesel exhaust). U.S. diesel fuel typically also has a lower cetane number (a measure of ignition quality) than European diesel, resulting in worse cold weather performance and some increase in emissions.

Algae, microbes, and water contamination.

There has been much discussion and misunderstanding of algae in diesel fuel. Algae need light to live and grow. As there is no sunlight in a closed fuel tank, no algae can survive, but some microbes can survive and feed on the diesel fuel.  These microbes form a colony that lives at the interface of fuel and water. They grow quite fast in warmer temperatures. They can even grow in cold weather when fuel tank heaters are installed. Parts of the colony can break off and clog the fuel lines and fuel filters.  Water in fuel can damage a fuel injection pump; some diesel fuel filters also trap water. Water contamination in diesel fuel can lead to freezing while in the fuel tank. The freezing water that saturates the fuel will sometimes clog the fuel injector pump. Once the water inside the fuel tank has started to freeze, gelling is more likely to occur. When the fuel is gelled it is not effective until the temperature is raised and the fuel returns to a liquid state.

Road hazard.

Diesel is less flammable than gasoline / petrol. However, because it evaporates slowly, any spills on a roadway can pose a slip hazard to vehicles. After the light fractions have evaporated, a greasy slick is left on the road which reduces tire grip and traction, and can cause vehicles to skid. The loss of traction is similar to that encountered on black ice, resulting in especially dangerous situations for two-wheeled vehicles, such as motorcycles and bicycles, in roundabouts.

Diesel fuel in general is any liquid fuel used in diesel engines, whose fuel ignition takes place, without any spark, as a result of compression of the inlet air mixture and then injection of fuel. (Glow plugs, grid heaters and block heaters help to achieve high temperatures for combustion during engine startup in cold weather.) Diesel engines have found broad use as a result of higher thermodynamic efficiency and thus fuel efficiency. This is particularly noted where diesel engines are run at part-load; as their air supply is not throttled as in a petrol engine, their efficiency still remains very high.

Motorová nafta (zjednodušeně pouze nafta, hovorově též diesel) je směs kapalných uhlovodíků. Získává se destilací a rafinací z ropy, obvykle při teplotách 150–370 °C. Kvalita motorové nafty se udává cetanovým číslem, které vyjadřuje její vznětovou charakteristiku.