title: Sola scriptura

text: By contrast, the Protestant traditions of Anglicanism, Methodism and Pentecostalism uphold the doctrine of , with scripture being illumined by tradition and reason. The Methodists thought reason should be delineated from experience, though the latter was classically filed under the former and guided by reason, nonetheless this was added, thus changing the "Anglican Stool" to the four sides of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that to "accept the books of the canon is also to accept the ongoing Spirit-led authority of the church's tradition, which recognizes, interprets, worships, and corrects itself by the witness of Holy Scripture". The Catholic Church officially regards tradition and scripture as equal, forming a single deposit, and considers the magisterium as the living organ which interprets said deposit. The Roman magisterium thus serves Tradition and Scripture as "one common source [...] with two distinct modes of transmission", while some Protestant authors call it "a dual source of revelation".


title: Sola scriptura

text: Many Protestants want to distinguish the view that scripture is the only rule of faith with the exclusion of other sources (nuda scriptura), from the view taught by Luther and Calvin that the scripture alone is infallible, without excluding church tradition in its entirety, viewing them as subordinate and ministerial.


title: Sola scriptura

text: In the 14th century, Marsilius of Padua believed that the only authority for a Christian is the scriptures, instead of the pope. The same point was made by John Wycliffe who foreshadowed the in the 14th century.


title: Sola scriptura

text: Johann Ruchrat von Wesel, Wessel Gansfort and Johannes von Goch also foreshadowed the Protestant view of : they viewed the scripture as being the only infallible authority and denied the authority of the pope or the church as infallible. Peter Abelard believed that human reason was a means of understanding the scriptures, instead of submitting to everything the Catholic Church defines.


title: Sola scriptura

text: is one of the five , considered by some Protestant groups to be the theological pillars of the Reformation. The key implication of the principle is that interpretations and applications of the scriptures don't have the same authority as the scriptures themselves; hence, the authority of the church is viewed as subject to correction by the scriptures, even by an individual member of the church.


title: Sola scriptura

text: Martin Luther, 16th-century monk and figurehead of the Protestant Reformation, stated that "a simple layman armed with Scripture is greater than the mightiest pope without it". The intention of the Reformation was thus to correct what he asserted to be the errors of the Catholic Church, by appealing to the uniqueness of the Bible's textual authority. Catholic doctrine is based on sacred tradition, as well as scripture. rejected the assertion that infallible authority was given to the magisterium to interpret both Scripture and tradition.


title: Sola scriptura

text: , however, does not ignore Christian history, tradition, or the church when seeking to understand the Bible. Rather, it sees the church as the Bible's interpreter, the (embodied in the ecumenical creeds) as the interpretive context, and scripture as the only final authority in matters of faith and practice. As Luther said, "The true rule is this: God's Word shall establish articles of faith, and no one else, not even an angel can do so."


title: Sola scriptura

text: Lutheranism teaches that the books of the Old and New Testaments are the only divinely inspired books and the only source of divinely revealed knowledge. Scripture alone is the formal principle of the faith in Lutheranism, the final authority for all matters of faith and morals because of its inspiration, authority, clarity, efficacy, and sufficiency.


title: Sola scriptura

text: Lutheranism teaches that the Bible does not merely contain the Word of God, but every word of it is, because of verbal inspiration, the word of God. Most Lutheran traditions acknowledge that understanding scriptures is complex given that the Bible contains a collection of manuscripts and manuscript fragments that were written and collected over thousands of years. For example, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America teaches that "Lutheran Christians believe that the story of God's steadfast love and mercy in Jesus is the heart and center of what the Scriptures have to say."


title: Sola scriptura

text: As Lutherans confess in the Nicene Creed, the Holy Spirit "spoke through the prophets". The Apology of the Augsburg Confession identifies "Holy Scripture" with the Word of God and calls the Holy Spirit the author of the Bible. Because of this, Lutherans confess in the Formula of Concord, "we receive and embrace with our whole heart the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the pure, clear fountain of Israel". The apocryphal books were not written by the prophets, by inspiration; they contain errors, were never included in the Palestinian Canon that Jesus used, and therefore are not a part of scripture. The prophetic and apostolic Scriptures are said by the Lutheran church to be authentic as written by the prophets and apostles, and that a correct translation of their writings is God's Word because it has the same meaning as the original Biblical Hebrew and Koine Greek. A mistranslation is not God's word, and no human authority can invest it with divine authority.


title: Sola scriptura

text: Scripture, regarded as the word of God, carries the full authority of God in Lutheranism: every single statement of the Bible calls for instant, unqualified and unrestricted acceptance. Every doctrine of the Bible is the teaching of God and therefore requires full agreement. Every promise of the Bible calls for unshakable trust in its fulfillment; every command of the Bible is the directive of God himself and therefore demands willing observance.


title: Sola scriptura

text: What is said here of "every statement of the Bible" does not represent the faith of all Lutherans: a 2001 survey showed that 72 percent of members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America do not accept that everything in the Bible is literal, but that it may contain scientific or historical errors or describe events symbolically.


title: Sola scriptura

text: Lutheranism teaches that the Bible presents all doctrines and commands of the Christian faith clearly; that God's word is freely accessible to every reader or hearer of ordinary intelligence, without requiring any special education. It also teaches that readers must understand the language God's word is presented in, and not be so preoccupied by contrary thoughts so as to prevent understanding. It teaches that, consequently, no one needs to wait for any clergy, and pope, scholar, or ecumenical council to explain the real meaning of any part of the Bible.


title: Sola scriptura

text: Lutheranism teaches that scripture is united with the power of the Holy Spirit and with it, not only demands but also creates the acceptance of its teaching. This teaching produces faith and obedience. Scripture is not a dead letter, but rather, the power of the Holy Spirit is inherent in it. Scripture does not compel a mere intellectual assent to its doctrine, resting on logical argumentation, but rather it creates the living agreement of faith. The Smalcald Articles affirm, "in those things which concern the spoken, outward Word, we must firmly hold that God grants His Spirit or grace to no one, except through or with the preceding outward Word".


title: Sola scriptura

text: Lutheranism teaches that the Bible contains everything that one needs to know in order to obtain salvation and to live a Christian life. There are no deficiencies in scripture that need to be filled with by tradition, pronouncements of the Pope, new revelations, or present-day development of doctrine.


title: Sola scriptura

text: The Westminster Confession of Faith spoke of the use of "the ordinary means" (such as turning to pastors and teachers) for reaching an understanding of what is contained in scripture and is necessary to know:


title: Sola scriptura

text: Chapter 1, Section VII. All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed, for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.


title: Sola scriptura

text: may be contrasted with , which holds that, besides canonical scripture, there are other guides for what a believer should believe, and how he or she should live. Examples of this include the general revelation in creation, traditions, charismatic gifts, mystical insight, angelic visitations, conscience, common sense, the views of experts, the spirit of the times or something else. suggests that ways of knowing or understanding God and his will, that do not originate from canonized scripture, are in a second place, perhaps helpful in interpreting that scripture, but testable by the canon and correctable by it, if they seem to contradict the scriptures.


title: Sola scriptura

text: Two Christian denominations that uphold the position of are Anglicanism and Methodism. In the Anglican tradition, scripture, tradition, and reason form the "Anglican triad" or "three-legged stool", formulated by the Anglican theologian Richard Hooker. With respect to the Methodist tradition, "A Dictionary for United Methodists" states:


title: Sola scriptura

text: "Sola scriptura" rejects any original infallible authority, other than the Bible. In this view, all secondary authority is derived from the authority of the scriptures and is therefore subject to reform when compared to the teaching of the Bible. Church councils, preachers, biblical commentators, private revelation, or even a message allegedly from an angel or an apostle are not an original authority alongside the Bible in the "sola scriptura" approach.


title: Sola scriptura

text: The Roman Catholic Church, against whom the Protestants directed these arguments, did not see Scripture and the Sacred Tradition of the faith as different sources of authority, but that Scripture was handed down as part of Sacred Tradition (see 2 Thessalonians 2:15, 2 Timothy 2:2).


title: Sola scriptura

text: The Catholic Church holds that the Gospel was transmitted by the apostles by their oral preaching, by example, and by observances handed on what they had received from the lips of Christ, from living with Him, and from what He did, or what they had learned through the prompting of the Holy Spirit; as well as by those apostles and apostolic men who under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit committed the message of salvation to writing. "This living transmission, accomplished in the Holy Spirit, is called Tradition, since it is distinct from Sacred Scripture, though closely connected to it." "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God."


title: Sola scriptura

text: The Tradition here in question comes from the apostles and hands on what they received from Jesus' teaching and example and what they learned from the Holy Spirit. (The Catholic Church distinguishes Sacred Tradition from lesser ecclesiastical traditions—local customs that may be retained, modified or even abandoned.) As explained by Athanasius of Alexandria, "Let us look at the very tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church from the very beginning, which the Logos gave (edoken), the Apostles preached (ekeryxan), and the Fathers preserved (ephylaxan). Upon this the Church is founded (tethemeliotai)"(St. Athanasius, "First Letter to Serapion", 28)


title: Sola scriptura

text: The doctrines which constitute Sacred Tradition are also perceived by the Church as cohesive in nature. The proper interpretation of the Scriptures was seen as part of the faith of the Church and seen indeed as the manner in which biblical authority was upheld (see Book of Acts 15:28–29). The meaning of Scripture was seen as proven from the faith universally held in the churches (see Phil. 2:1, Acts 4:32), and the correctness of that universal faith was seen as proven from the Scriptures and apostolic Sacred Tradition (see 2 Thes. 2:15, 2 Thes. 3:6, 1 Corinthians 11:2). The Biblical canon itself was thus viewed by the Church as part of the Church's tradition, as defined by its leadership and acknowledged by its laity. The first generation of Christians did not yet have a written New Testament, and the New Testament itself demonstrates the process of living Tradition.


title: Sola scriptura

text: The Catholic "Dei verbum" and the papal encyclicals "Providentissimus Deus" by Pope Leo XIII and "Divino afflante Spiritu" by Pope Pius XII set out Catholic teaching on tradition versus individual interpretation.


title: Sola scriptura

text: The Catholic Church teaches that Christ entrusted the preaching of the Gospel to the apostles, who handed it on orally and in writing, and according to the "Catechism of the Catholic Church", "the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time. "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God in which, as in a mirror, the pilgrim Church contemplates God, the source of all her riches." For the Eastern Orthodox too, "the Holy Bible forms a part of Holy Tradition, but does not lie outside of it. One would be in error to suppose that Scripture and Tradition are two separate and distinct sources of Christian Faith, as some do, since there is, in reality, only one source; and the Holy Bible exists and found its formulation within Tradition".


title: Sola scriptura

text: Catholics apply to apostolic tradition many of the qualities that evangelicals and other Protestants apply to scripture alone. For example, the 1978 Evangelical declaration "Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy", states: "We affirm that inspiration was the work in which God by His Spirit, through human writers, gave us His Word. The origin of Scripture is divine. The mode of divine inspiration remains largely a mystery to us. We deny that inspiration can be reduced to human insight, or to heightened states of consciousness of any kind."


title: Sola scriptura

text: Since the Catholic Church professes that apostolic tradition and scripture are both the word of God, Catholics can affirm that many of these propositions apply equally well to tradition: It is the work of the Holy Spirit, which cannot be reduced to human insight or heightened consciousness.


title: Sola scriptura

text: This ties in with the question of what constitutes apostolic tradition. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that this tradition is given "by the apostles who handed on, by the spoken word of their preaching, by the example they gave, by the institutions they established, what they themselves had received - whether from the lips of Christ, from his way of life and his works, or whether they had learned it at the prompting of the Holy Spirit".


title: Sola scriptura

text: There remains some confusion on the matter among both Catholics and non-Catholics. This confusion can be seen in those who interpret Catholic researcher James Keenan to claim that the doctrines given by apostolic tradition have changed. Keenan reviewed the history of moral theology, and in particular a change in the approach of moral theologians, specifically in the twentieth century. Keenan noted that Mark D. Jordan said that medieval texts he had reviewed appeared to be inconsistent. This refers to medieval traditions and not to apostolic tradition or doctrine. Keenan, however, says that John T. Noonan Jr. demonstrated that, "despite claims to the contrary, manualists were co-operators in the necessary historical development of the moral tradition". According to Noonan, "history cannot leave a principle or a teaching untouched; every application to a situation affects our understanding of the principle itself."


title: Sola scriptura

text: Following the Protestant churches' separation from the Roman Catholic Church, the relatively new idea of came under serious critique by the Catholic and Orthodox Christians. In his 2001 "The Shape of Sola Scriptura", the Reformed Christian writer Keith A. Mathison mentions several recent examples of such critics. In response, Mathison distinguishes what he considers to be the true doctrine of from the "subjective and individualistic version" of the doctrine that most Protestants have adopted.


title: Sola scriptura

text: The American Roman Catholic author and television presenter Patrick Madrid wrote that is self-referentially incoherent, as the Bible itself does not teach , and therefore the belief that the scriptures are the only source of Christian belief is self-contradicting given that it cannot be supported without extra-scriptural doctrine.


title: Sola scriptura

text: In the 2008 book "Catholicism and Science", the authors Peter M. J. Hess and Paul Allen wrote that is "inherently divisive", citing the Marburg Colloquy where Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli debated the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist on scriptural grounds but were unable to reach agreement on Sacramental Union. Hess and Allen argue that, when scripture is seen as the only source of infallible teaching, its interpretation is subject to fallible interpretation, and without an infallible interpreter, a certainty of Christian belief is not possible.


title: Sola scriptura

text: The Roman Catholic "Encyclopedia of Theology" notes that, since the 27 books that make up the New Testament canon of scripture are not based on a scriptural list that authenticates them to be inspired, their legitimacy would be impossible to distinguish with certainty without appealing to another infallible source, such as the magisterium of the Catholic Church, which assembled and authenticated this list at Synod of Rome and the Synod of Carthage, both of which took place in the fourth century. Before this, a compiled and authenticated Bible as it is now known did not yet exist.


title: Sola scriptura

text: The American Roman Catholic writer Dave Armstrong wrote that there are several examples of Jesus and his Apostles accepting oral and extrabiblical tradition in the New Testament:


title: Sola scriptura

text: Armstrong argues that since Jesus and the Apostles acknowledge authoritative Jewish oral tradition, Christians can therefore not dispute oral tradition's legitimacy and authority. However, according to scripture, Jesus also challenges some man-made Jewish traditions. But Catholics also make a similar distinction today between Sacred Tradition, which is considered inerrant, and lesser ecclesiastical traditions or disciplines, which can be subject to change. In the Catholic view, one can know what belongs to Sacred Tradition and what is an ecclesiastical tradition or discipline by consulting the Magisterium of the Church. The difference between the two, in the Catholic view, is that Sacred Tradition is apostolic and part of the deposit of faith, while ecclesiastical traditions and disciplines are not.


title: Kamma (caste)

text: Kamma is a Hindu caste from South India. The community of Kammas is believed to have originated from agriculturists of the "Kammanadu" region of the Guntur and Prakasam districts in Andhra Pradesh. Propelled by their military activity in the Vijayanagara Empire, Kammas are believed to have spread out from the region during the Vijayanagara period, followed by some in-migration during the British period and out-migration again during the twentieth century.


title: Kamma (caste)

text: Today they are regarded as the richest group in Andhra Pradesh and are a dominant caste from Coastal Andhra with socio-economic and political prominence throughout the Telugu-speaking regions of India (the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana).


title: Kamma (caste)

text: The modern community of Kammas is believed to have originated from agriculturists of the Kammanadu region in coastal Andhra Pradesh. The region, lying between the Gundlakamma river and the Krishna river in the erstwhile Guntur district (which included the three subdistricts later transferred to the Ongole district in 1970), had an identity dating back to ancient times. The term ""kamma"" either referred to the two rivers that formed the boundaries of the region, or to the Buddhist monastic institutions called "sanghakammas" believed to have been once prevalent in the region.


title: Kamma (caste)

text: As the people of the region migrated to other parts, they were often referred to as the Kamma community ("kamma-kula"). Terms such as "kamma-brahmana", "kamma-komati", "kamma-sreshti" and "kamma-kapu" are attested in inscriptions as descriptions of people. The migration was apparently quite extensive, and was made by possible by the Kammanadu's strategic location with access to the Deccan plateau as well as to the regions in the south and southwest. By 1872, only one-fourth of their total population was living in the original region. But the migrants retained links to the homeland and returned to it whenever the situation was favourable.


title: Kamma (caste)

text: The tradition holds that the Kammas, along with Velamas and Reddis, evolved out of the community of Kapus (cultivators) in the post-Kakatiya period. A popular legend collected by Edgar Thurston narrates that Kammas originated from the youngest son of a certain Belthi Reddi, who managed to recover his mother's ear-ornament (called "kamma" in Telugu) that had been appropriated by Emperor Prataparudra's minister. The other sons of Belthi Reddi are similarly said to have given rise to the other prominent caste communities of the Telugu people.


title: Kamma (caste)

text: Kammas served as ministers, military generals, and governors in the Vijayanagara Empire. During the reign of Krishnadevaraya, Kammas are said to have formed the bulwark of the Vijayanagara army. Their role in protecting the last great Hindu kingdom of India was significant. Krishnadevaraya's court had a significant presence of Kamma officers, and they entered into matrimonial alliances with the royal family. It's possible that the influence of Kamma generals led to the importance of the Telugu language in Vijayanagara and the rise of Telugu colonies in Tamil Nadu. During the reign of the Vijayanagara Empire, Kamma Nayaks (commanders) were appointed as governors in many areas of Tamil Nadu. Some of the notable Kamma Nayak clans of Vijayanagara include the Pemmasanis, Sayapanenis, and Ravellas.


title: Kamma (caste)

text: Of the Pemmasani Nayaks, they controlled parts of Rayalaseema and had large mercenary armies that were the vanguard of the Vijayanagara Empire in the sixteenth century. Pemmasani Ramalinga Nayudu was a leading military commander under Krishnadevaraya, and Aliya Rama Raya and the Aravidus rose to power following a civil war largely because of the support of Pemmasani Erra Timmanayudu. Pemmasani Pedda Timmaraja was the minister of Sriranga I and later for Venkata II, the latter of whom oversaw the revival of the Vijayanagara Empire. It is also known that a Pemmasani Nayak, Timmanayudu, had court poets and ministers of his own, such as Channamaraju. Pemmasani Timmanayudu also assisted Venkata II in putting down a rebellion by the Nandyala Chiefs led by Krishnamaraja in 1580. The Pemmasani Nayaks are associated with Gandikota, where they started as commandants and later gained control of Gandikota "Seema" from the Nandyala Chiefs. Numerous Hindu temples, such as Bugga Ramalingeshwara Swamy Temple and Chintalarayaswamy Temple, were constructed and patronized by the Pemmasanis.


title: Kamma (caste)

text: The Sayapaneni Nayaks started in service of Vijayanagara when Krishnadevaraya granted administrative control of the Dupadu Region to Shayappanayadu, a twenty-year old from the family. According to the Dupati "kaifiyat", this area was consolidated by Vengala Nayudu and Venkatadri Nayudu, who are Shayappa Nayudu's descendants, and their rule is presented as a peaceful epoch. Although modest actors in the Deccan, their main strength lay in their ability to shift allegiances, facilitated by Niyogi Brahmins, as seen with their initial allegiance to the Vijayanagara Empire and later to the Qutb Shahis and the Nizams after Vijayanagara's demise.


title: Kamma (caste)

text: The Ravella Nayaks were another prominent clan that served the Vijayanagara Empire militarily and administratively since the Sangama Dynasty, and they exercised control (on behalf of Vijayanagara) over Srisailam, Udayagiri, Podili, and Kochcherlakota "Seemas" (regions) at various periods. The exploits of this clan are described by the poet Ratnakaram Gopala Kavi in "Sovgandhika Prasavapaharanamu," including mentions of defeating the Qutb Shahis, Gajapatis, and recapturing forts like Adoni. Noted individuals in the Ravella Nayaks include Ravella Linga II, who is surmised to be one of the chief generals of the Vijayanagara Army during the reign of Aliya Rama Raya.


title: Kamma (caste)

text: When the Vijayanagara Empire was troubled after the Battle of Tallikota in 1565, the Pemmasani Nayaks, Ravella Nayaks and Sayapaneni Nayaks helped the Aravidu Dynasty in keeping the Muslims at bay. It took another 90 years to consolidate the Muslim power in Andhra country with the capture of Gandikota in 1652 and the defeat of Pemmasani Timmanayudu by Mir Jumla. Following the Battle of Talikota, many Kamma Nayaks either migrated to the dominions of the Madurai and Thanjavur Nayaks where they governed villages and supplied military officers or obtained favours from the Qutb Shahis and Mughals and settled in Telugu regions as local military chiefs.


title: Kamma (caste)

text: Kammas were also in service of the Qutb Shahis. Their roles included serving as the regional aristocracy, revenue officers and military commanders. During the reign of the Qutb Shahis and Nizams, the Sayapaneni Nayaks (1626–1802) ruled a block of territory between the Krishna River and Nellore as vassals. It was also in the Qutb Shahi period that the Vasireddy clan of Vasireddy Venkatadri Nayudu received the deshmukhi of the Nandigama "pargana" in 1670. Vasireddy Venkatadri Nayudu, a Kamma zamindar, controlled 551 towns and villages in the Guntur and Krishna Districts, had a retinue of several thousand men, and became known for his patronization of Hindu religious rituals, festivals, temples, and Brahmins. The Kamma Yarlagadda zamindars of Challapalli obtained their zamindari in 1596 and deshmukhi jurisdiction in 1640, and they assisted the Muslim rulers in their military expeditions and collection of land taxes. This conferred on the Yarlagaddas the privileges of maintaining their own military force and control over the inhabitants in their area.


title: Kamma (caste)

text: Following Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb's reign, coastal Andhra witnessed a series of widespread rebellions against the local Mughal officials that enabled Kamma warrior chiefs to usurp administrative power over hundreds, if not thousands, of square miles of land. In the 1600-1800s, Kammas acquired land in the interior Deccan Plateau due to grants that were given by the Nizam of Hyderabad to encourage cultivation in uncultivated areas of Telangana. Moreover, in the Telangana region, Muslim rulers collected taxes through intermediaries from the dominant castes, such as the Kammas, who were given the title "Chowdary".


title: Kamma (caste)

text: Although the 1802 Permanent Settlement by the British benefited the Kamma landed aristocracy by reinforcing the Zamindari system, most Kammas saw their landholdings consolidated, and their influence consequently increased, by the introduction of the ryotwari system as a replacement for the zamindari system in the 19th century. Akin to the jenmis of Kerala, there were also big Kamma ryotwari landlords in Andhra. Some Kammas also were in the Madras Army of the British East India Company. Among Telugu Hindus, the East India Company army initially recruited predominantly from the Kamma, Raju, and Velama castes and restricted recruitment from other castes.


title: Kamma (caste)

text: In the 1872 census, the Kammas made up 40 per cent of the agricultural population of the Krishna district (which included the present Guntur district until 1904). Along with Brahmins, they formed the dominant community of the district. By 1921, their population in the district increased to 47 per cent, representing a large in-migration. Following Brahminical traditions, Kammas emulated the rituals of the Brahmins, and the literate Kammas learned the Vedas, wore the sacred threads, taught Sanskrit and even performed pujas for the lower-caste members, which is said to have generated controversies. Despite their attachment to Brahminical orthodoxy, the Kammas also related to the Kapus in a narrative. Kammas formed the "Kamma Mahajana Sabha", a caste association, in 1910, which received encouragement from the political leaders. Ranga also started a Madras Kamma Association in 1919 and founded a journal "Kamma Patrika", later renamed to "Ryot Patrika". Kamma caste associations also spawned in Tamil Nadu in the 1920s, with two Kamma zamindars leading the "Kamma Mahajana Sabha" and the "Dakshina Desa Kamma Mahasabha". Kammas constituted 6 per cent of the population in the Telugu-speaking areas of the Madras Presidency in 1921, a figure slightly higher than Brahmins, but lagging far behind the 'Kapu or Reddi'.


title: Kamma (caste)

text: Construction of dams and barrages and establishment of an irrigation system in Godavari and Krishna River deltas by Arthur Cotton was a great boon to the Kamma farmers. Availability of water and the natural propensity for hard work made the Kammas wealthy and prosperous. The money was put to good use by establishing numerous schools and libraries and encouraging their children to take up modern education. In 1921, Kammas had the highest literacy rate among other dominant castes, such as Reddis and Kapus, though it was lower than Brahmins. The money was also invested into various companies, industries, such as food processing and transportation, and moneylending. The Kammas of Tamil Nadu, who speak Telugu at home, have also excelled in the cultivation of black cotton soils and later diversified into various industrial enterprises, particularly in Coimbatore and Kovilpatti. Coimbatore was known as the ‘Manchester of South India’ and its textile industry, which is the main economic sector in the city, is almost entirely controlled by affluent Kamma families that were the landed aristocracy of Kongu Nadu.


title: Kamma (caste)

text: By the mid 20th century, many Kammas had benefited greatly from the numerous educational institutes that had proliferated throughout Coastal Andhra such as Andhra Christian College or Guntur Medical College. Many of these were high-fee private educational institutes also formed by wealthy members of the dominant castes who often gave preference to students from their community in admissions.


title: Kamma (caste)

text: Today they are regarded as the wealthiest group in Andhra Pradesh and an entrepreneurial community influential in various industries, such as information technology, real estate, media and Telugu cinema. They are a dominant caste from Coastal Andhra with socio-economic and political prominence throughout the Telugu-speaking regions of India (the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana). In united-Andhra Pradesh (including present-day Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), Kammas made up 4.8% of the total state population in the last census. Kammas also have a notable, albeit smaller, presence in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.


title: Kamma (caste)

text: In recent times, a sizeable number of Kammas have migrated to the United States. Starting in the 1950s, some members of the dominant castes from Andhra Pradesh had gone to the US for higher education. After the lifting of immigration quota system in 1965, the highly-educated doctors, engineers and scientists started moving to US. Kammas, mainly from well-off families and having benefited from the spread of educational institutions in Coastal Andhra, took up the opportunity to move. After the IT boom in the 1990s, even more migrated to America. The success of those who migrated already incentivized more of their relatives and members of their network to migrate as well, and today having an "NRI child" is seen as a matter of pride for Kamma parents in coastal Andhra. For Kamma and other dominant caste women, although some have been sent by families for higher studies in America, many have moved to America due to marriage with NRI men.


title: Kamma (caste)

text: The varna system of Brahmanic ritual ranking never took hold in South Indian society outside Kerala. There were essentially three classes: Brahmin, non-Brahmin and Dalit. Kammas naturally fall into the non-Brahmin class. Classification of social groups in the Andhra region has changed frequently as the various communities jostle for status. During the British Raj, the Kammas were considered to be "upper Shudra"/"Sat Shudra", along with the Reddy and Velama castes, under the varna system.


title: Kamma (caste)

text: Prior to the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, creating the new state of Telangana, the Kammas and the Reddys were politically and economically dominant in the state. From 1953 to 1983, many Kammas initially associated themselves with the Indian National Congress and offered the party financing and media support. During the 1980s, they played a key role in state and national politics with the inception of the Telugu Desam Party by its then President N. T. Rama Rao also called as NTR.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: Panthera spelaea, also known as the Eurasian cave lion, European cave lion or steppe lion, is an extinct "Panthera" species that most likely evolved in Europe after the third Cromerian interglacial stage, less than 600,000 years ago. Phylogenetic analysis of fossil bone samples revealed that it was highly distinct and genetically isolated from the modern lion ("Panthera leo") occurring in Africa and Asia. Analysis of morphological differences and mitochondrial data support the taxonomic recognition of "Panthera spelaea" as a distinct species that genetically diverged from the lion about . Nuclear genomic evidence shows a more recent split approximately 500,000 years ago, with no subsequent interbreeding with the ancestors of the modern lion. The oldest known bone fragments were excavated in Yakutia and radiocarbon dated at least 62,400 years old. It became extinct about 13,000 years ago.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: "Felis spelaea" was the scientific name used by Georg August Goldfuss in 1810 for a fossil lion skull that was excavated in a cave in southern Germany. It possibly dates to the Würm glaciation.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: Several authors regarded "Panthera spelaea" as a subspecies of the modern lion, and therefore as "Panthera leo spelaea".


title: Panthera spelaea

text: One author considered the cave lion to be more closely related to the tiger based on a comparison of skull shapes, and proposed the scientific name "Panthera tigris spelaea".


title: Panthera spelaea

text: Results from morphological studies showed that it is distinct in cranial and dental anatomy to justify the specific status of "Panthera spelaea". Results of phylogenetic studies also support this assessment.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: In 2001, the subspecies "P. spelaea vereshchagini" was proposed for seven specimens found in Siberia and Yukon, which have smaller skulls and teeth than the average "P. spelaea". Before 2020, genetic analysis using ancient DNA provided no evidence for their distinct subspecific status; DNA signatures from "P. spelaea" from Europe and Alaska were indistinguishable, suggesting one large panmictic population. However, analysis of mitochondrial genome sequences from 31 cave lions showed that they fall into two monophyletic clades. One lived across western Europe and the other was restricted to Beringia during the Pleistocene. For this reason, the Beringian population is considered a distinct subspecies, "P. s. vereshchagini".


title: Panthera spelaea

text: Lion-like pantherine felids first appeared in the Tanzanian Olduvai Gorge about . These cats dispersed to Europe from East Africa in the first half of the Middle Pleistocene, giving rise to "P. fossilis" in Central Europe by 610,000 years ago. "Panthera spelaea" evolved from "P. fossilis" about 460,000 years ago in central Europe during the late Saalian glaciation or early Eemian and would have been common throughout Eurasia from 450,000 to 14,000 years ago. Recent nuclear genomic evidence suggest that interbreeding between modern lions and all Eurasian fossil lions took place up until 500,000 years ago, but by 470,000 years ago, no subsequent interbreeding between the two lineages occurred.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: "P. spelaea" bone fragments excavated in Poland were radiocarbon dated to between the early and late Weichselian glaciation, and are between 109,000 and 57,000 years old. In Eurasia, it became extinct between 14,900 and 14,100 years ago, and survived in Beringia until 13,800 to 13,300 years ago as the Weichselian glaciation receded. Mitochondrial DNA sequence data from fossil lion remains show that the American lion represents a sister group of "P. spelaea", and likely arose when an early "P. spelaea" population became isolated south of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet about 340,000 years ago.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: The following cladogram shows the genetic relationship between "P. spelaea" and other pantherine cats.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: Carvings and cave paintings of cave lions, which were discovered in the Lascaux and Chauvet Caves in France, were dated to 15,000 to 17,000 years old. A drawing in the Chauvet cave depicts two cave lions walking together. The one in the foreground is slightly smaller than the one in the background, which has been drawn with a scrotum and without a mane. Such cave paintings suggest that male cave lions completely lacked manes, or at most had very small manes.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: "P. spelaea" is also known from the Löwenmensch figurine found in Vogelherd cave in the Swabian Alb, southwest Germany, which dates to the Aurignacian culture. These archaeological artifacts indicate that it may have been featured in Paleolithic religious rituals.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: "P. spelaea" was thought to have been one of the largest lion species. The skeleton of an adult male found in 1985 near Siegsdorf in Germany had a shoulder height of around and a head-body length of without the tail, similar in size to large modern lions. The size of this male was exceeded by other specimens, with another male reaching long without the tail. Similarly, footprints attributed to a male cave lion measured across. The heaviest "Panthera spelaea" was estimated to weigh . This shows that "P. spelaea" would have been up to or over 12% larger than modern lions, but still smaller than the earlier "Panthera fossilis" or the American lion ("P. atrox"). Cave paintings almost exclusively show hunting animals without a mane, suggesting that males were indeed maneless. "P. spelaea" had a relatively longer and narrower muzzle compared to that of the extant lion. Despite this, the two species do not exhibit major differences in morphology. Like modern lions, females were smaller than males.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: In 2016, hair found near the Maly Anyuy River was identified as cave lion hair through DNA analysis. Comparison with hair of a modern lion revealed that cave lion hair was probably similar in colour as that of the modern lion, though slightly lighter. In addition, the cave lion is thought to have had a very thick and dense undercoat comprising closed and compressed yellowish-to-white wavy downy hair with a smaller mass of darker-coloured guard hairs, possibly an adaptation to the Ice Age climate.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: "P. spelaea" formed a contiguous population from Europe to Alaska over the Bering land bridge, across the range of the mammoth steppe. It was widely distributed from the Iberian Peninsula, Southeast Europe, Great Britain, Central Europe, the East European Plain, and across most of northern Eurasia into Canada and Alaska. The oldest known fossils were excavated in northeastern Yakutia and were radiocarbon dated at 62,400 years old. The youngest known fossils are dated 11,925 years old and originated near Fairbanks, Alaska.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: Phalanx bones excavated in Spain's La Garma cave complex were radiocarbon dated to 14,300–14,000 years old.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: In Slovakia, skull, femur and pelvis remains were excavated in ten Karst caves in hilly and montane areas at elevations from .


title: Panthera spelaea

text: In Yakutia's Khayrgas Cave, bones of "P. spelaea" were found together with remains of humans, wolf, reindeer, Pleistocene horse and fish in a layer dated 13,200–21,500 years old.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: In 2008, a well-preserved mature cave lion specimen was unearthed near the Maly Anyuy River in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in Russia, which still retained some clumps of hair.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: The cave lion was probably predominantly found in open habitats such as steppe and grasslands although it would have also have occurred in open woodlands as well.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: In 2015, two frozen cave lion cubs, estimated to be between 25,000 and 55,000 years old, were discovered close to the Uyandina River in Yakutia, Siberia in permafrost.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: Research results indicate that the cubs were likely barely a week old at the time of their deaths, as their milk teeth had not fully erupted. Further evidence suggests the cubs were hidden at a den site until they were strong enough to follow their mother back to the pride, as with modern lions. Researchers believe that the cubs were trapped and killed by a landslide, and that the absence of oxygen underground hindered their decomposition and allowed the cubs to be preserved in such good condition. A second expedition to the site where the cubs were found was planned for 2016, in hopes of finding either the remains of a third cub or possibly the cubs' mother.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: In 2017, another frozen specimen, thought to be a lion cub, was found in Yakutia on the banks of the Tirekhtyakh River (), a tributary of the Indigirka River. This male cub was thought to be slightly older than the 2015 cubs at the time of its death; it is estimated to have been around one and a half to two months. In 2018, another preserved carcass of a cub was found in a location away. It was considered to be around a month old when it died approximately 50,000 years ago, and presumed to be a sibling of the male cub. However, carbon dating showed them to have lived about 15,000 years apart, with the female estimated to have lived 28,000 years ago, and the male 43,448 years ago. Both cubs were well preserved, albeit with a few damages, with the female possibly being the "best preserved" animal discovered from the Ice age.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: "P. spelaea" inhabited open environment such as mammoth steppe and boreal forest. It was one of the keystone species of the mammoth steppe, being one of the main apex predators alongside gray wolf, cave hyena and brown bear. Large amounts of bones belonging to "P. spelaea" were excavated in caves, where bones of cave hyena, cave bear and Paleolithic artefacts were also found.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: It is unclear whether "P. spelaea" was social like the modern lion; some evidence indicates that it may have been solitary.


title: Panthera spelaea

text: Isotopic analyses of bone collagen samples extracted from fossils indicate that cave bear cubs, reindeer and other cervids were prominent in the diet of cave lions. Later cave lions seem to have preyed foremost on reindeer, up to the brink of local extinction or extirpation of both species. Other possible prey species were giant deer, red deer, wild horse, muskox, aurochs, wisent, steppe bison, young woolly rhino and young woolly mammoth. It likely competed for prey with the European Ice Age leopard ("P. pardus spelaea") as well as cave hyenas, cave bears and wolves. An Isotope analysis study suggested most sampled "P. spelea" specimens were primarily consuming reindeer.


title: John Haigh

text: John George Haigh (; 24 July 1909 – 10 August 1949), commonly known as the Acid Bath Murderer, was an English serial killer convicted for the murder of six people, although he claimed to have killed nine. Haigh battered to death or shot his victims and disposed of their bodies using sulphuric acid before forging their signatures so he could sell their possessions and collect large sums of money. His actions were the subject of the television film "A Is for Acid".


title: John Haigh

text: John Haigh was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, and raised in the village of Outwood, West Riding of Yorkshire. His parents were engineer John Robert Haigh and his wife Emily (née Hudson), members of the Plymouth Brethren, a conservative Protestant sect.


title: John Haigh

text: Haigh later claimed that he suffered from recurring religious nightmares in his childhood. He developed great proficiency at the piano, which he learned at home. He was fond of classical music and often attended concerts.


title: John Haigh

text: Haigh won a scholarship to Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield, then to Wakefield Cathedral, where he became a choirboy. After school, he was apprenticed to a firm of motor engineers. After a year, he left that job and took jobs in insurance and advertising. Aged 21, he was dismissed after being suspected of stealing from a cash box. After being fired he moved on to forging car documents.


title: John Haigh

text: On 6 July 1934, Haigh married 23-year-old Beatrice 'Betty' Hamer. The marriage soon disintegrated. The same year that Haigh was jailed for fraud, Betty gave birth while he was in prison, and she placed the baby girl for adoption and left Haigh. Haigh's conservative family ostracised him from then onwards.


title: John Haigh

text: Haigh moved to London in 1936, and became chauffeur to William McSwan, a wealthy owner of amusement arcades. He also maintained McSwan's amusement machines. Thereafter he pretended to be a solicitor named William Cato Adamson with offices in Chancery Lane, London; Guildford, Surrey; and Hastings, Sussex. He sold fraudulent stock shares, purportedly from the estates of his deceased clients, at below-market rates. His scam was uncovered by someone who noticed he had misspelled Guildford as "Guilford" on his letterhead. Haigh received a four-year prison sentence for fraud. Haigh was released just after the start of the Second World War; he continued as a fraudster and was sentenced to several further terms of imprisonment.


title: John Haigh

text: Regretting that he had left victims alive to accuse him, he became intrigued by French murderer Georges-Alexandre Sarret, who had disposed of bodies using sulphuric acid. Haigh experimented with field mice and found that it took only 30 minutes for the body to dissolve.


title: John Haigh

text: Haigh was freed from prison in 1943 and became an accountant with an engineering firm. Soon after, by chance, he bumped into his former employer William McSwan in a Kensington pub. McSwan introduced Haigh to his parents, Donald and Amy. McSwan worked for them by collecting rents on their London properties, and Haigh became envious of his lifestyle. On 6 September 1944, McSwan disappeared. Haigh later admitted he had lured McSwan into a basement on Gloucester Road, hit him over the head with a lead pipe, and then put his body in a drum with concentrated sulphuric acid. Two days later, finding that McSwan's body had mostly dissolved, Haigh emptied the drum into a manhole.


title: John Haigh

text: He told McSwan's parents that their son had gone into hiding in Scotland to avoid being called up for military service. Haigh then began living in McSwan's house and collecting rent for McSwan's parents. They became curious as to why their son had not returned, as the war was coming to an end. On 2 July 1945, he lured them to Gloucester Road by telling them their son was back from Scotland for a surprise visit. There he killed them with blows to the head and disposed of them. Haigh then stole McSwan's pension cheques and sold his parents' properties, for around £8,000, and moved into the Onslow Court Hotel in Kensington.


title: John Haigh

text: Haigh was a gambler. By 1947, he was running short of money. To solve his financial troubles, he found another couple to kill and rob: Archibald Henderson and his wife Rose. After feigning interest in a house that they were selling, he was invited to the Hendersons' flat by Rose to play the piano for their housewarming party. While at the flat, Haigh stole Archibald Henderson's revolver, planning to use it in his next crime. Renting a small workshop at 2 Leopold Road, Crawley, Sussex, he moved acid and drums there from Gloucester Road. (Haigh was also known to have stayed at Crawley's Hotel, The George, on several occasions.) On 12 February 1948, he drove Archibald Henderson to his workshop on the pretext of showing him an invention. When they arrived, Haigh shot Henderson in the head with the stolen revolver. Haigh then lured Rose Henderson to the workshop, claiming that her husband had fallen ill, and he shot her as well.


title: John Haigh

text: After disposing of the Hendersons' bodies in oil drums filled with acid, he forged a letter with their signatures and sold all of their possessions for £8,000, except for their car and dog, which he kept.


title: John Haigh

text: Haigh's next and last victim was Olive Durand-Deacon, 69, the wealthy widow of solicitor John Durand-Deacon and a fellow resident at the Onslow Court Hotel. Haigh by then was calling himself an engineer, and Olive mentioned an idea to him that she had for artificial fingernails. He invited her down to the Leopold Road workshop on 18 February 1949 and, once inside, he shot her in the back of the neck with the .38 caliber Webley revolver that he had stolen from Archibald Henderson, stripped her of her valuables, including a Persian lamb coat, and put her into the acid bath. Two days later, Durand-Deacon’s friend Constance Lane reported her missing.


title: John Haigh

text: Detectives soon discovered Haigh’s record of theft and fraud and searched the workshop. Police found Haigh’s attaché case containing a dry cleaner’s receipt for Olive Durand-Deacon’s coat, and also papers referring to the Hendersons and McSwans. The workshop in Sussex rented by Haigh did not contain a floor drain, unlike the workshop he had rented at Gloucester Road in London. He, therefore, disposed of the remains by pouring out the container on a rubble pile at the back of the property. Investigation of the area by pathologist Keith Simpson revealed 28 pounds of human body fat, part of a human foot, human gallstones and part of a denture which was later identified by Olive Durand-Deacon's dentist during the trial.


title: John Haigh

text: Haigh asked Detective Inspector Albert Webb during questioning, "Tell me, frankly, what are the chances of anybody being released from Broadmoor?" (a high-security psychiatric hospital). The inspector said that he could not discuss that sort of thing, so Haigh replied, "Well if I told you the truth, you would not believe me. It sounds too fantastic to believe."


title: John Haigh

text: Haigh then confessed that he had killed Durand-Deacon, the McSwans, and the Hendersons—as well as three other people: a young man called Max, a girl from Eastbourne, and a woman from Hammersmith. These claims could not be substantiated.


title: John Haigh

text: Haigh's trial was held at Lewes Assizes. Haigh pleaded insanity, claiming that he had drank the blood of his victims.


title: John Haigh

text: He said he had dreams dominated by blood as a young boy. When he was involved in a car accident in March 1944, his dream returned to him: "I saw before me a forest of crucifixes which gradually turned into trees. At first, there appeared to be dew or rain, dripping from the branches, but as I approached I realized it was blood. The whole forest began to writhe and the trees, dark and erect, to ooze blood... A man went from each tree catching the blood ... When the cup was full, he approached me. 'Drink,' he said, but I was unable to move."


title: John Haigh

text: The Attorney-General, Sir Hartley Shawcross KC (later Lord Shawcross), led for the prosecution, and urged the jury to reject Haigh’s defense of insanity because he had acted with malice aforethought.


title: John Haigh

text: Sir David Maxwell Fyfe KC, defending, called many witnesses to attest to Haigh’s mental state, including Henry Yellowlees, who claimed Haigh had a paranoid constitution, adding: "The absolute callous, cheerful, bland and almost friendly indifference of the accused to the crimes which he freely admits having committed is unique in my experience."


title: John Haigh

text: Haigh apparently had believed (mistakenly) that if the bodies of his victims could not be found, a murder conviction would not be possible. It took only minutes for the jury to find him guilty. Mr Justice Travers Humphreys sentenced him to death. On 10 August 1949 Haigh drank a brandy just before being hanged by executioner Albert Pierrepoint.


title: John Haigh

text: The case was one of the post-1945 cases which gained considerable coverage in the newspapers even though Haigh's guilt was not questioned. The editor of the "Daily Mirror", Silvester Bolam, was sentenced to a three-month prison term for contempt of court for describing Haigh as a "murderer" while the trial was still underway.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: Blowback is a system of operation for self-loading firearms that obtains energy from the motion of the cartridge case as it is pushed to the rear by expanding gas created by the ignition of the propellant charge.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: Several blowback systems exist within this broad principle of operation, each distinguished by the methods used to control bolt movement. In most actions that use blowback operation, the breech is not locked mechanically at the time of firing: the inertia of the bolt and recoil , relative to the weight of the bullet, delay opening of the breech until the bullet has left the barrel. A few locked breech designs use a form of blowback (example: primer actuation) to perform the unlocking function.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: The blowback principle may be considered a simplified form of gas operation, since the cartridge case behaves like a piston driven by the powder gases. Other operating principles for self-loading firearms include delayed blowback, blow forward, gas operation, and recoil operation.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: In firearms, a blowback system is generally defined as an operating system in which energy to operate the firearm's various mechanisms, and automate the loading of another cartridge, is derived from the inertia of the spent cartridge case being pushed out the rear of the chamber by rapidly expanding gases produced by a burning propellant, typically gunpowder. When a projectile (e.g. bullet) is still within the gun barrel, the high-pressure propellant gas behind it is contained within what could be seen as a closed system; but at the moment it exits the muzzle, this functional seal is broken, allowing the propellant gas to be suddenly released in an explosive muzzle blast. The expanding gas also creates a jet propulsion effect rearward in the barrel against the spent cartridge case. This "blowback" is the predominant component of the recoil. Some guns use energy from blowback to perform the automatic bolt cycling /reloading process, while others will use a portion of the blowback to operate only certain parts of the cycle or simply use the blowback energy to enhance the operational energy from another system of automatic operation.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: What is common to all blowback systems is that the cartridge case must move under the direct action of the powder pressure, therefore any gun in which the bolt is not rigidly locked, and permitted to move while there remains gas pressure in the chamber, will undergo a degree of blowback action. The energy from the expansion of gases upon firing appears in the form of kinetic energy transmitted to the bolt mechanism, which is controlled and used to operate the firearm's operation cycle. The extent to which blowback is employed largely depends on the manner used to control the movement of the bolt and the proportion of energy drawn from other systems of operation. How the movement of the bolt is controlled is where blowback systems differ. Blowback operation is most often divided into three categories, all using residual pressure to complete the cycle of operation: simple blowback (often just "blowback"), delayed/retarded blowback, and advanced primer ignition.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: Relating blowback to other types of automatic firearm operation, George M. Chinn wrote that: "In the larger sense, blowback might well be considered a special form of gas operation. This is reasonable because the cartridge case may be conceived of as a sort of piston driven by the powder gases. Actually, blowback involves so many special problems that it is best considered to be in a class by itself. The question whether or not it should be included within the more general class of gas operation or recoil operation is purely academic. The important point is that it partakes some of the properties of both classes and, depending on the particular problem at hand, may be considered to be either one."


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: The blowback (sometimes referred to as "simple", "straight" or "pure" blowback) system represents the most basic auto loading operation type. In a blowback mechanism, the bolt rests against the rear of the barrel, but is not locked in place. At the point of ignition, expanding gases push the bullet forward through the barrel while at the same time pushing the case rearward against the bolt. The expanding gases push the bolt assembly to the rear, but the motion is slowed by the mass of the bolt, internal friction, and the force required to compress the action spring. The design must ensure that the delay is long enough that the bullet exits the barrel before the cartridge case clears the chamber. The empty case is ejected as the bolt travels to the rear. The stored energy of the compressed action spring then drives the bolt forward (although not until the trigger is pulled if the weapon fires from an open bolt). A new cartridge is stripped from the magazine and chambered as the bolt returns to its in-battery position.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: The blowback system is practical for firearms using relatively low-power cartridges with lighter weight bullets. Higher power cartridges require heavier bolts to keep the breech from opening prematurely; at some point, the bolt becomes too heavy to be practical. For an extreme example, a 20 mm cannon using simple blowback and lubricated cartridges would need a bolt to keep the cartridge safely in the barrel during the first few milliseconds; furthermore, the average force supplied by the return spring is limited to or the bolt will not travel back far enough to feed a new round. Consequently, the return spring is not powerful enough to keep the bolt closed when the gun is tilted up. In addition, there is not enough energy stored in the bolt to cycle the weapon.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: Due to the required bolt weight, blowback designs in pistols are generally limited to calibers smaller than 9×19mm Parabellum (e.g., .25 ACP, .32 ACP, .380 ACP, 9×18mm Makarov, etc.) There are exceptions such as the simple blowback pistols from Hi-Point Firearms which include models chambered in .40 S&W and .45 ACP. Simple blowback operation can also be found in small-bore (such as .22LR) semi-automatic rifles, carbines and submachine guns. Most simple blowback rifles are chambered for the .22 Long Rifle cartridge. Popular examples include the Marlin Model 60 and the Ruger 10/22. Most blowback carbines and submachine guns are chambered for pistol cartridges such as the 9×19mm Parabellum, .40 S&W and .45 ACP. Examples include the MP 40, Sten and UZI. The bolt can be made bigger and more massive in these weapons than in handguns, as they are intrinsically heavier and designed, ideally at least, to be fired with both hands, often with the aid of a shoulder stock; and these factors help to ameliorate the disruption to the shooter's aim caused by the heavy bolt's movement. Consequently, simple blowback is adequate for somewhat more powerful rounds in submachine guns than in standard pistols. There were also a few rifles that chambered cartridges specifically designed for blowback operation. Examples include the Winchester Model 1905, 1907 and 1910. The only known assault rifle to use simple blowback was the Burton Model 1917.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: Whereas simple blowback is limited to guns using low-power rounds, it is so efficient in this context that in small-calibre semi-automatic pistols it is by now almost ubiquitous. Heavier calibre semiautomatic handguns typically employ a short recoil system, of which by far the most common type are Browning-derived designs which rely on a locking barrel and slide assembly instead of blowback. But blowback guns can be used to fire powerful cartridges if they are of the other two types already mentioned: API or delayed blowback.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: In the API blowback design, the primer is ignited when the bolt is still moving forward and before the cartridge is fully chambered (akin to the fire-out-of-battery principle used in some mountain guns like Canon de 65 M (montagne) modele 1906, although there the bolt is locked and whole ordnance is moving at fire). This requires a very careful design to ensure the proper balance and equalization of forces between the projectile weight, propellant charge, barrel length, bolt weight, and return spring strength. In a simple blowback design, the propellant gases have to overcome static inertia to accelerate the bolt rearwards to open the breech. In an API blowback, they first have to do the work of overcoming forward momentum to arrest the forward motion of the bolt. Because the forward and rearward speeds of the bolt tend to be approximately the same, the API blowback allows the weight of the bolt to be halved. Because the momentum of the two opposed bolt motions cancels out over time, the API blowback design results in reduced recoil.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: According to Anthony G. Williams, the "API blowback principle is used virtually in all open bolt sub-machine guns" (technically, although generally these are known as "simple blowback" weapons due to the very late ignition of the cartridge compared to specially designed API blowback guns like the MK 108), although "the relatively low pressures and velocities mean that extended chambers and rebated-rim cartridges are not required" for sub-machine guns. An example of API in sub-machine guns is the L2A3 Sterling submachine gun, where the maximum chamber pressure is achieved while the breechblock is still moving forward and is about 0.46 mm away from the rear face of the chamber.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: In heavier weapons, advanced primer ignition (API) was originally developed by Reinhold Becker for use on the Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon. It became a feature of a wide range of designs that can be traced back to Becker's, including the Oerlikon cannon widely used as anti-aircraft weapons during World War II.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: To increase performance of API blowback firearms, larger calibre APIB guns such as the Becker and Oerlikon use extended chambers, longer than is necessary to contain the round, and ammunition for APIB firearms come with straight-sided cartridges with rebated rims (rims that are smaller in diameter than the cartridge itself). The last part of forward motion and the first part of the rearward motion of the case and bolt happen within the confines of this extended chamber. As long as the gas pressure in the barrel is high, the walls of the case remain supported and the breach sealed, although the case is sliding rearwards. This sliding motion of the case, while it is expanded by a high internal gas pressure, risks tearing it apart, and a common solution is to grease the ammunition to reduce the friction. The case needs to have a rebated rim because the front end of the bolt will enter the chamber, and the extractor claw hooked over the rim therefore has to fit also within the diameter of the chamber. The case generally has very little neck, because this remains unsupported during the firing cycle and is generally deformed; a strongly necked case would be likely to split.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: The API blowback design permits the use of more powerful ammunition in a lighter gun than would be achieved by using simple blowback, and the reduction of felt recoil results in further weight savings. The original Becker cannon, firing 20×70mmRB ammunition, was developed to be carried by World War I aircraft, and weighed only 30 kg. Oerlikon even produced an anti-tank rifle firing 20×110mmRB ammunition using the API blowback operation, the SSG36. On the other hand, because the design imposes a very close relationship between bolt mass, chamber length, spring strength, ammunition power and rate of fire, in APIB guns high rate of fire and high muzzle velocity tend to be mutually exclusive. API blowback guns also have to fire from an open bolt, which is not conducive to accuracy and also prevents synchronized fire through an aircraft propeller arc.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: According to a United States Army Materiel Command engineering course from 1970, "The advanced primer ignition gun is superior to the simple blowback because of its higher firing rate and lower recoil momentum. However, favorable performance depends on timing that must be precise. A slight delay in primer function, and the gun reverts to a simple blowback without the benefit of a massive bolt and stiffer driving spring to soften the recoil impact. [...] The exacting requirements in design and construction of gun and ammunition reduce this type almost to the point of academic interest only."


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: API mechanisms are very sensitive to the ammunition used. For example, when the Germans switched their MG FF (an Oerlikon FFF derivative) to their new, lighter mine shell, they had to rebalance the spring strength and bolt weight of the gun, resulting in a new MG FF/M model with ammunition not being interchangeable between the two models. The 30 mm MK 108 cannon was perhaps the apogee of API blowback technology during World War II.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: The principle is also used in some automatic grenade launchers, for example in the US Mk 19 grenade launcher or Russian AGS-30.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: For more powerful rounds that cannot be safely used in simple blowback, or in order to obtain a lighter mechanism than the simple format can provide, the alternative to API is some system of "delayed" or "retarded" blowback, in which the bolt is never fully locked, but is initially held in place, sealing the cartridge in the chamber by the mechanical resistance of one of various designs of delaying mechanism. As with the resistance provided by momentum in API, it takes a fraction of a second for the propellant gases to overcome this and start moving cartridge and bolt backwards; this very brief delay is sufficient for the bullet to leave the muzzle and for the internal pressure in the barrel to decrease to a safe level. The bolt and cartridge are then pushed to the rear by the residual gas pressure.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: Because of high pressures, rifle-caliber delayed blowback firearms, such as the FAMAS and G3, typically have fluted chambers to ease extraction. Below are various forms of delayed-blowback actions:


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: Roller-delayed blowback was first used in Mauser's "Gerät 06H" prototype. Roller-delayed blowback operation differs from roller-locked recoil operation as seen in the MG 42 and gas operated roller locked, as seen in the "Gerät 03" and "Gerät 06". Unlike the MG 42, in roller-delayed blowback the barrel is fixed and does not recoil, and unlike the "Gerät 03" and "Gerät 06" and StG 44, roller-delayed blowback systems lack a gas piston. These omissions are conducive to relatively light construction by significantly reducing the number of parts required and the amount of machining required to produce a rifle. As the bolt head is driven rearward, rollers on the sides of the bolt are driven inward against a tapered bolt carrier extension. This forces the bolt carrier rearward at a much greater velocity and delays movement of the bolt head. The primary advantage of roller-delayed blowback is the simplicity of the design compared to gas or recoil operation.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: The roller-delayed blowback firearm action was patented by Mauser's Wilhelm Stähle and Ludwig Vorgrimler. Though appearing simple, its development during World War II was a hard technical and personal effort, as German engineering, mathematical and other scientists had to work together on a like-it-or-not basis led by Ott-Helmuth von Lossnitzer, the director of Mauser Werke's Weapons Research Institute and Weapons Development Group. Experiments showed roller-delayed blowback firearms exhibited bolt-bounce as the bolt opened at an extreme velocity of approximately during automatic fire. To counter bolt-bounce the perfect angle choice on the nose of the bolt head had to be found to significantly reduce the opening velocity of the bolt. The extremely high bolt carrier velocities problem was not solved by trial and error. Mathematician Karl Maier provided analysis of the components and assemblies in the development project. In December 1943 Maier came up with an equation that engineers used to change the angles in the receiver to 45° and 27° on the locking piece relative to the longitudinal axis reducing the bolt-bounce problem. With these angles the geometrical transmission ratio of the bolt carrier to the bolthead became 3:1, so the rear bolt carrier was forced to move 3 times faster than the bolthead. The rearward forces on the bolt carrier and receiver were 2:1. The force and impulse transmitted to the receiver increases with the force and impulse transmitted to the bolt carrier. Making the bolt carrier heavier lessens the recoil velocity. For Mausers StG 45(M) project Maier assumed a bolt head and bolt carrier (1 to 3 ratio). The prototype StG 45 (M) assault rifle had 18 longitudinal gas relief flutes cut in the chamber wall to assist the bloated cartridge casing from the chamber walls during extraction. Fluting the end of the chamber provides pressure equalization between the front outer surface of the cartridge case and its interior and thus ensures extraction without tearing the case making extraction easier and more reliable. In 1944 other German companies like , Rheinmetall and C.G. Haenel showed interest in developing roller-delayed blowback small arms. Großfuß worked on a roller-delayed blowback MG 45 general-purpose machine gun that, like the StG 45 (M), had not progressed beyond the prototype stage by the end of World War II.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: After World War II, former Mauser engineers Ludwig Vorgrimler and Theodor Löffler perfected the mechanism between 1946 and 1950 while working for the French small arms manufacturer Centre d'Etudes et d'Armament de Mulhouse (CEAM). In 1950 Ludwig Vorgrimler was recruited to work for CETME in Spain. The first full-scale production rifle to utilize roller-delay was the Spanish CETME battle rifle, which was closely followed by the Swiss SIG SG 510 and the CETME Model B-based Heckler & Koch G3. The G3 bolt features an anti-bounce mechanism that prevents the bolt from bouncing off the barrel's breech surface. The G3's "bolt head locking lever" is a spring-loaded claw mounted on the bolt carrier that grabs the bolt head as the bolt carrier group goes into battery. The lever essentially ratchets into place with friction, providing enough resistance to being re-opened that the bolt carrier does not rebound. Due to the relative low bolt thrust exhibited by pistol cartridges the anti-bounce mechanism is omitted by Heckler & Koch on their roller-delayed blowback firearms chambered for pistols cartridges. Heckler & Koch's MP5 submachine gun is the most common weapon still in service worldwide using this system. The Heckler & Koch P9 semi-automatic pistol, CETME Ameli light machine gun and SIG MG 710-3 and Heckler & Koch HK21 general-purpose machine guns also use it.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: Roller-delayed blowback arms are ammunition specific, since they lack an adjustable gas port or valve to adjust the arm to various propellant and projectile specific pressure behavior. Their reliable functioning is limited by specific ammunition and arm parameters like bullet weight, propellant charge, barrel length and amount of wear. At the moment of cartridge ignition the chamber has to be and remain sealed, until the bullet has exited the barrel and the gas pressure within the bore has dropped to a safe level before the seal is broken and chamber starts to open. For obtaining a proper and safe functioning parameters bandwidth arms manufactures offer a variety of locking pieces with different mass and shoulder angles and cylindrical rollers with different diameters. The angles are critical and determine the unlock timing and gas pressure drop management as the locking piece acts in unison with the bolt head carrier. The bolt gap width determines the headspace and hence the correct positioning of the cartridges in the (closed) chamber. Due to usage wear the bolt gap between the locking piece and bolt head carrier is expected to gradually increase. It can be determined and checked by a feeler gauge measurement and can be altered by changing the cylindrical rollers for rollers with a different diameter. Installing larger diameter rollers will increase the bolt gap and push the locking piece forward. Installing smaller diameter rollers results in the reverse effects.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: Lever-delayed blowback utilizes leverage to put the bolt at a mechanical disadvantage, delaying the opening of the breech. When the cartridge pushes against the bolt face, the lever moves the bolt carrier rearward at an accelerated rate relative to the light bolt. Leverage can be applied with a dedicated part or through inclined surfaces interacting with each other. This leverage significantly increases resistance and slows the movement of the lightweight bolt. The reliable functioning of lever-delayed blowback arms is limited by specific ammunition and arm parameters like bullet weight, propellant charge, barrel length and amount of wear. John Pedersen patented one of the first known designs for a lever-delay system. The mechanism was also used by Hungarian arms designer Pál Király in the 1910s and 1930s and used in the Danuvia 39M and 43M submachine guns for the Hungarian Army. After World War II, Király settled in the Dominican Republic and developed the Cristóbal Carbine (or Király-Cristóbal Carbine) employing a similar mechanism. Other weapons to use this system are the Hogue Avenger and Benelli B76 pistols, the FNAB-43 submachine gun, the TKB-517, VAHAN and FAMAS assault rifles, the Sterling 7.62 and AVB-7.62 battle rifles/light machine guns, and the AA-52 general-purpose machine gun.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: Gas-delayed blowback should not be confused with gas-operation. The bolt is never locked, and so is pushed rearward by the expanding propellant gases, as in other blowback-based designs. However, propellant gases are vented from the barrel into a cylinder with a piston that delays the opening of the bolt. It was used by some World War II German designs for the 7.92×33mm Kurz cartridge, including the Volkssturmgewehr rifle (with little effectiveness) and the Grossfuss Sturmgewehr (with slightly more efficiency), and after the war by the Heckler & Koch P7, Walther CCP, Steyr GB and M-77B pistols.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: When a cartridge is fired, the case expands to seal the sides of the chamber. This seal prevents high-pressure gas from escaping into the action of the gun. Because a conventional chamber is slightly oversized, an unfired cartridge will enter freely. In a chamber-ring delayed firearm, the chamber is conventional in every respect except for a concave ring within the chamber wall. When the cartridge is fired, the case expands into this recessed ring and pushes the bolt face rearward. As the case moves to the rear this ring constricts the expanded portion of the case. The energy required to squeeze the walls of the cartridge case slows the rearward travel of the case and slide, reducing their mass requirements. The first known use of the system was on the Fritz Mann pistol in 1920 and later on the High Standard Corp model T3 experimental pistol developed by Ott-Helmuth von Lossnitzer while working for High Standard. Other firearms that used this system were the LWS Seecamp pistol, the AMT Automag II, and the Kimball .30 Carbine pistol. The SIG SG 510 rifle family incorporates a chamber ring near the shoulder which is used to avoid bolt-bounce rather than a delay element.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: John Pedersen's patented system incorporates a breech block independent of the slide or bolt carrier. When in battery, the breech block rests slightly forward of the locking shoulder located in the frame of the firearm. When the cartridge is fired, the cartridge case, bolt and slide move together a short distance until the breech block strikes the locking shoulder and stops. The slide continues rearward with the momentum it acquired in the initial phase while the breech remains locked. This allows chamber pressure to drop to safe levels once the bullet departs the barrel. The continuing motion of the slide lifts the breech block from its recess and pulls it rearward, continuing the firing cycle. The Pedersen Remington Model 51 pistol, SIG MKMO submachine gun and R51 pistol are the only production firearms to have used this design.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: Flywheel delayed blowback operation is where, during firing, the bolt opening is delayed by the rotational inertia of a flywheel. This is driven by a rack and pinion arrangement on the bolt carrier. The Barnitzke, Kazachok SMG, and the MGD PM-9 uses this operation.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: In toggle-delayed blowback firearms, the rearward motion of the breechblock must overcome significant mechanical leverage. The bolt is hinged in the middle, stationary at the rear end and nearly straight at rest. As the breech moves back under blowback power, the hinge joint moves upward. The leverage disadvantage keeps the breech from opening until the bullet has left the barrel and pressures have dropped to a safe level. This mechanism was used on the Pedersen rifle and Schwarzlose MG M.07/12 machine gun.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: John Browning developed this simple method whereby the axis of bolt movement was not in line with that of the bore probably during late WWI and patented it in 1921. The result was that a small rearward movement of the bolt in relation to the bore-axis required a greater movement along the axis of bolt movement, essentially magnifying the resistance of the bolt without increasing its mass. The French MAS-38 submachine gun of 1938 utilizes a bolt whose path of recoil is at an angle to the barrel. The Jatimatic and KRISS Vector use modified versions of this concept.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: CMMG introduced the Mk 45 Guard rifle incorporating a radial-delay in 2017. This system uses the rotation of the bolt head to accelerate the bolt carrier of an AR-15 pattern rifle. The bolt locking lugs are adapted to incorporate 120° angles that rotate the bolt as it travels rearward under conventional blowback power. As the bolt rotates 22.5˚, it must accelerate the bolt carrier to the rear through an adapted 50° angle cam-pin slot. This acceleration amplifies the effective mass of the bolt carrier, slowing the speed of the bolt head. This delay allows pressure to drop prior to extraction without the penalty of a heavier bolt carrier assembly. The system is similar to roller and lever-delayed blowback in that it uses the mass of the bolt carrier moving at a faster rate than the bolt head to delay the action from opening. The design is described in .


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: First used on the Mannlicher Model 1893 automatic rifle, the bolt in screw-delayed blowback uses a turn bolt that was delayed by angled interrupted threads delayed by a quarter twist to unlock. John T. Thompson designed an autorifle that operated on a similar principle around 1920 and submitted it for trials with the US Army. This rifle, submitted multiple times, competed unsuccessfully against the Pedersen rifle and Garand primer-actuated rifle in early testing to replace the M1903 Springfield rifle. This operation is one of the most simple forms of delayed blowback but unless the ammunition is lubricated or uses a fluted chamber, the recoil can be volatile especially when using full length rifle rounds. Rotation of the bolt should be at least 90° to prevent ruptured cartridges. Another form of this operation using a helical screw to delay rearward movement was the Salvator-Dormus M1893 machine gun and later the prototype Kalashnikov Model 1942 submachine gun in 1942 and the Fox Wasp carbine.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: David Marshall Williams (a noted designer for the U.S. Ordnance Office and later Winchester) developed a mechanism to allow firearms designed for full-sized cartridges to fire .22 caliber rimfire ammunition reliably. His system used a small "piston" that incorporates the chamber. When the cartridge is fired, the front of the floating chamber is thrust back by gas pressure impinging on the front of the chamber as in a traditional piston. This, added to the blowback energy imparted on the cartridge, pushes the bolt back with greater energy than either force alone. Often described as "accelerated blowback", this amplifies the otherwise anemic recoil energy of the .22 Rimfire cartridge. Williams designed a training version of the Browning machine gun and the Colt Service Ace .22 long rifle version of the M1911 using his system. The increased recoil produced by the floating chamber made these training guns behave more like their full-power counterparts while still using inexpensive low-power ammunition. The floating chamber is both a blowback and gas operated mechanism.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: Primer actuated firearms use the energy of primer setback to unlock and cycle the firearm. John Garand developed the system in an unsuccessful bid to replace the M1903 bolt-action rifle in the early 1920s. Garand's prototypes worked well with US military .30-06 ammunition and uncrimped primers, but then the military changed from a fast burning gunpowder to a progressive burning Improved Military Rifle (IMR) powder. The slower pressure rise made the primer actuated prototypes unreliable, so Garand abandoned the design for a gas operated rifle that became the M1 Garand. AAI Corporation used a primer piston in a rifle submitted for the SPIW competition. Other rifles to use this system were the Postnikov APT and Clarke carbine as described in .


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: A similar system is used in the spotting rifles on the LAW 80 and Shoulder-launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon use a 9mm, .308 Winchester based cartridge with a .22 Hornet blank cartridge in place of the primer. Upon firing, the Hornet case sets back a short distance, unlocking the action.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: The case cartridge itself has been used experimentally to actuate the action similar to Garand's primer-actuation. Known prototypes using this method of operation include two 1936 rifle designs, one by Mihail Mamontov and another by Makar Goryainov at TsKB-14, and a 1980s design by A.F. Barishev. The Mamontov and Goryainov rifles are only partially automatic; only the bolt unlocking is powered by the gases pushing the cartridge back, while the rest of the cycle (ejection, reloading) is done manually as in a traditional bolt-action rifle. A major problem with using the case cartridge as piston is that its motion is much faster (about 1 ms) compared to tapping gas further down the bore through a piston—about 5 ms in the Dragunov sniper rifle, which used the same cartridge as Mamontov's rifle. Barishev made a fully automatic, but rather bulky mechanism that used a mechanical delay. In his system, the case cartridge pushed back a tilting bolt face, that upon reaching a certain angle pushes backwards an unlocking lever that continues farther before unlocking the bolt. The GRAU however still gave a negative evaluation of Barishev's gun, pointing out that the main problems with reliability of firearms using the cartridge case as a piston were known since the 1930s and still unsolved.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: The Blish Lock is a breech locking mechanism designed by John Bell Blish based upon his observation that under extreme pressures, certain dissimilar metals will resist movement with a force greater than normal friction laws would predict. In modern engineering terminology, it is called static friction, or "stiction". His locking mechanism was used in the Thompson submachine gun, Autorifle and Autocarbine designs. This dubious principle was later eliminated as redundant in the M1 and M1A1 versions of the submachine guns at the insistence of the US Army. Lubrication or fouling would completely defeat any delay. Whatever actual advantage a clean, unlubricated Blish system could impart could also be attained by adding a mere ounce of mass to the bolt.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: The Savage system employed the theory that the rifling in the barrel caused a rotational force that would hold the gun locked until the projectile left the barrel. It was later discovered that the bullet had left the barrel long before any locking could occur. Savage pistols were in fact operating as simple blow back firearms. The French MAB PA-15 and PA-8 9mm pistols feature a similar design and work correctly.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: An unusual operation that uses a bolt head that moves rearwards when firing that allows the cartridge to move backwards or even stretching it until the bolt unlocks. When firing the cartridge moves the bolt head rearwards around 2.5mm until it stops, then rotates the bolt to unlock and cycle the operation.


title: Blowback (firearms)

text: An operation using a "simple blowback" type bolt that has neodymium magnets to delay its operation. A special buffer using this operation has been developed by TACCOM.


title: Heartbreak High (2022 TV series)

text: Heartbreak High is an Australian comedy drama streaming television series created for Netflix, by Hannah Carroll Chapman. It is a reboot of the 1994 series first screened on Network Ten. The series follow the students and teachers of Hartley High as they navigate racial tensions in Australia, high school romances, and all sorts of teen angst. The show premiered on 14 September 2022. A month after it was released, the show was renewed for a second season.


title: Heartbreak High (2022 TV series)

text: The first season was met with positive critical reviews and received 15 AACTA Awards nominations, including Best Drama Series, winning six.


title: Heartbreak High (2022 TV series)

text: After a map detailing the sexual exploits of Hartley High's students is discovered graffitied on the wall of the school, all of the students whose names were on it are forced to attend a new sexual education course called the Sexual Literacy Tutorial (SLT, pronounced "sluts" by the students). The map's creator, Amerie Wadia (Ayesha Madon), becomes a social outcast after taking the fall for its co-author, Harper McLean (Asher Yasbincek), who has stopped talking to her following a tragedy at a music festival they attended.


title: Heartbreak High (2022 TV series)

text: The TV series was mostly filmed in the suburbs of Marouba and Matraville of New South Wales between late 2021 and early 2022.


title: Heartbreak High (2022 TV series)

text: "Heartbreak High" debuted at number six on Netflix's Top 10 TV English titles for the tracking week of 19–25 September 2022 with 18.25 million hours viewed. On the following week, it climbed to number five and garnered 14.88 million viewing hours. The series remained in the top 10 for the third week, placing at number eight with 9.48 million viewing hours.


title: Heartbreak High (2022 TV series)

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave the series an approval rating of 100%, with an average rating of 7.3 out of 10, based on nine critics. On the review website IMDb, the series holds an average score of 7.7 out of 10, as of October 15, 2022. The show received praise for its racial, sexuality, gender and neurodivergent representation, realism towards modern teenhood, costumes and visuals. It was also positively compared to other popular modern teen dramas (which viewers found it very similar to), including "Euphoria", "Never Have I Ever" and "Sex Education". Alex Henderson of "The Conversation" said that the show addressed serious topics like substance abuse, discrimination or youth crime, but still uses comical moments and avoids cliché moments whilst showing mistakes made by the characters. Mitchell Adams of "The Sydney Morning Herald" commented on the representation of autism, saying "scenes where Quinni feels overwhelmed just sitting on a bus, or being at a party while forcing herself to mask how she feels in order to better fit in and not upset people, depict a pain neurodivergent people know all too well". "Collider" named the series as one of the best new TV shows of 2022.


title: Fritz Haarmann

text: Friedrich Heinrich Karl "Fritz" Haarmann (25 October 1879 – 15 April 1925) was a German serial killer, known as the Butcher of Hanover, the Vampire of Hanover and the Wolf Man, who committed the sexual assault, murder, mutilation and dismemberment of at least twenty-four young men and boys between 1918 and 1924 in the city of Hanover.


title: Fritz Haarmann

text: Haarmann was found guilty of twenty-four of the twenty-seven murders for which he was tried and sentenced to death by beheading in December 1924. In addition, in accordance with German practice, his honorary rights of citizenship were revoked. He was subsequently executed by guillotine in April 1925.


title: Fritz Haarmann

text: Haarmann became known as the "Butcher of Hanover" () due to the extensive mutilation and dismemberment committed upon his victims' bodies and by such titles as the "Vampire of Hanover" ("der Vampir von Hannover") and the "Wolf Man" ("Wolfsmensch") because of his preferred murder method of biting into or through his victims' throats.


title: Fritz Haarmann

text: Fritz Haarmann was born in Hanover on 25 October 1879, the sixth and youngest child born to Johanna ("née" Claudius) and Ollie Haarmann.


title: Fritz Haarmann

text: Haarmann was a quiet child, with few friends his own age or gender and who seldom socialized with any children outside of school with the exception of his siblings. From an early age, Haarmann's behavior was noticeably effeminate, and he was known to shun boys' activities, instead playing with his sisters' dolls and dressing in their clothes. He also developed a passion for both needlework and cookery, and would develop a close relationship with his mother, who spoiled her youngest child.


title: Fritz Haarmann

text: Reportedly, Haarmann's father married his mother when she was 41 years old and seven years his senior, largely due to her wealth and the substantial dowry their marriage would eventually bring him. Haarmann Sr. was known to be argumentative and short-tempered who, through several affairs he conducted throughout his marriage, would contract syphilis in his later years. Despite his being an authoritarian who had little time for his children and a notorious womaniser, Haarmann's parents remained together until his mother's death in April 1901.


title: Fritz Haarmann

text: In 1886, Haarmann began his schooling, where he was noted by teachers to be a spoiled and mollycoddled child who was prone to daydreaming. Although his behavior at school was noted to be exemplary, his academic performance was below average and Haarmann had to repeat a school year twice. On one occasion, when he was about eight years old, Haarmann was molested by one of his teachers, although he never discussed this incident in detail.


title: Fritz Haarmann

text: Haarmann grew into a trim, physically strong youth. With his parents' consent, he finished his schooling in 1894. Upon leaving school, he briefly obtained employment as an apprentice locksmith in Neuf-Brisach (now part of France) before opting, at age 15, to enroll in a military academy in the town of Breisach. His military training began on 4 April 1895.


title: Fritz Haarmann

text: Haarmann initially adapted to military life and performed well as a trainee soldier. However, after five months of military service, he began to suffer periodic lapses of consciousness which, although initially described by a medical professional as being sudden signs of anxiety neurosis, would subsequently be diagnosed as being "equivalent to epilepsy" in October 1895. The following month, Haarmann discharged himself from the military and returned to Hanover, where he briefly worked in a cigar factory his father had established in 1888.


title: Fritz Haarmann

text: At age 16, Haarmann committed his first known sexual offenses, all of which involved young boys whom he would lure to secluded areas—typically cellars—before proceeding to sexually abuse them. He was first arrested for committing offenses of this nature in July 1896. Following further offenses, the Division for Criminal Matters opted to place Haarmann in a mental institution in the city of Hildesheim in February 1897. Although briefly transferred to a Hanover hospital for psychiatric evaluation, he would be certified as being "incurably deranged" and unfit to stand trial by a psychologist named Gurt Schmalfuß. Schmalfuß ordered Haarmann to be confined at the mental institution indefinitely. He was returned to the institution on 28 May 1897.


title: Fritz Haarmann

text: Seven months later in January 1898, Haarmann escaped the mental institution and, with apparent assistance from his mother, he fled to Zürich in Switzerland. Here, he lived with a relative of his mother and obtained employment as a handyman in a shipyard. Haarmann remained in Zürich for sixteen months before he returned to Hanover in April 1899. Early the following year, he seduced and subsequently became engaged to a woman named Erna Loewert, who soon became pregnant with his child. In October 1900, Haarmann received notification to perform his compulsory military service.


title: Fritz Haarmann

text: On 12 October 1900, Haarmann was deployed to the Alsatian city of Colmar to serve in the Number 10 Rifle Battalion. Throughout his service, he earned a reputation among his superiors as an exemplary soldier and excellent marksman, and he would later describe this period of service as being the happiest of his entire life. After collapsing while on exercise with his battalion in October 1901, Haarmann began to suffer dizzy spells and was subsequently hospitalized for over four months. He was later deemed "unsuitable for [military] service and work" and was discharged on 28 July 1902.


title: Fritz Haarmann

text: Discharged from the military under medical terms described as being "probable" dementia praecox, Haarmann was awarded a monthly pension of 21 gold marks. Upon his discharge, Haarmann returned to live with Erna in Hanover, briefly working again in his father's cigar factory. However, he soon filed a maintenance lawsuit against his father, citing that he was unable to work due to the ailments noted by the military. Haarmann's father successfully contested the suit and the charges were dropped. The following year, a violent fight between father and son resulted in Haarmann's father himself unsuccessfully initiating legal proceedings against his son, citing verbal death threats and blackmail as justification to have his son returned to a mental institution. These charges were dropped due to a lack of corroborating evidence. Nonetheless, Haarmann was ordered to undertake a psychiatric examination in May 1903. This examination was conducted by a Dr. Andrae, who concluded that, although morally inferior, Haarmann was not mentally unstable.


title: Fritz Haarmann

text: With financial assistance from his father, Haarmann and his fiancée opened a fishmongery. Haarmann himself briefly attempted to work as an insurance salesman before being officially classified as disabled and unable to work by the 10th Army in 1904. As a result, his monthly pension was slightly increased. The same year, his fiancée, while pregnant with his child, terminated their engagement after he accused her of having an affair with a student. As the fishmongery was registered in her name, Erna simply ordered her husband to leave the premises.


title: Fritz Haarmann

text: For the next decade, Haarmann primarily lived as a petty thief, burglar and con artist. Although he did occasionally obtain legitimate employment, he invariably stole from his employers or their customers. Beginning in 1905, he served several short prison sentences for offenses such as larceny, embezzlement and assault. On one occasion when working legitimately as an invoice clerk, Haarmann became acquainted with a female employee with whom, he later claimed, to have robbed several tombstones and graves between 1905 and 1913 (he was never charged with these offenses). Consequently, Haarmann spent the majority of the years between 1905 and 1912 in jail.