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May 1
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms at right angles to either the right or left. It is traditionally oriented so that a main line is horizontal, though is occasionally found at a 45-degree angle to this, with the Hindu version typically featuring a dot in each quadrant. The history of the swastika dates back to the prehistoric peoples living on the Eurasian continent, and remains an important symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism, among others. It had meaning and use in Native American and Jewish faiths prior to World War II, and was regarded worldwide as symbol of good luck and auspiciousness at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the 1930s, the swastika was claimed by the German Nazi Party, and in much of the world it has since had a strong association with racist fascism and the Holocaust. In recent decades there have been unsuccessful attempts by individuals and groups to advocate the view that the swastika's ancient origins supersede its more recent negative connotations.
Recently featured: Article One of the United States Constitution – Order of the Bath – Republic of South Africa
May 2
Charles Ives was an American composer of classical music. He is widely regarded as one of the first American classical composers of international significance. Ives's music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives would come to be regarded as one of the "American Originals," a composer working in a uniquely American style, with American folk tunes woven through his music, and a reaching sense of the possible in music. Ives, who died in 1954 in New York City, left behind material for an unfinished "Universe Symphony." Although there have been several attempts at completion, none has found its way into general performance.
Recently featured: Swastika – Article One of the United States Constitution – Order of the Bath
May 3
The Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791 was instituted by the Government Act adopted on that date by the Sejm (parliament) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was Europe's first modern codified national constitution, and the world's second, after the United States Constitution, written in 1787, which began to function in 1789. It was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The constitution instituted political equality between townspeople and nobility and placed the peasants under the protection of the government, thus mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. The adoption of the May 3 Constitution provoked the active hostility of the Polish Commonwealth's neighbors. In the War in Defense of the Constitution, Poland was betrayed by its Prussian ally and defeated by Imperial Russia under Catherine the Great. Though overthrown in 1792 by the alliance of foreign invaders and internal traitors, the May 3 Constitution influenced later democratic movements throughout the world. It remained, after the demise of the Polish Republic in 1795, beacon in the struggle to restore Polish sovereignty in the next 123 years of Polish partitions.
Recently featured: Charles Ives – Swastika – Article One of the United States Constitution
May 4
The War of the Spanish Succession was a major European armed conflict that arose in 1701 after the death of the last Spanish Habsburg king, Charles II. The war proceeded for over a decade, and was marked by the military leadership of notable generals such as the Duc de Villars and the Duke of Berwick for France, the Duke of Marlborough for England, and Prince Eugene of Savoy for the Austrians. The war was concluded by the treaties of Utrecht (1713) and Rastatt (1714). As a result, Philip V remained King of Spain, but was removed from the French line of succession, thereby averting a union of France and Spain. The Austrians gained most of the Spanish territories in Italy and the Netherlands. As a result, France's hegemony over continental Europe was ended, and the idea of a balance of power became a part of the international order due to its mention in the Treaty of Utrecht.
Recently featured: Poland's Constitution of May 3rd, 1791 – Charles Ives – Swastika
May 5
Automatic number plate recognition is a mass surveillance method that uses optical character recognition on images to read the licence plates on vehicles. As of 2005 systems can scan number plates at around one per second on cars travelling up to 100 mph (160 km/h). They can either use existing closed-circuit television or road-rule enforcement cameras, or ones specifically designed for the task. They are implemented by various police forces and as a method of electronic toll collection on pay-per-use roads. ANPR can be used to store the images captured by the cameras as well as the text from the licence plate, with some configurable to store a photograph of the driver. Systems commonly use infrared lighting to allow the camera to take the picture at any time of day. They also tend to be country-specific due to the variation of plates internationally. Media reports of misidentification and high error rates have led to privacy fears, though, as the systems have developed, they have become much more accurate and reliable.
Recently featured: War of the Spanish Succession – Poland's Constitution of May 3rd, 1791 – Charles Ives
May 6
Francis Petre was a prominent New Zealand-born architect based in Dunedin. Before his time, 19th-century New Zealand architecture was dominated by an almost institutionalized Gothic revival style used by the British Empire for its far-flung colonies. One of the first of New Zealand's native-born architects, Petre played an important part in guiding it towards the brighter Palladian and Renaissance—southern European styles— which were more suited to New Zealand's climate than the gloomier Gothic. Able to work competently in a wide diversity of architectural styles, he was also notable for his pioneering work in concrete development and construction. He designed numerous public and private buildings, many of which are still standing in and around Dunedin. He is chiefly remembered for the monumental Roman Catholic cathedrals of Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, which survive today as testimony to his talent and architectural expertise.
Recently featured: Automatic number plate recognition – War of the Spanish Succession – Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791
May 7
A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and the Earth, obscuring a small part of the Sun's disc. During a transit, Venus can be seen from the Earth as a small black disc moving across the face of the Sun. A transit is similar to a solar eclipse by the Moon but, although the diameter of Venus is almost four times that of the Moon, Venus appears much smaller because it is much farther away from the Earth. Before modern astronomy, observations of transits of Venus helped scientists measure the distance between the Sun and the Earth using the method of parallax. Transits of Venus are rare and occur in a pattern that repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits 8 years apart separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years. The first of a pair of transits of Venus took place in 2004 and the next in this pair will occur in June 2012. Before 2004, the last pair of transits of Venus were in December 1874 and December 1882. After 2012, there will be no more transits of Venus until 2117.
Recently featured: Francis Petre – Automatic number plate recognition – War of the Spanish Succession
May 8
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Goa is India's smallest state in terms of area and the second smallest in terms of population after Sikkim. It is located on the west coast of India, in the region known as the Konkan, and is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the east and south. The Arabian Sea makes up the state's west coast. Panaji is the state's capital, and Margao the largest town. A former colony of Portugal, Goa was ruled by the Portuguese for almost 450 years until 1961, when it was forcibly taken, after demands for a merger with India failed. Internationally renowned for its beaches, Goa is visited by thousands of foreign and domestic tourists each year. Besides beaches, Goa is also known for its world heritage architecture including the Bom Jesus Basilica. Goa also has rich flora and fauna, owing to its location on the Western Ghats range, which are classified as a biodiversity hotspot, one of only three among the ecoregions of India.
Recently featured: Transit of Venus – Francis Petre – Automatic number plate recognition
May 9
The history of Irish poetry includes the poetries of two languages, one in Gaelic and the other in English. The complex interplay between these two traditions, and between both of them and other poetries in English, has produced a body of work that is both rich in variety and difficult to categorise. The earliest surviving poems in Irish date back to the 6th century and the first known poems in English from Ireland date from the 14th century. Although some cross-fertilisation between the two language traditions has always happened, the final emergence of an English-language poetry that had absorbed themes and models from Irish did not appear until the 19th century. This culminated in the work of the poets of the Celtic Revival at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Towards the last quarter of the century, modern Irish poetry has tended to a wide range of diversity, from the poets of the Northern school to writers influenced by the modernist tradition and those facing the new questions posed by an increasingly urban and cosmopolitan society.
Recently featured: Goa – Transit of Venus – Francis Petre
May 10
Samantha Smith was an American schoolgirl from Manchester, Maine who was called America's Youngest Ambassador in the United States and the Goodwill Ambassador in the Soviet Union during her lifetime. She became famous in these two countries and well-known worldwide after writing a letter to the Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Yuri Andropov during the Cold War and receiving a reply from Andropov that included a personal invitation to visit the Soviet Union, which Smith accepted. Assisted by extensive mass media attention in both countries, she participated in peacemaking activities in some other countries after her visit to the Soviet Union, wrote a book and co-starred in a television series before her death in an airplane crash.
Recently featured: Irish poetry – Goa – Transit of Venus
May 11
The mineral diamond is a crystalline form of carbon. Diamonds are renowned for their superlative physical qualities, especially their hardness and their dispersion of white light into a rainbow of colors, known in the trade as fire, for which they have been highly prized throughout history. Industrially, diamonds are ideal material for cutting and grinding tools — common applications include the cutting surfaces of saw blades and drill bits. The De Beers Group has been the largest player in the diamond industry for over one hundred years. The company owns mines that produce some 40 percent of annual world diamond production, and controls distribution channels handling nearly two thirds of all gem diamonds. Some controversy over diamonds has been generated because of the monopolistic practices historically employed by De Beers including strict control of supply and alleged price manipulation, as well as the practice by some African revolutionary groups of selling conflict diamonds in order to fund their often violent activities.
Recently featured: Samantha Smith – Irish poetry – Goa
May 12
Brian Close is the youngest man ever to play cricket for England. He went on to play 22 Test matches for England, captaining them seven times, winning six times and drawing once. Close also captained Yorkshire to four county championship titles, the main honour English county cricket clubs play for. He later went on to captain Somerset, where he is widely credited with turning Somerset round to a hard-playing team that helped mould Viv Richards and Ian Botham into the cricketing greats they became. Yet despite his successes, Close was dogged by controversy throughout his career. He was serving a sentence of being "confined to barracks" during his National Service when called up for his first international tour, sacked by England for timewasting, and sacked by Yorkshire for being against one-day cricket and not giving enough support to younger cricketers. He went on to tour apartheid South Africa and white-minority controlled Rhodesia. In short, Close was known as a cricketing gambler; he was prepared to take risks and to court controversy throughout his career.
Recently featured: Diamond – Samantha Smith – Irish poetry
May 13
Louis Riel was a Canadian politician and leader of the Métis people of western Canada. He led two resistance movements against the Canadian government that sought to preserve Métis rights and culture as their homelands came under the Canadian sphere of influence. During the first, the Red River Rebellion, the provisional government established by Riel ultimately negotiated the terms under which the modern province of Manitoba entered the Canadian Confederation. He was forced into exile as a result of the controversial execution of Thomas Scott, but in 1884 he returned to what is now the province of Saskatchewan to participate in the North-West Rebellion of 1885. It ended in his arrest, trial and eventual execution for treason. Riel was viewed sympathetically in francophone regions of Canada, and his execution has had a lasting influence on relations between the province of Quebec and English-speaking Canada. Whether he is seen as a de facto Father of Confederation or as a traitor, he remains one of the most complex, controversial and ultimately tragic figures in the history of Canada.
Recently featured: Brian Close – Diamond – Samantha Smith
May 14
The Battle of Aljubarrota took place on August 14 1385, between Portuguese forces commanded by King João I and his general Nuno Alvares Pereira, and the Castilian army of King Juan I. The place was Aljubarrota, between the towns of Leiria and Alcobaça in central Portugal. The result was a decisive defeat for the Castilians and the end of the 1383–1385 Crisis, establishing João as King of Portugal. Independence was assured and a new dynasty, the House of Aviz, was established. Scattered border clashes with Castilian troops would persist until the death of Juan I in 1390, but these posed no real threat to the Portuguese monarchy. To celebrate his victory and acknowledge divine help, João I ordered the construction of the Monastery of Santa Maria of Batalha and the founding of the town of Batalha (the Portuguese word for "battle"). The king, his wife, Philippa of Lancaster, and several of his sons are buried in this monastery, which is an important part of Portuguese heritage.
Recently featured: Louis Riel – Brian Close – Diamond
May 15
The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is the international treaty against illicit drug manufacture and trafficking that forms the bedrock of the global drug control regime. Previous treaties had only controlled opium, coca, and derivatives such as morphine and heroin. The Single Convention, adopted in 1961, consolidated those instruments and broadened their scope to include cannabis and allow control of any drugs with similar effects to those specified in the treaty. The Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the World Health Organization were empowered to add, remove, and transfer drugs among the treaty's four Schedules of controlled substances. The International Narcotics Control Board was put in charge of administering controls on drug production, international trade, and dispensation. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime was delegated the Board's day-to-day work of monitoring the situation in each country and working with national authorities to ensure compliance with the Single Convention. This treaty has since been supplemented by the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, which controls LSD, ecstasy, and other mind-altering pharmaceuticals, and the Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, which strengthens provisions against money laundering and other drug-related offenses.
Recently featured: Battle of Aljubarrota – Louis Riel – Brian Close
May 16
Dream Theater is a pioneering American progressive metal band formed by three students at the Berklee College of Music in the mid 1980s. In the twenty years since their inception, they have become the most successful progressive band since the height of progressive rock in the mid-1970s, despite being relatively unknown in mainstream pop and rock circles. They, along with counterparts Queensrÿche and Fates Warning, are credited with reviving progressive music into critical and commercial success after the genre had spent almost a decade in decline following the conversion of many '70s prog acts to pop music. Since that time, their career has seen gold albums, a top 10 single, tours with some of the world's biggest acts (from Yes to Megadeth) and consistent plaudits from rock critics and fans.
Recently featured: Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs – Battle of Aljubarrota – Louis Riel
May 17
A kibbutz is an Israeli collective community. Although other countries have had communal enterprises, in no other country have voluntary collective communities played as important a role as kibbutzim have played in Israel; indeed, kibbutzim played an essential role in the very creation of Israel. Combining socialism and zionism in a form of practical Labor Zionism, kibbutzim are a unique Israeli experiment and part of the largest secular communal movement in history. Kibbutzim were founded in a time when independent farming was not practical. Forced by necessity into communal life, and inspired by their own socialist ideology, kibbutz members developed a pure communal mode of living that attracted interest from the entire world. While kibbutzim lasted for several generations as utopian communities, today kibbutzim are scarcely different from the capitalist enterprises and regular towns to which kibbutzim were originally supposed to be alternatives. The kibbutz movement, though it never accounted for more than seven percent of the Israeli population, did more to shape the image Israelis have of their country, and the image of foreigners have of Israel, than any other Israeli institution.
Recently featured: Dream Theater – Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs – Battle of Aljubarrota
May 18
Margaret Thatcher is a British politician and the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a position she held from 1979 to 1990. She is a member of the Conservative Party and the figurehead of a political ideology known as Thatcherism. Even before coming to power she was nicknamed The Iron Lady in Soviet propaganda, an appellation which stuck. The changes she set in motion between coming to power and 1985 were profound, and altered much of the economic, cultural and commercial landscape of Britain and, by example, the world as a whole. Along the way she also aimed to roll back the welfare state, or "nanny state", as she termed it. Her popularity finally declined when she replaced the unpopular local government Rates tax with the even less popular Community Charge. At the same time the Conservative Party began to split over her sceptical approach to Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union. Her leadership was challenged from within and she was forced to resign in 1990, her loss at least partly due to inadequate advice and campaigning.
Recently featured: Kibbutz – Dream Theater – Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs
May 19
The Silverpit crater is a crater located in the North Sea off the coast of the United Kingdom. It was discovered in 2002 during the analysis of seismic data collected during routine exploration for oil, and was initially reported as the UK's first known impact crater. However, alternative origins have subsequently been proposed. Its age is thought to be of the order of 65 million years, making its formation roughly coincident with the impact that created the Chicxulub Crater (KT boundary) and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. If Silverpit is indeed an impact crater, this may imply that the Earth was struck at that time by several objects, possibly in a similar event to the collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter in 1994. Several other impact craters around the world are known to date from roughly the same epoch, lending credence to this theory.
Recently featured: Margaret Thatcher – Kibbutz – Dream Theater
May 20
The Old Man and the Sea, composed in 1951 in Cuba and published in 1952, was the last major work of fiction to be written by Ernest Hemingway and published in his lifetime. Likely his most famous work, it centers upon an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Though the novella has been the subject of disparate criticism, it is noteworthy in twentieth century fiction and in Hemingway's canon, reaffirming his worldwide literary prominence and significant in his selection for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.
Recently featured: Silverpit crater – Margaret Thatcher – Kibbutz
May 21
Stuttering is a speech disorder in which the normal flow of speech is frequently disrupted by repetitions (sounds, syllables, words, or phrases), pauses, and prolongations that differ both in frequency and severity from those of normally fluent individuals. The term stuttering is most commonly associated with the involuntary repetition, but it also encompasses the abnormal hesitation or pausing before speech, referred to by stutterers as blocks, and the prolongation of certain sounds, usually vowels. Much of what constitutes “stuttering” cannot be observed by the listener; this includes such things as sound and word fears, situational fears, anxiety, tension, shame, and a feeling of "loss of control" during speech. The emotional state of the individual who stutters in response to the stuttering often constitutes the most difficult aspect of the disorder.
Recently featured: The Old Man and the Sea – Silverpit crater – Margaret Thatcher
May 22
Stanislaw Koniecpolski was a Polish nobleman (szlachcic), magnate, official (starost and castellan) and hetman - second highest military commander of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Koniecpolski lived a life that involved almost constant warfare and during his military career he won many victories. Before he reached the age of 20, he had fought in the Dimitriads and the Moldavian Magnate Wars, where he was taken captive by the forces of Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Cecora in 1620. When released in 1623 he soon defeated Ottoman vassals the Tatars in 1624. With inferior forces he fought Swedish forces of Gustav Adolphus to a stalemate in Prussia during the second phase of the Polish-Swedish War (1626-1629). He defeated a major Turkish invasion at Kamieniec Podolski in Ukraine in 1634 and during his life led many other successful campaigns against the rebellious Cossacks and invading Tatars. He is considered to be one of the most skilled and famous military commanders in the history of Poland and Lithuania.
Recently featured: Stuttering – The Old Man and the Sea – Silverpit crater
May 23
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The mutated remains of the Kaled people of the planet Skaro, they travel around in tank-like mechanical casings, and are a race bent on universal conquest and destruction. They are also the greatest alien adversaries of the Time Lord known as the Doctor. Their catchphrase is "EXTERMINATE!", screeched in a frantic mechanical voice. The Daleks were created by writer Terry Nation and BBC designer Raymond Cusick and were first introduced in December 1963 in the second Doctor Who serial. They became an immediate hit with the viewing audience and have become synonymous with Doctor Who, with their behaviour and catchphrases also becoming part of British popular culture.
Recently featured: Stanislaw Koniecpolski – Stuttering – The Old Man and the Sea
May 24
The Blue Whale is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales. Blue Whales are believed to be the largest animal ever to have lived, at up to 30 metres in length and 140 tonnes or more in weight. Blue Whales were abundant in most oceans around the world up until the beginning of the twentieth century. For the first 40 years of that century they were hunted by whalers almost to extinction. Hunting of the species was outlawed by the international community in 1966. The current world population is between three and four thousand individuals. These are located in four (or possibly five) groups. The largest is in the North-East Pacific. There are two groups in the North Atlantic and one in Antarctic waters. Blue Whales found in the Indian Ocean may or may not be part of the Antarctic group.
Recently featured: Dalek – Stanislaw Koniecpolski – Stuttering
May 25
Mount Pinatubo is an active volcano located on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, at the intersection of the borders of the provinces of Zambales, Bataan, and Pampanga. Before 1991, the mountain was inconspicuous and heavily eroded. It was covered in dense forest which supported a population of several thousand indigenous people, the Aeta, who had fled to the mountains from the lowlands when the Spanish conquered the Philippines in 1565. The volcano's most recent eruption in June 1991 came after 500 years of dormancy, and produced one of the largest and most violent eruptions of the 20th century. Successful predictions of the onset of the climactic eruption led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from the surrounding areas, saving many lives, but the surrounding areas were severely damaged by pyroclastic flows, ash deposits, and later, lahars caused by rainwater remobilising earlier volcanic deposits, and thousands of houses were destroyed. The effects of the eruption were felt world-wide. It injected large amounts of aerosols into the stratosphere—more than any eruption since that of Krakatoa in 1883. Global temperatures dropped by about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F), and ozone destruction increased substantially.
Recently featured: Blue Whale – Dalek – Stanislaw Koniecpolski
May 26
The Country Wife is a Restoration comedy from 1675 by William Wycherley. A product of the tolerant early Restoration period, the play reflects an aristocratic and anti-Puritan ideology, and was controversial for its sexual explicitness even in its own time. Even its title contains a lewd pun. Based on several plays by Molière, it turns on two indelicate plot devices: a rake's trick of pretending impotence in order to safely have clandestine affairs with married women, and the arrival in London of an inexperienced young "country wife", with her discovery of the joys of town life, especially the fascinating London men. The scandalous trick and the frank language have for much of the play's history kept it off the stage and out of print. Between 1753 and 1924, The Country Wife was considered too outrageous to be performed at all and was replaced on the stage by David Garrick's cleaned-up and bland version The Country Girl. The original play is again a stage favourite today, and is also acclaimed by academic critics, who praise its linguistic energy, sharp social satire, and openness to different interpretations.
Recently featured: Mount Pinatubo – Blue Whale – Dalek
May 27
The Canadian Senate is a component of the Parliament of Canada, which also includes the Sovereign and the House of Commons. The Senate is an unelected body, consisting of 105 members appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. Senate seats are divided among the provinces, so that Ontario, Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and the Western provinces are equally represented. The Senate was established in 1867, when the British North America Act 1867 created the Dominion of Canada. Known as the "Upper House", the Senate, which meets at Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Ontario, is far less powerful than the House of Commons (the "Lower House"). Although the approval of both Houses is necessary for legislation, the Senate very rarely rejects bills passed by the democratically elected Commons.
Recently featured: The Country Wife – Mount Pinatubo – Blue Whale
May 28
The Temptations are an American Motown singing group whose repertoire has included doo-wop, soul, psychedelia, funk, disco, R&B, and adult contemporary. Formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1960, The Temptations has always featured five African-American male vocalists/dancers. The group, known for its finely tuned choreography, distinct harmonies, and stylish suits, has been said to be as influential to soul as The Beatles are to rock. Having sold an estimated 22 million albums by 1982, The Temptations are the most successful group in black music history. In addition, they have the second-longest tenure on Motown (behind Stevie Wonder), as they were with the label for a total of 40 years: 16 years from 1961 to 1977, and 24 more from 1980 to 2004 (from 1977 to 1980, they were signed to Atlantic Records). As of 2005, The Temptations continue to perform as an independent act with only one original member, founder Otis Williams, in its lineup.
Recently featured: Canadian Senate – The Country Wife – Mount Pinatubo
May 29
The use of poison gas was a major military innovation of the First World War. The gases used ranged from tear gas to disabling chemicals such as mustard gas and killing agents like phosgene. The killing capacity of gas was limited — only 3% of combat deaths were due to gas — however, the proportion of non-fatal casualties was high and gas remained one of the soldier's greatest fears. Unlike most other weapons of the period, it was possible to develop effective countermeasures to gas and hence in the latter stages of the war, as the use of gas increased, in many cases its effectiveness was diminished.
Recently featured: The Temptations – Canadian Senate – The Country Wife
May 30
Dawson's Creek is an hour-long American television drama aimed at and mostly about teenagers, which aired from 1998 to 2003. The show is semi-autobiographical, based on the small-town childhood of creator Kevin Williamson, writer of the slasher film Scream. Dawson Leery, the lead character, shares Williamson's interests and background. The show was set in a small Massachusetts seaside town and focused on four friends who began their sophomore year of high school as the show began. The program, part of a craze for teen-themed movies and television shows in America in the late 1990s, made stars of its leads and was a defining show for its network, The WB. It was the first series bold enough to pick up the mantle of Beverly Hills 90210 and an inspiration for many variations on the teenage angst theme, including The O.C. on Fox.
Recently featured: Use of poison gas in World War I – The Temptations – Canadian Senate
May 31
Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by causing coalescence. This is often done by melting the workpieces and adding a filler material to form a pool of molten material that cools to become a strong joint, but sometimes pressure is used in conjunction with heat, or by itself, to produce the weld. Many different energy sources can be used for welding, including oxy-acetylene gas, an electric arc, a laser, an electron beam, friction, and ultrasound. While often an industrial process, welding can be done in many different environments, including open air, underwater and in space. Until the end of the 19th century, the only welding process was forge welding, which blacksmiths had used for centuries to join metals by heating and pounding them. Arc welding and oxyfuel welding were among the first processes to develop during the 1800s. Welding technology advanced quickly during the early 20th century as World War I and World War II drove the demand for reliable and inexpensive joining methods. Following the wars, several modern welding techniques were developed, including shielded metal arc welding, gas metal arc welding, submerged arc welding and flux-cored arc welding. Today, the science continues to advance, with robot welding becoming more commonplace in industrial settings, and researchers continuing to develop new welding methods.
Recently featured: Dawson's Creek – Use of poison gas in World War I – The Temptations