The Cross of Gold speech was delivered by William Jennings Bryan, a former United States Representative from Nebraska, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on July 9, 1896. In the address, Bryan supported bimetallism or "free silver", which he believed would bring the nation prosperity, he decried the gold standard, concluding the speech, "you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold". Bryan's address helped catapult him to the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. For twenty years, Americans had been bitterly divided over the nation's monetary standard; the gold standard, which the United States had been on since 1873, limited the money supply but eased trade with other nations, such as the United Kingdom, whose currency was based on gold. Many Americans, believed that bimetallism was necessary for the nation's economic health; the financial Panic of 1893 intensified the debates, when Democratic President Grover Cleveland continued to support the gold standard against the will of much of his party, activists became determined to take over the Democratic Party organization and nominate a silver-supporting candidate in 1896.

Bryan had been a dark horse candidate with little support in the convention. His speech, delivered at the close of the debate on the party platform, electrified the convention and is credited with getting him the nomination for president. However, he lost the general election to William McKinley, the United States formally adopted the gold standard in 1900. In January 1791, at the request of Congress, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton issued a report on the currency. At the time, there was no mint in the United States. Hamilton proposed a monetary system based on bimetallism, in which the new currency would be equal to a given amount of gold, or a larger amount of silver. Although Hamilton understood that adjustment might be needed from time to time as precious metal prices fluctuated, he believed that if the nation's unit of value were defined only by one of the two precious metals used for coins, the other would descend to the status of mere merchandise, unusable as a store of value.

He proposed the establishment of a mint, at which citizens could present gold or silver, receive it back, struck into money. On April 2, 1792, Congress passed the Mint Act of 1792; this legislation defined a unit of value for the new nation. The new unit of currency was defined to be equal to 24.75 grains of gold, or alternatively, 371.25 grains of silver, establishing a ratio of value between gold and silver of 15:1. The legislation established the Mint of the United States. In the early 19th century, the economic disruption caused by the Napoleonic Wars caused United States gold coins to be worth more as bullion than as money, they vanished from circulation. Governmental response to this shortage was hampered by the fact that officials did not understand what had happened. In 1830, Treasury Secretary Samuel D. Ingham proposed adjusting the ratio between gold and silver in US currency to 15.8:1, which had for some time been the ratio in Europe. It was not until 1834 that Congress acted, changing the gold/silver ratio to 16.002:1.

This was close enough to the market value to make it uneconomic to export either US gold or silver coins. When silver prices rose relative to gold as a reaction to the California Gold Rush, silver coinage was worth more than face value, flowed overseas for melting. Despite vocal opposition led by Tennessee Representative Andrew Johnson, the precious metal content of smaller silver coins was reduced in 1853. Silver was now undervalued at the Mint; the Coinage Act of 1873 eliminated the standard silver dollar. It repealed the statutory provisions allowing silver bullion to be presented to the Mint and returned in the form of circulating money. In passing the Coinage Act, Congress eliminated bimetallism. During the economic chaos of the Panic of 1873, the price of silver dropped but the Mint would accept none for striking into legal tender. Silver producers complained, many Americans came to believe that only through bimetallism could the nation achieve and maintain prosperity, they called for the return to pre-1873 laws, which would require the Mint to take all the silver offered it and return it, struck into silver dollars.

This would inflate the money supply, adherents argued, increase the nation's prosperity. Critics contended that the inflation which would follow the introduction of such a policy would harm workers, whose wages would not rise as fast as prices would, the operation of Gresham's law would drive gold from circulation placing the United States on a silver standard. To advocates of what became known as free silver, the 1873 act became known as the "Crime of'73". Pro-silver forces, with congressional leaders such as Missouri Representative Richard P. Bland, sought the passage of bills to allow depositors of silver bullion to receive it back in the form of coin; such bills, sponsored by Bland, passed the House of Representatives in 1876 and 1877, but both times failed in the Senate. A third attempt in early 1878 again passed the House, both houses after being amended in the Senate; the bill, as modified by amendments sponsored by Iowa Senator William B. Allison, did not reverse the 1873 provisions, but required the Treasury to purchase a minimum of $2 million of silver bullion per month.

Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. known as RAFAEL or Rafael, is an Israeli defense technology company. It was founded as Israel's National R&D Defense Laboratory for the development of weapons and military technology within the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Rafael develops and produces weapons and defense technologies for the Israel Defense Forces and for export abroad. All current projects are classified. Rafael was established in 1948 as the Science Corps under the leadership of Shlomo Gur, it was renamed the Research and Design Directorate in 1952. In 1952 David Ben-Gurion decided to split into two agencies the activities of HEMED; the pure scientific research was left with HEMED, while the development of weapons was placed in the new EMET agency. In 1954 Ben-Gurion decided to change the name of EMET to RAFAEL, it was reorganized as Rafael in 1958. In 1995, Yitzhak Rabin asked Amos Horev to become chairman of the board of Rafael, following many years in which Horev had served as chairman of Rafael's advisory committee.

Horev served as chairman until January 2001. During the early 1990s Rafael was operating at a loss. Therefore, it was decided to start operating Rafael as a company; the new company had three discrete divisions, each operating as a profit centre, with a separate balance sheet presented to the newly formed management board. The restructuring was completed in 2002 when Rafael was formally incorporated as a limited company, while maintaining its technological capabilities through an investment of about 10% of turnover in R&D programs. In its first year as a limited company, Rafael earned a $37 million profit on $830 million in sales. By 2016, Rafael reported annual net profits of 473 million ILS, up 3%, compared with ILS 459 million in 2015. New orders in 2016 totaled ILS 10.7 billion, sales amounted to ILS 8.32 billion, 6% more than in 2015. The company's orders backlog as of the end of 2016 was ILS 21.72 billion, 12% more than at the end of 2015. On October 14, 2007 the company changed its name from Rafael Armament Development Authority Ltd. to Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.

Shafrir – one of the most successful air-to-air missiles made. Spike – a fourth generation fire-and-forget anti-tank guided missile. Popeye – an air-to-ground missile system. Popeye Turbo SLCM is believed to be a nuclear-tipped submarine-launched cruise missile. Iron Dome – the world's first operational air defense system to intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells. Trophy – the world's second operational active protection system destroyed an anti-tank missile launched from the Gaza Strip toward a Merkava Mark IV tank near Nir Oz. Protector USV – The world's first operational unmanned surface vehicle. David's Sling – Surface-to-air missile system. In 1993, Rafael Development Corporation, a technology transfer company, was established as a joint venture with Elron Electronic Industries; the company has established and developed several companies including: Given Imaging – a pioneer in the sphere of capsule endoscopy Oramir Semiconductor Equipment – developer of laser cleaning technologies for the semiconductor industry, sold to Applied Materials in 2001 for $21 million.

Starling Advanced Communications – provider of broadband wireless networking solutions for airliners. Galil Medical – a developer of cryotherapy solutions. SELA Semiconductor Engineering Laboratories – a provider of automated sample preparation tools for semiconductor manufacturers, sold to Camtek Intelligent Imaging. 3DV Systems – developers of the ZCam, a time-of-flight camera products for video applications, sold to Microsoft. Medingo – developer of a micro pump insulin delivery system consists of two parts: a semi-disposable insulin dispensing patch and a remote control, which allows for discreet personalised insulin delivery; the company was sold to Hoffmann-La Roche's subsidiary Roche Diagnostics for $160 million as well as up to $40 million in milestone payments. Air Defense systems Iron Dome C-Dome MIC4AD SPYDER David's Sling Drone Dome Air to Air missiles Python-5 I-Derby I-Derby ER Air to Surface missile Spice Family SPARROW Family Rocks Family, unveiled in February 2019. Precision Guided missiles SPIKE ER SPIKE LR SPIKE NLOS Missile upgrade kits Electro-optical Precision Integration Kit Active Protection System Trophy active protection system "Windbreaker" Remote-controlled weapon station Rafael OWS Samson RCWS Typhoon Weapon Station for naval applications and military ships The bomb in the basement, Michael Karpin, Ed Simon & Schuster.

ISBN 978-0-7432-6595-9 Rafael official website Rafael Development Corporation Rafael at EurpStory 2004 Rafael at the LIC-2005 conference

William Saurin Lyster was an impresario, active in Australia. Lyster was born in Dublin, the third son of Chaworth Lyster, a captain in the army, his wife Anne, née Keightly, his uncle was William Attorney-General for Ireland. The Saurin family was of French Hugenot extraction. Another of his uncles was James Bishop of Dromore. At the age of 13, after an illness, was sent on a voyage round the world and visited Sydney and Melbourne in 1842. After his return to England he went to India, intending to become a planter, the climate not suiting him, he again returned to England. In 1847 he was in South Africa and fought in the 7th Cape Frontier War, a year was in the United States where he tried his fortunes as an actor with little success. In 1855 Lyster was a member of General Walker's expedition to Nicaragua with the rank of captain. About two years he formed an opera company which included Madame Lucy Escott, Henry Squires, Miss Georgia Hodson whom he married; this company had some success in the western states of America, in 1861 Lyster brought it to Australia.

For about seven years it gave performances of the operas of Italian, German and English composers, including Don Giovanni in 1861, the Les Huguenots in 1862. Other companies were brought out in years, at times comic opera was alternated with grand opera, his opera company gave 1,459 performances between 1861 and 1869. Classic operas like Lohengrin, opened 18 August 1877, Tannhäuser in 1878, were box office failures, although the company had included a distinguished singer, Antoinetta Link. Lyster, made the lighter operas bear the cost of others which were artistic successes only. Among other singers brought out by Lyster were Signor Pietro Paladini and Madame Fanny Simonsen, grandmother of Frances Alda; the Australian tenor, Armes Beaumont joined his company in 1870. Among concert artists introduced to Australia were pianists Arabella Goddard and Henry Ketten, Jules Levy, a well-known English cornet player of the period. Lyster's companies toured the principal cities of Australia and New Zealand, but for the last seven years of his life he made the Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne his headquarters.

Though most renowned for his productions of operas, he was interested in the drama, seasons were played at the opera house by the distinguished actress Madame Ristori, by good comedy companies. Lyster fell into bad health about 1877 and never recovered, he died in Melbourne on 27 November 1880 and was survived by his wife, there were no children. Lyster was buried in the Anglican section of the Melbourne General Cemetery. Serle, Percival. "Lyster, William". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. Retrieved 29 August 2016. O'Neill, Sally. "Lyster, William Saurin". Australian Dictionary of Biography. 5. Canberra: Australian National University. Retrieved 23 August 2016. "William Saurin Lyster 1828–1880", extensive biography, Live Performance Australia – Hall of Fame