1.
Balloon boy hoax
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Falcon was nicknamed Balloon Boy by some in the media. After more than a flight that covered more than 50 miles across three counties, the balloon landed about 12 miles northeast of Denver International Airport. Authorities sent several National Guard helicopters and local police in pursuit, later that afternoon the boy was reported to have been hiding in his homes attic the entire time. Suspicions soon arose that the incident was a hoax and a publicity stunt engineered by the Heenes, in response to a question about why he was hiding, Falcon said to his father, You guys said that, um, we did this for the show. On October 18, Larimer County sheriff Jim Alderden announced his conclusion that the incident was a hoax, Richard Heene pleaded guilty on November 13,2009, to the charge of attempting to influence a public servant. On December 23,2009, Richard Heene was sentenced to 90 days in jail and Mayumi Heene to 20 days of weekend jail, Richard was also ordered to pay $36,000 in restitution. The story gained great popularity on the Internet and Twitter, and was adapted into a musical comedy called Balloon Boy. Richard Heene and Mayumi Iizuka first met at a school in Hollywood, California. Heene had pursued careers in acting and stand-up comedy without success and, for a time, he, Heene is a handyman and an amateur scientist, whom associates have called a shameless self-promoter who would do almost anything to advance his latest endeavor. Heene is a storm chaser who started in the 1970s after a storm ripped the roof off a building he was working on, Heenes storm chasing has included riding a motorcycle into a tornado and reportedly flying a plane around the perimeter of Hurricane Wilma in 2005. He regularly involved his children in his endeavors, taking them along on UFO-hunting expeditions, the Heenes have three sons named Falcon, Bradford and Ryo. The family had been featured on the reality television show Wife Swap on two occasions, the time as a fan-favorite choice for the shows 100th episode. During his time on the show, Heene expressed his belief that humanity descended from aliens, Heene had unsuccessfully sought the medias interest in a proposed reality show called The Science Detectives, which he envisioned as a documentary series to investigate the mysteries of science. Months before the incident on October 15,2009, Heene pitched a reality show idea to the television channel TLC. After the balloon incident, the producer of Wife Swap said that a show involving the Heenes had been in development, the producer declined to provide specifics. The Lifetime channel had been set to air one of the Wife Swap episodes involving the Heenes on October 29,2009, but the station pulled the episode because of the balloon incident. He also stated that, once the high voltage timer was switched on, the balloon measured 20 feet in diameter and 5 feet in height, and was constructed from plastic tarps taped together, covered with an aluminum foil and held together with string and duct tape. The base of the balloon, which Falcon allegedly crawled into, was a utility box made from a thin piece of plywood
2.
Edgar Allan Poe
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Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and he is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as a whole, and he was one of the countrys earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a difficult life. Poe was born in Boston, the child of two actors. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following year, thus orphaned, the child was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia. They never formally adopted him, but Poe was with them well into young adulthood, tension developed later as John Allan and Edgar repeatedly clashed over debts, including those incurred by gambling, and the cost of secondary education for the young man. Poe attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money, Poe quarreled with Allan over the funds for his education and enlisted in the Army in 1827 under an assumed name. It was at time that his publishing career began, albeit humbly, with the anonymous collection of poems Tamerlane and Other Poems. With the death of Frances Allan in 1829, Poe and Allan reached a temporary rapprochement, however, Poe later failed as an officer cadet at West Point, declaring a firm wish to be a poet and writer, and he ultimately parted ways with John Allan. Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the several years working for literary journals and periodicals. His work forced him to move among several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, in Richmond in 1836, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin. In January 1845, Poe published his poem The Raven to instant success and his wife died of tuberculosis two years after its publication. For years, he had been planning to produce his own journal The Penn, Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, a number of his homes are dedicated museums today. The Mystery Writers of America present an award known as the Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre. He was born Edgar Poe in Boston on January 19,1809 and he had an elder brother William Henry Leonard Poe, and a younger sister Rosalie Poe. Their grandfather David Poe Sr. had emigrated from Cavan, Ireland to America around the year 1750, Edgar may have been named after a character in William Shakespeares King Lear, a play that the couple were performing in 1809
3.
Thomas Monck Mason
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Thomas Monck Mason was a flute player, writer, and balloonist. He wrote concerning the balloon trip and on theology and he was impoverished after renting London theatres to stage opera. Monck Mason was born in 1803 and he spent some years studying the flute abroad after he completed his formal education at Trinity College in Dublin. He composed a number of works as well as being a professional flautist. Monck Mason is shown in a painting preparing for a journey in a balloon with Charles Green and they travelled a record distance of 500 miles in 18 hours. In 1836, Thomas Monck Mason wrote an Account of the Late æronautical Expedition from London to Weilburg which detailed the journey and this book was dedicated to Hollond. The book contained illustrations of the balloon and its journey, the engravings were said to be based on sketches made by Mason. Mason describes the journey which took eighteen hours and how after landing they started to return to England. He notes that it took hours to procure fourteen helpers. These were required to get the balloon to the nearest town of Weilburg, Mason notes that the precise location where they landed was by a mil called Dillhausen in the valley of Elbern, two leagues from Weilburg. This is interesting as he says this is also the place where Jean-Pierre Blanchard landed in an earlier balloon trip when he set out from Frankfurt in 1785. Besides the painting and the book, the humorous poet Thomas Hood also wrote a poem to celebrate the epic journey to Nassau. The court case over the losses was to drag on for 23 years, for over thirty years after 1845 Mason published books on theology. His first book argued for the infallibility of the bible, masons book on the balloon trip was the model for a famous hoax told by Edgar Allan Poe. He published accounts of a man called Monck Mason who had just crossed the Atlantic by balloon in three days, Monck Mason Aeronautica, or, sketches illustrative of the theory and practice of aerostation - digital facsimile from Linda Hall Library
4.
Atlantic Ocean
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The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other
5.
Gas balloon
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A gas balloon is a balloon that flies in the air because it is filled with a gas less dense than air or lighter than air. It is tied to a thread to prevent it from flying up in the air and it is also sealed at the bottom to ensure that the gas doesnt escape. A gas balloon may also be called a Charlière for its inventor, today, familiar gas balloons include large blimps and small rubber party balloons. Blimps have displaced zeppelins as the dominant form of airship, the first gas balloon made its flight in August 1783. Designed by professor Jacques Charles and Les Frères Robert, it carried no passengers or cargo, on September 19,1784 the brothers and M. Collin-Hullin flew for 6 hours 40 minutes, covering 186 km from Paris to Beuvry near Béthune. This was the first flight over 100 km, gas balloons remained popular throughout the age before powered flight. They could fly higher and further than hot-air balloons, but were dangerous as they were filled with hydrogen or coal gas. Gas ballooning has been popular in Europe, most notably in Germany, several gas balloon clubs exist throughout the country with well organized launch sites and well defined infrastructure making flights relatively easy to do. Rough estimates show 150 active gas pilots in Europe, in stark contrast, gas ballooning in the USA might have at most 30 active pilots who typically fly only once a year at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in October. This is primarily due to the high cost of helium. This is starting to change with the introduction of hydrogen as a lifting gas, the German gas community has been a valuable resource in helping the US pilots gain skills in flying gas balloons and working with hydrogen as a lifting gas. Many US gas pilots have been and are participating in training flights in Germany. A gas balloon can also be tethered, on October 24,2014, Alan Eustace, a former Google executive, made a jump from the stratosphere, a shepericarp ballon, breaking Felix Baumgartners 2012 world record. The launch-point for his jump was from a runway in Roswell, New Mexico. He reached a maximum altitude of 135,908 feet. The balloon used for the feat was manufactured by the Balloon Facility of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad, Eustace in his pressure suit hung tethered under the balloon, without the kind of capsule used by Felix Baumgartner. Eustace started his fall by using a device to separate from the helium balloon. The altitude record for a balloon is 53.0 kilometers
6.
Hoax
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A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as the truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences, although practical jokes have likely existed for thousands of years, one of the earliest recorded hoaxes in history was the drummer of Tedworth in 1661. The communication of hoaxes can be accomplished in almost any manner that a story can be communicated, in person, via word of mouth, via words printed on paper. However, hoaxes could also be spread via chain letters, which became easier as the cost of mailing a letter dropped. The invention of the press in the 15th century brought down the cost of a mass-produced books and pamphlets. During the 20th century, the hoax found a market in the form of supermarket tabloids. Hocus is a shortening of the magic incantation hocus pocus, whose origin is disputed, robert Nares defined the word hoax as meaning to cheat, dating from Thomas Adys 1656 book A candle in the dark, or a treatise on the nature of witches and witchcraft. T. Barnum, whose Fiji mermaid contributed to his wealth—often acquire monetary gain or fame through their fabrications, one of the earliest recorded media hoaxes is a fake almanac published by Jonathan Swift under the pseudonym of Isaac Bickerstaff in 1708. Swift predicted the death of John Partridge, one of the astrologers in England at that time, in the almanac. Partridges reputation was damaged as a result and his astrological almanac was not published for the six years. It is possible to perpetrate a hoax by making only true statements using unfamiliar wording or context, political hoaxes are sometimes motivated by the desire to ridicule or besmirch opposing politicians or political institutions, often before elections. A hoax differs from a trick or from fiction in that the audience is unaware of being deceived. A hoax is often intended as a joke or to cause embarrassment. It can also emerge from a marketing or advertising purpose, a resulting video clip of Chloe and Keiths Wedding was uploaded to YouTube and was viewed by over 30 million people and the couple was interviewed by numerous talk shows. Viewers were deluded into thinking that it was a clip of a real accident at a real wedding. A borderline case between fiction and hoax is a 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles describing a Martian invasion of Earth, many people who tuned in without hearing the introduction of the program as fiction were concerned that the invasion was real. Governments sometimes spread false information to facilitate their objectives, such as going to war, the Iraq dossier is an example of this, there is often a mixture of outright hoax and suppression and management of information to give the desired impression. In wartime and times of international tension rumors abound, some of which may be deliberate hoaxes, examples of politics-related hoaxes, Belgium is a country with a Flemish-speaking region and a French-speaking region
7.
The Sun (New York City)
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The Sun was a New York newspaper that was published from 1833 until 1950. It was considered a paper, like the citys two more successful broadsheets, The New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune. The Sun was the most politically conservative of the three, in New York, The Sun began publication September 3,1833, as a morning newspaper edited by Benjamin Day with the slogan It Shines for All. This was a penny press newspaper, the Sun was groundbreaking in its content, being the first newspaper to report crimes and personal events such as suicides, deaths, and divorces. Day printed the first newspaper account of a suicide and this story was significant because it was the first about an ordinary person. It changed journalism forever, making the newspaper an integral part of the community, prior to this, all stories in newspapers were about politics or reviews of books or the theater. Day was the first to hire reporters to go out and collect stories, prior to this, newspapers relied on readers sending in items, and on making unauthorized copies of stories from other newspapers. His focus on crime is the beginning of the craft of reporting and storytelling, in addition, The Sun was aimed not at the elite but at the common masses of working people. Day and The Sun recognized that the masses were fast becoming literate, prior to The Sun, printers produced the newspapers, often at a loss, making their living selling printing services. An evening edition was introduced in 1887, Frank Munsey bought both editions in 1916 and merged the Evening Sun with his New York Press. On April 13,1844, The Sun published as factual a story by Edgar Allan Poe now known as The Balloon-Hoax, the story told of an imagined Atlantic crossing by hot-air balloon. Today, the paper is best known for the 1897 editorial Is There a Santa Claus, but if a man bites a dog, that is news. In 1926, the Sun published a review by John Grierson of Robert Flahertys film Moana, the series served as the basis for the 1954 movie On the Waterfront. The Suns first female reporter was Emily Verdery Bettey, hired in 1868. The 1952 film Deadline – U. S. A. is a story about the death of a New York newspaper called The Day, loosely based upon the old New York Sun, which closed in 1950. The original Sun newspaper was edited by Benjamin Day, making the newspaper name a play on words. The masthead of the original Sun is visible in a montage of newspaper clippings in a scene of the 1972 film The Godfather and they were recognized as a New York City landmark in 1986. In 2002, a new broadsheet was launched, styled The New York Sun and it was intended as a conservative alternative and local-news focused alternative to the more liberal/progressive The New York Times and other New York newspapers
8.
Hot air balloon
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A hot air balloon is a lighter than air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket, which carries passengers, the heated air inside the envelope makes it buoyant since it has a lower density than the colder air outside the envelope. As with all aircraft, hot air balloons cannot fly beyond the atmosphere, unlike gas balloons, the envelope does not have to be sealed at the bottom, since the air near the bottom of the envelope is at the same pressure as the surrounding air. In modern sport balloons the envelope is made from nylon fabric. The hot air balloon is the first successful human-carrying flight technology, the first hot-air balloon flown in the Americas was launched from the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia on January 9,1793 by the French aeronaut Jean Pierre Blanchard. Hot air balloons that can be propelled through the air rather than simply drifting with the wind are known as thermal airships, early unmanned hot air balloons were used in China. Zhuge Liang of the Shu Han kingdom, during the Three Kingdoms era and these lanterns are known as Kongming lanterns. Later that same day, Pilatre de Rozier became the human to ascend into the air, reaching an altitude of 26 m. The first free flight with passengers was made a few weeks later. King Louis XVI had originally decreed that condemned criminals would be the first pilots, the first military use of a hot air balloon happened in 1794 during the battle of Fleurus, when the French used the balloon lEntreprenant for observation. Modern hot air balloons, with a heat source, were developed by Ed Yost, beginning during the 1950s, his work resulted in his first successful flight. The first modern hot air balloon to be made in the United Kingdom was the Bristol Belle, presently, hot air balloons are used primarily for recreation. Hot air balloons are able to fly to extremely high altitudes, on November 26,2005 Vijaypat Singhania set the world altitude record for highest hot air balloon flight, reaching 21,027 m. He took off from downtown Mumbai, India, and landed 240 km south in Panchale, the previous record of 19,811 m had been set by Per Lindstrand on June 6,1988, in Plano, Texas. With a volume of 74 thousand cubic meters, the envelope was the largest ever built for a hot air craft. Designed to fly in the jet streams, the Pacific Flyer recorded the fastest ground speed for a manned balloon at 245 mph. The longest duration record was set by Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard, Auguste Piccards grandson and it was the first nonstop trip around the world by balloon. The balloon left Château-dOex, Switzerland, on March 1,1999, the two men exceeded distance, endurance, and time records, traveling 19 days,21 hours, and 55 minutes
9.
Great Moon Hoax
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The discoveries were falsely attributed to Sir John Herschel, one of the best-known contemporary astronomers of that time. The story was advertised on August 21,1835, as an upcoming feature allegedly reprinted from The Edinburgh Courant, the first in a series of six was published four days later on August 25. The headline read, The articles described fantastic animals on the Moon, including bison, goats, unicorns, bipedal tail-less beavers, there were trees, oceans and beaches. These discoveries were made with an immense telescope of an entirely new principle. The author of the narrative was ostensibly Dr. Andrew Grant, the companion and amanuensis of Sir John Herschel. Authorship of the article has been attributed to Richard Adams Locke, Locke publicly admitted to being the author in 1840, in a letter to the weekly paper New World. Still, rumours persisted that others were involved, however, there is no good evidence to indicate that anyone but Locke was the author of the hoax. Assuming that Richard A. Gruithuisen claimed to have observed shades of color on the lunar surface. He also observed lines and geometrical shapes, which he indicated the existence of walls, roads, fortifications. However, a direct object of Lockes satire was Rev. Thomas Dick. Dick had computed that the Solar System contained 21,891,974,404,480 inhabitants, in fact, the Moon alone, by his count, would contain 4,200,000,000 inhabitants. His writings were popular in the United States, his fans including intellectual luminaries such as Ralph Waldo Emerson. According to legend, The Suns circulation increased dramatically because of the hoax and remained permanently greater than before, however, the degree to which the hoax increased the papers circulation has certainly been exaggerated in popular accounts of the event. It was not discovered to be a hoax for several weeks after its publication and, even then, Herschel was initially amused by the hoax, noting that his own real observations could never be as exciting. He became annoyed later when he had to answer questions from people who believed the hoax was serious, edgar Allan Poe claimed the story was a plagiarism of his earlier work The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall. His editor at the time was Richard Adams Locke and he later published The Balloon-Hoax in the same newspaper. The story was reprinted in the New York Transcript on September 2–5,1835, under the headline Lunar Discoveries, Extraordinary Aerial Voyage by Baron Hans Pfaall. Poe described a voyage to the Moon in a balloon, using a factually plausible scenario, Pfaall lives for five years on the Moon with lunarians
10.
William Harrison Ainsworth
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William Harrison Ainsworth was an English historical novelist born at King Street in Manchester. He trained as a lawyer, but the legal profession held no attraction for him, while completing his legal studies in London he met the publisher John Ebers, at that time manager of the Kings Theatre, Haymarket. Ebers introduced Ainsworth to literary and dramatic circles, and to his daughter, Ainsworth briefly tried the publishing business, but soon gave it up and devoted himself to journalism and literature. His first success as a writer came with Rookwood in 1834, a stream of 39 novels followed, the last of which appeared in 1881. Ainsworth died in Reigate on 3 January 1882, on 4 October 1806, Ainsworths brother, Thomas Gilbert Ainsworth, was born. Although the family home was destroyed, it was a three-storey Georgian home in a well-to-do community. The area influenced Ainsworth with its historical and romantic atmosphere, which existed until the community was replaced by commercial buildings. Besides the community, Ainsworth read romantic works as a child, of these, Dick Turpin was a favourite of Ainsworth. During his childhood, he adopted Jacobean ideas and held Tory ideas in addition to his Jacobite sympathies, even though his community was strict Whig, during this time, Ainsworth began to write prolifically. The Ainsworth family moved to Smedly Lane, north of Manchester in Cheetham Hill and they kept the old residence in addition to the new, but resided in the new home most of the time. The surrounding hilly country was covered in woods, which allowed Ainsworth, when not playing, Ainsworth was tutored by his uncle, William Harrison. In March 1817, he was enrolled at Manchester Grammar School, the work emphasised that his classical education was of good quality but was reinforced with strict discipline and corporal punishment. Ainsworth was a student and was popular among his fellow students. His school days were mixed, his time within the school and with his family was even though there were struggles within the Manchester community. Ainsworth was connected to the event because his uncles joined in protest at the incident, during the time, he was able to pursue his own literary interests and even created his own little theatre within the family home at King Street. Along with his friends and brother, he created and acted in plays throughout 1820. During 1820, Ainsworth began to publish many of his works under the name Thomas Hall, the first work, a play called The Rivals, was published on 5 March 1821 in Arlisss Pocket Magazine. Throughout 1821, the magazine printed seventeen other works of Ainsworths under the names Thomas Hall, the genre and forms of the work greatly varied, with one being a claim to have found plays of a 17th-century playwright William Aynesworthe, which ended up being his own works
11.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
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The Murders in the Rue Morgue is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in Grahams Magazine in 1841. It has been recognized as the first modern detective story, Poe referred to it as one of his tales of ratiocination, two works that share some similarities predate Poes stories, including Das Fräulein von Scuderi by E. T. A. Hoffmann and Zadig by Voltaire. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris who solves the mystery of the murder of two women. Numerous witnesses heard a suspect, though no one agrees on what language was spoken, at the murder scene, Dupin finds a hair that does not appear to be human. As the first fictional detective, Poes Dupin displays many traits which became literary conventions in subsequent fictional detectives, including Sherlock Holmes, Dupin himself reappears in The Mystery of Marie Rogêt and The Purloined Letter. The story opens with an explanation of ratiocination. Dupin demonstrates his prowess by deducing his companions thoughts as if through apparent supernatural power, the story then turns to the baffling double murder of Madame LEspanaye and her daughter at their home in the Rue Morgue, a fictional street in Paris. According to newspaper accounts, the mother was found in a yard behind the house, with broken bones. The daughter was strangled to death and stuffed upside down into a chimney. The murders occurred in a room that was locked from the inside, on the floor were found a bloody straight razor, several bloody tufts of gray hair. Several witnesses reported hearing two voices at the time of the murder, one male and French, but disagreed on the language spoken by the other, the speech was unclear, and every witness admits that he does not know the language he claims to have heard. Paris natives Dupin and his friend, the narrator of the story. The two live in seclusion and allow no visitors and they have cut off contact with former associates and venture outside only at night. We existed within ourselves alone, the narrator explains, when a bank clerk named Adolphe Le Bon is arrested even though no evidence exists pointing to his guilt, Dupin becomes intrigued and remembers a service that Le Bon once performed for him. He decides to offer his assistance to G–, the prefect of police, because none of the witnesses can agree on the language the murderer spoke, Dupin concludes they were not hearing a human voice at all. He and the narrator examine the house thoroughly, the following day and he also points out that the murderer would have had to have superhuman strength to force the daughters body up the chimney. He formulates a method by which the murderer could have entered the room and he has placed an advertisement in the local newspaper asking if anyone has lost such an animal, and a sailor soon arrives looking for it. The sailor offers to pay a reward, but Dupin is interested only in learning the circumstances behind the two murders, the sailor explains that he captured the orangutan while in Borneo and brought it back to Paris, but had trouble keeping it under control
12.
Science fiction
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Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a literature of ideas. Science fiction is difficult to define, as it includes a range of subgenres and themes. Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying science fiction is what we point to when we say it, a definition echoed by author Mark C. Glassy, who argues that the definition of science fiction is like the definition of pornography, you do not know what it is, in 1970 or 1971William Atheling Jr. According to science fiction writer Robert A, rod Serlings definition is fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science fiction is the improbable made possible, Science fiction is largely based on writing rationally about alternative possible worlds or futures. Science fiction elements include, A time setting in the future, in alternative timelines, a spatial setting or scenes in outer space, on other worlds, or on subterranean earth. Characters that include aliens, mutants, androids, or humanoid robots, futuristic or plausible technology such as ray guns, teleportation machines, and humanoid computers. Scientific principles that are new or that contradict accepted physical laws, for time travel, wormholes. New and different political or social systems, e. g. utopian, dystopian, post-scarcity, paranormal abilities such as mind control, telepathy, telekinesis Other universes or dimensions and travel between them. A product of the budding Age of Reason and the development of science itself. Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered Keplers work the first science fiction story and it depicts a journey to the Moon and how the Earths motion is seen from there. Later, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story about a flight to the moon, more examples appeared throughout the 19th century. Wells The War of the Worlds describes an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians using tripod fighting machines equipped with advanced weaponry and it is a seminal depiction of an alien invasion of Earth. In the late 19th century, the scientific romance was used in Britain to describe much of this fiction. This produced additional offshoots, such as the 1884 novella Flatland, the term would continue to be used into the early 20th century for writers such as Olaf Stapledon. In the early 20th century, pulp magazines helped develop a new generation of mainly American SF writers, influenced by Hugo Gernsback, the founder of Amazing Stories magazine. In 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs published A Princess of Mars, the first of his series of Barsoom novels, situated on Mars
13.
Jules Verne
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Jules Gabriel Verne was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. Verne is generally considered a literary author in France and most of Europe. Verne has been the second most-translated author in the world since 1979 and he has sometimes been called the Father of Science Fiction, a title that has also been given to H. G. Wells and Hugo Gernsback. His parents were Pierre Verne, an originally from Provins, and Sophie Allote de la Fuÿe. In 1829, the Verne family moved some hundred meters away to No.2 Quai Jean-Bart, three sisters, Anna, Mathilde, and Marie, would follow. In 1834, at the age of six, Verne was sent to boarding school at 5 Place du Bouffay in Nantes, the teacher, Mme Sambin, was the widow of a naval captain who had disappeared some 30 years before. Mme Sambin often told the students that her husband was a shipwrecked castaway, the theme of the Robinsonade would stay with Verne throughout his life and appear in many of his novels, including The Mysterious Island, Second Fatherland, and The School for Robinsons. In 1836, Verne went on to École Saint‑Stanislas, a Catholic school suiting the pious religious tastes of his father, Verne quickly distinguished himself in mémoire, geography, Greek, Latin, and singing. In the same year,1836, Pierre Verne bought a house at 29 Rue des Réformés in the village of Chantenay on the Loire River. In his brief memoir Souvenirs d’enfance et de jeunesse, Verne recalled a deep fascination with the river and with the many merchant vessels navigating it. He also took vacations at Brains, in the house of his uncle Prudent Allotte, a retired shipowner, who had gone around the world and served as mayor of Brains from 1828 to 1837. Verne took joy in playing interminable rounds of the Game of the Goose with his uncle, and both the game and his uncles name would be memorialized in two late novels. It is now known that the legend is a tale invented by Vernes first biographer, his niece Marguerite Allotte de la Füye. In 1840, the Vernes moved again to an apartment at No.6 Rue Jean-Jacques-Rousseau. In the same year Verne entered another school, the Petit Séminaire de Saint-Donatien. His unfinished novel Un prêtre en 1839, written in his teens, from 1844 to 1846, Verne and his brother were enrolled in the Lycée Royal in Nantes. After finishing classes in rhetoric and philosophy, he took the baccalauréat at Rennes, however, his father took it for granted that Verne, being the firstborn son of the family, would not attempt to make money in literature but would instead inherit the family law practice. In 1847, Vernes father sent him to Paris, primarily to begin his studies in law school, and secondarily to distance him temporarily from Nantes
14.
Around the World in Eighty Days
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Around the World in Eighty Days is a classic adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, published in 1873. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a £20,000 wager set by his friends at the Reform Club and it is one of Vernes most acclaimed works. The story starts in London on Tuesday,1 October,1872, Phileas Fogg is a rich British gentleman living in solitude. Despite his wealth, Fogg lives a modest life with habits carried out with mathematical precision, very little can be said about his social life other than that he is a member of the Reform Club. Having dismissed his valet, James Forster, for bringing him shaving water at 84 °F instead of 86 °F. He accepts a wager for £20,000 from his club members to complete such a journey within this time period. Fogg and Passepartout reach Suez in time, while disembarking in Egypt, they are watched by a Scotland Yard detective, one Fix, who has been dispatched from London in search of a bank robber. Because Fogg answers the vague description Scotland Yard was given of the robber, since he cannot secure a warrant in time, Fix boards the steamer conveying the travellers to Bombay. Fix becomes acquainted with Passepartout without revealing his purpose, Fogg promises the steamer engineer a large reward if he gets them to Bombay early. They dock two days ahead of schedule, after reaching India they take a train from Bombay to Calcutta. Fogg learns that the Daily Telegraph article was wrong--the railroad actually ends at Kholby and starts again,50 miles further on, Fogg buys an elephant, hires a guide, and starts toward Allahabad. They come across a procession in which a young Indian woman, since the young woman is drugged with opium and hemp and is obviously not going voluntarily, the travellers decide to rescue her. They follow the procession to the site, where Passepartout takes the place of Aoudas deceased husband on the pyre on which she is to be burned. During the ceremony he rises from the pyre, scaring off the priests, the twelve hours gained earlier are lost, but Fogg shows no regret. The travellers hasten to catch the train at the railway station. At Calcutta, they board a steamer going to Hong Kong, Fix has Fogg and Passepartout arrested. They jump bail and Fix follows them to Hong Kong and he shows himself to Passepartout, who is delighted to again meet his travelling companion from the earlier voyage. In Hong Kong, it out that Aoudas distant relative, in whose care they had been planning to leave her, has moved to Holland
15.
Five Weeks in a Balloon
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Five Weeks in a Balloon, or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen is an adventure novel by Jules Verne, published in 1863. The book gives readers a glimpse of the exploration of Africa and he has invented a mechanism that, by eliminating the need to release gas or throw ballast overboard to control his altitude, allows very long trips to be taken. This voyage is meant to link together the voyages of Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke in East Africa with those of Heinrich Barth in the regions of the Sahara and Chad. The trip begins in Zanzibar on the east coast, and passes across Lake Victoria, Lake Chad, Agadez, Timbuktu, Djenné, the book describes the unknown interior of Africa near modern-day Central African Republic as a desert, when it is actually savanna. A good deal of the exploration is to focus on the finding of the source of the Nile. The second leg is to link up the other explorers, there are numerous scenes of adventure, composed of either a conflict with a native or a conflict with the environment. Some examples include, Rescuing of a missionary from a tribe that was preparing to sacrifice him, running out of water while stranded, windless, over the Sahara. An attack on the balloon by condors, leading to an action as Joe leaps out of the balloon. The actions taken to rescue Joe later, narrowly escaping the remnants of a militant army as the balloon dwindles to nothingness with the loss of hydrogen. An anachronistic killing of a Bluebuck antelope, a species which was already extinct. * In all these adventures, the novel is filled with coincidental moments where trouble is avoided because wind catches up at just the right time, or the characters look in just the right direction. There are frequent references to a higher power watching out for them, the balloon itself ultimately fails before the end, but makes it far enough across to get the protagonists to friendly lands, and eventually back to England, therefore succeeding in the expedition. The story abruptly ends after the African trip, with only a synopsis of what follows. Five Weeks has a handful of similarities to the novel Journey to the Center of the Earth, there is the same sort of conjecture from current scientific ideas and what Verne puts forth as the actual truth. The party of three characters is divided into the Doctor, the doubtful companion who initially balks at the journey. In both novels, Purdey rifles are referenced, in both novels, there is an episode of despair characterized by thirst. 1961 - Flight of the Lost Balloon USA directed by Nathan Juran, due to pressure from Irwin Allen and 20th Century Fox all references to Jules Verne were dropped from the film
16.
From the Earth to the Moon
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From the Earth to the Moon is an 1865 novel by Jules Verne. The character of Michel Ardan, the French member of the party in the novel, was inspired by the real-life photographer Félix Nadar, the story opens some time after the end of the American Civil War. The Gun Club, a society based in Baltimore and dedicated to the design of weapons of all kinds, comes together when Impey Barbicane, its president, hes done some calculations, and believes that they could construct a cannon capable of shooting a projectile to the moon. The first obstacle, the money to construct the cannon, is raised from a number of countries in America, stones Hill in Tampa Town, Florida is chosen as the site for the cannons construction, predating Kennedy Space Centers placement in Florida by almost 100 years. Verne gives the position as 27°7 northern latitude and 5°7 western longitude. During a meeting between Ardan, the Gun Club, and the inhabitants of Florida, Nicholl appears and challenges Barbicane to a duel. The duel is stopped when Ardan—having been warned by J. T. Maston, meanwhile, Barbicane finds the solution to the problem of surviving the incredible acceleration that the explosion would cause. Ardan suggests that Barbicane and Nicholl travel with him in the projectile, in the end, the projectile is successfully launched, but the destinies of the three astronauts are left inconclusive. The sequel, Around the Moon, deals with what happens to the three men in their travel from the earth to the moon, in his 1903 publication on space travel, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky refuted Vernes idea of using a cannon for space travel. He concluded that a gun would have to be impossibly long, the gun in the story would subject the payload to about 22,000 g of acceleration. However, he was inspired by the story and developed the theory of spaceflight. Gerald Bull and the Project HARP proved after 1961 that a cannon can shoot a 180 kg projectile to an altitude of 180 kilometres, additionally, during the Plumbbob nuclear test series, a 900 kg capping plate made of steel was blasted away and never found. It has been speculated that the plate entered outer space because its speed was estimated to be two and six times the escape velocity, but engineers believe it melted in the atmosphere. Jules Verne’s novel is a window to the knowledge of his time and it has several technical errors, which look unusual to the modern eyes, but reflect the knowledge of 1865-1870. Some of the issues are, The projectile is launched using a large gun, of course, the largest issue is the resulting acceleration, which is well above the survivable limit for humans. The space capsule also performs a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on the return trip, Verne did not consider using a rocket as the main propulsion method although some small retro-rockets were carried onboard to be used to soften the landing on the Moon. Liquid propellants were invented even later and these modern propellants offer much higher specific impulse than black powder. Verne has used a gun perhaps because he ignored that rockets could work in vacuum, the passengers en route to the Moon are described to be subjected to gravitation all the way to the “neutral point” between the Earth and the Moon
17.
Transatlantic flight
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A transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean, from Europe, Africa or the Middle East to North America, Central America, South America, or vice versa. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing aircraft, airships, balloons, early aircraft engines did not have the reliability needed for the crossing, nor the power to lift the required fuel. There are difficulties navigating over featureless expanses of water for thousands of miles, since the middle of the 20th century, however, transatlantic flight has been routine, for commercial, military, diplomatic, and other purposes. Experimental flights still present challenges for transatlantic fliers, the idea of transatlantic flight came about with the advent of the balloon. The balloons of the period were inflated with gas, a moderate lifting medium compared to hydrogen or helium. In 1859, John Wise built an enormous aerostat named the Atlantic, the flight lasted less than a day, crash-landing in Henderson, New York. Lowe prepared a massive balloon of 725,000 cubic feet called the City of New York to take off from Philadelphia in 1860, the possibility of transatlantic flight by aircraft emerged after the First World War, which had seen tremendous advances in aerial capabilities. In April 1913 the London newspaper The Daily Mail offered a prize of £10,000 to The competition was suspended with the outbreak of war in 1914 but reopened after Armistice was declared in 1918. Between 8 and 31 May 1919, the Curtiss seaplane NC-4 made a crossing of the Atlantic flying from the U. S. to Newfoundland, then to the Azores and on to mainland Portugal, the whole journey took 23 days, with six stops along the way. A trail of 53 station ships across the Atlantic gave the points to navigate by. This flight was not eligible for the Daily Mail prize since it more than 72 consecutive hours. With the war over, there were four teams competing to be the first non-stop across the Atlantic and they were Australian pilot Harry Hawker with observer Kenneth Mackenzie-Grieve in a single engine Sopwith Atlantic, Frederick Raynham and C. W. F. Morgan in a Martinsyde, the Handley Page Group, led by Mark Kerr, each group had to ship its aircraft to Newfoundland and make a rough field for the take off. Hawker and Mackenzie-Grieve made the first attempt on 18 May, Raynham and Morgan also made an attempt on 18 May but crashed on take off due to the high fuel load. The Handley Page team was in the stages of testing its aircraft for the flight in June. During 14–15 June 1919, the British aviators Alcock and Brown made the first non-stop transatlantic flight, Alcocks enthusiasm impressed Vickerss team, and he was appointed as its pilot. Work began on converting the Vimy for the flight, replacing its bomb racks with extra petrol tanks. Shortly afterwards Brown, who was unemployed, approached Vickers seeking a post, Alcock and Brown flew the modified Vickers Vimy, powered by two Rolls-Royce Eagle 360 hp engines
18.
Zeppelin
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A Zeppelin was a type of rigid airship named after the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelins notions were first formulated in 1874 and developed in detail in 1893 and they were patented in Germany in 1895 and in the United States in 1899. After the outstanding success of the Zeppelin design, the word came to be commonly used to refer to all rigid airships. Zeppelins were first flown commercially in 1910 by Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG, the worlds first airline in revenue service, by mid-1914, DELAG had carried over 10,000 fare-paying passengers on over 1,500 flights. During World War I the German military made use of Zeppelins as bombers and scouts. The defeat of Germany in 1918 temporarily slowed down the airship business, an exception was made allowing the construction of one airship for the US Navy, which saved the company from extinction. In 1926 the restrictions on airship construction were lifted and with the aid of donations from the public and this revived the companys fortunes, and during the 1930s the airships Graf Zeppelin and the larger LZ129 Hindenburg operated regular transatlantic flights from Germany to North America and Brazil. The Hindenburg disaster in 1937, along political and economic issues. The principal feature of Zeppelins design was a rigid metal framework made up from transverse rings. The advantage of design was that the aircraft could be much larger than non-rigid airships. The framework of most Zeppelins was made of duralumin, early Zeppelins used rubberised cotton for the gasbags, but most later craft used goldbeaters skin, made from the intestines of cattle. The first Zeppelins had long cylindrical hulls with tapered ends and complex multi-plane fins and they were propelled by several engines, mounted in gondolas or engine cars, which were attached to the outside of the structural framework. Some of these could provide reverse thrust for manoeuvring while mooring, early models had a comparatively small externally mounted gondola for passengers and crew which was attached to the bottom of the frame. This space was never heated so passengers during trips across the North Atlantic or Siberia were forced to bundle themselves in blankets, the flight ceiling was so low that no pressurization of the cabins was necessary, though the Hindenburg did maintain a pressurized air-locked smoking room. Access to the Zeppelin was achieved in a number of ways, the Graf Zeppelins gondola was accessed while the vessel was on the ground, via gangways. This describes a large rigidly framed outer envelope containing several separate gasbags and he had previously encountered Union Army balloons in 1863 when he visited the United States as a military observer during the American Civil War. Count Zeppelin began to pursue his project after his early retirement from the military in 1890 at the age of 52. Convinced of the importance of aviation, he started working on various designs in 1891
19.
R33-class airship
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The lead ship, R33, went on to serve successfully for ten years and survived one of the most alarming and heroic incidents in airship history when she was torn from her mooring mast in a gale. She was called a Pulham Pig by the locals, as the blimps based there had been, substantially larger than the preceding R31 class, the R33 class was in the design stage in 1916 when the German Zeppelin L33 was brought down on English soil. Despite the efforts of the crew to set it on fire, it was captured nearly intact, for five months, the LZ76 was carefully examined in order to discover the Germans secrets. The R33 class was semi-streamlined fore and aft, the section being straight-sided. The small gap was faired over, so the gondola seemed to be a single structure, R33 first flew on 6 March 1919, and was sent to RAF Pulham in Norfolk. Between then and October 14, R33 made 23 flights totalling 337 hours flying time, one of these, a flight promoting Victory Bonds even included a brass band playing in the top machine gun post. In 1920 she was demilitarised and given over to work with the civil registration G-FAAG. This work consisted of trials of new mast mooring techniques using the mast erected at Pulham, on one occasion winds of 80 mph were successfully withstood while moored. Another experiment was an ascent carrying a pilotless Sopwith Camel which was launched over the Yorkshire Moors. After an overhaul, R33 was based at Croydon Airport, moored to a portable mast, on 31 May 1921 the British government cancelled all airship development for financial reasons. Military airships were scrapped, but as a civilian airship R33 was mothballed instead, in 1925, after being inactive for nearly four years, the reconditioned R33 emerged from her shed at Cardington. At 09,50 on 16 April 1925 the R33 was torn from the mast at Pulham during a gale and her nose partially collapsed and the first gas cell deflated leaving her low in the bow. The crew on board started the engines, gaining height, and rigged a cover for the bow section. A Royal Navy vessel was readied and left the port of Lowestoft in case the R33 came down in the sea. The local lifeboat was launched, but was back by the weather conditions. Some five hours after the break from the mast, R33 was under control. As she approached the Dutch coast R33 was given the option of landing at De Kooy, late in the evening R33 was able to hold her position over the Dutch coast, hovering there until 5 oclock the next morning. She was then able to make her way back home, arriving at the Suffolk coast eight hours later and reaching Pulham at 13,50 hrs
20.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
21.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Britain financed the European coalition that defeated France in 1815 in the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire thereby became the foremost world power for the next century. The Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were relatively small operations in a largely peaceful century, rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the states formation continued up until the mid-19th century. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland. It was an era of economic modernization and growth of industry, trade and finance. Outward migration was heavy to the colonies and to the United States. Britain also built up a large British Empire in Africa and Asia, India, by far the most important possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In foreign policy Britain favoured free trade, which enabled its financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Britain formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan, France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British governments fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801, however, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his governments attempts to introduce it. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized, in May 1803, war was declared again. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System and this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. Frances population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent, after Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once, simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes, arming hostile Indians and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. The war was little noticed in Britain, which could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, American frigates inflicted a series of defeats on the Royal Navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe
22.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
23.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
24.
Double Eagle II
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Newman originally intended to hang glide from the balloon to a landing, while Anderson and Abruzzo continued to fly, but the hang-glider had to be dropped as ballast earlier on 16 August. While flying over France, they heard by radio that authorities had closed Le Bourget Airfield, the crew declined the offer as they were running out of ballast and it would be too risky to pass over the suburbs of Paris. They landed in a field of barley, owned by Roger and Rachel Coquerel, television images showed a highway nearby, its shoulders and outer lanes crowded with stopped cars, people sweeping across the farm field to the landing spot. The gondola was protected, but most of the logs and charts were stolen by souvenir hunters, the flight, the fourteenth known attempt, was the culmination of more than a century of previous attempts to cross the Atlantic Ocean by balloon. Some of the people who had attempted it were never found, larry Newman won a draw among the three to sleep in the same bed at the United States embassy that Lindbergh slept in. Cameron and Davey, the British balloonists, feted the trio at a party that included a balloon shaped like the Double Eagle II, the trio and their wives planned to return to the United States aboard the supersonic Concorde. Upon the successful crossing, the trip was accommodated by Air France at no charge to the trio, a full chronicle of the voyage can be found in the December 1978 issue of National Geographic. The Double Eagle II Airport is named for the balloon, a monument, containing a model of the balloon, was built to commemorate the Double Eagle II and its Atlantic crossing at the field from where the balloon lifted off. In January 2015, the crew of the Two Eagles Balloon completed a flight across the Pacific Ocean, if verified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, it will officially have broken the time-aloft record of the Double Eagle II. Total weight,760 lb empty Take-off,8,43 p. m. EDT -11 August Landing,7,49 p. m, the first recorded attempt in 1873 traveled only 45 miles. The Rozière balloon The Free Life, carrying Malcolm Brighton, Rodney Anderson, the Spirit of Man in 1974 suffered a balloon burst over the New Jersey coast, killing the rider. The furthest reach yet was achieved by Yost in Silver Fox in 1976, the Double Eagle I, in 1977, ditched west of Iceland, having looped to the east of Greenland. The Zanussi in 1978, by Don Cameron and Christopher Davey, came closest to success and they had planned another attempt but called it off when the Double Eagle II succeeded. Total death toll is five, including those on the two flights that vanished, source of previous attempt information, National Geographic article, December 1978. org
25.
Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations
26.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
27.
Fire balloon
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A fire balloon, or Fu-Go, was a weapon launched by Japan during World War II. The Japanese fire balloon was the first ever weapon possessing intercontinental range, the balloons were ineffective as weapons but were used in one of the few attacks on North America during World War II. From late 1944 until early 1945, the Japanese launched over 9,300 fire balloons, despite the high hopes of their designers, the balloons were ineffective as weapons, causing only six deaths and a small amount of damage. The Japanese designed two types of balloons, the first was called the Type B Balloon and was designed by the Japanese Navy. It was 9 m in diameter and consisted of rubberized silk, the type B balloons were sent first and mainly used for meteorological purposes. The Japanese used them to determine the possibility of the balloons reaching North America. The second type was the bomb-carrying balloon, Japanese bomb-carrying balloons were 10 m in diameter and, when fully inflated, held about 540 m3 of hydrogen. Their launch sites were located on the east coast of the main Japanese island of Honshū, Japan released the first of these bomb-bearing balloons on November 3,1944. General Kusabas men launched over 9,000 balloons throughout the course of the project, the Japanese expected 10% of them to reach America, which is also what is currently believed by researchers. About 300 balloon bombs were found or observed in America and it is likely that more balloon bombs landed in unpopulated areas of North America. The last one was launched in April 1945, the balloon campaign was the fourth attack the Japanese had made on the American mainland. The fūsen bakudan campaign was, however, the most earnest of the attacks. The jet stream reported by Wasaburo Oishi blew at altitudes above 9.15 km, such balloons could carry incendiary and high-explosive bombs to the United States and drop them there to kill people, destroy buildings, and start forest fires. The preparations were lengthy because the problems were acute. A hydrogen balloon expands when warmed by the sunlight, and rises, then it contracts when cooled at night, the engineers devised a control system driven by an altimeter to discard ballast. When the balloon descended below 9 km, it fired a charge to cut loose sandbags. The sandbags were carried on a cast-aluminium four-spoked wheel and discarded two at a time to keep the wheel balanced, similarly, when the balloon rose above about 11.6 km, the altimeter activated a valve to vent hydrogen. The hydrogen was also vented if the pressure reached a critical level
28.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
29.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
30.
LibriVox
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On 6 August 2016, the project completed project number 10,000. Most releases are in the English language, but many works are also available. There are multiple affiliated projects that are providing additional content, LibriVox is closely affiliated with Project Gutenberg from where the project gets some of its texts, and the Internet Archive that hosts their offerings. LibriVox was started in August 2005 by Montreal-based writer Hugh McGuire, who set up a blog, the first recorded book was The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad. LibriVox is an invented word inspired by Latin words liber in its genitive form libri and vox, the word was also coined because of other connotations as liber also means child and free, independent, unrestricted. As the LibriVox forum says it, We like to think LibriVox might be interpreted as child of the voice, finally, the other link we like is library so you could imagine it to mean Library of Voice. There has been no decision or consensus by LibriVox founders or the community of volunteers for a single pronunciation of LibriVox and it is accepted that any audible pronunciation is accurate. LibriVox is a volunteer-run, free content, Public Domain project and it has no budget or legal personality. The development of projects is managed through an Internet forum, supported by an admin team, in early 2010, LibriVox ran a fundraising drive to raise $20,000 to cover hosting costs for the website of about $5, 000/year and improve front- and backend usability. Volunteers can choose new projects to start, either recording on their own or inviting others to join them, once a volunteer has recorded his or her contribution, it is uploaded to the site, and proof-listened by members of the LibriVox community. Finished audiobooks are available from the LibriVox website, and MP3, recordings are also available through other means, such as iTunes, and, being free of copyright, they are frequently distributed independently of LibriVox on the Internet and otherwise. LibriVox only records material that is in the domain in the United States. Because of copyright restrictions, LibriVox produces recordings of only a number of contemporary books. These have included, for example, the 9/11 Commission Report and it contains much popular classic fiction, but also includes less predictable texts, such as Immanuel Kants Critique of Pure Reason and a recording of the first 500 digits of pi. The collection also features poetry, plays, religious texts and non-fiction of various kinds, in January 2009, the catalogue contained approximately 55 percent fiction and drama,25 percent non-fiction and 20 percent poetry. By the end of 2016, the most viewed item was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in a 2006 solo recording by John Greenman, around 90 percent of the catalogue is recorded in English, but recordings exist in 31 languages altogether. Chinese, French and German are the most popular languages other than English amongst volunteers, LibriVox has garnered significant interest, in particular from those interested in the promotion of volunteer-led content and alternative approaches to copyright ownership on the Internet. It has received support from the Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg, intellectual freedom and commons proponent Mike Linksvayer described it in 2008 as perhaps the most interesting collaborative culture project this side of Wikipedia
31.
Edgar Allan Poe bibliography
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The works of American author Edgar Allan Poe include many poems, short stories, and one novel. His fiction spans multiple genres, including fiction, adventure, science fiction, and detective fiction. These works are considered part of the Dark romanticism movement. Poes writing reflects his literary theories, he disagreed with didacticism, meaning in literature, he said in his criticism, should be an undercurrent just beneath the surface, works whose meanings are too obvious cease to be art. Poe pursued originality in his works, and disliked proverbs and he often included elements of popular pseudosciences such as phrenology and physiognomy. His most recurring themes deal with questions of death, including its physical signs, the effects of decomposition, concerns of premature burial, the reanimation of the dead, and mourning. Though known as a practitioner of Gothic fiction, Poe did not invent the genre. Poes literary career began in 1827 with the release of 50 copies of Tamerlane and Other Poems credited only to a Bostonian, a collection of early poems that received virtually no attention. In December 1829, Poe released Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and his most successful and most widely read prose during his lifetime was The Gold-Bug, which earned him a $100 prize, the most money he received for a single work. One of his most important works, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, was published in 1841 and is considered the first modern detective story. Poe called it a tale of ratiocination, Poe became a household name with the publication of The Raven in 1845, though it was not a financial success. The publishing industry at the time was a career choice. The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe, the Unknown Poe, An Anthology of Fugitive Writings by Edgar Allan Poe. Weird Science, Weirder Unity, Phrenology and Physiognomy in Edgar Allan Poe, hayes, Kevin J. Visual Culture and the Word in Edgar Allan Poes The Man of the Crowd. Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe, baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press. A Juvenile Poem by Edgar Allan Poe, studies in the Humanities, Series B. Poe and His Times, The Artist and His Milieu, Baltimore, The Edgar Allan Poe Society. Poe, Death, and the Life of Writing, influences of Transcendentalism on American Life and Literature
32.
Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
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This article lists all known poems by American author and critic Edgar Allan Poe, listed alphabetically with the date of their authorship in parentheses. An unpublished 9-line poem written circa 1829 for Poes cousin Elizabeth Rebecca Herring and it was never published in Poes lifetime. James H. Whitty discovered the poem and included it in his 1911 anthology of Poes works under the title From an Album and it was also published in Thomas Ollive Mabbotts definitive Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe in 1969 as An Acrostic. The poem mentions Endymion, possibly referring to an 1818 poem by John Keats with that name, the L. E. L. in the third line may be Letitia Elizabeth Landon, an English artist known for signing her work with those initials. Zantippe in line four is actually Xanthippe, wife of Socrates, the spelling of the name was changed to fit the acrostic. This poem is based on stories from the Quran, and tells of the afterlife in the place called Al Aaraaf, Poe included it as the major poem in his 1829 collection Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems. Alone is a 22-line poem, originally written in 1829 and left untitled and unpublished during Poes lifetime, the original manuscript was signed E. A. Poe and dated March 17,1829. In February of that year, Poes foster mother Frances Allan had died, in September 1875, the poem, which had been in the possession of a family in Baltimore, was published with its title in Scribners Monthly. The editor, E. L. Didier, also reproduced a facsimile of the manuscript, the poem is now often included in anthologies. Alone is often interpreted as autobiographical, expressing the feelings of isolation. Poet Daniel Hoffman believed Alone was evidence that Poe really was a haunted man, the poem, however, is an introspective about Poes youth, written when he was only 20 years old. The last complete poem written by Poe, it was published shortly after his death in 1849, the speaker of the poem talks about a lost love, Annabel Lee, and may have been based on Poes own relationship with his wife Virginia, though that is disputed. First published after Poes death, The Bells is a heavily onomatopoeic poem known for its repetition, the Beloved Physician was written around April 1847 for Mary-Louise Shew, a nurse who also inspired Poes more famous poem, The Bells. The poem was originally ten stanzas long, although a version with nine stanzas was supposedly prepared by Poe for publication and it was never printed during his lifetime, and it now appears to be lost. Shew was able to recall about a tenth of a poem in a letter to editor John W. Ingham in 1875, these fragments were published in 1909, and appear to be all that remains of the piece. The poem is unusual for Poe because it is written in the voice of a woman, despite her reassurances that she is happy, the poem has a somber tone as it recounts a previous love who has died. In marrying, she has broken her vow to this previous lover to love him eternally, Poe biographer Daniel Hoffman says that Bridal Ballad is guilty of one of the most unfortunate rhymes in American poetry this side of Thomas Holley Chivers. The poem is one of the few works by Poe to be written in the voice of a woman, see also the humorous tale A Predicament
33.
Al Aaraaf
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Al Aaraaf is an early poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1829. It is based on stories from the Quran, and tells of the afterlife in a place called Al Aaraaf, at 422 lines, it is Poes longest poem. Al Aaraaf, which Poe claimed to have written before he was 15, was first published as the poem in Poes 1829 collection Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane. The book and Al Aaraaf in particular received mostly negative reviews for its complexity, obscure references, some, however, noted the potential in the young poet, including John C. Neal, to whom Poe had shown Al Aaraaf prior to publication, Poe would later refer to Neals response as the first words of encouragement he had received. Nevertheless, the response to Al Aaraaf may have inspired Poes later poetic theory that poems should be kept short. Years later, in 1845, Poe used Al Aaraaf to hoax members of the Boston literary circle during a reading, Poe claimed the poem was a new one and his audience was perplexed by it. He later claimed a Boston crowd did not deserve a new poem, Al Aaraaf is the longest poem Poe wrote and was inspired by Tycho Brahes discovery of a supernova back in 1572 which was visible for about seventeen months. Poe identified this nova with Al Aaraaf, a star that was the place between paradise and hell. Al-Araaf was a place where people who have been neither markedly good nor markedly bad had to stay until forgiven by God and let into Paradise, as discussed in Sura 7 of the Quran. In the opening section of the poem, God commands Nesace, Nesace rouses the angel Ligeia and tells her to awaken the other thousand seraphs to perform Gods work. Two souls, however, fail to respond, the maiden-angel Ianthe and her seraph-lover Angelo, who describes his death on earth, Ianthe and Angelo are lovers, and their failure to do as Nesace commanded results in God not allowing them into heaven. Al Aaraaf is thick with allusions and, because of this, is avoided by scholars because, as writer Arthur Hobson Quinn notes. Nevertheless, Quinn says it possesses qualities which are important to understand the development of Poes skills as a poet, Al Aaraaf mixes historical facts, religious mythology and elements of Poes imagination. The poem primarily focuses on the afterlife, ideal love, the majority of the poem focuses on this reaching for ideal beauty and aesthetics. Characters in the serve as representative symbols of personified emotions. The goddess Nesace is beauty, Ligeia represents the music in nature, Ianthe, the poem draws from Sura 7 in the Quran, Poe also drew upon the Quran in other works, including The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade. In Al Aaraaf, Poe was probably less interested in the Quran itself, the true setting of the poem is a sort of dreamscape or alternative world
34.
The Conqueror Worm
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The Conqueror Worm is a poem by Edgar Allan Poe about human mortality and the inevitability of death. It was first published separately in Grahams Magazine in 1843, in the revised story, the poem is composed by the eponymous Ligeia, and taught to the narrator in the fits of her death throes. An audience of weeping angels watches a play performed by mimes, in the form of God on high, the mimes chase a Phantom which they can never capture, running around in circles. Finally, a monstrous crawling shape emerges, and eats the mimes, the final curtain comes down, a funeral pall, signaling an end to the tragedy, Man whose only hero is The Conqueror Worm. The Conqueror Worm was first published as a poem in the January 1843 issue of Grahams Magazine. Shortly after, it was included several other poems by Poe in the February 25 issue of the Saturday Museum in a feature called The Poets & Poetry of Philadelphia. It was later included in Poes poetry collection The Raven and Other Poems in 1845 and that same year, it was incorporated into Ligeia for the first time when the story was reprinted in the February 15,1845, issue of the New York World. Ligeia was again republished with The Conqueror Worm in the September 27,1845 and this was not unusual for Poe, who had also incorporated poems The Coliseum and To One in Paradise into tales. Poes mother and father were both actors, and the poem uses theater metaphors throughout to deal with life on a universal level. That poem contained the lines Let him meet the conqueror worm / With his good sword by his side, the Conqueror Worm also uses the word evermore, which would later evolve into nevermore in Poes famous poem The Raven in 1845. The poem plays an important symbolic role as part of its inclusion in the short story Ligeia, the poem is written by Ligeia as she is dying, though it is actually recited by the narrator, her husband. Because it emphasizes the finality of death, it calls to question Ligeias resurrection in the story, also, the inclusion of the bitter poem may have been meant to be ironic or a parody of the convention at the time, both in literature and in life. In the mid-19th century it was common to emphasize the sacredness of death, instead, Ligeia speaks of fear personified in the blood-red thing. In 1935, Baltimore-born composer Franz Bornschein wrote a chorus for women with orchestra or piano accompaniment based on The Conqueror Worm. The poem was rewritten and adapted as the first track to Lou Reeds 2003 album of Poe adaptations and Poe-inspired songs. It was also adapted as a song by the Darkwave act, vol.5 of the Hellboy comic book mini-series by Mike Mignola titled Hellboy, Conqueror Worm was based on the poem. The British horror film Witchfinder General was retitled The Conqueror Worm for U. S. release, dark Horse Comics released Edgar Allan Poe Conqueror Worm, a one-shot comic by Richard Corben in November 2012. The music video for Curtain by Australian extreme metal band Portal features an adaptation of the poem using puppets, the album Dies Irae by the band Devil Doll is loosely based on The Conqueror Worm
35.
Lenore
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Lenore is a poem by the American author Edgar Allan Poe. It began as a different poem, A Paean, and was not published as Lenore until 1843, the poem discusses proper decorum in the wake of the death of a young woman, described as the queenliest dead that ever died so young. The poem concludes, No dirge shall I upraise, / But waft the angel on her flight with a paean of old days, lenores fiancé, Guy de Vere, finds it inappropriate to mourn the dead, rather, one should celebrate their ascension to a new world. Unlike most of Poes poems relating to dying women, Lenore implies the possibility of meeting in paradise, the poem may have been Poes way of dealing with the illness of his wife Virginia. The dead womans name, however, may have been a reference to Poes recently dead brother, poetically, the name Lenore emphasizes the letter L sound, a frequent device in Poes female characters including Annabel Lee, Eulalie, and Ulalume. The poem was first published as part of a collection in 1831 under the title A Pæan. This early version was only 11 quatrains and the lines were spoken by a bereaved husband. The name Lenore was not included, it was not added until it was published as Lenore in February 1843 in The Pioneer, Poe was paid $10 for this publication. The poem had many revisions in Poes lifetime and its final form was published in the August 16,1845, issue of the Broadway Journal while Poe was its editor. The original version of the poem is so dissimilar from Lenore that it is considered an entirely different poem. Both are usually collected separately in anthologies, note that a dying, but possibly saved, woman named Lenore has been told of in another poem well-known in the English-speaking word by Gottfried August Bürger. Hikaru Utadas Kremlin Dusk makes a reference to Lenore, as well as elements of Poes works. The full text of Lenore at Wikisource The full text of A Pæan at Wikisource Media related to Lenore at Wikimedia Commons Full text at Baltimore Poe Society online Henry Sandham, scanned color illustrated book, via Internet Archive. Lenore public domain audiobook at LibriVox
36.
Eulalie
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The poem is a bridal song about a man who overcomes his sadness by marrying the beautiful Eulalie. The womans love here has an effect on the narrator. The poem utilizes Poes frequent theme of the death of a beautiful woman, if autobiographical, Eulalie may be referring to Poes relationship with his wife Virginia. It seems to express that she lifted his spirits and washed away his feelings of loneliness, after Virginias death in 1847, Poe scribbled on a manuscript copy of Eulalie a couplet, now known as Deep in Earth. It is unclear if Poe intended this to be part of Eulalie, the name Eulalie emphasizes the letter L, a frequent device in Poes female characters such as Annabel Lee, Lenore, and Ulalume. The poem was first published as Eulalie - A Song in the July 1845 issue of the American Review - it was the new poem Poe published that year. Bridal Ballad Ulalume Poems by Edgar Allan Poe Works related to Eulalie at Wikisource Eulalie public domain audiobook at LibriVox
37.
The Raven
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The Raven is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is noted for its musicality, stylized language. It tells of a talking ravens mysterious visit to a distraught lover, the lover, often identified as being a student, is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word Nevermore, the poem makes use of a number of folk, mythological, religious, and classical references. The poem was inspired in part by a raven in the novel Barnaby Rudge. Poe borrows the complex rhythm and meter of Elizabeth Barretts poem Lady Geraldines Courtship, the Raven was first attributed to Poe in print in the New York Evening Mirror on January 29,1845. Its publication made Poe widely popular in his lifetime, although it did not bring him financial success. The poem was reprinted, parodied, and illustrated. Critical opinion is divided as to the literary status. The Raven follows an unnamed narrator on a night in December who sits reading forgotten lore by a dying fire as a way to forget the death of his beloved Lenore. A tapping at chamber door reveals nothing, but excites his soul to burning, the tapping is repeated, slightly louder, and he realizes it is coming from his window. When he goes to investigate, a raven flutters into his chamber, paying no attention to the man, the raven perches on a bust of Pallas above the door. Amused by the ravens comically serious disposition, the man asks that the bird tell him its name, the ravens only answer is Nevermore. The narrator is surprised that the raven can talk, though at this point it has nothing further. The narrator remarks to himself that his friend the raven will soon fly out of his life, as if answering, the raven responds again with Nevermore. The narrator reasons that the learned the word Nevermore from some unhappy master. Even so, the narrator pulls his chair directly in front of the raven and he thinks for a moment in silence, and his mind wanders back to his lost Lenore. He thinks the air grows denser and feels the presence of angels, the bird again replies in the negative, suggesting that he can never be free of his memories
38.
Ulalume
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Ulalume is a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1847. Much like a few of Poes other poems, Ulalume focuses on the loss of his beloved due to her death. Poe originally wrote the poem as a piece and, as such. Additionally, it makes many allusions, especially to mythology, the poem takes place on a night in the lonesome October with a gray sky as the leaves are withering for the autumn season. In the region of Weir, by the lake of Auber and he has a serious and sober talk with his soul, though he does not realize it is October or where his roaming is leading him. He remarks on the stars as night fades away, remarking on the brightest one and his soul, however, mistrusts the star and where it is leading them. Just as the narrator calms his soul, he realizes he has walked to the vault of his lost Ulalume on the very night he had buried her a year before. Unlike Poes poem Annabel Lee, this presents a narrator who is not conscious of his return to the grave of his lost love. The poem has a focus on decay and deterioration, the leaves are withering. Like many of Poes later poems, Ulalume has a sense of rhythm. The verses are purposefully sonorous, built around sound to create feelings of sadness, the poem employs Poes typical theme of the death of a beautiful woman, which he considered the most poetical topic in the world. The identity of Ulalume in the poem is uncertain, Poe scholar and distant relative Harry Lee Poe says it is autobiographical and shows Poes grief over the recent death of his wife Virginia. Scholar Scott Peeples notes that Ulalume serves as a sequel to The Raven, poetically, the name Ulalume emphasizes the letter L, a frequent device in Poes female characters such as Annabel Lee, Eulalie, and Lenore. If it really stands for a love, Poes choosing to refer to Ulalume as the thing. In one possible view, Ulalume may be representative of death itself, the name may also allude to the Latin lumen, a light symbolizing sorrow. The narrator personifies his soul as the ancient Greek Psyche, representing the irrational and it is Psyche who first feels concerned about where they are walking and makes the first recognition that they have reached Ulalumes vault. The bright star they see is Astarte, an associated with Venus. The sinfully scintillant planet in the final verse is another reference to Venus
39.
The Bells (poem)
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The Bells is a heavily onomatopoeic poem by Edgar Allan Poe which was not published until after his death in 1849. It is perhaps best known for the use of the word bells. This poem can be interpreted in different ways, the most basic of which is simply a reflection of the sounds that bells can make. For example, From the bells bells bells bells bells. Brings to mind the clamoring of myriad church bells, several deeper interpretations exist as well. One is that the poem is a representation of life from the nimbleness of youth to the pain of age, growing despair is emphasized alongside the growing frenzy in the tone of the poem. Another is the passing of the seasons, from spring to winter, the passing of the seasons is often used as a metaphor for life itself. The poem also suggests a Poe theme of mourning over a lost wife, courted in sledge, married, the tolling of the iron bells reflects the final madness of the grief-stricken husband. The sounds of the verses, specifically the repetitive bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, Poe uses the word tintinnabulation, apparently a coinage of his own, based on the Latin word for bell, tintinnabulum. The series are four, followed by three, always beginning and ending on a stressed syllable. The meter changes to iambic in the lines with repeated bells, most of the poem is a more hurried trochaic tetrameter. The bells of which he writes are thought to be those he heard from Fordham Universitys bell tower and he also frequently strolled about Fordhams campus conversing with both the students and the Jesuits. According to Poe biographer Jeffrey Meyers, The Bells is often criticized for being mechanical, Poe is believed to have written The Bells in May 1848 and submitted it three times to Sartains Union Magazine, a magazine run by John Sartain, until it was finally accepted. He was paid fifteen dollars for his work, though it was not published until after his death in the November 1849 issue and it was also published in the New York Tribune on the front page of its October 20,1849 issue as Poes Last Poem. Inspiration for the poem is often granted to Marie Louise Shew, one day, as Shew was visiting Poe at his cottage in Fordham, New York, Poe needed to write a poem but had no inspiration. Shew allegedly heard ringing bells from afar and playfully suggested to start there, sergei Rachmaninoff composed a choral symphony The Bells, Op.35, based on a Russian adaptation of the poem by Konstantin Balmont. The symphony follows classical sonata form, first movement, slow movement, scherzo, the Scottish composer Hugh S. Roberton published Hear the Tolling of the Bells, The Sledge Bells, and Hear the Sledges with the Bells based on Poes poem. Josef Holbrooke composed his The Bells, Prelude, Op.50 on Poes poem, eric Woolfson, musical partner to Alan Parsons in the Alan Parsons Project, has written two albums based on the writings of Poe
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Annabel Lee
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Annabel Lee is the last complete poem composed by American author Edgar Allan Poe. Like many of Poes poems, it explores the theme of the death of a beautiful woman, the narrator, who fell in love with Annabel Lee when they were young, has a love for her so strong that even angels are envious. He retains his love for her even after her death, there has been debate over who, if anyone, was the inspiration for Annabel Lee. Though many women have been suggested, Poes wife Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe is one of the more credible candidates, written in 1849, it was not published until shortly after Poes death that same year. The poems narrator describes his love for Annabel Lee, which many years ago in a kingdom by the sea. Though they were young, their love for one another burned with such an intensity that angels became envious and it is for that reason that the narrator believes the seraphim caused her death. Even so, their love is enough that it extends beyond the grave. Every night, he dreams of Annabel Lee and sees the brightness of her eyes in the stars, every night he lies down by her side in her tomb by the sea. Like women in other works by Poe, she is struck with illness. The poem focuses on a love which is unusually strong. In fact, the narrators actions show that he not only loves Annabel Lee, the narrator admits that he and Annabel Lee were children when they fell in love, but his explanation that angels murdered her is in itself childish, suggesting he has not matured much since then. His repetition of this assertion suggests he is trying to rationalize his own feelings of loss. Unlike The Raven, in which the narrator believes he will nevermore be reunited with his love, Annabel Lee consists of six stanzas, three with six lines, one with seven, and two with eight, with the rhyme pattern differing slightly in each one. Though it is not technically a ballad, Poe referred to it as one, like a ballad, the poem uses repetition of words and phrases purposely to create its mournful effect. The name Annabel Lee emphasizes the letter L, a frequent device in Poes female characters such as Eulalie, Lenore, there is debate on the last line of the poem. The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, Maryland has identified 11 versions of Annabel Lee that were published between 1849 and 1850. A strong case can be made for Poes wife Virginia, She was the one he loved as a child, the one who had been his bride. Autobiographical readings of the poem have also used to support the theory that Virginia and Poe never consummated their marriage
Works related to The Balloon-Hoax at Wikisource
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Raven Edition, Volume 1 public domain audiobook at LibriVox
