Development.

Development of the three-drum boiler began in the late 19th century, with the demand from naval ships that required high power and a compact boiler. The move to water-tube boilers had already begun, with designs such as the Babcock & Wilcox or the Belleville. The three-drum arrangement was lighter and more compact for the same power.  The new generation of "small-tube" water-tube boilers used water-tubes of around diameter, compared to older designs of 3 or 4 inches. This gave a greater ratio of tube surface heating area to the tube volume, thus more rapid steaming. These small-tube boilers also became known as "express" boilers. Although not all of these were three-drum designs (notably the Thornycroft), most were some variation of this. As the tubes of the three-drum are close to vertical (compared to the Babcock & Wilcox), this encourages strong circulation by the thermosyphon effect, further encouraging steaming.  The development of the three-drum pattern was generally one of simplification, rather than increasing complexity or sophistication. Even the first boilers packed a large heating area into a compact volume, their difficulty was in manufacturing and particularly for their maintenance on-board ship.

Tubes.

The convoluted tubes of early designs such as the "du Temple" and "Normand" were the first to go. A multi-row bank of tubes could provide adequate heating area, without this complexity. Tubes also became straighter, mostly to ease their cleaning. Yarrow had demonstrated that straight tubes did not cause any problems with expansion, but circular drums and perpendicular tube entry were both valuable features for a long service life. Where tubes entered drums at an angle, heating and cooling tended to bend the tube back and forth, leading to leaks. A perpendicular entry was easier to expand the tubes for a reliable seal and to avoid these sideways stresses. It was worth the compromise of the Admiralty boiler's bent tube ends to keep these two features, and these tubes were still simple enough in shape to clean easily.  Some of the first boiler tubes, particularly the du Temple with its sharp corners, could not be cleaned of scale internally. Tubes were later cleaned internally by attempting to pass a hinged rod through, with a brush at the end. For the curved tube designs, often only part of the tube could be reached. Another method was to pass a chain down the tube from above, pulling a brush behind it, although this was unworkable for boilers like the Thornycroft where the tubes first travelled horizontally or upwards. The eventual method was to use 'bullet' brushes that were fired from one drum into the other by use of compressed air. Sets of brushes were used, one for each tube, and they were carefully numbered and counted afterwards to ensure that none had been left behind, blocking a tube.

Downcomers.

Separate downcomers were used by most designs, even after Yarrow's experiments had demonstrated that circulation could still take place amongst the heated tubes alone. Again, the Admiralty boiler (which omitted downcomers) was the culmination of this approach, placing the superheater within the tube bank, so as to encourage the necessary temperature difference.

Furnaces.

The Admiralty boiler is usually considered to be a direct evolution of the Yarrow, although the White-Forster also had an influence, probably as a result of the large number in service with the Royal Navy. The circular water drums, and their raising above the furnace floor, are White-Forster features. The first reduces the risk of grooving, the latter is appropriate for oil firing.

Types.

du Temple boiler.

The "du Temple" was an early naval water-tube boiler, patented in 1876. It was invented by Félix du Temple in France and was tested in a Royal Navy torpedo gunboat. Water tubes were convoluted, arranged in four rows to a bank, and S-shaped with sharp right angle bends. This packed a large tube heating area into a small volume, but made tube cleaning impractical. The drums were cylindrical, with perpendicular tube entry and external downcomers between them.

White-Forster boiler.

The "White-Forster" was of simple construction, with tubes that had only a gentle curvature to them. This was sufficient to allow them to be replaced in-situ, working through the manhole at the end of the large steam drum. Each tube was sufficiently curved to allow it to be extracted through the steam drum, but sufficiently straight that a single tube could be replaced from a tube bank, without requiring other tubes to be removed so as to permit access. This was one of many features of the White-Forster intended to make it reliable in naval service and easy to maintain. These tubes were of particularly small diameter, only and especially numerous, a total of 3,744 being used in some boilers. The tubes were arranged in 24 rows to a bank, each requiring a different length of tube, and 78 rows per drum. All tubes were curved to the same radius, facilitating repair and replacement on board, but requiring the tube holes in the drums to be reamed to precise angles on a jig during manufacture. This small tube diameter gave a high heating surface, but probably too much: the ratio of surface to volume became excessive and gas flow through the tube banks was affected, giving the boiler furnaces something of a reputation as poor burners.  Downcomers were used, either the usual two large pipes, or an unusual but characteristic arrangement of four small tubes to each drum. This was a feature intended to improve survivability after damage, when used on-board warships. The boiler could remain in service with a damaged downcomer tube plugged.  The mud drums were raised above the floor of the furnace on steel girder stools, increasing the furnace volume available for combustion. This feature was intended to encourage the use of oil burning, an innovation on warships around this time. The general appearance of the White-Forster is similar to that of the later "Admiralty" pattern. Features such as the raised mud drums and the shape of the tubes were an influence.  White-Forster boilers were introduced into the Royal Navy from 1906, for light cruisers and torpedo boat destroyers.

Normand boiler.

The "Normand" boiler was developed by the French Normand shipyard of Le Havre. It was used by the navies of several nations, notably those of France, Russia, Britain and United States. In 1896, the Royal Navy had them installed in twenty-six boats, more than any other water-tube design.  Initial design of the "Normand" boiler was as a development of the "Du Temple", with the sharp corners of the tubes replaced by a smooth radiused bend, but still retaining the S shape.  The design of the Normand gave a particularly large heating area (tube surface area) in relation to the grate area. The cost of this was a dense nest of tubes, where each of the numerous rows of tubes was bent into a different and complex shape. Tube ends entered the cylindrical drums perpendicularly, for good sealing. The space needed for all these tubes filled the entire lower half of the steam drum, requiring both a large drum and a separate steam dome from which to collect dry steam. The external boiler casing entered the flue uptake at one end, usually enclosing this dome. The ends of the drums extended outside the casing as hemispherical domes. Cold downcomers outside the casing linked these drums, providing a path for the return circulation of cold water.  A further development was the "Normand-Sigaudy", where two Normand boilers were coupled back-to-back, for use in large ships. This effectively gave a double-ended Normand (as was later common with the Yarrow) that could be fired from both ends.

Reed boiler.

The Reed boiler was used by Palmers of Jarrow. It was similar to the Normand, with downcomers and curved tubes that entered cylindrical drums perpendicularly.

Thornycroft boiler.

The "Thornycroft" boiler is a variant that splits the usual central furnace into two. There are four drums: two main drums vertically in the centre – a steam and a water drum – also two wing drums at the outside edges of the furnace. The design was notable for its early use of the water-wall furnace. The outer bank of tubes was shallow, consisting of only two rows of tubes. These rows were spaced closely, so that the tubes formed a solid wall, without gasflow between them. The inner bank of tubes was similar: the two rows of tubes closest to the furnace formed a similar water wall. These tubes were splayed apart at their base, so as to provide space for gasflow between them. Within the tube bank, gas flow is mostly parallel to the tubes, similar to some early designs, but contrary to the crossflow design of later three-drum boilers. The exhaust gas emerged into the heart-shaped space below the upper central drum, exiting to the funnel through the rear wall.  The steam drum is circular, with perpendicular tube entry. The tube ends span a considerable circumference of the drum, so that the upper tubes enter above the water level. They are thus 'non-drowned' tubes.  The upper and lower central drums are linked by downcomers. Unusually these are internal to the boiler and are heated, although not strongly, by the exhaust gases. They are formed as several (eight or nine) vertical tubes on the centreline of the boiler. They are formed into a shallow S-shape to give a little flexibility against thermal expansion. The small wing drums are connected to the lower central drum alone, by large external pipes outside the rear casing of the boiler.  Owing to its early use in the Thornycroft-built destroyer HMS "Daring" of 1893, this design became known as the " 'Daring' " boiler.  A small single-sided version of this boiler was also produced for launches. The first small version of this also dispensed with the wing drum, the water-wall tubes bending at right angles and passing back to the central water drum, the tubes also forming the grate to support the fire.

Thornycroft-Schulz boiler.

Later designs, the "Thornycroft-Schulz" pattern, made the outer wings more important. The number of their tubes was increased, such that they became the majority of the heating surface and the main gas path for the exhaust gases. The wing drums became large enough to permit a man access inside, for cleaning and expanding new tubes into place.  The earlier "Thornycroft-Marshall" design of water-tube boiler used horizontal hairpin water-tubes fitted into sectional headers. It has little relation to the types described here.

Yarrow boiler.

The "Yarrow" boiler design is characterised by its use of straight water-tubes, without downcomers. Circulation, both upwards and downwards, occurs within this same tube bank.  Alfred Yarrow developed his boiler as a response to other water-tube designs, and his perception in 1877 that Yarrow & Co were lagging behind other shipbuilders. His initial thoughts already defined the key features of the design, a three-drum boiler with straight tubes, yet it took ten years of research before the first boiler was supplied for a torpedo boat of 1887.

Straight tubes.

Early water-tube designers had been concerned with the expansion of the boiler's tubes when heated. Efforts were made to permit them to expand freely, particularly so that those closest to the furnace might expand relatively more than those further away. Typically this was done by arranging the tubes in large looping curves. These had difficulties in manufacturing and required support in use.  Yarrow recognised that the temperature of the water-tubes was held relatively low and was consistent amongst them, provided that they remained full of water and boiling was not allowed to occur within the tubes themselves, i.e. they would remain as drowned tubes. High temperatures and variations only arose when tubes became steam filled, which also disrupted circulation.  His conclusion was thus that straight water-tubes were acceptable, and these would have obvious advantages for manufacture and cleaning in service.

Yarrow's circulation experiments.

It was already recognised that a water-tube boiler relied on a continuous flow through the water-tubes, and that this must be by a thermosyphon effect rather than requiring an impractical pump. Forced-circulation boilers with pumps, such as the "Velox", did not appear for another thirty years and even then they were initially unreliable. The assumption was that flow through the water-tubes would be upwards, owing to their heating by the furnace, and that the counterbalancing downward flow would require external unheated downcomers.  Alfred Yarrow conducted a famous experiment where he disproved this assumption. A vertical U-shaped tube was arranged so that it could be heated by a series of Bunsen burners on each side.  When only one side of the U was heated, there was the expected upward flow of heated water in that arm of the tube.  When heat was also applied to the unheated arm, conventional theory predicted that the circulatory flow would slow or stop completely. In practice, the flow actually "increased". Provided that there was "some" asymmetry to the heating, Yarrow's experiment showed that circulation could continue and heating of the cooler downcomer could even increase this flow.  The Yarrow boiler could thus dispense with separate external downcomers. Flow was entirely within the heated watertubes, upwards within those closest to the furnace and downwards through those in the outer rows of the bank.

Later evolution in design.

Water drums.

The first Yarrow water drums or "troughs" were D-shaped with a flat tubeplate, so as to provide an easy perpendicular mounting for the tubes. The tubeplate was bolted to the trough and could be dismantled for maintenance and tube cleaning.  This D shape is not ideal for a pressure drum though, as pressure will tend to distort it into a more circular section. This flexing led to leakage where the water tubes entered the drum; a problem, termed 'wrapperitis', which was shared with the White-Forster. Experience of boiler explosions had shown that sharp internal corners inside boilers were also prone to erosion by grooving. Later boilers used a more rounded section, although still asymmetrical rather than fully cylindrical.

Downcomers.

The circulation in a Yarrow boiler depended on a temperature difference between the inner and outer tube rows of a bank, and particularly upon the rates of boiling. Whilst this is easy to maintain at low powers, a higher pressure Yarrow boiler will tend to have less temperature difference and thus will have less effective circulation. Some later and higher-pressure boilers were fitted with external downcomers, outside the heated flue area.

Superheaters.

When superheating was adopted, primarily for use with steam turbines after 1900, the first Yarrow boilers placed their superheater coil outside the main tube bank. Later designs became asymmetrical, with the tube bank on one side doubled and a hairpin-tube superheater placed between them.

Adoption by the Royal Navy.

HMS "Havock", the lead ship of the Havock class destroyers, was built with the then current form of locomotive boiler; its sister ship HMS "Hornet" with a Yarrow boiler for comparison. The trials were successful and the Yarrow boiler was adopted for naval service, particularly in small ships. In time the Navy would develop its own Admiralty pattern of three-drum boiler.

Mumford boiler.

The "Mumford" boiler was a variety built by the boilermakers Mumford of Colchester, intended for use in smaller boats. The tube banks separated into two groups, with the short tubes slightly curved away from each other. Entry into the lower water drum was perpendicular, requiring an almost rectangular drum with the tubes entering on separate faces. The mechanical weakness of such a shape was acceptable in this small size, but limited the boiler's potential. The casing was small and only enclosed part of the upper steam drum, leading directly to a funnel. A single inverted tee-shaped downcomer linked the drums at the rear of the boiler.

Woolnough boiler.

The "Woolnough" design was used by Sentinel for their larger railway locomotives. It resembled most other three-drum designs, having almost-straight tubes. Its distinguishing feature was a firebrick wall two-thirds of the way down the furnace. The furnace grate was on the longer side of this, with the combustion gases passing out through the tube bank, along inside a steel outer casing, then back within the shorter tube bank. Coiled tube superheaters were placed in the gas flow outside the tubes. The combustion gases thus passed through the tube bank "twice", once outwards and then again inwards. A single central chimney exhausted from the centre of the far end, not as usual from outside the tubes. The relative temperature difference between gas passage through the two sections of the bank led to a circulation current that was upwards through the first, hotter, part of the bank and downwards through the further, less hot, bank. Circulation was also controlled by an internal weir plate within the upper water drum, so as to keep a depth of water above the ends of the hotter tubes, thus avoiding overheating of dry tubes.  Sentinel used the Woolnough boiler on a number of their larger locomotives, instead of their usual small vertical boiler. These included railcars for the LNER and LMS. Sentinel's best-known use of the Woolnough was for the 'Colombian' articulated locomotives. These were a series of four, metre gauge locomotives of Co-Co wheel arrangement, built in 1934. They ran at the unusually high pressure of and each axle was driven by a separate steam motor, designed by Abner Doble. The first was supplied to Belgian Railways, the following three were built for the Société National des Chemins de Fer en Colombe of Colombia, but first shipped to Belgium for testing. Most photographs that exist of these locomotives were taken in Belgium. Little is known of their history after arrival in Colombia.

Admiralty boiler.

A later development of the Yarrow was the "Admiralty three-drum boiler", developed for the Royal Navy between the First and Second World Wars. Much of the design work was conducted at Admiralty Fuel Experimental Station at Haslar and the first boilers were installed in three of the A class destroyers of 1927. These boilers established new Royal Navy standard operating conditions for boilers of 300 psi (2.0 MPa) /.  The design was broadly similar to later, high-pressure and oil-fired, versions of the Yarrow. The waterdrums were cylindrical and downcomers were sometimes, but not always, used. The only major difference was in the tube banks. Rather than straight tubes, each tube was mostly straight, but slightly cranked towards their ends. These were installed in two groups within the bank, so that they formed a gap between them within the bank. Superheaters were placed "inside" this gap and hung by hooks from the steam drum. The advantage of placing the superheaters here was that they increased the temperature differential between the inner and outer tubes of the bank, thus encouraging circulation. In the developed form, the boiler had four rows of tubes on the furnace-side of the superheater and thirteen for the outer-side.

Feedwater.

The first boilers suffered problems with the superheaters and with poor circulation for the tube rows in the centre of the bank, leading to overheating and tube failure. The circulation problems were addressed by re-arranging the feedwater pipes and by placing baffles inside the steam drum, so as to give a more clearly defined circulation. A "circulation augmenter", a steel trough, was placed over the tops of the furnace-side tubes, encouraging a single central upwelling flow to above the water level, encouraging steam bubbles to escape and acting as a steam separator before the water re-circulated down the outer-side tubes. In a manner similar to work taking place around the same time on the LMS railway and the development of top feed for steam locomotives, the feedwater was also routed upwards through'spray pots' and thus passed through the steam space as droplets. The cold feedwater was thus heated to the same temperature as the boiler water before mixing with it, avoiding disturbance to the circulation path.

Superheaters.

Initial superheat performance was disappointing. Superheat at full power was limited deliberately to so as to avoid reliability problems, which then meant that it was ineffective at low powers. Development work by Babcock & Wilcox resolved this by increasing the steam flow speed through the superheater to, avoiding the problems of tube distortion and metallurgical failure. New boilers for the "Nelson"-class battleships and the "Kent"-class cruisers could achieve a superheat of throughout the operating power range at.

Backwall.

Unlike contemporary American practice, British naval boilers had a large proportion of furnace brickwork, leading to a high temperature within the furnace and consequently a high loading upon the tubes. The use of a water-wall furnace could reduce this.  From 1929, Hawthorn Leslie constructed a trial boiler with a partial water-wall to the rear of the furnace. Unlike other water-wall designs, this additional water drum spanned only the centre of the furnace, the vertical tubes were enclosed in a refractory casing and did not form a closely packed solid wall. The concern was that a full water-wall would unbalance the existing header arrangement of the three-drum boiler, which indeed showed to be the case. Excess steam production at the rear of the steam drum led to disrupted circulation and a problem with priming. The development of water-walls for this type of boiler was abandoned, although trials did continue with which was trialled with a single water-wall Johnson boiler replacing one of its three three-drum boilers.

Engine 10000.

The only large three-drum boiler used in a railway locomotive was Nigel Gresley's experimental Engine 10000 of 1924 for the LNER company. Having observed the benefits of higher pressures and compound engines in marine practice, Gresley was keen to experiment with this approach in a railway locomotive. As with the land-based boilers, Harold Yarrow was keen to expand the market for Yarrow's boiler.  The boiler was not the usual Yarrow design. In operation, particularly its circulation paths, the boiler had more in common with other three-drum designs such as the Woolnough. It has also been described as an evolution of the Brotan-Deffner water-tube firebox, with the firebox extended to become the entire boiler.  Working pressure was of as opposed to the of the contemporary Gresley A1 locomotives.  The boiler resembled two elongated marine Yarrow boilers, placed end to end. Both had the usual Yarrow arrangement of a central large steam drum above two separated water drums, linked by four rows of slightly curved tubes. The upper drum was shared, but the lower water drums were separate. The rearward "firebox" area was wide and spanned the frames, placing the water drums at the limits of the loading gauge. The forward "boiler" region was narrow-set, with its water drums placed between the frames. Although the outer casings were of similar width, the tube banks for the forward section were much closer. The space outboard of the tubes formed a pair of exhaust flues leading forwards. A large space outside these flue walls but inside the boiler casing was used as an air duct from the air inlet, a crude rectangular slot beneath the smokebox door, which had the effect of both pre-heating the combustion air and of cooling the outer casing to prevent overheating. Longitudinal superheater tubes were placed in the central space between the steam generating tubes. The third area forwards contained superheater headers, the regulators and the smokebox, but no deliberate heating surface. The external boiler casing remained at much the same width throughout, giving an overall triangular, but curved, appearance. The lower edge of each section stepped upwards, and was obvious externally.  Firing was with coal, at just one end through a conventional locomotive single firedoor, and a single manual fireman. Owing to the single-ended firing and the predominantly longitudinal gasflow, compared to the Yarrow's normal through-bank gasflow, there was a pronounced temperature difference between the front and back of the boiler. This led to the water circulation currents, especially in the second section, to be longitudinal through the water drums, like the Woolnough, rather than the usual Yarrow. The first section, which included some water-tubes to the rear wall, was radiant heated and effectively a water-wall furnace, without any gas flow through the tube bank. Despite this, it still used four rows of tubes. The second section had its gasflow arranged by steel and firebrick baffles so that the combustion gases entered through the centre and passed through the tube banks into the side flues, giving better convective heat transfer.

Three-drum boilers are a class of water-tube boiler used to generate steam, typically to power ships. They are compact and of high evaporative power, factors that encourage this use. Other boiler designs may be more efficient, although bulkier, and so the three-drum pattern was rare as a land-based stationary boiler.

Tříbubnový kotel je druh vodotrubého parního kotle, využívaný především v lodích. Jeho charakteristickým konstrukčním rysem je trojice válcových kotlů, jejichž podélné osy jsou rovnoběžné. Tyto kotle jsou propojeny trubkami do konstrukce, připomínající zpředu obrácené písmeno V.


Early life.

Rudolf Rocker was born to the lithographer Georg Philipp Rocker (1845-1877) and his wife Anna Margaretha née Naumann (1869-1887, daughter of Heinrich Naumann) as one of their four children, in Mainz, Hesse (now Rhineland-Palatinate), Germany, on March 25, 1873. (His siblings were Philipp, 1870-1873; Catharina Barbara, 20 March 1870 – 3 April 1870; and Friedrich, b. 1877.) This Catholic, yet not particularly devout, family had a democratic and anti-Prussian tradition dating back to Rocker's grandfather, who participated in the March Revolution of 1848. However, Georg Philipp died just four years after Rocker's birth. After that, the family managed to evade poverty only through the massive support by his mother's family. Rocker's uncle and godfather Carl Rudolf Naumann, a long-time member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), became a substitute for his dead parents and a role model, who directed the boy's intellectual development. Rocker was disgusted by his schoolteacher's authoritarian methods, calling the man a "heartless despot". He was, therefore, a poor student.  Rocker's father died in 1877. In October 1884, the Rocker household was joined by his mother's new husband Ludwig Baumgartner. This marriage presented Rudolf with a half brother, Ernest Ludwig Heinrich Baumgartner, with whom Rocker did not maintain close contact. Rocker was shocked once again as his mother died in February 1887. After his stepfather remarried soon thereafter, Rocker was put into an orphanage.  Disgusted by the unconditional obedience demanded by the Catholic orphanage and drawn by the prospect of adventure, Rocker ran away from the orphanage twice. The first time he just wandered around in the woods around Mainz with occasional visits to the city to forage for food and was retrieved after three nights. The second time, which was at the age of fourteen and a reaction to the orphanage wanting him to be apprenticed as a tinsmith, he worked as a cabin-boy for Köln-Düsseldorfer Dampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft. He enjoyed leaving his hometown and traveling to places like Rotterdam. After he returned, he started an apprenticeship to become a typographer like his uncle Carl.

Early politics.

Carl also had a substantial library consisting of socialist literature of all colors. Rocker was particularly impressed by the writings of, a federalist and opponent of Bismarck's centralized German Empire; Eugen Dühring, an anti-Marxist socialist, whose theories had some anarchist aspects; novels like Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables" and Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward"; as well as the traditional socialist literature such as Karl Marx's "Capital" and Ferdinand Lasalle and August Bebel's writings. Rocker became a socialist and regularly discussed his ideas with others. His employer became the first person he converted to socialism.  Under the influence of his uncle, he joined the SPD and became active in the typographers' labor union in Mainz. He volunteered in the 1890 electoral campaign, which had to be organized in semi-clandestinity because of continuing government repression, helping the SPD candidate retake the seat for the district Mainz-Oppenheim in the "Reichstag". Because the seat was heavily contested, important SPD figures like August Bebel, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Georg von Vollmar, and Paul Singer visited the town to help Jöst and Rocker had a chance to see them speak.  In 1890, there was a major debate in the SPD about the tactics it would choose after the lifting of the Anti-Socialist Laws. A radical oppositional wing known as "Die Jungen" ("The Young Ones") developed. While the party leaders viewed the parliament as a means of social change, "Die Jungen" thought it could at best be used to spread the socialist message. Unwilling to wait for the collapse of capitalist society which Marxism predicted, they wanted to start a revolution as soon as possible. Although this wing was strongest in Berlin, Magdeburg, and Dresden, it also had a few adherents in Mainz, among them Rudolf Rocker. In May 1890, he started a reading circle, named "Freiheit" ("Freedom"), to study theoretical topics more intensively. After Rocker criticized Jöst and refused to retract his statements, he was expelled from the party. The same would happen to the rest of "Die Jungen" in October 1891. Nonetheless, he remained active and even gained influence in the socialist labor movement in Mainz. Although he had already encountered anarchist ideas as a result of his contacts to "Die Jungen" in Berlin, his conversion to anarchism did not take place until the International Socialist Congress in Brussels in August 1891. He was heavily disappointed by the discussions at the congress, as it, especially the German delegates, refused to explicitly denounce militarism. He was rather impressed by the Dutch socialist and later anarchist Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis, who attacked Liebknecht for his lack of militancy. Rocker got to know Karl Höfer, a German active in smuggling anarchist literature from Belgium to Germany. Höfer gave him Bakunin's "God and the State" and Kropotkin's "Anarchist Morality", two of the most influential anarchist works, as well as the newspaper "Autonomie".  Rocker became convinced that the source of political institutions is an irrational belief in a higher authority, as Bakunin claimed in "God and the State". However, Rocker rejected the Russian's rejection of theoretical propaganda and his claim that only revolutions can bring about change. Nevertheless, he was very much attracted by Bakunin's style, marked by pathos, emotion, and enthusiasm, designed to give the reader an impression of the heat of revolutionary moments. Rocker even attempted to emulate this style in his speeches, but was not very convincing. Kropotkin's anarcho-communist writings, on the other hand, were structured logically and contained an elaborate description of the future anarchist society. The work's basic premise, that an individual is entitled to receive the basic means of living from the community independently of his or her personal contributions, impressed Rocker.  In 1891, all "Die Jungen" were either expelled from the SPD or left voluntarily. They then founded the Union of Independent Socialists (VUS). Rocker became a member and founded a local section in Mainz, mostly active in distributing anarchist literature smuggled in from Belgium or the Netherlands in the city. He was a regular speaker at labor union meetings. On December 18, 1892, he spoke at a meeting of unemployed workers. Impressed by Rocker's speech, the speaker that followed Rocker, who was not from Mainz and therefore did not know at what point the police would intervene, advised the unemployed to take from the rich, rather to starve. The meeting was then dissolved by the police. The speaker was arrested, while Rocker barely escaped. He decided to flee Germany to Paris via Frankfurt. He had, however, already been toying with the idea of leaving the country, in order to learn new languages, get to know anarchist groups abroad, and, above all, to escape conscription.

Paris.

In Paris, he first came into contact with Jewish anarchism. In Spring 1893, he was invited to meeting of Jewish anarchists, which he attended and was impressed by. Though neither a Jew by birth nor by belief, he ended up frequenting the group's meeting, eventually holding lectures himself. Solomon Rappaport, later known as S. Ansky, allowed Rocker to live with him, as they were both typographers and could share Rappaport's tools. During this period, Rocker also first came into contact with the blending of anarchist and syndicalist ideas represented by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), which would influence him in the long term. In 1895, as a result of the anti-anarchist sentiment in France, Rocker traveled to London to visit the German consulate and examine the possibility of his returning to Germany but was told he would be imprisoned upon return.

London.

Rocker's first years in London.

Rocker decided to stay in London. He got a job as the librarian of the Communist Workers' Educational Union, where he got to know Louise Michel and Errico Malatesta, two influential anarchists. Inspired to visit the quarter after reading about "Darkest London" in the works of John Henry Mackay, he was appalled by the poverty he witnessed in the predominantly Jewish East End. He joined the Jewish anarchist "Arbeter Fraint" group he had obtained information about from his French comrades, quickly becoming a regular lecturer at its meetings. There, he met his lifelong companion Milly Witkop, a Ukrainian-born Jew who had fled to London in 1894. In May 1897, having lost his job and with little chance of re-employment, Rocker was persuaded by a friend to move to New York. Witkop agreed to accompany him and they arrived on the 29th. They were, however, not admitted into the country, because they were not legally married. They refused to formalize their relationship. Rocker explained that their "bond is one of free agreement between my wife and myself. It is a purely private matter that only concerns ourselves, and it needs no confirmation from the law." Witkop added: "Love is always free. When love ceases to be free it is prostitution." The matter received front-page coverage in the national press. The Commissioner-General of Immigration, the former Knights of Labor President Terence V. Powderly, advised the couple to marry to settle the matter, but they refused and were deported back to England on the same ship they had arrived on.  Unable to find employment upon return, Rocker decided to move to Liverpool. A former Whitechapel comrade of his persuaded him to become the editor of a recently founded Yiddish weekly newspaper called "Dos Fraye Vort" ("The Free Word"), even though he did not speak the language at the time. The newspaper only appeared for eight issues, but it led the "Arbeter Fraint" group to re-launch its eponymous newspaper and invite Rocker to return to the capital and take over as its editor.  Although it received some funds from Jews in New York, the journal's financial survival was precarious from the start. However, many volunteers helped by selling the paper on street corners and in workshops. During this time, Rocker was especially concerned with combating the influence of Marxism and historical materialism in London's Jewish labor movement. In all, the "Arbeter Fraint" published twenty-five essays by Rocker on the topic, the first ever critical examination of Marxism in Yiddish, according to William J. Fishman. "Arbeter Fraint"s unsound financial footing also meant Rocker rarely received the small salary promised to him when he took over the journal and he depended financially on Witkop. Despite Rocker's sacrifices, however, the paper was forced to cease publication for lack of funds. In November 1899, the prominent American anarchist Emma Goldman visited London and Rocker met her for the first time. After hearing of the "Arbeter Fraint"s situation she held three lectures to raise funds, but that was not enough.  Not wanting to be left without any means of propaganda, Rocker founded the "Germinal" in March 1900. Compared to "Arbeter Fraint", it was more theoretical, applying anarchist thought to the analysis of literature and philosophy. It represented a maturation of Rocker's thinking towards Kropotkin-ite anarchism and would survive until March 1903. 1902 saw the London Jews being targeted by a wave of anti-alien sentiment, while Rocker was away for a year in Leeds. Upon return in September, he was happy to see the Jewish anarchists had kept the "Arbeter Fraint" organization alive. A conference of all Jewish anarchists of the city on December 26 decided for a re-launch of the "Arbeter Fraint" newspaper as the organ of all Jewish anarchists in Great Britain and Paris and made Rocker the editor. The first issue appeared on March 20, 1903. Following the Kishinev pogrom in the Russian Empire, Rocker led a demonstration in solidarity with the victims, the largest ever gathering of Jews in London. Afterwards he traveled to Leeds, Glasgow, and Edinburgh to lecture on the topic.

Jewish anarchism's golden years.

From 1904, the Jewish labor and anarchist movements in London reached their "golden years", according to William J. Fishman. In 1905, publication of "Germinal" resumed, it reached a circulation of 2,500 a year later, while "Arbeter Fraint" reached a demand of 5,000 copies. In 1906, the "Arbeter Fraint" group finally realized a long-time goal, the establishment of a club for both Jewish and gentile workers. The Workers' Friend Club was founded in a former Methodist church on Jubilee Street. Rocker, by now a very eloquent speaker, became a regular speaker. As a result of the popularity of both the club and "Germinal" beyond the anarchist scene, Rocker befriended many prominent non-anarchist Jews in London, among them the Zionist philosopher Ber Borochov.  From June 8, 1906, Rocker was involved in a garment workers' strike. Wages and working conditions in the East End were much lower than in the rest of London and tailoring was the most important industry. Rocker was asked by the union leading the strike to become part of the strike committee along with two other "Arbeter Fraint" members. He was a regular speaker at the strikers' gatherings. The strike failed, because the strike funds ran out. By July 1, all workers were back in their workshops.  Rocker represented the federation at the International Anarchist Congress in Amsterdam in 1907. Errico Malatesta, Alexander Shapiro, and he became the secretaries of the new Anarchist International, but it only lasted until 1911. Also in 1907, his son Fermin was born. In 1909, while visiting France, Rocker denounced the execution of the anarchist pedagogue Francisco Ferrer in Barcelona, leading him to be deported back to England.  In 1912, Rocker was once again an important figure in a strike by London's garment makers. In late April, 1,500 tailors from the West End, who were more highly skilled and better-paid than those in the East End, started striking. By May, the total number was between 7,000 and 8,000. Since much of the West Enders' work was now being performed in the East End, the tailors' union there, under the influence of the "Arbeter Fraint" group, decided to support the strike. Rudolf Rocker on the one hand saw this as a chance for the East End tailors to attack the sweatshop system, but on the other was afraid of an anti-Semitic backlash, should the Jewish workers remain idle. He called for a general strike. His call was not followed, since over seventy percent of the East End tailors were engaged in the ready-made trade, which was not linked with the West End workers' strike. Nonetheless, 13,000 immigrant garment workers from the East End went on strike following a May 8 assembly at which Rocker spoke. Not one worker voted against a strike. Rocker became a member of the strike committee and chairman of the finance sub-committee. He was responsible for collecting money and other necessities for the striking workers. On the side he published the "Arbeter Fraint" newspaper on a daily basis to disseminate news about the strike. He spoke at the workers' assemblies and demonstrations. On May 24 a mass meeting was held to discuss the question of whether to settle on a compromise proposed by the employers, which did not entail a closed union shop. A speech by Rocker convinced the workers to continue the strike. By the next morning, all of the workers' demands were met.

World War I.

Rocker opposed both sides in World War I on internationalist grounds. Although most in the United Kingdom and continental Europe expected a short war, Rocker predicted on August 7, 1914 "a period of mass murder such as the world has never known before" and attacked the Second International for not opposing the conflict. Rocker with some other "Arbeter Fraint" members opened up a soup kitchen without fixed prices to alleviate the further impoverishment that came with the Great War. There was a debate between Kropotkin, who supported the Allies, and Rocker in "Arbeter Fraint" in October and November. He called the war "the contradiction of everything we had fought for".  Shortly after the publication of this statement, on December 2, Rocker was arrested and interned as an enemy alien. This was also the result of the anti-German sentiment in the country. "Arbeiter Fraynd" was suppressed in 1915. The Jewish anarchist movement in Britain never fully recovered from these blows.

Back in Germany.

FVdG.

In March 1918, Rocker was taken to the Netherlands under an agreement to exchange prisoners through the Red Cross. He stayed at the house of the socialist leader Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis and he recovered from the health problems from which he suffered as a result of his internment in the UK and met up with his wife Milly Witkop and his son Fermin. He returned to Germany in November 1918 upon an invitation from Fritz Kater to join him in Berlin to re-build the Free Association of German Trade Unions (FVdG). The FVdG was a radical labor federation that quit the SPD in 1908 and became increasingly syndicalist and anarchist. During World War I, it had been unable to continue its activities for fear of government repression, but remained in existence as an underground organization.  Rocker was opposed to the FVdG's alliance with the communists during and immediately after the November Revolution, as he rejected Marxism, especially the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Soon after arriving in Germany, however, he once again became seriously ill. He started giving public speeches in March 1919, including one at a congress of munitions workers in Erfurt, where he urged them to stop producing war material. During this period the FVdG grew rapidly and the coalition with the communists soon began to crumble. Eventually all syndicalist members of the Communist Party were expelled. From December 27 to December 30, 1919, the twelfth national congress of the FVdG was held in Berlin.  The organization decided to become the Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAUD) under a new platform, which had been written by Rocker: the "Prinzipienerklärung des Syndikalismus" ("Declaration of Syndicalist Principles"). It rejected political parties and the dictatorship of the proletariat as bourgeois concepts. The program recognized only decentralized, purely economic, organizations. Although public ownership of land, means of production, and raw materials was advocated, nationalization and the idea of a communist state were rejected. Rocker decried nationalism as the religion of the modern state and opposed violence, championing instead direct action and the education of the workers.

Heyday of syndicalism.

On Gustav Landauer's death during the Munich Soviet Republic uprising, Rocker took over the work of editing the German publications of Kropotkin's writings. In 1920, the social democratic Defense Minister Gustav Noske started the suppression of the revolutionary left, which led to the imprisonment of Rocker and Fritz Kater. During their mutual detainment, Rocker convinced Kater, who had still held some social democratic ideals, completely of anarchism.  In the following years, Rocker became one of the most regular writers in the FAUD organ "Der Syndikalist". In 1920, the FAUD hosted an international syndicalist conference, which ultimately led to the founding of the International Workers Association (IWA) in December 1922. Augustin Souchy, Alexander Schapiro, and Rocker became the organization's secretaries and Rocker wrote its platform. In 1921, he wrote the pamphlet "Der Bankrott des russischen Staatskommunismus" ("The Bankruptcy of Russian State Communism") attacking the Soviet Union. He denounced what he considered a massive oppression of individual freedoms and the suppression of anarchists starting with the purge on April 12, 1918. He supported instead the workers who took part in the Kronstadt uprising and the peasant movement led by the anarchist Nestor Makhno, whom he would meet in Berlin in 1923. In 1924, Rocker published a biography of Johann Most called "Das Leben eines Rebellen" ("The Life of a Rebel"). There are great similarities between the men's vitas. It was Rocker who convinced the anarchist historian Max Nettlau to start publication of his anthology "Geschichte der Anarchie" ("History of Anarchy") in 1925.

Decline of syndicalism.

During the mid-1920s, the decline of Germany's syndicalist movement started. The FAUD had reached its peak of around 150,000 members in 1921, but then started losing members to both the Communist and the Social Democratic Party. Rocker attributed this loss of membership to the mentality of German workers accustomed to military discipline, accusing the communists of using similar tactics to the Nazis and thus attracting such workers. At first only planning a short book on nationalism, he started work on "Nationalism and Culture", which would be published in 1937 and become one of Rocker's best-known works, around 1925. 1925 also saw Rocker visit North America on a lecture tour with a total of 162 appearances. He was encouraged by the anarcho-syndicalist movement he found in the US and Canada.  Returning to Germany in May 1926, he became increasingly worried about the rise of nationalism and fascism. He wrote to Nettlau in 1927: "Every nationalism begins with a Mazzini, but in its shadow there lurks a Mussolini". In 1929, Rocker was a co-founder of the "Gilde freiheitlicher Bücherfreunde" (Guild of Libertarian Bibliophiles), a publishing house which would release works by Alexander Berkman, William Godwin, Erich Mühsam, and John Henry Mackay. In the same year he went on a lecture tour in Scandinavia and was impressed by the anarcho-syndicalists there. Upon return, he wondered whether Germans were even capable of anarchist thought. In the 1930 elections, the Nazi Party received 18.3% of all votes, a total of 6 million. Rocker was worried: "Once the Nazis get to power, we'll all go the way of Landauer and Eisner" (who had been killed by reactionaries in the course of the Munich Soviet Republic uprising).  In 1931, Rocker attended the IWA congress in Madrid and then the unveiling of the Nieuwenhuis memorial in Amsterdam. In 1933, the Nazis came to power. After the Reichstag fire on February 27, Rocker and Witkop decided to leave Germany. As they left they received news of Erich Mühsam's arrest. After his death in July 1934, Rocker would write a pamphlet called "Der Leidensweg Erich Mühsams" ("The Life and Suffering of Erich Mühsam") about the anarchist's fate. Rocker reached Basel, Switzerland on March 8 by the last train to cross the border without being searched. Two weeks later, Rocker and his wife joined Emma Goldman in St. Tropez, France. There he wrote "Der Weg ins Dritte Reich" ("The Path to the Third Reich") about the events in Germany, but it would only be published in Spanish.  In May, Rocker and Witkop moved back to London. There Rocker was welcomed by many of the Jewish anarchists he had lived and fought alongside for many years. He held lectures all over the city. In July, he attended an extraordinary IWA meeting in Paris, which decided to smuggle its organ "Die Internationale" into Nazi Germany.

United States.

First years.

On August 26, 1933, Rocker with his wife emigrated to New York. There they were reunited with Fermin who had stayed there after accompanying his father on his 1929 lecture tour in the US. The Rocker family moved to live with a sister of Witkop's in Towanda, Pennsylvania where many families with progressive or libertarian socialist views lived. In October, Rocker toured the US and Canada speaking about racism, fascism, dictatorship, socialism in English, Yiddish, and German. He found many of his Jewish comrades from London, who had since emigrated to America, and became a regular writer for "Freie Arbeiter Stimme", a Jewish anarchist newspaper. Back in Towanda, in the summer of 1934, Rocker started work on an autobiography, but news of Erich Mühsam's death led him to halt his work. He was working on "Nationalism and Culture", when the Spanish Civil War broke out in July 1936 instilling great optimism in Rocker. He published a pamphlet "The Truth about Spain" and contributed to "The Spanish Revolution", a special fortnightly newspaper published by American anarchists to report on the events in Spain. In 1937, he wrote "The Tragedy of Spain", which analyzed the events in greater detail. In September 1937, Rocker and Witkop moved to the libertarian commune Mohegan Colony about from New York City.

"Nationalism and Culture" and "Anarcho-Syndicalism".

In 1937, "Nationalism and Culture", which he had started work on around 1925, was finally published with the help of anarchists from Chicago Rocker had met in 1933. A Spanish edition was released in three volumes in Barcelona, the stronghold of the Spanish anarchists. It would be his best-known work. In the book, Rocker traces the origins of the state back to religion claiming "that all politics is in the last instance religion": both enslave their very creator, man; both claim to be the source of cultural progress. He aims to prove the claim that culture and power are essentially antagonistic concepts. He applies this model to human history, analyzing the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and modern capitalist society, and to the history of the socialist movement. He concludes by advocating a "new humanitarian socialism".  In 1938, Rocker published a history of anarchist thought, which he traced all the way back to ancient times, under the name "Anarcho-Syndicalism". A modified version of the essay would be published in the Philosophical Library series "European Ideologies" under the name "Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism" in 1949.

World War II, "Pioneers of American Freedom", final years.

In 1939, Rocker had to undergo a serious operation and was forced to give up lecture tours. However, in the same year, the Rocker Publications Committee was formed by anarchists in Los Angeles to translate and publish Rockers writings. Many of his friends died around this time: Alexander Berkman in 1936, Emma Goldman in 1940, Max Nettlau in 1944; many more were imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps. Although Rocker had opposed his teacher Kropotkin for his support of the Allies during World War I, Rocker argued that the Allied effort in World War II was just, as it would ultimately lead to preservation of libertarian values. Although he viewed every state as a coercive apparatus designed to secure the economic exploitation of the masses, he defended democratic freedoms, which he considered a result of a desire for freedom of the enlightened public. This position was criticized by many American anarchists, who did not support any war.  After World War II, an appeal in the "Freie Arbeiter Stimme" detailing the plight of German anarchists and called for Americans to support them. By February 1946, the sending of aid parcels to anarchists in Germany was a large-scale operation. In 1947, Rocker published "Zur Betrachtung der Lage in Deutschland" ("Regarding the Portrayal of the Situation in Germany") about the impossibility of another anarchist movement in Germany. It became the first post-World War II anarchist writing to be distributed in Germany. Rocker thought young Germans were all either totally cynical or inclined to fascism and awaited a new generation to grow up before anarchism could bloom once again in the country. Nevertheless, the Federation of Libertarian Socialists (FFS) was founded in 1947 by former FAUD members. Rocker wrote for its organ, "Die Freie Gesellschaft", which survived until 1953. In 1949, Rocker published another well-known work. In "Pioneers of American Freedom", a series of essays, he details the history of liberal and anarchist thought in the United States, seeking to debunk the idea that radical thought was foreign to American history and culture and had merely been imported by immigrants. On his eightieth birthday in 1953, a dinner was held in London to honor Rocker. Messages of gratitude were read by the likes of Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein, Herbert Read, and Bertrand Russell.  On September 10, 1958, Rocker died in the Mohegan Colony.

Works.

Memoirs.

Rocker wrote three volumes of memoirs, which have been published in Spanish and Yiddish translations: These memoirs were abridged into an English translation in 1956, titled "The London Years".

Johann Rudolf Rocker (March 25, 1873 – September 19, 1958) was a German anarchist writer and activist. Though often described as an anarcho-syndicalist, he was a self-professed anarchist without adjectives, believing that anarchist schools of thought represented "only different methods of economy" and that the first objective for anarchists was "to secure the personal and social freedom of men".

Rudolf Rocker (25. března 1873 Mainz, Německé císařství – 19. září 1958 jezero Mohegan nedaleko New Yorku, USA) byl německý anarchosyndikalistický spisovatel a aktivista. Byl proklamovaný jako anarchista bez přívlastků. Věřil, že hlavním cílem anarchistů je ""zajistit osobní a sociální svobodu lidí"".


Biography.

Darski was born Adam Michał Darski in Gdynia, raised Catholic, and started playing guitar at age eight. He goes by the stage name Nergal (naming himself after a Babylonian deity), and he is the founder, lyricist, main composer, frontman and manager of the band Behemoth, which he started when he was still a teenager. He also plays lead, rhythm and acoustic guitar. For a brief time he used the alias Holocausto, inspired by Beherit leader Nuclear Holocausto. In the late 1990s he was a vocalist and guitarist of the Danzig-influenced band, Wolverine, which was showcasing Nergal's capability of clean singing. He is also known for his contributions with the following bands: Hermh, Nile, Damnation, Vader, Sweet Noise, Mastiphal, December's Fire, Mess Age, Corruption, Hangover, Ex Deo, and Hefeystos.  Inspired by Norway's Black Circle, Nergal formed together with Blasphemous (from the band Veles) and Venom (from Xantotol) the Temple of Infernal Fire. Later other bands joined and far-right politics were introduced, and the group renamed the Temple of Fullmoon. Nergal then distanced himself from the group, mainly because he had no interest in politics. This led to remaining members of the Temple of Fullmoon to accuse Behemoth of betrayal and caused tensions between Nergal and Rob Darken, frontman of the Polish NSBM band Graveland, leading to death threats. Several years later, the tensions are gone and Nergal and Darken are in good terms nowadays, or as Nergal said in an interview: "We don't share the same interests but we share a mutual respect."  Nergal has completed six years of history, including one year of Latin at University of Gdańsk, and is qualified to be a museum curator.  In 2009, ESP guitars released the first Nergal's signature guitar. It is a 7-string guitar with a V-style body, which is called the "Hex-7".  In March 2010, Nergal was held on trial in Poland on blasphemy charges for publicly denouncing religion by ripping up a Bible on stage in 2007. Nergal made the argument that he has artistic license to enhance his live performances by doing such an action, and suggested that it was not meant to be offensive. He also supported that freedom of speech should come before religion in Poland. He faced up to two years in prison due to the Bible-tearing, but Darski's charges were dropped on 28 June 2010.  In 2011, he assumed the position of a coach on the Polish TV show "The Voice of Poland".  In July 2012, Nergal became the newest spokesman for Demon Energy drinks that would be distributed throughout Poland. Nergal appeared in full Behemoth attire on the front of four different flavors of the Demon Energy brand alongside the brand's slogan of "No Limits, No Laws". Darski reportedly donated the majority of funds for this limited edition placement to one of the world's most renowned bone marrow donor centers.  In October 2012, Nergal returned to the Polish Supreme Court regarding the 2007 incident where he tore up a bible and denounced the Catholic Church. The Supreme Court ruled that Darski could be guilty of the crime of "offending religious feelings" even though he did not act with the "direct intention" of doing so. The case was returned to a lower court which found him guilty of "intentionally insulting the Holy Bible" but the following appeal dismissed the case due to the statute of limitations.

Personal life.

From mid-2009 through early 2011, he was in a highly publicised relationship with Dorota Rabczewska, a Polish pop singer professionally known as Doda. On 17 March 2011, News.pl reported the couple had called off the engagement and broken up.  In 2012, Darski legally changed his middle name to 'Nergal'  Since 2014, Darski has been the co-owner of three barbershops in Poland—two in Warsaw and one in his hometown, Gdańsk. In 2015 he opened a nightclub in Sopot named Libation.

Health.

On 8 August 2010, Nergal was rushed to the hematology ward of the Gdańsk Medical University Hospital for treatment of a then-undisclosed illness. All Behemoth shows through November 2010, including a Russian and North American tours, were cancelled. On 24 August 2010, Darski was diagnosed with leukemia. The illness was thought to have advanced far enough to make chemotherapy ineffective, but such reports have since been proven false. His then-fiancée Dorota Rabczewska-Stępień offered to donate her marrow, but her marrow didn't match. On 8 November 2010, following his then-girlfriend's appeal to the wider public, which has been met with a great response, Darski underwent treatment to receive a bone marrow transplant.  Nergal was discharged from the Uniwersyteckie Centrum Kliniczne (UCK) hospital in Gdańsk on 16 January 2011, three weeks after undergoing bone marrow transplantation. "Adam feels good and is resting comfortably but cannot see any visitors as he can’t risk viral infections", said his ex-fiancée, Doda. However, Nergal was readmitted to the hematology division of Uniwersyteckie Centrum Kliniczne (UCK) in Gdańsk after he developed an infection six weeks later. At the time, it was not immediately clear if the infection would affect Nergal's adoption of the bone marrow transplant and how long he would have to remain in hospital. On 30 March 2011, MetalSucks published an interview with Nergal where he said that his health was improving. As of the interview, he had been out of the hospital for several weeks, and, according to Darski, "everything is going according to plan".

Me and That Man.

Nergal started a solo project alongside John Porter called Me and That Man, which focuses on country, blues, Funk and folk. The project's debut album titled "Songs of Love and Death" was released on 24 March 2017. The project's follow-up album, "New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1" was released on 27 March 2020, and features guest vocals from Corey Taylor, Niklas Kvarforth, Matt Heafy, Ihsahn, and others.

Adam Nergal Darski (born Adam Michał Darski, 10 June 1977) is a Polish musician and television personality, best known for being the frontman for the extreme metal band Behemoth.

Adam Michał Darski (* 10. června 1977 Gdyně), uměleckým jménem Nergal, je polský hudebník a televizní osobnost, frontman black/deathmetalové kapely Behemoth.


Legality of same-sex sexual activity.

Criminal laws.

The country's criminal code prohibits all sexual activity outside of a lawful marriage. Under Article 410 of the Libyan Penal Code, Private homosexual acts between consenting adults are illegal.  In the 1990s, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi began to enact "purification" laws designed to enforce a harsh view of Islamic law on the population. Libyan courts were given the power to use amputation, flogging and other punishments against persons found to be violating traditional Islamic morality.  In 2010, the "Gay Middle East" blog, reported that two adult men had been charged with "indecent acts", which meant cross-dressing and homosexual conduct.  Female homosexuality would also appear to be illegal, as is making any sort of public acknowledgment that a person is gay. In 2010 a French asylum case involved a Libyan girl who sought asylum after being jailed, raped and then returned to her family for a forced marriage after she made a public statement online that she was gay. Vigilante executions, in lieu of the penal code, are more commonplace in ISIS-controlled territories.  The criminal code is still technically in operation, although much of Libya is run by competing militias who may choose to execute LGBT people. ISIS in Libya has publicly executed men for homosexuality.

Gaddafi Government.

The Gaddafi government did not permit the public advocacy of LGBT rights. When discussed, it was always in a negative manner, in keeping with traditional Islamic morality.  In 2003, Gaddafi stated that he believed that it was "impossible" to contract AIDS–HIV through unprotected, heterosexual vaginal sex.

Transititional Government.

The Transitional post-Gaddafi government continues to oppose LGBT rights. In February 2012 a Libyan delegate sparked outrage after telling a United Nations human rights panel that gay people threaten the future of the human race.

Interim Constitution.

The Transitional Constitution stipulates that Islam is the official religion and a source of law.  The Transitional Constitution also pledges to respect the people's right to have a private life.  2019:  As of 2019, Libya has one LGBTQ+ NGO called Kun Libya. Libya's LGBT identifying population remains as of today under pressure to remain closeted due to the fall of the state since 2011.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in Libya face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Since the fall of Gaddafi regime in 2011, the status regarding homosexuality in Libya remains unchanged.

Lesby, gayové, bisexuálové a transsexuálové (LGBT) se v Libyi setkávají s právními obtížemi, s nimiž většinová společnost nemá zkušenosti. Mužská i ženská stejnopohlavní sexuální aktivita je zde ilegální.


History.

Early years, first two albums (1986–1991).

Initially known as Kolektiv, the group began performing in 1986. The lineup included vocalists Bittová and Jiří Kolšovský, guitarists Josef Ostřanský and Pavel Richter, bassist Vladimír Václavek, and drummer Fajt. The group, all members of which were active in other projects, performed only sporadically at the time.  Fajt and Bittová collaborated on the "Svatba" ("The Wedding") album in 1987, which was successful internationally. This led to the international re-release of their first collaborative LP from 1985. Following this, the band decided to record their material. They changed their name to Dunaj in 1989, released their debut record "Dunaj a Bittová", and performed a handful of well-received concerts.  Bittová and Richter left shortly after this period, with Kolšovský becoming the band's lead vocalist. Zdeněk Plachý also briefly joined as the group's keyboardist, performing on the group's second album, "Rosol" ("Jelly"). This album was released in 1991 on the Pavian Records label, shortly after the Velvet Revolution. Couture called the album "one of the band's most powerful achievements" and "a collection of memorable avant prog rock anthems" that is "an essential". They temporarily disbanded after the album's release.

"Dudlay" through "La La Lai", breakup (1992–1998).

In 1992, the band reformed in its third and longest-lasting incarnation, including Kolšovský, Václavek, Ostřanský, and new drummer Pavel Koudelka. They recorded and released their third record, "Dudlay", in 1993. The following year, they issued their next record, "IV".  The four members were briefly rejoined by Bittová and Fajt in 1995. This lineup re-recorded their debut album and released it, along with new material, as "Pustit musíš". The band toured in this incarnation prior to returning to the four-piece lineup and recording "La La Lai" in 1996. The group disbanded in 1998, shortly before Kolšovský's death. All surviving members remained active in the Czech music scene.

Later activity and reunions (2001–present).

Indies Records re-released "Rosol" in 2001 with bonus live material. In 2002, the group played a series of reunion concerts featuring participation from most members. Václav Bartoš, singer of Fajt's group Pluto, replaced Kolšovský for these performances.  Beginning in 2015, Ostřanský and Václavek began performing Dunaj material together live in the group Dunajská vlna with drummer Michaela Antalová. Later that year, Dunajská vlna released the album "Jednou", featuring new recordings of songs from all five Dunaj LPs. Critics praised the album's clean, minimalist sound.  In 2018, Ostřanský, Václavek, and Koudelka officially reformed Dunaj. The trio began performing old material and writing new songs, while a film about the band also began production. Also in this year, Plachý died unexpectedly after a prolific career in music and theater.

Members.

Current Former Timeline

Dunaj are a Czech alternative/art rock band from Brno active initially between 1986 and 1998 and reformed in 2018. The band has included prominent Czech musicians Iva Bittová and Pavel Fajt and influenced many Czech artists, with AllMusic critic François Couture calling their sophomore album "Rosol" from 1991 "the blueprint for the future music of [...] most of the Czech avant rock scene." The band's name translates in English to "Danube", referring to the river of this name.

Skupina Dunaj je představitelem českého alternativního rocku. Skupina vznikla v Brně, mezi její členy patřili například zpěvačka a houslistka Iva Bittová nebo bubeník Pavel Fajt. Aktivně působila v proměnlivých sestavách v letech 1986 až 1998, kdy její činnost ukončila smrt frontmana Jiřího Kolšovského. Nakrátko se vrátila na pódia v roce 2002. V roce 2015 pak její repertoár začala znovu naživo hrát skupina Dunajská vlna, v níž dva původní členy Dunaje, baskytaristu Vladimíra Václavka a kytaristu Josefa Ostřanského, doplňovali různí bubeníci, např. Michaela Antalová, případně Dano Šoltys.


Types.

Since its original inception, the telegraph key's design has developed such that there are now multiple types of keys.

Straight keys.

A "straight key" is the common telegraph key as seen in various movies. It is a simple bar with a knob on top and a switch underneath. When the bar is pressed down against spring tension, it makes a closed electric circuit. Traditionally, American telegraph keys had flat topped knobs and narrow bars (frequently curved), while British telegraph keys had ball shaped knobs and thick bars. This appears to be purely a matter of culture and training, but the users of each are tremendously partisan. Straight keys have been made in numerous variations for over 150 years and in numerous countries. They are the subject of an avid community of key collectors. The straight keys used in wire telegraphy also had a "shorting bar" that closed the electrical circuit when the operator was not actively sending messages. This was to complete the electrical path to the next station so that its sounder would operate, as in the operator receiving a message from the next town. Although occasionally included in later keys for reasons of tradition, the shorting bar is unnecessary for radio telegraphy, except as a convenience when tuning the transmitter.  The straight key is simple and reliable, but the rapid pumping action needed to send a string of dots (or "dits" as most operators call them) poses some significant drawbacks. Transmission speeds vary from 5 words (25 characters) per minute, by novice operators, up to about 30 words (150 characters) per minute by skilled operators. In the early days of telegraphy, a number of professional telegraphers developed a repetitive stress injury known as "glass arm" or "telegrapher's paralysis". "Glass arm" or "telegrapher's paralysis" may be reduced or eliminated by increasing the side play of the straight key by loosening the adjustable trunnion screws. Such problems can be avoided by using a good technique.

Alternative designs.

In addition to the basic up-and-down telegraph key, telegraphers have been experimenting with alternate key designs from the beginning of telegraphy. Some are mede to move side-to-side instead of up-and-down. Some of the designs, such as "sideswipers" and "semi-automatic" keys operate mechanically. From the mid-20th century electronic devices called ""keyers"" have been developed, operated by special keys of various designs generally categorized as "single-paddle" keys and ""iambic"" or "double-paddle" keys.  The first widely accepted alternative key was the "sideswiper" or "sidewinder", sometimes called a "cootie key" or "bushwhacker". This key uses a side-to-side action with contacts in both directions and the arm spring-loaded to return to center. A series of "dits" could be sent by rocking the arm back and forth. The alternating action produces a distinctive rhythm or "swing" which noticeably affects the operator's transmission style (known as his ‘"fist"’). Although the original sideswiper is now rarely seen or used, nearly all advanced keys use some form of side-to-side action.  A popular side-to-side key is the semi-automatic key or "bug", sometimes known as a "Vibroplex key", after the company that first manufactured them. The original "bug"s were fully mechanical, based on a kind of simple clockwork mechanism, and required no electronic keyer. When the paddle is pressed to the left it makes a continuous contact suitable for sending dashes (or "dahs", as most operators call them). When the paddle is pressed to the right, it kicks a horizontal pendulum which then rocks against the contact points, sending a series of short pulses ("dits") at a speed which is controlled by the position of the pendulum’s weight. A skilled operator can achieve sending speeds in excess of 40 words per minute with a ‘"bug"’.  Like semi-automatic keys, the telegrapher operates an electronic keyer paddle by swinging the lever from side-to-side. When pressed to one side, the keyer electronics generate a series of ""dahs""; when pressed to the other side, a series of ""dits"." Keyers work with two different types of keys: single paddle and double paddle keys. Like semi-automatic keys, pressing the paddle on one side produces a "dit" and the other a "dah". Single paddle keys are also called "single lever keys" or "sideswipers", the same name as the older side-to-side key design they greatly resemble. Double paddle keys are also called ""iambic"" keys or "squeeze" keys.  Single paddle keys are essentially the same as sideswiper keys with separate contacts on the left and right. Double-paddle keys have two arms, one for each contact, both arms held away from the common center by a spring; pressing either of the paddles towards the center makes contact, the same as pressing a single-lever key to one side. For double-paddle keys, squeezing both paddles together makes a double-contact, which causes the keyer to send alternating dits and dahs.  Most electronic keyers include "dot and / or dash memory" functions, so the operator do not need to use perfect spacing between dits and dahs or vice versa. With dit or dah memory, the operator's keying action can be about one dit ahead of the actual transmission. The electronic keyer adjusts the timing so that the output of each letter is machine-perfect. Electronic keyers allow very high speed transmission of code. Using a keyer in what's called ""iambic"" mode requires a key with two paddles: One paddle produces "dit"s and the other produces "dahs". Pressing both at the same time produces an alternating dit-dah-dit-dah sequence, which starts with either a dit or dah depending on which side was pressed first.  An additional advantage of electronic keyers over semiautomatic keys is that code speed is easily changed with electronic keyers, just by turning a knob. With a semiautomatic key, the location of the pendulum weight and the pendulum spring tension and contact must be re-balanced to change the dit speed.

Dual-lever paddles.

Keys having two separate levers, one for "dits" and the other for "dahs" are called dual or dual-lever paddles. With a dual paddle both contacts may be closed simultaneously, enabling the ""iambic"" functions of an electronic keyer that is designed to support them. The operator can create a series of alternating "dits" and "dahs" (similar to a sequence of iambs in poetry) by squeezing the levers together. For that reason, dual paddles are sometimes called "squeeze keys". Whether the sequence begins with a dit or a dah is dependent on which lever is closed first. If the dah lever is closed first, then the first element will be a dah, so the string of elements will be similar to a sequence of trochees in poetry and the method could as logically be called "trochaic keying". Insofar as iambic keying is a function of the electronic keyer, it is technically incorrect to refer to a dual paddle as an "iambic" paddle, although this has often been done for marketing purposes. A dual paddle is required for iambic sending with an iambic keyer, but it can be used without squeezing and there are electronic keyers which do not offer iambic functions.  A single-paddle also utilizes separate contacts for "dits" and "dahs", but there is no ability to make both contacts simultaneously by squeezing the paddles together (iambic). When a single-paddle key is used with an electronic keyer, continuous "dits" are created by holding the "dit" side. Likewise, continuous "dahs" are created by holding the "dah" contact.  Iambic keying or squeeze keying creates alternating "dits" and "dahs". This reduces the keystrokes or hand movements necessary to make some characters, e.g. the letter C, which can be sent by merely squeezing the two paddles together. With a single-paddle or non-iambic keyer, the hand motion would require alternating four times for "C" ("dah"-"dit"-"dah"-"dit").  Iambic keyers function in one of at least two major modes: mode "A" and mode "B". Mode "A" is the original iambic mode, in which alternate dots and dashes are produced as long as both paddles are depressed. When the paddles are released, the keying stops with the last dot or dash that was sent while the paddles were depressed.  Mode "B" is the second mode, which devolved from a logic error in an early iambic keyer. Over the years iambic mode "B" has become something of a standard and is the default setting in most keyers. In mode "B", dots and dashes are produced as long as both paddles are depressed. When the paddles are released, the keying continues by sending one more element, i.e., a dot if the paddles were released during a dash, or a dash if the paddles were released during a dot. Users accustomed to one mode may find it difficult to adapt to the other, so most modern keyers allow selection of the desired keyer mode.  A third electronic keyer mode useful with a dual paddle is the "Ultimatic" mode, named for the electronic keyer that introduced it. In the Ultimatic keying mode, the keyer will switch to the opposite element if the second lever is pressed before the first is released (that is, squeezed).  Typically, single and dual-paddle keys use horizontal movements, while a straight-key utilizes an up-and-down movement. The efficiency of iambic keying has recently been discussed in terms of movements per character and timings for high speed CW.

Non-telegraphy uses.

Simple telegraph-like keys were long used to control the flow of electricity in laboratory tests of electrical circuits. Often, these were simple ""strap"" keys, in which a bend in the key lever provided the key's spring action. Telegraph keys were once used in the study of operant conditioning with pigeons. Starting in the 1940s, initiated by B. F. Skinner at Harvard University, the keys were mounted vertically behind a small circular hole about the height of a pigeon's beak in the front wall of an operant conditioning chamber. Electromechanical recording equipment detected the closing of the switch whenever the pigeon pecked the key. Depending on the psychological questions being investigated, keypecks might have resulted in the presentation of food or other stimuli. Modern pigeon "response keys" are specially made switches but are still called ""keys"" due to their origins as telegraph keys.

"Fist".

With straight keys, side-swipers, and, to an extent, bugs, each and every telegraphist has their own unique style and pattern when transmitting a message. An operator's style is known as their ""fist"". To other telegraphers, every fist is unique and can be used to identify the telegrapher transmitting a particular message. This had a huge significance in the world wars, as it could be used to track the location of individual ships and submarines. See traffic analysis. However, electronic keyers (single-paddle or iambic) will produce "perfect" code at a set speed, thus only inter-character and inter-word spacing can produce a semblance of a "fist".

A telegraph key is a specialized electrical switch used by a trained operator to transmit text messages in telegraph systems, usually in Morse code. Keys are used in all forms of electrical telegraph systems, such as landline or "wire" electrical telegraphy, and "wireless", or radio telegraphy. An operator taps on the switch, connecting and disconnecting the electrical circuit, creating electrical pulses of two different lengths called "dots" and "dashes", to spell out text messages in code.

Telegrafní klíč je zařízení používané pro vysílání Morseovy abecedy. Je nedílnou součástí soupravy elektrického telegrafu, ale používá se i pro radiotelegrafii. S rozvojem dálnopisů a zejména datových komunikací se používání telegrafního klíče stále více stává pouze doménou radioamatérů.


History.

Founded in Milan in 1872 by Giovanni Battista Pirelli, the company initially specialised in rubber and derivative processes and also made scuba diving rebreathers. Thereafter, Pirelli's activities were primarily focused on the production of tyre and cables (for energy and telecommunications). In 2005, Pirelli sold its cable division to Goldman Sachs, which changed the new group's name to Prysmian.  In the 1950s, Alberto Pirelli commissioned the building of a skyscraper, Pirelli Tower, in the same Milanese area that housed the very first Pirelli factory during the 19th century.  In 1974, Pirelli invented the "wide radial tyre", upon a request from the Lancia rally racing team for a tyre strong enough to withstand the power of the new Lancia Stratos. At that time, racing tyres were either slick tyres made with the cross ply technique (very wide tyres with a reduced sidewall height), or radial tyres, which were too narrow to withstand the Stratos' power and did not provide enough grip. Both were unusable for the Lancia Stratos, as the radials were destroyed within 10 km, and the slicks too stiff. Lancia asked Pirelli for a solution, and in 1975 Pirelli created a wide tyre with a reduced sidewall height like a slick, but with a radial structure.  Subsequently, Porsche started using the same tyres with the Porsche 911 Turbo.  In 1988, Pirelli acquired the Armstrong Rubber Company, which was headquartered in New Haven, Connecticut, for $190 million.  In 2000, Pirelli sold its terrestrial fibre optic cables business to Cisco and its optical components operations to Corning, for 5 billion euro. It invested – through Olimpia -part of the resulting liquidity to become a majority shareholder in Telecom Italia in 2001, maintaining this position until 2007.  In 2002 the company started a range of Pirelli branded clothing, watches and eyewear.  In 2005, Pirelli sold its Cables, Energy Systems and Telecommunications assets to Goldman Sachs and the newly formed company was named Prysmian. In the same year, 2005, Pirelli opened its first tyre production plant in Shandong province, China. This was the beginning of the group's production complex in the country.  In 2006, Pirelli chose Slatina for its first tyre production plant in Romania, extending the facility in 2011.  In 2010, Pirelli completed its conversion to a pure tyre company by selling Pirelli Broadband Solutions and spinning off the real estate assets of Pirelli Re. Fondazione Pirelli was established in the same year to safeguard and celebrate the company's past and to promote business culture as an integral part of Italy's national cultural assets.  In March 2015, it was announced that Pirelli shareholders had accepted a €7.1 billion bid from ChemChina, together with Camfin and LTI, for the company. The transaction was completed and the company was delisted in November 2015.  In May 2017, it was announced that Pirelli returns to the world of cycling with a new road cycling tyre range, Pzero Velo.  In September 2017, the company announced its intentions to sell up to 40 percent of its equity capital in an initial public offering as it plans to return to the Milan stock exchange in October.  In March 2019 Pirelli announced a new range of mountainbiking tyres, called Scorpion.

Business areas.

Pirelli is focused on the consumer business, producing tyres for cars, motorcycles and bicycles.

Car products range.

PZero: tyres for ultra-high performance cars. including F1 vehicles  Cinturato: tyres for high end cars.  Winter: tyres for low temperatures and snow.  Scorpion: tyres for SUV and cross-over

Moto products range.

Diablo: road and track tyres.  Angel: street and commuting tyres.  Scorpion: road and off-road tyres.

Velo products range.

PZero Velo: road racing.  Cycl-e: urban and electric.  Scorpion: Mountainbike

Corporate affairs.

Major shareholders.

Pirelli shareholders as of September 2019:

Board of directors.

The list of Pirelli Board of Directors:

Financial information.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>The performance takes into account, as well as the deconsolidation of Venezuela, a non-recurring fiscal impact of 107.6 million euro linked to the devaluation of active deferred taxation by the Parent Group as a consequence of Pirelli’s new financial status after its merger with Marco Polo Industrial Holding.

Marketing.

The Pirelli Calendar is published annually, featuring actresses and fashion models. The calendar also features the work of fashion photographers, including Richard Avedon, Peter Lindbergh, Annie Leibovitz, and Patrick Demarchelier.  The Pirelli "Internet"ional Award is given annually for the best international multimedia involving the communication of science and technology conducted entirely on the Internet.  "Power is nothing without control" was the well known slogan of Pirelli Tyre Company, and was featured in numerous television and print advertisements.  Pirelli is the long-serving main sponsor of Italian football club Inter Milan, having sponsored the Italian team since the 1995–96 season.

Sponsorship.

Football.

Pirelli has a history of sponsoring football teams. Pirelli is well known for its long term primary sponsorship of the Italian football club Inter Milan since 1995. Pirelli previously appeared as a sponsor on the shirts of the Maltese football club Valletta for a short time.  In reference to Brazil striker Ronaldo’s usual goal celebration of both arms outstretched, Pirelli ran a 1998 commercial in which he replaced the figure of Christ from the "Christ the Redeemer" statue that towers over his home city of Rio de Janeiro while in an Inter Milan strip. It was controversial with the Catholic Church.  Pirelli's sponsorship of football teams is not limited to Europe, South America is a key market and as a result successful clubs have also been sponsored by the tyre company. The Brazilian team Palmeiras, Uruguayan team Peñarol and Argentinian side Vélez Sársfield all had Pirelli as a shirt sponsor.  When English football club Burton Albion Football Club built their new stadium in 2005, Pirelli became the title sponsor of the new ground. This was because the new stadium, named Pirelli Stadium lies next to the Pirelli factory in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, England.  In 2009 Pirelli became the title sponsor of the Chinese Super League (CSL), China's top tier football league.  In 2012, the company become a major sponsor of the Russian Cup.

Motorsport.

Pirelli is currently the event title sponsor of the Spanish and Hungarian Grands Prix and sponsored the 2018 French Grand Prix.  The company was the title sponsor of the Pirelli World Challenge from 2011 to 2018.  Pirelli supported rally with their FIA Pirelli Star Driver program as an initiative to support young rally drivers.

America's Cup.

Pirelli is sponsor of Emirates Team New Zealand in the 35th America's Cup (2017).

Winter Sports.

Pirelli sponsors Alpine World Ski Championship and Ice Hockey World Championship IIHF from 2017 to 2021. The company is also sponsor of the Italian Ski Team and of the Swiss Ski Team.

Motorsport.

Pirelli is the only allowed tyre brand in the FIM World Superbike Championship since 2007 (along with its support classes, such as the Supersport World Championship). Pirelli has also been awarded the contract for the control tyre supply in the British Superbike Championship from 2008 until at least 2010. Pirelli were also the official tyre partner of the World Rally Championship from 2008 to 2010, until the company withdrew to focus on its Formula 1 commitments. Pirelli returned to the championship in 2014, however they only partnering tyres for a few private teams as Michelin is the major tyre partner. Pirelli was also partnered Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series from 2008 until 2010 before being replaced by Continental AG in 2011. The company is the official supplier of the GT World Challenge America since 2011 and the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup since 2013. Pirelli is also a sponsor of rally and gymkhana driver Ken Block's Hoonigan Racing Division since 2010.  Pirelli is the sole global tyre partner in Formula One, following Bridgestone's decision to withdraw from the role at the end of. Pirelli previously competed in Formula One from –, – and –. Pirelli has also partnering tyres for all FIA Formula 2 Championship and GP3 Series later FIA Formula 3 Championship cars since 2011 and 2010 respectively.  The tyre manufacturer introduced a colour coding to recognize tyre compounds used by drivers during the racing weekend. For the benefit of the spectators at the track and the television audiences each compound has its own colour coding on the Pirelli and P Zero logos which appear on the sidewalls of the tyre. For the 2019 season, Pirelli reverted to using 3 colours to identify the dry weather tyres. However there still were 5 different compounds meaning that the same compound tyre can be represented by different colours throughout the season.  Pirelli were asked to design tyres that degraded rapidly in order to promote more pit stops and closer racing. At the end of the 2011 season, many F1 drivers praised Pirelli's comeback.  Controversy surrounded Pirelli's Formula 1 tyres as at the 2013 British Grand Prix seven Pirelli tyres failed: Pérez twice, Alonso, Hamilton, Gutierrez, Vergne, and Massa. Following a safety car period drivers were instructed to stay off the curbs that were later found to be "razor sharp" and may have been the cause, but the president of the British Racing Drivers' Club rejected the idea that the curbs could be at fault, saying that "These curbs have been in since 2009 and we have had thousands and thousands of cars go over these curbs and they have been absolutely fine". The incidents were described as "unacceptable" by F1 drivers. It was later suggested that the cause of the tyre failures could be the teams putting them on the wrong sides of the car. Pirelli then stressed that since the tyres are of asymmetrical construction, as such they are not interchangeable, and if they had been used correctly, they would not have posed a threat to safety. However Pirelli has since changed the construction of the tyres to prevent further incidents, switching to kevlar belts.  During the second practice of the 2013 Belgian Grand Prix, two tyres failed: Vettel and Alonso. One senior figure at Pirelli described the failures as a "big concern", whilst Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery admitted the tyre failures were "a worry for the sport". Following these issues, just one day later Michelin announced that they would replace Pirelli as the tyre supplier for 2014. In October 2013 Fernando Alonso complained that "the quality of the tyres is very on the limit", and that they "will not do 5km". Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery said: "Of course Alonso is one of the great F1 drivers, so to hear such comments is disappointing and below the standards you would expect from such a champion. In the Korean Grand Prix Pérez locked a front tyre heavily and then suffered a dramatic failure on the subsequent long straight. Pirelli also hit controversy at the Indian Grand Prix where they requested the teams run the tyres a limited number of laps due to their fragility. One senior engineer at a top said this was the worst tyre blistering ever experienced.  In pre-season testing for the 2014 season the tyre on Rosberg's car failed, sending Rosberg into a spin. The incident prompted considerable alarm, and Pirelli stated that the tyre "will not be proposed again".  In January 2014 Pirelli signed a contract with the FIA to supply tyres to Formula One for the 2014, 2015 and 2016 seasons. Later in 2014 Lewis Hamilton described the Pirelli wet weather tyres as "They're not great tyres. That's no secret". Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery reply was that "These are comments by drivers that have not been made in an official way to us. Consequently, if Pirelli was requested by the teams and the FIA to reconsider the technical capability of the wet tyre, Pirelli would do it immediately".  At the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix, during practice, Rosberg suffered a dangerous tyre delamination at. Rosberg said the incident was "quite a shock". During the subsequent drivers' briefing, double world champion Lewis Hamilton raised concerns about tyre safety following the high-speed blow-out suffered by teammate Nico Rosberg. Concerns were also brought up by four-time world champion Vettel, and double world champion Alonso. Pirelli relied on race director, Charlie Whiting, to defend Pirelli's record in the meeting. During the race a tyre on Vettel's car suffered from a blowout at. The four time world champion described the failure an "unacceptable", and added that Pirelli's tendency to blame failures either on debris on track or a driver going over a curb for tyre failures was incorrect, confirming that "I didn't go off the track and out of the blue the tyre explodes". Following the race Rosberg was critical of the poor quality of Pirelli tyres, saying "Vettel exploding his tyre is really poor. It shouldn't happen and the fact that it keeps on happening, in other categories as well as today with us, both of us were just so lucky". The Grand Prix Drivers' Association chairman said: "We need to stop the sudden explosions." Immediately after the race Pirelli claimed that excessive wear caused the blowout, blaming Ferrari for running the tyre too long. However, following a more detailed analysis Pirelli said that in fact wear was not to blame, but instead a cut had caused the tyre failure. To counteract further problems at the next Grand Prix, Monza, Pirelli wanted to insist that teams run the tyres at high pressure, beyond their design parameters. However, double world champion Lewis Hamilton described these rules as a "disaster" and when double world champion Fernando Alonso also described them as "strange" Pirelli was forced to backtrack on their proposal. Consequently, after such comments, Pirelli attempted to censor the drivers by asking them to not criticise the tyres in public in the future.  The situation did not improve at the next Grand Prix at Monza. Here, Pirelli reported a higher than expected number of cuts forming in the tyres. During the race, one of Hamilton's tyres dropped below the regulation pressure dictated by Pirelli, despite the tyre having been prepared by a Pirelli technician. Neither Mercedes nor Hamilton were punished for the infringement. Later in 2016, the necessity to run Pirelli tyres at high pressure was described as a "joke" by triple world champion Lewis Hamilton, world champion Jenson Button, as well as world championship runner-up Felipe Massa.  A number of changes to the Formula 1 tyres were introduced for the 2017 season. The most obvious visual difference was an increase of width by 25%, both front and rear, increasing from 245 to 305mm at the front and 325 to 405mm at the rear. The actual rim size remained unchanged from the traditional 13 inches.  This is part of a package of measures expected to cut lap times by around five seconds relative to 2015: although the improvement might be even bigger.  Most of that extra speed has been found through corners, as the cars have got wider and will generate at least 20% more downforce compared to last year thanks to bigger wings and increased aerodynamics.  These faster cornering speeds—to the extent that some corners have now effectively become straights, already leading to circuit modifications—have imposed significantly increased loads on the tyres, meaning that there is a completely new philosophy behind Pirelli’s 2017 range. Having followed the brief to provide deliberate degradation for the past six seasons, there is now a new directive to make tyres with less degradation that are more resistant to overheating for the latest generation of much faster cars. As a result, both the tyre structure and their compounds have been updated.

Overseas investment.

In April 2012, Pirelli & C. SpA signed joint venture agreement with Indonesian counterpart PT Astra Autoparts a subsidiary of PT Astra International for the construction of a motorcycle tyre plant with a total investment of $120 million. 60 percent shares will be held by Pirelli. Pirelli hoped to strengthen its presence in the largest motorcycle market in the world, the Southeast Asia region which has 250 million motorcycles.

Audio system.

In July 2018, Pirelli launched a F1 wheel shaped Bluetooth speaker, P Zero Sound. The Bluetooth speaker measures 12.9-inches in diameter, weighs 21 pounds and has a 100-watt amplifier, a 100mm midwoofer, a 25mm tweeter and also offers Bluetooth 4.0 with AptX for wireless connectivity. IXOOST is the manufacturer of P Zero Sound speaker, which majorly manufactures Motorsports-themed audio systems. The wheel shaped speaker costs €2400, which is equivalent to about $2,800.

Pirelli & C. S.p.A. is an Italian multinational company based in Milan, Italy, listed on the Milan Stock Exchange since 1922, with a temporary privatization period by the consortium led by the Chinese state-owned enterprise ChemChina. The company is the 5th-largest tyre manufacturer behind Bridgestone, Michelin, Goodyear and Continental, and is focused on the consumer business (tyres for cars, motorcycles and bicycles). It is present in Europe, the Asia-Pacific, Latin America, North America and ex-USSR, operating commercially in over 160 countries. It has 19 manufacturing sites in 13 countries and a network of around 14,600 distributors and retailers.

Pirelli & C. SpA je nadnárodní korporace se sídlem v Miláně. Jedná se o pátého největšího výrobce pneumatik, hned za Bridgestone, Michelin, Continental a Goodyear. Pro roky 2011–2020 je Pirelli výhradním dodavatelem pneumatik pro šampionát Formule 1.