1.
Plaster
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Plaster is a building material used for the protective and/or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English plaster usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, another imprecise term used for the material is stucco, which is also often used for plasterwork that is worked in some way to produce relief decoration, rather than flat surfaces. The most common types of plaster mainly contain either gypsum, lime, or cement, the plaster is manufactured as a dry powder and is mixed with water to form a stiff but workable paste immediately before it is applied to the surface. The reaction with water liberates heat through crystallization and the hydrated plaster then hardens, plaster can be relatively easily worked with metal tools or even sandpaper, and can be moulded, either on site or to make pre-formed sections in advance, which are put in place with adhesive. Plaster is not a material, it is suitable for finishing, rather than load-bearing. Forms of plaster have several other uses, in medicine plaster orthopedic casts are still often used for supporting set broken bones. In dentistry plaster is used to make dental models, various types of models and moulds are made with plaster. In art, lime plaster is the matrix for fresco painting. Gypsum plaster, or plaster of Paris, is produced by heating gypsum to about 300 °F, when the dry plaster powder is mixed with water, it re-forms into gypsum. The setting of unmodified plaster starts about 10 minutes after mixing and is complete in about 45 minutes, if plaster or gypsum is heated above 266 °F, hemihydrate is formed, which will also re-form as gypsum if mixed with water. On heating to 180 °C, the nearly water-free form, called γ-anhydrite is produced, γ-Anhydrite reacts slowly with water to return to the dihydrate state, a property exploited in some commercial desiccants. On heating above 250 °C, the anhydrous form called β-anhydrite or dead burned plaster is formed. A large gypsum deposit at Montmartre in Paris led calcined gypsum to be known as plaster of Paris. Plasterers often use gypsum to simulate the appearance of surfaces of wood, stone, or metal, on movie, nowadays, theatrical plasterers often use expanded polystyrene, although the job title remains unchanged. Plaster of Paris can be used to impregnate gauze bandages to make a material called plaster bandages. It is used similarly to clay, as it is shaped when wet, yet sets into a resilient. This is the material that was used to make classic plaster orthopedic casts to protect limbs with broken bones, set Modroc is an early example of a composite material. The hydration of plaster of Paris relies on the reaction of water with the dehydrated or partially hydrated calcium sulfate present in the plaster, lime plaster is a mixture of calcium hydroxide and sand
2.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
3.
Engraving
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Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it. Wood engraving is a form of printing and is not covered in this article. Engraving was an important method of producing images on paper in artistic printmaking, in mapmaking. Other terms often used for printed engravings are copper engraving, copper-plate engraving or line engraving, hand engraving is a term sometimes used for engraving objects other than printing plates, to inscribe or decorate jewellery, firearms, trophies, knives and other fine metal goods. Traditional engravings in printmaking are also engraved, using just the same techniques to make the lines in the plate. Each graver is different and has its own use, engravers use a hardened steel tool called a burin, or graver, to cut the design into the surface, most traditionally a copper plate. Modern professional engravers can engrave with a resolution of up to 40 lines per mm in high grade work creating game scenes, dies used in mass production of molded parts are sometimes hand engraved to add special touches or certain information such as part numbers. In addition to engraving, there are engraving machines that require less human finesse and are not directly controlled by hand. They are usually used for lettering, using a pantographic system, there are versions for the insides of rings and also the outsides of larger pieces. Such machines are used for inscriptions on rings, lockets. Gravers come in a variety of shapes and sizes that yield different line types, the burin produces a unique and recognizable quality of line that is characterized by its steady, deliberate appearance and clean edges. The angle tint tool has a curved tip that is commonly used in printmaking. Florentine liners are flat-bottomed tools with multiple lines incised into them, ring gravers are made with particular shapes that are used by jewelry engravers in order to cut inscriptions inside rings. Flat gravers are used for work on letters, as well as wriggle cuts on most musical instrument engraving work, remove background. Knife gravers are for line engraving and very deep cuts, round gravers, and flat gravers with a radius, are commonly used on silver to create bright cuts, as well as other hard-to-cut metals such as nickel and steel. Square or V-point gravers are typically square or elongated diamond-shaped and used for cutting straight lines, V-point can be anywhere from 60 to 130 degrees, depending on purpose and effect. These gravers have very small cutting points, other tools such as mezzotint rockers, roulets and burnishers are used for texturing effects. Burnishing tools can also be used for stone setting techniques
4.
Victorian era
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The Victorian era was the period of Queen Victorias reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities. Some scholars date the beginning of the period in terms of sensibilities, the era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period. The later half of the Victorian age roughly coincided with the first part of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe, culturally there was a transition away from the rationalism of the Georgian period and toward romanticism and mysticism with regard to religion, social values, and arts. The end of the saw the Boer War. Domestically, the agenda was increasingly liberal with a number of shifts in the direction of political reform, industrial reform. Two especially important figures in period of British history are the prime ministers Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone. Disraeli, favoured by the queen, was a gregarious Conservative and his rival Gladstone, a Liberal distrusted by the Queen, served more terms and oversaw much of the overall legislative development of the era. The population of England and Wales almost doubled from 16.8 million in 1851 to 30.5 million in 1901, Scotlands population also rose rapidly, from 2.8 million in 1851 to 4.4 million in 1901. However, Irelands population decreased sharply, from 8.2 million in 1841 to less than 4.5 million in 1901, mostly due to the Great Famine. Between 1837 and 1901 about 15 million emigrants departed the UK permanently, in search of a life in the United States, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia. During the early part of the era, politics in the House of Commons involved battles between the two parties, the Whigs/Liberals and the Conservatives. These parties were led by such prominent statesmen as Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Derby, Lord Palmerston, Gladstone, Disraeli, Victoria became queen in 1837 at age 18. Her long reign until 1901 was mainly a time of peace, Britain reached the zenith of its economic, political, diplomatic and cultural power. The era saw the expansion of the second British Empire, Historians have characterised the mid-Victorian era as Britains Golden Years. There was prosperity, as the income per person grew by half. There was peace abroad, and social peace at home, opposition to the new order melted away, says Porter. The Chartist movement peaked as a movement among the working class in 1848, its leaders moved to other pursuits, such as trade unions
5.
Coins of the pound sterling
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The standard circulating coinage of the United Kingdom is denominated in pounds sterling, and, since the introduction of the two-pound coin in 1994, ranges in value from one penny to two pounds. Since decimalisation, on 15 February 1971, the pound has been divided into 100 pence, from the 16th century until decimalisation, the pound was divided into 20 shillings, each of 12 pence. British coins are minted by the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, Wales, the Royal Mint also commissions the coins designs. As of 30 March 2010, there were an estimated 28 billion coins circulating in the United Kingdom, the first decimal coins were circulated in 1968. These were the five pence and ten pence, and had values of one shilling, the decimal coins are minted in copper-plated steel, nickel-plated steel, cupro-nickel and nickel-brass. The two-pound coins, and, as of the 28th March 2017, all the circulating coins have an effigy of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse, and various national and regional designs, and the denomination, on the reverse. The exception, the 2008 one-pound coin, depicts the shield of arms on the reverse. All current coins carry a Latin inscription whose full form is ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA FIDEI DEFENSATRIX, meaning Elizabeth II, by the grace of God, Queen, in addition to the circulating coinage, the UK also mints commemorative decimal coins in the denomination of five pounds. Prior to decimalisation, the denomination was five shillings, that is. Crowns, therefore, had a value of 25p from decimalisation until 1981. Ceremonial Maundy money and bullion coinage of gold sovereigns, half sovereigns, some territories outside the United Kingdom, that use the pound sterling, produce their own coinage, with the same denominations and specifications as the UK coinage but local designs. In the years just prior to decimalisation, the circulating British coins were the half crown, the farthing had been withdrawn in 1960. There was also the Crown, which was legal tender but only minted on special occasions, all modern coins feature a profile of the current monarchs head. The direction in which they face changes with each successive monarch, for the Tudors and pre-Restoration Stuarts, both left and right-facing portrait images were minted within the reign of a single monarch. In the Middle Ages, portrait images tended to be full face, the English silver penny was derived from another silver coin, the sceat, of 20 troy grains weight, which was in general circulation in Europe during the Middle Ages. In the 12th century, Henry II established the silver standard for English coinage, of 92. 5% silver and 7. 5% copper. The coinage reform of 1816 set up a ratio and physical sizes for silver coins. Silver was eliminated from coins, except Maundy coins, in 1947, the history of the Royal Mint stretches back to AD886
6.
Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria
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The Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria was celebrated on 20 June 1887 on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of her accession on 20 June 1837. It was celebrated with a banquet to which 50 European kings, on 20 June 1887 she had breakfast outdoors under the trees at Frogmore, where Prince Albert had been buried. She then travelled by train from Windsor Castle to Paddington then to Buckingham Palace for a banquet that evening. Fifty foreign kings and princes, along with the heads of Britains overseas colonies and dominions. She wrote in her diary, Had a large family dinner, all the Royalties assembled in the Bow Room, and we dined in the Supper-room, which looked splendid with the buffet covered with the gold plate. The table was a horseshoe one, with many lights on it. The King of Denmark took me in, and Willy of Greece sat on my other side, the Princes were all in uniform, and the Princesses were all beautifully dressed. Afterwards we went into the Ballroom, where my band played, the following day, she participated in a procession in an open landau through London to Westminster Abbey escorted by Colonial Indian cavalry. On her return to the Palace, she went to her balcony and was cheered by the crowd, in the ballroom she distributed brooches made for the Jubilee to her family. In the evening, she put on a gown embroidered with silver roses, thistles and shamrocks, afterwards she received a procession of diplomats and Indian princes. She was then wheeled in her chair to sit and watch fireworks in the palace garden, at the Jubilee she engaged two Indian Muslims as waiters, one of whom was Abdul Karim. He was soon promoted to Munshi and taught her Urdu, and her family and retainers were appalled, and accused Abdul Karim of spying for the Muslim Patriotic League, and biasing the Queen against the Hindus. Victoria dismissed their complaints as racial prejudice, Abdul Karim remained in her service until he returned to India with a pension on her death. A commemorative bust of Victoria was commissioned from the sculptor Francis John Williamson, many copies were made, and distributed throughout the British Empire. In 1887, the famous pie village of Denby Dale, home to the Denby Dale Pie Company and it would then spoil, with a second baked a week later, becoming known as the Resurrection Pie. Black Elk, Queen Kapiʻolani and Crown Princess Liliʻuokalani took part in her Golden Jubilee, as part of the Jubilee year the First Colonial Conference was held in London. In Malta, the town of Rabato was promoted to a city named Victoria on 10 June on the occasion of the Jubilee
7.
Queen Victoria
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Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she adopted the title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne aged 18, after her fathers three brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already a constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments, publicly, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together, after Alberts death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength and her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era and it was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover and her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father. Victorias father was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, until 1817, Edwards niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, was the only legitimate grandchild of George III. Her death in 1817 precipitated a crisis that brought pressure on the Duke of Kent. In 1818 he married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a widowed German princess with two children—Carl and Feodora —by her first marriage to the Prince of Leiningen and her brother Leopold was Princess Charlottes widower. The Duke and Duchess of Kents only child, Victoria, was born at 4.15 a. m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace and she was baptised Alexandrina, after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina, Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of the Dukes eldest brother, George, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Kent married on the same day in 1818, but both of Clarences daughters died as infants. Victorias father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old, a week later her grandfather died and was succeeded by his eldest son, George IV. The Duke of York died in 1827, when George IV died in 1830, he was succeeded by his next surviving brother, William IV, and Victoria became heir presumptive
8.
William Wyon
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William Wyon RA, was official chief engraver at the Royal Mint from 1828 until his death. Wyon was born in Birmingham and was apprenticed to his father, in 1816, he went to London. He studied the works of John Flaxman, attended the schools of the Royal Academy, and gained a medal from the Society of Arts for a copy of the head of Ceres. In 1816 he was appointed assistant engraver to the mint, in 1831 he was elected associate and in 1838 full member of the Royal Academy. Wyon is buried under a simple rectangular York stone slab at West Norwood Cemetery and he was the father of engraver Leonard Charles Wyon. Under the influence of Flaxman, a master of relief sculpture, in 1834 he modelled the head of Princess Victoria, who was 15 years of age at the time. The name of William Wyon is well known among coin and medal collectors because of his prodigious output and he also designed the Naval General Service Medal, of which 20,933 were issued. Notable among his work are the obverse designs for the prize, juror and other medals for The Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851. The primary die used for the issue was engraved by Wyon. His design also influenced the surface-printed stamps first printed in 1855, nicholas Carlisle, A memoir of the life and works of William Wyon, privately printed
9.
Royal Mint
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The Royal Mint is the body permitted to strike British coins. The Royal Mint originated over 1,100 years ago, producing coins for England, since 2010 it has operated as Royal Mint Ltd, a company owned by HM Treasury, under an exclusive contract to supply all coinage for the UK. Royal Mint Ltd is 100% owned by HM Treasury, which delegates shareholder responsibilities to the Shareholder Executive, responsibility for the security of the site falls to the Ministry of Defence Police, who provide an armed contingent. In 1968 The Royal Mint began to move its operations from Tower Hill in the City of London to Llantrisant, Mid Glamorgan, Wales, and has operated on a single site in Llantrisant since 1980. At Llantrisant it holds a collection of coins dating from the 16th century onwards, housed in eighty cabinets made by Elizabeth IIs cabinet maker. The site occupies 38 acres and employs over 900 people, the annual Trial of the Pyx assays coins produced for the UK government for size, weight and chemical composition. The London Mint first became an institution in 886, during the reign of Alfred the Great. By 1279 it had moved to the Tower of London, and remained there the next 500 years and he unofficially moved the Pound Sterling to the gold standard from silver in 1717. By the time Newton arrived, the Mint had expanded to fill several rickety wooden buildings ranged around the outside of the Tower, in the eighteenth century the processes for minting coins were mechanised and rolling mills and coining presses were installed. The new machinery and the demand on space in the Tower of London following the outbreak of war with France led to a decision to move the Mint to an adjacent site in East Smithfield. The new building, designed by James Johnson and Robert Smirke, was completed in 1809, and included space for the new machinery, the building was rebuilt in the 1880s to accommodate new machinery which increased the capacity of the Mint. During World War II, The Royal Mint was bombed by the Germans, the Royal Mint was hit on several occasions and was put out of commission for three weeks at one point. In 1967 it was announced that the mint would move away from London to new buildings in Llantrisant, smirkes 1809 Building is now used as commercial offices by Barclays Global Investors. On 1 April 1975 The Royal Mint became a trading fund to improve its efficiency by requiring it to become self-financing. In March 2009, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling began planning to sell off The Royal Mint, on 31 December 2009 it ceased to be an executive agency and its assets were vested in a limited company, Royal Mint Ltd. The owner of the new company became The Royal Mint trading fund, the Royal Mint exists principally to mint coins for circulation in the UK. As of 2013, The Royal Mint produces approximately 15% of the coin based currency. From the 1970s to 2009, it produced all Order of the British Empire Insignia, the Royal Mint in London also produced coins for Canada until a branch was opened in the Canadian capital city Ottawa in 1908
