1.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
2.
Maritime museum
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A maritime museum is a museum specializing in the display of objects relating to ships and travel on large bodies of water. A subcategory of maritime museums are museums, which focus on navies. Most museums exhibit interesting pieces of ships, ship models, and miscellaneous small items associated with ships and shipping, like cutlery, uniforms, there are thousands of maritime museums in the world. Many belong to the International Congress of Maritime Museums, which coordinates efforts to acquire, preserve. There is a risk too many maritime museums might dilute the experience for the public. A recent activity of maritime museums is to build replicas of ships, since there are few survivors that have not already been restored and put on display. Another is operating a museum harbour, most notably in Germany and the Netherlands but elsewhere too, that offers mooring to privately owned historical vessels, remains of ancient and historic ships and boats can be seen in museums around the world. Where a ship is in a state of preservation it can sometimes act as a museum in its own right. Many museum ships, such as HMS Victory are popular tourist attractions, some ships are too fragile to be exposed outdoors or are incomplete and must be preserved indoors. The remains of the Mary Rose for example are kept in a designed building so that conservation treatment can be applied. Thomas, U. S. Virgin Islands Dossin Great Lakes Museum, Detroit, Michigan, US Florida Maritime Museum, Cortez, Florida, US Great Lakes Floating Maritime Museum, Duluth, Minnesota, US H. C. S. A pictorial treasury of the museums of the world, A guide to the maritime collections, restorations, replicas. The Daily Telegraph Guide to Britains Maritime Past, evans, M. H. & West, J. Maritime museums, A guide to the collections and museum ships in Britain and Ireland. Great maritime museums of the world, new York, Balsam Press in association with H. N. Abrams. Smith, R. H. Smiths guide to maritime museums of North America, stammers, M. Discovering maritime museums and historic ships. Aylesbury, Shire Publications Stanford, J. M, sea historys guide to American and Canadian maritime museums. Old ships, boats & maritime museums, ICMM website Nauticus Norfolk, VA Maritime and Naval Museums in Britain and Ireland USA museum list Non-USA museum list Maritime Museums worldwide Maritime Museums in Europe
3.
Stockholm
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The city is spread across 14 islands on the coast in the southeast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago and the Baltic Sea. The area has settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC. It is also the capital of Stockholm County, Stockholm is the cultural, media, political, and economic centre of Sweden. The Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the countrys GDP and it is an important global city, and the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region. The city is home to some of Europes top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and it hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the citys most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is known for its decoration of the stations. Swedens national football arena is located north of the city centre, Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city. The city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, and hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, and the official residencies of the Swedish monarch and the Prime Minister. The government has its seat in the Rosenbad building, the Riksdag is seated in the Parliament House, and the Prime Ministers residence is adjacent at the Sager House. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BCE, there were already a number of people living in the present-day Stockholm area. Thousands of years later, as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable, at the intersection of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren is an archipelago site where the Old Town of Stockholm was first built from about 1000 CE by Vikings. They had a positive impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholms location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, and in Heimskringla in connection with the legendary king Agne, the earliest written mention of the name Stockholm dates from 1252, by which time the mines in Bergslagen made it an important site in the iron trade. The first part of the name means log in Swedish, although it may also be connected to an old German word meaning fortification, the second part of the name means islet, and is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. Stockholms core, the present Old Town was built on the island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid 13th century onward. The city originally rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League, Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Hamburg, Gdańsk, Visby, Reval, and Riga during this time
4.
Vasa (ship)
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Vasa is a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628. The ship foundered after sailing about 1,300 m into her voyage on 10 August 1628. Salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961, it was housed in a museum called Wasavarvet until 1988. The ship is one of Swedens most popular tourist attractions and has seen by over 35 million visitors since 1961. The ship was built on the orders of the King of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus as part of the expansion he initiated in a war with Poland-Lithuania. She was constructed at the yard in Stockholm under a contract with private entrepreneurs in 1626–1627. Richly decorated as a symbol of the ambitions for Sweden and himself. However, Vasa was dangerously unstable and top-heavy with too much weight in the structure of the hull. Despite this lack of stability she was ordered to sea and foundered only a few minutes after encountering a wind stronger than a breeze, the order to sail was the result of a combination of factors. At the same time the kings subordinates lacked the courage to openly discuss the ships problems or to have the maiden voyage postponed. An inquiry was organized by the Swedish Privy Council to find those responsible for the disaster, during the 1961 recovery, thousands of artifacts and the remains of at least 15 people were found in and around the Vasas hull by marine archaeologists. Among the many items found were clothing, weapons, cannons, tools, coins, cutlery, food, drink, the artifacts and the ship herself have provided scholars with invaluable insights into details of naval warfare, shipbuilding techniques and everyday life in early 17th-century Sweden. During the 17th century, Sweden went from being a populated, poor. Between 1611 and 1718 it was the dominant power in the Baltic, Gustavus Adolphus has been considered one of the most successful Swedish kings in terms of success in warfare. When Vasa was built, he had been in power for more than a decade, Sweden was embroiled in a war with Poland-Lithuania, and looked apprehensively at the development of the Thirty Years War in present-day Germany. The war had been raging since 1618 and from a Protestant perspective it was not successful, the kings plans for a Polish campaign and for securing Swedens interests required a strong naval presence in the Baltic. The navy suffered several setbacks during the 1620s. In 1625, a squadron cruising in the Bay of Riga was caught in a storm, in the Battle of Oliwa in 1627, a Swedish squadron was outmaneuvered and defeated by a Polish force and two large ships were lost
5.
Scandinavia
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Scandinavia /ˌskændᵻˈneɪviə/ is a historical and cultural region in Northern Europe characterized by a common ethnocultural North Germanic heritage and mutually intelligible North Germanic languages. The term Scandinavia always includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the remote Norwegian islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are usually not seen as a part of Scandinavia, nor is Greenland, an overseas territory of Denmark. This looser definition almost equates to that of the Nordic countries, in Nordic languages, only Denmark, Norway and Sweden are commonly included in the definition of Scandinavia. In English usage, Scandinavia sometimes refers to the geographical area, the name Scandinavia originally referred vaguely to the formerly Danish, now Swedish, region Scania. Icelanders and the Faroese are to a significant extent descended from the Norse, Finland is mainly populated by Finns, with a minority of approximately 5% of Swedish speakers. A small minority of Sami people live in the north of Scandinavia. The Danish, Norwegian and Swedish languages form a continuum and are known as the Scandinavian languages—all of which are considered mutually intelligible with one another. Faroese and Icelandic, sometimes referred to as insular Scandinavian languages, are intelligible in continental Scandinavian languages only to a limited extent, Finnish and Meänkieli are closely related to each other and more distantly to the Sami languages, but are entirely unrelated to the Scandinavian languages. Apart from these, German, Yiddish and Romani are recognized minority languages in Scandinavia, the southern and by far most populous regions of Scandinavia have a temperate climate. Scandinavia extends north of the Arctic Circle, but has mild weather for its latitude due to the Gulf Stream. Much of the Scandinavian mountains have a tundra climate. There are many lakes and moraines, legacies of the last glacial period, Scandinavia usually refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Some sources argue for the inclusion of the Faroe Islands, Finland and Iceland, though that broader region is known by the countries concerned as Norden. Before this time, the term Scandinavia was familiar mainly to classical scholars through Pliny the Elders writings, and was used vaguely for Scania, as a political term, Scandinavia was first used by students agitating for Pan-Scandinavianism in the 1830s. After a visit to Sweden, Andersen became a supporter of early political Scandinavism, the term is often defined according to the conventions of the cultures that lay claim to the term in their own use. More precisely, and subject to no dispute, is that Finland is included in the broader term Nordic countries, various promotional agencies of the Nordic countries in the United States serve to promote market and tourism interests in the region. The official tourist boards of Scandinavia sometimes cooperate under one umbrella, Norways government entered one year later. All five Nordic governments participate in the joint promotional efforts in the United States through the Scandinavian Tourist Board of North America, Scandinavia can thus be considered a subset of the Nordic countries
6.
Maritime Museum (Stockholm)
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The Maritime Museum in Stockholm, Sweden is a museum for naval history, merchant shipping and shipbuilding. Located in the Gärdet section of the inner-city district Östermalm, the museum offers a view of the bay Djurgårdsbrunnsviken. The building was designed by architect Ragnar Östberg and built in 1933–36, the museum houses about 900,000 photos,50,000 objects and 45,000 drawings, all related to the sea, coast, ships and boats, past and present. A major part of the collection, the boats, are housed in Boat Hall 2 at Galärvarvet in Stockholm, the boat collection ranges from canoes to Skerry cruisers. On the bottom there are, among other things, exhibits on naval history including several detailed models of 18th century ships. The second floor includes exhibits on Swedish commercial fleets, in the basement is a replica of a cabin in King Gustav IIIs ship Amphion, along with the original stern from the ship. The gently curved building, inspired by the neoclassicist design of Olof Tempelman and it was the last major commission of Ragnar Östberg and was built on the location for the Stockholm Exhibition. As the exhibition was an important Functionalism manifestation, the museum also mark the point of view of the architect in the debate the introduction of Functionalist style caused in Sweden, the central cupola is entirely built of brick. The building also houses a workshop, wood shop, photo studio, archives. In the 1970s, a film and lecture hall was added, outside of the museum is a bronze statue called The Sailor, a memorial to the Swedish sailors who died during World War II. The statue was made by artist Nils Sjögren in 1952, just before he died, the statue was inaugurated in 1953. Starting in 1975, open-air conserts and music festivals are held in the park in front of the museum, the annual concerts arranged by the newspaper Dagens Nyheter with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra are compared with, and inspired by, The Proms in the Royal Albert Hall. Among the other artists who have performed at events held at the museum are Lisa Nilsson, Kent, Pearl Jam, Sarah Dawn Finer, Axwell, culture in Stockholm Pictures of ship models in the museum, from visit in June 2011 High resolution photos
7.
Polyethylene glycol
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Polyethylene glycol is a polyether compound with many applications from industrial manufacturing to medicine. PEG is also known as polyethylene oxide or polyoxyethylene, depending on its molecular weight, the structure of PEG is commonly expressed as H−n−OH. PEG, PEO, and POE refer to an oligomer or polymer of ethylene oxide, the three names are chemically synonymous, but historically PEG is preferred in the biomedical field, whereas PEO is more prevalent in the field of polymer chemistry. PEG and PEO are liquids or low-melting solids, depending on their molecular weights, PEGs are prepared by polymerization of ethylene oxide and are commercially available over a wide range of molecular weights from 300 g/mol to 10,000,000 g/mol. Lower-molecular-weight PEGs are also available as purer oligomers, referred to as monodisperse, uniform, very high purity PEG has recently been shown to be crystalline, allowing determination of a crystal structure by x-ray diffraction. Since purification and separation of pure oligomers is difficult, the price for this type of quality is often 10–1000 fold that of polydisperse PEG, PEGs are also available with different geometries. Branched PEGs have three to ten PEG chains emanating from a core group. Star PEGs have 10 to 100 PEG chains emanating from a core group. Comb PEGs have multiple PEG chains normally grafted onto a polymer backbone, most PEGs include molecules with a distribution of molecular weights. The size distribution can be characterized statistically by its weight average molecular weight and its number average molecular weight, MW and Mn can be measured by mass spectrometry. PEGylation is the act of covalently coupling a PEG structure to another molecule, for example, a therapeutic protein. PEGylated interferon alfa-2a or −2b are commonly used injectable treatments for hepatitis C infection, PEG is soluble in water, methanol, ethanol, acetonitrile, benzene, and dichloromethane, and is insoluble in diethyl ether and hexane. It is coupled to hydrophobic molecules to produce non-ionic surfactants, PEGs contain potential toxic impurities, such as ethylene oxide and 1, 4-dioxane. Ethylene Glycol and its ethers are nephrotoxic if applied to damaged skin, polyethylene glycol and related polymers are often sonicated when used in biomedical applications. However, as reported by Murali et al, PEG is very sensitive to sonolytic degradation and PEG degradation products can be toxic to mammalian cells. It is, thus, imperative to assess potential PEG degradation to ensure that the material does not contain undocumented contaminants that can introduce artifacts into experimental results. PEGs and methoxypolyethylene glycols are manufactured by Dow Chemical under the tradename Carbowax for industrial use and they vary in consistency from liquid to solid, depending on the molecular weight, as indicated by a number following the name. Some specific groups are lauromacrogols, nonoxynols, octoxynols, and poloxamers, macrogol, used as a laxative, is a form of polyethylene glycol
8.
Mast (sailing)
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The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the centre-line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sail, spars, and derricks, and giving necessary height to a light, look-out position, signal yard, control position. Large ships have several masts, with the size and configuration depending on the style of ship, nearly all sailing masts are guyed. Until the mid-19th century all vessels masts were made of wood formed from a single or several pieces of timber which typically consisted of the trunk of a conifer tree. From the 16th century, vessels were built of a size requiring masts taller and thicker than could be made from single tree trunks. On these larger vessels, to achieve the height, the masts were built from up to four sections, known in order of rising height above the decks as the lower, top, topgallant. Giving the lower sections sufficient thickness necessitated building them up separate pieces of wood. Such a section was known as a made mast, as opposed to sections formed from pieces of timber. Jigger-mast, typically, where it is the shortest, the aftmost mast on vessels with more than three masts. On a two-masted vessel with the main-mast forward and a smaller second mast, such as a ketch, or particularly a yawl. Although two-masted schooners may be provided with masts of identical size, the aftmost is still referred to as the main-mast, schooners have been built with up to seven masts in all, with several six-masted examples. On square-rigged vessels, each mast carries several horizontal yards from which the sails are rigged. A two-masted merchant vessel with a sizable foresail rigged on a slightly inclined foremast is depicted in an Etruscan tomb painting from 475–450 BC. While most of the ancient evidence is iconographic, the existence of foremasts can also be deduced archaeologically from slots in foremast-feets located too close to the prow for a mainsail. Artemon, along with mainsail and topsail, developed into the rig of seagoing vessels in imperial times. The imperial grain freighters travelling the routes between Alexandria and Rome also included three-masted vessels, a mosaic in Ostia depicts a freighter with a three-masted rig entering Romes harbour. Special craft could carry many more masts, Theophrastus records how the Romans imported Corsican timber by way of a raft propelled by as many as fifty masts. Throughout antiquity, both foresail and mizzen remained secondary in terms of size, although large enough to require full running rigging
9.
Bowsprit
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The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a spar extending forward from the vessels prow. It provides a point for the forestay, allowing the fore-mast to be stepped farther forward on the hull. The word bowsprit is thought to originate from the Middle Low German word bōchsprēt - bōch meaning bow, early ocean-going vessels tended to tilt the bowsprit, also known in centuries past as a boltsprit, at a high angle, and hung one or two square spritsails from yards. Many types of pleasure and work vessels ship bowsprits, generally short in length. Once popular on large and small, even after the popularization of the Bermuda rig. On some modern racing yachts and dinghies, the bowsprit is retractable, the bowsprit on a tall ship may be of considerable length and carry several forestays supporting the foremast. Headsails are stowed by tying onto the bowsprit when not in use, to minimise the risk of bowsprit and crew handling sail on it being buried in large waves, it is normally angled upwards from the horizontal. Some hang gliders use a bowsprit, rather than a spar to spread their wings, the bowsprit is formed by extending the keel tube about a metre beyond the leading edge of the wing. In 1879 a patent in England by F. W. Brearey was filed that taught bowsprit structure for flying machines, in the modern mid-1900s renaissance in hang gliding a Dial Soap TV commercial featured in 1973 a bowsprit cross-sparless hang glider. Other examples of bowsprit hang gliders were exampled in the manufactured by Bautek in the 1980s
10.
Museum ship
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A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the number of museum ships that are still operational. Many, if not most, museum ships are also associated with a maritime museum, only a few survive, sometimes because of historical significance, but more often due to luck and circumstance. The restoration and maintenance of museum ships presents problems for historians who are asked for advice, for instance, the rigging of sailing ships has almost never survived, and so the rigging plan must be reconstructed from various sources. Studying the ships also allows historians to analyze how life on and operation of the ships took place, numerous scientific papers have been written on ship restoration and maintenance, and international conferences are held discussing the latest developments. Another consideration is the distinction between a museum ship, and a ship replica. As repairs accumulate over time, less and less of the ship is of the materials. Visitors without historical background are often unable to distinguish between a historical museum ship and a ship replica, which may serve solely as a tourist attraction. Typically the visitor enters via gangplank, wanders around on the deck, then goes below, usually using the original stairways, giving a sense of how the crew got around. The interior features restored but inactivated equipment, enhanced with mementos including old photographs, explanatory displays, pages from the logs, menus. Some add recorded sound effects, audio tours or video displays to enhance the experience, in some cases, the ships radio room has been brought back into use, with volunteers operating amateur radio equipment. Often, the callsign assigned is a variation on the identification of the ship. For example, the submarine USS Cobia, which had the call NBQV, is now on the air as NB9QV. The World War II submarine USS Pampanito, berthed at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, had the wartime call NJVT and is now on the air as NJ6VT, in other cases, such as the USS Missouri, a distinctive call is used. This radio work not only helps restore part of the vessel, a number of the larger museum ships have begun to offer hosting for weddings, meetings, other events, and sleepovers, and on a few ships still seaworthy, cruises. In the United States, this includes the USS Constitutions annual turnaround, a place on the deck is by invitation or lottery only, and highly prized. Many consider the appeal of an interesting old vessel on the city waterfront strong enough that any port city should showcase one or more museum ships. This may even include building a ship at great expense
11.
Beckholmen
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For an article about Beckholmen in Finland, see Pikisaari. Beckholmen is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Set up in 1633, a private pitch boilery started to pitch on the island. Thus having both its name and reputation set, the islet was bestowed a tar distilling workshop, originally intended for the shores of Södermalm. Private entrepreneurs took charge of the island in 1717 and, in spite of a fire in 1723. In 1848 however, the number of steamships produced a need for new shipyards. The docks were extended in two stages during the 1870s and 1890s to their present length,102 and 99 metres, the island was bought by the city in 1918 and subsequently handed over to the Swedish Navy administration who had the third dock built 1923-1925. It was inaugurated by King Gustav V, and thus named The GV-dock, two local landmarks, well-known to most Stockholmers, cranes decorated as giraffes, were relocated to Beckholmen in 1988 from their original location at Södra Hammarbyhamnen. As of 2007, The Royal Djurgården Administration have taken over the management of the island, now included into the National City Park, the National Property Administration together with the Djurgården administration therefore have applied for additional funds from the County Administrative Board for necessary sanitary operations. Geography of Stockholm Kastellholmen Skeppsholmen Sjöskolan - Aerial photo
