1.
Long Distance Calling (band)
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Long Distance Calling is a post-rock band from Münster, Germany, formed in 2006. The majority of their tracks are extended instrumentals, the band has collaborated with guest vocalists, including Peter Dolving from The Haunted, John Bush from Armored Saint and Jonas Renkse from Swedish metal band Katatonia. As of 2014 Long Distance Calling had released five albums, Satellite Bay, Avoid the Light, Long Distance Calling The Flood Inside. Long Distance Calling also released two demos and/or split-EPs, DMNSTRTN and 090208, in 2008, the band played at the Rock am Ring and Roadburn festivals. The band toured Germany in 2009, in 2010 Long Distance Calling and Finnish death/doom band Swallow The Sun supported Katatonia during the New Night Over Europe tour
2.
Telecommunication
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Telecommunication is the transmission of signs, signals, messages, writings, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic systems. Telecommunication occurs when the exchange of information between communication participants includes the use of technology and it is transmitted either electrically over physical media, such as cables, or via electromagnetic radiation. Such transmission paths are divided into communication channels which afford the advantages of multiplexing. The term is used in its plural form, telecommunications. Early means of communicating over a distance included visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, other examples of pre-modern long-distance communication included audio messages such as coded drumbeats, lung-blown horns, and loud whistles. Zworykin, John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth, the word telecommunication is a compound of the Greek prefix tele, meaning distant, far off, or afar, and the Latin communicare, meaning to share. Its modern use is adapted from the French, because its use was recorded in 1904 by the French engineer. Communication was first used as an English word in the late 14th century, in the Middle Ages, chains of beacons were commonly used on hilltops as a means of relaying a signal. Beacon chains suffered the drawback that they could pass a single bit of information. One notable instance of their use was during the Spanish Armada, in 1792, Claude Chappe, a French engineer, built the first fixed visual telegraphy system between Lille and Paris. However semaphore suffered from the need for skilled operators and expensive towers at intervals of ten to thirty kilometres, as a result of competition from the electrical telegraph, the last commercial line was abandoned in 1880. Homing pigeons have occasionally used throughout history by different cultures. Pigeon post is thought to have Persians roots and was used by the Romans to aid their military, frontinus said that Julius Caesar used pigeons as messengers in his conquest of Gaul. The Greeks also conveyed the names of the victors at the Olympic Games to various cities using homing pigeons, in the early 19th century, the Dutch government used the system in Java and Sumatra. And in 1849, Paul Julius Reuter started a service to fly stock prices between Aachen and Brussels, a service that operated for a year until the gap in the telegraph link was closed. Sir Charles Wheatstone and Sir William Fothergill Cooke invented the telegraph in 1837. Also, the first commercial electrical telegraph is purported to have constructed by Wheatstone and Cooke. Both inventors viewed their device as an improvement to the electromagnetic telegraph not as a new device, samuel Morse independently developed a version of the electrical telegraph that he unsuccessfully demonstrated on 2 September 1837
3.
Trunk call
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In telecommunications, trunking is a method for a system to provide network access to many clients by sharing a set of lines or frequencies instead of providing them individually. This is analogous to the structure of a tree with one trunk, examples of this include telephone systems and the two-way radios commonly used by police agencies. More recently port trunking has been applied in computer networking as well, a trunk is a single transmission channel between two points, each point being either the switching center or the node. In two-way radio communications, trunking refers to the ability of transmissions to be served by free channels whose availability is determined by algorithmic protocols, the cashier represents each radio channel, and each customer represents a radio user transmitting on their radio. Trunked radio systems pool all of the cashiers into one group, in a TRS, individual transmissions in any conversation may take place on several different channels. In the shopping analogy, this is as if a family of shoppers checks out all at once and are assigned different cashiers by the traffic manager, similarly, if a single shopper checks out more than once, they may be assigned a different cashier each time. Trunked radio systems provide greater efficiency at the cost of greater management overhead, the store managers orders must be conveyed to all the shoppers. This is done by assigning one or more channels as the control channel. TRSs have grown massively in their complexity since their introduction, and this is similar to the idea of a chain of grocery stores. The shopper generally goes to the nearest grocery store, but if there are complications or congestion, TRSs have greater risks to overcome than conventional radio systems in that a loss of the store manager would cause the systems traffic to no longer be managed. In this case, most of the time the TRS will automatically switch to a control channel, or in more rare circumstances. In spite of these risks, TRSs usually maintain reasonable uptime, trunk lines are used for connecting a private branch exchange to a telephone service provider. When needed they can be used by any telephone connected to the PBX, Trunking saves cost, because there are usually fewer trunk lines than extension lines, since it is unusual in most offices to have all extension lines in use for external calls at once. Trunk lines transmit voice and data in such as analog, T1, E1. The dial tone lines for outgoing calls are called DDCO trunks, in the UK and the Commonwealth countries, a trunk call was the term for long distance calling, involving more than one telephone exchange, in contrast to making a local call. Trunking also refers to the connection of switches and circuits within a telephone exchange, Trunking is closely related to the concept of grading. Trunking allows a group of switches at the same time. Thus the service provider can provide a number of circuits than might otherwise be required, allowing many users to share a smaller number of connections
4.
Telephone call
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A telephone call is a connection over a telephone network between the called party and the calling party. The first telephone call was made on March 10,1876 by Alexander Graham Bell, Bell demonstrated his ability to talk with electricity by transmitting a call to his assistant, Thomas Watson. The first words transmitted were Mr Watson, come here and this event has been called Bells greatest success, as it demonstrated the first successful use of the telephone. Although it was his greatest success, he refused to have one in his own home because it was something he invented by mistake, the call may use land line, mobile phone, satellite phone or any combination thereof. When a telephone call has more than one called party it is referred to as a conference call, when two or more users of the network are sharing the same physical line, it is called a party line or Rural phone line. If the callers wireline phone is connected directly to the party, when the caller takes their telephone off-hook. This is called a hot line or ringdown, otherwise, the calling party is usually given a tone to indicate they should begin dialing the desired number. In some cases, if the party cannot dial calls directly. Calls may be placed through a public network provided by a telephone company or a private network called a PBX. In most cases a private network is connected to the network in order to allow PBX users to dial the outside world. Most telephone calls through the PSTN are set up using ISUP signalling messages or one of its variants between telephone exchanges to establish the end to end connection, calls through PBX networks are set up using QSIG, DPNSS or variants. Some types of calls are not charged, such as local calls dialed directly by a subscriber in Canada. In most other areas, all calls are charged a fee for the connection. Fees depend on the provider of the service, the type of service being used, in most circumstances, the calling party pays this fee. However, in circumstances such as a reverse charge or collect call. In some circumstances, the caller pays a flat charge for the telephone connection. The caller then rotary dials or presses buttons for the number needed to complete the call. The second phone makes a noise to alert its owner
5.
Direct distance dialing
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Direct distance dialing is a telecommunication service feature in which a caller may, without operator assistance, call any other user outside the local calling area. Direct dialing by subscribers typically requires extra digits to be dialed as prefixes than for dialing within the area or within an area code. DDD also extends beyond the boundaries of national public telephone network, DDD was the term used when the North American Numbering Plan was implemented in the 1950s. In the United Kingdom and other parts of the Commonwealth of Nations, the equivalent terms are or were STD, for subscriber trunk dialing, the first direct-dialed long-distance telephone calls were possible in the New Jersey communities of Englewood and Teaneck starting on November 10,1951. Whitehorse, Yukon, had numbers from 1965, but the necessary switching equipment was not in place locally until 1972. The No.4 Crossbar switching system had been introduced in the 1940s to switch four-wire circuits and this design was further refined to serve DDD. The card sorter of the 4A/CTS allowed six digit translation of the office code number dialed by the customer. This determined the proper trunk circuits to use, where separate circuit groups were used for different cities in the area code, as in the case of Oakland. The new device used metal cards similar in principle to computer punched cards, on busy days, it sounded like a machine gun firing. CTS machines were called 4A if the translator was included in the original installation, a 1970s version of 4XB, the 4A/ETS, used a computer to translate. For international dialing, Traffic Service Position System provided the computer power. The reach of DDD was limited due to the inefficiency and expense of switching equipment, one obstacle was that the majority of switching gear did not provide Automatic Number Identification. Common control switches such as 1XB switch were fairly quickly retrofitted to provide ANI, panel switch were eventually retrofitted, as were some step-by-step that were not scheduled for immediate replacement. Even if a switch had ANI, it could not identify callers on party lines and this was only partly overcome by Tip Party Identification. As the cost of subscriber line carrier declined, party lines were phased out. In the 1960s, with the conversion still underway, plans were laid to extend Direct Dialing beyond North America. Gateway offices were set up in New York, London and Paris, the New York gateway was at 32 Avenue of the Americas. Other 5XB in the few years were installed with IDDD as original equipment
6.
Switchboard operator
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Each pair of plugs was part of a cord circuit with a switch associated that let the operator participate in the call. Each jack had a light above it that lit when the receiver was lifted. Lines from the office were usually arranged along the bottom row. Switchboard operators are required to have very strong communication skills. Before the advent of automatic exchanges, an operators assistance was required for anything other than calling telephones across a party line. Callers spoke to an operator at a Central Office who then connected a cord to the circuit in order to complete the call. Being in complete control of the call, the operator was in a position to listen to private conversations, automatic, or Dial systems were developed in the 1920s to reduce labor costs as usage increased, and to ensure privacy to the customer. As phone systems became more sophisticated, less direct intervention by the operator was necessary to complete calls. As well as the people that were employed by the networks, operators were required at private branch exchanges to answer incoming telephone calls. Today, most large organizations have direct-dial extensions, smaller workplaces may have an automated system which allows callers to enter the extension of the called party, or a receptionist who answers calls and performs operator duties. Operators employed in healthcare settings have other duties, such as entry, greeting patients and visitors, taking messages, triaging. Experienced, well trained operators generally command a higher salary, in January 1878 George Willard Croy became the worlds first telephone operator when he started working for the Boston Telephone Dispatch company. Emma was hired by Alexander Graham Bell, and reportedly, could remember every number in the directory of the New England Telephone Company. Emma Nutt became the first female telephone operator on 1 September 1878 when she started working for the Boston Telephone Dispatch company, more women began to replace men within this sector of the workforce for several reasons. The companies observed that women were generally more courteous to callers, however, a contributing factor to women entering this workforce was because womens labour was cheap in comparison to mens. Specifically, women were paid from one half to one quarter of a mans salary, attendant console Operator assistance Private branch exchange Telephone operator Telephone switchboard Media related to Telephone operators at Wikimedia Commons
7.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
8.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
9.
Telephone company
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Many telephone companies were at one time government agencies or privately owned but state-regulated monopolies. The government agencies are referred to, primarily in Europe. Telephone companies are common carriers, and in the United States are also called local exchange carriers, with the advent of mobile telephony, telephone companies now include wireless carriers, or mobile network operators. In 1913, a telephone trust ended and more than 20,000 independent telephone companies were able to use the lines of Bell Telephone Company. Comedian Lily Tomlin frequently satirized the telephone industry with a playing the telephone operator Ernestine. Ernestine, who one of Tomlins trademark characters, was perhaps most famous for the following line, We dont care. In the satirical 1967 film The Presidents Analyst, TPC, The Phone Company, is depicted as plotting to enslave humanity by replacing landlines with implanted mobile phones. In the 1988 video game Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, The Phone Company was used by the Caponian aliens to secretly reduce the intelligence of humans
10.
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
11.
Amplifier
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An amplifier, electronic amplifier or amp is an electronic device that can increase the power of a signal. An amplifier functions by taking power from a supply and controlling the output to match the input signal shape. In this sense, an amplifier modulates the output of the power supply based upon the properties of the input signal, an amplifier is effectively the opposite of an attenuator, while an amplifier provides gain, an attenuator provides loss. An amplifier can either be a piece of equipment or an electrical circuit contained within another device. Amplification is fundamental to modern electronics, and amplifiers are used in almost all electronic equipment. Amplifiers can be categorized in different ways, another is which quantity, voltage or current is being amplified, amplifiers can be divided into voltage amplifiers, current amplifiers, transconductance amplifiers, and transresistance amplifiers. A further distinction is whether the output is a linear or nonlinear representation of the input, amplifiers can also be categorized by their physical placement in the signal chain. The first practical device that could amplify was the triode vacuum tube, invented in 1906 by Lee De Forest. Vacuum tubes were used in almost all amplifiers until the 1960s–1970s when the transistor, invented in 1947, today most amplifiers use transistors, but vacuum tubes continue to be used in some applications. Before the invention of electronic amplifiers, mechanically coupled carbon microphones were used as amplifiers in telephone repeaters. After the turn of the century it was found that negative resistance mercury lamps could amplify, the first practical electronic device that could amplify was the Audion vacuum tube, invented in 1906 by Lee De Forest, which led to the first amplifiers around 1912. The terms amplifier and amplification were first used for this new capability around 1915 when triodes became widespread, the amplifying vacuum tube revolutionized electrical technology, creating the new field of electronics, the technology of active electrical devices. It made possible long distance lines, public address systems, radio broadcasting, talking motion pictures, practical audio recording, radar, television. For 50 years virtually all electronic devices used vacuum tubes. Early tube amplifiers often had positive feedback, which could increase gain but also make the amplifier unstable, much of the mathematical theory of amplifiers was developed at Bell Telephone Laboratories during the 1920s to 1940s. Other advances in the theory of amplification were made by Harry Nyquist, the vacuum tube was the only amplifying device for 40 years, and dominated electronics until 1947, when the first transistor, the BJT, was invented. Today most amplifiers use transistors, but vacuum tubes are used in some high power applications such as radio transmitters. All amplifiers have gain, a factor that relates the magnitude of some property of the output signal to a property of the input signal
12.
Telephone booth
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A telephone booth, telephone kiosk, telephone call box, telephone box or public call box is a small structure furnished with a payphone and designed for a telephone users convenience. In the United States and in parts of Canada, telephone booth is the commonly used term for the structure. Such a booth usually has lighting, a door to provide privacy, the booth may be furnished with a printed directory of local telephone numbers, and a booth in a formal setting, such as a hotel, may be furnished with paper and pen and even a seat. An outdoor booth may be made of metal and plastic to withstand the elements and heavy use, while an indoor booth may have more elaborate architecture, most outdoor booths feature the name and logo of the telephone service provider. The worlds first telephone box called Fernesprecherkiosk, was opened on January 12,1881 at Potsdamer Platz, to use it, one had to buy paper tickets called Telefonbillet which allowed for a few minutes of talking time. In 1899 it was replaced by a coin-operated telephone, william Gray is credited with inventing the coin payphone in the United States in 1889, and George A. The first telephone booth in London, England was probably installed near the Staple Inn in High Holborn in May 1903 and it was operated and located by the Grand Central Railway. Starting in the 1970s pay telephones were less and less commonly placed in booths in the United States, in many cities where they were once common, telephone booths have now been almost completely replaced by non-enclosed pay phones. In the United States this replacement was caused, at least in part, however, in the United Kingdom, telephones remained in booths more often than the non-enclosed set up. Although still fairly common, the number of phone boxes has declined sharply in Britain since the late 1990s due to the boom of mobile phones. Many locations that provide pay-phones mount the phones on kiosks rather than in booths—this relative lack of privacy, special equipment installed in some telephone booths allows a caller to use a computer, a portable fax machine, or a telecommunications device for the deaf. The user of the booth pays for the call by depositing coins into a slot on the telephone, with some telephones the deposit is made before making the call, and the coins are returned if the call attempt is unsuccessful. With other types of coins are not deposited until the call has been made. The deposit of coins then permits two-way conversation to proceed, calls may be paid for by entering a payment code on the telephones keypad, by swipe-card or by using a telephone card. Some pay phones are equipped with a reader that allows a caller to make payment with a credit card. It is also possible to place a call to a phone booth if the intended recipient is known to be waiting at the booth. The increasing use of phones has led to a decreased demand for pay telephones. In 2003, service provider Verizon announced that they would begin offering wireless computer connectivity in the vicinity of their phone booths in Manhattan, as of 2006 the Verizon wifi telephone booth service was discontinued in favor of the more expensive Verizon Wirelesss EVDO system
13.
Loading coil
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A loading coil or load coil is an inductor that is inserted into an electronic circuit to increase its inductance. A loading coil is not a transformer as it does not provide coupling to another circuit, the term originated in the 19th century for inductors used to prevent signal distortion in long-distance telegraph transmission cables. The term is used for inductors in radio antennas, or between the antenna and its feedline, to make an electrically short antenna resonant at its operating frequency. The concept of loading coils was discovered by Oliver Heaviside in studying the problem of slow signalling speed of the first transatlantic cable in the 1860s. He concluded additional inductance was required to prevent amplitude and time delay distortion of the transmitted signal, the mathematical condition for distortion-free transmission is known as the Heaviside condition. Previous telegraph lines were overland or shorter and hence had less delay, Loading coils are historically also known as Pupin coils after Mihajlo Pupin, especially when used for the Heaviside condition and the process of inserting them is sometimes called pupinization. A common application of loading coils is to improve the voice-frequency amplitude response characteristics of the twisted balanced pairs in a telephone cable, because twisted pair is a balanced format, half the loading coil must be inserted in each leg of the pair to maintain the balance. It is common for both these windings to be formed on the same core and this increases the flux linkages, without which the number of turns on the coil would need to be increased. Above the cutoff frequency, attenuation increases rapidly, the shorter the distance between the coils, the higher the cut-off frequency. It should be emphasised that the effect is an artifact of using lumped inductors. With loading methods using continuous distributed inductance there is no cutoff, without loading coils, the line response is dominated by the resistance and capacitance of the line with the attenuation gently increasing with frequency. The coincidental formation of a frequency filter is also beneficial in that noise is reduced. When loading coils are in place, signal attenuation remains low for signals within the passband of the transmission line, using coils with parallel capacitors will form a filter with the topology of an m-derived filter and a band of frequencies above the cut-off will also be passed. If the coils are not removed, and the subscriber is a distance from the Central Office. This sometimes happens in dense, growing such as Southern California in the late 1990s. American early and middle 20th century telephone cables had load coils at intervals of a mile, due to narrower streets and higher cost of copper, European cables had thinner wires and used closer spacing. Intervals of a kilometer allowed European systems to carry 2 Mbit/s, another type of loading coil is used in radio antennas. To be resonant, the antenna must have a length of one quarter of the wavelength of the radio waves used
14.
Audion
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The Audion was an electronic amplifying vacuum tube invented by American electrical engineer Lee De Forest in 1906. It was the first triode, consisting of an evacuated glass tube containing three electrodes, a heated filament, a grid, and a plate. These were the first modern hard vacuum triodes, when wireless signals were applied to the wire wrapped around the outside of the glass, they caused disturbances in the current which produced sounds in the headphones. This was a significant development as existing commercial systems were heavily protected by patents. De Forest and everybody else at the time greatly underestimated the potential of his original device, De Forest was granted a patent for his early two-electrode version of the Audion on November 13,1906, but the triode version was patented in 1908. De Forest was famous for saying that he didnt know why it worked and he always referred to the vacuum triodes developed by other researchers as Oscillaudions, although there is no evidence that he had any significant input to their development. It is true that after the invention of the vacuum triode in 1913. However, although he described these devices as using Audions, they actually used high-vacuum triodes. In 1914, Columbia University student Edwin Howard Armstrong worked with professor John Harold Morecroft to document the electrical principles of the Audion, Armstrong published his explanation of the Audion in Electrical World in December 1914, complete with circuit diagrams and oscilloscope graphs. A combination of the two papers was reprinted in other such as the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. When Armstrong and De Forest later faced each other in a dispute over the regeneration patent, the Audions sometimes worked extremely well, at other times they would barely work at all. As well as De Forest himself, numerous researchers had tried to find ways to improve the reliability of the device by stabilizing the partial vacuum. Much of the research led to the development of true vacuum tubes was carried out by Irving Langmuir in the General Electric research laboratories. However, this only worked if the gas used was meticulously scrubbed of all traces of oxygen and he then applied the same approach to producing a rectifier for the newly developed Coolidge X-ray tubes. His rectifiers were called Kenotrons from the Greek keno and tron and he then turned his attention to the Audion tube, again suspecting that its notoriously unpredictable behaviour might be tamed with more care in the manufacturing process. However he took an unorthodox approach. Instead of trying to stabilize the partial vacuum, he wondered if it was possible to make the Audion function with the vacuum of a Kenotron. To distinguish his device from the Audion he named it the Pliotron, essentially, he referred to all his vacuum tube designs as Kenotrons, the Pliotron basically being a specialized type of Kenotron
15.
Lee de Forest
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Lee de Forest was an American inventor, self-described Father of Radio, and a pioneer in the development of sound-on-film recording used for motion pictures. He had over 180 patents, but also a tumultuous career—he boasted that he made, then lost and he was also involved in several major patent lawsuits, spent a substantial part of his income on legal bills, and was even tried for mail fraud. His most famous invention, in 1906, was the three-element Audion vacuum tube, Lee de Forest was born in 1873 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the son of Anna Margaret and Henry Swift DeForest. He was a descendant of Jessé de Forest, the leader of a group of Walloon Huguenots who fled Europe in the 17th Century due to religious persecution. De Forests father was a Congregational Church minister who hoped his son would become a pastor. De Forest prepared for college by attending Mount Hermon Boys School in Mount Hermon, after completing his undergraduate studies, in September,1896 de Forest began three years of postgraduate work. However, his experiments had a tendency to blow fuses. Even after being warned to be careful, he managed to douse the lights during an important lecture by Professor Charles Hastings. One drawback to Marconis approach was his use of a coherer as a receiver, which, while providing for permanent records, was slow, insensitive. After making unsuccessful inquiries about employment with Nikola Tesla and Marconi and his first job after leaving Yale was with the Western Electric Companys telephone lab in Chicago, Illinois. While there he developed his first receiver, which was based on findings by two German scientists, Drs. A. Neugschwender and Emil Aschkinass and their original design consisted of a mirror in which a narrow, moistened slit had been cut through the silvered back. Attaching a battery and telephone receiver, they could hear sound changes in response to radio signal impulses, De Forest, along with Ed Smythe, a co-worker who provided financial and technical help, developed variations they called responders. With radio research his main priority, de Forest next took a teaching position at the Lewis Institute. By 1900, using a transmitter and his responder receiver. Professor Clarence Freeman of the Armour Institute became interested in de Forests work, Marconi had already made arrangements to provide reports for the Associated Press, which he had successfully done for the 1899 contest. De Forest contracted to do the same for the smaller Publishers Press Association, the race effort turned out to be an almost total failure. The Freeman transmitter broke down — in a fit of rage, none of these companies had effective tuning for their transmitters, so only one could transmit at a time without causing mutual interference. De Forest ruefully noted that under conditions the only successful wireless communication was done by visual semaphore wig-wag flags
16.
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
17.
First transcontinental telephone call
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A telephone call, which for marketing purposes is claimed to be the first transcontinental telephone call, occurred on Jan. 25,1915, a day timed to coincide with the Panama–Pacific International Exposition celebrations, however, the transcontinental telephone line was first completed on June 27,1914, and successfully first voice tested in July 1914. A1998 U. S. postage stamp commemorates the completion of the line in 1914, the original long distance telephone network actually started in 1885, in New York City. By 1892 this line reached Chicago, after introducing loading coils in 1899, the long distance line continued west, and by 1911 it reached Denver, Colorado. The president of AT&T, Theodore Vail, committed the company to a line in 1909. On June 27,1914, after affixing 4,750 miles of line, workers raised the final pole at Wendover, Utah. Then, Theodore Vail, the president of AT&T, succeeded in transmitting his voice across the continental U. S. in July 1914. I want you, into the telephone, which was heard by his assistant Dr. Watson in San Francisco, Dr. Watson replied, It will take me five days to get there now. The Alexander Graham Bell call officially initiated AT&Ts transcontinental service, the phone call was merely symbolic. Dr. Watson was at 333 Grant Avenue in San Francisco to receive the call, President Woodrow Wilson and the mayors of both cities were also involved in the call. Later, President Woodrow Wilson spoke to an audience in San Francisco from the White House and is quoted as saying It appeals to the imagination to speak across the continent, phone to Pacific From the Atlantic. The story of a great achievement
18.
Thomas A. Watson
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Thomas Augustus Watson was an assistant to Alexander Graham Bell, notably in the invention of the telephone in 1876. He is best known because, as the recipient of the first telephone call – although coming from just the next room – his name became the first words ever said over the phone. Mr. Watson – Come here – I want to see you, Bell said when first using the new invention, according to Bells laboratory notebook. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, United States Watson was a bookkeeper and he was then hired by Alexander Graham Bell, who was then a professor at Boston University. They were known for the invention of the telephone, Watson resigned from the Bell Telephone Company in 1881 at the age of 27. In 1883 Watson founded the Fore River Ship and Engine Building Company and he soon began taking bids for building naval destroyers and by 1901 the Fore River Ship and Engine Company was one of the largest shipyards in America. It would later become one of the shipyards during World War II. President Woodrow Wilson and the mayors of cities were also involved in the call. Thomas Watson was married to Elizabeth Watson, after he died in 1934, she continued to live in Pass-a-Grille during World War II and died in a local hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida in 1949. Watson wrote an autobiography, Exploring Life, The Autobiography of Thomas A. Watson, upon meeting Baba, Watson is reported to have said, In my seventy-eight years of life, today is the first time I have experienced what divine love is. I have come to realize this with just a touch from Meher Baba, later, though, Watson became disenchanted with Baba. Watson died of disease on December 13,1934 at Pass-Grille Key. He is buried in the North Weymouth cemetery and his family grave site sits on top and next to the cemetery road and has a vantage point that looks directly at the former ship yard. He wanted to see his greatest accomplishment in life and death, NPR clip featuring Watson PBS. org Watson biography University of Houston, The Engines of Our Ingenuity No
19.
The New York Times
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The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18,1851, by The New York Times Company. The New York Times has won 119 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, the papers print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal, and the largest circulation among the metropolitan newspapers in the US. The New York Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation, following industry trends, its weekday circulation had fallen in 2009 to fewer than one million. Nicknamed The Gray Lady, The New York Times has long been regarded within the industry as a newspaper of record. The New York Times international version, formerly the International Herald Tribune, is now called the New York Times International Edition, the papers motto, All the News Thats Fit to Print, appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. On Sunday, The New York Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and T, some other early investors of the company were Edwin B. Morgan and Edward B. We do not believe that everything in Society is either right or exactly wrong, —what is good we desire to preserve and improve, —what is evil, to exterminate. In 1852, the started a western division, The Times of California that arrived whenever a mail boat got to California. However, when local California newspapers came into prominence, the effort failed, the newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the city name in the 1890s, One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone. At Newspaper Row, across from City Hall, Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, averted the rioters with Gatling guns, in 1869, Raymond died, and George Jones took over as publisher. Tweed offered The New York Times five million dollars to not publish the story, in the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned gradually from editorially supporting Republican Party candidates to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign, while this move cost The New York Times readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years. However, the newspaper was financially crippled by the Panic of 1893, the paper slowly acquired a reputation for even-handedness and accurate modern reporting, especially by the 1890s under the guidance of Ochs. Under Ochs guidance, continuing and expanding upon the Henry Raymond tradition, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, in 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began. The New York Times first trans-Atlantic delivery by air to London occurred in 1919 by dirigible, airplane Edition was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening. In the 1940s, the extended its breadth and reach. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the section in 1946
20.
Englewood, New Jersey
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Englewood is a city located in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17,1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township, with the creation of the City of Englewood, Englewood Township was dissolved. An earlier referendum on March 10,1896, was declared unconstitutional, Englewood Township, the citys predecessor, is believed to have been named in 1859 for the Engle family. Other sources indicate that the name is derived from wood ingle, meaning woody nook, numerous other settlements in the United States were named for Englewood as settlement in North America expanded westward. J. Wyman Jones is credited with convincing residents to choose Englewood for the name when it was incorporated over such alternatives as Brayton. Englewood, like the rest of New Jersey, was populated by Lenape Native Americans prior to European colonization, the Lenape who lived in the Englewood region were of the turtle clan which used a stylized turtle as its symbol, but little else is known of those inhabitants. In 1664, after the Dutch surrendered all of New Netherland to England, the English were generous with land grants, and many families, not only English but also Dutch and Huguenot, settled the area, which during the colonial era was known as the English Neighborhood. From 1906 until March 16,1907, when it burned down, Englewood was the site of Upton Sinclairs socialist-inflected intentional community, associated with the project were Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Sinclair Lewis. The United States telephone industry introduced direct distance dialing to the public in Englewood, on November 10,1951, Englewood Mayor M. Leslie Denning made the first customer-dialed long distance call, to Mayor Frank Osborne of Alameda, California. Two years after his graduation from Fordham University, Vince Lombardi began his coaching career at Englewoods St. Cecilia High School. Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the city include Highwood, the city borders Bergenfield, Englewood Cliffs, Fort Lee, Leonia, Teaneck and Tenafly. As of the census of 2010, there were 27,147 people,10,057 households, the population density was 5,524.6 per square mile. There were 10,695 housing units at a density of 2,176.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 45. 28% White,32. 58% Black or African American,0. 54% Native American,8. 10% Asian,0. 04% Pacific Islander,9. 73% from other races, and 3. 72% from two or more races. [[Hispanic |Hispanic or Latino of any race were 27. 48% of the population,27. 3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9. 6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.68 and the family size was 3.24. In the city, the population was out with 22. 2% under the age of 18,7. 7% from 18 to 24,28. 9% from 25 to 44,27. 0% from 45 to 64. The median age was 38.9 years, for every 100 females there were 90.0 males
21.
Alameda, California
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Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to and south of Oakland and east of San Francisco across the San Francisco Bay. Bay Farm Island, a portion of which is known as Harbor Bay Isle, is not actually an island. The citys estimated 2016 population was 79,277, Alameda is a charter city, rather than a general law city, allowing the city to provide for any form of government. Alameda became a city and adopted a council–manager government in 1916. The island Alameda occupies what was originally a peninsula connected to Oakland, much of it was low-lying and marshy, but on higher ground than the peninsula and adjacent parts of what is now downtown Oakland were home to one of the largest coastal oak forests in the world. The area was therefore called Encinal, Spanish for forest of evergreen oak, Alameda is Spanish for grove of poplar trees or tree-lined avenue, and was chosen in 1853 by popular vote. The inhabitants at the time of the arrival of the Spanish in the late 18th century were a band of the Ohlone tribe. The peninsula became part of the vast Rancho San Antonio granted in 1820 to Luis Peralta by the Spanish king who claimed California, the grant was later confirmed by the new Republic of Mexico upon its independence from Spain. Over time, the became known as Bolsa de Encinal or Encinal de San Antonio. The city was founded on June 6,1853, and the town contained three small settlements. Eventually, the Central Pacifics ferry pier became the Alameda Mole, the first post office opened in 1854. The first school, Schmermerhorn School, was opened in 1855, the San Francisco and Alameda Railroad opened the Encinal station in 1864. The Encinal area was known as Fasskings Station in honor of Frederick Louis Fassking. Encinals own post office opened in 1876, was renamed West End in 1877, the West End area was originally called Bowmans Point in honor of Charles G. Bowman, an early settler. The Alameda Terminal was the site of the arrival of the first train via the First Transcontinental Railroad into the San Francisco Bay Area on September 6,1869, the transcontinental terminus was switched to the Oakland Mole two months later, on November 8,1869. The borders of Alameda were made coextensive with the island in 1872, mark Twain described Alameda as being The Garden of California. In 1917, an attraction called Neptune Beach was built in the now known as Crab Cove
22.
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
23.
Subscriber trunk dialling
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Subscriber trunk dialling is a telephone system allowing subscribers to dial trunk calls without operator assistance. The term was introduced when it first became possible for long-distance calls to be dialled directly, the term subscriber trunk dialling is used in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Australia, India and South East Asia. The corresponding term in the North American Numbering Plan, e. g. in the United States, the term was extended when, on 8 March 1963, subscribers in London were able to directly dial Paris using international direct dialling. The introduction in the UK of subscriber dialling of long distance calls removed the distinction that had existed between trunk and toll calls and this term however, is still widely prevalent in India to describe any national call made outside ones local unit. A subscriber is someone who subscribes to, i. e. rents, a telephone line, now that all calls may be dialled direct, the term has fallen into disuse. Later it became possible to dial numbers on the exchange, calls to other exchanges were possible. When subscribers in one area became able to dial non-local subscribers, in the UK, STD started before 5 December 1958 when the Queen, who was in Bristol, publicized it by dialling Edinburgh – the farthest distance a call could be directly dialled. The STD system was completed in 1979, though most of the country was covered well before then. The system required that a new STD code, which could be dialled by subscribers, be allocated to each area, archive news article from the BBC on the introduction of Subscriber Trunk Dialing BBC video of first call taking place
24.
Elizabeth II
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Elizabeth II has been Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand since 6 February 1952. Elizabeth was born in London as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake duties during the Second World War. Elizabeths many historic visits and meetings include a visit to the Republic of Ireland. She has seen major changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, Canadian patriation. She has reigned through various wars and conflicts involving many of her realms and she is the worlds oldest reigning monarch as well as Britains longest-lived. In October 2016, she became the longest currently reigning monarch, in 2017 she became the first British monarch to commemorate a Sapphire Jubilee. Elizabeth has occasionally faced republican sentiments and press criticism of the family, however, support for the monarchy remains high. Elizabeth was born at 02,40 on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather and her father, Prince Albert, Duke of York, was the second son of the King. Her mother, Elizabeth, Duchess of York, was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and she was delivered by Caesarean section at her maternal grandfathers London house,17 Bruton Street, Mayfair. Elizabeths only sibling, Princess Margaret, was born in 1930, the two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford, who was casually known as Crawfie. Lessons concentrated on history, language, literature and music, Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margarets childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in 1950, much to the dismay of the royal family. The book describes Elizabeths love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, others echoed such observations, Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant and her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved. During her grandfathers reign, Elizabeth was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind her uncle Edward, Prince of Wales, and her father, the Duke of York. Although her birth generated public interest, she was not expected to become queen, many people believed that he would marry and have children of his own. When her grandfather died in 1936 and her uncle succeeded as Edward VIII, she became second-in-line to the throne, later that year, Edward abdicated, after his proposed marriage to divorced socialite Wallis Simpson provoked a constitutional crisis. Consequently, Elizabeths father became king, and she became heir presumptive, if her parents had had a later son, she would have lost her position as first-in-line, as her brother would have been heir apparent and above her in the line of succession
25.
Bristol
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Bristol is a city and county in South West England with a population of 449,300 in 2016. The district has the 10th largest population in England, while the Bristol metropolitan area is the 12th largest in the United Kingdom, the city borders North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, with the cities of Bath and Gloucester to the south-east and north-east, respectively. Iron Age hill forts and Roman villas were built near the confluence of the rivers Frome and Avon, Bristol received a royal charter in 1155 and was historically divided between Gloucestershire and Somerset until 1373, when it became a county of itself. From the 13th to the 18th century, Bristol was among the top three English cities after London in tax receipts, Bristol was surpassed by the rapid rise of Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham in the Industrial Revolution. Bristol was a place for early voyages of exploration to the New World. On a ship out of Bristol in 1497 John Cabot, a Venetian, in 1499 William Weston, a Bristol merchant, was the first Englishman to lead an exploration to North America. At the height of the Bristol slave trade, from 1700 to 1807, the Port of Bristol has since moved from Bristol Harbour in the city centre to the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Dock. Bristols modern economy is built on the media, electronics and aerospace industries. The city has the largest circulating community currency in the U. K. - the Bristol pound, which is pegged to the Pound sterling. It is connected to London and other major UK cities by road, rail, sea and air by the M5 and M4, Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway mainline rail stations, and Bristol Airport. The Sunday Times named it as the best city in Britain in which to live in 2014 and 2017, the most ancient recorded name for Bristol is the archaic Welsh Caer Odor, which is consistent with modern understanding that early Bristol developed between the River Frome and Avon Gorge. It is most commonly stated that the Saxon name Bricstow was a calque of the existing Celtic name, with Bric a literal translation of Odor. Alternative etymologies are supported with the numerous variations in Medieval documents with Samuel Seyer enumerating 47 alternative forms. The Old English form Brycgstow is commonly used to derive the meaning place at the bridge, utilizing another form, Brastuile, Rev. Dr. Shaw derived the name from the Celtic words bras, or braos and tuile. The poet Thomas Chatterton popularised a derivation from Brictricstow linking the town to Brictric and it appears that the form Bricstow prevailed until 1204, and the Bristolian L is what eventually changed the name to Bristol. Iron Age hill forts near the city are at Leigh Woods and Clifton Down, on the side of the Avon Gorge, a Roman settlement, Abona, existed at what is now Sea Mills, another was at the present-day Inns Court. Isolated Roman villas and small forts and settlements were scattered throughout the area. Bristol was founded by 1000, by about 1020, it was a centre with a mint producing silver pennies bearing its name
26.
Edinburgh
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Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 local government council areas. Located in Lothian on the Firth of Forths southern shore, it is Scotlands second most populous city and the seventh most populous in the United Kingdom. The 2014 official population estimates are 464,990 for the city of Edinburgh,492,680 for the authority area. Recognised as the capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century, Edinburgh is home to the Scottish Parliament and it is the largest financial centre in the UK after London. Historically part of Midlothian, the city has long been a centre of education, particularly in the fields of medicine, Scots law, literature, the sciences and engineering. The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582 and now one of four in the city, was placed 17th in the QS World University Rankings in 2013 and 2014. The city is famous for the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe. The citys historical and cultural attractions have made it the United Kingdoms second most popular tourist destination after London, attracting over one million overseas visitors each year. Historic sites in Edinburgh include Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, the churches of St. Giles, Greyfriars and the Canongate, Edinburghs Old Town and New Town together are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has been managed by Edinburgh World Heritage since 1999. It appears to derive from the place name Eidyn mentioned in the Old Welsh epic poem Y Gododdin, the poem names Din Eidyn as a hill fort in the territory of the Gododdin. The Celtic element din was dropped and replaced by the Old English burh, the first documentary evidence of the medieval burgh is a royal charter, c. 1124–1127, by King David I granting a toft in burgo meo de Edenesburg to the Priory of Dunfermline. In modern Gaelic, the city is called Dùn Èideann, the earliest known human habitation in the Edinburgh area was at Cramond, where evidence was found of a Mesolithic camp site dated to c.8500 BC. Traces of later Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements have found on Castle Rock, Arthurs Seat, Craiglockhart Hill. When the Romans arrived in Lothian at the end of the 1st century AD, at some point before the 7th century AD, the Gododdin, who were presumably descendants of the Votadini, built the hill fort of Din Eidyn or Etin. Although its location has not been identified, it likely they would have chosen a commanding position like the Castle Rock, Arthurs Seat. In 638, the Gododdin stronghold was besieged by forces loyal to King Oswald of Northumbria and it thenceforth remained under their jurisdiction. The royal burgh was founded by King David I in the early 12th century on land belonging to the Crown, in 1638, King Charles Is attempt to introduce Anglican church forms in Scotland encountered stiff Presbyterian opposition culminating in the conflicts of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. In the 17th century, Edinburghs boundaries were defined by the citys defensive town walls
27.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
28.
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
29.
White Plains, New York
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White Plains is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is the county seat and commercial hub of Westchester, an affluent suburban county just north of New York City that is home to almost one million people, White Plains is located in south-central Westchester, with its downtown 25 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. As of 2013, the total population was estimated to be 57,866. According to the city government, the daytime population is estimated at 250,000. The city was ranked third in the top 10 places to live in New York for 2014, according to national online real estate brokerage Movoto. At the time of the Dutch settlement of Manhattan in the early 17th century, however, John Richbell of Mamaroneck claimed to have earlier title to much of the territory through his purchase of a far larger plot extending 20 miles inland, perhaps from a different tribe. The matter wasnt settled until 1721, when a Royal Patent for White Plains was granted by King George II, the unincorporated village remained part of the Town of Rye until 1788, when the town of White Plains was created. On July 9,1776, a copy of the Declaration of Independence was delivered to the New York Provincial Congress, the delegates quickly adopted a resolution approving the Declaration, thus declaring both the colonys independence and the formation of the State of New York. The Declaration itself was first publicly read from the steps of the courthouse on July 11, the Battle of White Plains took place primarily on Chatterton Hill, and the Bronx River. Howes forces had suffered 250 casualties, a loss, and he made no attempt to pursue the Continentals, whose casualties were about 125 dead. Three days after the battle Washington withdrew north of the village, but after several inconclusive skirmishes over the next week Howe withdrew on November 5, leaving White Plains to the Continentals. Although he was court-martialed and convicted for this action, he escaped punishment, the first United States Census, conducted in 1790, listed the White Plains population at 505, of whom 46 were slaves. By 1800, the population stood at 575 and in 1830,830, by 1870,26 years after the arrival of the New York Central Railroad, it had swollen to 2,630 and by 1890 to 4,508. In the decades that followed the count grew to 7,899 and 26,425, White Plains was incorporated as a village in 1866 and as a city in 1916. Early in the 20th century, White Plains downtown area developed into a dominant suburban shopping district and featured branch stores of many famous New York-based department and specialty stores. Some of these locations were the first large-scale suburban stores built in the United States. With the construction of the parkways and expressways in the 1940s and 1960s, with a city opening ceremony Macys launched a grand White Plains store on Main Street across from City Hall in 1949. As the mayor said at the time, this was a significant event in the life of White Plains, at the time of its construction, the Westchester One building was the largest office building between New York City and Albany, and east to Hartford
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London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
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Ringdown
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In telephony, ringdown is a method of signaling an operator in which telephone ringing current is sent over the line to operate a lamp or cause the operation of a self-locking relay known as a drop. Ringdown is used in operation, as distinguished from automatic signaling by dialing a number. The signal consists of a continuous or pulsed alternating current signal transmitted over the line and it may be used with or without a telephone switchboard. The last ringdown telephone exchange in the United States was located at Bryant Pond, Maine, had 400+ subscribers, on some systems, this function was carried out by the inward operator. In an application not involving a telephone operator, a two-point automatic ringdown circuit, when the telephone at one end goes off-hook, the phone at the other end instantly rings. No dialing is involved and therefore telephone sets without dials are sometimes used, many ringdown circuits work in both directions. In some cases a circuit is designed to work in one direction only and that is, going off-hook at one end rings the other. Going off-hook at end B has no effect at end A. Ringdown features are part of a key telephone system. In the wire spring relay key service units of the Bell System 1A2, in the 400-series units, a number of different KTUs operate a ringdown, including the model 415. In other situations, the ringdown is powered and operated by equipment inside the telephone exchange, in the case of enterprises with a private branch exchange switch, the ringdown can be operated by the PBX key. The switch is programmed to ring a specific extension when a defined extension goes off-hook, the PBX does not offer dial tone to the calling extension, it only detects on-hook or off-hook status. These circuits are used, over high-volume routes where one site calls another very frequently, Example, an information desk and the information desk staff supervisors desk. Where a tamper-proof ability to call from one point to another is needed, Example, a phone used to summon a taxicab to an airport or hotel. Where a limited ability to contact one entity is desired, Example, a house phone in a hotel lobby to the live operator at the hotels switchboard where the public, or users that are not trained in using a specific office telephone system, must place calls. Example, the phone to reach the watchman from the front door at a warehouse. In locations where emergencies are handled and the required to dial digits would cause an unacceptable delay in handling of an emergency. Example, a control tower to the airports fire station or fire dispatch center. Example, Independent System Operator communication to a power plant, in situations where the called party needs to be certain of who is calling
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Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
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Amsterdam
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Amsterdam is the capital and most populous municipality of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its status as the capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, which is The Hague. Amsterdam has a population of 851,373 within the city proper,1,351,587 in the urban area, the city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country. The metropolitan area comprises much of the part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe. Amsterdams name derives from Amstelredamme, indicative of the citys origin around a dam in the river Amstel, during that time, the city was the leading centre for finance and diamonds. In the 19th and 20th centuries the city expanded, and many new neighborhoods and suburbs were planned, the 17th-century canals of Amsterdam and the 19–20th century Defence Line of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As the commercial capital of the Netherlands and one of the top financial centres in Europe, Amsterdam is considered a world city by the Globalization. The city is also the capital of the Netherlands. Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters there, and seven of the worlds 500 largest companies, including Philips and ING, are based in the city. In 2012, Amsterdam was ranked the second best city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit and 12th globally on quality of living for environment, the city was ranked 3rd in innovation by Australian innovation agency 2thinknow in their Innovation Cities Index 2009. The Amsterdam seaport to this day remains the second in the country, famous Amsterdam residents include the diarist Anne Frank, artists Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh, and philosopher Baruch Spinoza. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in the world, is located in the city center. After the floods of 1170 and 1173, locals near the river Amstel built a bridge over the river, the earliest recorded use of that name is in a document dated October 27,1275, which exempted inhabitants of the village from paying bridge tolls to Count Floris V. This allowed the inhabitants of the village of Aemstelredamme to travel freely through the County of Holland, paying no tolls at bridges, locks, the certificate describes the inhabitants as homines manentes apud Amestelledamme. By 1327, the name had developed into Aemsterdam, Amsterdam is much younger than Dutch cities such as Nijmegen, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. In October 2008, historical geographer Chris de Bont suggested that the land around Amsterdam was being reclaimed as early as the late 10th century. This does not necessarily mean there was already a settlement then, since reclamation of land may not have been for farming—it may have been for peat. Amsterdam was granted city rights in either 1300 or 1306, from the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished, largely from trade with the Hanseatic League
