Umbilical cable

An umbilical cable or umbilical is a cable and/or hose that supplies required consumables to an apparatus, like a rocket, or to a person, such as a diver or astronaut. It is named by analogy with an umbilical cord. An umbilical can, for example, supply air and power to a pressure suit or hydraulic power, electrical power and fiber optics to subsea equipment and divers.
Spaceflight applications.
Rockets.
Umbilicals connect a missile or space vehicle to ground support equipment on the launch pad before launch. Cables carry electrical power, communications, and telemetry, and pipes or hoses carry liquid propellants, cryogenic fluids, and pressurizing and purge gases. These are automatically disconnected shortly before or at launch.
Umbilical connections are also used between rocket stages, and between the rocket and its spacecraft payload; these umbilicals are disconnected as stages are disconnected and discarded.
Space suits.
Early space suits used in Project Gemini in 1965 and 1966 employed umbilicals to the spacecraft to provide suit oxygen and communications during extravehicular activity (EVA). (Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov performed the first EVA using a self-contained oxygen backpack, and thus did not require an umbilical.) Later designs (first used on the Apollo program lunar EVA in 1969) did not need spacecraft umbilicals, instead employing backpacks for self-contained oxygen, electric batteries, and radio communication.
Subsea applications.
Subsea umbilicals are deployed on the seabed (ocean floor) to supply necessary control, energy (electric, hydraulic) and chemicals to subsea oil and gas wells, subsea manifolds and any subsea system requiring remote control, such as a remotely operated vehicle. Subsea intervention umbilicals are also used for offshore drilling or workover activities.
Diver.
A diver's umbilical is a group of components which supply breathing gas and other services from the surface control point to a diver. It is part of the life support system and will usually be inspected before use, and maintained and tested at specified intervals. The umbilical components are connected to the appropriate connectors on the diver's equipment, mostly on the helmet or full-face mask, and the strength member is usually attached to a strong D-ring on the diver's harness using a screw-gate carabiner or similar connector which will not accidentally release or snag on lines. The US Navy specify a snap-shackle for this function.
For shallow water surface supply air diving, the diver's umbilical is typically a 3-part umbilical comprising a bore breathing gas hose, bore pneumofathometer ("pneumo") hose, and diver communications cable, which usually also serves as a lifeline strength member. The pneumo hose is open at the diver's end and connected to a pressure gauge on the surface gas panel, where the supervisor can use it to measure the diver's depth in the water at any time. This is done by measuring pressure of the air in the pneumo hose after a thin stream of bubbles has been emitted from the open end. The umbilical serves as a lifeline and must be capable of lifting the diver safely. Maximum permitted service life for rubber breathing air hoses is 12 years, but synthetic (unfilled polyurethane elastomer) lined hoses may be used without time limit while in good condition as long as they pass inspection and testing. Hot water supply hoses are more likely to be rubber lined, and polyurethane external sheathing is common for all umbilical hoses and cables.
A 4-part diver umbilical will also have a bore hot water supply hose for the diver's exposure suit. A 5-part diver umbilical will also include a video cable to allow the surface controller to see the video picture transmitted to the surface from the diver's hat camera (video camera mounted on the helmet, facing forward).
An excursion umbilical from a wet bell would be similar in construction, but shorter than an umbilical supplied directly from the surface for similar work. For saturation diving from a closed bell, a typical diver excursion umbilical may be an 8-part umbilical with a gas supply hose, gas reclaim hose, hot water hose, pneumo hose, tracking hose, comms/lifeline cable, video cable and hat light cable.
Early diver umbilicals were simply the individual components bundled together and taped every metre or so with duct tape. These bundles tend to distort and produce kinks in the components caused by bending (particularly dangerous if the kink is in the divers gas supply hose), and require frequent maintenance. More recent umbilicals comprise all the components laid together like a twisted rope, so that there is little chance of a kink, no separate lifeline component is required, and no tape is required to hold the umbilical together. An additional component such as a video cable for a diver's camera, or a hat light cable, can be added by manually wrapping this additional component into the lay of the existing cabled umbilical. When there is risk of the umbilical cable being damaged by scratching on rock, coral or wreckage, the umbilical bundle may be over-braided with a polypropylene braid cover, or a velcro fastened textile cover.
The length of the diver's umbilical will depend on the operational parameters. As a general rule a short umbilical is cheaper and more manageable than a longer one, and provided that it is long enough, shorter is generally safer. The standby diver or bellman's umbilical should generally be about 2 m longer than that of the working diver to allow easy access to the diver in an emergency. A common length established by custom and experience is 30 m for a closed bell diver's umbilical, but this may be varied when circumstances require. For surface oriented work it is often necessary to use a longer umbilical. Deployable length may be controlled by tying off the umbilical at the rack to reduce the risk of the diver approaching known hazards too closely. The IMCA specification is 5 m minimum distance from a hazard.
The factors that influence length of a surface oriented umbilical include:
Diver umbilicals may be negatively buoyant, neutral or positive, depending on the operational requirements. It is a common practice to mark them at length intervals using colour coded tape.
Diving bell.
Both wet bells and closed bells use a bell umbilical to provide surface-supplied gas, electrical power, communications and heating water to the bell and through the bell gas panel to the divers. It may also return reclaimed breathing gas from the divers to the surface gas system. The bell umbilical is generally not intended for lifting the bell. The bell umbilical is connected to through-hull fittings on a closed bell, which are connected to the bell panel inside, for distribution to the interior of the bell and to the divers via the diver's umbilicals. The bell gas panel is operated by the bellman.
A closed-bell handling system includes a bell umbilical handling system, which deploys, recovers and stores the umbilical.
ROV.
Most ROVs are linked to a host ship by a neutrally buoyant tether or a load-carrying umbilical cable is used along with a tether management system (TMS). The TMS is either a garage-like device which contains the ROV during lowering through the splash zone or, on larger work-class ROVs, a separate assembly mounted on top of the ROV. The purpose of the TMS is to lengthen and shorten the tether so the effect of cable drag where there are underwater currents is minimized. The umbilical cable is an armored cable that contains a group of electrical conductors and fiber optics that carry electric power, video, and data signals between the operator and the TMS. Where used, the TMS relays the signals and power for the ROV down the tether cable. Once at the ROV, the power is distributed between the electrical components.


Roofbox

A roofbox is a specially contrived opening above a doorway, usually built for some astronomical significant event.
The term was coined by Professor Michael O’Kelly during his excavation of the Newgrange passage cairn, at Brú Na Bóinne, Ireland.
The roofbox was built directly above the entrance door to the passage. The passage and chamber were specifically aligned with the rising sun of the mornings around the winter solstice in December. The 17 metre passage rises in elevation as it leads to the chamber.
The chamber floor, the roofbox and the local horizon are on a single plane and so as the sun's morning rays penetrate the roofbox, they illuminate the chamber floor for a maximum of 17 minutes (weather depending).
A roofbox is also found in Cairn G of the Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery.
References.
O'Kelly, M. J., 1983, Newgrange: Archaeology, Art and Legend, Thames & Hudson


Guidette Carbonell

Guidette Carbonell (23 January 1910 – 22 April 2008) was a French artist, first known for her ceramic works, including bowls, plates, tiles, lamps, and fantasy animal figures. She also made mixed-media paintings, collages and tapestries.
Early life.
Marguerite Sophie Caroline Carbonell, called "Guidette", was born in Meudon, France, the daughter of Charles Carbonell and the former Arminia Babaïan. Her father was a Catalan doctor; her mother was an artist born to Armenian parents in Tbilisi. Guidette Carbonell studied art in Paris with André Lhote and Roger Bissière, and with Othon Friesz.
Career.
Carbonell exhibited small enamel pieces in 1928 at the Société des artistes décorateurs. She designed fountains and murals for the French government in the 1930s. She was a longtime collaborator with decorator Jacques Adnet. She became a member of the Salon des artistes décorateurs in 1945. She was named a chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 1957. In the 1950s, she worked on large mixed-media friezes involving embedded pebbles, fibers, glass, pottery, and other objects. Later in her career, she worked in tapestry and collage, often with bird themes.
The Meudon Art and History Museum showed her "harpies" (her name for her fantasy winged creatures in various media) in 1988. In 2007, there was a retrospective of her works at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. The retrospective show traveled to Roubaix and Rouen, and a monograph about Carbonell's work was published in 2007. A short documentary film about Carbonell was released in 2009.
Personal life.
Carbonell married fellow artist (1908–1995) in 1938. They had two daughters, Isabelle and Marianne, before they divorced. Her daughter Marianne Auricoste is an actress and speaker. Her other daughter, , became an illustrator and an elected municipal official, and married urban planner Hubert Tonka. Guidette Carbonell died in 2008, aged 98 years, in Bioussac.


Carlos Pesquera

Carlos Ignacio Pesquera Morales (born August 17, 1956) is a Puerto Rican civil engineer. He ran in the 2016 New Progressive Party primary to be Puerto Rico's Resident Commissioner as Pedro Pierluisi's ballot running mate, but lost by over 70% of the vote to state representative Jenniffer Gonzalez. He is married to Irasema Rivera, an agronomist, and has one son and one daughter. He currently resides in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.
Education.
Carlos Ignacio Pesquera Morales graduated from High School while attending Nuestra Señora de Belén. Dr. Pesquera attended the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, where he graduated with high honors as an engineer. He was awarded the Etienne Totti Award for Best Student of the Civil Engineering Class, 1978. Later, Pesquera continued his graduate studies at Cornell University, where he obtained an M.S. and Ph.D. in Structural Engineering. At Cornell, Pesquera specialized in the application of Computer-Aided-Design tools in the design of steel framed structures. He then worked at 3D/Eye where he was in charge of developing Steel-3D, one of the first fully integrated structural design tools based on computer graphics. Afterwards, he taught civil engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.
Political career.
Pesquera was the Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Public Works of Puerto Rico under Pedro Rosselló's first and second terms as Governor (1993-1999). As Secretary of Transportation, he is credited as the driving force behind the $2 billion "Tren Urbano" (Urban Train), the Superaqueduct that has resolved metropolitan San Juan's water rationing problems, numerous road construction projects and the construction of the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan. He ran for Governor of Puerto Rico as a candidate of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico in the 2000 elections but was defeated by Sila María Calderón of the Popular Democratic Party. The results of that election showed: Sila Calderón (PDP) with 978,860 votes (48.6%); Carlos Pesquera (NPP) 919,194 votes (45.7%); Ruben Berrios (PIP) 104,705 (5.2%), while other candidates had about 2700 votes (under 0.5%). Afterwards, he reorganized his followers and remained the head of the NPP until the year 2003. That same year Pedro Rosselló returned from retirement and Pesquera ran for his party's candidacy for Governor but was soundly defeated in a primary election by Rosselló.
Pesquera then retired from public life and is currently teaching at several Puerto Rican universities. On January 2007, Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá nominated him to be part of the Board of Regents of the University of Puerto Rico.


Swashplate

A swashplate, also known as slant disk, was invented by Anthony Michell in 1917. It is a mechanical engineering device used to translate the motion of a rotating shaft into reciprocating motion, or vice versa. The working principles is similar to crankshaft, Scotch yoke, or wobble/nutator/Z-crank drives, in engine designs. It was originally invented to replace a crankshaft, and is one of the most popular concepts used in crankless engines.
Construction.
A swashplate consists of a disk attached to a shaft. If the disk were aligned perpendicular to the shaft, then rotating the shaft would merely turn the disk with no reciprocating (or "swashplate") effect. But instead the disk is mounted at an oblique angle, which causes its edge to appear to describe a path that oscillates along the shaft's length as observed from a non-rotating point of view away from the shaft. The greater the disk's angle to the shaft, the more pronounced is this apparent linear motion. The apparent linear motion can be turned into an actual linear motion by means of a follower that does not turn with the swashplate but presses against one of the disk's two surfaces near its circumference. The device has many similarities to the cam.
Uses.
The swashplate engine uses a swashplate in place of a crankshaft to translate the motion of a piston into rotary motion. Internal combustion engines and Stirling engines have been built using this mechanism. Duke Engines has been working on such a platform since 1993.
The axial piston pump drives a series of pistons aligned parallel with a shaft through a swashplate to pump a fluid. A common example of a swashplate application in a fluid pump is the compressor of a present-day automobile air conditioning system. By varying the angle of the swashplate, the pistons' stroke (and, therefore, the compressor's cooling capacity) can be dynamically adjusted.
A helicopter swashplate is a pair of plates, one rotating and one fixed, that are centered on the main rotor shaft. The rotating plate is linked to the rotor head, and the fixed plate is linked to the operator controls. Displacement of the alignment of the fixed plate is transferred to the rotating plate, where it becomes reciprocal motion of the rotor blade linkages. This type of pitch control, known as cyclic pitch, allows the helicopter rotor to provide selective lift in any direction.
Nutating flowmeters and pumps have similar motions to the wobble of a swashplate, but do not necessarily transform the motion to a reciprocating motion at any time.
Active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars are flat plates that can scan up to sixty degrees in any direction from directly ahead of them. By mounting an AESA radar on a swashplate, the swashplate angle is added to the electronic scan angle. The typical swashplate angle chosen for this application is 40 degrees, enabling the radar to scan a total angle of 200 degrees out of 360.


Bouquet Reservoir

Bouquet Reservoir is an artificial lake in the Angeles National Forest of Los Angeles County, California about west from Palmdale.
At elevation of in the Sierra Pelona Mountains, the reservoir capacity is and is formed by Bouquet Canyon Dam on Bouquet Creek, which is a tributary of the Santa Clara River. The dam is constructed of earthfill and is 190 feet (58 m) tall, measured from the elevation of the original streambed.
The dam was built by the city of Los Angeles and was completed in 1934. Official opening ceremonies were held at noon on March 28, 1934. The reservoir is part of the Los Angeles Aqueduct system, which is where it gets much of its water. Both are owned by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The reservoir's drainage basin is only where the average annual rainfall is . Its purpose is to provide regulation of releases and to store water in case there is an interruption upstream.


Franklin Matthias

Franklin Thompson Matthias (13 March 1908 – 3 December 1993) was an American civil engineer who directed the construction of the Hanford nuclear site, a key facility of the Manhattan Project during World War II.
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Matthias joined the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as a Junior Hydraulic Engineer in 1935 and worked on hydroelectric projects. In April 1941, he was called to active duty by the United States Army and joined the Construction Division of the Army Corps of Engineers. He was area engineer at the Manhattan Project's Hanford site from 1942 to 1945. As such, he supervised the enormous construction effort, which included three chemical separation plants so large that they were known as "Queen Marys", and the world's first three production-scale nuclear reactors.
After the war, Matthais went to Brazil, where he helped build a hydroelectric facility. He joined the Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan) in 1951, and was involved in the construction of its Kemano-Kitimat hydroelectric dam and aluminum smelter project in northern British Columbia and the Chute-des-Passes project in Quebec. He was a vice president at Kaiser Engineering from 1960 to 1973.
Early life.
Franklin Thompson Matthias was born in Glidden, Wisconsin, on 13 March 1908, the son of Franklin Herman Matthias and Christina Thompson. He had two older brothers, Harold and Norman, and a younger brother, Carl. In 1928 he became an instructor in Topographical and Hydraulic Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, from which he received his Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in civil engineering in 1931, and his Master of Science (M.S.) degree in civil engineering in 1933. While there, he joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC). In 1930 and 1931, he was editor of the "Wisconsin Engineer", and president of the university YMCA. He was a member of Tau Beta Pi, Phi Kappa Phi and Scabbard and Blade, and was a national officer of Chi Epsilon from 1931 to 1942.
On 1 August 1933, Matthias married Reva Baumgarten, a fellow graduate of the University of Wisconsin, who taught speech therapy in schools in Beloit, Wisconsin. In 1935, he was hired by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as a Junior Hydraulic Engineer, and worked on hydroelectric and hydraulic problems and on construction, planning and plant design. He left the TVA in 1939, and spent a year working with a contractor on dredging the Tennessee River. In 1940 and 1941, he worked for the A. L. Johnson Construction Company, and on tunnels and aqueducts for the Dravo Corporation.
World War II.
In April 1941, Matthias was called to active duty by the United States Army as a first lieutenant, and joined the Construction Division of the Army Corps of Engineers, where he received rapid promotion. On 14 December 1942, as a 34-year-old lieutenant colonel, he accompanied Colonel Kenneth Nichols to Wilmington, Delaware, to discuss the location of a proposed plutonium production plant with representatives of DuPont. At this point, Matthias had not yet been assigned to the Manhattan Project, whose mission was to build an atomic bomb, but he had worked on some special studies for it, and had worked with its director, Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, Jr., on the construction of The Pentagon. He was already Groves's choice for area engineer for the plutonium project.
Initially, the intention had been to locate the plutonium plant with the Manhattan Project's other production facilities at the Clinton Engineer Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, but concerns had arisen about the dangers of an atomic explosion, and Knoxville lay only away. A larger site was required where facilities could be separated from each other. It had to be in a sparsely populated but accessible area with access to abundant water and electric power. When he returned from the meeting, Matthias was met by Groves, who instructed him to take a survey team and find a suitable site. Matthias surveyed four sites in California and Washington, and chose the area around Richland, Washington.
Matthias later recalled that:
Because of the isolation of the site, known as the Hanford Engineer Works, Matthias exercised more administrative autonomy than the Manhattan Project's other area engineers. The number of personnel assigned to his office grew to over 500 in 1944. Construction work commenced on the site in April 1943. The size of the construction work force eventually reached 44,900 in June 1944; over 150,000 workers were employed at the site between 1943 and 1946.
The scale of the task was enormous. Matthias supervised the construction of 554 buildings, of roads, of railroad track, three chemical separation plants and the world's first three production-scale nuclear reactors. The chemical separation plants, where the plutonium was separated from uranium slugs that had been irradiated in the reactors, were so large that they were known as "Queen Marys", after the ocean liner. Because the slugs were dangerously radioactive, the Queen Marys had concrete walls thick, and operations were by remote control.
The first production batch of uranium slugs were dissolved at the separation plant on 26 December 1944, and in January 1945 Matthias personally couriered the first batch of plutonium nitrate to Los Angeles, where he handed it over to another courier, who took it to the Los Alamos Laboratory. Plutonium from Hanford would be used in the Fat Man bomb used in the bombing of Nagasaki. For his wartime services, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.
Later life.
Matthias left the Army in 1946 and went to Brazil as a project manager for the construction for a hydroelectric facility, eventually becoming the Manager of Engineering at Brazilian Traction. Late in 1951 he joined the Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan) as the Project Manager of Engineering and Construction of the Kemano-Kitimat hydroelectric dam and aluminum smelter project in northern British Columbia. In 1956 he moved to Montreal as its Director of Engineering, and worked on the Chute-des-Passes project. In 1960 he joined Kaiser Engineering in Oakland, California, as its Vice President for heavy construction and hydroelectric engineering, and was its Vice President of transportation projects from 1970 to 1973. He retired in 1973 at the age of 65.
Matthias was a Registered Professional Engineer in Wisconsin, California, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and British Columbia. For some years after his retirement he remained active as a consultant, working for firms including Kaiser Engineering, Pacific Gas and Electric, Louisiana Pacific and Bechtel. He was a member of the Advisory Board of the California Water Resources Association, the Committee on Large Dams, Committee on Construction of Nuclear Facilities, and the American Society of Civil Engineers. He also wrote the chapter on "Construction Services" in the "Handbook of Heavy Construction" (1971).
In 1993, he was informed that he had cancer of the lungs, liver and pancreas. He died six week later, on 3 December 1993, at a nursing home in Walnut Creek, California. He was survived by his son Michael and younger brother Carl. His second wife, Mary Teresa Benderska, whom he had married on 29 October 1948, had died in 1986, and his daughter Gelen Christine had died in 1965. His papers are in the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware.


David Ouellet (architect)

David Ouellet (1844–1915) was a Canadian architect and wood carver. He was one of Quebec's leading architects in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but because of his traditional training contributed little to the architectural revival in Quebec. Though his work focused mainly on churches, he also designed secular structures.
Early life and education.
David Ouellet was born in La Malbaie, Lower Canada, on September 15, 1844, to Édouard Ouellet and Marie Lebel. He began studying at Collège de Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière in 1856 and continued his studies there for the next eight years. After leaving the college, François-Xavier Berlinguet trained him as an architect. Ouellet was also an apprentice carver to Louis Jobin around the same time. Ouellet drew up a relief map of La Pocatière under the tutelage of Abbé Pierre Stanislas Vallée for which he received an honourable mention at the 1867 Universal Exposition in Paris. Ouellet returned to Quebec City in the 1870s after spending some time in Montreal. He was partnered with an ornament making gilder named Louis Alméras from 1874 to 1876 where he learned ornamentation methods of design. Beginning in 1876, Ouellet became a practising architect in Quebec and opened his offices in his home along with his wood carving studio operations.
Career.
Religious architecture.
Ouellet trained traditionally for his job as an architect. He began his architectural career in Rivière-Ouelle building a church in the town. He recognised that new places of worship were required to meet the needs of a growing population and followed the lead of his mentors Berlinguet and Vallee. He set up a business to produce churches. He would plan and design the building, supervise the builder as it was constructed and complete the interior decoration. He designed his projects so that rural labourers, unfamiliar with innovative methods, could do the work. His sketches, detailed estimates and his architectural plans could be understood by both the client and the builder. Ouellet designed plans for churches in modules and used traditional methods of construction with interchangeable components. This allowed his clients to select the architecture and effects in a range of prices. Ouellet had an extensive library and studied innovations in form and technique as the art nouveau influence on the Cap-Santé church altar in 1877 shows. That same year he created one of his most successful works, the partially renovated Saint-Thomas church in Montmagny.
Ouellet was responsible for the construction or remodelling of about 250 churches in a nearly thirty-year span between 1876 and 1905. In 1881, he helped construct a steeple on the Saint Lazarus church in Bellechasse but it was eventually torn down.
In 1882, Ouellet was commissioned to renovate the church of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours in L'Islet. His next few works were the steeples for Saint-Louis (Kamouraska, Quebec) in 1883, the Hospice de la Misericorde at Quebec in 1887 and the aqueduct for the Hospice St. Joseph de la Deliverance in Lévis, Quebec, a few years later.
Ouellet next designed the steeples in Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly in 1901. From 1889 to 1891, he worked with his son-in-law and apprentice, Joseph-Georges Bussières. Nine years later, he formed the architectural firm Ouellet and Lévesque with his adopted son, Pierre Lévesque. The two architects designed the church of Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel (1906), in Bas-Saint-Laurent, and the church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Annonciation (1907), in L'Ancienne-Lorette. In 1914 Ouellet helped renovate the facades of churches in Saint-Leon-le-Grand and Sainte-Luce, Quebec (near Rimouski). Ouellet was a charter member of the Province of Quebec Association of Architects. He also worked on churches in Saint-Philippe-de-Néri, Saint-Eugène and the Ursuline Monastery.
Secular architecture.
Ouellet was not particularly affected by the external wave of influence which lead to Quebec's architectural revival. Most of the work was religious architecture for churches outside major cities or urban areas. His rare non-religious styled work includes the interiors of the Maison Terreau Racine in Rue des Remparts, and his design of judge Alexandre Chauveau's row houses in Rue Sainte-Ursule which do, however, resemble presbyteries.
Political career.
Unlike his rival architects, Ouellet had little interest in politics; his only involvement was when he became an alderman in Ville Montcalm (modern day Candiac) in 1911. He was chairman of the roads and waterworks committee.
Style.
Ouellet used polychromy, exaggerated dimensions, and architecture that met the needs of a growing clergy within his Victorian and Neo Gothic architectural designs. Ouellet kept the spirit of grandeur by removing screened facades from older churches and replacing them with newer, more noticeable ones. Some examples of these types of designs are Ouellet's work on the Notre Dame de Bon Secours church in L'Islet in 1882, which was one of Ouellet's earliest commissioned works. He combined panelling with rough stones, corner armatures and hewn stoned foundations forming textures and contrasts which were both diverse and colourful. Ouellet displayed a full array of attention seeking geometric planes during an eighteen-year span beginning in 1883 and culminating with his Saint Antoine de Tilly church work in 1901. Soon after, Ouellet began a change to create more distinctive, picturesque facades giving up the classically rigid style of his earlier works in the process. His new style sought inspiration from bosses and classic ornaments that were colourfully rich in shapes and textures. Ouellet's eclectic style is seen in the façades of the churches of Saint-Léon-le-Grand (1914) near Louiseville and Sainte-Luce (1914) near Saint-Germain-de-Rimouski (Rimouski). Ouellet's style also included elements of neoclassicism which were incorporated into his work on the L'Eglise St. Pierre, Cheticamp (Saint Peter's Catholic Church) in Nova Scotia.
Ouellet improved church furniture like pews with his distinctive style. He used more progressive methods and durable materials which cost less. Ouellet had many apprentices and students during his career, including Montreal architect Charles Bernier.
Personal life.
Ouellet married Emma Laforme in 1884 and they had two adopted children. Ouellet's son in law, Joseph Georges Bussieres, was one of his apprentices. Bussieres designed the Portneuf region similar in style to Ouellet's designs. Ouellette died on July 14, 1915 in Quebec.


Johann Christoph Denner

Johann Christoph Denner (13 August 1655 – 26 April 1707) was a German woodwind instrument maker of the Baroque era, to whom the invention of the clarinet is attributed.
Denner was born in Leipzig to a family of horn-tuners. With his father, Heinrich Denner, a maker of game whistles and hunting horns, he moved to Nuremberg in 1666. J. C. Denner went into business as an instrument maker in 1678 and was granted rights for the “manufacture of French musical instruments consisting chiefly of oboes and recorders [flandadois]” in 1697. Two of his sons, Jacob and Johann David, also became instrument builders. At least sixty-eight instruments attributed to J. C. Denner have survived to the present day, although the surviving instruments with his name are believed to have come from his sons' workshops. Denner died in 1707 and was buried in Nuremberg.
In 1730, Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr wrote of Denner:
On the basis of this passage, Denner has been credited by many with the improvement of the chalumeau and the invention of the clarinet. Despite the words "At the beginning of the current century" he is often said to have developed the clarinet in 1690; there is no evidence for this. In fact, J. C. Denner may have built no clarinets at all. Only one extant clarinet, owned by the University of California, Berkeley has been attributed to him, and this attribution has been challenged. Another instrument possibly made by Denner was destroyed in World War II. The earliest known reference to the clarinet is an invoice from Jacob Denner dated 1710, three years after J. C. Denner's death.
References.
Johann Christoph Denner


Henry Z. Steinway

Henry Ziegler Steinway (August 23, 1915 – September 18, 2008) was the last member of the Steinway family to be president of the piano company Steinway & Sons.
Biography.
He was born on August 23, 1915 in Manhattan, New York City.
He was the great-grandson of the company founder Henry E. Steinway and started at the firm in 1937 after graduating from Harvard University. He was president of the company from 1955 to 1977. He was the first president of NAMM Museum of Making Music.
The 2007 National Medal of Arts was awarded to Henry Z. Steinway and presented by US President George Bush on 15 November 2007 in an East Room ceremony at the White House. Henry Z. Steinway received the award for "his devotion to preserving and promoting quality craftsmanship and performance; as an arts patron and advocate for music and music education; and for continuing the fine tradition of the Steinway piano as an international symbol of American ingenuity and cultural excellence. The National Medal of Arts is a presidential initiative managed by the National Endowment for the Arts.
In celebration of his 91st birthday and honoring a lifetime of service to the company, Steinway & Sons introduced a series of Henry Z. Steinway Limited Edition pianos in ebony or East Indian rosewood with distinctive music stands bearing cutwork of the initials HZS. The pianos were advertised nationally. A small cast bronze ovoid plaque inside each such piano bears relief sculpture portraits of the Steinway family company presidents, along with a space for the serial number to be stamped. A total of 91 HZS pianos were authorized: one for each year of his life at the time.
Henry Z. Steinway donated his administrative files from the 1960s-70s to La Guardia and Wagner Archives (see also the section "Steinway & Sons" in the article "La Guardia and Wagner Archives"), which contains the records of the piano company dating to the 1850s.
He was a notable honorary member of the American music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, a part of the Alpha Alpha chapter in 1962.
He died on September 18, 2008, aged 93, in Manhattan, New York City.


USS Flier (SS-250)

USS "Flier" (SS-250) was a "Gato"-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the flier.
Her keel was laid down 30 October 1942 by Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 11 July 1943 (sponsored by Mrs. A. S. Pierce), and commissioned on 18 October 1943 with Lieutenant Commander John D. Crowley in command.
First war patrol.
"Flier" reached Pearl Harbor from New London, Connecticut, on 20 December 1943, and prepared for her first war patrol, sailing 12 January 1944. However, the submarine ran aground near Midway Island on 16 January. , a submarine rescue ship, attempted to pull "Flier" free but ran aground herself and sank. "Flier" was eventually saved by and towed to first Pearl Harbor and then the Mare Island Navy Yard for repairs. On 21 May she sailed again for action, heading for a patrol area west of Luzon. She made her first contact on 4 June, attacking a well-escorted convoy of five merchantmen. Firing three torpedoes at each of two ships, she sent the transport "Hakusan Maru"10,380 tons to the bottom and scored a hit on another ship, before clearing the area to evade countermeasures.
On 13 June 1944, "Flier" attacked a convoy of 11 ships, cargo carriers and tankers, guarded by at least six escorts. The alert behavior of the escorts during the attack resulted in a severe counterattack on "Flier" before she could observe what damage she had done to the convoy. On 22 June, she began a long chase after another large convoy, scoring four hits for six torpedoes fired at two cargo ships that day, and three hits for four torpedoes launched against another cargo ship of the same convoy the next day.
Second war patrol.
"Flier" put into Fremantle submarine base, Western Australia, to refit between 5 July and 2 August 1944, then sailed on her second war patrol, bound for the coast of Indochina via the Lombok Strait, Macassar Strait and Balabac Strait. At about 2200 on 12 August, while transiting Balabac Strait on the surface, she struck a naval mine. She sank in about a minute, but 15 officers and men were able to clamber out. Eight of them reached the beach of Byan Island after 17 hours in the water. Philippine guerrillas guided them to a coastwatcher, who arranged for them to be picked up by submarine, and on the night of 30–31 August, they were taken on board by .
"Flier" received one battle star for World War II service on her single war patrol, designated "successful." She is credited with having sunk 10,380 tons of Japanese shipping. See also List of U.S. Navy losses in World War II.
Wreck.
On 1 February 2009, the U.S. Navy announced the discovery of "Flier" near the Philippines' Balabac Strait (). The discovery of a "Gato"-class submarine was made during an expedition by YAP Films, based in part on information provided by a survivor of the sinking of "Flier". Further research by the Naval History and Heritage Command revealed that no other submarine, American or Japanese, had been reported lost in that general vicinity. In addition, footage of the wreck showed a gun mount and radar antenna, both of which were similar to the same equipment seen in contemporary photographs of "Flier". The ship rests in of water.


JrMan

jrMan renderer is an open-source version of the Reyes rendering algorithm used by Pixar's PhotoRealistic RenderMan, implemented in Java by Gerardo Horvilleur, Jorge Vargas, Elmer Garduno and Alessandro Falappa.
jrMan is available under the GNU General Public License (GPL)
Current version.
Release 0.4
Features.
Shadows, texture mapping, surface shaders, light shaders, volume shaders, displacement shaders, all pixel filters, generate image to file (RGB & RGBA), delayed Read Archive.
Supported primitives.
Sphere, Torus, Cone, Disk, Cylinder, Paraboloid, Hyperboloid, Points, Patch "bilinear" and "bicubic" (all basis & rational), Polygon, PointsPolygon, ObjectInstance, PatchMesh, NuPatch, Curves "linear" and "cubic" (also rational).
Features not yet implemented.
Shading language compiler, Motion blur, Depth of field, Level of detail, CSG, Trim curves, Subdivision surfaces, General Polygons.


Plain bearing

A plain bearing, or more commonly sliding bearing and slide bearing (in railroading sometimes called a solid bearing, journal bearing, or friction bearing), is the simplest type of bearing, comprising just a bearing surface and no rolling elements. Therefore, the journal (i.e., the part of the shaft in contact with the bearing) slides over the bearing surface. The simplest example of a plain bearing is a shaft rotating in a hole. A simple linear bearing can be a pair of flat surfaces designed to allow motion; e.g., a drawer and the slides it rests on or the ways on the bed of a lathe.
Plain bearings, in general, are the least expensive type of bearing. They are also compact and lightweight, and they have a high load-carrying capacity.
Design.
The design of a plain bearing depends on the type of motion the bearing must provide. The three types of motions possible are:
Integral.
"Integral" plain bearings are built into the object of use as a hole prepared in the bearing surface. Industrial integral bearings are usually made from cast iron or babbitt and a hardened steel shaft is used in the bearing.
Integral bearings are not as common because bushings are easier to accommodate and can be replaced if necessary. Depending on the material, an integral bearing may be less expensive but it cannot be replaced. If an integral bearing wears out, the item may be replaced or reworked to accept a bushing. Integral bearings were very common in 19th-century machinery, but became progressively less common as interchangeable manufacture became popular.
For example, a common integral plain bearing is the hinge, which is both a thrust bearing and a journal bearing.
Bushing.
A "bushing", also known as a "bush", is an independent plain bearing that is inserted into a housing to provide a bearing surface for rotary applications; this is the most common form of a plain bearing. Common designs include "solid" ("sleeve" and "flanged"), "split", and "clenched" bushings. A sleeve, split, or clenched bushing is only a "sleeve" of material with an inner diameter (ID), outer diameter (OD), and length. The difference between the three types is that a solid sleeved bushing is solid all the way around, a split bushing has a cut along its length, and a clenched bearing is similar to a split bushing but with a clench (or clinch) across the cut connecting the parts. A flanged bushing is a sleeve bushing with a flange at one end extending radially outward from the OD. The flange is used to positively locate the bushing when it is installed or to provide a thrust bearing surface.
Sleeve bearings of inch dimensions are almost exclusively dimensioned using the SAE numbering system. The numbering system uses the format -XXYY-ZZ, where XX is the ID in sixteenths of an inch, YY is the OD in sixteenths of an inch, and ZZ is the length in eighths of an inch. Metric sizes also exist.
A linear bushing is not usually pressed into a housing, but rather secured with a radial feature. Two such examples include two retaining rings, or a ring that is molded onto the OD of the bushing that matches with a groove in the housing. This is usually a more durable way to retain the bushing, because the forces acting on the bushing could press it out.
The thrust form of a bushing is conventionally called a "".
Two-piece.
"Two-piece" plain bearings, known as "full bearings" in industrial machinery, are commonly used for larger diameters, such as crankshaft bearings. The two halves are called "shells". There are various systems used to keep the shells located. The most common method is a tab on the parting line edge that correlates with a notch in the housing to prevent axial movement after installation. For large, thick shells a button stop or dowel pin is used. The button stop is screwed to the housing, while the dowel pin keys the two shells together. Another less common method uses a dowel pin that keys the shell to the housing through a hole or slot in the shell.
The distance from one parting edge to the other is slightly larger than the corresponding distance in the housing so that a light amount of pressure is required to install the bearing. This keeps the bearing in place as the two halves of the housing are installed. Finally, the shell's circumference is also slightly larger than the housing circumference so that when the two halves are bolted together the bearing "crushes" slightly. This creates a large amount of radial force around the entire bearing, which keeps it from "spinning". It also forms a good interface for heat to travel out of the bearings into the housing.
Materials.
Plain bearings must be made from a material that is durable, low friction, low wear to the bearing and shaft, resistant to elevated temperatures, and corrosion resistant. Often the bearing is made up of at least two constituents, where one is soft and the other is hard. In general, the harder the surfaces in contact the lower the coefficient of friction and the greater the pressure required for the two to gall or to seize when lubrication fails.
Babbitt.
Babbitt is usually used in integral bearings. It is coated over the bore, usually to a thickness of , depending on the diameter. Babbitt bearings are designed to not damage the journal during direct contact and to collect any contaminants in the lubrication.
Bi-material.
Bi-material bearings consist of two materials, a metal shell and a plastic bearing surface. Common combinations include a steel-backed PTFE-coated bronze and aluminum-backed Frelon. Steel-backed PTFE-coated bronze bearings are rated for more load than most other bi-metal bearings and are used for rotary and oscillating motions. Aluminum-backed frelon are commonly used in corrosive environments because the Frelon is chemically inert.
Bronze.
A common plain bearing design utilizes a hardened and polished steel shaft and a softer bronze bushing. The bushing is replaced whenever it has worn too much.
Common bronze alloys used for bearings include: SAE 841, SAE 660 (CDA 932), SAE 863, and CDA 954.
Cast iron.
A cast iron bearing can be used with a hardened steel shaft because the coefficient of friction is relatively low. The cast iron glazes over therefore wear becomes negligible.
Graphite.
In harsh environments, such as ovens and dryers, a copper and graphite alloy, commonly known by the trademarked name graphalloy, is used. The graphite is a dry lubricant, therefore it is low friction and low maintenance. The copper adds strength, durability, and provides heat dissipation characteristics.
Unalloyed graphite bearings are used in special applications, such as locations that are submerged in water.
Jewels.
Known as "jewel bearings", these bearings use jewels, such as sapphire, ruby, and garnet.
Plastic.
Solid plastic plain bearings are now increasingly popular due to dry-running lubrication-free behavior. Solid polymer plain bearings are low weight, corrosion resistant, and maintenance free. After studies spanning decades, an accurate calculation of the service life of polymer plain bearings is possible today. Designing with solid polymer plain bearings is complicated by the wide range, and non-linearity, of coefficient of thermal expansion. These materials can heat rapidly when used in applications outside the recommended pV limits.
Solid polymer type bearings are limited by the injection molding process. Not all shapes are possible with this process, and shapes that are possible are limited to what is considered good design practice for injection molding. Plastic bearings are subject to the same design cautions as all other plastic parts: creep, high thermal expansion, softening (increased wear/reduced life) at elevated temperature, brittle fractures at cold temperatures, and swelling due to moisture absorption. While most bearing-grade plastics/polymers are designed to reduce these design cautions, they still exist and should be carefully considered before specifying a solid polymer (plastic) type.
Plastic bearings are now quite common, including usage in photocopy machines, tills, farm equipment, textile machinery, medical devices, food and packaging machines, car seating, and marine equipment.
Common plastics include nylon, polyacetal, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), rulon, PEEK, urethane, and vespel (a high-performance polyimide).
Lubrication.
The types of lubrication system can be categorized into three groups:
Examples of the second type of bearing are Oilites and plastic bearings made from polyacetal; examples of the third type are metalized graphite bearings and PTFE bearings.
Most plain bearings have a plain inner surface; however, some are grooved, such as spiral groove bearing. The grooves help lubrication enter the bearing and cover the whole journal.
Self-lubricating plain bearings have a lubricant contained within the bearing walls. There are many forms of self-lubricating bearings. The first, and most common, are sintered metal bearings, which have porous walls. The porous walls draw oil in via capillary action and release the oil when pressure or heat is applied. An example of a sintered metal bearing in action can be seen in self-lubricating chains, which require no additional lubrication during operation. Another form is a solid one-piece metal bushing with a figure eight groove channel on the inner diameter that is filled with graphite. A similar bearing replaces the figure eight groove with holes plugged with graphite. This lubricates the bearing inside and out. The last form is a plastic bearing, which has the lubricant molded into the bearing. The lubricant is released as the bearing is run in.
There are three main types of lubrication: "full-film condition", "boundary condition", and "dry condition". Full-film conditions are when the bearing's load is carried solely by a film of fluid lubricant and there is no contact between the two bearing surfaces. In mix or boundary conditions, load is carried partly by direct surface contact and partly by a film forming between the two. In a dry condition, the full load is carried by surface-to-surface contact.
Bearings that are made from bearing grade materials always run in the dry condition. The other two classes of plain bearings can run in all three conditions; the condition in which a bearing runs is dependent on the operating conditions, load, relative surface speed, clearance within the bearing, quality and quantity of lubricant, and temperature (affecting lubricant viscosity). If the plain bearing is not designed to run in the dry or boundary condition, it has a high coefficient of friction and wears out. Dry and boundary conditions may be experienced even in a fluid bearing when operating outside of its normal operating conditions; e.g., at startup and shutdown.
Fluid lubrication.
Fluid lubrication results in a full-film or a boundary condition lubrication mode. A properly designed bearing system reduces friction by eliminating surface-to-surface contact between the journal and bearing through fluid dynamic effects.
Fluid bearings can be "hydrostatically" or "hydrodynamically" lubricated. Hydrostatically lubricated bearings are lubricated by an external pump that maintains a "static" amount of pressure. In a hydrodynamic bearing the pressure in the oil film is maintained by the rotation of the journal. Hydrostatic bearings enter a "hydrodynamic state" when the journal is rotating. Hydrostatic bearings usually use oil, while hydrodynamic bearings can use oil or grease, however bearings can be designed to use whatever fluid is available, and several pump designs use the pumped fluid as a lubricant.
Hydrodynamic bearings require greater care in design and operation than hydrostatic bearings. They are also more prone to initial wear because lubrication does not occur until there is rotation of the shaft. At low rotational speeds the lubrication may not attain complete separation between shaft and bushing. As a result, hydrodynamic bearings may be aided by secondary bearings that support the shaft during start and stop periods, protecting the fine tolerance machined surfaces of the journal bearing. On the other hand, hydrodynamic bearings are simpler to install and are less expensive.
In the hydrodynamic state a lubrication "wedge" forms, which lifts the journal. The journal also slightly shifts horizontally in the direction of rotation. The location of the journal is measured by the "attitude angle", which is the angle formed between the vertical and a line that crosses through the center of the journal and the center of the bearing, and the eccentricity ratio, which is the ratio of the distance of the centre of the journal from the centre of the bearing, to the overall radial clearance. The attitude angle and eccentricity ratio are dependent on the direction and speed of rotation and the load. In hydrostatic bearings the oil pressure also affects the eccentricity ratio. In electromagnetic equipment like motors, electromagnetic forces can counteract gravity loads, causing the journal to take up unusual positions.
One disadvantage specific to fluid-lubricated, hydrodynamic journal bearings in high-speed machinery is "oil whirl"—a self-excited vibration of the journal. Oil whirl occurs when the lubrication wedge becomes unstable: small disturbances of the journal result in reaction forces from the oil film, which cause further movement, causing both the oil film and the journal to "whirl" around the bearing shell. Typically the whirl frequency is around 42% of the journal turning speed. In extreme cases oil whirl leads to direct contact between the journal and the bearing, which quickly wears out the bearing. In some cases the frequency of the whirl coincides with and "locks on to" the critical speed of the machine shaft; this condition is known as "oil whip". Oil whip can be very destructive.
Oil whirl can be prevented by a stabilising force applied to the journal. A number of bearing designs seek to use bearing geometry to either provide an obstacle to the whirling fluid or to provide a stabilising load to minimize whirl. One such is called the "lemon bore" or "elliptical bore". In this design, shims are installed between the two halves of the bearing housing and then the bore is machined to size. After the shims are removed, the bore resembles a lemon shape, which decreases the clearance in one direction of the bore and increases the pre-load in that direction. The disadvantage of this design is its lower load carrying capacity, as compared to typical journal bearings. It is also still susceptible to oil whirl at high speeds, however its cost is relatively low.
Another design is the "pressure dam" or "dammed groove", which has a shallow relief cut in the center of the bearing over the top half of the bearing. The groove abruptly stops in order to create a downward force to stabilize the journal. This design has a high load capacity and corrects most oil whirl situations. The disadvantage is that it only works in one direction. Offsetting the bearing halves does the same thing as the pressure dam. The only difference is the load capacity increases as the offset increases.
A more radical design is the tilting-pad design, which uses multiple pads that are designed to move with changing loads. It is usually used in very large applications but also finds extensive application in modern turbomachinery because it almost completely eliminates oil whirl.
Related components.
Other components that are commonly used with plain bearings include:


Ruckers

The Ruckers family (variants: Ruckaert, Ruckaerts, Rucqueer, Rueckers, Ruekaerts, Ruijkers, Rukkers, Rycardt) were harpsichord and virginal makers from the Southern Netherlands based in Antwerp in the 16th and 17th century. Their influence stretched well into the 18th century, and to the harpsichord revival of the 20th.
The Ruckers family contributed immeasurably to the harpsichord's technical development, pioneering the addition of a second manual; the quality of their instruments is such that the name of Ruckers is as important to early keyboard instruments as that of Stradivarius is to the violin family. In the 18th century, Ruckers instruments were often modified by French makers in a process known as "ravalement", to allow for an extended range and other additions.
The Ruckers family.
The family probably originated in Germany. The earliest known member, Hans Ruckers, was from Weissenburg, according to documents from 1530 in the Antwerp city archives, and the similarly named Arnold Rucker was a German organ builder in the city in 1520.
Hans Ruckers (1540s–1598) was born in Mechelen. In 1575 he married Adriana Cnaeps; harpsichord maker Marten van der Biest was a witness at the wedding, though it is not known what their working relationship was. Hans Ruckers was a Catholic and had 11 children, two of whom became harpsichord makers, and his daughter Catharina (to whom harpsichord maker Willem Gompaerts (c.1534 – after 1600) was godfather) married into the instrument-making Couchet family, ensuring a strong continuation of both dynasties; his son Joannes continued in the family craft. Hans Ruckers became a member of the Guild of St Luke in 1579, and a citizen of Antwerp in 1594; he lived very near the artist Rubens in the Jodenstraat. He signed his instruments by working his initials into the rose. Instruments by him in existence today are virginals from the 1580s and 1590s now in Berlin, Bruges, New York, Paris and Yale University. He was also an organ builder, though none by him remains; he is known to have worked on the organs of St. Jacobskerk and Antwerp Cathedral.
Joannes Ruckers (variants: Ioannes, Hans, Jan) (15 January 1578 – 29 September 1642) was the first son of Hans Ruckers, and also became a harpsichord and organ maker. He lived his life in Antwerp. He and brother Andreas became partners in their father's business upon his death, Joannes becoming sole owner in 1608. He joined the Guild of St Luke in 1611; his entry reads 'Hans Rukers, sone, claversigmaker'; following this he engraved 'IR' into the rose of his instruments, rather than his father's 'HR'. He worked for the archdukes of the Netherlands in Brussels from 1616. His nephew Joannes Couchet joined his workshop around 1627, taking it over after his death. Around 35 of his instruments are in existence today.
Andreas Ruckers I (or Andries) (30 August 1579 – after 1645) was the second son of Hans Ruckers, and likewise became a harpsichord maker based in Antwerp. In 1605 he married; three of his children survived to adulthood. Details of his life are scarce after he sold his share in the family business to his brother Joannes in 1608. He remained a harpsichord maker, was still alive in September 1645 and may have lived ten years or more after that date. His surviving instruments are dated from 1607 to 1644, and are in collections all over the world.
Andreas Ruckers II (or Andries) (31 March 1607 – before 1667) was the son of Andreas Ruckers I, from whom he learned his craft. A 1638 entry in the records of the Guild of St Luke that reads, "Rickart, claversingelmaker, wijnmeester" may refer to him. He married Joanna Hechts that year; they had six children, and she died of the plague in 1653. Seven of his instruments, built in the 1640s and 1650s, are known to exist in collections around the world. He was the last of the Ruckers family under that name. See Couchet for another branch of the family.
There may have been another Ruckers maker as yet unidentified: two virginals built in the 17th-century Ruckers tradition have similar roses with the initials 'CR'; they were once thought to have been the work of Christoffel Ruckers, a 16th-century organ player living in Dendermonde, but he is now generally excluded as a possible maker.
Ruckers harpsichords and virginals.
Existing virginals made by the Ruckers family are rectangular (one is six-sided) with the keyboard positioned either to the left (spinet) or right (muselar) of centre and a single set of strings running parallel to the long side. "Spinetten" had their plucking point near the end of the string, while "muselaars" had a plucking point close to the middle of the string; the difference in sound between the two is easily audible. The pitch of the instrument varied according to its size; the largest sounded at the standard pitch of the time, something like a'=415 Hz, while smaller virginals were pitched a tone, 4th, 5th, 8ve or a 9th higher.
Some virginals were built as double instrument, with a normal-pitch instrument combined with one pitched an octave higher; this was known as 'the mother with the child', marked 'M' ("Moeder") and 'k' ("kind") as the smaller instrument was normally stored in a space beside the keyboard of the larger. The actions combined when the octave instrument was fitted on top of the regular one, enabling the musician to play both at once. They occasionally built other compound instruments, fitting a virginal into the empty space left by the harpsichord's bentside.
Both single and double manual harpsichords made by the Ruckers family had the disposition 8' 4', with each keyboard having a set of jacks for each set of strings. The standard compass of the Ruckers keyboard is from short octave C/E to c or d. Double manual harpsichords had their keyboards uncoupled and aligned to sound a 4th (occasionally a 5th) apart, with the upper manual at standard pitch and the lower pitched below it; when each manual was being used the jacks of the other manual were disengaged. The Ruckers double manual harpsichord thus worked as two instruments in one, pitched a 4th apart. Later two-manual harpsichords keyboards had the two sets of strings tuned together or antiphonally at the same pitch, for timbral contrasts.
Variations of the standard models were sometimes produced for export to France or England; there are single manual harpsichords with chromatic basses (rather than the short octave) down to C, probably intended for England, and double manual harpsichords with a lower-manual range of GG to c and an upper manual range of F to f, produced for France, the lower manual being at standard pitch and the upper a 4th below, reversing the usual pitch arrangement. The lower manual range of these instruments suits the music of contemporary French harpsichord composers such as Chambonnières and Louis Couperin, while the upper manual range is close to early French organ design.
When constructing an instrument, a number was written on the case and many of the parts of the action, along with a serial number depending on the model. This has let researchers learn much more about undated instruments and helped them estimate the rate of production—calculated at up to 35 to 40 instruments per year.
Decoration of an instrument was as careful and elaborate as its construction; repeating Renaissance patterns were block-printed onto paper and placed inside the keywell and around the inside of the case above the soundboard. Large Latin mottoes were printed similarly on a wood-grained paper on the inside of the lid. Alternatively, the lid was painted by artists like Rubens and Brueghel. The exterior was painted in imitation of marble or huge jewels held by iron strapwork. The rose in the soundboard is surrounded by a painted wreath of flowers and other flora and fauna in tempera. The roses used by all members of the Ruckers family show an angel playing a harp, with the initials of the builder on each side of it; the date was found either on the soundboard or the wrest plank.
Legacy and the French practice of "ravalement".
Ruckers instruments have always been valued for the beauty of their resonant, balanced tone, which they achieved through thoroughly masterful design and excellent craftsmanship, still studied as a model by harpsichord makers today.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, Ruckers instruments were more highly valued than those of any other maker, and the tone was regarded as an ideal in most of Northern Europe. This led to the inevitable production of counterfeits by unscrupulous makers, of which some survive today and have been firmly identified as such, but also an updating and rebuilding of true Ruckers instruments to suit modern tastes. Particularly in Paris, Ruckers harpsichords were extended in range and sometimes completely rebuilt (by makers such as Blanchet, Taskin and Goermans) in a process called "ravalement" or "grand ravalement", with re-alignment of two-manual keyboards at the unison, replacement of the action and redecoration of the case. The characteristic Ruckers tone was ensured by keeping the soundboard unaltered; some makers used "only" the original soundboard, advertising the final instrument as a 'Ruckers'.
Such was the lasting influence of Ruckers that their methods of construction had been absorbed by the major harpsichord-making traditions of England, France, Germany, Flanders and Scandinavia by the mid-18th century.


Ville-de-Mont-Royal station

Ville-de-Mont-Royal is a future Réseau express métropolitain station, expected to open in mid-2022. It is located in Mont Royal, Quebec, about northwest of Canora station.
Until May 2020, this station was named Mont-Royal and was a commuter rail station operated by Exo. It was served by the Deux-Montagnes line and Mascouche line until its closure in 2020.
Origin of name.
Mont-Royal takes its name from Town of Mount Royal (in French, Ville-Mont-Royal), where the station is located; the town in turn, takes its name from Mount Royal, the mountain that dominates the Island of Montreal.
In the city of Montreal, there is also an unrelated Metro station of the same name.
Location.
The station is located at the eastern end of the traffic circle created by Graham and Laird boulevards, between and between Lombard Crescent and Dunkirk road. Connaught Park is inside this traffic circle
History.
Mont-Royal station was until 1992 a stop for Via Rail passenger trains leaving or approaching Montreal's Central Station on this track.
The Mascouche line started service on 1 December 2014.
As of May 2018 due to its 4-year-long process of being converted to light rapid transit, only one of its two platforms is being used for travel in both directions; the same is true for its neighbouring station Canora (inbound). The station was closed in 2020 until 2022 when it will be reopened as a light metro station in the second phase commissioning of the REM (Réseau express métropolitain).


Benoist Stehlin

Benoist Stehlin (c.1732 – 11 July 1774) was a French harpsichord builder.
Stehlin was born in the Alsatian village of Jettingen; by 1750 he was living and working in Paris. He married Françoise Lemaire, daughter of a merchant from Péronne, on 13 September 1753. He was elected juror of his district on 23 November 1762, and at the end of 1773 rented an apartment on the Quai des Augustins. He died the following year. He had kept at the apartment several harpsichords and some tools, but the important goods were stored in his shop in the rue des Cordeliers. All of it was sold by his widow on 19 December 1774; he had no children. Woodworking seems to have run in the family; not only was his father Georg a joiner, but his uncle, Jean-Baptiste Keiser (sometimes called L’Empereur) was also a harpsichord maker.
The inventories of Stehlin's shop and apartment were made shortly after his death. In the apartment we find a woodworker's bench and significant assortment of tools, along with two instruments by Stehlin and a 1630 Ruckers instrument he rebuilt and enlarged. The Ruckers was valued at 800 "livres," while one of Stehlin's instruments was valued at 390 and an unpainted one at 300. The inventory of Stehlin's shop lists another woodworker's bench, fifteen instruments in progress, a quantity of lumber, and instruments by fellow harpsichord makers Nicholas Dumont and Louis Denis. We also find “four bad spinets all dilapidated,” three harpsichord stands, and various tools.
Sheridan Germann maintains that the 1750 and 1760 instruments were both decorated by the same artist; she also believes this artist decorated five other surviving French harpsichords, the last of which was built in 1771. She describes the style of the decorator thus:
The style of the Stehlin Painter (so called because he painted both of the surviving Stehlin instruments) is, like the Hemsch Painter’s, very Rococo. But instead of taking the curling rhythms of the period, this painter expresses the restless energy and movement of that style at its most masculine and forceful... The lines are long and angular, and tulip flags snap in the wind like kite tails. Bold, dashing, unblended strokes are used for highlights and almost symbolize, rather than describe, the sepals of buds, or the irregularities of anemone and ranunculus foliage. Each flower takes its energy from the last, across small articulations of space, like the windblown spray from a fountain, so that the whole soundboard vibrates with movement. When "rinceau" borders are used, they build in the corners into arabesques that spray their energy into space in a series of diminishing dots that suggest the foam from a cresting wave. Robert Sayer, in "The Florist" (London, 1760) said that flowers should be ‘ripened to a degree of looseness subject to be folded and play in the wind’, and no soundboard painting better illustrates this dictum. The Stehlin painter’s curved lines get lower, leaner, and longer, more forceful and energetic, as his personal style gains in authority from 1765 onwards. The noisy blue macaw on the 1770 Dedeban soundboard...is an astonishing expression of exuberance, and it is unlikely that this soundboard took much longer than ten or twelve hours to paint.The painter knew exactly what he was doing, and accomplished it with maximum economy of means.
The three instruments by Stehlin that have survived have the range FF – f´´´ (five octaves), and are disposed 2 × 8´, 1 × 4´ with a shove coupler and buff stop. These specifications are typical for 18th-century French harpsichords. The 1750 harpsichord was owned at one time by Bernard Jumentier (1749–1829), composer, music teacher and "maître de chapelle" at the cathedral of Saint-Quentin, where the instrument is now in the Musée Antoine Lécuyer.
The 1760 instrument was purchased by the Smithsonian Institution in 1966 and has been restored to playing condition. The bottom 4´ jack is inscribed “Benoist Stelle”; the date 1760 is painted on the soundboard.
Stehlin's 1767 harpsichord has been in the Berlin Musical Instrumental Museum (MIM) since 1998.


South Hammond station

South Hammond is a planned South Shore Line rail station in Hammond, Indiana. Constructed as part of the West Lake Corridor project, it is expected to open to revenue service in 2025. It will feature a 1,000-space park and ride lot and is adjacent to the Monon Trail.


Canali

Canali is an Italian luxury menswear brand founded in 1934.
History.
Canali was founded in 1934 by the Canali brothers Giovanni, a fabric magnate, and Giacomo, a tailor.
In the 1950s, the ownership of Canali passed on to the second generation of the family. In the 1970s, Canali was the first Italian tailor to introduce mechanised cutting machines. In 1980, 50% of its sales were international.
In 2007, the company abandoned its family-managed policy.
In 2009, Canali released a bandhgala suit for the Indian market, the only "indigenization" ever in the brand's products. In 2010, New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera was the spokesmodel for a Canali advertisement campaign, the first time the brand used an athlete for advertising purposes. In 2014, Canali opened its first store in Spain, in Madrid, and signed a franchise deal with the Spanish company Yusty. In 2015, Canali opened a store in Washington DC. In December 2015, Canali opened its own online shop for the first time.
In October 2017, Canali closed the Carate Brianza factory and dismissed its 134 employees. In November 2017, the company denied rumors it was looking for a buyer. In September 2018, Canali entered the Chinese ecommerce market through a partnership with Secoo. Following the outbreak of the coronavirus, Canali changed its creative strategy for more "homey", casual designs to fit the stay-at-home trend.
Description.
Led by the third generation of the family, Canali employs 1,500 people in seven factories in Italy, where it makes about 250,000 individual pieces of clothing annually. In 2012, 87.5% of the total production was exported;
Canali has 180 boutique stores (including 52 in China), and is also distributed through a network of 1,000 retail stores worldwide.
Canali provides a "Su Misura" service which consists of a tailored-made pieces and personalized artistry to make a piece unique.
Canali suits were worn by Gene Hackman in "The Firm", Arnold Schwarzenegger in "True Lies", and George Clooney in "Michael Clayton".


Blue Ridge Land Conservancy

The Blue Ridge Land Conservancy (BRLC), formerly known as the Western Virginia Land Trust (WVLT), is a non-profit land trust and conservation organization headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia that seeks to preserve the wilderness and farmlands in the western portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia (not the State of West Virginia) from excessive commercial development. BRLC's service area contains ten counties: Bedford, Botetourt, Craig, Floyd, Franklin, Montgomery, and Roanoke.
In December 2012, the Western Virginia Land Trust changed its name to the Blue Ridge Land Conservancy.
Conservation efforts.
Since 1996, BRLC has been credited with protecting more than of land. In 2009, Roanoke, Virginia donated the second of two conservation easements on the Carvins Cove Natural Reserve to BRLC and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, making the Carvins Cove Natural Reserve the largest tract of land protected with a conservation easement in Virginia. The easement was designed to protect of the viewshed from the Appalachian Trail as well as a major source of the drinking water supply for the Roanoke Valley. Carvins Cove Natural Reserve is the second-largest city park in the United States and the largest east of the Mississippi.
In August 2008, BRLC worked to preserve more than a mile of a Chesapeake Bay tributary stream and a wetland the size of 16 football fields in Botetourt County, VA.
Donations.
In April 2008, BRLC donated adjacent to the Grassy Hill Natural Area Preserve to the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Awards.
In 2004, Scenic Virginia honored BRLC with its "Best Preservation of a Scenic Viewshed" award for preservation work along the Blue Ridge Parkway. In 2006, Scenic Virginia presented WVLT and a group of partners the same award for their efforts in preserving Tinker Mountain. Scenic Virginia also recognized BRLC in 2008 with its Scenic Water Corridor Preservation Award. In 2009, BRLC received a Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award along with the City of Roanoke, VA, and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation for the preservation of Carvins Cove Natural Reserve.
In 2009, BRLC presented Virginia Governor Tim Kaine with the A. Victor Thomas Environmental Stewardship Award in recognition of the governor's conservation efforts during his term in office.


Bull Gap (Buncombe County, North Carolina)

Bull Gap (el. ) is a mountain pass on Bull Mountain, part of the Great Craggy Mountains. Though the Blue Ridge Parkway doesn't go through the gap, it is the most immediate to it and is accessible by hiking.


River gravel

River gravel is a name given to gravel composed of small pieces of rounded stone of various colors, usually no larger than a large coin. It is named for the effect of many years of rounding of the edges of the stones due to a flow of water over it, as often takes place in a river. River gravel is often used in outdoor settings, such as a park walkway.
When a hard surface is also desired, river gravel is often set in a concrete aggregate mix. Owing to much higher cost than either asphalt or concrete pavement, the use of river gravel is generally limited to places where the appearance and/or its lack of sharp edges (when used alone) is of primary importance.
The American National Park Service's bucolic Colonial Parkway, linking the three points of Virginia's Historic Triangle, has a road surface of river gravel set in concrete aggregate. Built between 1930 and 1957, the Colonial Parkway is possibly the longest roadway open to the public which is surfaced of the material.
River gravel is also occasionally used for landscaping purposes and placed by landscape architects in non-traffic areas of high visibility. It may be used with many plants and shrubs because the rounded surfaces ensure rain and other water will soak through to reach the roots for necessary nurture.


Anna Christina Cronquist

Anna Christina Cronquist, née "Lundgren" (1807–1893), was a Swedish entrepreneur. She was the founder of the firm "A.C. Cronquist & Son", which was the start of the Cronquist Era within manufacture and Major appliance business in Malmö.
Life.
Anna Christina Cronquist married in 1830 to Johan Cronquist (d. 1852), editor and publisher of the newspaper "Malmö Nya Allehanda" in Malmö. As the income from the paper was not sufficient to support a family, she gave lessons in weaving: skilled in the art, she published the possibly first instruction book in weaving in Swedish in 1845.
Between 1849 and 1865, Cronquist managed a very successful textile shop, which became the biggest in Malmö and reputed in all Scania. She was likely the first married woman in Sweden to have started her own firm rather than to have inherited it, and she was also the first married woman to have started a firm in her own name: "A.C. Cronquist & Son", referred to herself and her son. In an age when a married woman was legally a minor under the guardianship of her spouse, this was not an uncomplicated issue; another difficulty was the fact that shops were formally the privilege of the guilds, despite the law of "Handelsordningen", which normally only allowed women members if they were widows. Because of these issues, Cronquist were often forced to use a male Strawperson in order to handle her business until she became a widow (and thereby no longer a minor) in 1852.
Anna Christina Cronquist made her son Georg Cronquist her business partner in 1862 and retired in 1865, leaving part of the firm to her daughter-in-law and former employee Aqvilina Cronquist. The "A.C. Cronquist & Son" eventually developed into a major appliance firm.


Grandmother Gap

Grandmother Gap (el. ) is a mountain pass in North Carolina on the Blue Ridge Parkway, between Grandmother Mountain and Beacon Heights, east of Linville and nearby Grandfather Mountain.


China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan International Highway

The China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan International Highway is a transport corridor centered on Kyrgyzstan. It is envisioned to "interlink Pakistan, China and Kyrgyzstan, with strategic nodes extending to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan."
The corridor is a part of the Belt and Road Initiative and among the corridors and projects listed in a joint communiqué of state leaders attending the 2nd Belt and Road Initiative Forum in April 2019.
Projects.
One of the main projects contributing to the creation of the corridor is the North-South Alternative Road. The 250km highway is a shorter alternative to the existing highway from the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek to Osh, the country's second city in the south. China Road and Bridge Corporation, the construction contractor for both phases began work in 2014 and completion is expected in 2021. The road is financed by an approximately US$700 million loan from the Export-Import Bank of China given on a concessional basis (low interest rate). The road has faced construction delays. CRBC personnel report exceeding difficult conditions in building the road including rainy weather sweeping away temporary bridges, construction of a high altitude tunnel over 3,000 meters, and segments built next to the torrential Naryn River.
Routes.
There is a truck line with regular service delivering freight through China, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. The route starts from Kashgar and ends in Tashkent, passing through Irkeshtam and Osh in Kyrgyzstan and Andijan in Uzbekistan.


Sub transmission

A sub transmission is an extra manual or automatic transmission that is independent of the main transmission. In a four-wheel drive, an extra gear stick is often provided to transfer torque when needed and to put the vehicle into low range. Sub transmissions are used in a few motorcycles, such as the Honda CB900C and the Honda CT110. In the Mitsubishi Cordia, a "Super Shift 4x2" sub transmission was adopted, doubling the number of 4-speed main transmission gears.


Yunshun Road station

Yunshun Road (), formerly known as East Jinxiu Road () is a station under construction on the future Line 14 of the Shanghai Metro. Located at the intersection of Jinke Road and East Jinxiu Road in Pudong, the station is scheduled to open with the rest of Line 14 in 2021.


Hammond Clock Company

The Hammond Clock Company of Chicago, Illinois, produced electric clocks between 1928 and 1941. It was one of the ventures of Laurens Hammond, the inventor of the famous Hammond organ.
Invention of the Hammond clock motor.
As Stuyvesant Barry reports in his biography of Laurens Hammond, Hammond himself acknowledged that his invention of the clock that was to bear his name was inspired by the success of Henry Warren's Telechron clocks. Upon discovering the Telechron technology, Hammond designed a motor that was synchronous, like Warren's, that is to say, it rotated at a speed that was tied to the frequency of the current supplied by the power grid. In this way, any clock operated by such a motor would run with great precision as long as the operators of the power grid kept the current's frequency constant. This had become possible since the introduction of the Warren master clock, an innovation of which Hammond took full advantage with his own invention. Hammond's motor, however, differed from Warren's in a number of respects: above all, it ran more slowly and was not self-starting. (Warren had patented his self-starting technology.) The latter Hammond did not consider to be a disadvantage; he believed that people would be misled by their clocks if they restarted automatically after a power outage. As Hammond's new clock motor was not self-starting, his clocks possessed a characteristic little knob on the back that one had to spin to start the motor.
The company.
The Hammond Clock Company was founded in 1928 to produce and market clocks that were equipped with Hammond's new motor. The Hammond clock factory manufactured more than 100 different clock models, some simple and cheap, others made from expensive materials such as marble and onyx. Hammond employed well-paid toolmakers who created sophisticated tools to stamp out the various components of his clocks, which could then be assembled in a belt operation by unskilled laborers. In addition, Hammond licensed his invention to other clock makers such as Waterbury, Sessions, and Ingraham.
In 1932, the economic troubles of the Great Depression threatened the clock-making industry; about 150 clock companies went out of business. To make matters worse, Hammond's licensees discovered that Hammond's patent on his motor was invalid, due to an earlier German invention of the same technology. In this situation, Hammond attempted to save his factory by starting the production of an electric bridge table. This proved to be nothing but a fleeting success. Hammond did finally manage to save his company with his invention of the Hammond organ, and from 1937 his company was called The Hammond Instrument Company to reflect the new emphasis. The production of clocks was discontinued entirely in 1941.
Further reading.
There is less literature on the Hammond clocks than on the Telechrons. Apart from some websites, such as the ones referred to in the notes, one may consult "Spin to Start", the newsletter of the Synchronous Society, which was devoted to the collection of Hammond clocks. Only two issues have appeared, however: vol. 1, no. 1 (October 1996) and vol. 1, no. 2 (February 1998).


Vladimir Pekhtin

Vladimir Alekseyevich Pekhtin (; born 9 December 1950) is a Russian politician. He was a deputy of the State Duma for the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th convocations. He chaired the parliament's ethics committee and served as Deputy Chairman of the State Duma. He was the first deputy chairman of the United Russia party. Pekhtin formerly served on the board of electric holding company RAO UES and was the Director General of Kolymaenergo, a subsidiary of RusHydro.
Pekhtin resigned from the State Duma in February 2013, following revelations that he owned over $1.3 million in Florida real estate.
Early life and education.
Vladimir Pekhtin was born on 9 December 1950 in Leningrad. He attended Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1974 with a degree in hydraulic engineering. In 1997, Pekhtin received a Candidate of Sciences degree from the Saint Petersburg State Technical University. He received his Doktor Nauk degree in 1999.
Career.
Engineering career.
From 1982 to 1989, Pekhtin worked at the Kolyma Hydroelectric Station, rising to the Deputy Director position. From 1992 to 1997, he was General Director of Kolymaenergo, a subsidiary of RusHydro. He served on the board of electric holding company RAO UES from 1997 to 1998.
Political career.
Pekhtin ran for the State Duma in 1993, but lost the election. In 1994, he became a deputy in the first convocation of the Magadan Regional Duma.
Pekhtin was elected to the 3rd convocation of the State Duma in 1999. He headed the United Russia party in the State Duma from April 2001 to December 2003. On 29 March 2003, Pekhtin was elected a member of the supreme council of the United Russia party. Pekhtin was reelected to the fourth convocation of the State Duma in December 2003. He became Deputy Chairman of the State Duma and the first Deputy Head of the United Russia party. In 2007, he was elected to the fifth convocation of the State Duma.
Pekhtin supervised the Kremlin's CIS election observation mission for the 2008 parliamentary election in Belarus. While state-controlled media labelled opposition leaders as traitors, several of whom were imprisoned by the Belarusian KGB, Pekhtin said that all of recent elections in former Soviet republics were democratic and fair. He contradicted the conclusions of the OSCE, saying "They just made it up, invented it, to try to show that there was some kind of rot."
In 2012, Pekhtin became Chairman of the State Duma's ethics committee.
Pekhtin supported the 2013 Dima Yakovlev Law, which barred US citizens from adopting Russian orphans.
Corruption scandal.
On 30 August 2012, Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov published a LiveJournal post entitled "Gold pretzels: United Russia". The post mentioned Pekhtin as one of the individuals with discrepancies between their declared income and the value of their property. On 31 August, "Kommersant" published an article about real estate transactions that, according to the opposition, were part of a well-disguised commercial project to sell the land to the state for the construction of highway at a profit of roughly 75 million rubles. A comparison of Pekhtin's 2010 and 2011 declarations showed that in 2011 he purchased an at least three plots of land in St. Petersburg worth over 25 million rubles.
In 2011, Pekhtin had declared an income of 2.15 million rubles. His declaration indicated that he and his wife owned nine plots of land, two apartments, two houses, two non-residential buildings, and five cars (a Porsche Cayenne, a Toyota Land Cruiser, and three Mercedes-Benz) as well as personal watercraft and snowmobiles.
On 12 February 2013, Alexei Navalny, based on publicly available real estate data, reported on Pekhtin's link to real estate in Miami worth $2.5 million. According to the documents, Pekhtin owned an apartment in a Flamingo South Beach condominium and land in Florida. The apartment was purchased for $540,000 in 2007 and the land for $120,000. Published contracts indicated that half of the real estate was owned by his son, Alexei Pekhtin. The son also owned an apartment in a residential complex at 1500 Ocean Drive. Prior to December 2012, half of the $1.27 million apartment was owned by the elder Pekhtin.
Pekhtin resigned from the State Duma on 20 February 2013, following revelations from Alexei Navalny that he owned over $1.3 million of undeclared real estate in Florida. Both Anatoly Lomakin and Vasily Tolstopyatov resigned shortly after Pekhtin.
Later career.
Pekhtin became a member of the Management Board of RusHydro in April 2013. He became Director General of the RusHydro hydrotechnology institute Lenhydroproject in March 2014.


Cannon bearing

A cannon bearing or cannon box bearing is an arrangement of bearings on a shaft, usually an axle, where two bearings are mounted in an enclosed tube.
The function of the cannon box is to preserve the alignment of the two bearings, even if the overall tube is allowed to move. The two bearings will retain their same relative position. The bearing tube can be attached to the vehicle frame through either a pivot or springs.
The name 'cannon box' derives from the appearance of the hollow tube. Also from the boring machines used to machine the accurately aligned bearing seats, the same machines developed for the boring of cannon and also used for machining the cylinders of steam engines.
Cannon box bearings are still found today, although much of the need for them was removed by the development of self-aligning ball bearings. These allow the inner race of a bearing to move independently of its outer, so that each bearing can align to both shaft and housing simultaneously, even if the housing moves around.
Railway use.
The 'cannon box' bearing was introduced by George Stephenson on his locomotive "Locomotion" of 1825 for the Stockton and Darlington Railway. One of the axles was carried in a 'cannon box' bearing that was pivoted centrally and could tilt from side to side. Unlike Stephenson's earlier locomotives and their steam springs, this new suspension had no springing but was a compensated suspension: as one side was raised, the bearing tube pivoted and the other side was pushed downwards. Although not giving a stable ride for the locomotive, it did allow the wheels to follow uneven track. Rails of this period were short pieces of cast iron rather than lengths of rolled steel and had frequent, often misaligned, joints.
A side-effect of the cannon box is that the centre of the shaft is now enclosed and inaccessible. Previously Stephenson had coupled the driving axles of his locomotives with a central chain. The need for an alternate system spurred the development of the coupling rods, where the drive was connected on the outside face of the wheels.
The enclosure of the shaft and bearing also had advantages for enclosing the bearings to exclude dirt and to contain lubricating oil.
Francis Webb's form of radial axle design for the LNWR used a cannon box. A radial axle is a form of single axle pony truck, where instead of a pivoted frame, the two axle bearings can slide sideways in a circular track. Webb's design placed them into a curved cannon box. David Joy, designer of the eponymous valvegear, described encountering these axleboxes on Webb's Precedent class. The earlier Adams design for a similar axle had relied on the axle and thrust-faces within the axle bearings to keep the hornblocks in position.
In the 1920s, some electric locomotives used rigid frames with a leading and trailing truck, where a cannon bearing was a convenient inside-framed bearing for the truck. The Swiss 'Java bogie' design, developed by Jakob Buchli, even used this for a driving axle, with the drive provided by a one-sided Buchli drive outside the wheels.
Roller bearings, and their enclosing cannon boxes, were used for the British Railways Standard classes, on bogie axles and also on the driving axles of some of the larger classes. This use was simplified, as the Standard classes (with the unique exception of the single Class 8) had just two outside cylinders. Railway use of such bearings continues today. The Peppercorn Class A1 "Tornado" replica uses roller bearings rather than the original plain bearings and these use cannon tube bearings for both the driving and bogie axles, although not for the central cylinder's crank axle.
The rigidity of the cannon box also allows the faces of the axleboxes which move up and down in the hornguides to only need a single horn flange. Conventional axleboxes have a pair of flanges with the guide between them, so that they can move up and down for suspension without any axial movement. If they are both held at the correct spacing by the cannon tube, only one flange is needed. The thinner axlebox, without the external flange, can allow the hornguides and frames to be placed closer to the inner face of the wheel, giving better support for a heavily-loaded axle.
Traction engines.
Traction engines began as agricultural vehicles and ignored springing or suspension on their main wheels. As light steam tractors developed from 1896 for road haulage though, locomotives with solid rubber tyres and suspension became favoured. The driving wheels of a traction engine are carried on a single axle, running closely behind the rear plate of the boiler firebox and carried in bearings fitted to the hornplates on either side of the boiler. Where springs were used, the cannon box bearing was favoured for maintaining the bearing alignment, with a further advantage of enclosing the axle away from the coal and ash from the firebox. Designs such as the Tasker "Little Giant" used another compensated suspension, where the tube was suspended from a single transverse leaf spring.


Dana Sheridan

Dana Sheridan is an American flute maker and master craftsman known for his handcrafted flutes and especially his flute headjoints. Additionally, his flutes are noted for their "old-world craftsmanship and precise work." Originally from the United States, Sheridan now lives and works in Cologne, Germany while maintaining another shop in Boston, Massachusetts. His head joints are noted for their combination of "American innovation and German precision." Sheridan headjoints are very popular among high-level flute players. Sheridan recently partnered with Gemstone Musical Instruments to create a headjoint for the Brio! line of premium step-up and semi-professional flutes.
Biography.
Dana Sheridan began to manufacture his own flutes in 1972, after graduation from Boston's Berklee School. After receiving a degree in music composition from that school, he worked with prominent flute manufacturers William S. Haynes, Verne Q. Powell and Brannen Brothers, before creating his own flute manufacturing company in 1982. Since that time, he has maintained workshops in Germany and Boston.


Thomas Duffet

Thomas Duffet (fl. 1673 – 1676), or Duffett, was an Irish playwright and songwriter active in England in the 1670s. He is remembered for his popular songs and his burlesques of the serious plays of John Dryden, Thomas Shadwell, Elkanah Settle, and Sir William Davenant.
By profession, Duffet was a milliner; he maintained a shop in the New Exchange in London. Virtually nothing is known of his life apart from his surviving works. A Thomas Duffet confessed to forgery in 1677; this may have been the author. Duffet's plays show a close familiarity with the lower and criminal classes of London society, perhaps suggesting first-hand knowledge.
Plays.
Duffet's dramatic canon is uncertain and in dispute among scholars and critics. Six plays are generally attributed to him with a fair degree of certainty:
Duffet started out as a conventional dramatist; his earliest two works were comedies. The market steered him in a different direction. "The Spanish Rogue" has been called "the best of all this author's dramatic works, yet it met with very indifferent success." Upon publication, the play was dedicated to Nell Gwyn.
Duffet had much greater success in mocking other men's plays. Burlesque was a new development in English theatre in Duffet's generation; Sir William Davenant's "The Playhouse to Be Let" (1663; printed 1673) has been called the first burlesque in English drama. Duffett was the one author who took the greatest advantage of this new development in theatrical fashion, prior to Henry Fielding and other writers of the following century.
Like other practitioners of farce and burlesque, Duffet often responded quickly to developments in contemporary society. "The Tempest, or the Enchanted Island", Dryden and Davenant's 1667 adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Tempest", was first staged in Thomas Shadwell's "opera" version in 1674; Duffet's parody of it was on the stage before the end of the year. Duffet also parodied Settle's "The Empress of Morocco" (1673) and Shadwell's opera "Psyche" (1675).
As a dramatist, Duffet worked primarily for the King's Company; the plays he parodied were works staged by the rival Duke's Company. The King's Company was in major difficulty in the years after their grand venue, the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, burned down in 1672. Duffet's burlesques show the King's Company determination to compete with their rivals despite this immediate disadvantage.
Subsequent generations of critics, who took their drama very seriously, did not look kindly upon Duffet's effusions. "As pearls before swine, so were Shakspere's plays in the eyes of the hog Duffet" — is one of many hostile comments in the relevant literature. Much of this reaction is a response to the abundant sexual humor in Duffet's work; modern critics with a greater tolerance for such material have taken a less harsh view of Duffet.
In contrast to most of Duffet's drama, "Beauty's Triumph" was a masque, staged, as its title page attests, "by the Scholars of Mr. Jeffrey Banister and Mr. James Hart, at their new Boarding School for Young Ladies and Gentlewomen ... at Chelsea."
Songs.
Duffet's songs have been compared to the songs of Henry Purcell and Thomas Arne in style. "Come All You Pale Lovers," "To Francelia," "The Mistake," "Uncertain Love," and "Since Cœlia's My Foe" are considered among his best. Duffet's collection "New Poems, Songs, Prologues and Epilogues" was published in 1676 by the bookseller Nicholas Wolfe. The title page of the collection states that the musical arrangements for the songs were "set by the most eminent musicians about the town."