1.
Twickenham
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Twickenham is a leafy suburban area of south west London, on the River Thames in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames 10 miles southwest of the centre of London. It has a town centre and is famous as being the home of rugby union, with hundreds of thousands of spectators visiting Twickenham Stadium. The historic riverside area is famous for its network of 18th-century buildings and pleasure grounds and this area has three grand period mansions with public access, York House, Marble Hill and Strawberry Hill House. Another has been lost, that belonging to 18th-century aphoristic poet Alexander Pope, excavations have revealed settlements in the area dating from the Early Neolithic, possibly Mesolithic periods. Occupation seems to have continued through the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the area was first mentioned in an 8th-century charter to cede the area to Waldhere, Bishop of London, for the salvation of our souls. The charter, dated 13 June 704, is signed with 12 crosses, the signatories included Swaefred of Essex, Cenred of Mercia and Earl Paeogthath. In Norman times Twickenham was part of the Manor of Isleworth – itself part of the Hundred of Hounslow, Middlesex. The manor had belonged to Ælfgār, Earl of Mercia in the time of Edward the Confessor, the area was then farmed for several hundred years, while the river provided opportunities for fishing, boatbuilding and trade. Bubonic plague spread to the town in 1665 and 67 deaths were recorded and it appears that Twickenham had a pest house in the 17th century, although the location is not known. In 1633 construction began on York House and it was occupied by Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester in 1656 and later by Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon. 1659 saw the first mention of the Twickenham Ferry, although ferrymen had already operating in the area for many generations. Sometime before 1743 a pirate ferry appears to have started by Twickenham inhabitants. There is speculation that it operated to serve The Folly, a floating hostelry of some kind, several residents wrote to the Lord Mayor of the City of London. In 1713 the nave of the ancient St Marys Church collapsed, the process generates an extremely unpleasant smell, which caused objections from local residents. The area was soon home to the worlds first industrial production facility for gunpowder. There were frequent explosions and loss of life, on 11 March 1758, one of two explosions was felt in Reading, Berkshire, and in April 1774 another explosion terrified people at church in Isleworth. In 1772 three mills blew up, shattering glass and buildings in the neighbourhood, the powder mills remained in operation until 1927 when they were closed. Much of the site is now occupied by Crane Park, in which the old Shot Tower, mill sluices, much of the area along the river next to the Shot Tower is now a nature reserve
2.
Middlesex
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Middlesex is a historic county in south-east England. It is now entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and its area is now also mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in other neighbouring ceremonial counties. It was established in the Anglo-Saxon system from the territory of the Middle Saxons, the largely low-lying county, dominated by clay in its north and alluvium on gravel in its south, was the second smallest county by area in 1831. The City of London was a county in its own right from the 12th century and was able to exert control over Middlesex. Westminster Abbey dominated most of the financial, judicial and ecclesiastical aspects of the county. As London grew into Middlesex, the Corporation of London resisted attempts to expand the city boundaries into the county, in the 18th and 19th centuries the population density was especially high in the southeast of the county, including the East End and West End of London. From 1855 the southeast was administered, with sections of Kent and Surrey, the City of London, and Middlesex, became separate counties for other purposes and Middlesex regained the right to appoint its own sheriff, lost in 1199. In the interwar years suburban London expanded further, with improvement and expansion of public transport, after the Second World War, the population of the County of London and inner Middlesex was in steady decline, with high population growth continuing in the outer parts. Since 1965 various areas called Middlesex have been used for cricket, Middlesex was the former postal county of 25 post towns. The name means territory of the middle Saxons and refers to the origin of its inhabitants. The word is formed from the Anglo-Saxon, i. e. Old English, middel, in an 8th-century charter the region is recorded as Middleseaxon and in 704 it is recorded as Middleseaxan. The Saxons derived their name from seax, a kind of knife for which they were known, the seax has a lasting symbolic impact in the English counties of Essex and Middlesex, both of which feature three seaxes in their ceremonial emblem. Their names, along with those of Sussex and Wessex, contain a remnant of the word Saxon, there were settlements in the area of Middlesex that can be traced back thousands of years before the creation of a county. Middlesex was formerly part of the Kingdom of Essex It was recorded in the Domesday Book as being divided into the six hundreds of Edmonton, Elthorne, Gore, Hounslow, Ossulstone and Spelthorne. The City of London has been self-governing since the century and became a county in its own right. Middlesex also included Westminster, which also had a degree of autonomy. Of the six hundreds, Ossulstone contained the districts closest to the City of London, during the 17th century it was divided into four divisions, which, along with the Liberty of Westminster, largely took over the administrative functions of the hundred. The divisions were named Finsbury, Holborn, Kensington and Tower, the county had parliamentary representation from the 13th century
3.
Invention
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An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition or process. The invention process is a process within an overall engineering and product development process and it may be an improvement upon a machine or product or a new process for creating an object or a result. An invention that achieves a unique function or result may be a radical breakthrough. Such works are novel and not obvious to others skilled in the same field, an inventor may be taking a big step in success or failure. A patent legally protects the property rights of the inventor. The rules and requirements for patenting an invention vary from country to country, another meaning of invention is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social behaviours adopted by people and passed on to others. The Institute for Social Inventions collected many such ideas in magazines, Invention is also an important component of artistic and design creativity. Inventions often extend the boundaries of knowledge, experience or capability. Brainstorming also can spark new ideas for an invention, collaborative creative processes are frequently used by engineers, designers, architects and scientists. Co-inventors are frequently named on patents, in addition, many inventors keep records of their working process - notebooks, photos, etc. including Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Evangelista Torricelli, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein. In the process of developing an invention, the idea may change. The invention may become simpler, more practical, it may expand, working on one invention can lead to others too. History shows that turning the concept of an invention into a device is not always swift or direct. Inventions may also more useful after time passes and other changes occur. For example, the became more useful once powered flight was a reality. Invention is often a creative process, an open and curious mind allows an inventor to see beyond what is known. Seeing a new possibility, connection, or relationship can spark an invention, inventive thinking frequently involves combining concepts or elements from different realms that would not normally be put together. Sometimes inventors disregard the boundaries between distinctly separate territories or fields, several concepts may be considered when thinking about invention
4.
Thomas Edison
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Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman, who has been described as Americas greatest inventor. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Edison was an inventor, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France. Edisons inventions contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications and these included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his career as a telegraph operator. Edison developed a system of generation and distribution to homes, businesses. His first power station was on Pearl Street in Manhattan, New York, Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. and Nancy Matthews Elliott. His father, the son of a Loyalist refugee, had moved as a boy with the family from Nova Scotia, settling in southwestern Ontario, in a known as Shewsbury, later Vienna. Samuel Jr. eventually fled Ontario because he took part in the unsuccessful Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837 and his father, Samuel Sr. had earlier fought in the War of 1812 as captain of the First Middlesex Regiment. By contrast, Samuel Jr. s struggle found him on the losing side, once across the border, he found his way to Milan, Ohio. His patrilineal family line was Dutch by way of New Jersey and his mother taught him at home. Much of his education came from reading R. G, parkers School of Natural Philosophy and The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Edison developed hearing problems at an early age, the cause of his deafness has been attributed to a bout of scarlet fever during childhood and recurring untreated middle-ear infections. In his later years, he modified the story to say the injury occurred when the conductor, in helping him onto a moving train, Edisons family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, after the railroad bypassed Milan in 1854 and business declined. Edison sold candy and newspapers on trains running from Port Huron to Detroit and he briefly worked as a telegraph operator in 1863 for the Grand Trunk Railway at Stratford, Ontario railway at age 16. He was held responsible for a near collision and he also studied qualitative analysis and conducted chemical experiments on the train until he left the job. Edison obtained the right to sell newspapers on the road, and, with the aid of four assistants, he set in type and printed the Grand Trunk Herald
5.
Virginia
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Virginia is a state located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, as well as in the historic Southeast. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, the capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond, Virginia Beach is the most populous city, and Fairfax County is the most populous political subdivision. The Commonwealths estimated population as of 2014 is over 8.3 million, the areas history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607 the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent New World English colony, slave labor and the land acquired from displaced Native American tribes each played a significant role in the colonys early politics and plantation economy. Although the Commonwealth was under one-party rule for nearly a century following Reconstruction, the Virginia General Assembly is the oldest continuous law-making body in the New World. The state government was ranked most effective by the Pew Center on the States in both 2005 and 2008 and it is unique in how it treats cities and counties equally, manages local roads, and prohibits its governors from serving consecutive terms. Virginias economy changed from agricultural to industrial during the 1960s and 1970s. Virginia has an area of 42,774.2 square miles, including 3,180.13 square miles of water. Virginias boundary with Maryland and Washington, D. C. extends to the mark of the south shore of the Potomac River. The southern border is defined as the 36° 30′ parallel north, the border with Tennessee was not settled until 1893, when their dispute was brought to the U. S. Supreme Court. The Chesapeake Bay separates the portion of the Commonwealth from the two-county peninsula of Virginias Eastern Shore. The bay was formed from the river valleys of the Susquehanna River. Many of Virginias rivers flow into the Chesapeake Bay, including the Potomac, Rappahannock, York, and James, the Tidewater is a coastal plain between the Atlantic coast and the fall line. It includes the Eastern Shore and major estuaries of Chesapeake Bay, the Piedmont is a series of sedimentary and igneous rock-based foothills east of the mountains which were formed in the Mesozoic era. The region, known for its clay soil, includes the Southwest Mountains around Charlottesville. The Blue Ridge Mountains are a province of the Appalachian Mountains with the highest points in the state. The Ridge and Valley region is west of the mountains and includes the Great Appalachian Valley, the region is carbonate rock based and includes Massanutten Mountain. The Cumberland Plateau and the Cumberland Mountains are in the southwest corner of Virginia, in this region, rivers flow northwest, with a dendritic drainage system, into the Ohio River basin
6.
William Hogarth
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William Hogarth FRSA was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic series of pictures called modern moral subjects. Knowledge of his work is so pervasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are referred to as Hogarthian. William Hogarth was born at Bartholomew Close in London to Richard Hogarth, a poor Latin school teacher and textbook writer, in his youth he was apprenticed to the engraver Ellis Gamble in Leicester Fields, where he learned to engrave trade cards and similar products. Young Hogarth also took a lively interest in the life of the metropolis and the London fairs. Around the same time, his father, who had opened an unsuccessful Latin-speaking coffee house at St Johns Gate, was imprisoned for debt in Fleet Prison for five years, Hogarth never spoke of his fathers imprisonment. Hogarth became a member of the Rose and Crown Club, with Peter Tillemans, George Vertue, Michael Dahl, by April 1720, Hogarth was an engraver in his own right, at first engraving coats of arms, shop bills, and designing plates for booksellers. In 1727, he was hired by Joshua Morris, a tapestry worker, Morris heard that he was an engraver, and no painter, and consequently declined the work when completed. Hogarth accordingly sued him for the money in the Westminster Court, in 1757 he was appointed Serjeant Painter to the King. In the bottom corner, he shows Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish figures gambling, while in the middle there is a huge machine, like a merry-go-round. At the top is a goat, written below which is Whol Ride, Other early works include The Lottery, The Mystery of Masonry brought to Light by the Gormogons, A Just View of the British Stage, some book illustrations, and the small print Masquerades and Operas. He continued that theme in 1727, with the Large Masquerade Ticket, in 1726 Hogarth prepared twelve large engravings for Samuel Butlers Hudibras. These he himself valued highly, and they are among his best book illustrations, in the following years he turned his attention to the production of small conversation pieces. One of his real low-life and real-life subjects was Sarah Malcolm who he sketched two days before her execution and he might also have printed Burlington Gate, evoked by Alexander Popes Epistle to Lord Burlington, and defending Lord Chandos, who is therein satirized. This print gave great offence, and was suppressed, however, modern authorities such as Ronald Paulson no longer attribute it to Hogarth. In 1731 Hogarth completed the earliest of his series of moral works, the collection of six scenes was entitled A Harlots Progress and appeared first as paintings before being published as engravings. The inaugural series was a success and was followed in 1735 by the sequel A Rakes Progress. The original paintings of A Harlots Progress were destroyed in the fire at Fonthill House in 1755, while A Rakes Progress is displayed in the room at Sir John Soanes Museum, London
7.
Charles I of England
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Charles I was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles was the son of King James VI of Scotland, but after his father inherited the English throne in 1603, he moved to England. He became heir apparent to the English, Irish, and Scottish thrones on the death of his brother, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. Two years later, he married the Bourbon princess Henrietta Maria of France instead, after his succession, Charles quarrelled with the Parliament of England, which sought to curb his royal prerogative. Charles believed in the right of kings and thought he could govern according to his own conscience. Many of his subjects opposed his policies, in particular the levying of taxes without parliamentary consent and he supported high church ecclesiastics, such as Richard Montagu and William Laud, and failed to aid Protestant forces successfully during the Thirty Years War. From 1642, Charles fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments in the English Civil War, after his defeat in 1645, he surrendered to a Scottish force that eventually handed him over to the English Parliament. Charles refused to accept his captors demands for a constitutional monarchy, re-imprisoned on the Isle of Wight, Charles forged an alliance with Scotland, but by the end of 1648 Oliver Cromwells New Model Army had consolidated its control over England. Charles was tried, convicted, and executed for treason in January 1649. The monarchy was abolished and a called the Commonwealth of England was declared. The monarchy was restored to Charless son, Charles II, in 1660, the second son of King James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark, Charles was born in Dunfermline Palace, Fife, on 19 November 1600. James VI was the first cousin twice removed of Queen Elizabeth I of England, in mid-July 1604, Charles left Dunfermline for England where he was to spend most of the rest of his life. His speech development was slow, and he retained a stammer, or hesitant speech. In January 1605, Charles was created Duke of York, as is customary in the case of the English sovereigns second son, Thomas Murray, a Presbyterian Scot, was appointed as a tutor. Charles learnt the usual subjects of classics, languages, mathematics, in 1611, he was made a Knight of the Garter. Eventually, Charles apparently conquered his physical infirmity, which might have been caused by rickets and he became an adept horseman and marksman, and took up fencing. Even so, his public profile remained low in contrast to that of his stronger and taller elder brother, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. However, in early November 1612, Henry died at the age of 18 of what is suspected to have been typhoid, Charles, who turned 12 two weeks later, became heir apparent
8.
United States Patent and Trademark Office
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The USPTO is unique among federal agencies because it operates solely on fees collected by its users, and not on taxpayer dollars. The USPTO is based in Alexandria, Virginia, after a 2005 move from the Crystal City area of neighboring Arlington, the head of the USPTO is Michelle K. Lee. She took up her new role on January 13,2014, on March 13, she formally took office as Director after being nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U. S. Senate. She formerly served as the Director of the USPTOs Silicon Valley satellite office, the USPTO cooperates with the European Patent Office and the Japan Patent Office as one of the Trilateral Patent Offices. The USPTO mission is to maintain a permanent, interdisciplinary historical record of all U. S. patent applications in order to fulfill objectives outlined in the United States Constitution. The legal basis for the United States patent system is Article 1, Section 8, an additional building in Arlington, Virginia, was opened in 2009. The USPTO was expected by 2014 to open its first ever satellite offices in Detroit, Dallas, Denver, the first satellite office opened in Detroit on July 13,2012. In 2013, due to the sequestration, the satellite office for Silicon Valley. However, renovation and infrastructure updates continued after the sequestration, and the Silicon Valley location is due to open in San Jose City Hall in mid-2015. As of September 30,2009, the end of the U. S. governments fiscal year, of those,6,242 were patent examiners and 388 were trademark examining attorneys, the rest are support staff. They are generally newly graduated scientists and engineers, recruited from universities around the nation. They hold degrees in scientific disciplines, but who do not necessarily hold law degrees. Unlike patent examiners, trademark examiners must be licensed attorneys, all examiners work under a strict, count-based production system. For every application, counts are earned by composing, filing, and mailing a first office action on the merits, the Patent Operations of the office is divided into nine different technology centers that deal with various arts. Prior to 2012, decisions of patent examiners may be appealed to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, the United States Supreme Court may ultimately decide on a patent case. Similarly, decisions of trademark examiners may be appealed to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, with subsequent appeals directed to the Federal Circuit, under the America Invents Act, the BPAI was converted to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board or PTAB. In recent years, the USPTO has seen increasing delays between when a patent application is filed and when it issues, to address its workload challenges, the USPTO has undertaken an aggressive program of hiring and recruitment. The USPTO hired 1,193 new patent examiners in Fiscal Year 2006,1,215 new examiners in fiscal 2007, in 2006, USPTO instituted a new training program for patent examiners called the Patent Training Academy
9.
Kinetoscope
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The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. The Kinetoscope was designed for films to be viewed by one individual at a time through a peephole viewer window at the top of the device, a prototype for the Kinetoscope was shown to a convention of the National Federation of Womens Clubs on May 20,1891. The first public demonstration of the Kinetoscope was held at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts, in 1895, Edison introduced the Kinetophone, which joined the Kinetoscope with a cylinder phonograph. Film projection, which Edison initially disdained as financially nonviable, soon superseded the Kinetoscopes individual exhibition model, many of the projection systems developed by Edisons firm in later years would use the Kinetoscope name. An encounter with the work and ideas of photographic pioneer Eadweard Muybridge appears to have spurred Edison to pursue the development of a motion picture system. The Edison facility was very close by, and the lecture was attended by both Edison and his companys official photographer, William Dickson. No such collaboration was undertaken, but in October 1888, Edison filed a claim, known as a caveat. Patent Office announcing his plans to create a device that would do for the Eye what the phonograph does for the Ear. It is clear that it was intended as part of a complete audiovisual system, in March 1889, a second caveat was filed, in which the proposed motion picture device was given a name, Kinetoscope, derived from the Greek roots kineto- and scopos. Edison assigned Dickson, one of his most talented employees, to the job of making the Kinetoscope a reality, the Edison laboratory, though, worked as a collaborative organization. Laboratory assistants were assigned to work on many projects while Edison supervised and involved himself, Dickson and his then lead assistant, Charles Brown, made halting progress at first. An audio cylinder would provide synchronized sound, while the rotating images, when tests were made with images expanded to a mere 1/8 of an inch in width, the coarseness of the silver bromide emulsion used on the cylinder became unacceptably apparent. The first film made for the Kinetoscope, and apparently the first motion picture ever produced on film in the United States, may have been shot at this time, known as Monkeyshines. 1, it shows an employee of the lab in an apparently tongue-in-cheek display of physical dexterity, attempts at synchronizing sound were soon left behind, while Dickson would also experiment with disc-based exhibition designs. The project would soon head off in more directions, largely impelled by a trip of Edisons to Europe. The first motion system to employ a perforated image band was apparently the Théâtre Optique. Reynauds system did not use film, but images painted on gelatine frames. At the Exposition Universelle, Edison would have both the Théâtre Optique and the electrical tachyscope of German inventor Ottamar Anschütz
10.
Celluloid
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Celluloids are a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, with added dyes and other agents. Generally considered the first thermoplastic, it was first created as Parkesine in 1856 and as Xylonite in 1869, Celluloid is easily molded and shaped, and it was first widely used as an ivory replacement. The main use was in movie and photography industries, which used only celluloid films prior to acetate films that were introduced in the 1950s. Celluloid is highly flammable, difficult and expensive to produce and no longer used, although its most common uses today are in table tennis balls, musical instruments. Collodion, invented in 1848 and used as a wound dressing, Parkes patented his discovery after realising a solid residue remained after evaporation of the solvent from photographic collodion. Parkes patented it as a clothing waterproofer for woven fabrics in the same year, later Parkes showcased Parkesine at the 1862 International Exhibition in London, where he was awarded a bronze medal for his efforts. The introduction of Parkesine is generally regarded as the birth of the plastics industry and he used cloth, ivory dust, and shellac, and on April 6,1869, patented a method of covering billiard balls with the addition of collodion. With assistance from Peter Kinnear and other investors, Hyatt formed the Albany Billiard Ball Company in Albany, New York, in 1870, John and his brother Isaiah patented a process of making a horn-like material with the inclusion of cellulose nitrate and camphor. Isaiah Hyatt dubbed his material celluloid in 1872, english inventor Daniel Spill had worked with Parkes and formed the Xylonite Co. to take over Parkes patents, describing the new plastic products as Xylonite. He took exception to the Hyatts claims and pursued the brothers in a number of cases between 1877 and 1884. The judge ruled all manufacturing of celluloid could continue both in Spills British Xylonite Company and Hyatts Celluloid Manufacturing Company, Hyatt used heat and pressure to simplify the manufacture of these compounds. Over the years, celluloid has become the term used for this type of plastic. English photographer John Carbutt founded the Keystone Dry Plate Works in 1879 with the intention of producing gelatin dry plates, the Celluloid Manufacturing Company was contracted for this work by means of thinly slicing layers out of celluloid blocks and then removing the slice marks with heated pressure plates. After this, the strips were coated with a photosensitive gelatin emulsion. It is not certain exactly how long it took for Carbutt to standardize his process, a 15-inch-wide sheet of Carbutts film was used by William Dickson for the early Edison motion picture experiments on a cylinder drum Kinetograph. However, the film base produced by this means was still considered too stiff for the needs of motion picture photography. By 1889, more flexible celluloids for photographic film were developed and this ability to produce photographic images on a flexible material was a crucial step toward the advent of motion pictures. Most movie and photography films prior to the move to acetate films in the fifties were made of celluloid
