1.
Boulogne-Billancourt
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Boulogne-Billancourt is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 8.2 km from the centre of Paris, Boulogne-Billancourt is a subprefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department and the seat of the Arrondissement of Boulogne-Billancourt. With an average income in 2013 of €47,592, nearly twice the French average of €25,548. Boulogne-Billancourt is the most populous suburb of Paris and one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe, formerly an important industrial site, it has successfully reconverted into business services and is now home to major communication companies headquartered in the Val de Seine business district. The original name of the commune was Boulogne-sur-Seine, before the 14th century, Boulogne was a small village called Menuls-lès-Saint-Cloud. The church, meant to become a pilgrimage centre closer to Paris than the distant city of Boulogne-sur-Mer, was named Notre-Dame de Boulogne la Petite, gradually, the village of Menuls-lès-Saint-Cloud became known as Boulogne-la-Petite, and later as Boulogne-sur-Seine. In 1924, Boulogne-sur-Seine was officially renamed Boulogne-Billancourt to reflect the development of the neighbourhood of Billancourt annexed in 1860. As for the name Billancourt, it was recorded for the first time in 1150 as Bullencort and it comes from Medieval Latin cortem, accusative of cors, meaning enclosure, estate, suffixed to the Germanic patronym Buolo, thus having the meaning of estate of Buolo. On 1 January 1860, the city of Paris was enlarged by annexing neighbouring communes, on that occasion, the communes of Auteuil and Passy were disbanded and divided between Boulogne-Billancourt and the city of Paris. Boulogne-sur-Seine received a part of the territory of Passy. Some of the events of the 1900 Summer Olympics took place in Boulogne-Billancourt. In 1929, the Bois de Boulogne, which was divided between the communes of Boulogne-Billancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine, was annexed in its entirety by the city of Paris. On that occasion, Boulogne-Billancourt, to which most of the Bois de Boulogne belonged, Boulogne-Billancourt is famous for being the birthplace of three major French industries, cinema, automobile with Renault at Île Seguin, and aircraft. It is also famous for being the setting of the TV show Code Lyoko, with the city of Sèvres, Boulogne-Billancourt is part of the communauté dagglomération Val de Seine. Boulogne-Billancourt is served by two stations on Paris Métro Line 10, Boulogne – Jean Jaurès and Boulogne – Pont de Saint-Cloud and it is also served by three stations on Paris Métro Line 9, Marcel Sembat, Billancourt, and Pont de Sèvres. The Musée Albert-Kahn at 14, rue du Port, Boulogne-Billancourt is a museum and includes four hectares of gardens. The museum also includes photographs and film. The Musée des Années Trente is a museum of artistic and industrial objects from the 1930s, see also, Enseignement à Boulogne-Billancourt The public collèges in the commune include Jacqueline-Auriol, Bartholdi, Paul-Landowski, and Jean-Renoir
2.
S.A. (corporation)
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S. A. designates a type of corporation in countries that mostly employ civil law. Depending on language, it means anonymous company, anonymous partnership, or share company and it is different from partnerships and private limited companies. Originally, shareholders could be anonymous and collect dividends by surrendering coupons attached to their share certificates. Dividends were therefore paid to whoever held the certificate, share certificates could be transferred privately, and therefore the management of the company would not necessarily know who owned its shares. Nowadays, shareholders of S. A. s are not anonymous, though shares can still be held by holding companies, S. A. شركة مساهة عامة ذات مسؤولية محدودة (ش. ذ. م. شركة مساهمة مصرية (ش. م
3.
Ticker symbol
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A ticker symbol or stock symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. A stock symbol may consist of letters, numbers or a combination of both, ticker symbol refers to the symbols that were printed on the ticker tape of a ticker tape machine. Stock symbols are unique identifiers assigned to each security traded on a particular market, for example, AAPL is for Apple Inc. OODH is for Orion DHC, Inc. and HD is for Home Depot, a stock symbol can consist of letters, numbers, or a combination of both, and is a way to uniquely identify that stock. The symbols were kept as short as possible to reduce the number of characters that had to be printed on the ticker tape, the allocation of symbols and formatting convention is specific to each stock exchange. In the US, for example, stock tickers are typically between 1 and 4 letters and represent the name where possible. In Europe, most exchanges use three-letter codes, for example Dutch consumer goods company Unilever traded on the Amsterdam Euronext exchange has the symbol UNA, while in Asia, numbers are often used as stock tickers to avoid issues for international investors when using non-Latin scripts. For example, the bank HSBCs stock traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has the ticker symbol 0005, symbols sometimes change to reflect mergers. Prior to the 1999 merger with Mobil Oil, Exxon used a spelling of the company XON as its ticker symbol. The symbol of the firm after the merger was XOM, symbols are sometimes reused, in the US the single-letter symbols are particularly sought after as vanity symbols. For example, since Mar 2008 Visa Inc. has used the symbol V that had previously used by Vivendi which had delisted. To fully qualify a stock, both the ticker and the exchange or country of listing needs to be known, on many systems both must be specified to uniquely identify the security. This is often done by appending the location or exchange code to the ticker, although stock tickers identify a security, they are exchange dependent, generally limited to stocks and can change. These limitations have led to the development of other codes in financial markets to identify securities for settlement purposes, the most prevalent of these is the International Securities Identifying Number. An ISIN uniquely identifies a security and its structure is defined in ISO6166, Securities for which ISINs are issued include bonds, commercial paper, stocks, and warrants. The ISIN identifies the security, not the exchange on which it trades, for instance, Daimler AG stock trades on twenty-two different stock exchanges worldwide, and is priced in five different currencies, it has the same ISIN on each, though not the same ticker symbol. ISIN cannot specify a particular trade in this case, and another identifier, following the introduction of the Sequence trading platform in 1996, EPICs were renamed Tradable Instrument Display Mnemonics, but they are still widely referred to as EPICs. Stocks can also be identified using their SEDOL number or their ISIN, in the United States, modern letter-only ticker symbols were developed by Standard & Poors to bring a national standard to investing
4.
Euronext
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Euronext NV is a European stock exchange seated in Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Lisbon and Paris. In addition to cash and derivatives markets, the Euronext group provides listing market data, market solutions, custody and its total product offering includes equities, exchange-traded funds, warrants and certificates, bonds, derivatives, commodities and indices. As of 2017, Euronext was the largest in continental Europe with 1,300 issuers representing a €3 trillion market capitalization, Euronext merged with NYSE Group, Inc. on April 4,2007 to form NYSE Euronext. On November 13,2013 Intercontinental Exchange, completed acquisition of NYSE Euronext, in June 2014 Euronext completed an initial public offering making it a standalone company again. In December 2001, Euronext acquired the shares of the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange, in 2002 the group merged with the Portuguese stock exchange Bolsa de Valores de Lisboa e Porto, renamed Euronext Lisbon. In 2001, Euronext became a company itself after completing its Initial Public Offering. Despite this, NYSE Group and Euronext penned an agreement, subject to shareholder vote. The initial regulatory response by SEC chief Christopher Cox was positive, the new firm, tentatively dubbed NYSE Euronext, would be headquartered in New York City, with European operations and its trading platform run out of Paris. In addition, the two hoped to add Borsa Italiana into the grouping. Deutsche Börse dropped out of the bidding for Euronext on 15 November 2006, a run-up of NYSE Groups stock price in late 2006 made the offering far more attractive to Euronexts shareholders. On 19 December 2006, Euronext shareholders approved the transaction with 98. 2% of the vote, only 1. 8% voted in favour of the Deutsche Börse offer. Jean-François Théodore, the Chief Executive Officer of Euronext, stated that expected the transaction to close within three or four months. Some of the agencies with jurisdiction over the merger had already given approval. NYSE Group shareholders gave their approval on 20 December 2006, the merger was completed on 4 April 2007, forming NYSE Euronext. In 2008 and 2009 Deutsche Börse made two attempts to merge with NYSE Euronext. Both attempts did not enter into advanced steps of merger, in 2011, Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext confirmed that they were in advanced merger talks. Such a merger would create the largest exchange in history, the deal was approved by shareholders of NYSE Euronext on July 7,2011, and Deutsche Börse on July 15,2011 and won the antitrust approved by the US regulators on December 22,2011. Deutsche Börse unsuccessfully appealed this decision, in 2012, Euronext announced the creation of Euronext London to offer listing facilities in the UK
5.
Nokia
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Nokia Corporation, stylised as NOKIA, is a Finnish multinational communications and information technology company, founded in 1865. Nokia is headquartered in Espoo, Uusimaa, in the greater Helsinki metropolitan area, in 2014, Nokia employed 61,656 people across 120 countries, did business in more than 150 countries and reported annual revenues of around €12.73 billion. Nokia is a limited company listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange. It is the worlds 274th-largest company measured by 2013 revenues according to the Fortune Global 500 and is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index, the company has had various industries in its 151-year history. It was founded as a mill, and now focuses on large-scale telecommunications infrastructures. Nokias dominance also extended into the industry through its Symbian platform. Nokia eventually entered into a pact with Microsoft in 2011 to exclusively use Microsofts Windows Phone platform on future smartphones and its mobile phone business was eventually bought by Microsoft in an overall deal totaling $7.17 billion. Stephen Elop, Nokias former CEO, and several other joined the new Microsoft Mobile subsidiary of Microsoft as part of the deal. Nokia has a history, dating back to 1865 when Fredrik Idestam. A second pulp mill was created in 1868 near the town of Nokia, in 1871, Idestam together with friend Leo Mechelin formed a shared company and called it Nokia, after the town of the second pulp mill. For the next 90 years, Nokia on its own would be a forest and power industry company, in 1922, Nokia was jointly-owned with a trio partnership with Finnish Cable Works and Finnish Rubber Works. Nokia Corporation now boasted many industries including rubber, forestry, cable, electricity, in the 1970s, the newly formed conglomerate started entering the networking and radio industry. Nokia also started making military equipment for Finlands defence forces, such as the Sanomalaite M/90 communicator in 1983, in 1979, Nokia went into a joint venture with television maker Salora, to create Mobira, which would lay out the foundation of Nokias future mobile phone division. In 1981, Mobira launched the Nordic Mobile Telephone service, the worlds first international cellular network, then in 1982, Mobira launched the Mobira Senator car phone, which can be considered as Nokias first mobile phone. At that time, though, Nokia had no interest at all in mobile phones and it is only due to the Salo, Finland-based Salora-Mobira that the idea was pushed through. In 1987, Finnish Cable Works discontinued production of cables at its Helsinki factory, nokian Tyres, a tyre producer that was originally formed as a division of Finnish Rubber Works in 1932, split away from Nokia Corporation in 1988. Two years later in 1990, Finnish Rubber Works followed suit and this allowed Nokia Corporation to solely focus on communications. Jorma Ollila became CEO in 1992, Nokias first fully portable mobile phone was the Mobira Cityman 900 in 1987
6.
Chairman
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The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, a committee, or a deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chair presides over meetings of the group and conducts its business in an orderly fashion. When the group is not in session, the officers duties include acting as its head, its representative to the outside world. In some organizations, this position is called president, in others, where a board appoints a president. Other terms sometimes used for the office and its holder include chair, chairperson, chairwoman, presiding officer, president, moderator, facilitator, the chairman of a parliamentary chamber is often called the speaker. The term chair is used in lieu of chairman, in response to criticisms that using chairman is sexist. In his 1992 State of the Union address, then-U. S, president George H. W. Bush used chairman for men and chair for women. A1994 Canadian study found the Toronto Star newspaper referring to most presiding men as chairman, the Chronicle of Higher Education uses chairman for men and chairperson for women. An analysis of the British National Corpus found chairman used 1,142 times, chairperson 130 times, the National Association of Parliamentarians does not approve using chairperson. In World Schools Style debating, male chairs are called Mr. Chairman, the FranklinCovey Style Guide for Business and Technical Communication, as well as the American Psychological Association style guide, advocate using chair or chairperson, rather than chairman. The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style suggests that the forms are gaining ground. It advocates using chair to refer both to men and to women, the word chair can refer to the place from which the holder of the office presides, whether on a chair, at a lectern, or elsewhere. During meetings, the person presiding is said to be in the chair and is referred to as the chair. Major dictionaries state that the word derives from chair and man, some authorities, however, including Riddicks Rules of Procedure, suggest that the second part of chairman derives from the Latin manus, and thus claim gender-neutrality for the word. Vladimir Lenin, for example, officially functioned as the head of Soviet Russia not as tsar or as president, note in particular the popular standard method for referring to Mao Zedong, Chairman Mao. In the absence of the chairman and vice chairman, groups sometimes elect a chairman pro tempore to fill the role for a single meeting. In some organizations that have titles, deputy chairman ranks higher than vice chairman, as there are often multiple vice chairs
7.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
8.
Lucent
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Lucent Technologies, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey, in the United States. It was established on September 30,1996, through the divestiture of the former AT&T Technologies business unit of AT&T Corporation, Lucent was merged with Alcatel SA of France in a merger of equals on December 1,2006, forming Alcatel-Lucent. Alcatel-Lucent was absorbed by Nokia in January 2016, the name was applied in 1996 at the time of the split from AT&T. The name was criticised, as the logo was to be. This same linguistic root also gives Lucifer, the light bearer, shortly after the Lucent renaming in 1996, Lucents Plan 9 project released a development of their work as the Inferno OS in 1997. This extended the Lucifer and Dante references as a series of punning names for the components of Inferno - Dis, Limbo, Charon, when the rights to Inferno were sold in 2000, the company Vita Nuova Holdings was formed to represent them. This continues the Dante theme, although moving away from his Divine Comedy to the poem La Vita Nuova, the Lucent logo, the Innovation Ring, was designed by Landor Associates, a prominent San Francisco-based branding consultancy. One source inside Lucent says that the logo is actually a Zen Buddhist symbol for eternal truth, another source says it represents the mythic ouroboros, a snake holding its tail in its mouth. Lucents logo also has said to represent constant re-creating and re-thinking. Carly Fiorina picked the logo because her mother was a painter, a telecommunication commentator referred to the logo as a big red zero and predicted financial losses. Bell Labs brought prestige to the new company, as well as the revenue from thousands of patents, Lucent also operated from 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City. At the time of its spinoff, Lucent was placed under the leadership of Henry Schacht, richard McGinn, who was serving as President and COO, succeeded Schacht as CEO in 1997 while Schacht remained chairman of the board. Lucent became a stock of the investment community in the late 1990s. Its market capitalization reached a high of $258 billion, and it was at the time the most widely held company with 5.3 million shareholders. In 1997, Lucent acquired Milpitas-based voice mail market leader Octel Communications Corporation for $2.1 billion, by 1999 Lucent stock continued to soar and in that year Lucent acquired Ascend Communications, an Alameda, California–based manufacturer of communications equipment for US$24 billion. Lucent held discussions to acquire Juniper Networks but decided instead to build its own routers internally, in 1995, Carly Fiorina led corporate operations. In that capacity, she reported to Lucent chief executive Henry B and she played a key role in planning and implementing the 1996 initial public offering of a successful stock and company launch strategy. Under her guidance, the spin-off became one of the most successful IPOs in U. S. history, later in 1996, Fiorina was appointed president of Lucents consumer products sector, reporting to president and chief operating officer Rich McGinn
9.
AT&T
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AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate, headquartered at Whitacre Tower in downtown Dallas, Texas. AT&T is the third-largest company in Texas, as of February 2017, AT&T is the 12th largest company in the world as measured by a composite of revenues, profits, assets and market valuation. AT&T is the largest telecommunications company in the world by revenue, as of 2017, it is also the 18th-largest mobile telecom operator in the world, with 135 million mobile customers. AT&T was ranked at #4 on the 2017 rankings of the worlds most valuable brands published by Brand Finance, Southwestern Bell changed its name to SBC Communications Inc. in 1995. In 2005, SBC purchased former parent AT&T Corp. and took on its branding, with the merged entity naming itself AT&T Inc. and using the iconic AT&T Corp. logo and stock-trading symbol. The current AT&T reconstitutes much of the former Bell System and includes ten of the original 22 Bell Operating Companies, AT&T can trace its origin back to the original Bell Telephone Company founded by Alexander Graham Bell after his invention of the telephone. This monopoly was known as the Bell System, and during this period, for periods of time, the former AT&T was the worlds largest phone company. In 1982, U. S. regulators broke up the AT&T monopoly, requiring AT&T to divest its regional subsidiaries and these new companies were known as Regional Bell Operating Companies, or more informally, Baby Bells. AT&T continued to long distance services, but as a result of this breakup, faced competition from new competitors such as MCI. Southwestern Bell was one of the created by the breakup of AT&T. The architect of divestiture for Southwestern Bell was Robert G. Pope, the company soon started a series of acquisitions. This includes the 1987 acquisition of Metromedia mobile business, and the acquisition of several companies in the early 1990s. In the later half of the 1990s, the company acquired several other companies, including some Baby Bells. During this time, the changed its name to SBC Communications. By 1998, the company was in the top 15 of the Fortune 500, in 2005, SBC purchased AT&T for $16 billion. After this purchase, SBC adopted the better-known AT&T name and brand, the current AT&T claims the original AT&Ts history as its own, though its corporate structure only dates from 1983. It also retains SBCs pre-2005 stock price history, in September 2013, AT&T announced it would expand into Latin America through a collaboration with Carlos Slims América Móvil. In December 2013, AT&T announced plans to sell its Connecticut wireline operations to Stamford-based Frontier Communications, in July 2015, AT&T purchased DirecTV for $48.5 billion, or $67.1 billion including assumed debt
10.
Western Electric
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Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company that served as the primary supplier to AT&T from 1881 to 1996. The company was responsible for technological innovations and seminal developments in industrial management. It also served as the agent for the member companies of the Bell System. In 1856, George Shawk purchased an engineering business in Cleveland. On December 31,1869, he partners with Enos M. Barton and, later the same year. In 1872 Barton, and Gray moved the business to Clinton Street, Chicago, Illinois, in 1875, Gray sold his interests to Western Union, including the caveat that he had filed against Alexander Graham Bells patent application for the telephone. Western Electric was the first company to join in a Japanese joint venture with foreign capital, in 1899, it invested in a 54% share of the Nippon Electric Company, Ltd. Western Electrics representative in Japan was Walter Tenney Carleton, in 1901, Western Electric secretly purchased a controlling interest in a principal competitor, the Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company, but was later forced by a lawsuit to sell. On July 24,1915, employees of the Hawthorne Works boarded the SS Eastland in downtown Chicago for a company picnic, the ship rolled over at the dock and over 800 people died. In 1920, Alice Heacock Seidel was the first of Western Electrics female employees to be given permission to stay on after she had married and this set a precedent in the company, which previously had not allowed married women in their employ. Miss Heacock had worked for Western Electric for sixteen years before her marriage, if the women at the top were permitted to remain after marriage then all women would expect the same privilege. How far and how fast the policy was expanded is shown by the fact that a few years later women were given maternity leaves with no loss of time on their service records. In 1925, ITT purchased the Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company of Brussels, Belgium, the company manufactured rotary system switching equipment under the Western Electric brand. Early on, Western Electric also managed an electrical equipment distribution business, Bell Telephone Laboratories was half-owned by Western Electric, the other half belonging to AT&T. Western Electric used various logos during its existence, starting in 1914 it used an image of AT&Ts statue Spirit of Communication. In 1915, Western Electric Manufacturing was incorporated in New York, New York, as an owned subsidiary of AT&T, under the name Western Electric Company. AT&T and Bell System companies were rumored to employ small armies of inspectors to check household line voltage levels to determine if non-leased phones were in use by consumers. Western Electric telephones were owned not by end customers but by the local Bell System telephone companies—all of which were subsidiaries of AT&T, each phone was leased from the phone company on a monthly basis by customers who generally paid for their phone as part of the recurring lease fees
11.
Landline
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A landline telephone refers to a phone that uses a metal wire or fibre optic telephone line for transmission as distinguished from a mobile cellular line, which uses radio waves for transmission. In 2003, the CIA reported approximately 1.263 billion main telephone lines worldwide, china had more than any other country at 350 million and the United States was second with 268 million. The United Kingdom has 23.7 million residential fixed homephones, the 2013 statistics show that the total number of fixed-telephone subscribers in the world was about 1.16 billion. The number of landline subscribers continuously decreases due to upgrades in digital technology, a fixed phone line can be hard-wired or cordless and typically refers to the operation of wireless devices or systems in fixed locations such as homes. Fixed wireless devices usually derive their power from the utility mains electricity, unlike mobile wireless or portable wireless. Although mobile and portable systems can be used in fixed locations, efficiency, mobile or portable, battery-powered wireless systems can be used as emergency backups for fixed systems in case of a power blackout or natural disaster. So-called leased lines are invariably of the type, the implications of a land line in this context are security and survivability. For example, a military headquarters might be linked to units by landline to ensure that communication remains possible even if the conventional telephone network is damaged or destroyed. Another example of this is in airports, all air traffic control towers have dedicated lines connected to the police, fire department, hospitals, army, etc. Deployed as a precaution in case of emergency, these can be used at any time, in many countries the landline has not been readily available to most people. In some countries in Africa, the rise in cell phones has outpaced any rise in landline telephones, between 1998 and 2008, Africa added only 2.4 million landlines. However, during this time the number of mobile phone lines that have been subscribed to has skyrocketed. Between 2000 and 2008, cell phone use has risen from less than 2 in 100 people to 33 out of 100. In developing countries it is difficult to install landline copper that is accessible to everyone than it is to install mobile wireless towers that people can connect to from anywhere. In the early 21st century, the telephone has declined due to the advancement of mobile network technology. Some see this happening as soon as the year 2025, in 2004, only about 45% of people in the United States between the ages of 12 and 17 owned cell phones. At that time, they had to rely on landline telephones, in just 4 years time, that percentage climbed to about 71%. That same year,2008, about 77% of adults owned a mobile phone, in the year 2013, 91% of adults in the United States owned a mobile phone
12.
Mobile phone
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A mobile phone is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the systems of a mobile phone operator. Most modern mobile telephone services use a network architecture, and, therefore. Mobile phones which offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones, the first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing c.4.4 lbs. In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available mobile phone. From 1983 to 2014, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew to seven billion, penetrating 100% of the global population. In first quarter of 2016, the top smartphone manufacturers were Samsung, Apple, a handheld mobile radio telephone service was envisioned in the early stages of radio engineering. In 1917, Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt filed a patent for a pocket-size folding telephone with a thin carbon microphone. Early predecessors of cellular phones included analog radio communications from ships, the race to create truly portable telephone devices began after World War II, with developments taking place in many countries. These 0G systems were not cellular, supported few simultaneous calls, the first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing c.4.4 lbs. The first commercial automated cellular network was launched in Japan by Nippon Telegraph and this was followed in 1981 by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone system in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Several other countries followed in the early to mid-1980s. These first-generation systems could support far more simultaneous calls but still used analog cellular technology, in 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available handheld mobile phone. In 1991, the digital cellular technology was launched in Finland by Radiolinja on the GSM standard. This sparked competition in the sector as the new operators challenged the incumbent 1G network operators, ten years later, in 2001, the third generation was launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard. This was followed by 3. 5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G enhancements based on the high-speed packet access family, allowing UMTS networks to have data transfer speeds. By 2009, it had become clear that, at point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications. Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized fourth-generation technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to ten-fold over existing 3G technologies
13.
Technological convergence
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Technological convergence is the tendency that as technology changes, different technological system sometimes evolve toward performing similar tasks. Digital convergence refers to the convergence of four industries into one conglomerate, previously separate technologies such as voice, data, and video can now share resources and interact with each other synergistically. Telecommunications convergence describes emerging telecommunications technologies, and network architecture used to migrate multiple communications services into a single network, also included in this topic is the basis of computer networks, wherein many different operating systems are able to communicate via different protocols. This could be a prelude to artificial intelligence networks on the Internet eventually leading to a powerful superintelligence via a technological singularity, convergent services, such as VoIP, IPTV, Smart TV, and others, tend to replace the older technologies and thus can disrupt markets. IP-based convergence is inevitable and will result in new service and new demand in the market, when the old technology converges into the public-owned common, IP based services become access-independent or less dependent. Educational institutions and modern Universities have started developing courses leading to specialized degrees, siddhartha Menon defines convergence, in his Policy initiative Dilemmas on Media Covergence, A Cross National Perspective, as integration and digitalization. Digitalization is not so much defined by its infrastructure. Jan van Dijk suggests that digitalization means breaking down signals into bytes consisting of ones, Convergence is defined by Blackman,1998, as a trend in the evolution of technology services and industry structures. Convergence is later defined more specifically as the coming together of telecommunications, mueller stands against the statement that convergence is really a takeover of all forms of media by one technology, digital computers. Communication networks were designed to different types of information independently. The older media, such as television and radio, are broadcasting networks with passive audiences, Convergence of telecommunication technology permits the manipulation of all forms of information, voice, data, and video. Telecommunication has changed from a world of scarcity to one of seemingly limitless capacity, consequently, the possibility of audience interactivity morphs the passive audience into an engaged audience. Fixed and mobile operators were, for most of the 1990s, even when the same organization marketed both products, these were sold and serviced independently. In the 1990s an implicit and often explicit assumption was that new media was going to replace the old media, in Nicholas Negropontes Being Digital, Negroponte predicts the collapse of broadcast networks in favor of an era of narrow-casting. He also suggests that no government regulation can shatter the media conglomerate, the monolithic empires of mass media are dissolving into an array of cottage industries. Media barons of today will be grasping to hold onto their centralized empires tomorrow, the combined forces of technology and human nature will ultimately take a stronger hand in plurality than any laws Congress can invent. The new media companies claimed that the old media would be absorbed fully and completely into the orbit of the emerging technologies, gilder believes that computers had come not to transform mass culture but to destroy it. Media companies put Media Convergence back to their agenda, after the bubble burst
14.
Internet Protocol
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The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. Its routing function enables internetworking, and essentially establishes the Internet, IP has the task of delivering packets from the source host to the destination host solely based on the IP addresses in the packet headers. For this purpose, IP defines packet structures that encapsulate the data to be delivered and it also defines addressing methods that are used to label the datagram with source and destination information. The Internet protocol suite is often referred to as TCP/IP. The first major version of IP, Internet Protocol Version 4, is the dominant protocol of the Internet and its successor is Internet Protocol Version 6. The Internet Protocol is responsible for addressing hosts and for routing datagrams from a source host to a destination host across one or more IP networks. For this purpose, the Internet Protocol defines the format of packets, each datagram has two components, a header and a payload. The IP header is tagged with the source IP address, the destination IP address, the payload is the data that is transported. This method of nesting the data payload in a packet with a header is called encapsulation, IP addressing entails the assignment of IP addresses and associated parameters to host interfaces. The address space is divided into networks and subnetworks, involving the designation of network or routing prefixes, IP routing is performed by all hosts, as well as routers, whose main function is to transport packets across network boundaries. Routers communicate with one another via specially designed routing protocols, either interior gateway protocols or exterior gateway protocols, IP routing is also common in local networks. For example, many Ethernet switches support IP multicast operations and these switches use IP addresses and Internet Group Management Protocol to control multicast routing but use MAC addresses for the actual routing. The versions currently relevant are IPv4 and IPv6, in May 1974, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers published a paper entitled A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication. The papers authors, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, described a protocol for sharing resources using packet switching among network nodes. A central control component of this model was the Transmission Control Program that incorporated both connection-oriented links and datagram services between hosts, the model became known as the Department of Defense Internet Model and Internet protocol suite, and informally as TCP/IP. IP versions 0 to 3 were experimental versions, used between 1977 and 1979, IEN26, dated February 1978 describes a version of the IP header that uses a 1-bit version field. IEN28, dated February 1978 describes IPv2, IEN41, dated June 1978 describes the first protocol to be called IPv4. The IP header is different from the modern IPv4 header, IEN44, dated June 1978 describes another version of IPv4, also with a header different from the modern IPv4 header
15.
Bell Labs
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Nokia Bell Labs is an American research and scientific development company, owned by Finnish company Nokia. Its headquarters are located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, in addition to laboratories around the rest of the United States. The historic laboratory originated in the late 19th century as the Volta Laboratory, Bell Labs was also at one time a division of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary. Eight Nobel Prizes have been awarded for work completed at Bell Laboratories, in 1880, the French government awarded Alexander Graham Bell the Volta Prize of 50,000 francs, approximately US$10,000 at that time for the invention of the telephone. Bell used the award to fund the Volta Laboratory in Washington, D. C. in collaboration with Sumner Tainter, the laboratory is also variously known as the Volta Bureau, the Bell Carriage House, the Bell Laboratory and the Volta Laboratory. The laboratory focused on the analysis, recording, and transmission of sound, Bell used his considerable profits from the laboratory for further research and education to permit the diffusion of knowledge relating to the deaf. This resulted in the founding of the Volta Bureau c,1887, located at Bells fathers house at 1527 35th Street in Washington, D. C. where its carriage house became their headquarters in 1889. In 1893, Bell constructed a new building, close by at 1537 35th St. specifically to house the lab, the building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1972. In 1884, the American Bell Telephone Company created the Mechanical Department from the Electrical, the first president of research was Frank B. Jewett, who stayed there until 1940, ownership of Bell Laboratories was evenly split between AT&T and the Western Electric Company. Its principal work was to plan, design, and support the equipment that Western Electric built for Bell System operating companies and this included everything from telephones, telephone exchange switches, and transmission equipment. Bell Labs also carried out consulting work for the Bell Telephone Company, a few workers were assigned to basic research, and this attracted much attention, especially since they produced several Nobel Prize winners. Until the 1940s, the principal locations were in and around the Bell Labs Building in New York City. Of these, Murray Hill and Crawford Hill remain in existence, the largest grouping of people in the company was in Illinois, at Naperville-Lisle, in the Chicago area, which had the largest concentration of employees prior to 2001. Since 2001, many of the locations have been scaled down or closed. The Holmdel site, a 1.9 million square foot structure set on 473 acres, was closed in 2007, the mirrored-glass building was designed by Eero Saarinen. In August 2013, Somerset Development bought the building, intending to redevelop it into a commercial and residential project. The prospects of success are clouded by the difficulty of readapting Saarinens design and by the current glut of aging, eight Nobel Prizes have been awarded for work completed at Bell Laboratories
16.
Nokia Networks
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Nokia Networks is a multinational data networking and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland, and wholly owned subsidiary of Nokia Corporation. It started as a joint venture between Nokia of Finland and Siemens of Germany known as Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia Networks has operations in around 120 countries. In 2013, Nokia acquired 100% of Nokia Networks, buying all of Siemens shares, in April 2014, NSN name was phased out as part of rebranding process. The company was created as the result of a joint venture between Siemens Communications and Nokias Network Business, the formation of the company was publicly announced on 19 June 2006. Nokia Siemens Networks was officially launched at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona in February 2007, Nokia Siemens Networks then began full operations on 1 April 2007 and has its headquarters in Espoo, Greater Helsinki, Finland. In January 2008 Nokia Siemens Networks acquired Israeli company Atrica, a company that builds carrier-class Ethernet transport systems for metro networks, the official release did not disclose terms, however they are thought to be in the region of $100 million. In February 2008 Nokia Siemens Networks acquired Apertio, a Bristol, UK-based mobile network management tools provider. With this acquisition Nokia Siemens Networks gained customers in the management area including Orange, T-Mobile, O2, Vodafone. In 2009, according to Siemens, Siemens only retained a financial interest in NSN. On 19 July 2010, Nokia Siemens Networks announced it would acquire the equipment of Motorola. The acquisition was completed on 29 April 2011 for $975 million in cash, as of the transaction approximately 6,900 employees transferred to Nokia Siemens Networks. On 23 November 2011, Nokia Siemens Networks announced that it would refocus its business on mobile broadband equipment and this refocus resulted in the restructuring of the company and the planned layoffs of 17,000 employees. The plan reduced the work force by 23% from its 2011 level of 74,000. After the restructuring process, Nokia Siemens Networks brought in a turn around to its businesses. The bottom line and operating margins rose to approximately 10%, which was a significant shift from the previous sub-zero margins, on 7 August 2013, Nokia completed the acquisition of Siemens stake in the company and rebranded as Nokia Solutions and Networks. After this acquisition NSN became a fully owned subsidiary of Nokia, on 29 April 2014, Nokia announced that NSN would henceforth be known as Nokia Networks. It was also announced that Rajeev Suri, the CEO of NSN would be appointed as President and CEO of Nokia Corporation, on April 15,2015, Nokia announced its intent to purchase Alcatel-Lucent for €15.6 billion in an all-stock deal. The acquisition aimed to create a competitor to the rival firms Ericsson and Huawei
17.
Mulhouse
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Mulhouse is a city and commune in eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. Mulhouse is the commune of the 33 making up the communauté dagglomération Mulhouse Alsace Agglomération. Mulhouse is famous for its museums, especially the Cité de l’Automobile, an industrial town nicknamed the French Manchester, Mulhouse is also the main seat of the Upper Alsace University, where the secretariat of the European Physical Society can be found. Mulhouse is the city of an arrondissement of the Haut-Rhin département. Legends mention the origin of the town in 58 BC, and it was part of the southern Alsatian county of Sundgau in the Holy Roman Empire. From 1354–1515 Mulhouse was part of the Décapole, an association of ten Free Imperial Cities in Alsace, the city joined the Swiss Confederation as an associate in 1515 and was therefore not annexed by France in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 like the rest of the Sundgau. Starting in the middle of the century, the Koechlin family pioneered cotton cloth manufacturing. André Koechlin built machinery and started making railroad equipment in 1842, the firm in 1839 already employed 1,800 people. After the Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War Mulhouse was annexed to the German Empire as part of the territory of Alsace-Lorraine. The city was occupied by French troops on 8 August 1914 at the start of World War I. The citizens of Alsace who unwisely celebrated the appearance of the French army, were left to face German reprisals, after World War I ended in 1918, French troops entered Alsace. Germany ceded the region to France under the Treaty of Versailles, after the Battle of France in 1940, it was occupied by German forces until returned to French control at the end of the war in May 1945. The towns development was stimulated first by the expansion of the industry and tanning. Mulhouse was for a time called the French Manchester. In consequence, the town has enduring links with Louisiana, from which it imported cotton, the towns history also explains why its centre is relatively small. Two rivers run through Mulhouse, the Doller and the Ill, Mulhouse is approximately 100 kilometres away from Strasbourg and Zürich, it is 350 km away from Milan and about 340 km from Frankfurt. It is close enough to Basel, Switzerland and Freiburg, Germany to share the EuroAirPort international airport with two cities. Medieval Mulhouse consists essentially of a lower and an upper town, the lower town was formerly the inner city district of merchants and craftsmen
18.
Western Electric Manufacturing Company
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Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company that served as the primary supplier to AT&T from 1881 to 1996. The company was responsible for technological innovations and seminal developments in industrial management. It also served as the agent for the member companies of the Bell System. In 1856, George Shawk purchased an engineering business in Cleveland. On December 31,1869, he partners with Enos M. Barton and, later the same year. In 1872 Barton, and Gray moved the business to Clinton Street, Chicago, Illinois, in 1875, Gray sold his interests to Western Union, including the caveat that he had filed against Alexander Graham Bells patent application for the telephone. Western Electric was the first company to join in a Japanese joint venture with foreign capital, in 1899, it invested in a 54% share of the Nippon Electric Company, Ltd. Western Electrics representative in Japan was Walter Tenney Carleton, in 1901, Western Electric secretly purchased a controlling interest in a principal competitor, the Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company, but was later forced by a lawsuit to sell. On July 24,1915, employees of the Hawthorne Works boarded the SS Eastland in downtown Chicago for a company picnic, the ship rolled over at the dock and over 800 people died. In 1920, Alice Heacock Seidel was the first of Western Electrics female employees to be given permission to stay on after she had married and this set a precedent in the company, which previously had not allowed married women in their employ. Miss Heacock had worked for Western Electric for sixteen years before her marriage, if the women at the top were permitted to remain after marriage then all women would expect the same privilege. How far and how fast the policy was expanded is shown by the fact that a few years later women were given maternity leaves with no loss of time on their service records. In 1925, ITT purchased the Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company of Brussels, Belgium, the company manufactured rotary system switching equipment under the Western Electric brand. Early on, Western Electric also managed an electrical equipment distribution business, Bell Telephone Laboratories was half-owned by Western Electric, the other half belonging to AT&T. Western Electric used various logos during its existence, starting in 1914 it used an image of AT&Ts statue Spirit of Communication. In 1915, Western Electric Manufacturing was incorporated in New York, New York, as an owned subsidiary of AT&T, under the name Western Electric Company. AT&T and Bell System companies were rumored to employ small armies of inspectors to check household line voltage levels to determine if non-leased phones were in use by consumers. Western Electric telephones were owned not by end customers but by the local Bell System telephone companies—all of which were subsidiaries of AT&T, each phone was leased from the phone company on a monthly basis by customers who generally paid for their phone as part of the recurring lease fees
19.
Elisha Gray
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Elisha Gray was an American electrical engineer who co-founded the Western Electric Manufacturing Company. Gray is best known for his development of a prototype in 1876 in Highland Park. Bells telephone patent was held up in court decisions. Gray is also considered to be the father of the music synthesizer. He was one of the founders of Graybar, purchasing a controlling interest in the shortly after its inception. Born into a Quaker family in Barnesville, Ohio, Gray was brought up on a farm and he spent several years at Oberlin College where he experimented with electrical devices. Although Gray did not graduate, he taught electricity and science there, in 1862 while at Oberlin, Gray met and married Delia Minerva Shepard. In 1865 Gray invented a telegraph relay that automatically adapted to varying insulation of the telegraph line. In 1867 Gray received a patent for the invention, the first of more than seventy, in 1869, Elisha Gray and his partner Enos M. Barton founded Gray & Barton Co. in Cleveland, Ohio to supply telegraph equipment to the giant Western Union Telegraph Company. The electrical distribution business was spun off and organized into a separate company, Graybar Electric Company. Barton was employed by Western Union to examine and test new products, in 1870 financing for Gray & Barton Co. was arranged by General Anson Stager, a superintendent of the Western Union Telegraph Company. Stager became a partner in Gray & Barton Co. The company moved to Chicago near Highland Park, Gray later gave up his administrative position as chief engineer to focus on inventions that could benefit the telegraph industry. Grays inventions and patent costs were financed by a dentist, Dr. Samuel S. White of Philadelphia, in 1870, Gray developed a needle annunciator for hotels and another for elevators. He also developed a microphone printer which had a typewriter keyboard, in 1872 Western Union, then financed by the Vanderbilts and J. P. Morgan, bought one-third of Gray and Barton Co. and changed the name to Western Electric Manufacturing Company of Chicago. Gray continued to invent for Western Electric, in 1874, Gray retired to do independent research and development. Gray applied for a patent on a telegraph which consisted of multi-tone transmitters. Gray gave several demonstrations of this invention in New York and Washington, D. C. in May
20.
Cleveland
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Cleveland is a city in the U. S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the states second most populous county. The city proper has a population of 388,072, making Cleveland the 51st largest city in the United States, Greater Cleveland ranked as the 32nd largest metropolitan area in the United States, with 2,055,612 people in 2016. The city is the center of the Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area, the city is located on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border. Clevelands economy has diversified sectors that include manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, Cleveland is also home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Residents of Cleveland are called Clevelanders, Cleveland has many nicknames, the oldest of which in contemporary use being The Forest City. Cleaveland oversaw the plan for what would become the downtown area, centered on Public Square, before returning home. The first settler in Cleaveland was Lorenzo Carter, who built a cabin on the banks of the Cuyahoga River, the Village of Cleaveland was incorporated on December 23,1814. In spite of the swampy lowlands and harsh winters, its waterfront location proved to be an advantage. The area began rapid growth after the 1832 completion of the Ohio, growth continued with added railroad links. Cleveland incorporated as a city in 1836, in 1836, the city, then located only on the eastern banks of the Cuyahoga River, nearly erupted into open warfare with neighboring Ohio City over a bridge connecting the two. Ohio City remained an independent municipality until its annexation by Cleveland in 1854, the citys prime geographic location as a transportation hub on the Great Lakes has played an important role in its development as a commercial center. Cleveland serves as a point for iron ore shipped from Minnesota. In 1870, John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in Cleveland, other manufacturers located in Cleveland produced steam-powered cars, which included White and Gaeth, as well as the electric car company Baker. Because of the significant growth, Cleveland was known as the Sixth City during this period, by 1920, due in large part to the citys economic prosperity, Cleveland became the nations fifth largest city. The city counted Progressive Era politicians such as the populist Mayor Tom L. Johnson among its leaders, many prominent Clevelanders from this era are buried in the historic Lake View Cemetery, including President James A. Garfield, and John D. Rockefeller. In commemoration of the centennial of Clevelands incorporation as a city, conceived as a way to energize a city after the Great Depression, it drew four million visitors in its first season, and seven million by the end of its second and final season in September 1937. The exposition was housed on grounds that are now used by the Great Lakes Science Center, following World War II, the city experienced a prosperous economy. In sports, the Indians won the 1948 World Series, the hockey Barons became champions of the American Hockey League, as a result, along with track and boxing champions produced, Cleveland was dubbed City of Champions in sports at this time
21.
Alexander Graham Bell
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Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer, and innovator who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. Bells father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech and his research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated in Bell being awarded the first U. S. patent for the telephone in 1876. Bell considered his most famous invention an intrusion on his work as a scientist. Many other inventions marked Bells later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils, and aeronautics. Although Bell was not one of the 33 founders of the National Geographic Society, he had a influence on the magazine while serving as the second president from January 7,1898. Alexander Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 3,1847, the family home was at 16 South Charlotte Street, and has a stone inscription marking it as Alexander Graham Bells birthplace. He had two brothers, Melville James Bell and Edward Charles Bell, both of whom would die of tuberculosis and his father was Professor Alexander Melville Bell, a phonetician, and his mother was Eliza Grace. Born as just Alexander Bell, at age 10, he made a plea to his father to have a name like his two brothers. To close relatives and friends he remained Aleck, as a child, young Bell displayed a natural curiosity about his world, resulting in gathering botanical specimens as well as experimenting even at an early age. His best friend was Ben Herdman, a neighbour whose family operated a flour mill, young Bell asked what needed to be done at the mill. In return, Bens father John Herdman gave both boys the run of a workshop in which to invent. From his early years, Bell showed a sensitive nature and a talent for art, poetry, with no formal training, he mastered the piano and became the familys pianist. Despite being normally quiet and introspective, he revelled in mimicry and he also developed a technique of speaking in clear, modulated tones directly into his mothers forehead wherein she would hear him with reasonable clarity. Bells preoccupation with his mothers deafness led him to study acoustics and his family was long associated with the teaching of elocution, his grandfather, Alexander Bell, in London, his uncle in Dublin, and his father, in Edinburgh, were all elocutionists. His father published a variety of works on the subject, several of which are well known, especially his The Standard Elocutionist. The Standard Elocutionist appeared in 168 British editions and sold over a quarter of a million copies in the United States alone, in this treatise, his father explains his methods of how to instruct deaf-mutes to articulate words and read other peoples lip movements to decipher meaning. Bells father taught him and his brothers not only to write Visible Speech but to any symbol. Bell became so proficient that he became a part of his fathers public demonstrations, as a young child, Bell, like his brothers, received his early schooling at home from his father
22.
AT&T Corporation
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Founded in 1885 as the original American Telephone and Telegraph Company, it was at times the worlds largest telephone company, the worlds largest cable television operator, and a regulated monopoly. At its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, it employed one million people, in 2005, AT&T was purchased by Baby Bell and former subsidiary SBC Communications for more than $16 billion. SBC then changed its name to AT&T Inc, AT&T started with Bell Patent Association, a legal entity established in 1874 to protect the patent rights of Alexander Graham Bell after he invented the telephone system. Originally a verbal agreement, it was formalized in writing in 1875 as Bell Telephone Company, in 1880 the management of American Bell had created what would become AT&T Long Lines. The project was the first of its kind to create a nationwide long-distance network with a commercially viable cost-structure, the project was formally incorporated in New York State as a separate company named American Telephone and Telegraph Company on March 3,1885. With this assets transfer, AT&T became the parent of both American Bell and the Bell System. AT&T was involved mainly in the business and, although it was a partner with RCA, was reluctant to see radio grow because such growth might diminish the demand for wired services. It established station WEAF in New York as what was termed a toll station, AT&T could provide no programming, but anyone who wished to broadcast a message could pay a toll to AT&T and then air the message publicly. The original studio was the size of a telephone booth, the idea, however, did not take hold, because people would pay to broadcast messages only if they were sure that someone was listening. As a result, WEAF began broadcasting entertainment material, drawing amateur talent found among its employees, throughout most of the 20th century, AT&T held a monopoly on phone service in the United States and Canada through a network of companies called the Bell System. At this time, the company was nicknamed Ma Bell, on April 30,1907, Theodore Newton Vail became President of AT&T. Vail believed in the superiority of one system and AT&T adopted the slogan One Policy, One System. This would be the philosophy for the next 70 years. Under Vail, AT&T began buying up many of the telephone companies including Western Union telegraph. Anxious to avoid action from government antitrust suits, AT&T and the government entered into an agreement known as the Kingsbury Commitment. These actions brought unwanted attention from antitrust regulators, in the Kingsbury Commitment, AT&T and the government reached an agreement that allowed AT&T to continue operating as a monopoly. While AT&T periodically faced scrutiny from regulators, this state of affairs continued until the breakup in 1984. The United States Justice Department opened the case United States v. AT&T in 1974 and this was prompted by suspicion that AT&T was using monopoly profits from its Western Electric subsidiary to subsidize the cost of its network, a violation of anti-trust law
23.
Bell System
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On December 31,1983, the system was broken up into independent companies by a U. S. Justice Department mandate. Ma Bell is also used to refer to the female voices behind recordings for the Bell System, Mary Moore, Jane Barbe. In 1877, the American Bell Telephone Company, named after Alexander Graham Bell, opened the first telephone exchange in New Haven, within a few years local exchange companies were established in every major city in the United States. In 1899, American Telephone & Telegraph acquired the assets of its parent, originally American Bell had created AT&T to provide long-distance calls between New York and Chicago and beyond. AT&T became the parent of American Bell, and thus the head of the Bell System, because regulatory and tax rules were leaner in New York than in Boston, after 1934, AT&T was regulated by the Federal Communication Commission. Receiving a U. S. patent for the invention of the telephone on March 7,1876, Alexander Graham Bell formed the Bell Telephone Company in 1877, on April 30,1907, Theodore Newton Vail returned as President of AT&T. Vail believed in the superiority of one system and AT&T adopted the slogan One Policy, One System. This would be the philosophy for the next 70 years. Under Vail, AT&T began buying up many of the telephone companies including Western Union telegraph. Anxious to avoid action from government antitrust suits, AT&T entered into an agreement known as the Kingsbury Commitment with the federal government. S. The Bell trademark pictured here was used from 1921 through 1939 by both the AT&T corporation and the regional operating corporations to co-brand themselves under a single Bell System trademark, the regional operating corporations name was placed where name of associated company appears in this template version of the trademark. Bell system telephones and related equipment were made by Western Electric, member telephone companies paid a fixed fraction of their revenues as a license fee to Bell Labs. As a result of this monopoly, by 1940 the Bell System effectively owned most telephone service in the United States, from local. This allowed Bell to prohibit their customers from connecting phones not made or sold by Bell to the system without paying fees, Northern Electric was spun off in 1956 by Western Electric, but AT&T did not spin off Bell Canada until 1975. The Bell Systems Caribbean regional operating companies were sold to the ITT Corporation, before 1956, the Bell Systems reach was truly gargantuan. The 1984 Bell System divestiture brought an end to the branded as the Bell System. The suit was settled on January 8,1982, superseding the former restrictions that AT&T and the DOJ had agreed upon in 1956. Currently, the word mark Bell, the logo, and other related trademarks, are held by each of the remaining Bell companies, namely AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, and Cincinnati Bell
24.
Alsace
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Alsace is a cultural and historical region in eastern France now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Alsace is located on Frances eastern border and on the west bank of the upper Rhine adjacent to Germany, from 1982 until January 2016, Alsace was the smallest of 22 administrative regions in metropolitan France, consisting of the Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin departments. Territorial reform passed by the French legislature in 2014 resulted in the merger of the Alsace administrative region with Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine to form Grand Est. The predominant historical language of Alsace is Alsatian, a Germanic dialect also spoken across the Rhine, but today most Alsatians primarily speak French, the political status of Alsace has been heavily influenced by historical decisions, wars, and strategic politics. The economic and cultural capital as well as largest city of Alsace is Strasbourg, the city is the seat of several international organizations and bodies. The name Alsace can be traced to the Old High German Ali-saz or Elisaz, an alternative explanation is from a Germanic Ell-sass, meaning seated on the Ill, a river in Alsace. In prehistoric times, Alsace was inhabited by nomadic hunters, by 1500 BC, Celts began to settle in Alsace, clearing and cultivating the land. It should be noted that Alsace is a surrounded by the Vosges mountains. It creates Foehn winds which, along with irrigation, contributes to the fertility of the soil. In a world of agriculture, Alsace has always been a region which explains why it suffered so many invasions and annexations in its history. By 58 BC, the Romans had invaded and established Alsace as a center of viticulture, to protect this highly valued industry, the Romans built fortifications and military camps that evolved into various communities which have been inhabited continuously to the present day. While part of the Roman Empire, Alsace was part of Germania Superior, with the decline of the Roman Empire, Alsace became the territory of the Germanic Alemanni. The Alemanni were agricultural people, and their Germanic language formed the basis of modern-day dialects spoken along the Upper Rhine, Clovis and the Franks defeated the Alemanni during the 5th century AD, culminating with the Battle of Tolbiac, and Alsace became part of the Kingdom of Austrasia. Under Clovis Merovingian successors the inhabitants were Christianized, Alsace formed part of the Middle Francia, which was ruled by the eldest grandson Lothar I. Lothar died early in 855 and his realm was divided into three parts, the part known as Lotharingia, or Lorraine, was given to Lothars son. The rest was shared between Lothars brothers Charles the Bald and Louis the German, the Kingdom of Lotharingia was short-lived, however, becoming the stem duchy of Lorraine in Eastern Francia after the Treaty of Ribemont in 880. Alsace was united with the other Alemanni east of the Rhine into the duchy of Swabia. Alsace experienced great prosperity during the 12th and 13th centuries under Hohenstaufen emperors, Frederick I set up Alsace as a province to be ruled by ministeriales, a non-noble class of civil servants
25.
TGV
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TGV is Frances intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF, the national rail operator. It was developed in the 1970s by GEC-Alsthom and SNCF, originally designed as turbotrains to be powered by gas turbines, the prototypes evolved into electric trains with the 1973 oil crisis. A TGV test train set the record for the fastest wheeled train, in mid-2011, scheduled TGV trains operated at the highest speeds in conventional train service in the world, regularly reaching 320 km/h on the LGV Est, LGV Rhin-Rhône, and LGV Méditerranée. The commercial success of the first LGV, the LGV Sud-Est, led to an expansion of the network to the south, and new lines in the west, north, and east. Eager to emulate the TGVs success, neighbouring countries Italy, Spain, Several future lines are planned, including extensions within France and to surrounding countries. Cities such as Tours have become part of a TGV commuter belt around Paris, in 2007, SNCF generated profits of €1.1 billion driven largely by higher margins on the TGV network. The idea of the TGV was first proposed in the 1960s, at the time the French government favoured new technology, exploring the production of hovercraft and the Aérotrain air-cushion vehicle. Simultaneously, SNCF began researching high-speed trains on conventional tracks, in 1976, the government agreed to fund the first line. By the mid-1990s, the trains were so popular that SNCF president Louis Gallois declared TGV The train that saved French railways, TGV001 was not a wasted prototype, its gas turbine was only one of its many new technologies for high-speed rail travel. It also tested high-speed brakes, needed to dissipate the large amount of energy of a train at high speed, high-speed aerodynamics. It was articulated, i. e. two adjacent carriages shared a bogie, allowing free yet controlled motion with respect to one another and it reached 318 km/h, which remains the world speed record for a non-electric train. Its interior and exterior were styled by British-born designer Jack Cooper, whose work formed the basis of early TGV designs, changing the TGV to electric traction required a significant design overhaul. The first electric prototype, nicknamed Zébulon, was completed in 1974, testing such as innovative body mounting of motors, pantographs, suspension. Body mounting of motors allowed over 3 tonnes to be eliminated from the power cars, the prototype travelled almost 1,000,000 km during testing. In 1976 the French government funded the TGV project, and construction of the LGV Sud-Est, the line was given the designation LN1, Ligne Nouvelle 1. After two pre-production trainsets had been tested and substantially modified, the first production version was delivered on 25 April 1980, the LGV opened to the public between Paris and Lyon on 27 September 1981. Contrary to its earlier fast services, SNCF intended TGV service for all types of passengers and this commitment to a democratised TGV service was enhanced in the Mitterrand era with the promotional slogan Progress means nothing unless it is shared by all. The TGV was considerably faster than normal trains, cars, or aeroplanes, the trains became widely popular, the public welcoming fast and practical travel
26.
Transistor
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A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electronic signals and electrical power. It is composed of semiconductor material usually with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit, a voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistors terminals controls the current through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled power can be higher than the controlling power, today, some transistors are packaged individually, but many more are found embedded in integrated circuits. The transistor is the building block of modern electronic devices. Julius Edgar Lilienfeld patented a field-effect transistor in 1926 but it was not possible to construct a working device at that time. The first practically implemented device was a point-contact transistor invented in 1947 by American physicists John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, the transistor revolutionized the field of electronics, and paved the way for smaller and cheaper radios, calculators, and computers, among other things. The transistor is on the list of IEEE milestones in electronics, and Bardeen, Brattain, the thermionic triode, a vacuum tube invented in 1907, enabled amplified radio technology and long-distance telephony. The triode, however, was a device that consumed a substantial amount of power. Physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld filed a patent for a transistor in Canada in 1925. Lilienfeld also filed patents in the United States in 1926 and 1928. However, Lilienfeld did not publish any research articles about his devices nor did his patents cite any examples of a working prototype. In 1934, German inventor Oskar Heil patented a device in Europe. Solid State Physics Group leader William Shockley saw the potential in this, the term transistor was coined by John R. Pierce as a contraction of the term transresistance. Instead, what Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley invented in 1947 was the first point-contact transistor, Mataré had previous experience in developing crystal rectifiers from silicon and germanium in the German radar effort during World War II. Using this knowledge, he began researching the phenomenon of interference in 1947, realizing that Bell Labs scientists had already invented the transistor before them, the company rushed to get its transistron into production for amplified use in Frances telephone network. The first bipolar junction transistors were invented by Bell labs William Shockley, on April 12,1950, Bell Labs chemists Gordon Teal and Morgan Sparks had successfully produced a working bipolar NPN junction amplifying germanium transistor. Bell Labs had made this new sandwich transistor discovery announcement, in a release on July 4,1951. The first high-frequency transistor was the surface-barrier germanium transistor developed by Philco in 1953 and these were made by etching depressions into an N-type germanium base from both sides with jets of Indium sulfate until it was a few ten-thousandths of an inch thick
27.
Laser
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A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The term laser originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, the first laser was built in 1960 by Theodore H. Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories, based on theoretical work by Charles Hard Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow. A laser differs from other sources of light in that it emits light coherently, spatial coherence allows a laser to be focused to a tight spot, enabling applications such as laser cutting and lithography. Spatial coherence also allows a laser beam to stay narrow over great distances, Lasers can also have high temporal coherence, which allows them to emit light with a very narrow spectrum, i. e. they can emit a single color of light. Temporal coherence can be used to produce pulses of light as short as a femtosecond, Lasers are distinguished from other light sources by their coherence. Spatial coherence is typically expressed through the output being a narrow beam, Laser beams can be focused to very tiny spots, achieving a very high irradiance, or they can have very low divergence in order to concentrate their power at a great distance. Temporal coherence implies a polarized wave at a single frequency whose phase is correlated over a great distance along the beam. A beam produced by a thermal or other incoherent light source has an amplitude and phase that vary randomly with respect to time and position. Lasers are characterized according to their wavelength in a vacuum, most single wavelength lasers actually produce radiation in several modes having slightly differing frequencies, often not in a single polarization. Although temporal coherence implies monochromaticity, there are lasers that emit a broad spectrum of light or emit different wavelengths of light simultaneously, there are some lasers that are not single spatial mode and consequently have light beams that diverge more than is required by the diffraction limit. However, all devices are classified as lasers based on their method of producing light. Lasers are employed in applications where light of the spatial or temporal coherence could not be produced using simpler technologies. The word laser started as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, in the early technical literature, especially at Bell Telephone Laboratories, the laser was called an optical maser, this term is now obsolete. A laser that produces light by itself is technically an optical rather than an optical amplifier as suggested by the acronym. It has been noted that the acronym LOSER, for light oscillation by stimulated emission of radiation. With the widespread use of the acronym as a common noun, optical amplifiers have come to be referred to as laser amplifiers. The back-formed verb to lase is frequently used in the field, meaning to produce light, especially in reference to the gain medium of a laser. Further use of the laser and maser in an extended sense, not referring to laser technology or devices, can be seen in usages such as astrophysical maser
28.
Solar cell
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A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon. It is a form of cell, defined as a device whose electrical characteristics, such as current, voltage, or resistance. Solar cells are the blocks of photovoltaic modules, otherwise known as solar panels. Solar cells are described as being photovoltaic, irrespective of whether the source is sunlight or an artificial light and they are used as a photodetector, detecting light or other electromagnetic radiation near the visible range, or measuring light intensity. The operation of a cell requires three basic attributes, The absorption of light, generating either electron-hole pairs or excitons. The separation of carriers of opposite types. The separate extraction of those carriers to an external circuit, in contrast, a solar thermal collector supplies heat by absorbing sunlight, for the purpose of either direct heating or indirect electrical power generation from heat. A photoelectrolytic cell, on the hand, refers either to a type of photovoltaic cell. Assemblies of solar cells are used to make solar modules that generate power from sunlight. A solar array generates power using solar energy. Multiple solar cells in a group, all oriented in one plane. Photovoltaic modules often have a sheet of glass on the sun-facing side, Solar cells are usually connected in series and parallel circuits or series in modules, creating an additive voltage. Strings of series cells are usually handled independently and not connected in parallel, though as of 2014, individual power boxes are often supplied for each module, and are connected in parallel. Although modules can be interconnected to create an array with the desired peak DC voltage and loading current capacity, otherwise, shunt diodes can reduce shadowing power loss in arrays with series/parallel connected cells. The photovoltaic effect was demonstrated first by French physicist Edmond Becquerel. In 1839, at age 19, he built the worlds first photovoltaic cell in his fathers laboratory, willoughby Smith first described the Effect of Light on Selenium during the passage of an Electric Current in a 20 February 1873 issue of Nature. In 1883 Charles Fritts built the first solid state photovoltaic cell by coating the semiconductor selenium with a layer of gold to form the junctions. In 1888 Russian physicist Aleksandr Stoletov built the first cell based on the photoelectric effect discovered by Heinrich Hertz in 1887
29.
Unix
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Among these is Apples macOS, which is the Unix version with the largest installed base as of 2014. Many Unix-like operating systems have arisen over the years, of which Linux is the most popular, Unix was originally meant to be a convenient platform for programmers developing software to be run on it and on other systems, rather than for non-programmer users. The system grew larger as the system started spreading in academic circles, as users added their own tools to the system. Unix was designed to be portable, multi-tasking and multi-user in a time-sharing configuration and these concepts are collectively known as the Unix philosophy. By the early 1980s users began seeing Unix as a universal operating system. Under Unix, the system consists of many utilities along with the master control program. To mediate such access, the kernel has special rights, reflected in the division between user space and kernel space, the microkernel concept was introduced in an effort to reverse the trend towards larger kernels and return to a system in which most tasks were completed by smaller utilities. In an era when a standard computer consisted of a disk for storage and a data terminal for input and output. However, modern systems include networking and other new devices, as graphical user interfaces developed, the file model proved inadequate to the task of handling asynchronous events such as those generated by a mouse. In the 1980s, non-blocking I/O and the set of inter-process communication mechanisms were augmented with Unix domain sockets, shared memory, message queues, and semaphores. In microkernel implementations, functions such as network protocols could be moved out of the kernel, Multics introduced many innovations, but had many problems. Frustrated by the size and complexity of Multics but not by the aims and their last researchers to leave Multics, Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, M. D. McIlroy, and J. F. Ossanna, decided to redo the work on a much smaller scale. The name Unics, a pun on Multics, was suggested for the project in 1970. Peter H. Salus credits Peter Neumann with the pun, while Brian Kernighan claims the coining for himself, in 1972, Unix was rewritten in the C programming language. Bell Labs produced several versions of Unix that are referred to as Research Unix. In 1975, the first source license for UNIX was sold to faculty at the University of Illinois Department of Computer Science, UIUC graduate student Greg Chesson was instrumental in negotiating the terms of this license. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the influence of Unix in academic circles led to adoption of Unix by commercial startups, including Sequent, HP-UX, Solaris, AIX. In the late 1980s, AT&T Unix System Laboratories and Sun Microsystems developed System V Release 4, in the 1990s, Unix-like systems grew in popularity as Linux and BSD distributions were developed through collaboration by a worldwide network of programmers
30.
Operating system
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An operating system is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources and provides common services for computer programs. All computer programs, excluding firmware, require a system to function. Operating systems are found on many devices that contain a computer – from cellular phones, the dominant desktop operating system is Microsoft Windows with a market share of around 83. 3%. MacOS by Apple Inc. is in place, and the varieties of Linux is in third position. Linux distributions are dominant in the server and supercomputing sectors, other specialized classes of operating systems, such as embedded and real-time systems, exist for many applications. A single-tasking system can run one program at a time. Multi-tasking may be characterized in preemptive and co-operative types, in preemptive multitasking, the operating system slices the CPU time and dedicates a slot to each of the programs. Unix-like operating systems, e. g. Solaris, Linux, cooperative multitasking is achieved by relying on each process to provide time to the other processes in a defined manner. 16-bit versions of Microsoft Windows used cooperative multi-tasking, 32-bit versions of both Windows NT and Win9x, used preemptive multi-tasking. Single-user operating systems have no facilities to distinguish users, but may allow multiple programs to run in tandem, a distributed operating system manages a group of distinct computers and makes them appear to be a single computer. The development of networked computers that could be linked and communicate with each other gave rise to distributed computing, distributed computations are carried out on more than one machine. When computers in a work in cooperation, they form a distributed system. The technique is used both in virtualization and cloud computing management, and is common in large server warehouses, embedded operating systems are designed to be used in embedded computer systems. They are designed to operate on small machines like PDAs with less autonomy and they are able to operate with a limited number of resources. They are very compact and extremely efficient by design, Windows CE and Minix 3 are some examples of embedded operating systems. A real-time operating system is a system that guarantees to process events or data by a specific moment in time. A real-time operating system may be single- or multi-tasking, but when multitasking, early computers were built to perform a series of single tasks, like a calculator. Basic operating system features were developed in the 1950s, such as resident monitor functions that could run different programs in succession to speed up processing
31.
Cellular network
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A cellular network or mobile network is a communication network where the last link is wireless. The network is distributed over land areas called cells, each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver and this base station provides the cell with the network coverage which can be used for transmission of voice, data and others. A cell might use a different set of frequencies from neighboring cells, to avoid interference, when joined together these cells provide radio coverage over a wide geographic area. This allows mobile phones and mobile computing devices to be connected to the switched telephone network. Private cellular networks can be used for research or for large organizations and fleets, each of these cells is assigned with multiple frequencies which have corresponding radio base stations. The group of frequencies can be reused in other cells, provided that the frequencies are not reused in adjacent neighboring cells as that would cause co-channel interference. If there is a single transmitter, only one transmission can be used on any given frequency. Unfortunately, there is some level of interference from the signal from the other cells which use the same frequency. This means that, in a standard FDMA system, there must be at least a one cell gap between cells which reuse the same frequency, in the simple case of the taxi company, each radio had a manually operated channel selector knob to tune to different frequencies. As the drivers moved around, they would change from channel to channel, the drivers knew which frequency covered approximately what area. When they did not receive a signal from the transmitter, they would try other channels until they found one that worked, the taxi drivers would only speak one at a time, when invited by the base station operator. With TDMA, the transmitting and receiving time slots used by different users in each cell are different from each other, with FDMA, the transmitting and receiving frequencies used by different users in each cell are different from each other. In a simple system, the taxi driver manually tuned to a frequency of a chosen cell to obtain a strong signal. The principle of CDMA is more complex, but achieves the same result, time division multiple access is used in combination with either FDMA or CDMA in a number of systems to give multiple channels within the coverage area of a single cell. The key characteristic of a network is the ability to re-use frequencies to increase both coverage and capacity. The elements that determine frequency reuse are the distance and the reuse factor. The reuse distance, D is calculated as D = R3 N, cells may vary in radius from 1 to 30 kilometres. The boundaries of the cells can also overlap between adjacent cells and large cells can be divided into smaller cells, the frequency reuse factor is the rate at which the same frequency can be used in the network
32.
Nobel Prize
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The Nobel Prize is a set of annual international awards bestowed in a number of categories by Swedish and Norwegian institutions in recognition of academic, cultural, or scientific advances. The will of the Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel established the prizes in 1895, the prizes in Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physics, and Physiology or Medicine were first awarded in 1901. Medals made before 1980 were struck in 23 carat gold, between 1901 and 2016, the Nobel Prizes and the Prize in Economic Sciences were awarded 579 times to 911 people and organisations. With some receiving the Nobel Prize more than once, this makes a total of 23 organisations, the prize ceremonies take place annually in Stockholm, Sweden. Each recipient, or laureate, receives a medal, a diploma. The Nobel Prize is widely regarded as the most prestigious award available in the fields of literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, peace, and economics. The prize is not awarded posthumously, however, if a person is awarded a prize and dies before receiving it, though the average number of laureates per prize increased substantially during the 20th century, a prize may not be shared among more than three people. Alfred Nobel was born on 21 October 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden and he was a chemist, engineer, and inventor. In 1894, Nobel purchased the Bofors iron and steel mill and this invention was a precursor to many smokeless military explosives, especially the British smokeless powder cordite. As a consequence of his patent claims, Nobel was eventually involved in a patent infringement lawsuit over cordite, Nobel amassed a fortune during his lifetime, with most of his wealth from his 355 inventions, of which dynamite is the most famous. In 1888, Nobel was astonished to read his own obituary, titled The merchant of death is dead, as it was Alfreds brother Ludvig who had died, the obituary was eight years premature. The article disconcerted Nobel and made him apprehensive about how he would be remembered and this inspired him to change his will. On 10 December 1896, Alfred Nobel died in his villa in San Remo, Italy, Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime. He composed the last over a year before he died, signing it at the Swedish–Norwegian Club in Paris on 27 November 1895, Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets,31 million SEK, to establish the five Nobel Prizes. Because of skepticism surrounding the will, it was not until 26 April 1897 that it was approved by the Storting in Norway. The executors of Nobels will, Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist, formed the Nobel Foundation to take care of Nobels fortune, Nobels instructions named a Norwegian Nobel Committee to award the Peace Prize, the members of whom were appointed shortly after the will was approved in April 1897. Soon thereafter, the other prize-awarding organisations were designated or established and these were Karolinska Institutet on 7 June, the Swedish Academy on 9 June, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on 11 June. The Nobel Foundation reached an agreement on guidelines for how the prizes should be awarded, and, in 1900, in 1905, the personal union between Sweden and Norway was dissolved
33.
ITT Corporation
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ITT Corporation is an American worldwide manufacturing company based in White Plains, New York, producing specialty components for the aerospace, transportation, energy and industrial markets. The company was founded in 1920 as International Telephone & Telegraph, ITT divested its telecommunications assets in 1986, and in 1995 spun off its non-manufacturing divisions, later to be purchased by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. In 1996, the current company was founded as a spinoff of ITT as ITT Industries, Inc. in 2011, ITT spun off its defense businesses into a company named Exelis, and its water technology business into a company named Xylem Inc. International Telephone & Telegraph was formed in 1920, created by brokers Colonel Sosthenes Behn, the brothers had acquired the Puerto Rico Telephone Company in 1914 along with the Cuban-American Telephone and Telegraph Company and a half-interest in the Cuban Telephone Company. ITTs first major expansion was in 1923 when it consolidated the Spanish Telecoms market into what is now Telefónica, from 1922 to 1925 it purchased a number of European telephone companies. In 1925, ITT purchased several companies from Western Electric, as Bell has agreed to divest itself of its international operations, Compagnie Générale dElectricité later purchased BTM, Nortel later purchased STC. Its only serious rival was the Theodore Gary & Company conglomerate, in the United States, ITT acquired the various companies of the Mackay Companies in 1928 through a specially organized subsidiary corporation, Postal Telegraph & Cable. These companies included the Commercial Cable Company, the Commercial Pacific Cable Company, Postal Telegraph, on 3 August 1933 Hitler received in one of the first meetings with US businessmen Sosthenes Behn, then the CEO of ITT, and his German representative, Henry Mann. Sutton, in his book Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, lorenz AG, owned 25% of Focke-Wulf, the German aircraft manufacturer, builder of some of the most successful Luftwaffe fighter aircraft. In the 1960s, ITT Corporation won $27 million in compensation for damage inflicted on its share of the Focke-Wulf plant by Allied bombing during World War II. While ITT - Focke-Wulf planes were bombing Allied ships, and ITT lines were passing information German submarines, in 1943 ITT became the largest shareholder of Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH for the remainder of the war with 29%. This was due to Kaffee HAGs share falling to 27% after the death in May of Kaffee HAG chief, OMGUS documents reveal that the role of the HAG conglomerate could not be determined during WWII. In 1951, ITT purchased Philo Farnsworths television company to break into that market, at the time Farnsworth was also developing the Fusor fusion reactor, which was funded by ITT until 1967. ITT changed the name to ITT Kellogg. One prominent subsidiary of this was the American Cable and Radio Corporation and it bought Philadelphia based heating and air conditioning manufacturer John J. Nesbitt Inc. In 1968 the company purchased Levittown homebuilder Levitt and Sons for a reported $90 million and this equipment was also produced under license in Poznań, and in Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. ITT was the largest owner of the LM Ericsson company in Sweden, in 1959, Harold Geneen became CEO. Using leveraged buyouts, he turned the minor acquisitions of the 1950s into major growth during the 1960s, in 1963, ITT attempted to purchase the ABC television network for $700 million
34.
Breakup of the Bell System
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This effectively took the monopoly that was the Bell System and split it into entirely separate companies that would continue to provide telephone service. This divestiture was initiated by the filing in 1974 by the United States Department of Justice of an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T, AT&T was, at the time, the sole provider of telephone service throughout most of the United States. Furthermore, most telephonic equipment in the United States was produced by its subsidiary and this vertical integration led AT&T to have almost total control over communication technology in the country, which led to the antitrust case, United States v. AT&T. The plaintiff in the court complaint asked the court to order AT&T to divest ownership of Western Electric, feeling that it was about to lose the suit, AT&T proposed an alternative — the breakup of the biggest corporation in American history. It proposed that it retain control of Western Electric, Yellow Pages, the Bell trademark, Bell Labs and it also proposed that it be freed from a 1956 anti-trust consent decree that barred it from participating in the general sale of computers. In return, it proposed to give up ownership of the operating companies. This last concession, it argued, would achieve the Governments goal of creating competition in supplying telephone equipment and supplies to the operative companies. The settlement was finalized on January 8,1982, with changes ordered by the decree court, the regional holding companies got the Bell trademark, Yellow Pages. This divestiture reduced the value of AT&T by approximately 70%. The breakup of the Bell System resulted in creation of seven independent companies that were formed from the original twenty-two AT&T-controlled members of the System. At the time of the breakup, these companies were, NYNEX, acquired by Bell Atlantic in 1996, now part of Verizon Communications Pacific Telesis, acquired by SBC in 1997, now part of AT&T Inc. Both of these companies were monopolies in their areas, received Western Electric equipment and had agreements with AT&T whereby they were provided with long distance service. The breakup led to a surge of competition in the long distance telecommunications market by companies such as Sprint, one consequence of the breakup was that local residential service rates, which were formerly subsidized by long distance revenues, began to rise faster than the rate of inflation. Long-distance rates, meanwhile, fell due both to the end of this subsidy and increased competition, the FCC established a system of access charges where long distance networks paid the more expensive local networks both to originate and terminate a call. In this way, the subsidies of the Bell System became explicit post-divestiture. These access charges became a source of controversy as one company after another sought to arbitrage the network. In 2002 the FCC declared that Internet service providers would be treated as if they were local and this led to VoIP service providers arguing that they did not have to pay access charges, resulting in significant savings for VoIP calls. However, an FCC order issued in December 2011 declared that all VoIP services would have to pay the charges for nine years, another consequence of the divestiture was in how both national broadcast television and radio networks distributed their programming to their local affiliated stations
35.
The Hague
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The Hague is a city on the western coast of the Netherlands, and the capital city of the province of South Holland. With a population of 520,704 inhabitants and more than one million including the suburbs, it is the third-largest city of the Netherlands. The Rotterdam The Hague Metropolitan Area, with a population of approximately 2.7 million, is the 12th-largest in the European Union and the most populous in the country. Located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden conurbation and lies at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation. The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government, parliament, the Supreme Court, and the Council of State, but the city is not the capital of the Netherlands, which constitutionally is Amsterdam. King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands plans to live at Huis ten Bosch and works at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, the Hague is also home to the world headquarters of Royal Dutch Shell and numerous other major Dutch companies. The Hague originated around 1230, when Count Floris IV of Holland purchased land alongside a pond, in 1248, his son and successor William II, King of the Romans, decided to extend the residence to a palace, which would later be called the Binnenhof. He died in 1256 before this palace was completed but parts of it were finished by his son Floris V, of which the Ridderzaal and it is still used for political events, such as the annual speech from the throne by the Dutch monarch. From the 13th century onwards, the counts of Holland used The Hague as their administrative centre, the village that originated around the Binnenhof was first mentioned as Haga in a charter dating from 1242. In the 15th century, the smarter des Graven hage came into use, literally The Counts Wood, with connotations like The Counts Hedge, s-Gravenhage was officially used for the city from the 17th century onwards. Today, this name is used in some official documents like birth. The city itself uses Den Haag in all its communication and their seat was located in The Hague. At the beginning of the Eighty Years War, the absence of city walls proved disastrous, in 1575, the States of Holland even considered demolishing the city but this proposal was abandoned, after mediation by William of Orange. From 1588, The Hague also became the seat of the government of the Dutch Republic, in order for the administration to maintain control over city matters, The Hague never received official city status, although it did have many of the privileges normally granted only to cities. In modern administrative law, city rights have no place anymore, only in 1806, when the Kingdom of Holland was a puppet state of the First French Empire, was the settlement granted city rights by Louis Bonaparte. After the Napoleonic Wars, modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands were combined in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands to form a buffer against France, as a compromise, Brussels and Amsterdam alternated as capital every two years, with the government remaining in The Hague. After the separation of Belgium in 1830, Amsterdam remained the capital of the Netherlands, when the government started to play a more prominent role in Dutch society after 1850, The Hague quickly expanded. The growing city annexed the rural municipality of Loosduinen partly in 1903, the city sustained heavy damage during World War II
36.
Hilversum
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Hilversum is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Located in the region called Het Gooi, it is the largest town in that area and it is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller towns. Hilversum is part of the Randstad, one of the largest conurbations in Europe, Hilversum is 31 km south-east of Amsterdam and 19 km north of Utrecht. The town is often called media city since it is the centre for radio. Radio Netherlands, heard worldwide via shortwave radio since the 1920s, is based here. As a result, many old AM radio sets in Europe had a Hilversum dial position marked on their tuning scales, the Dutch voting in the Eurovision Song Contest usually takes place from Hilversum. Hilversum is also known for its architecturally important Town Hall, designed by Willem Marinus Dudok and built in 1931. Hilversum has one library, two swimming pools, a number of sporting halls and several shopping centers In the region, the city centre is called het dorp. Earthenware found in Hilversum gives its name to the Hilversum culture, artifacts from this prehistoric civilization bear similarities to the Wessex Culture of southern Britain and may indicate that the first Hilversum residents emigrated from that area. The first brick settlements formed around 900, but it was not until 1305 that the first official mention of Hilversum is found, at that point it was a part of Naarden, the oldest town in the Gooi area. Farming, raising sheep and some wool manufacturing were the means of life for the Gooi in the Middle Ages, in 1424, on 21 March at 6,30 am, Hilversum received its first official independent status. This made possible further growth in the village because permission from Naarden was no longer needed for new industrial development. The town grew further in the 17th century when the Dutch economy as a whole entered its age of prosperity, in 1725 and 1766 large fires destroyed most of the town, leveling parts of the old townhouse and the church next to it. The town overcame these setbacks and the industry continued to develop. In the 19th century a substantial textile and tapestry industry emerged, aided by a link to Amsterdam in 1874. Despite this growth, Hilversum was never granted city rights so it is referred to by many locals as het dorp. For the 1928 Summer Olympics in neighboring Amsterdam, it hosted all of the non-jumping equestrian, the city was the headquarters of the German ground forces in the Netherlands. By then the industry had started its decline, only one factory, Veneta, managed to continue into the 1960s
37.
Brussels
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Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the region of Flanders or Wallonia. The region has a population of 1.2 million and an area with a population of over 1.8 million. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, the secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are also located in Brussels. Today, it is considered an Alpha global city, historically a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today, the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages, Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages. The most common theory of the origin of Brussels name is that it derives from the Old Dutch Broekzele or Broeksel, meaning marsh, Saint Vindicianus, the bishop of Cambrai made the first recorded reference to the place Brosella in 695 when it was still a hamlet. The origin of the settlement that was to become Brussels lies in Saint Gaugericus construction of a chapel on an island in the river Senne around 580. The official founding of Brussels is usually situated around 979, when Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Saint Gaugericus chapel, Charles would construct the first permanent fortification in the city, doing so on that same island. Lambert I of Leuven, Count of Leuven gained the County of Brussels around 1000 by marrying Charles daughter, as it grew to a population of around 30,000, the surrounding marshes were drained to allow for further expansion. The Counts of Leuven became Dukes of Brabant at about this time, in the 13th century, the city got its first walls. After the construction of the city walls in the early 13th century, to let the city expand, a second set of walls was erected between 1356 and 1383. Today, traces of it can still be seen, mostly because the small ring, Brabant had lost its independence, but Brussels became the Princely Capital of the prosperous Low Countries, and flourished. In 1516 Charles V, who had been heir of the Low Countries since 1506, was declared King of Spain in St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Upon the death of his grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 and it was in the Palace complex at Coudenberg that Charles V abdicated in 1555. This impressive palace, famous all over Europe, had expanded since it had first become the seat of the Dukes of Brabant. In 1695, during the Nine Years War, King Louis XIV of France sent troops to bombard Brussels with artillery, together with the resulting fire, it was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels
38.
Malmesbury
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Malmesbury /ˈmɑːlmzbri/ or /ˈmɑːmzbri/ is a market town and civil parish in the southern Cotswolds in the county of Wiltshire, England. Once the site of an Iron Age fort, in the Anglo-Saxon period it became the site of a monastery famed for its learning, Æthelstan, the first king of England, was buried in Malmesbury Abbey when he died in 939. The hilltop contains several freshwater springs, which helped early settlements and it was the site of an Iron Age fort, and in the Anglo-Saxon period it had a monastery famed as a centre of learning. The town is listed in the Burghal Hidage as one of Alfred the Greats defended burhs assessed at 1200 hides, the town was described in the Domesday Book as a borough. Alfreds grandson, Æthelstan, the first king of England, was buried in Malmesbury Abbey in 939, the Abbey was founded in 675 by Maildubh, Mailduf or Maelduib, an Irishman. Having founded other churches in the area, including at Bradford on Avon and its architecture is listed in the highest category and it is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Across the River Avons Sherston branch via the footpath by 18 Gloucester Street is a depression Daniels Well and this derives from a monk called Daniel named after earlier Daniel of Winchester. This former bishop, on losing his sight, lived at the abbey briefly until death in 745AD and was educated there, the later monk is said to have submerged himself in the cold water every day for decades to quell fiery passions. The Abbey was the site of an attempt at human flight, when noted by historian William of Malmesbury in 1010. Eilmer flew over 180 metres before landing, breaking both legs, thus by the time of the Norman invasion in 1066, Malmesbury was one of the most significant towns in England. It is listed first in the Wiltshire section of the Domesday Book, King Henry Is chancellor, Roger of Salisbury, seized the monastery under his bishopric in 1118, and held it for 20 years. Renowned as a builder, he rebuilt the wooden town walls wholly in stone rather than wood. In 1220 this resulted in the construction of the Abbey guest house, the Abbeys spire collapsed in either the late 15th or early 16th century. Under his English Reformation, King Henry VIII, sold the substantial land, the extant part of the Abbey is now the parish church, with the remains containing a parvise which still holds some fine examples of books from the former Abbey library. Malmesbury natives can be nicknamed Jackdaws, originating from the colony of these that inhabit the Abbey walls. The location and defensive position of Malmesbury on the latterly important Oxford to Bristol route made it a military point. During the Civil War the town changed hands seven times, with the face of Malmesbury Abbey still today bearing pock-marks from cannon. In 1646 Parliament ordered that the walls be destroyed
39.
5ESS Switching System
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The 5ESS Switching System is a Class 5 telephone electronic switching system developed by Western Electric for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and the Bell System in the United States. The 5ESS came to market as the Western Electric No.5 ESS and it first commenced service in Seneca, Illinois on 25 March 1982, and was destined to replace the Number One Electronic Switching System and other electromechanical systems in the 1980s and 1990s. The 5ESS was also used as a Class 4 telephone switch or as a hybrid Class 4/Class 5 switch in markets too small for the 4ESS, approximately half of all US central offices are served by 5ESS switches. The 5ESS is also exported internationally, and manufactured outside the US under license, the development effort for 5ESS required five thousand employees, producing 100 million lines of system source code, with 100 million lines of header files and makefiles. Evolution of the system took place over 20 years, while three releases were often being developed simultaneously, each taking three years to develop. The 5ESS-2000 version, introduced in the 1990s, increased the capacity of the module, with more peripheral modules. A follow-on version, the 5ESS-R/E, was in development during the late 1990s, the 5ESS technology was transferred to the AT&T Network Systems division upon the breakup of the Bell System. The division was divested by AT&T as Lucent Technologies, and after becoming Alcatel-Lucent, the SM performs multiplexing, analog and digital coding, and other work to interface with external equipment. Each has a controller, a computer with duplicated CPUs and memories, like most common equipment of the exchange. Distributed systems lessen the load on the Central Administrative Module or main computer, power for all circuitry is distributed as –48 VDC, and converted locally to logic levels or telephone signals. Each Switching Module handles several hundred to a few telephone lines or several hundred trunks or combination thereof. Each has its own processors, also called Module Controllers, which perform most call handling processes, originally the peripheral processors were to be Intel 8086, but those proved inadequate and the system was introduced with Motorola 68000 series processors. The name of the cabinet that houses this equipment was changed at the time from Interface Module to Switching Module. Peripheral units are on shelves in the SM, in most exchanges the majority are Line Units and Digital Line Trunk Units. Each SM has Local Digital Service Units to provide services to lines and trunks in the SM. Global Digital Service Units provide less-frequently used services to the entire exchange, t-carrier spans are terminated, originally one per card but in later models usually two, in Digital Line Trunk Units which concentrate their DS0 channels into the TSI. These may serve either interoffice trunks or, using Integrated Subscriber Loop Carrier, subscriber lines, higher-capacity DS3 signals can also have their DS0 signals switched in Digital Network Unit SONET units, without demultiplexing them into DS1. Newer SMs have DNUS and Optical OIU interfaces with an amount of capacity
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Initial public offering
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Through this process, a privately held company transforms into a public company. Initial public offerings are used by companies to raise the expansion of capital, possibly to monetize the investments of early private investors. A company selling shares is never required to repay the capital to its public investors, after the IPO, when shares trade freely in the open market, money passes between public investors. The IPO process is known as going public. Details of the offering are disclosed to potential purchasers in the form of a lengthy document known as a prospectus. Most companies undertake an IPO with the assistance of an investment banking firm acting in the capacity of an underwriter, underwriters provide several services, including help with correctly assessing the value of shares and establishing a public market for shares. Alternative methods such as the dutch auction have also been explored, in terms of size and public participation, the two most notable examples of this method is the Google IPO and Snapchats parent company Snap Inc. China has recently emerged as a major IPO market, with several of the largest IPOs taking place in that country, the earliest form of a company which issued public shares was the case of the publicani during the Roman Republic. Like modern joint-stock companies, the publicani were legal bodies independent of their members whose ownership was divided into shares, there is evidence that these shares were sold to public investors and traded in a type of over-the-counter market in the Forum, near the Temple of Castor and Pollux. The shares fluctuated in value, encouraging the activity of speculators, mere evidence remains of the prices for which partes were sold, the nature of initial public offerings, or a description of stock market behavior. Publicanis lost favor with the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire, the first modern IPO occurred in March 1602 when the Dutch East India Company offered shares of the company to the public in order to raise capital. All the shares were tradable, and the shareholders received receipts for the purchase, a share certificate documenting payment and ownership such as we know today was not issued but ownership was instead entered in the companys share register. In the United States, the first IPO was the offering of Bank of North America around 1783. An IPO, therefore, allows a company to tap into a pool of potential investors to provide itself with capital for future growth, repayment of debt. A company selling shares is never required to repay the capital to its public investors. Those investors must endure the unpredictable nature of the market to price. After the IPO, when shares trade freely in the open market, for early private investors who choose to sell shares as part of the IPO process, the IPO represents an opportunity to monetize their investment. This type of offering is not dilutive, since no new shares are being created, once a company is listed, it is able to issue additional common shares in a number of different ways, one of which is the follow-on offering
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TCL Corporation
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TCL Corporation is a Chinese multinational electronics company headquartered in Huizhou, Guangdong Province. It designs, develops, manufactures and sells products including television sets, mobile phones, air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators, in 2010 it was the worlds 25th-largest consumer electronics producer. In 2013, it was third-largest television producer by market share, TCL comprises four listed companies, TCL Corporation which is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and TCL Multimedia Technology Holdings, Ltd. TCL Display Technology and Tonly Electronics which are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, tCLs current corporate slogan is The Creative Life. The company was founded in 1981 under the brand name TTK as a cassette maker making knock-off TDK cassettes, in 1985, after being sued by TDK for IP violation, the company changed its name to TCL by taking the initial letters from Telephone Communication Limited. It began manufacturing consumer electronics for the Chinese market during the 1980s, though a state-owned enterprise, TCL was established as a joint venture with several Hong Kong-based investors. At the beginning, TCL was referred as an acronym for True China Lion, in July 2003, TCL chairman Li Dongsheng formally announced a Dragon and Tiger Plan to establish two competitive TCL businesses in global markets and three leading businesses inside China. In November 2003, TCL and Thomson SA of France announced the creation of a joint venture to produce televisions, in April 2004, TCL and Alcatel announced the creation of a mobile phone manufacturing joint venture, Alcatel Mobile Phones. TCL injected 55 million euros in the venture in return for a 55 per cent shareholding, in June 2007, TCL announced that its mobile phone division planned to cease using the Alcatel brand and switch entirely to the TCL brand within five years. In April 2008, Samsung Electronics announced that it would be outsourcing the production of some LCD TV modules to TCL, in July 2008, TCL announced that it planned to raise 1. TCL sold a total of 4.18 million LCD TV sets in 2008, in January 2009, TCL announced plans to double its LCD TV production capacity to 10 million units by the end of 2009. In January 2013, TCL bought the rights for Graumans Chinese Theatre for $5 million. In 2014, TCL changed the meaning of its initials from Telephone Communication Limited to a branding slogan, The Creative Life. In October 2014, TCL acquired the Palm brand from HP for use on smartphones, in 2016, TCL reached an agreement with BlackBerry Limited to produce smartphones under the BlackBerry brand. It has 18 R&D centers,20 major manufacturing facilities and over 40 sales offices worldwide, tCLs primary products are TVs, DVD players, air conditioners, GSM and CDMA mobile phones, personal computers, home appliances, electric lighting, and digital media. It primarily sells its products under the TCL brand name in Africa, Asia, Australasia, North America, South America and it also manufactures some products sold under the RCA brand name in the United States. The company, as of April 2012, is in venture with Swedish furniture giant IKEA to provide the consumer electronics behind the Uppleva integrated HDTV, official Website Economic Observer Businessweek article about the Company Company Stock Listing Skyworth
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Alcatel Mobile
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Alcatel is a brand of mobile handsets used under license by Chinese electronics company TCL Corporation. The Alcatel brand was licensed by Alcatel-Lucent to TCL for mobile phones and devices, when Nokia acquired the assets of Alcatel-Lucent in 2016, this also included licensing agreements for the Alcatel brand. Alcatel was established in 2004 as a joint venture between Alcatel-Lucent and TCL, in 2005 the joint venture was dissolved and TCL acquired Alcatel-Lucents 45 percent share. Since then, Alcatel became a wholly owned group of TCL. Alcatel-Lucent later sold its shares in TCL and is no longer related to the Alcatel mobile phone brand, TCL Mobile Limited is a member of TCL Communication listed on Hong Kong Stock Exchange which was established in August 2004 by TCL Communication and Alcatel. TCL Mobile Limited manages three business units, Alcatel, TCL Mobile Phones and Brand Design Lab, in 2012, Alcatel won an International Forum Design iF design award for its One Touch 818 and the Onetouch 355 Play models. The first Alcatel phone was the OT Easy HF and it was released in 1998, and had a battery standby life of up to 140 hours
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Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
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