Pewter is a malleable metal alloy composed of 85–99% tin, mixed with 5–10% antimony, 2% copper and sometimes silver. Copper and antimony act as hardeners but may be replaced with lead in lower grades of pewter, imparting a bluish tint. Pewter has a low melting point, around 170–230 °C, depending on the exact mixture of metals; the word pewter is a variation of the word spelter, a term for zinc alloys. Pewter was first used around the beginning of the Bronze Age in the Near East; the earliest known piece of pewter was found in an Egyptian tomb, c. 1450 BC. Older pewters with higher lead content are heavier, tarnish faster, oxidation gives them a darker silver-gray color. Pewters containing lead are no longer used in items that will come in contact with the human body due to health concerns stemming from the lead content. Modern pewters are available that are free of lead, although many pewters containing lead are still being produced for other purposes. A typical European casting alloy contains 94% tin, 1% copper, 5% antimony.

A European pewter sheet would contain 92% tin, 2% copper, 6% antimony. Asian pewter, produced in Malaysia and Thailand, contains a higher percentage of tin 97.5% tin, 1% copper, 1.5% antimony. This makes the alloy softer. So-called "Mexican pewter" is the name used for various alloys of aluminium used for decorative items. Pewter was used for decorative metal items and tableware in the Ancient World by the Egyptians and the Romans, came into extensive use in Europe from the Middle Ages until the various developments in pottery and glass-making during the 18th and 19th centuries. Pewter was the chief material for producing plates and bowls until the making of porcelain. Mass production of pottery and glass products has seen pewter universally replaced in daily life. Pewter artifacts continue to be produced as decorative or specialty items. Pewter was used around East Asia. Although some items still exist, Ancient Roman pewter is rare."Unlidded" mugs and lidded tankards may be the most familiar pewter artifacts from the late 17th and 18th centuries, although the metal was used for many other items including porringers, dishes, spoons, flagons, communion cups, sugar bowls, beer steins, cream jugs.

In the early 19th century, changes in fashion caused a decline in the use of pewter flatware. At the same time, production increased of both cast and spun pewter tea sets, whale-oil lamps, so on. In the century, pewter alloys were used as a base metal for silver-plated objects. In the late 19th century, pewter came back into fashion with the revival of medieval objects for decoration. New replicas of medieval pewter objects were created, collected for decoration. Today, pewter is used in decorative objects collectible statuettes and figurines, game figures and other models, pendants, plated jewellery and so on. Certain athletic contests, such as the United States Figure Skating Championships, award pewter medals to fourth-place finishers. Britannia metal English pewter Spin casting Solder PewterBank "Pewter". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911

Alan Pilkington is a British engineer and researcher known for his work on the Technology management, Operations management, Manufacturing strategy and Enterprise engineering. He serves as professor at Hult International Business School. Pilkington chairs the IEEE Technology Management Council for the UK and Republic of Ireland joint chapter on engineering management. Pilkington attended King Edward VI School and received his B. Eng. degree from De Montfort University in 1987, his PhD from Aston University in 1992. After graduation in 1987 Pilkington started his career in industry as project manager in manufacturing engineering at the Rover Group, where from 1989 to 1993 he was part of the Manufacturing Policy Unit. In 1996 he returned to academia as Associate Professor in Operations and Technology Management at the Royal Holloway, University of London, where he stayed until September 2013. Pilkington has been Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Davis between 1997 and 2003. In 2009 he became Adjunct Professor at the Hult International Business School in London.

In September 2013 he became a Professor at Copenhagen Business School. Since 2015 he has been Professor of Technology Management at Westminster Business School in London. At the IEEE Pilkington chairs the IEEE Technology Management Council for the UK and Republic of Ireland joint Chapter on Engineering Management. Pilkington research interests are in the field of enterprise engineering and innovation disruptive innovation. Pilkington's approach to innovation concerned "product of individual and knowledge trajectories", his idea was that "modelling the relationships between observed typologies within each of these spheres, conditions for successful innovation can be identified and failures explained. This work is leading to tools which will help managers define successful and achievable technology strategies." Pilkington has initiated and directed the Pilkington research in Enterprise Engineering at Royal Holloway. According to Pilkington: Enterprise Engineering is the application of engineering principles to the management of enterprises.

It encompasses the application of knowledge and disciplines related to the analysis, design and operation of all elements associated with an enterprise. In essence it is an interdisciplinary field which combines systems engineering and strategic management as it seeks to engineer the entire enterprise in terms of the products and business operations; the view is one of continuous improvement and continued adaptation as firms and markets develop along their life cycles. This total systems approach encompasses the traditional areas of research and development, product design and manufacturing as well as information systems and strategic management; this Enterprise Engineering research had focussed on five types of management specialties: Engineering Management: the application of engineering principles to business practice. It brings together the technological problem-solving savvy of engineering and the organizational and planning abilities of management to oversee complex enterprises from conception to completion.

Innovation Management: discipline of managing processes in innovation. It can be used to develop organizational innovation. Innovation management includes a set of tools that allow managers and engineers to co-operate with a common understanding of goals and processes. Operations Management: area of management concerned with overseeing and controlling the process of production and redesigning business operations in the production of goods or services. Service Management: integrated part of supply chain management, the intersection between the actual sales and the customer; the aim of high performance service management is to optimise the service-intensive supply chains, which are more complex than the typical finished-goods supply chain. Technology Management: set of management disciplines that allows organisations to manage their technological fundamentals to create competitive advantage. Typical concepts used in technology management are technology strategy, technology forecasting At Royal Holloway more specific topics of research in this field concerned Alternative fuel Technology and Patent analysis.

Pilkington has authored and co-authored numerous publications in the field of Management of technology, Operations management, Manufacturing strategy and Enterprise engineering. A selection: Pilkington, Alan. "Manufacturing strategy regained: evidence for the demise of best-practice." California Management Review 41: 31–42. Pilkington and Catherine Liston-Heyes. "Is production and operations management a discipline? A citation/co-citation study." International Journal of Operations & Production Management 19.1: 7–20. Pilkington, Romano Dyerson, Omid Tissier. "The electric vehicle:: Patent data as indicators of technological development." World Patent Information 24.1: 5–12. Pilkington and Thorsten Teichert. "Management of technology: themes and relationships." Technovation 26.3: 288–299. Pilkington and Jack R. Meredith. "The evolution of the intellectual structure of operations management—1980–2006: A citation/co-citation analysis." Journal of Operations Management 27.3: 185–202. Alan Pilkington, at Royal Holloway, University of London

Marshrutka or routed taxicab, is a form of public transportation such as share taxi which originated in the Soviet Union and is still present in Russia and other countries of CIS, in Baltic states, Georgia, Turkmenistan and Armenia. The role of the modern marshrutka is theoretically similar to the share taxi, which uses minibuses in some other countries; the first marshrutka was introduced in Moscow, Russia in 1938. The Russian word "маршрутка" is the colloquial form for "маршрутное такси", which means "routed taxi"; the word "маршрут" is from the German word "Marschroute", composed of the words "Marsch" and "Route". "Route taxicabs" were introduced in Moscow for the first time in the USSR in 1938, operated by ZiS-101 limousines. They offered ordinary people a chance to ride in luxurious ZiS cars, otherwise reserved for high officials. At first they were meant for tourists and serviced stations and airports. Unlike ordinary taxicabs using taximeters, routed taxicab rides charged by zones, like trams and trolley buses.

The fares ranked cheaper than those of ordinary taxis but higher than in large-scale public transport. Unlike ordinary taxis, where a passenger could enjoy a private ride, the routed taxicab would pick up and drop passengers along its route. During communist rule, state-owned taxicab parks operated all marshrutkas. Other large Soviet cities organized routed taxis. For example, Gorky had a routed taxi line between the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin; as of 1939, the full fare was 3½ roubles. During the World War II of 1941-1945, as the Red Army requisitioned cars, routed taxi services ceased, they resumed in Moscow in 1945. Only by the 1950s did they re-appear in most cities where they had operated before the war. ZiS-110 and GAZ-12 ZIM cars served in this role until the mid-1960s. Routed taxicabs offered interurban services. From Moscow they drove to distant cities, like Simferopol, Vladimir and Riazan. For example, the Moscow-Yalta route operated in the summer, taking two days, with a night stop in Belgorod.

In the 1960s, RAF-977 minibuses became the most common routed-taxi vehicles, replacing passenger cars. Municipal authorities operated the routes; the fare gap between buses and routed taxicabs lessened. For example, in Moscow the standard bus fare cost 5 kopecks, the minibus fare was 15 kopecks on most routes; the new model RAF-2203 Latvija replaced the RAF-977 minibuses. All marshrutka services used RAF-2203 Latvijas; the introduction of market economies changed the supply of transportation in the urban population in the CIS. The demand for faster and more versatile public transit came to be fulfilled while the demand for the underfunded municipal transportation system dropped. Although buses, obtained on a secondary market, had been used by entrepreneurs as a back-up on the busiest routes since the early 1990s, it wasn't until the auto manufacturer GAZ rolled out in 1996 the first mass-produced Russian minibus, GAZelle, that the modern system took shape. GAZelle was an instant hit; the cheap, easy-to-repair, lease-friendly passenger minibus with a capacity of twelve seated passengers was what entrepreneurs needed.

An initial investment of around US$8,000 could be paid off in less than a year given some luck. A lot of individual entrepreneurs entered the market, as well as some larger companies. At this time, licensing for public transportation in particular was not required; the vehicle only had to pass annual safety check-ups, which were easy, since local authorities trusted GAZ cars. Moreover, the GAZelle could be equipped to run on natural gas. During this period, most marshrutkas followed well-established public transit routes. Witnessing the success of owned public transportation led to some reaction from the society. Local authorities responded by toughening safety and licensing requirements—like mandatory free transportation of a certain number of disabled passengers upon request and "package deals" in route licensing—tying the privilege to drive on a lucrative route to the chore of driving several not-so-profitable ones; the market became dominated either by large companies or by unions of owner-operators of individual minibuses.

Some of municipal public transportation companies entered the business, prices dropped due to increased competition. Another consequence was a massive response from bus manufacturers. Old manufacturers introduced smaller, more manoeuvrable models and started licensed assembly of minibuses. Diesel-engined models in the form of the new Isuzu Bogdan, Tata Etalon and others have seen immense popularity; the capacity grew from fifteen sitting passengers to jam-packed small buses of fifty. The busiest routes in major cities now use full-size owned buses operating at the same price with municipal companies; the original GAZelle saw a few official modifications to its body and passenger capacity to better serve buyer demands, including models featuring diesel engines. In Russia, GAZelle, Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, Peugeot Boxe