Beam engines.

The first recorded use of the term tappet is as part of the valve gear in the 1715 Newcomen engine, an early form of steam engine. Early versions of the Newcomen engines from 1712 had manually operated valves, but by 1715 this repetitive task had been automated through the use of tappets. The beam of the engine had a vertical 'plug rod' hung from it, alongside the cylinder. Adjustable blocks or 'tappets' were attached to this rod and as the beam moved up and down, the tappets pressed against long levers or 'horns' attached to the engine's valves, working the cycle of steam and injection water valves to operate the engine.  This operation by tappets on a plug rod continued into the early twentieth century with the Cornish engine.  From the 19th century onwards, most steam engines used slide valves or piston valves, which do not require the use of tappets.

Internal combustion engines.

In an internal combustion engine, a tappet (also called a 'valve lifter' or 'cam follower') is the component which converts the rotation of the camshaft into vertical motion which opens and closes the intake or exhaust valve. The types of valve lifters (i.e. tappets) commonly used by automotive engines are solid lifters, hydraulic lifters and roller lifters.  An alternative to the tappet is the 'finger follower', which is a pivoting beam that is used to convert the camshaft rotation into opening and closing of a valve. Finger followers are used in some high-performance dual overhead camshaft engines (instead of bucket tappets), most commonly in motorcycles and sports cars.  To reduce wear from the rotating camshaft, the tappets were usually circular and allowed, or even encouraged, to rotate. This avoided grooves developing from the same point of the tappet always running on the same point of the camshaft. However, in some relatively small engines with many cylinders (such as the Daimler '250' V8 engine), the tappets were small and non-rotating.  Most 'flat' tappets (i.e. without rollers) usually contain a slight radius which creates a subtle mushroom-shaped surface, since a perfectly flat surface leads to'slamming' against a steep camshaft face.

Adjusting the tappets.

A common, yet imprecise, use of the term 'tappet' is the engine maintenance task referred to as "adjusting the tappets" in an overhead valve (OHV) engine, which was a widely used engine configuration between the 1940s and the 1990s. The task involves adjusting the clearance of tappet from the camshaft, however the adjustment is not actually made to the tappets themselves.  On most OHV engines, the adjustment was made by turning a screw set in the end of the rocker that pressed on the end of the pushrod. With the engine rotated to give the widest gap between the camshaft and a particular tappet, the rocker screw was adjusted until this gap was at the correct spacing, as measured with the use of a feeler gauge. If the gap was too wide, this could result in an audible 'tappet rattle' from the rocker cover. If the gap was too narrow, this could result in engine damage such as bent pushrods or burnt valves. The adjusting screw was locked by a locknut. Failure of the locknut to hold the adjustment in place could cause catastrophic engine failure, which has led to fatal aircraft crashes.  On some OHV engines in the 1960s, such as the Ford Taunus V4 engine and Opel CIH engine, the tappet adjustment was done by setting the height of the rocker pivot point (rather than the typical method of a rocker-end adjustment screw). On the 1965-1970 versions of the Opel CIH engine with solid tappets, the tappet adjustment was conducted with the engine running.

Hydraulic tappets.

A hydraulic tappet, also known as a "hydraulic lash adjuster", contains a small hydraulic piston that becomes filled with pressurised engine oil. the piston acts as a hydraulic spring that automatically adjusts the tappet clearance according to the oil pressure. Although the movements of the piston are small and infrequent, they are sufficient to make the valve actuation self-adjusting so that there is no need to manually adjust the clearance of the tappets.  Hydraulic tappets depend on a supply of clean oil at the appropriate pressure. When starting a cold engine, with low oil pressure, hydraulic tappets are often noisy for a few seconds, until they position themselves correctly.

Roller tappets.

Early automotive engines used a roller at the contact point with the camshaft, however as engine speeds increased, 'flat tappets' with plain ends became far more common than tappets with rollers. Some modern high-performance automotive engines use roller tappets, in order to use a camshaft with a steeper profile.

Valvetrain layouts.

Sidevalve engines.

In a sidevalve engine— a common design for car engines until the 1950s— the valves are mounted at the sides of the cylinder and face upwards. This means that the camshaft could be placed directly beneath the valves, without the need for a rocker. With lower cylinder blocks, the tappets could drive the valves directly without needing even a push rod.  Sidevalve engines also required regular adjustment of the tappet clearance, and in this case it was the tappets themselves that were adjusted directly. Small access plates were provided on the sides of the cylinder block, giving access to the gap between the valves and tappets. Some tappets had a threaded adjuster, but simpler engines could be adjusted by grinding down the ends of the valve stem directly. As the tappet adjustment always consisted of expanding the clearance (re-grinding valves into their valve seats during de-coking makes them sit lower, thus reducing the tappet clearance), adjustment by shortening the valve stems was a viable method. Eventually the valves would be replaced entirely, a relatively common operation for engines of this era.

Overhead valve engines.

In an overhead valve engine, the tappets are located down in the engine block and operate long, thin pushrods which transfer the motion (via the rocker arms) to the valves located at the top of the engine.

Single overhead camshaft engines.

In a single overhead camshaft (SOHC) engine, the tappets are located at the top of the cylinder head and usually operate the valves indirectly via rocker arms.  Mass-production of SOHC engines for passenger cars became more common in the 1970s, in the form of crossflow cylinder heads with a overhead rockers located directly beneath a single overhead camshaft, as a more efficient design which could be cost-effectively manufactured. The 1970-2001 Ford Pinto engine was one of the first mass-production engines to use an SOHC design with a toothed cambelt. In this configuration, the rockers combined the function of sliding tappet, rocker and adjustment device. Adjustment of the valve clearance was usually by a threaded pivot stud beneath the rocker. The linear sliding tappets often had a high rate of wear and demanded careful lubrication.  A relatively uncommon design of an SOHC camshaft with four valves per cylinder was first used in the 1973-1980 Triumph Dolomite Sprint inline-four engine, which used a camshaft with 8 lobes that actuated the 16 valves via a clever arrangement of rocker arms.

Double overhead camshaft engines.

Double overhead camshaft (DOHC) engines were first developed as high performance aircraft and racing engines, with the camshafts mounted directly over the valves and driving them through a simple 'bucket tappet'. Most engines used a crossflow cylinder head with the valves in two rows in line with their corresponding camshaft.  The tappet clearance adjustment is typically set using a small shim, located either above or below the tappet. Shims were made in a range of standard thicknesses and a mechanic would swap them to change the tappet gap. In early DOHC engines, the engine would first be assembled with a default shim of known thickness, then the gap measured. This measurement would be used to calculate the thickness of shim that would result in the desired gap. After installation of the new shim, the gaps would then be measured again to verify that the clearance was correct. As the camshaft had to be removed to change the shims, this was an very time consuming operation (especially since the position of the camshaft could vary slightly each time it was re-installed).  Later engines used an improved design where the shims were located above the tappets, which allowed each shim to be changed without removing either the tappet or camshaft. A drawback of this design is that the rubbing surface of the tappet becomes the surface of the shim, which is a difficult problem of mass-production metallurgy. The first mass production engine to use this system was the 1966-2000 Fiat Twin Cam engine, followed by engines from Volvo and the water-cooled Volkswagens.

Other uses.

The term 'tappet' is also used, obscurely, as a component of valve systems for other machinery, particularly as part of a bash valve in pneumatic cylinders. Where a reciprocating action is produced, such as for a pneumatic drill or jackhammer, the valve may be actuated by inertia or by the movement of the working piston. As the piston hammers back and forth, it impacts a small tappet, which in turn moves the air valve and so reverses the flow of air to the piston.  In weaving looms, a tappet is a mechanism which helps form the shed or opening in the warp threads (long direction) of the material through which the weft threads (side to side or short direction) are passed. The tappets form the basic patterns in the material such as plain weave, twill, denim, or satin weaves. Harris tweed is still woven on looms in which tappets are still used.

A tappet is most commonly a component in an internal combustion engine which converts the rotating motion of the camshaft into linear motion of the valves, either directly or indirectly.

Der Stößel ist ein Teil der Ventilsteuerung eines Viertakt-Hubkolbenmotors. Er überträgt entweder zusammen mit Stoßstange und Kipphebel oder direkt den zeitlich korrekten Öffnungsvorgang des Verbrennungsraumes von der Nockenwelle auf das Ventil und hält den Ventilschaft oder die Stoßstange von seitlich wirkenden Kräften frei. Stößel haben unterschiedliche Bauformen, zum Beispiel sind sie hohl als Tassenstößel ausgebildet oder können als Hydrostößel automatische Spielausgleichseinrichtungen enthalten. Rollenstößel tragen eine Rolle, die auf dem Nocken abrollt, wodurch sich die Reibung vermindert.


Early life.

Hermann Simon was born in Berlin in 1949, the son of classical philologist and philosophy historian Marie Jalowicz-Simon and the Judaizers Heinrich Simon. Hermann Simon grew up in East Berlin. His family was a member of the Jewish Community East Berlin, but which was very small because of the Holocaust and emigration in the postwar years. He studied at the Humboldt University in Berlin History and Oriental Studies, followed by graduate studies in Prague.

Career.

From 1975 to 1988 he worked at the Numismatic Collection of the National Museums in Berlin. In 1988 he was involved in the first exhibition about Jewish life that in East Berlin (in Ephraim Palais was shown).  Since the establishment of the New Synagogue Berlin - Centrum Judaicum in the same year he was its director. On 1 September 2015, he handed over the reins to his successor Anja Siegemund. In 2015 Simon was awarded the Order of Merit of Berlin.  In the Berlin community, he is next to Andreas Nachama as representatives of the "liberal wing".

Family.

Hermann Simon is married to Deborah born Rix and lives with his family in Berlin.

Selected publications.

German.

Hermann Simon beschäftigt sich in seinen zahlreichen Publikationen insbesondere mit Problemen der Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland. Er ist u. a. Herausgeber der Reihen "Jüdische Miniaturen", "Jüdische Memoiren" und der Schriftenreihe des Centrum Judaicum. Außerdem veröffentlichte er einige Artikel im Bereich Numismatik und Kataloge zu Berliner Ausstellungen.

Hermann Simon (born 1949) is a German historian who was for 27 years director of the Foundation "New Synagogue Berlin - Centrum Judaicum".

Hermann Simon (* 21. April 1949 in Berlin) ist ein deutscher Historiker und war von 1988 bis 2015 Direktor der Stiftung „Neue Synagoge Berlin – Centrum Judaicum“.


Passenger numbers.

In the year to 30 June 2011 the airport had 316,000 domestic and 46,000 international passengers. In 2017/18 there were 353,000 passengers, all domestic, 54% of them to Wellington and 37% to Christchurch. Hamilton is the eleventh-busiest airport in New Zealand by passenger traffic.

History.

The airport is on land owned by Samuel Steele (brother of William Steele, who brought militia-settlers from Sydney to Hamilton in 1864) from about 1880. By 1929 there was a landing ground on the farm, though a site close to the city was also considered. In 1935 Steele's aerodrome was sold for expansion into an airport and opened by the mayor on 12 October.  As the world prepared for war, it became clear that a landing strip needed to be constructed in the Hamilton area. By 1935, the air strip was already in service, as a stopover for military aircraft that would land after a long journey. Services provided refueling as well as food and rest for the incoming pilots.  Travel by air began to blossom soon after the war was over, and, in 1950, the airport received its first commercial flight. The main runway was sealed in 1965, and turboprop flights began to Hamilton that year, with NAC's Fokker Friendship aircraft operating. The runway was further lengthened to accommodate Vickers Viscount, 1970, and ultimately Boeing 737 aircraft types in 1975.  In 1989, the New Zealand government sold the airport to councils representing Hamilton City (50 per cent), Waikato District (15.625 per cent), Waipa District (15.625 per cent), Matamata-Piako District (15.625 per cent) and Ōtorohanga District (3.125 per cent). This development led to unprecedented growth for the airport.  Ansett New Zealand built an independent passenger terminal to the south of the main building, equipping it with a 'Golden Wing Club' lounge and food vending machines. The airline's "Ansett NZ" division operated flights to Wellington from Hamilton from 1995 until 2000, when Ansett NZ was sold to a New Zealand business consortium and rebranded Qantas NZ, with their own New Zealand domestic flights division. "Qantas NZ" operated at the airport until 2001, when it went into receivership. The terminal was then occupied by Origin Pacific airlines. This airline operated domestic services until it too went bankrupt in 2004. The small terminal was then left unused.  In 1998, Hamilton Airport Motor Inn was developed to cater for travellers using the airport.  A NZ$15.3 million terminal expansion begun in 2005 featured a 60 per cent increase in floorspace with improved baggage handling areas, better international and domestic check-in space, and passenger security screening. It was completed in late 2007.  Hugh McCarroll was the airport's chief executive from the early 2000s until retirement in February 2006. The current chief executive is Chris Doak, formerly growth and development general manager for electricity utilities company WEL Networks.

Trans Tasman services.

In 1994, the airport became a terminal for Trans Tasman air routes, with charter flights provided on Boeing 727s by Kiwi Travel International Airlines (not to be confused with the United States-based Kiwi International Air Lines) which served Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. New Zealand's Kiwi went bankrupt in 1996, but by that time Freedom Air had begun flying the same routes with Boeing 737 aircraft. They also, briefly, operated flights to Nadi, Fiji, in 2005. Freedom Air ultimately decided to make Hamilton International Airport their company hub until parent company Air New Zealand closed the airline down on 30 March 2008 operating its own full service instead. By then, the Airbus A320 was being operated. When passenger numbers dropped to an unsustainable level in August 2009, Air New Zealand ceased services to Australia. Virgin Australia attempted to fill the need for a trans Tasman service later that year with twice-weekly Boeing 737-800 flights to Brisbane; however, passenger numbers remained low and Virgin Australia ended flights on 27 October 2012. No further international flights have been made from the airport since that date.

Flight training.

Hamilton Airport is home to the New Zealand Training Centre of L3Harris Airline Academy. L3Harris Airline Academy is the British flight training division of L3Harris that provides freshly trained airline pilots to numerous airlines throughout the world, mainly within the United Kingdom, most notably EasyJet, and also including British Airways, Qatar, Flybe, Thomson, Oman and, formerly, Thomas Cook and Monarch Airlines among others. Most of the non-passenger traffic at this airport is generated by L3Harris training flights, in single-engined Diamond DA20 and Cessna 172, and twin-engined Diamond DA42 Twin Star aircraft.  The Waikato Aero Club has been based at Hamilton Airport since 1933. The club provides a full range of flight training from recreational flying in Light Sport Aircraft through to commercial Multi-Engine IFR.

Capabilities.

The airport currently accommodates many different types of aircraft, from piston-engined light aircraft to commercial turboprop aircraft such as the ATR 72. The airport can handle all light business jets as well as 40-to-80-seat regional jets such as the Embraer E195 and Bombardier CRJ200. Several airliners can operate from the airport including the 100-200 seat Boeing 737, Boeing 757 and Airbus A320. The largest aircraft authorised to land at Hamilton is the 150-to-250-seat Boeing 767. Plans to increase runway length from 2,195m to 3,000m to attract larger aircraft and start Asian regional flights, have been considered.  The airport operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  In August 2011, approval was received by Hamilton International Airport to extend its runway up to 3,000 metres—the same size as secondary airports in other parts of the world, such as the Gold Coast. It will finish before 15 years' approval ends.  The airport has a single terminal building and 6 tarmac gates. The apron is capable of accommodating up to five A320/737-800 aircraft at once.

Hamilton Airport is an airport located 14 kilometres south of the city of Hamilton in the Waikato region, in New Zealand. It is sited at Rukuhia, which was the name of the Royal New Zealand Air Force base on that site during World War II.

Der Flughafen Hamilton (Hamilton Airport; IATA-Code: HLZ; ICAO-Code: NZHN) befindet sich ca. 13 km südlich von Hamilton in der Region Waikato, Neuseeland.


Description.

It has a height of, and a width of at its widest point and is made of a clay body fired at a relatively low temperature (500 °C - 800 °C). The statuette follows the general morphology of the other Venus figurines: exceptionally large breasts, belly and hips, perhaps symbols of fertility, relatively small head and little detail on the rest of the body.  The palaeolithic settlement of Dolní Věstonice in Moravia, a part of Czechoslovakia at the time organized excavation began, now located in the Czech Republic, has been under systematic archaeological research since 1924, initiated by Karel Absolon. In addition to the Venus figurine, figures of animals – bear, lion, mammoth, horse, fox, rhino and owl – and more than 2,000 balls of burnt clay have been found at Dolní Věstonice.  The figurine was discovered on 13 July 1925 in a layer of ash, broken into two pieces. Once on display at the Moravian Museum in Brno, it is now protected and only rarely accessible to the public. It was exhibited in the National Museum in Prague from 11 October 2006 until 2 September 2007 as a part of the exhibition "Lovci mamutů" ("The Mammoth Hunters"). It was presented in the Moravian Museum in Brno at an expo "Prehistoric Art in Central Europe". It has returned to depository as of June 2009. Scientists periodically examine the statuette. A tomograph scan in 2004 found a fingerprint of a child estimated at between 7 and 15 years of age, fired into the surface; the child who handled the figurine before it was fired is considered by Králík, Novotný and Oliva (2002) to be an unlikely candidate for its maker.

References.

General Information

The Venus of Dolní Věstonice () is a Venus figurine, a ceramic statuette of a nude female figure dated to 29,000–25,000 BCE (Gravettian industry). It was found at the Paleolithic site Dolní Věstonice in the Moravian basin south of Brno, in the base of Děvín Mountain,. This figurine and a few others from locations nearby are the oldest known ceramic articles in the world.

Die Venus von Dolní Věstonice ist eine Venusfigurine aus Keramik. Ihr Alter wird auf 25.000 bis 29.000 Jahre geschätzt und damit dem Gravettien zugeordnet.


Life.

He was educated at Nikolsburg Castle by provost Jean du Four, an enlightener and friend of his mother, who gave Franz Joseph an open mind and heart.  Once finished his studies, Franz Joseph began his military career in the engineer corps, in which he joined as a Lieutenant at the age of 20. In March 1788 he was promoted to the rank of Captain and in September 1789 he was appointed Major and adjutant of Albert of Saxony, Duke of Teschen. During the attack to the fortress of Valenciennes on 25 July 1793 on his own initiative, he assaulted the main enemy column and was among the firsts who fought fiercely, and then managed to defend his position with a rapìd procedure, significantly contributed with the rapid surrender of the fortress. For his performance, in 1796 he was named a Knight of the Military Order of Maria Theresa, and shortly after he was promoted to the rank of Major General and began a diplomatic career as an ambassador, working successively at the courts of Berlin, Munich and later in St. Petersburg, where he managed to convince Tsar Paul I of the necessity of his military aid against Napoleon.  Franz Joseph inherited the title of Prince of Dietrichstein after his father's death on 25 May 1808; as the owner of the wealthy "Fideikommiss" who belonged to his family after the death of Prince Gundacar (from the Hollenburg line) in 1690 and his own family domains (from the Nikolsburg branch), he also entered in the possession of the hereditary "Erbamt", who allowed him to took place in official court ceremonies, like royal and imperial coronations.  As a Imperial-Royal "Kämmerer" and member of the Privy Council, he served in the Austrian Army as Major general and accorded in 1800 with the French General Jean Victor Marie Moreau the "Parsdorf Ceasefire", which was formally signed in the town of Vaterstetten, which later came to an end with the Battle of Hohenlinden.  In 1809 he was appointed as "Obersthofmeister" of Archduke Francis Joseph Charles of Austria, later Duke of Modena, and in this function he acted as "Hofkommissar" in the enemy-occupied part of Galicia until the Congress of Vienna.  As a benefactor of the poor of the city of Vienna, he was made an honorary citizen. In 1815 he was appointed a member of the Academy of Sciences of Erfurt ("Akademie gemeinnütziger Wissenschaften zu Erfurt").  As the owner of the district Neu-Ravensburg in the Württemberg "Oberamt Wangen" he was during 1815-1819 member of the assemblies of estates of the Kingdom of Württemberg and during 1820-1829 member of the Estates of Württemberg. The sale of the direct rule of Neu-Ravensburg to Württemberg was determined in July 1829, but he never resigned in person, but was represented by other members of the chamber.  Franz Joseph's political views can be described as liberal and progressive in his day. The prince led an unconventional, free lifestyle and sired several illegitimate children, including the famous pianist Sigismund Thalberg.

Marriage and Issue.

In Pavlovsk, Saint Petersburg on 16 July 1797, Franz Joseph married with Countess Alexandra Andrejevna Shuvalova (19 December 1775 – 10 November 1847), a daughter of the senator and writer Count Andrei Petrovich Shulanov by his wife, Countess Ekaterina Petrovna Saltykova. The union, who proved to be extremely unhappy, only produced a son:

Franz Joseph, Prince of Dietrichstein ("Franz Seraph Joseph Carl Johann Nepomuc Quirin"; 28 April 1767 – 10 July 1854), was a German prince member of the House of Dietrichstein, Major general, 8th Prince ("Fürst") of Dietrichstein zu Nikolsburg, Count of Proskau-Leslie, Baron ("Freiherr") of Hollenburg, Finkenstein and Thalberg.

Franz Joseph Fürst von Dietrichstein (eigentlich "Franz Joseph Carl Johann Nepomuk Quirin von Dietrichstein-Proskau-Leslie, 8. Reichsfürst von Dietrichstein") (* 28. April oder 29. April 1767 in Wien; † 8. Juli oder 10. Juli 1854 ebenda) war Generalmajor und Inhaber der Herrschaft Nikolsburg in Mähren.


Characterization.

Their recurring characters are especially engaging. The books' supporting casts were written with "humor and authenticity."  John Putnam Thatcher is senior vice president of the Sloan Guaranty Trust, the "third largest bank in the world" (at least until "East is East"), a "youthful sixty" in "Accounting for Murder" and unaging in subsequent novels. His unsentimental view of the world allows him to apply his banker's knowledge to the crimes that pop up. His nominal superior is the bank's president, Bradford Withers (married to Carrie), a socialite and dunderhead; the Chairman of the Board George Lancer has more depth, but fewer amusing scenes, serving more as a foil for his wife Lucy. Thatcher's secretary is the redoubtable Rose Theresa Corsa, who fends off interruptions from the bank officers who report to Thatcher and generally runs his working hours (and much of the rest of his life) while regarding his involvement in detective work with disapproval. His subordinates include Charlie Trinkham (raffish), Everett Gabler (severe), and Walter Bowman (corpulent and curious). The very junior trust officer Kenneth Nicolls often appears, perhaps because the first Emma Lathen novel detailed how he met his wife Jane, while subsequent books mention details of his life such as purchase of his first home, birth of a son and a daughter, and first international business trip.

Critical reception.

Lathen's books were consistently well received. "The authors have a distinctive talent for writing clearly and entertainingly about complicated financial intrigues, for combining these business matters with current events, and for creating tightly plotted mysteries that produce fascinating and civilized novels." Author and critic Anthony Boucher praised Lathen's “extraordinary ability to clarify the most intricate financial shenanigans so that even I can understand them”. The London "Times" described Lathen as “a sort of Jane Austen of the detective novel, crisp, detached, mocking, economical”.

Emma Lathen is the pen name of two American businesswomen: economic analyst Mary Jane Latsis (July 12, 1927 – October 29, 1997) and attorney Martha Henissart (born 1929). The pseudonym is constructed from two authors' names: "M" of Mary and "Ma" of Martha, plus "Lat" of Latsis and "Hen" of Henissart.

Emma Lathen und R. B. Dominic sind zwei Pseudonyme des amerikanischen Krimi-Autoren-Duos "Mary Jane Latsis" (Ökonomin) und "Martha Hennissart" (Juristin). "Lathen" setzt sich allem Anschein nach aus den Anfangssilben der Nachnamen zusammen.


Geology.

The mountain is composed of very hard pale grey precambrian quartzite, which underlies all of the Chimanimani Plateau, giving it a desolate rocky appearance. The north-south trending quartzite bedding is upturned near the summit to an angle of about 40 degrees and dips to the east, the foot of the mountain and the Turret Towers range immediately to the south lying on a thrust fault. Consequently, the eastern approach is more gradual, while the western face is steep to sheer in places. The northern face is cut off by a fault and is sheer near the top, changing to a vertical cliff lower down. Approaching from the west, from the Bundi River Valley, there is an ill-defined trail which branches off from the main smugglers trail to Skeleton Pass.

Climbing.

The climb is arduous and takes about the best part of a day. There are a number of false summits en route. The best path, marked with cairns, climbs southeast then eastward up from the Bundi valley, then swings north-east below the mountain until, at Binga's northern shoulder, swings south-east, climbs the mountain's western face, and, reaching the ridge, swings into a northward scramble up to the beacon: about three hours from the Bundi valley.  There is little if any water on the approach from the west, nor at the top, but small puddles of water seep from the peat and collect in hollows not far off the summit on the gentler eastern slope. There are no well marked trails from Binga to the east and one must make one's own way, taking care when crossing the steep ravines that lead eastwards.

Summit.

At the top the mountain curves into a dome-like prominence. The appearance of the mountain top is bleak and rocky, with an extremely shallow peaty soil supporting only tussocky grass and moss between the lichen-covered hard rock outcrops.  The views over the Mozambique plain are spectacular. Theoretically, with a telescope it should just be possible to see the Indian Ocean from the peak of Binga on a very clear day looking along an easterly bearing, at a range of 190 kilometres. The mountain is remote from settlements.

Monte Binga is the highest mountain in Mozambique and the second highest mountain in Zimbabwe. It is located in the Chimanimani Mountains, on the border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique in the Chimanimani Transfrontier Park in Manica Province. Its height is 8004 feet (2440m) above sea level

Der Monte Binga ist der höchste Punkt des afrikanischen Staates Mosambik. Er erreicht eine Höhe von 2436 Metern über dem Meer. Er ragt aus der mosambikanischen Tiefebene in der Provinz Manica am Anstieg zum Chimanimani, dem südlichen Teil des Hochlandes von Simbabwe und liegt mit seinem Gipfel hart neben der Landesgrenze. Chimanimani ist ein Nationalpark, von dem 1756 km2 in Mosambik liegen.


Examples.

For finite-dimensional real vectors in formula_3 with the usual Euclidean dot product, the Gram matrix is simply formula_4, where formula_5 is a matrix whose columns are the vectors formula_6. For complex vectors in formula_7, formula_8, where formula_9 is the conjugate transpose of formula_5.  Given square-integrable functions formula_11 on the interval formula_12, the Gram matrix formula_13 is:  For any bilinear form formula_15 on a finite-dimensional vector space over any field we can define a Gram matrix formula_16 attached to a set of vectors formula_1 by formula_18. The matrix will be symmetric if the bilinear form formula_15 is symmetric.  This generalizes the classical surface integral of a parametrized surface formula_27 for formula_28:

Properties.

Positive-semidefiniteness.

The Gramian matrix is positive-semidefinite, and every positive symmetric semidefinite matrix is the Gramian matrix for some set of vectors. Further, in finite-dimensions it determines the vectors up to isomorphism, i.e. any two sets of vectors with the same Gramian matrix must be related by a single unitary matrix. These facts follow from taking the spectral decomposition of any positive-semidefinite matrix formula_30, so that formula_31 and so formula_30 is the Gramian matrix of the rows of formula_33. The Gramian matrix of any orthonormal basis is the identity matrix. The infinite-dimensional analog of this statement is Mercer's theorem.

Derivation of positive-semidefiniteness.

The fact that the Gramian matrix is positive-semidefinite can be seen from the following simple derivation:  The first equality follows from the definition of matrix multiplication, the second and third from the bi-linearity of the inner-product, and the last from the positive definiteness of the inner product.  Note that this also shows that the Gramian matrix is positive definite if and only if the vectors formula_35 are linearly independent.

Gram determinant.

The Gram determinant or Gramian is the determinant of the Gram matrix:  If formula_37 are vectors in formula_3, then it is the square of the "n"-dimensional volume of the parallelotope formed by the vectors. In particular, the vectors are linearly independent if and only if the parallelotope has nonzero "n"-dimensional volume, if and only if Gram determinant is nonzero, if and only if the Gram matrix is nonsingular.  The Gram determinant can also be expressed in terms of the exterior product of vectors by

In linear algebra, the Gram matrix (or Gramian matrix, Gramian) of a set of vectors formula_1 in an inner product space is the Hermitian matrix of inner products, whose entries are given by formula_2.

Man kann in der Matrizenrechnung nur Determinanten von "quadratischen" Matrizen als Maß für die Volumenänderung ihrer Abbildung definieren. Für nichtquadratische Matrizen gibt es Minoren und Gramsche Determinanten (nach Jørgen Pedersen Gram), die Ähnliches leisten.


Names.

In West Bengal, Odisha, Assam, and Tripura, Durga puja is also called "Akalbodhan" (literally, "untimely awakening of Durga"), "Sharadiya pujo" ("autumnal worship"), "Sharodotsab" ("festival of autumn"), "Maha pujo" ("grand puja"), "Maayer pujo" ("worship of the Mother"), "Durga pujo", or merely "Puja" or "Pujo". In Bangladesh, Durga puja has historically been celebrated as "Bhagabati puja".  Durga puja is also referred to by the names of related Shakta Hindu festivals such as Navaratri, celebrated on the same days elsewhere in India; such as in Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, and Maharashtra, Kullu dussehra, celebrated in Kullu Valley, Himachal Pradesh; Mysore dussehra celebrated in Mysore, Karnataka; Bommai golu, celebrated in Tamil Nadu; Bommala koluvu, celebrated in Andhra Pradesh; and Bathukamma, celebrated in Telangana.

History and origins.

Durga is an ancient deity of Hinduism according to available archeological and textual evidence. However, the origins of Durga puja are unclear and undocumented. Surviving manuscripts from the 14th-century provide guidelines for Durga puja, while historical records suggest the royalty and wealthy families to be sponsoring major Durga Puja public festivities, since at least the 16th-century. The 11th or 12th-century Jain text "Yasatilaka" by Somadeva mentions an annual festival dedicated to a warrior goddess, celebrated by the king and his armed forces, and the description mirrors attributes of Durga puja. The name Durga, and related terms, appear in Vedic literature, such as in the "Rigveda" hymns 4.28, 5.34, 8.27, 8.47, 8.93 and 10.127, and in sections 10.1 and 12.4 of the "Atharvaveda" A deity named "Durgi" appears in section 10.1.7 of the "Taittiriya Aranyaka". While the Vedic literature uses the word "Durga", the description therein lacks legendary details about her or about Durga puja that is found in later Hindu literature.A key text associated with Durga puja is "Devi Mahatmya", which is recited during the festival. Durga was likely well established by the time this Hindu text was composed, which scholars variously estimate to date between 400 and 600 CE. The "Devi Mahatmya" mythology describes the nature of evil forces symbolised by Mahishasura as shape-shifting, deceptive, and adapting in nature, in form and in strategy to create difficulties and thus achieve their evil ends. Durga calmly understands and counters the evil in order to achieve her solemn goals.Durga, in her various forms, appears as an independent deity in the Indian texts. Both Yudhisthira and Arjuna characters of the "Mahabharata" invoke hymns to "Durga". She appears in "Harivamsa" in the form of Vishnu's eulogy, and in Pradyumna's prayer. The prominent mention of Durga in such epics may have led to her worship.The Indian texts with mentions of Durga puja are inconsistent. A legend found in some versions of the "Puranas" mention it to be a spring festival, while the "Devi-Bhagavata Purana" and two other Shakta "Puranas" mention it to be an autumn festival. The "Ramayana" manuscripts are also inconsistent. Versions of "Ramayana" found in north, west, and south of the Indian subcontinent describe Rama to be remembering Surya (the Hindu sun god) before his battle against Ravana, but the Bengali manuscripts of "Ramayana", such as the 15th-century manuscript by Krttivasa, mention Rama to be worshipping Durga.According to some scholars, the worship of the fierce warrior goddess Durga, and her darker and more violent manifestation Kali, became popular in the Bengal region during and after the medieval era, marked by Muslim invasions and conquests. The significance of Durga and other goddesses in Hindu culture is stated to have increased after Islamicate armies conquered regions of the Indian subcontinent. According to yet other scholars, the marginalisation of Bengali Hindus during the medieval era led to a reassertion of Hindu identity and an emphasis on Durga puja as a social festival, publicly celebrating the warrior goddess.From the medieval era up to present-day, Durga puja has been celebrated as a socio-cultural event, while maintaining the roots of religious worship.

Rituals and practices.

Durga puja is a ten-day event, of which the last five days involve certain rituals and practices. The festival begins with Mahalaya, a day on which Hindus perform "tarpaṇa" by offering water and food to their dead ancestors. The day also marks the advent of Durga from her mythological marital home in Kailash. The next significant day of the festival is the sixth day ("Sashthi"), on which devotees welcomes the goddess and festive celebrations are inaugurated. On the seventh day ("Saptami"), eighth ("Ashtami") and ninth ("Navami") days, the goddess along with Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha, and Kartikeya are revered and these days mark the main days of worship with recitation of scriptures, puja, legends of Durga in "Devi Mahatmya", social visits to elaborately decorated and illuminated "pandals" (temporary structures meant for hosting the puja), among others. Durga puja is, in part, a post-monsoon harvest festival observed on the same days in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism as those in its other traditions. The practice of including a bundle of nine different plants, called "navapatrika", as a symbolism of Durga, is a testament practice to its agricultural importance. The typically selected plants include not only representative important crops, but also non-crops. This probably signifies the Hindu belief that the goddess is "not merely the power inherent in the growth of crops but the power inherent in all vegetation".The festival is a social and public event in eastern and northeastern states of India, where it dominates religious and socio-cultural life, with temporary "pandal"s built at community squares, roadside shrines, and temples. The festival is also observed by some Shakta Hindus as a private home-based festival.The festival is started at twilight with prayers to Saraswati. She is believed to be another aspect of goddess Durga, and who is the external and internal activity of all existence, in everything and everywhere. This is typically also the day on which the eyes of the deities on the representative clay sculpture-idols are painted, bringing them to a lifelike appearance. The day also marks prayers to Ganesha and visit to "pandal"s temples.Day two to five mark the remembrance of the goddess and her manifestations, such as "Kumari" (goddess of fertility), "Mai" (mother), "Ajima" (grandmother), "Lakshmi" (goddess of wealth) and in some regions as the "Saptamatrikas" (seven mothers) or "Navadurga" (nine aspects of Durga). On the sixth day major festivities and social celebrations start. The first nine days overlap with Navaratri festivities in other traditions of Hinduism.The puja rituals involve "mantras" (words manifesting spiritual transformation), "shlokas" (holy verses), chants and "arati", and offerings. These also include Vedic chants and recitations of the "Devi Mahatmya" text in Sanskrit. The "shlokas" and "mantras" praise the divinity of the goddess; according to the "shlokas" Durga is omnipresent as the embodiment of power, nourishment, memory, forbearance, faith, forgiveness, intellect, wealth, emotions, desires, beauty, satisfaction, righteousness, fulfillment and peace. The specific practices vary by region.  The rituals before the puja begins include the following:

Decorations, sculptures, and stages.

The process of the creation of clay sculpture-idols ("pratima" or "murti") for the puja, from the collection of clay to the ornamentation is a ceremonial process. Though the festival is observed post-monsoon harvest, the artisans begin making the sculpture-idols months before, during summer. The process begins with prayers to Ganesha and to the perceived divinity in materials such as bamboo frames in which the sculpture-idols are cast.  Clay, or alluvial soil, collected from different region form the base. This choice is a tradition wherein Durga, perceived as the creative energy and material, is believed to be present everywhere and everything in the universe. In certain traditions in Kolkata, a custom is to include soil samples in the clay mixture for Durga from areas believed to be "nishiddho pallis" (forbidden territories; territories inhabited by the "social outcasts" such as brothels).  The clay base is combined with straw, kneaded, and then molded into a cast made from hay and bamboo. This is layered to a fine final shape, cleaned, painted, and polished. A layer of a fiber called jute, mixed in with clay, is also attached to the top to prevent the statue from cracking in the months ahead. The heads of the statues are more complex, and are usually made separately. The limbs of the statues are mostly shaped from bundles of straws. Then, starting about August, the local artisans hand-paint the sculpture-idols which are later dressed in clothing, are decorated and bejewelled, and displayed at the puja altars.  The procedure for and proportions of the sculpture-idols are described in arts-related Sanskrit texts of Hinduism, such as the "Vishvakarma Sashtra".

Environmental impact.

The sculpture-idols for the puja are traditionally made of biodegradable materials such as straw, clay, soil, and wood. In today's times, brighter colored statues have increased in popularity and have diversified the use of non-biodegradable, cheaper or more colorful substitute synthetic raw materials. Environmental activists have raised concerns about the paint used to produce the statue, stating that the heavy metals in these paints pollute rivers when the statues are immersed at the end of the Durga festival.  Brighter colors that are also biodegradable and eco-friendly, as well as the traditional natural colors, are typically more expensive compared to the non biodegradable paints. The Indian state of West Bengal has banned the use of hazardous paints, and various state government have started distributing lead-free paints to artisans at no cost to prevent pollution.

Animal sacrifice, symbolic sacrifice.

Shakta Hindu communities mark the slaying of Mahishasura and the victory of Durga with a symbolic or actual sacrifice. Most communities prefer symbolic sacrifice, where a statue of the"asura" is made of flour or equivalent, is immolated and smeared with vermilion, symbolic of the blood that had spilled during the battle. Other substitutes include a vegetable or a sweet dish considered equivalent to the animal. In certain instances, devotees consider animal sacrifice distasteful, and practice alternate means of expressing devotion while respecting the views of others in their tradition.  In communities performing actual sacrifice, an animal is sacrificed, mainly at temples. In Nepal, West Bengal, Odisha and Assam, animal sacrifices are performed at Shakta temples to commemorate the legend of Durga slaying Mahishasura. This involves slaying of a fowl, goat or a male water-buffalo. This practice is rare among Hindus outside the regions of Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, and Assam. In these regions, the festival season is primarily when significant animal sacrifices are observed.  The Rajputs of Rajasthan worship their weapons and horses in the related festival of Navaratri, and some historically observed the sacrifice of a goat, a practice that continues in some places. The sacrifice ritual, supervised he the priest, requires slaying of the animal with a single stroke. In the past this ritual was considered a rite of passage into manhood and readiness as a warrior. The "Kuldevi" (clan deity) among these Rajput communities is a warrior goddess, with local legends tracing reverence for her during Rajput-Muslim wars.

Pandals and theme-based pujas.

Months before the start of Durga Puja, youth members of the community collect funds and donations, engage priests and artisans, buy votive materials and help build "pandal"s centred around a theme, which has rose to prominence in recent years. Such themes have included sex work, celebration of humanity, marginalisation of queer persons and transgender persons, folk culture, celebration of cinema, womanhood, pro-environment themes, while others have chosen metaphorical themes such as celebration of "maati" (literally, soil or ash) and "finding one's own light". Pandals have also been replicated on existing temples, structures, and monuments and yet others have been made of elements such as metal scraps, nails, and turmeric among others. Durga puja pandals have also been centred around themes to acknowledge political events such as the 2019 Balakot airstrike and to protest against the National Register of Citizens of India.  Designs and sculpture-idols are made by commissioned artisans, which is also a team effort involving labourers, architects, and community representatives hosting it. The budget required for such theme-based pujas is significantly higher than traditional pujas. For such theme-based pujas, the preparations and the building of "pandals" are a significant arts-related economic activity, often attracting major sponsors. Such commercialised pujas attract crowds of visitors. The growth of competitiveness in theme-based "pandals" has escalated costs and scale of Durga puja in eastern states of India. Some segments of the society criticise the billboards, the economic competition, and seek return to basics. The competition takes many forms, such as the height of statue. In 2015, an 88-foot statue of Durga in Kolkata's Deshapriya Park attracted numerous devotees, with some estimates placing visitors at one million.

Regional celebrations and observances.

There exists variation in worship practices and rituals associated with Durga puja, as is the case with other Hindu festivals, in the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism accepts flexibility and leaves the set of practices to the choice of the individuals concerned. Different localised rituals may be observed regionally, with these variations accepted across temples, "pandals", and within families. The festival is most commonly associated with Bengali Hindus, and with the community having variability and differences in practices. There may exist differences of practice between the puja of theme-based "Pandals", family pujas (with puja of erstwhile aristocrat families known as "bonedi" puja), and community pujas (known as "barowari" pujas ) of neighbourhoods or apartments.  The rituals of the puja also varies from being Vedic, Puranic, or Tantric, or a combination of these. The Bengali Durga puja rituals typically combine all three. The non-Bengali Durga puja rituals tend to be essentially Vedic ("srauta") in nature but they too incorporate esoteric elements making the puja an example of a culmination of Vedic-Tantric practices.  Historical evidence suggests that the Durga puja has evolved over time, becoming more elaborate, social, and creative. The festival had earlier been a domestic puja, a form of practice that still remains popular. But it had also come to be celebrated in the "sarvajanin" (public) form, where communities get together, pool their resources and efforts to set up "pandals" and illuminations, and celebrate the event as a "mega-show to share". The origins of this variation are unclear, with some sources suggesting a family in Kolkatta reviving such celebration in 1411 CE. While other set of sources suggest that a Bengali landlord, named Kamsanarayan, held a mega-show puja in late 16th-century Bengal. Yet, this festival of Bengal is likely much older with the discovery of 11th and 12th-century Durga puja manual manuscripts such as "Durgotsavaviveka", "Durgotsava Prayoga", "Vasantaviveka" and "Kalaviveka". The rituals associated with the Durga puja migrated to other regions from Bengal, such as in Varanasi, a city that has historically attracted sponsorship from Hindus from various parts of the Indian subcontinent including Bengal. In contemporary India, Durga puja is celebrated in various styles and forms. Durga puja is a widely celebrated festival in the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, and Odisha. It is celebrated over a five-day period. Streets are decked up with festive lights, loudspeakers play festive songs as well as recitation of hymns and chants by priests, and "pandal"s are erected by communities. The roads become overcrowded with revellers, devotees, and "pandal"-hoppers visiting the pandals on puja days. It often creates chaotic traffic conditions. Shops, eateries, and restaurants stay open all night; fairs are also set up and cultural programmes are held. People form organizing committees, which plan and oversee the "pandal" during the festivities. Today, Durga Puja has turned into a consumerist social carnival, a major public spectacle and a major arts event riding on the wave of commercialisation, corporate sponsorship, and craze for award-winning. For private domestic pujas, families dedicate an area of their homes, known as "thakur dalan", for Durga puja where the sculpture-idols for worship is placed and decorated with home-dyed fabric, "sola" ornamentations, and gold and silver foil decorations. Elaborate rituals like "arati" are performed and "prasad" is distributed after being offered to the deities. As a tradition, married daughters visit their parents and celebrate the Durga puja with them, a symbolism alluding to Durga who is popularly believed to return to her natal home during the puja.  Durga Puja is also a gift-giving and shopping season for communities celebrating it, with people buying gifts for not only family members but also for close relatives and friends. New clothes are the traditional gift, and people wear them to go out together during Durga puja. During puja holidays, people may also go to places of tourist attractions while others return home to spend Durga puja with their family. It's a common trend amongst youngsters and even those who are older to go "pandal"-hopping and enjoy the celebrations.  The organising committees of each puja "pandal" hires a "purohita" (priest) who performs the puja rituals on behalf of the community. For the priests, Durga puja is a time of activity wherein he pursues the timely completion of Vedic-Puranic-Tantric ritual sequences to make various offerings and perform fire oblations, in full public view, while the socio-cultural festivities occur in parallel. The complex puja rituals include periods of accurate and melodic scripture recitation. The puja involves crowds of people visiting the "pandals", with smaller groups visiting family pujas, to witness the celebrations. On the last day, the sculpture-idols are carried out in immersion processions across Bengal, following which they are ritually immersed into rivers or other waterbodies. The immersion ceremony continues till a couple of days after the last day of puja. According to some scholars, the ritual of immersing the Durga sculpture-idol into the river attracted the attention of colonial era travelers to the Bengal region from Europe, such as Garcin de Tassy and Emma Roberts. In 1831, Tassy reported that similar rituals were annually observed by the Muslim community in Bengal. Shia Muslims observed Muharram over ten days, taking out processions in memory of the martyrdom of Imam Husayn ibn Ali, and then cast a memorial Imam's cenotaph into a river on the tenth day. Tassy further stated that the Muslim rituals included the same offerings at the annual observation of Muharram that the Hindu rituals included during Durga puja. According to yet other scholars, the ritual of immersion in water by Hindus for Durga puja in Bengal and Ganesh Chaturthi in the western states of India, may have grown because members of the Hindu community attempted to create a competing procession and immersion ritual to that of Muharram, allowed by the colonial British Indian government in the 19th and early 20th-centuries. In Maharashtra, the city of Nashik and other places such as CIDCO, Rajeevnagar, Panchavati, and Mahatmanagar host Durga puja celebrations. While in Delhi, the first community Durga puja was organised near Kashmiri Gate by a group of expatriate Bengalis, in 1910, a year before Delhi was declared the capital of British India. This group came to be the Delhi Durga Puja Samiti, popularly known as the Kashmere Gate Durga puja. The Durga puja at Timarpur, Delhi was started in the year 1914. In 2011, over 800 Durga pujas were held in Delhi, with a few hundred more in Gurgaon and NOIDA. In Odisha, in 2019, twenty-seven pandals in Cuttack, Odisha were reported to bedeck respective sculpture-idols with silver jewellery for Durga puja celebrations; such club of pandals termed regionally as "Chandi Medha". In September 2019, 160 "pandals" were reported to be hosting Durga puja in Cuttack. While in Tripura there were over 2,500 community Durga puja celebrations in 2013. Durga puja has been started at the Durgabari temple, in Agartala by King Radha Kishore Manikya Bahadur.

Significance.

Beyond being an art festival and a socio-religious event, Durga puja has also been a political event with regional and national political parties having sponsored Durga puja celebrations. In 2019, West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee announced a grant of 25,000 to all community organised Durga pujas in the state.  In 2019, Kolkata's Durga puja was nominated by the Indian government for the 2020 UNESCO Representative list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Durga puja also stands to be politically and economically significant. The committees organising Durga puja in Kolkata have close links to politicians. Politicians patronise the festival by making donations or helping raise money for funding of community pujas, or by marking their presence at puja events and inaugurations. The grant of 25,000 to puja organising committees in West Bengal by a debt-ridden state government was reported to cost a budget a 70 crores. The state government also announced an additional grant of 5,000 to puja organising committees fully managed by women alone, while also announcing a twenty-five per-cent concession on total electricity bills for puja "pandal". The government had made a grant of 10,000 each to more than 20,000 puja organising committees in the state, in 2018.  A 2013 report by ASSOCHAM states West Bengal's Durga puja to be a 25,000 crores worth economy, expected to grow at the compound annual growth rate of about 35 per-cent. Economic slowdowns in India, such as in 2019, have hence affected corporate sponsorships and puja budgets for public celebrations. In August 2019, the Income Tax Department of India had allegedly sent notices to various Durga puja organising committees in West Bengal, against which the ruling party of the state, All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) protested. The Central Board of Direct Taxes denied sending any such notices, to which AITMC politician Madan Mitra is reported to have said that the intention may have been to enquire if tax deducted at source had been deducted on payments to vendors for organising community pujas.

Media attention.

The day of Mahalaya is marked by the Bengali community with "Mahishasuramardini" — a two-hours long All India Radio programme — that has been popular in the Bengali community since the 1950s. While in earlier days it used to be recorded live, a pre-recorded version has come to be broadcast in recent decades. Bengalis traditionally wake up at four in the morning on Mahalaya to listen to the radio show, primarily involving recitations of chants and hymns from "Devi Mahatmyam" (or "Chandi Path") by Birendra Krishna Bhadra and Pankaj Kumar Mullick. The show also features various devotional melodies.  Dramas enacting the legend of Durga slaying Mahishasura are telecasted on the television. Radio and television channels also air other festive shows, while Bengali and Odia magazines publish special editions for the puja known as "Pujabarshiki" ("Annual Puja Edition") or "Sharadiya Sankhya" ("Autumnal Volume"). These contain works of writers, both established and upcoming, and are more voluminous than the regular issues. Some notable examples of such magazines in Bengali are "Anandamela", "Shuktara", "Desh", "Sananda", "Nabakallol", and "Bartaman".

Celebrations outside India.

Durga puja is celebrated commonly by Bangladesh's Hindu community. Some Bengali Muslims also take part in the festivities. In Dhaka, the Dhakeshwari Temple puja attracts visitors and devotees. In Nepal, the festivities are celebrated as Dashain.  Beyond south Asia, Durga puja is organised by Bengali communities in the United States of America. Durga puja celebrations have also been started in Hong Kong by the Bengali diaspora.  Celebrations are also organised in Europe. The sculpture-idols are shipped from India and stored in warehouses to be re-used over the years. According to BBC News, for community celebrations in London in 2006, these "idols, belonging to a tableau measuring 18ft by 20ft, were made from clay, straw and vegetable dyes". At the end of the puja, the sculpture-idols were immersed in River Thames for the first time in 2006, after "the community was allowed to give a traditional send-off to the deities by London's port authorities". In Germany, the puja is celebrated in Cologne, and other cities. In Switzerland, puja in Baden, Aargan has been celebrated since 2003. In Sweden, the puja is celebrated in cities such as Stockholm and Helsingborg. In the Netherlands, the puja is celebrated in places such as Amstelveen, Eindhoven, and Voorschoten.

Durga Puja (), also called Durgotsava (), is an annual Hindu festival originating in the Indian subcontinent which reveres and pays homage to the Hindu goddess, Durga. It is particularly popular in the Indian states of West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Tripura, and Odisha, the country of Bangladesh, and the diaspora from this region, and also in Nepal, where it is celebrated as Dashain. The festival is observed in the Indian calendar month of Ashwin, which corresponds to the months of September–October in the Gregorian calendar, and is a ten-day festival, of which the last five are of significance. The puja is performed in homes and in the public, the latter featuring temporary stage and structural decorations (known as "pandals"). The festival is also marked by scripture recitations, performance arts, revelry, gift giving, family visits, feasting, and public processions. Durga puja is an important festival in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism.

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Background.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the British Transport Commission (BTC) was modernising its rail network. It wanted to increase intercity speeds so that railways could compete more effectively with motorways. The government was unwilling to fund new railways and the BTC focused on increasing line speeds by developing new trains and modifications to the infrastructure. A team of engineers was assembled at the Railway Technical Centre in Derby

Production.

Prototype.

The prototype high-speed diesel train, which became the InterCity 125, was formed of a rake of passenger coaches between two power cars, one at each end. The decision to use two power cars was taken early in the project as design engineers calculated that the train would need 4,500 horsepower to sustain 125 miles per hour on the routes for which it was designed (the Great Western Main Line, Midland Main Line, and the Cross Country Route), and it was established that no "off-the-shelf" diesel engine was capable of producing such power. Another factor was that two locomotives operating in push–pull formation, would cause less wear on the rails than a single locomotive. The framework of the new locomotive, classified British Rail Class 41, was built at Crewe Works and transferred to Derby Litchurch Lane Works for completion. The design incorporated a driving desk around the driver, a

Production versions.

The first production power car, numbered 43002, was delivered in late 1975 with a different appearance from the prototype. The streamlined front end lacked conventional buffers, and the drawgear was hidden under a cowling. The single cab front window was much larger than the prototype's, and side windows were included. There was no driving position at the inner end.  The train's appearance is the work of British designer Kenneth Grange who was approached to design the livery but under his own impetus decided to redesign the body, working with aerodynamics engineers. "It really was rather quite brutal, rather clumsy. I thought, 'Oh I'd like to get my hands on that', although the brief was nothing to do with the shape, absolutely not at all." He presented the new design to British Rail and persuaded them

Introduction into service.

Deliveries continued through 1976, and on 4 October a partial service of HSTs running at began on the Western Region. The radical update of the standard BR livery on the power cars was complemented by the 'Inter-City 125' branding, which also appeared on timetables and promotional literature. By the start of the summer timetable in May 1977, the full complement of 27 Class 253 sets (253001–253027) was in service on the Western Region, replacing locomotive-hauled trains on the Bristol and South Wales routes. Passenger numbers rapidly increased due to the speed and frequency of the services. The displacement by HSTs of Class 50 locomotives to slower services effectively finished off the last Class 52 diesel-hydraulics by early 1977.  The production of Class 254 continued through 1977 for East Coast Main Line services. British Rail had planned to fit uprated Valenta engines to the longer HSTs, but the plan was shelved

World records.

The prototype InterCity 125 (power cars 43000 and 43001) set the world speed record for diesel traction at on 12 June 1973.  An HST also holds the world speed record for a diesel train carrying passengers. On 27 September 1985, a special press run for the launch of a

Regions and operators.

South West England and South Wales.

On the Western Region, InterCity 125 trains (designated class 253) were introduced on services from London to Bristol and South Wales, and extended to most daytime services from London to Devon and Cornwall. Some South Wales services were extended to, and in West Wales. Maintenance was provided at Old Oak Common and St Philip's Marsh, and Laira also carried out maintenance after services to Devon and Cornwall were introduced in 1979.  British Rail Class 47 locomotives still operated cross-country services from Cornwall and South Wales to the North-East via the Cross Country Route, and London to the Midlands/Welsh Marches. Class 43s replaced them when the third batch of power cars was delivered in 2+7 formation with two first class coaches, a buffet car, and four second class coaches between two power cars. They were later expanded to a 2+8 formation, with an extra second class carriage.  Great Western Trains was formed out of the privatisation of British Rail and operated the InterCity routes from London Paddington to the west of England. In 1998 FirstGroup acquired Great Western Trains and rebranded it First Great Western.

Eastern England / Scotland.

On the East Coast Main Line, the InterCity 125 designated Class 254 was the staple stock after the retirement of the Class 55 Deltic locomotives in 1980–1982, until the introduction of InterCity 225 following electrification in 1990. They were concentrated on services from London King's Cross to Newcastle and Edinburgh Waverley, and to Glasgow Queen Street, Inverness and Aberdeen. In the months following the Penmanshiel Tunnel collapse in 1979, London to Scotland services ran via the Tyne Valley line from Newcastle to Carlisle then to Scotland via the West Coast Main Line. HSTs were also used on some services from London to Leeds, Bradford Forster Square, Cleethorpes, Hull and Scarborough.  The East Coast (ECML) formation

Midland Region.

On the London Midland Region, InterCity 125 trains were introduced later than on the other regions. They initially appeared on the former Midland Railway route from London St Pancras to Sheffield and Nottingham. Although they were initially not permitted to exceed on any part of the route, they still delivered time savings compared with the loco-hauled trains they replaced.  The Midland Main Line received a series of speed improvements over the next two decades, until it became possible for HSTs to run at up to on some sections. An upgrade to the full was proposed by British Rail in the early 1990s, but because of privatisation this did

Cross-Country Route.

After privatisation, the Cross-Country Route was operated by Virgin CrossCountry, who replaced their InterCity 125 trains in the period 2002–2004 with Bombardier Voyager high-speed DMUs. Most of the former Virgin CrossCountry fleet were stored for several years but a few ran on the Midland Mainline.  In 2007 the franchise passed to Arriva CrossCountry. Because of overcrowding, the company reintroduced five HSTs to supplement its Voyagers.  In late September

West Coast and North Wales.

Virgin Trains West Coast HSTs regularly worked out of London Euston and Birmingham International to Holyhead and Blackpool North. They also worked some Euston to Manchester Piccadilly services. Virgin's HST's were re-deployed in May 2004. Due to there being numerous curves on the West Coast Main Line, the trains were not permitted to exceed 110 mph on any part of the route.  When the West Coast Main Line was upgraded

ScotRail Inter7City.

Twenty-six HST sets, 9 of which will have four carriages and 17 of which will have five carriages, are to move from Great Western Railway to Abellio ScotRail after being refurbished by Wabtec

Network Rail.

One HST set is in service with Network Rail, painted in then-Departmental yellow, and often referred to as the "flying banana" (a nickname that was originally applied to the whole class because

Numbering and formation.

Because they were fixed formation trains, British Rail considered the Inter-City 125 sets to be diesel multiple units. They were allocated British Rail Class 253 (2+7 sets allocated to Western Region depots for use on Western Region and Cross-Country services) and Class 254 (2+8 sets allocated to the Eastern and Scottish Regions for use on the East Coast Main Line), the prototype train having been Class 252. Therefore, each set was allocated a set number (253 xxx or 254 xxx), which was carried on the front of the power cars. Individual vehicles were numbered in the 4xxxx series (see table below), and, because they were regarded as multiple unit vehicles, also had regional prefixes according to their allocated depot (E for Eastern Region, SC for Scottish and W for Western); this included the power cars as well as the trailers.  With power cars often requiring maintenance more frequently than the trailer cars, power car swaps soon began to take place; there were a few spare power cars to allow for this. This often resulted in different set numbers being displayed at each end of the same train. As a result, during the early 1980s the power cars began to be regarded as "loose", and the use of set numbers for the whole train was abandoned. The trailer cars remained in fixed formations, however, and still allocated a set number of sorts, although that was not displayed anywhere.  As sectorisation began to take hold during the mid-1980s, the use of regional prefixes on coaches and multiple unit vehicles was discontinued. At about the same time it was decided to reclassify the InterCity 125 trains (the hyphen having been dropped by the new InterCity sector) as locos and coaches. To avoid renumbering the power cars, they became British Rail Class 43 diesel locos, although a space was never inserted between the second and third digits (as was common practice on other locos at the time, e.g. 47 401).  The vehicle types used to form High Speed Trains are listed below: The 197 production series power cars were numbered 43002-43198. 43001 was applied to the second of the two prototype power cars, while the first of the pair (now preserved as part of the National Collection) became 43000 – unusual because BR TOPS classification numbered its locomotives from 001 upwards (this was because it was not, at the time, classified as a locomotive). Subsequently, on fitting of new engines, power cars operated by the InterCity East Coast and Cross Country franchisees have been renumbered in the 432xx or 433xx series (by adding 200 to their serial numbers), while Grand Central also changed the third digit of its power cars to 4 (by adding 300 or 400).  The renumbering of the 400xx series catering vehicles in 1983 was to avoid their numbers clashing with the Class 40 diesel loco fleet (numbered 40 001 to 40 199) when BR's loco (TOPS) and coaching stock number series were merged.  In 2002, Class 255 was allocated for the reformation of some HST power cars and trailers into semi-fixed formation trains, to be known as Virgin "Challenger" units, for use by Virgin CrossCountry. These formations would have had power cars sandwiching one Trailer First, a Trailer Buffet, two Trailer Seconds and a Trailer Guard Second. These plans came to naught as the Strategic Rail Authority planned to transfer most of the stock to Midland Mainline for its 'Rio' services between London and Manchester.

Cultural impact.

Public reaction.

The Intercity service proved an instant hit with the British public. By the early 1980s the HST had caught the travelling public's imagination, thanks in part to a television advertising campaign fronted by the

International attention.

The success of the HST has had significant international impact. Foreign press for decades observed and praised the speed and quality of the service.

Scale models.

There have been many model and toy guises of the IC125. One of the first in the UK was by Hornby Railways,which launched its first model version in 1977. This model was supplied with an incorrect length BR Mk3 Open 2nd coach which was shortened to allow the model to reliably negotiate the smallest radius curves. This was done by removing one of the 8 side windows rather than scaling the whole length. In 1978 Hornby Railways issued an additional BR MK3 Open 2nd coach. In 1979 Hornby Railways produced their first model of a BR MK3 Open 1st Coach. Which was followed by a BR Mk3 Restaurant Buffet Car (TRUB) produced in 1980. The incorrect seven side windows was corrected to eight windows in 1988 when Hornby

Developments and changes.

Damaged vehicles and accidents.

Three Class 43 locomotives have been written off in railway accidents, all of which occurred on the Great Western main line. 43011 was written off in the 1999 Ladbroke Grove rail crash, 43019 was written off after colliding with a car at Ufton Nervet in 2004, and 43173 was scrapped at Pig's Bay in Essex after heavy damage in the Southall rail crash of 1997. In each of these cases, the damage was to the leading power car – the trailing power cars suffered limited or no damage, and were returned

Re-engining and refurbishment.

In 2005, the train leasing company, Angel Trains, initiated and led an industry-wide programme to replace the 30-year-old Paxman Valenta engines in the HST power cars with new MTU 16V 4000 engines. The upgrade, which was part of a £110 million total investment made by Angel Trains on its fleet of High Speed Trains, included the re-powering and refurbishment of 54 HST power cars: those then on lease to GNER (now London North

Replacements.

The first partial replacement of HSTs occurred from 1988 on the East Coast Main Line, with the introduction of the InterCity 225 when the line to Edinburgh was electrified. Some were retained for services to Aberdeen, Inverness, Skipton, Bradford and Hull.  As the Intercity 125 fleet has become old compared to most stock used in passenger service, it has been recognised that it is near the end of its service life. More recently, HSTs have been replaced (or augmented) by high-speed DMUs such as the Bombardier Voyagers and the UK express version of the Alstom Coradia. These DMUs have better acceleration than the HST due to

Sewage discharge.

Legally in the UK, train operators are allowed to discharge up to 25 litres of untreated waste at a time on to the track. Most Mk3 carriages have no toilet tanks, discharging directly onto the track. In the 2000s both the RMT trade union and politicians were concerned at the environmental impact of this legacy issue. The problem was first raised in 2003 after Railtrack staff at abandoned local clean-up and then track maintenance procedures due to an excessive buildup of sewage waste in the area. In 2006 the RMT agreed waste-tank and clean-out developments at Northern Rail's Heaton depot in 2006 with

Future.

As of the start of 2020, HSTs in their original form are not permitted to operate passenger services on the National Rail network because various deficiencies make them non-compliant with accessibility regulations (in particular, the need to manually open the doors). However, to avoid rolling stock shortages, some operators have been temporarily granted permission to operate them anyway; these are ScotRail (sets planned

Similar products.

In 1982 the State Rail Authority in Australia placed the first of what would ultimately be 19 power cars and 60 carriages into service.  Built locally by Comeng and ABB Transportation, the HST design was significantly modified, with the power cars being shorter, the Paxman Valenta engine downrated from, gearing lowered for a top operating speed of, suspension modified to operate on inferior track, and air filters and the cooling system modified to cater for hotter and dustier Australian conditions. However, the XPT is theoretically capable of reaching speeds of. A different light cluster was fitted along with three high-beam spotlights mounted to the roof. The carriages were based on a Budd design, with the British Rail Mark 3s considered unsuitable.  In 1986 agreement was reached to build a fleet of XPTs for the State Railway of Thailand. To allow it to be built to the narrower gauge and retain the same fuel capacity, it was proposed to extend the power cars by 2.7 metres to 20 metres and mount them on Bo-Bo-Bo bogies. The negotiations were sufficiently advanced for the Prime Minister of Thailand to announce it on television, however the Australian Department of Trade withdrew its support at the last moment and the deal fell through.

The InterCity 125 (originally Inter-City 125, or High Speed Train) is a diesel-powered passenger train built by British Rail Engineering Limited between 1975 and 1982. Each set is made up of two Class 43 power cars, one at each end and a rake of Mark 3 carriages. The name is derived from its top operational speed of. Initially the sets were classified as Classes 253 and 254.

Der High Speed Train, kurz "HST", bekannt unter dem Markennamen InterCity 125, kurz "IC 125" ist ein britischer Hochgeschwindigkeitszug. Er besteht aus zwei Diesel-Triebköpfen und sechs bis acht Mittelwagen. Seit 1976 steht er als schnellster dieselbetriebener Zug der Welt im Einsatz; seit 2006 teilt er sich diesen Titel mit dem deutschen ICE TD. Die Höchstgeschwindigkeit des Zuges, 125 Meilen pro Stunde (ca. 200 km/h), war auch der Grund zur Wahl des Namens "Intercity 125". Im Gegensatz zu anderen Hochgeschwindigkeitszügen musste der Intercity 125 dabei zum Verkehr auf dem bestehenden Schienennetz konzipiert werden, da seine Einführung nicht mit einem kompletten Neubau von Strecken einherging. Seit der Privatisierung und Zerschlagung von British Rail wird er von mehreren Bahngesellschaften betrieben. Trotz seines hohen Alters ist er bis heute das Rückgrat im Intercity-Dienst auf nicht-elektrifizierten Strecken.


Biography.

Early life and stand-up comedy.

Kenny was born and raised in Syracuse, New York, to Theresa Bridget (Donigan) and Paul Austin Kenny. As a young child, he loved drawing and collecting record albums in the late 1960s and 1970s. He met Bobcat Goldthwait in first grade and they became lifelong friends. In their mid-teens, they saw an ad for an open-mic night at Skaneateles that featured comedian Barry Crimmins with the moniker "Bear Cat". He and Goldthwait went to the event, and performed under the monikers Tomcat and Bobcat, respectively, as a tribute to Crimmins, after which Goldthwait used Bobcat as his stage name. Describing Kenny's stand-up routines, Goldthwait said, "Tom would get up there and talk about his therapist and he didn't even have a therapist, he just loved Woody Allen."  Kenny went to Bishop Grimes Junior/Senior High School, a Catholic high school. After college, Kenny performed stand-up comedy around the country for about eight years before he moved on to other venues.

Television and film career.

Kenny has acted in many films and TV shows, debuting in "How I Got Into College" (1989) and later appeared in films such as "Shakes the Clown" (1991) and "" (2004). On television, he would host the "Music News" segments of "Friday Night Videos" in the early 1990s. He appeared in sketch comedy shows "The Edge" which aired on Fox from 1992–93, and "Mr. Show" which aired on HBO from 1995 to 1998, both roles in the show were as a regular cast member. He appears in the live-action segments of "SpongeBob SquarePants" as Patchy the Pirate, appeared on R.L. Stine's "" on the, "Uncle Howee" as Uncle Howee, a high-energy kids' show host with strange powers.

Voice acting.

Kenny said that he voices "a lot of sweet yellow characters for some reason." He described SpongeBob's voice as in between that of a child and an adult, stating "Think a Stan Laurel, Jerry Lewis kind of child-man. Kind of like a Munchkin but not quite, kind of like a kid, but not in a Charlie Brown child's voice on the TV shows."  Joe Murray auditioned Kenny for voice acting roles for Rocko's Modern Life in a casting call in Los Angeles, California. On one occasion, the producers required Kenny to fill the role of Charlie Adler, who was absent. He voices Cupid for the Nickelodeon show "The Fairly OddParents".  Joe Murray chose Kenny for several roles on another one of his projects, "Camp Lazlo" as Scoutmaster Lumpus and Slinkman, because Murray, after seeing Kenny's previous work for "Rocko's Modern Life," felt that Kenny "adds writing to his roles" and "brings so much".  He voiced Dog in "CatDog", as well as the voice of Cliff. He voices many characters in "The Powerpuff Girls", including the Mayor, the Narrator, Mitch Mitchelson, Snake and Little Arturo from the Gangreen Gang, Rainbow the Clown, etc. He voiced Eduardo, and various other characters in "Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends", Dr. Two-Brains in the PBS Kids show, "WordGirl" and the villains Knightbrace, The Common Cold and Mr. Wink in "Codename Kids Next Door".  Kenny is The Penguin in 2004 TV series "The Batman".  He voiced the character Squanchy on Rick and Morty. He plays a number of roles in the "Transformers Animated" TV show. A few of the characters he voices in this series are Starscream and his clones, Isaac Sumdac and Waspinator. Kenny also voiced several characters on the animated show "Xiaolin Showdown", as well as the Autobots and Wheelie in the live-action "Transformers" film series. On "Dilbert", Kenny voiced Ratbert, Asok, Dilbert's shower, and some minor characters. He played Mr. Hal Gibson in the animated kids show "Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force GO!".  In 2009, Kenny became a regular cast voice in the Fox comedy series "Sit Down, Shut Up". He voices Muhammad Sabeeh "Happy" Fa-ach Nuabar, the secretive custodian who is plotting a terrorist attack, as well as Happy's interpreter. The series premiered on April 19, 2009. Kenan Thompson, Kristin Chenoweth, Jason Bateman, Nick Kroll, Cheri Oteri, Henry Winkler, Will Arnett, and Will Forte are the other main cast members.  He plays The Ice King and Magic Man on "Adventure Time". In 2011, Kenny took over the role of Rabbit from Ken Sansom in "Winnie the Pooh". From 2012–2014, Kenny voiced Woody Johnson on Comedy Central's "Brickleberry". He voices Flain, Seismo, and Teslo in "Mixels", Sumo in the Cartoon Network show "Clarence", Daddo in "Henry Hugglemonster", Dr. Otto Octavius on "The Ultimate Spider-Man", and Leo Callisto in "Miles from Tomorrowland".  He has also provided voices in television advertisements for Best Buy (as an elf for a Christmas spot), Experian (as a talking modem alongside DC Douglas), and Talking Hank in the YouTube web series "Talking Tom and Friends".  In video games, Kenny is best known as the voice of Spyro the Dragon, having replaced previous voice actor Carlos Alazraqui. He first voiced Spyro in "", and continued to voice the character up until "", where he was replaced by Jess Harnell. He also voiced another character in the series, Sgt. James Byrd, in "". He reprised both roles in "Spyro Reignited Trilogy", a collection of modern remakes of the original Spyro trilogy.  Kenny was a guest star on HarmonQuest as both himself and his "in-game character" Legnahcra the maître d' of Virtuous Harmony.

"SpongeBob SquarePants".

While working on the animated series "Rocko's Modern Life", Kenny met marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg, who was also the creative director in the show's fourth season. Hillenburg drew a square sponge that he thought was funny and decided that he had found his character. After the cancellation of "Rocko's Modern Life" in 1996, Hillenburg began developing the concept and hired former "Rocko" crew members. To voice the character of SpongeBob, Hillenburg approached Kenny. Hillenburg chose the name SpongeBob and used the name SquarePants as a family name that "had a nice ring to it".  The series premiered on May 1, 1999, on Nickelodeon and became a commercial success in 2000, during its second season. Kenny voices other characters on the show including Gary the Snail, the French narrator (a parody of Jacques Cousteau), SpongeBob's father Harold SquarePants, and his live-action portrayal of Patchy the Pirate. In 2010, Kenny received the Annie Award for "Voice Acting in a Television Production" for his role as SpongeBob in "SpongeBob's Truth or Square" (season 6, episode 23-24). He also voiced SpongeBob in the sequel film released on February 6, 2015. In 2018, he received the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program.

Personal life.

Kenny first met his wife Jill Talley in 1992 while working on "The Edge". The two have also collaborated on HBO's "Mr. Show" and "SpongeBob SquarePants", they also both appeared in the music video for "Tonight, Tonight" by The Smashing Pumpkins. They have two children, Mack (born c. 1997) and Nora (born August 2003). The Kennys live in Studio City, California.

Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for voicing the title character in the "SpongeBob SquarePants" TV series, video games, and films. Kenny has voiced many other characters including Heffer Wolfe in "Rocko's Modern Life"; the Ice King in "Adventure Time"; the Narrator and Mayor in "The Powerpuff Girls"; Carl Chryniszzswics in "Johnny Bravo"; Dog in "CatDog"; Hank and Jeremy in "Talking Tom and Friends"; and Spyro from the "Spyro the Dragon" video game series. His live-action work includes the comedy variety shows "The Edge" and "Mr. Show". Kenny has won a Daytime Emmy Award and two Annie Awards for his voice work as SpongeBob SquarePants and the Ice King. He often collaborates with his wife and fellow voice artist Jill Talley, who plays Karen on "SpongeBob SquarePants".

Thomas James „Tom“ Kenny (* 13. Juli 1962 in Syracuse, New York) ist ein US-amerikanischer Synchronsprecher. Er ist vor allem dadurch bekannt geworden, dass er im englischsprachigen Original der Zeichentrickserie "SpongeBob Schwammkopf" der Hauptfigur SpongeBob und einigen Nebenfiguren seine Stimme leiht und dort auch die Rolle von Patchy dem Piraten spielt.