1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Theodore Hook
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Theodore Edward Hook was an English man of letters and composer and briefly a civil servant in Mauritius. He is best known for his jokes, particularly the Berners Street hoax in 1810. The worlds first postcard was received by Hook in 1840, which he posted to himself. Hook was born in Charlotte Street, Bedford Square, London and his father, James Hook, was a composer of popular songs, his elder brother, also called James Hook, became Dean of Worcester. He spent a year at Harrow School and subsequently matriculated at the University of Oxford and his father took delight in exhibiting the boys musical and metrical gifts, and the precocious Theodore became a pet of the green room. He took up residence at St Mary Hall, Oxford University, a sum of about £12,000 had been abstracted by a deputy official, and Hook was held responsible. During the scrutiny of the board, he lived obscurely and maintained himself by writing for magazines. In 1820, he launched the newspaper John Bull, the champion of high Toryism, witty criticism and pitiless invective secured it a large circulation, and Hook derived, for the first year at least, an income of £2,000. He was, however, arrested for the time on account of his debt to the state. While he was confined in a sponging-house from 1823 to 1825, in the early 1820s, he helped the singer Michael Kelly compile his Reminiscences, which include details of working with Mozart. In the remaining 23 years of his life, he poured forth 38 volumes besides articles, squibs and his novels have frequent passages of racy narrative and vivid portraiture. They include Maxwell, a portrait of his friend the Reverend E. Cannon, Love and Pride and he did not finish a biographical work on Charles Mathews. His last novel was Births, Marriages and Deaths, the worlds oldest postcard was sent to Hook in 1840. Bearing a penny stamp, Hook probably created and posted the card to himself as a practical joke on the postal service since the image is a caricature of workers in the post office. In 2002, the postcard sold for a record £31,750 and he died at home in Fulham on 24 August 1841. His estate was seized by the Treasury and he never married but lived with Mary Anne Doughty, they had six children. Hook is remembered as one of the most brilliant figures of Georgian times and he inspired the characters of Lucian Gay in Benjamin Disraelis novel Coningsby and Mr Wagg in Thackerays Vanity Fair. Coleridge praised him as being as true a genius as Dante, richard Harris Barham, Life and Remains of Hook
3.
Westminster
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Westminster is an area of central London within the City of Westminster, part of the West End, on the north bank of the River Thames. Historically the area lay within St Margarets parish, City & Liberty of Westminster and it has been the home of the permanent institutions of Englands government continuously since about 1200 and is now the seat of British government. In a government context, Westminster often refers to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the closest tube stations are Westminster, St Jamess Park on the Jubilee, Circle, and District lines. Within the area is Westminster School, a public school which grew out of the Abbey. Bounding Westminster to the north is Green Park, a Royal Park of London, the area has a substantial resident population, indeed most of its listed buildings are residential. A proportion of residents are people of limited means, living in council, hotels, large Victorian homes and barracks exist nearer to Buckingham Palace. The name describes an area no more than 1 mile from Westminster Abbey, the settlement grew up around the palace and abbey, as a service area for them. The need for a church, St Margarets Westminster for the servants of the palace. It became larger and in the Georgian period became connected through urban development with the City along the Strand. It did not become a local government unit until created as a civil parish. Indeed, the Cathedral and diocesan status of the church lasted only from 1539 to 1556, as such it is first known to have had two Members of Parliament in 1545 as a new Parliamentary Borough, centuries after the City of London and Southwark were enfranchised. The historic core of Westminster is the former Thorney Island on which Westminster Abbey was built, the abbey became the traditional venue of the coronation of the kings and queens of England from that of Harold Godwinson onwards. From about 1200, near the abbey, the Palace of Westminster became the royal residence, marked by the transfer of royal treasury. Later the palace housed the developing Parliament and Englands law courts, thus London developed two focal points, the City of London and Westminster. The monarchs later moved to St James Palace and the Palace of Whitehall a little towards the north-east, the main law courts have since moved to the Royal Courts of Justice. The Westminster area formed part of the City and Liberty of Westminster in Middlesex, the ancient parish was St Margaret, after 1727 this became the civil parish of St Margaret and St John, the latter a new church required for the increasing population. The area around Westminster Abbey formed the extra-parochial Close of the Collegiate Church of St Peter surrounded by —, until 1900 the local authority was the combined vestry of St Margaret and St John, which was based at Westminster City Hall in Caxton Street from 1883. The Liberty of Westminster, governed by the Westminster Court of Burgesses, also included St Martin in the Fields, Westminster had its own quarter sessions, but the Middlesex sessions also had jurisdiction
4.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
5.
Samuel Beazley
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Samuel Beazley was an English architect, novelist and playwright. He became the theatre architect of his time and the first notable English expert in that field. After fighting in the Peninsular War, Beazley returned to London and he combined this with writing more than a hundred theatre works, generally in a comic style. Beazleys other activities included translating opera libretti into English, and writing novels and he was also a participant in the Berners Street hoax. Beazley was born in Westminster, the son of Samuel Beazley, both facets of Beazleys future career were displayed when he was still a boy, at school at Acton, aged 12, he wrote a farce and constructed the stage on which he and his schoolfriends performed it. At this age he showed signs of considerable taste for Art. He was trained as an architect by his uncle Charles Beazley, as a youth, Beazley volunteered for service in the Peninsular War, in Spain, and experienced many adventures, which he was fond of relating in later life to his friends. Among these, according to his account, was being found unconscious and taken for dead, another was his part in the daring escape to Spain of the Duchesse dAngoulême, daughter of Louis XVI, fleeing from Napoleons forces in 1815. His account of the escape was published by his daughter after his death, in 1810, Beazley made a bet with his friend, Theodore Hook, over whether Hook could transform any house in London into the most talked-about address in a week. This became known as the Berners Street Hoax, in which Hook sent out thousands of letters in the name of the resident at 54 Berners Street, requesting deliveries, visitors and assistance. After returning to London, Beazley practised as an architect and, at the same time, wrote plays. He had already had a professionally produced at the Theatre Royal English Opera, Lyceum in 1811, The Boarding House, or, Five Hours at Brighton. In 1816 he designed a new theatre for the site, in one of the first productions was his operetta Is he Jealous. A reviewer wrote, It is a translation from the French by Mr. Beazley, and we have seen nothing for a long time that has pleased us so much. For the same theatre, Beazley wrote the short operetta Fire and Water in 1817, Beazley continued to write for the stage, producing more than a hundred comedies, farces, comic operas, and operettas. In 1829 he wrote The Elephant of Siam and the Fire Fiend, presenting a female elephant called Madame DJeck. The historian John Earl notes that the elephant, rather than the author, among Beazleys other works were Gretna Green, The Steward, Old Customs, The Lottery Ticket, My Uncle, Bachelors Wives, Hints to Husbands and The Bulls Head. Beazley also translated opera librettos, including Robert le diable, Caterina Cornaro, the last is said to have been adapted by Beazley to fit the English pronunciation of the opera star Maria Malibran during a series of morning interviews with her at her bedside
6.
Chimney sweep
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A chimney sweep is a worker who clears ash and soot from chimneys. The chimney uses the difference caused by a hot column of gas to create a draught. Chimneys may be straight or contain many changes of direction, during normal operation, a layer of creosote builds up on the inside of the chimney, restricting the flow. The creosote can also fire, setting the chimney and the building alight. The chimney must be swept to remove the soot and this was done by the master sweep. In the United Kingdom, the master sweeps took apprentices, who were boys from the workhouse or bought from their parents, they were usually parish, or orphan boys, in the German States, master sweeps belonged to trade guilds and did not use climbing boys. In Italy, Belgium, and France climbing boys were used, with the increased urban population that came with the Age of Industrialisation, the number of houses with chimneys grew apace and the occupation of chimney sweep became much sought-after. Buckingham Palace had one flue with 15 angles, with the flue narrowing to 9in by 9in, Chimney sweeping was also one of the more commonly difficult, hazardous, and low-paying occupations of the era, and consequently has been derided in verse, ballad and pantomime. The first mechanical sweeping machine was invented by George Smart in 1803 but was resisted in the UK, john Glass marketed an improved sweeping machine in 1828, he is credited with being the inventor of the modern chimney sweeps brush. In the US Northern States, whites gave up the trade, after regulation finally took hold in 1875 in the UK and the turn of the century in the US, the occupation became romanticized in popular media and literature. Boys as young as four climbed hot flues that could be as narrow as 81 square inches, work was dangerous and they could get jammed in the flue, suffocate or burn to death. As soot is carcinogenic, and as the boys slept under the sacks and were rarely washed. From 1775 onwards there was increasing concern for the welfare of the boys, and Acts of Parliament were passed to restrict, Lord Shaftesbury, the philanthropist, led the later campaign. Chimneys started to appear in Britain around 1200, when they replaced the fire burning in the middle of the one room house. At first there would be one heated room in the building, over the next four hundred years, rooms became specialized and smaller and many were heated. Sea coal started to replace wood, and it deposited a layer of creosote in the inside surface of the flue. The master sweep was unable to climb into such small spaces himself, the boys often buffed it, that is, climbed in the nude, propelling themselves by their knees and elbows which were scraped raw. They were often put up hot chimneys, and sometimes up chimneys that were alight in order to extinguish the fire, Chimneys with sharp angles posed a particular hazard
7.
Fishmonger
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A fishmonger is someone who sells raw fish and seafood. Fishmongers can be wholesalers or retailers, and are trained at selecting and purchasing, handling, gutting, boning, filleting, displaying, merchandising and selling their product, in some countries modern supermarkets are replacing fishmongers who operate in shops or fish markets. The fishmongers guild, one of the earliest guilds, was established in the City of London by a Royal Charter granted by Edward I shortly after he became king in 1272. Partnership with foreigners was forbidden and the sale of fish was tightly controlled to ensure freshness and restrain profit, nevertheless, the guild grew rich and, after Edwards victory over the Scots, was able to make a great show, including one thousand mounted knights. During the reign of Edward II, the power of the fishmongers waned. This was soon rescinded and their wealth increased further so that, during the reign of Edward III, the guild could provide £40 to the war against the French, the guild was then reformed by Great Charter as the Mystery of the Fishmongers of London. They were given a monopoly over the crying and selling of fish, the guild still continues today as one of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies. Molly Malone is a character from a popular Irish song about a young fishwife who tragically dies at a young age, charles Fort in his book Lo. Compiles the story of the Mad Fishmonger or St. Fishmonger, St. Fishmonger allegedly caused crabs and periwinkles to fall from the sky. In the English translation of the Asterix series, the village fishmonger is called Unhygienix, in the film The Beach, the Islands chef has only fish as a source of meat, and is named Unhygienix in reference to the Asterix character. In Shakespeares Hamlet, some contend that the word fishmonger was a euphemism for a fleshmonger, or pimp
8.
Shoemaking
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Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, shoemakers, also known as cordwainers or snobs, may produce a range of footwear items, including shoes, boots, sandals, clogs and moccasins. Such items are made of leather, wood, rubber, plastic, jute or other plant material. Trades that engage in shoemaking have included the cordwainers and cobblers trades, today shoes are often made on a factory basis rather than a craft basis. For most of history, shoemaking has been a handicraft, limited to time consuming manufacture by hand, traditional shoemakers used more than 15 different techniques of making shoes. Some of these were, pegged construction, English welted, goyser welted, Norwegian, stitchdown, turnout, German sewn, moccasin, bolognese stitched, and blake-stitched. The most basic foot protection, used since ancient times in the Mediterranean area, was the sandal, similar footwear worn in the Far East was made from plaited grass or palm fronds. In climates that required a full foot covering, a piece of untanned hide was laced with a thong, providing full protection for the foot. The production of shoes, was widespread in medieval Europe. They were made from a piece of wood roughly cut into shoe form. A variant of this form was the clog, which were wooden soles to which a leather upper was attached, the sole and heel were made from one piece of maple or ash two inches thick, and a little longer and broader than the desired size of shoe. With the use of a hollower, the inner soles contours were adapted to the shape of the foot, the leather uppers were then fitted closely to the groove around the sole. Clogs were of great advantage to workers in muddy and damp conditions, keeping the feet dry, by the 1600s, leather shoes came in two main types. Turn shoes consisted of one thin flexible sole, which was sewed to the upper while outside in and this type was used for making slippers and similar shoes. The second type united the upper with an insole, which was attached to an out-sole with a raised heel. This was the variety, and was used for most footwear, including standard shoes. The traditional shoemaker would measure the feet and cut out upper leathers according to the required size and these parts were fitted and stitched together. The insole was then attached to a last made of wood, some lasts were straight, while curved lasts came in pairs, one for left shoes, the other for right shoes
