title: Luís de Camões

text: In the 16th century, the time in which Camões lived, the influence of the Italian Renaissance expanded throughout Europe. However, several of its most typical features were declining, in particular because of a series of political disputes and wars that altered the European political map, with Italy losing its place as a power, and the split of Catholicism, with the emergence of the Protestant Reformation. In the Catholic reaction, Counter-Reformation was launched, the Inquisition was reactivated and ecclesiastical censorship was rekindled. At the same time, Machiavelli's doctrines became widespread, dissociating ethics from the practice of power. The result was the reaffirmation of the power of religion over the profane world and the formation of an agitated spiritual, political, social and intellectual atmosphere, with strong doses of pessimism, reverberating unfavorably on the former freedom that artists enjoyed. Despite this, the intellectual and artistic acquisitions of the High Renaissance that were still fresh and shining before the eyes could not be forgotten immediately, even if their philosophical substrate could no longer remain valid in the face of new political, religious and social facts. The new art that was made, although inspired by the source of classicism, translated it into restless, anxious, distorted, ambivalent forms, attached to intellectualist preciosities, characteristics that reflected the dilemmas of the century and define the general style of this phase as mannerist.


title: Luís de Camões

text: Since the middle of the 15th century, Portugal had established itself as a great naval and commercial power, its arts were developing and enthusiasm for maritime conquests was boiling. The reign of D. João II was marked by the formation of a feeling of national pride, and in the time of D. Manuel I, as Spina & Bechara say, pride had given way to delirium, to the pure euphoria of world domination. At the beginning of the 16th century, Garcia de Resende lamented that there was no one who could celebrate so many feats worthily, claiming that there was epic material superior to that of the Romans and Trojans. Filling this gap, João de Barros wrote his cavalry novel, ""A Crónica do Imperador Clarimundo"" (1520), in epic format. Shortly thereafter, António Ferreira appeared, establishing himself as a mentor of the classicist generation and challenging his contemporaries to sing the glories of Portugal in high style. When Camões appeared, the land was prepared for the apotheosis of the homeland, a homeland that had fought hard to conquer its sovereignty, first of the Moors and after Castile, had developed an adventurous spirit that had taken it across the oceans, expanding the known borders of the world and opening new routes of trade and exploration, defeating enemy armies and the hostile forces of nature. But at this point, however, the political and cultural crisis was already being announced, materializing shortly after his death, when the country lost its sovereignty to Spain.


title: Luís de Camões

text: Camões' production is divided into three genres: lyrical, epic and theatrical. His lyrical work was immediately appreciated as a high achievement. He demonstrated his virtuosity especially in cantos and elegies, but his "redondilhas" are not far behind. In fact, he was a master in this form, giving new life to the art of gloss, instilling in it spontaneity and simplicity, a delicate irony and a lively phrasing, taking courtesan poetry to its highest level, and showing that he also knew how to express perfectly joy and relaxation. His epic production is synthesized in 'Os Lusíadas', an intense glorification of Portuguese feats, not only of his military victories, but also the conquest over elements and physical space, with recurring use of classic allegories. The idea of a national epic has existed in the Portuguese heart since the 15th century, when the navigations started, but it was up to Camões, in the following century, to materialize it. In his dramatic works he sought to fuse nationalist and classic elements.


title: Luís de Camões

text: Probably if he had remained in Portugal, as a courtly poet, he would never have achieved the mastery of his art. The experiences he accumulated as a soldier and navigator enriched his worldview and excited his talent. Through them, he managed to free himself from the formal limitations of courtesan poetry and the difficulties he went through, the profound anguish of exile, the longing for his country, indelibly impregnated his spirit and communicated with his work, and from there influenced in a marked way subsequent generations of Portuguese writers. His best poems shine exactly for what is genuine in the suffering expressed and the honesty of that expression, and this is one of the main reasons that put his poetry at such a high level.


title: Luís de Camões

text: Its sources were numerous. He dominated Latin and Spanish, and demonstrated a solid knowledge of Greco-Roman mythology, ancient and modern European history, Portuguese chroniclers and classical literature, with authors such as Ovid, Xenophon, Lucan, Valerius Flaccus, Horace standing out, but especially Homer and Virgil, from whom he borrowed various structural and stylistic elements and sometimes even passages in almost literal transcription. According to his quotations, he also seems to have had a good knowledge of works by Ptolemy, Diogenes Laërtius, Pliny the Elder, Strabo and Pomponius Mela, among other historians and ancient scientists. Among the moderns, he was aware of the Italian production of Francesco Petrarca, Ludovico Ariosto, Torquato Tasso, Giovanni Boccaccio and Jacopo Sannazaro, and of Castilian literature.


title: Luís de Camões

text: For those who consider the Renaissance to be a homogeneous historical period, informed by classical ideals and extending to the end of the 16th century, Camões is quite simply a Renaissance, but in general it is recognized that the 16th century was largely dominated by a stylistic derivation called Mannerism, which at various points is an anti-classical school and in many ways prefigures the Baroque. Thus, for many authors, it is more appropriate to describe the Camonian style as mannerist, distinguishing it from typical Renaissance classicism. This is justified by the presence of several language resources and an approach to its themes that are not in agreement with the doctrines of balance, economy, tranquility, harmony, unity and invariable idealism, which are the fundamental axes of Renaissance classicism. Camões, after a typically classic initial phase, moved on to other paths and anxiety and drama became his companions. Throughout The Lusiads the signs of a political and spiritual crisis are visible, the prospect of the decline of the empire and the character of the Portuguese remains in the air, censored by bad customs and the lack of appreciation for the arts, alternating with excerpts in which its enthusiastic apology. They are also typical of Mannerism, and would become even more Baroque, the taste for contrast, for emotional flare, for conflict, for paradox, for religious propaganda, for the use of complex figures of speech and preciousness, even for the grotesque and monstrous, many of them common features in Camonian work.


title: Luís de Camões

text: The mannerist nature of his work is also marked by the ambiguities generated by the rupture with the past and by the concomitant adherence to it, the first manifested in the visualization of a new era and in the use of new poetic formulas from Italy, and the second, in the use of archaisms typical of the Middle Ages. Along with the use of formal Renaissance and classicist models, he cultivated the medieval genres of vilancete, cantiga and trova. For Joaquim dos Santos, the contradictory character of his poetry is found in the contrast between two opposing premises: idealism and practical experience. He combined typical values of humanist rationalism with other derivatives of cavalry, crusades and feudalism, aligned the constant propaganda of the Catholic faith with ancient mythology, responsible in the aesthetic plan for all the action that materializes the final realization, discarding the mediocre aurea dear to classics to advocate the primacy of the exercise of weapons and the glorious conquest.


title: Luís de Camões

text: Os Lusíadas, or The Lusiads is considered the Portuguese epic par excellence. The title itself already suggests its nationalist intentions, being derived from the ancient Roman denomination of Portugal, Lusitania. It is one of the most important epics of the modern age due to its greatness and universality. The epic tells the story of Vasco da Gama and the Portuguese heroes who sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and opened a new route to India. It is a humanist epic, even in its contradictions, in the association of pagan mythology with the Christian view, in the opposite feelings about war and empire, in the taste of rest and in the desire for adventure, in the appreciation of sensual pleasure and in the demands of an ethical life, in the perception of greatness and in the presentiment of decline, in the heroism paid for with suffering and struggle. The poem opens with the famous verses:


title: Luís de Camões

text: The ten cantos of the poem add up to 1,102 stanzas in a total of 8,816 decyllable verses, using the ottava rima (abababcc). After an introduction, an invocation and a dedication to King Sebastian, the action begins, which merges myths and historical facts. Vasco da Gama, sailing along the coast of Africa, is observed by the assembly of classical gods, who discuss the fate of the expedition, which is protected by Venus and attacked by Bacchus. Resting for a few days in Malindi, at the request of the local king Vasco da Gama narrates all Portuguese history, from its origins to the journey they undertake. The cantos III, IV and V contain some of the best passages of the entire epic: the episode of Inês de Castro, which becomes a symbol of love and death, the Battle of Aljubarrota, the vision of D. Manuel I, the description of St. Elmo's fire, the story of the giant Adamastor. Back on the ship, the poet takes advantage of his free time to tell the story of the Twelve of England, while Bacchus summons the sea gods to destroy the Portuguese fleet. Venus intervenes and ships reach Calicut, India. There, Paulo da Gama receives the king's representatives and explains the meaning of the banners that adorn the flagship. On the return trip the sailors enjoy the island created for them by Venus, rewarding the nymphs with their favors. One of them sings the glorious future of Portugal and the scene ends with a description of the universe by Tethys and Vasco da Gama. Then the journey continues home.


title: Luís de Camões

text: In Os Lusíadas, Camões achieves a remarkable harmony between classical scholarship and practical experience, developed with consummate technical skill, describing Portuguese adventures with moments of serious thought mixed with others of delicate sensitivity and humanism. The great descriptions of the battles, the manifestation of the natural forces, the sensual encounters, transcend the allegory and the classicist allusion that permeate all the work and present themselves as a fluent speech and always of a high aesthetic level, not only for its narrative character especially well achieved, but also by the superior mastery of all the resources of the language and the art of versification, with a knowledge of a wide range of styles, used in efficient combination. The work is also a serious warning for Christian kings to abandon small rivalries and unite against Muslim expansion.


title: Luís de Camões

text: The structure of the work is in itself worthy of interest, as, according to Jorge de Sena, nothing is arbitrary in Os Lusíadas. Among the arguments he presented was the use of the golden section, a defined relationship between the parts and the whole, organizing the set in ideal proportions that emphasize especially significant passages. Sena demonstrated that when applying the golden section to the whole work, it falls precisely on the verse that describes the arrival of the Portuguese in India. Applying the separate section to the two resulting parts, in the first part comes the episode that reports the death of Inês de Castro and, in the second, the stanza that narrates Cupid's efforts to unite the Portuguese and the nymphs, which for Sena reinforces the importance of love throughout the composition. Two other elements give Os Lusíadas its modernity and distance it from classicism: the introduction of doubt, contradiction and questioning, in disagreement with the affirmative certainty that characterizes the classic epic, and the primacy of rhetoric over action, replacing the world of facts with that of words, which do not fully recover reality and evolve into metalanguage, with the same disruptive effect on the traditional epic.


title: Luís de Camões

text: According to Costa Pimpão, there is no evidence that Camões intended to write his epic before he traveled to India, although heroic themes were already present in his previous production. It is possible that he drew some inspiration from fragments of the "Decades of Asia", by João de Barros, and the "History of the Discovery and Conquest of India by the Portuguese", by Fernão Lopes de Castanheda. On classical mythology he was certainly well informed before that, as well as on ancient epic literature. Apparently, the poem started to take shape as early as 1554. Storck considers that the determination to write it was born during the sea voyage itself. Between 1568 and 1569 he was seen in Mozambique by the historian Diogo do Couto, his friend, still working on the work, which only came to light in Lisbon, in 1572.


title: Luís de Camões

text: The success of the publication of Os Lusíadas supposedly required a second edition in the same year as the "princeps" edition. The two differ in countless details and it was debated at length which one would in fact be the original. Nor is it clear to whom the amendments to the second text are due. Currently, the edition that shows the publisher's brand, a pelican, with its neck turned to the left, which is called edition A, carried out under the supervision of the author, is recognized as original. However, edition B was for a long time taken as "princeps", with disastrous consequences for the later critical analysis of the work. Apparently edition B was produced later, around 1584 or 1585, in a clandestine manner, taking the fictitious date of 1572 to bypass the delays of censorship of the time, if it were published as a new edition, and to correct the serious defects of another 1584 edition, the so-called "piscos" edition. However, Maria Helena Paiva raised the hypothesis that editions A and B are only variants of the same edition, which was corrected after the typographic composition, but while printing was already in progress. According to the researcher, "the need to make the most of the press led to the conclusion that, after printing a shape, which consisted of several folios, a first test was taken, which was corrected while the press continued, now with the corrected text. There were, therefore, uncorrected printed folios and corrected printed folios, which were grouped indistinctly in the same copy", so that there were no two copies exactly the same in the press system of that time.


title: Luís de Camões

text: Camões' lyric work, dispersed in manuscripts, was collected and published posthumously in 1595 under the title "Rimas" ("Rhymes"). Throughout the 17th century, the growing prestige of his epic contributed to raise the appreciation for these other poems even more. The collection includes "redondilhas", odes, glosses, cantigas, twists or variations, "sextilhas", sonnets, elegies, eclogues and other small stanzas. His lyrical poetry comes from several different sources: the sonnets generally follow the Italian style derived from Petrarch, the songs took the model of Petrarch and Pietro Bembo. In the odes, the influence of the troubadour poetry of chivalry and classical poetry is verified, but with a more refined style; in the "sextilhas" the Provençal influence is clear; in the redondilhas it expanded the form, deepened the lyricism and introduced a theme, worked on antitheses and paradoxes, unknown in the old tradition of Cantigas de amigo, and the elegies are quite classicist. Its resorts follow an epistolary style, with moralizing themes. Eclogues are perfect pieces of the pastoral genre, derived from Virgil and the Italians. The influence of Spanish poetry by Garcilaso de la Vega, Jorge de Montemor, Juan Boscán, Gregorio Silvestre and several other names was also detected in many points of his lyric, as his commentator Faria e Sousa pointed out.


title: Luís de Camões

text: Despite the care of the first editor of "Rimas", Fernão Rodrigues Lobo Soropita, in the 1595 edition, several apocryphal poems were included. Many poems were discovered over the next few centuries and attributed to him, but not always with careful critical analysis. The result was that, for example, while in the original Rhymes there were 65 sonnets, in the 1861 edition of Juromenha there were 352; in the 1953 edition of Aguiar e Silva 166 pieces were still listed. In addition, many editions modernized or "embellished" the original text, a practice that was particularly pronounced after the 1685 edition of Faria e Sousa, giving rise to and rooting a tradition of its own in this adulterated lesson that caused enormous difficulties for critical study. More scientific studies only began to be undertaken at the end of the 19th century, with the contribution of Wilhelm Storck and Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcelos, who discarded several apocryphal compositions. At the beginning of the 20th century, work continued with José Maria Rodrigues and Afonso Lopes Vieira, who published Rimas in 1932 in an edition they called "crítica" ("criticism"), although it did not deserve the name: it adopted large parts of Faria and Sousa's lesson, but editors claimed to have used the original editions, from 1595 and 1598. On the other hand, they definitely raised the issue of textual fraud that had been perpetuating for a long time and had tampered with the poems to the point of becoming unrecognizable. One example is enough:


title: Luís de Camões

text: It seems impossible to reach a definitive result in this purge. However, enough authentic material survives to guarantee his position as the best Portuguese lyricist and the greatest Renaissance poet in Portugal.


title: Luís de Camões

text: The general content of his works for the stage combines, in the same way as in Os Lusíadas, nationalism and classic inspiration. His production in this field is limited to three works, all in the genre of comedy and in the format of self: "El-Rei Seleuco", "Filodemo" and "Anfitriões". The attribution of "El-Rei Seleuco" to Camões, however, is controversial. Its existence was not known until 1654, when it appeared published in the first part of Rimas in the Craesbeeck edition, which gave no details about its origin and had little care in editing the text. The play also differs in several aspects from the other two that survived, such as its much shorter length (an act), the existence of a prologue in prose, and the less profound and less erudite treatment of the love theme. The theme, of the complicated passion of Antiochus, son of King Seleucus I Nicator, for his stepmother, Queen Estratonice, was taken from a historical fact from Antiquity transmitted by Plutarch and repeated by Petrarch and the Spanish popular songwriter, working it in the style by Gil Vicente.


title: Luís de Camões

text: "Anfitriões", published in 1587, is an adaptation of Plautus' Amphitryon, where it emphasizes the comic character of the Amphitryon myth, highlighting the omnipotence of love, which subdues even the immortals, also following the Vincentian tradition. The play was written in smaller "redondilhas" and uses bilingualism, using Castilian in the lines of the character Sósia, a slave, to mark his low social level in passages that reach the grotesque, a feature that appears in the other pieces as well. "Filodemo", composed in India and dedicated to the viceroy D. Francisco Barreto, is a comedy of morality in five acts, according to the classical division, being, of the three, the one that remained most alive in the interest of the critic due to the multiplicity of human experiences it describes and for the sharpness of psychological observation. The theme is about the love of a servant, Filodemo, for the daughter, Dionisa, of the nobleman in the house of the one he serves, with autobiographical traits. Camões saw comedy as a secondary genre, of interest only as a diversion of circumstance, but he achieved significant results by transferring the comicality of the characters to the action and refining the plot, so he pointed out a path for the renewal of Portuguese comedy. However, his suggestion was not followed by the growers of the genus who succeeded him.


title: Luís de Camões

text: According to Monteiro, of the great epic poets of the west, Camões remains the least known outside his homeland and his masterpiece, Os Lusíadas, is the least known of the great poems in the style. However, from the time he lived and throughout the centuries after Camões was praised by several non-Lusophone luminaries of Western culture. Torquato Tasso, who claimed that Camões was the only rival he feared, dedicated a sonnet to him, Baltasar Gracián praised his sharpness and ingenuity, as did Lope de Vega. Cervantes – stated that he saw Camões as the "singer of Western civilization." He was an influence on the work of John Milton and several other English poets, Goethe recognized his eminence, Sir Richard Burton considered him a master, Friedrich Schlegel called him the ultimate exponent of creation in epic poetry, opining that the "perfection" [Vollendung] of Portuguese poetry was evident in his "beautiful poems," Humboldt regarded him as an admirable painter of nature. August-Wilhelm Schlegel wrote that Camões, by itself, is worth entire literary works.


title: Luís de Camões

text: Camões' fame began to spread across Spain, where he had several admirers since the 16th century, with two translations of Os Lusíadas appearing in 1580, the year of the poet's death, printed at the behest of Philip II of Spain, who at the time was also the king of Portugal. In Luis Gómez de Tápia's edition, Camões is already mentioned as "famous", and in Benito Caldera's he was compared to Virgil. In addition, the king granted him the honorific title of "Prince of the Poets of Spain," which was printed in one of the translations. Philip was perfectly aware of the advantages of using an already established culture for his own purposes rather than suppressing it. As the son of a Portuguese princess, he had no interest in annulling the Portuguese identity or its cultural achievements, and it was to his advantage to assimilate the poet into the Spanish orbit, both to ensure his legitimacy as sovereign of the united crowns, and to enhance the brilliance of Spanish culture.


title: Luís de Camões

text: Soon his fame would reach Italy; Tasso called his work "cult and good" and by 1658 Os Lusíadas would be translated twice, by Oliveira and Paggi. Later, associated with Tasso, it became an important paradigm in Italian Romanticism. By this time in Portugal, a body of exegetes and commentators had already been formed, giving the study of Camões great depth. In 1655 Os Lusíadas arrived in England in Fanshawe's translation, but would only gain notoriety there about a century later, with the publication of William Julius Mickle's poetic version in 1776, which, although successful, did not prevent the emergence of another dozen English translations until the end of the 19th century. It arrived in France at the beginning of the 18th century, when Castera published a translation of the epic. Voltaire criticized certain aspects of the work, namely its lack of unity in action and the mixture of Christian and pagan mythology, but he also admired the novelties it introduced in relation to other epics, contributing powerfully to its popularity. Montesquieu stated that Camões' poem had something of the charm of the Odyssey and the magnificence of the Aeneid. Between 1735 and 1874 no less than twenty French translations of the book appeared, not counting numerous second editions and paraphrases of some of the most striking episodes. In 1777 Pieterszoon translated Os Lusíadas into Dutch and by the 19th century, five more partial translations had appeared.


title: Inline skates

text: Inline skates are a type of roller skate used for inline skating. Unlike quad skates, which have two front and two rear wheels, inline skates typically have two to five wheels arranged in a single line. Some, especially those for recreation, have a rubber "stop" or "brake" block attached to the rear of one or occasionally both of the skates so that the skater can slow down or stop by leaning back on the foot with the brake skate.


title: Inline skates

text: During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Rollerblade, Inc., a company founded by Scott and Brennan Olson in Minneapolis, Minnesota, widely promoted inline skating through the registered trademark "Rollerblade". This term has since become a generic trademark for inline skates.


title: Inline skates

text: John Joseph Merlin experimented with single- to many-rowed devices worn on feet in 1760. Inline skates, skates designed to work like ice skates during periods of warm weather, was patented by Robert John Tyers of London in 1823, his Rolito design featured brass wheels. Louis Legrange of France created an inline design in 1849. Legrange designed the skates for an opera where a character was to appear to be skating on ice. The skates were problematic and unsuccessful as the wearer could not turn nor could they stop.


title: Inline skates

text: At some point between 1895 and 1899 the UK engineering company D. Napier & Son made Ritter "road skates", which had two comparatively large wheels, front and back, on each skate.


title: Inline skates

text: The first U.S. patent for modern in-line skates, designed to behave like ice runners with individually sprung and cushioned wheels, was granted in July 1953 to Ernest Kahlert of Santa Ana, CA. In September of 1953 an advertisement by the "Rocket Skate Company" for two wheel inline skates appeared in Popular Science. They were briefly described in the April 1950 issue of "Popular Mechanics" and again in the April 1954 issue of "Popular Science" in the section called "New Ideas from the Inventors". In Canada in 1972, Mountain Dew attempted to sell Mettoy's product the "Skeeler", an inline skate that was developed for Russian hockey players and speed skaters. In 1978, the German branch of SKF presented the "Speedy"-System, but the product was cancelled less than one year from market, as the management did not want a consumer product in the portfolio of the company.


title: Inline skates

text: The first commercially available inline skate for this form of roller skating is in 1987 by Rollerblade. In 1996, Jason Lewis completed the first solo crossing of the United States on inline skates, part of Expedition 360, a successful attempt to circumnavigate the globe using only human power. En route he was hit by a car in Colorado, breaking both legs. After nine months he completed the journey from Fort Lauderdale to San Francisco. In 2012, Kacie Fischer became the first woman, and the fastest person, to inline skate across the United States; she skated from California to Florida in 47 days.


title: Inline skates

text: A skate is composed of a "boot," worn on the foot. To the boot is attached a "frame", which holds the "wheels" in place. "Bearings" allow the wheels to rotate freely around an axle. Finally, the rubber "brake" typically attaches to the frame of the right boot.


title: Inline skates

text: There are different types of inline skates for different types of skating such as aggressive skating, speed skating, inline hockey and artistic inline skating. Those differ in the boots, frames and wheels that are used.


title: Inline skates

text: For most skating a high boot is used, which provides more ankle support and is easier to skate in, particularly for beginners. Speed skaters often use a carbon fiber boot which provides greater support with a lower cut allowing more ankle flexion.


title: Inline skates

text: For recreational skating a soft boot is used for greater comfort, but many other disciplines prefer a harder boot, either to protect the foot against impact or for better control of the skate. The boot may also contain shock absorbent padding for comfort. Downhill skaters often use boots that are heat-molded to the shape of the foot, with a foam liner.


title: Inline skates

text: Typical recreational skates use frames built out of high-grade polyurethane (plastic). Low-end department or toy store skate frames may be composed of other types of plastic. Speed skate frames are usually built out of carbon fiber or extruded aluminum (more expensive but more solid), magnesium, or even pressed aluminium, which is then folded into a frame (cheaper but less sturdy).


title: Inline skates

text: Carbon fiber frames are expensive but generally more flexible, making for a smoother ride at the expense of worse power transfer between the leg and the wheels. In general, carbon fiber frames weigh about . Recently, high-end carbon fiber frames with a monocoque construction have been introduced. They offer the same level of stiffness as aluminum frames while weighing only around . Aluminum can weigh from . Frame length ranges from two-wheel framed freestyle wheels (used in aggressive skating) to around for short-framed four wheel skates (used in most inline designs), up to about for a five-wheel racing frame.


title: Inline skates

text: Ball bearings allow the wheels to rotate freely and smoothly. Bearings are usually rated on the ABEC scale, a measure of the manufactured precision tolerance, ranging from 1 (worst) to 9 (best) in odd numbers. The ABEC standards were originally intended for high-speed machinery, not skating applications, and do not account for the quality of steel used, which is very important for how long bearings last. While higher rated bearings are generally better in overall quality, whether they automatically translate to more speed is questionable. Since at least 2007, Rollerblade brand amongst others have begun using their own rating system. For instance, Rollerblade brand is currently using a SG1 to SG9 rating system, whereas TwinCam brand is using its own "ILQ" (inline qualified) rating system and Bones brand is using its own "Skate Rated" rating system.


title: Inline skates

text: A mistake that is often made in purchasing bearings is that spending more translates to more speed. Generally, clean inline skate bearings contribute about 2% of the rolling resistance that the best urethane inline skate wheels produce, so there is very little opportunity in improving speed by spending more money on bearings. Newer bearings on the market have been offered that use ceramic ball bearings instead of steel, which are more expensive than traditional steel bearings but made of harder material.


title: Inline skates

text: Two bearings are used per wheel. The bearings slip into openings molded into each side of the wheel hub, and a flange molded into the wheel hub holds the bearings the correct distance apart. Additionally there is an axle spacer either machined into the axle or that slides over the axle (depending on the axle system used). Since the outer race of the bearing contacts the wheel spacer and the inner race of the bearing contacts the axle spacer, it is critical that the relationship between these two spacers is correct. If the wheel spacer is wider than the axle spacer the bearings will bind when the axle bolt (or bolts) are tightened.


title: Inline skates

text: Wheels are nowadays almost universally made of polyurethane (a kind of durable plastic). Most other plastics and rubber either wear down too quickly or have too much rolling resistance. In general, the bigger the wheel, the faster the skate. A bigger wheel rolls over road imperfections smoothly thus the less bumpy the skating. On top of that, an inline skater trips far less on large wheels. However, large wheels take more energy to start rolling. Smaller wheels allow faster acceleration, maneuverability, and a lower center of gravity.


title: Inline skates

text: Wheel hardness is measured on the A scale (see Durometer) and usually ranges between 72A-93A (lower numbers are softer, higher numbers are harder). Harder wheels are not necessarily faster but tend to be more durable; soft wheels may have better grip and are generally less affected by road bumps. Harder wheels (which grant minimal elastic hysteresis energy absorption) maintain rolling speed far better while softer wheels (because they grip the surface) accelerate more straightforwardly when striding. In the 1990s, wheel rolling resistance (CRR – coefficient of rolling resistance) tended to be minimized with wheel hardness in the 78A durometer range, with rolling resistance dramatically increasing below 75A durometer and above 85A durometer. In the early 2000s, urethane compounds improved significantly, allowing skaters to use harder compounds to get better wheel life, and get the lowest rolling resistance in the 82A–84A durometer range.


title: Inline skates

text: Wheel profiles and thickness again vary by application. Elliptic profiles were thought to minimize friction for a faster ride; however, they were intended to mimic the knife-like properties of an ice blade. They helped define the inner, central and outer edges. Elliptic profiles made the wheel quite maneuverable when turning or otherwise crossing over. More rounded profiles provided lower rolling resistance due to the greater "belly" or tire that increased resilience (or "rebound"); and these wheels were perceived as having better grip and being more stable (less like an ice blade), but were heavier than elliptical-profiled wheels and were often used in downhill racing (such as the Hyper Downhill racing wheels) and in recreational skates. Another advantage of rounded profile wheels is longer wear life due to the increased urethane amount on the tire. To increase stability at high speed, skates intended for downhill skating usually have five or six wheels, in contrast with recreational skates, which typically have four wheels. This advantage of more wheels having less rolling resistance has been largely negated by the diameter wheels with 4-wheel trucks. A flat profile allowed the wheel to be even far stabler than the rounded profile. This profile is almost exclusively used on aggressive skate wheels. On the flip-side, the squared-off shape caused cornering to be tremendously harder, seeing how edges are non-existent with a flat profile. In fact, a flat profile has only a center edge preventing the skater from leaning over.


title: Inline skates

text: The core's general design i.e. material, shape, and flexibility/sturdiness degree at the wheel's hub determine the wheel's properties as well. In a classical point of view, wheels on older skate models (during the 1980s and early 1990s) contained no core feature whatsoever. The core is a result of the gradual technological improvement inline skating underwent. Above all else, a wheel lacking a core is prone to deformation. This deformation is a hindrance to the skater's striding ability since in such a case it minimizes the skater's top speed. The core is inserted to hold the polyurethane firmly in place. Despite the setback, markets still distribute special wheels without a core. Core designs vary among open, full or semi-open. 'Spokes' are an element seen in wheels whose cores are open which generally increase overall wheel lightness. These are inserted into the hubs of wheels for inline speed skates, fitness skates, recreational skates, some slalom skates and artistic/figure inline skates. Apart from spokes, other open-cores can be hollowed out internally. The main disadvantage about an open core is that their design does not permit sturdiness hence they are highly likely to snap under too much pressure i.e. when jumping. Another trade-off with open cores is the lesser amount of polyurethane around it to compensate for the spoked or hollow shape meaning they last shorter. Full cores are entirely solid, akin to a pipe's cross-section. This core design is mostly favored amongst aggressive skaters whose leaps off higher levels strain the wheels when landing. Of course, these cores (alongside the extra polyurethane) tend to add weight on the wheel. Some even disfavor the full core design for its rigidity that feels uncomfortable. The question still stands on whether a full core improves power transfer. Semi-open cores are a hybrid between the two previously mentioned cores seen on wheels for urban skates, slalom skates and inline hockey skates. Minuscule holes are typically punctured into these solid cores to provide a semi-open design.


title: Inline skates

text: A hard rubber brake attached to the heel of the frame allows the skater to stop by lifting the toes of the skate, forcing the brake onto the ground. Learning how to use the heel brake is very important for beginners, as it is the easiest way to stop in emergencies and to control speed on downhills. Also, with practice, beginners realise if the heel brakes are better placed for them on the left/right foot.


title: Inline skates

text: Heel brakes can interfere with a useful technique called a crossover turn, in which a skater crosses one leg over another to make a sharp turn without losing much speed; for this reason, most intermediate to advanced users prefer not to use heel brakes. Skaters in the freestyle slalom and aggressive inline skating disciplines do not use heel brakes, since they limit the skater's ability to perform tricks effectively. Aggressive inline skates and racing skates generally have no heel brake, thereby permitting extra speed and control.


title: Inline skates

text: Inline skaters lacking a heel brake can use various other methods to stop, such as the T-stop in which the skater moves one skate perpendicular to the other, making a "T" shape to increase friction and reduce speed, or the more advanced maneuver of a hockey stop/snow plow stop, in which the skater quickly moves both skates perpendicular to the path of motion.


title: Inline skates

text: For artistic roller skating purposes, inline figure skates can also feature a "toe stop" which aids in performing figure skating jumps.


title: Inline skates

text: A flat setup is the most common setup used on inline skates. Almost all non-aggressive inline skates are sold with a flat wheel setup. Flat means that all the wheels touch the ground at the same time when resting on flat ground. Flat setups are not the most maneuverable but what they lack in maneuverability they make up for in speed. Flat setups tend to be the fastest setups, compared to setups such as the Hi-Lo or anti-rocker. The presence of two middle wheels matching the diametrical size of the rest increases contact points with any surface. They also minimize the rate at which the skater's loading weight deforms the wheels. This minimizes the wheel's footprint thereby minimizing rolling resistance. Speed skaters and marathon skaters normally use flat setups. This setup also allows for a powerslide, an advanced braking method.


title: Inline skates

text: Aggressive skates are sometimes sold with flat setups, but with a small space in the middle for grinding. With aggressive skates, the flat setup obviously leads to better control on the ground when either accelerating on a push or decelerating on a drag because of increased traction. What's more it grants a faster speed, translating to faster grinds, more powerful pumps in a skate ramp and/or higher heights ('airs') off the edge of a vert ramp. Indeed, flat setups are quick save for the likelihood that they will be heavier and the two standard central wheels tend to 'bite' when grinding. Similar to skateboarding in certain respects, 'biting' is a common hindrance during grinding whereby friction between the wheel(s) and surface it comes into contact causes the wheel(s) then entire boot to suddenly reach a halt and the momentum throws the aggressive inline skater off the rail or ledge. Again, the aspect of wheel profile is key here. A harder wheel on a flat setup will slide and 'bite' less than a softer wheel. Likewise an elliptical profile (Undercover's Dustin Werbeski 'super bullet' wheels for example) possesses less surface area hence it will not bite as much either. Adjusting to a flat setup can even out shock when landing jumps. In doing so, an inline skater's hardware like wheels, bearings, axles and the frame itself are twice as much to be spared damage.


title: Inline skates

text: It is worth noting that having a flat setup is just one factor in a fast skate setup. A long frame, low resistance bearings, and good technique all contribute greatly to a skater's speed.


title: Inline skates

text: Full rockers are used by skaters who favor maneuverability when skating on flat ground. Freestyle skaters, freestyle slalom skaters and artistic inline skaters tend to use this setup. Inline hockey players no less can customize their wheels to implement this setup (especially those who favor nimble change in direction over sheer speed during a match). This setup is called "crescent" or "banana" because it is curved, and mimics a curved ice blade profile. On flat ground this setup will only have 1–2 wheels touching the ground at any one time. This makes the skate much easier to pivot but lacks stability so it is harder to balance on. To attain balance when learning to skate a full rocker, it is recommended that pressure and weight are deposited on either the two middle wheels or the two wheels in the back. Avoid applying pressure on the two front wheels when taking strides since this is what will cause instability. In addition, a full rocker is slower than a flat setup in terms of top speed. Worst of all at high speeds, skates with a full rocker setup can experience a speed wobble, where they oscillate uncontrollably. The skater may lose control and crash to the ground.


title: Inline skates

text: Flat setups generally wear into a 'natural' rocker. This is because the front and back wheels seem to receive the vast majority of wear on inline skates.


title: Inline skates

text: Having a short frame () in combination with a full rocker is optimum for achieving the highest maneuverability when skating.


title: Inline skates

text: Front rockers are often used by street skaters who want to combine the ability of a full rocker to handle imperfections in the ground with a flat setup's sheer speed. Having a smaller wheel at the front encourages the front wheel to guide the rest of the skate over ground imperfections, rather than digging in and tripping up the less experienced skater. Maintaining a flat profile at the back allows the skater to transfer power through the rear of the skate efficiently to maintain a good speed.


title: Inline skates

text: Some hockey skates inline speed skates include a Hi-Lo setup. Hi-Lo setups resemble a flat setup in that all 4 wheels touch the ground at the same time. Unlike a flat setup, however, different wheel sizes are used. The front two wheels will be smaller than the back two wheels. This is possible because of the location of the axles on the frame itself. One example is a Bauer frame that has two wheels in the front that are and two wheels in the back that are . Another example is a wheel arrangement. This drastically changed the pace at which inline hockey players accelerated. Furthermore, by transferring weight forward, the skater could sprint explosively off the toe section and reduce instances of falling backwards. If the hockey skate is used recreationally outside the arena, the skater will find climbing slopes much easier than on a flat setup. Owing to the fact that inline hockey skate manufacturers design frames with varying axle hole placements or even raise the frame's back bolt to be higher than the front bolt nowadays, wheels of the same diameter (like ) can be used entirely.


title: Inline skates

text: Beyond inline hockey, the Hi-Lo setup was an experimental component seen on K2's VO2 100 X Pro where the manufacturers believed that the two smaller wheels ( each) in front would increase stability and rate of acceleration while the two bigger wheels ( each) in the back would maintain high speeds. Essentially this K2 skate model married both wheel size properties. A Hi-Lo configuration on an inline speed skate employs three large sized wheels and a smaller sized wheel between the first and third wheels beneath the ball part of the foot (see speed skates). An example is a arrangement beginning front to back. This increases efficiency now that the foot pushes on a smaller wheel. The smaller wheel lowers deck height off the ground improving stability and keeps the frame length shorter improving maneuverability and comfort amongst speed skaters having a smaller foot size. This is desirable seeing how wheels on inline speed skates are enormous enough to occupy a lot of room in frames. Unfortunately, top speed for a Hi-Lo setup is far less than that for a flat setup where same sized large wheels are used.


title: Inline skates

text: Another variant of the setup in which there are three diameters of wheels. It is supposed to emphasize the same benefits as the HiLo system but with greater maneuverability due to the smaller front wheels. The configuration is , , , . It allows one to pivot on the third wheel similar to the brand Wizard Skates. This system is also used by some hockey skaters as it pitches the foot slightly forward.


title: Inline skates

text: A few aggressive skate frames (most notably Rollerblade's Switch Frame, Ground Control's Bullet Frame, Oysi Frame and Joe Atkinson Sola Frame) are designed so that there are two big outer wheels, and two small inner wheels, rockered so that they all touch the ground. This gives the benefits of a flat setup, while keeping the frame as low as the height of the smaller inner wheels. It also retains room for an H-block in the center. But out bigger outer wheels give some of the benefits bigger wheels offer such as speed and stability.


title: Inline skates

text: Anti-rocker is the most popular setup for aggressive skaters. An anti-rocker wheel is a small hard wheel that replaces the two middle wheels. Anti-rocker wheels almost never touch the ground except in cases where the terrain is uneven, such as skating over a ramp. Anti-rockers can be made of plastic, or high density polyurethane. Some use bearings so that they can spin. As they can spin, the anti-rockers wear out more evenly when grinding. Anti-rockers containing bearings can effectively roll over uneven ground or features like steps, lessening tripping hazards. Others do not use bearings so that they're lighter. The anti-rockers themselves lock the H-block onto the ledge or rail a skater grinds. There is a minor nuisance to anti-rocker hardware in which the items emit a loud noise upon fastening into a grind that some aggressive skaters find unbearable. The anti-rocker setup altogether makes maneuvering harder (since the standard wheels slip more), wheel life shorter, overall speed slower, a rougher ride, and a wider turning radius, but because of the extra space in the middle, it makes grinding objects much easier than with a flat setup.


title: Inline skates

text: The freestyle frame is another setup used by aggressive skaters. This setup simply has only two wheels – one in the front and one in the back. In between the two wheels is an area of solid material, resembling a large "H Block", which is used for grinding. Freestyle frames have nearly identical advantages to the Anti-rocker. Since large space is freed up in the middle, the skater can not only grind wider surface areas like an entire ledge but also the frame's weight is lighter. Likewise, the Freestyle frame shares its disadvantages with its Anti-rocker cousin already listed. As opposed to anti-rockers which securely lock grinds, aggressive skaters should train themselves to remain balanced when sliding across narrow rails or edges on a Freestyle frame. Worse still when not observing carefulness, a Freestyle setup can easily hook on vertical surfaces including steps, coping and funbox edges if you roll over them, leading to tripping incidents. This is why the technique to 'bash' (see "Flat Setup") a staircase is almost impossible on a Freestyle setup. Freestyle frames can be purchased, although removing the two inner wheels of a flat or anti-rocker frame technically makes it freestyle, however this would not be very durable due to the lack of solid grinding material. Originally invented by Fifty-50 (an aggressive inline skate frame company), Juice Blocks allow the skater to convert their flat or anti-rocker frames into proper freestyle frames. Juice Blocks are simply solid grind blocks inserted into the axle holes where two middle wheels or anti-rockers are found.


title: Inline skates

text: Tri-rocker (not to be confused with the 3-wheeled frame/chassis seen on Tri-Skates) is used by some aggressive skaters. It is another method of making grinds easier. A frame with a tri-rocker setup has only one wheel in the middle, either in the second wheel position or in the third wheel position, depending on what kinds of grinds the skater plans on doing. The remaining axle has an anti-rocker wheel, a special grind block, or is just left empty.


title: Inline skates

text: The purpose of a tri-rocker setup is to give the skater good speed and maneuverability, like on a flat setup. But because of the extra space, grinding is also a little easier than a flat setup.


Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) is a government-aided institute and deemed university for the study and research of space science, located at Valiamala, Nedumangad,


title: Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology

text: Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. It is the first university in Asia to be solely dedicated to the study and research of Outer space. It was inaugurated on 14 September 2007 by G. Madhavan Nair, the then Chairman of ISRO. IIST was set up by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) under the Department of Space, Government of India. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, former President of India, was the Chancellor of IIST.


text: IIST offers regular engineering undergraduate, postgraduate and doctorate programmes with focus on space science, technology and applications.


text: Envisioned to fulfill the requirements of scientists and engineers in the Indian Space Program, by offering undergraduate and postgraduate education and research programmes in space science and technology, the institute started functioning from the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) campus, Thiruvananthapuram, on 14 September 2007 with an initial investment of and annual recurring cost of by the Department of Space. It is the only institute of its kind in India, which offers a BTech degree in Space Technology, and subjects exclusive to the arena of space science and technology. B. N. Suresh, former director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, is the founding director of the institute.


text: On 14 July 2008, the Union Human Resource Development Ministry, on the advice of the University Grants Commission (UGC), conferred deemed university status, under a "new" category, to the institute for a period of five years.


text: At its inception, the institute started functioning at the ATF Campus, under Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala. Modern environmentally friendly buildings of unique architecture merge well with the thickly wooded campus of 100 acres situated on the foothills of Sahyadri.


text: A state-of-the-art residential campus built near Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre in Valiamala, Nedumangad, Thiruvananthapuram was inaugurated by Dr. Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister of India on 25 August 2009. The institute started functioning in its new campus from 15 August 2010. The campus has an extension in the picturesque Ponmudi Hills, Thiruvananthapuram, for an observatory.


text: IIST offers undergraduate (BTech), master's (MTech) and PhD programs in space science and technology, and also serves as a research centre. Doctoral programs in basic sciences and post-doctoral programs are also offered. Till 2013 batch, three different courses in BTech were offered, namely BTech in Aerospace, Avionics and Physical Sciences. As of 2014 admissions, a new 5-year Dual Degree (BTech + MTech/M.S) in Engineering Physics replaced the existing Physical Sciences branch. The MTech/M.S can be done in any of the following – M.S. in Astronomy & Astrophysics, MTech in Earth System Science, MTech in Machine Learning and Computing, MTech in Geoinformatics, MTech in Aerodynamics & Flight Mechanics, MTech in Structures and Design, MTech in Thermal and Propulsion, MTech in Control Systems, MTech in Digital Signal Processing, MTech in RF and Microwave Engineering, MTech in Power Electronics, MTech in VLSI and Microsystems, MTech in Material Science and Technology, MTech in Solid State Physics and MTech in Optical Engineering. The seats are limited to 20 in the dual degree program from the existing 36 in Physical Sciences. 60 students each are admitted to the Aerospace and Avionics branches.


text: The admissions to the undergraduate (BTech) programmes for 2013 to 2016 were made through the All India Rank List prepared and published by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), based on the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) – Main. Previously, IIST admitted students through the IIT-JEE rank lists from 2007 to 2009, and conducted its own entrance exam called ISAT from 2010 to 2012. However, applicants will need to qualify the JEE Advanced exam, and marks obtained in the same will be used in determining the eligibility of the candidate IIST offers 140 seats for admission to its B.Tech. programmes in aerospace engineering, avionics and engineering physics. The BTech branch of physical sciences was replaced with a dual-degree (BTech and MTech) engineering physics branch starting from the batch which joined in 2014. Over 100,000 aspirants applied for these seats in ISAT 2012 making IIST one of the most selective institutes in India. From 2017 onwards, the admissions are based on JEE Advanced scores.


text: The applications for admission to MTech courses are invited directly and students are shortlisted based on undergraduate academic performance, GATE score, interview and projects undertaken by them.


text: Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology was ranked 33 by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) engineering category 2020.


text: IIST also has a small observatory on campus equipped with an 8-inch Newtonian telescope. A 14-inch telescope will replace the 8-inch telescope in the near future. The telescope is housed in a dome on top of the Science academic block. The dome is powered by two sets of solar panels.


text: VYOM ('sky' in Sanskrit) is the Sounding Rocket designed by the BTech students of IIST. Vyom had its maiden flight on 11 May 2012 when it took to the sky from TERLS. and the mission was a total success. The objective of the launch was to flight-test the solid rocket motor and the accelerometer payload developed for the project. Vyom is the first student made sounding rocket in Asia and the Vyom Mk II was planned for launch in 2015.


text: IIST also runs a student satellite project, which is also slated for launch in 2014–2015 on board the PSLV.


text: Conscientia is the Annual Astronomy and Technology Festival of IIST. Conscientia offers various challenging events in different fields of engineering and science, including astronomy, aerospace engineering, electronics, computer science, mechanical engineering, robotics, etc. In the year 2010, the astronomy festival "Aparimit" has been incorporated into Conscientia.


text: The 2010 edition was inaugurated by IIST's Chancellor, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, former President of India.


text: In just a few years, Conscientia has evolved to become the largest technical festival in the state of Kerala. The 2014 edition of the festival is going to start on 28 February 2014. The official website of the festival


text: Dhanak is the Annual Cultural Festival of IIST. Named after the Urdu word for 'rainbow', it stands for the splash of colour and sunshine that this festival brings with it. It spans all facets of cultural activity, including dramatics, fine arts, literature, quizzing, music, dance, film-making, and photography. The most awaited moment at Dhanak is the "pronite", in which a DJ/Band is invited to perform. Dhanak 2015 witnessed DJ VH1 Supersonic. Progressive Brothers from DJ Sunburn gave their performance in 2016 and Masala Coffee, South India's largest band performed in Dhanak in 2017. Dhanak also features themes every year based on which the whole campus is decorated. The theme for 2018 was "comicolours".


text: Started as an intra-college event in March 2012, IIST MUN has now become a national inter-college Model United Nations with United Nations General Assembly council held successfully in September 2012, 2013, October 2014 and April 2015. It has become an annual event, with the 2019 event to be held in April.


text: IIST has signed a number of memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with international universities and Institutions for joint research, and exchange of students and faculty. These include Caltech-USA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory-USA, University of Colorado, Boulder-USA, Technion-Israel, University of Cambridge-UK and Nanyang Technological University-Singapore. A number of other collaborations are under discussions. The Satish Dhawan fellowship at California Institute of Technology was announced by Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman, ISRO on 3 June 2013. The fellowship provides an opportunity every year starting from the winter session of the academic year 2013–14 to one meritorious graduating student from the Aerospace Department of IIST to be sponsored by the Department of Space, Government of India to pursue master's degree in aerospace engineering at the California Institute of Technology.


title: In the Flat Field

text: In the Flat Field is the debut studio album by English gothic rock band Bauhaus. It was recorded between December 1979 and July 1980, and was released on 3 November 1980 by record label 4AD, the first full-length release on that label. The cover artwork is a reproduction of Duane Michals' 1949 photograph, "Homage to Purvis de Chavannes".


title: In the Flat Field

text: Following a 30-date tour, Bauhaus went to Southern Studios in London to record their first album. The band had a clear conception of how they wanted the record to sound; hence, they opted to produce it themselves. While most of the album was completed with the planned release date of September 1980, the group found it difficult to record a version of "Double Dare" as good as the one they performed on disc jockey John Peel's BBC Radio 1 programme. Bauhaus applied to the BBC to use the Peel session version, but due to obstruction from the Musicians Union, the process took over a month.


title: In the Flat Field

text: "NME"s Andy Gill wrote that the dark atmosphere of the record was reminiscent of previous works by groups including Siouxsie and the Banshees, Adam and the Ants, and Joy Division. In his AllMusic review, critic Ned Raggett described Bauhaus as a "glam-inspired rock band", said that singer Peter Murphy channeled both Iggy Pop and David Bowie, and compared Daniel Ash's guitar playing to that of Mick Ronson. Raggett noted that the album concluded with "a dramatic ending" with the song "Nerves".


title: In the Flat Field

text: "In the Flat Field" was released on 3 November 1980 by record label 4AD. It was met with a negative response from critics, but topped the UK Independent Albums Chart and made the UK Albums Chart for one week, peaking at No. 72.


title: In the Flat Field

text: The album was first released on CD by 4AD in April 1988 with eight bonus tracks, including three non-album singles: "Dark Entries", "Terror Couple Kill Colonel", and a cover of T. Rex's "Telegram Sam". Five of these bonus tracks had been previously compiled on the "4AD" EP in 1983.


title: In the Flat Field

text: On 19 October 2009, 4AD and Beggars Banquet reissued the album as an "Omnibus Edition", featuring the 24-bit John Dent remastered CD of the original nine-track album in a replica mini-LP sleeve (with corresponding inner sleeve featuring the lyrics), plus a 16-track bonus disc of singles, outtakes, alternate recordings, and original versions. The set came inside a semi-long box, coupled with a 48-page book that included comments from band members, photos, complete lyrics, complete tour date information for 1979 and 1980, and an essay by Andrew Brooksbank on the formation and creation of the band, the singles, and the album.


title: In the Flat Field

text: While "In the Flat Field" received positive reviews in fanzine publications, the album was "absolutely slated" by the British weekly music press, according to Bauhaus biographer Ian Shirley. "NME" described the album as "nine meaningless moans and flails bereft of even the most cursory contour of interest, a record which deserves all the damning adjectives usually levelled at grim-faced 'modernists'". Reviewer Andy Gill then ultimately dismissed them as "a hip Black Sabbath". Dave McCullough of "Sounds" was also negative: "No songs. Just tracks (ugh). Too priggish and conceited. Sluggish indulgence instead of hoped for goth-ness. Coldly catatonic."


title: In the Flat Field

text: The American "Trouser Press", however, described it as "a dense, disjointed patchwork of sounds and uncertain feelings, supported by a pressured, incessant beat. Delving deep into the dark side of the human psyche, Bauhaus conjures up unsettling images of a world given over to death and decay."


title: In the Flat Field

text: In his AllMusic retrospective review, Raggett praised the album, writing "few debut albums ever arrived so nearly perfectly formed". while "Treble"s Jeff Terich described the songs as "twisted, glam-inspired post-punk raveups". Jonathan Selzer of "Classic Rock" magazine described the album as "remarkably self-possessed, a distillation of influences down to a potent curtains-drawn universe of Bauhaus's own."


title: In the Flat Field

text: AllMusic's Raggett wrote: ""In the Flat Field" practically single-handedly invented what remains for many as the stereotype of goth music—wracked, at times spindly vocals about despair and desolation of many kinds, sung over mysterious and moody music". In 2012, "Sonic Seducer" ranked "In the Flat Field" at No. 4 on its list of "10 Key Albums for the Gothic Scene", calling it a work that had shattered outdated ideas of rock music. Music author Dave Thompson described it as "one of the most courageous albums of the age." Writing for "Louder Than War", John Robb noted it as "a staple record for the true post-punk scene". American musician and audio engineer, Steve Albini, from the industrial rock band Big Black called the album a "masterpiece".


title: In the Flat Field

text: "In the Flat Field" was listed in Tom Moon's 2008 book "1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die". In 2020, "Rolling Stone" included the album at No. 61 on its list of "The 80 Greatest Albums of 1980".


title: Mime Gopi

text: Mime Gopi is an Indian stage and film actor who has appeared in predominantly Tamil films including "Madras" (2014), "Kathakali" (2016), and "Kabali" (2016).


title: Mime Gopi

text: Mime Gopi already acted in Saravanan Meenatchi season 1 along with Mirchi Saravanan as money launderer. Prior to his entrance into the film industry, Gopi was a renowned mime actor in Chennai and headed G Mime Studio, a studio which exhibited the art form. In his role, he worked closely with children with special needs to help them adapt miming skills. The actor celebrates every birthday and festivals by doing charity work across Tamil Nadu. He also had contributed money to the local festivals of the religious organisations. He is an inspiration to the upcoming theatre actors. He had set up the studio in 1994 and had worked to expand the art across Chennai. Mime Gopi shot to fame with director Pa. Ranjith's "Madras" (2014) and he gave notable performances in "Maari" (2015), "Maya" and "Kabali" (2016). He has been working in "Bairavaa" (2017) with Vijay. Gopi has stated that his biggest regret in life as a growing actor is that he wasn't able to act in "Seyal" (2018). The actor disclosed that though he was approached earlier for the role of a villain, he couldn't accept the offer as he was shooting for another film. But now after seeing the film in a private screening the actor feels like he has really missed out on a fantastic role.


title: Power MOSFET

text: A power MOSFET is a specific type of metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) designed to handle significant power levels. Compared to the other power semiconductor devices, such as an insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) or a thyristor, its main advantages are high switching speed and good efficiency at low voltages. It shares with the IGBT an isolated gate that makes it easy to drive. They can be subject to low gain, sometimes to a degree that the gate voltage needs to be higher than the voltage under control.


title: Power MOSFET

text: The design of power MOSFETs was made possible by the evolution of MOSFET and CMOS technology, used for manufacturing integrated circuits since the 1960s. The power MOSFET shares its operating principle with its low-power counterpart, the lateral MOSFET. The power MOSFET, which is commonly used in power electronics, was adapted from the standard MOSFET and commercially introduced in the 1970s.


title: Power MOSFET

text: The power MOSFET is the most common power semiconductor device in the world, due to its low gate drive power, fast switching speed, easy advanced paralleling capability, wide bandwidth, ruggedness, easy drive, simple biasing, ease of application, and ease of repair. In particular, it is the most widely used low-voltage (less than 200 V) switch. It can be found in a wide range of applications, such as most power supplies, DC-to-DC converters, low-voltage motor controllers, and many other applications.


title: Power MOSFET

text: The MOSFET was invented by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs in 1959. It was a breakthrough in power electronics. Generations of MOSFETs enabled power designers to achieve performance and density levels not possible with bipolar transistors.


title: Power MOSFET

text: In 1969, Hitachi introduced the first vertical power MOSFET, which would later be known as the VMOS (V-groove MOSFET). The same year, the DMOS (double-diffused MOSFET) with self-aligned gate was first reported by Y. Tarui, Y. Hayashi and Toshihiro Sekigawa of the Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL). In 1974, Jun-ichi Nishizawa at Tohoku University invented a power MOSFET for audio, which was soon manufactured by Yamaha Corporation for their high fidelity audio amplifiers. JVC, Pioneer Corporation, Sony and Toshiba also began manufacturing amplifiers with power MOSFETs in 1974. Siliconix commercially introduced a VMOS in 1975.


title: Power MOSFET

text: The VMOS and DMOS developed into what has become known as VDMOS (vertical DMOS). John Moll's research team at HP Labs fabricated DMOS prototypes in 1977, and demonstrated advantages over the VMOS, including lower on-resistance and higher breakdown voltage. The same year, Hitachi introduced the LDMOS (lateral DMOS), a planar type of DMOS. Hitachi was the only LDMOS manufacturer between 1977 and 1983, during which time LDMOS was used in audio power amplifiers from manufacturers such as HH Electronics (V-series) and Ashly Audio, and were used for music and public address systems. With the introduction of the 2G digital mobile network in 1995, the LDMOS became the most widely used RF power amplifier in mobile networks such as 2G, 3G, and 4G.


title: Power MOSFET

text: Alex Lidow co-invented the HexFET, a hexagonal type of Power MOSFET, at Stanford University in 1977, along with Tom Herman. The HexFET was commercialized by International Rectifier in 1978. The insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), which combines elements of both the power MOSFET and the bipolar junction transistor (BJT), was developed by Jayant Baliga at General Electric between 1977 and 1979.


title: Power MOSFET

text: The superjunction MOSFET is a type of power MOSFET that uses P+ columns that penetrate the N- epitaxial layer. The idea of stacking P and N layers was first proposed by Shozo Shirota and Shigeo Kaneda at Osaka University in 1978. David J. Coe at Philips invented the superjunction MOSFET with alternating p-type and n-type layers by filing a US patent in 1984 which was awarded in 1988.


title: Power MOSFET

text: The power MOSFET is the most widely used power semiconductor device in the world. , the power MOSFET accounts for 53% of the power transistor market, ahead of the insulated-gate bipolar transistor (27%), RF power amplifier (11%) and bipolar junction transistor (9%). , over 50 billion power MOSFETs are shipped annually. These include the trench power MOSFET, which sold over 100 billion units up until February 2017, and STMicroelectronics' MDmesh (superjunction MOSFET) which has sold 5 billion units .


title: Power MOSFET

text: RF DMOS, also known as RF power MOSFET, is a type of DMOS power transistor designed for radio-frequency (RF) applications. It is used in various radio and RF applications.


title: Power MOSFET

text: Power MOSFETs (including DMOS, LDMOS and VMOS) are commonly used for a wide range of other applications.


title: Power MOSFET

text: Several structures had been explored in the 1970s, when the first commercial power MOSFETs were introduced. However, most of them have been abandoned (at least until recently) in favour of the Vertical Diffused MOS (VDMOS) structure (also called Double-Diffused MOS or simply DMOS) and the LDMOS (laterally diffused MOS) structure.


title: Power MOSFET

text: The cross section of a VDMOS (see figure 1) shows the "verticality" of the device: it can be seen that the source electrode is placed over the drain, resulting in a current mainly vertical when the transistor is in the on-state. The "diffusion" in VDMOS refers to the manufacturing process: the P wells (see figure 1) are obtained by a diffusion process (actually a double diffusion process to get the P and N regions, hence the name double diffused).


title: Power MOSFET

text: Power MOSFETs have a different structure from the lateral MOSFET: as with most power devices, their structure is vertical and not planar. In a planar structure, the current and breakdown voltage ratings are both functions of the channel dimensions (respectively width and length of the channel), resulting in inefficient use of the "silicon real estate". With a vertical structure, the voltage rating of the transistor is a function of the doping and thickness of the N epitaxial layer (see cross section), while the current rating is a function of the channel width. This makes it possible for the transistor to sustain both high blocking voltage and high current within a compact piece of silicon.


title: Power MOSFET

text: LDMOS are power MOSFETs with a lateral structure. They are mainly used in high-end audio power amplifiers, and RF power amplifiers in wireless cellular networks, such as 2G, 3G, and 4G. Their advantage is a better behaviour in the saturated region (corresponding to the linear region of a bipolar junction transistor) than the vertical MOSFETs. Vertical MOSFETs are designed for switching applications, so they are only used in On or Off states.


title: Power MOSFET

text: When the power MOSFET is in the on-state (see MOSFET for a discussion on operation modes), it exhibits a resistive behaviour between the drain and source terminals. It can be seen in figure 2 that this resistance (called R for "drain to source resistance in on-state") is the sum of many elementary contributions:


title: Power MOSFET

text: When in the OFF-state, the power MOSFET is equivalent to a PIN diode (constituted by the P diffusion, the N epitaxial layer and the N substrate). When this highly non-symmetrical structure is reverse-biased, the space-charge region extends principally on the light-doped side, "i.e.", over the N layer. This means that this layer has to withstand most of the MOSFET's OFF-state drain-to-source voltage.


title: Power MOSFET

text: However, when the MOSFET is in the ON-state, this N layer has no function. Furthermore, as it is a lightly doped region, its intrinsic resistivity is non-negligible and adds to the MOSFET's ON-state Drain-to-Source Resistance (R) (this is the R resistance in figure 2).


title: Power MOSFET

text: Two main parameters govern both the breakdown voltage and the R of the transistor: the doping level and the thickness of the N epitaxial layer. The thicker the layer and the lower its doping level, the higher the breakdown voltage. On the contrary, the thinner the layer and the higher the doping level, the lower the R (and therefore the lower the conduction losses of the MOSFET). Therefore, it can be seen that there is a trade-off in the design of a MOSFET, between its voltage rating and its ON-state resistance. This is demonstrated by the plot in figure 3.


title: Power MOSFET

text: It can be seen in figure 1 that the source metallization connects both the N and P implantations, although the operating principle of the MOSFET only requires the source to be connected to the N zone. However, if it were, this would result in a floating P zone between the N-doped source and drain, which is equivalent to a NPN transistor with a non-connected base. Under certain conditions (under high drain current, when the on-state drain to source voltage is in the order of some volts), this parasitic NPN transistor would be triggered, making the MOSFET uncontrollable. The connection of the P implantation to the source metallization shorts the base of the parasitic transistor to its emitter (the source of the MOSFET) and thus prevents spurious latching. This solution, however, creates a diode between the drain (cathode) and the source (anode) of the MOSFET, making it able to block current in only one direction.


title: Power MOSFET

text: Body diodes may be utilized as freewheeling diodes for inductive loads in configurations such as H bridge or half bridge. While these diodes usually have rather high forward voltage drop, they can handle large currents and are sufficient in many applications, reducing part count, and thus, device cost and board space. To increase efficiency, synchronous rectification is often used to minimize the amount of time that the body diode conducts current.


title: Power MOSFET

text: Because of their unipolar nature, the power MOSFET can switch at very high speed. Indeed, there is no need to remove minority carriers as with bipolar devices. The only intrinsic limitation in commutation speed is due to the internal capacitances of the MOSFET (see figure 4). These capacitances must be charged or discharged when the transistor switches. This can be a relatively slow process because the current that flows through the gate capacitances is limited by the external driver circuit. This circuit will actually dictate the commutation speed of the transistor (assuming the power circuit has sufficiently low inductance).


title: Power MOSFET

text: In the MOSFET datasheets, the capacitances are often named C (input capacitance, drain and source terminal shorted), C (output capacitance, gate and source shorted), and C (reverse transfer capacitance, source connected to ground). The relationship between these capacitances and those described below is:


title: Power MOSFET

text: Where C, C and C are respectively the gate-to-source, gate-to-drain and drain-to-source capacitances (see below). Manufacturers prefer to quote C, C and C because they can be directly measured on the transistor. However, as C, C and C are closer to the physical meaning, they will be used in the remaining of this article.


title: Power MOSFET

text: The C capacitance is constituted by the parallel connection of C, C and C (see figure 4). As the N and P regions are highly doped, the two former capacitances can be considered as constant. C is the capacitance between the (polysilicon) gate and the (metal) source electrode, so it is also constant. Therefore, it is common practice to consider C as a constant capacitance, i.e. its value does not depend on the transistor state.


title: Power MOSFET

text: The C capacitance can be seen as the connection in series of two elementary capacitances. The first one is the oxide capacitance (C), constituted by the gate electrode, the silicon dioxide and the top of the N epitaxial layer. It has a constant value. The second capacitance (C) is caused by the extension of the space-charge zone when the MOSFET is in off-state. Therefore, it is dependent upon the drain to source voltage. From this, the value of C is:


title: Power MOSFET

text: where formula_4 is the permittivity of the Silicon, q is the electron charge, and N is the doping level. The value of C can be approximated using the expression of the plane capacitor:


title: Power MOSFET

text: It can be seen that C (and thus C) is a capacitance which value is dependent upon the gate to drain voltage. As this voltage increases, the capacitance decreases. When the MOSFET is in on-state, C is shunted, so the gate to drain capacitance remains equal to C, a constant value.


title: Power MOSFET

text: As the source metallization overlaps the P-wells (see figure 1), the drain and source terminals are separated by a P-N junction. Therefore, C is the junction capacitance. This is a non-linear capacitance, and its value can be calculated using the same equation as for C.


title: Power MOSFET

text: To operate, the MOSFET must be connected to the external circuit, most of the time using wire bonding (although alternative techniques are investigated). These connections exhibit a parasitic inductance, which is in no way specific to the MOSFET technology, but has important effects because of the high commutation speeds. Parasitic inductances tend to maintain their current constant and generate overvoltage during the transistor turn off, resulting in increasing commutation losses.


title: Power MOSFET

text: A parasitic inductance can be associated with each terminal of the MOSFET. They have different effects:


title: Power MOSFET

text: The gate oxide is very thin (100 nm or less), so it can only sustain a limited voltage. In the datasheets, manufacturers often state a maximum gate to source voltage, around 20 V, and exceeding this limit can result in destruction of the component. Furthermore, a high gate to source voltage reduces significantly the lifetime of the MOSFET, with little to no advantage on R reduction.


title: Power MOSFET

text: Power MOSFETs have a maximum specified drain to source voltage (when turned off), beyond which breakdown may occur. Exceeding the breakdown voltage causes the device to conduct, potentially damaging it and other circuit elements due to excessive power dissipation.


title: Power MOSFET

text: The drain current must generally stay below a certain specified value (maximum continuous drain current). It can reach higher values for very short durations of time (maximum pulsed drain current, sometimes specified for various pulse durations). The drain current is limited by heating due to resistive losses in internal components such as bond wires, and other phenomena such as electromigration in the metal layer.


title: Power MOSFET

text: The junction temperature (T) of the MOSFET must stay under a specified maximum value for the device to function reliably, determined by MOSFET die layout and packaging materials. The packaging often limits the maximum junction temperature, due to the molding compound and (where used) epoxy characteristics.


title: Power MOSFET

text: The maximum operating ambient temperature is determined by the power dissipation and thermal resistance. The junction-to-case thermal resistance is intrinsic to the device and package; the case-to-ambient thermal resistance is largely dependent on the board/mounting layout, heatsinking area and air/fluid flow.


title: Power MOSFET

text: The type of power dissipation, whether continuous or pulsed, affects the maximum operating temperature, due to thermal mass characteristics; in general, the lower the frequency of pulses for a given power dissipation, the higher maximum operating ambient temperature, due to allowing a longer interval for the device to cool down. Models, such as a Foster network, can be used to analyze temperature dynamics from power transients.


title: Power MOSFET

text: The safe operating area defines the combined ranges of drain current and drain to source voltage the power MOSFET is able to handle without damage. It is represented graphically as an area in the plane defined by these two parameters. Both drain current and drain-to-source voltage must stay below their respective maximum values, but their product must also stay below the maximum power dissipation the device is able to handle. Thus, the device cannot be operated at its maximum current and maximum voltage simultaneously.


title: Power MOSFET

text: The equivalent circuit for a power MOSFET consists of one MOSFET in parallel with a parasitic BJT. If the BJT turns ON, it cannot be turned off, since the gate has no control over it. This phenomenon is known as "latch-up", which can lead to device destruction. The BJT can be turned on due to a voltage drop across the p-type body region. To avoid latch-up, the body and the source are typically short-circuited within the device package.


title: Power MOSFET

text: As described above, the current handling capability of a power MOSFET is determined by its gate channel width. The gate channel width is the third (Z-axis) dimension of the cross-sections pictured.


title: Power MOSFET

text: To minimize cost and size, it is valuable to keep the transistor's die area size as small as possible. Therefore, optimizations have been developed to increase the width of the channel surface area, "i.e.", increase the "channel density". They mainly consist of creating cellular structures repeated over the whole area of the MOSFET die. Several shapes have been proposed for these cells, the most famous being the hexagonal shape used in International Rectifier's HEXFET devices.


title: Power MOSFET

text: Another way to increase the channel density is to reduce the size of the elementary structure. This allows for more cells in a given surface area, and therefore more channel width. However, as the cell size shrinks, it becomes more difficult to ensure proper contact of every cell. To overcome this, a "strip" structure is often used (see figure). It is less efficient than a cellular structure of equivalent resolution in terms of channel density, but can cope with smaller pitch. Another advantage of the planar stripe structure is that it is less susceptible to failure during avalanche breakdown events in which the parasitic bipolar transistor turns on from sufficient forward bias. In the cellular structure, if the source terminal of any one cell is poorly contacted, then it becomes much more likely that the parasitic bipolar transistor latches on during an avalanche breakdown event. Because of this, MOSFETs utilizing a planar stripe structure can only fail during avalanche breakdown due to extreme thermal stress.


title: Power MOSFET

text: A P-substrate MOSFET (often called PMOS) is a MOSFET with opposite doping types (N instead of P and P instead of N in the cross-section in figure 1). This MOSFET is made using a P-type substrate, with a P epitaxy. As the channel sits in a N-region, this transistor is turned on by a negative gate to source voltage. This makes it desirable in a buck converter, where one of the terminals of the switch is connected to the high side of the input voltage: with a N-MOSFET, this configuration requires to apply to the gate a voltage equal to formula_7, whereas no voltage over formula_8 is required with a P-MOSFET.


title: Power MOSFET

text: The main disadvantage of this type of MOSFET is the poor on-state performance, as it uses holes as charge carriers, which have a much lower mobility than electrons. As resistivity is directly related to mobility, a given PMOS device will have a formula_9 three times higher than a N-MOSFET with the same dimensions.


title: Power MOSFET

text: In this power MOSFET structure, also called trench-MOS, the gate electrode is buried in a trench etched in the silicon. This results in a vertical channel. The main interest of the structure is the absence of the JFET effect. The name of the structure comes from the U-shape of the trench.


title: Power MOSFET

text: Especially for voltages beyond 500 V, some manufacturers, including Infineon Technologies with its CoolMOS products, have begun to use a charge compensation principle. With this technology, the resistance of the epitaxial layer, which is the biggest contributor (more than 95%) to the device resistance of high-voltage MOSFETs, can be reduced by a factor of greater than 5.


title: Power MOSFET

text: Seeking to improve the manufacturing efficiency and reliability of super-junction MOSFETs, Renesas Electronics developed a super-junction structure with a deep-trench process technique. This technology entails etching trenches in the low-impurity N-type material to form P-type regions. This process overcomes problems inherent to the multi-level epitaxial growth approach and results in extremely low on-resistance and reduced internal capacitance.


title: Power MOSFET

text: Due to the increased p-n junction area, a super-junction structure has a smaller reverse recovery time but larger reverse recovery current compared to a conventional planar power MOSFET.


title: William Simons

text: Clifford William Cumberbatch Simons (17 November 1940 – 21 June 2019) was a Welsh-born actor best known for his role as PC Alf Ventress in "Heartbeat", a role he played for 18 years, from 1992 to 2010.


title: William Simons

text: Simons was born on 17 November 1940 in Swansea where his father was stationed in the Second World War and he grew up in South Wales until the family moved to North London. He started acting as a child, appearing in the films "No Place for Jennifer" (1950), "Where No Vultures Fly" (1951) and "West of Zanzibar" (1954). He then suffered from severe acne, which caused him to prefer working backstage as a stage manager for four years before deciding to become an adult actor. Later in life, he would become a patron of the charity Changing Faces, which supports people with facial deformities.


title: William Simons

text: He played PC Ventress for the entire 18-year run of "Heartbeat". Although playing a heavy smoker, Simons was a non-smoker in real life and was given herbal cigarettes to play the part. The character is a policeman that lacks in the physical side but makes up for that with his ‘local knowledge’. Ventress is the longest serving officer for much of the drama and often in a role as acting sergeant when Blaketon, Craddock and Merton are absent. In later series of the drama, Ventress is forced to retire from the force but continues as a civilian member of the team and also helps Oscar Blaketon (Derek Fowlds) in a private investigatory role. Simons was only absent from 4 subsequent episodes of Heartbeat throughout his entire stint playing constable Alf Ventress; during series 3.


title: William Simons

text: Other series regular roles in television included the political dissident Quarmby in the 1971 TV series "The Guardians", Martin O'Connor QC in "Crown Court" (1973-83), Constable Thackeray in "Cribb" (1979-81), and Inspector "Brer" Fox in "The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries" (1990-94).


title: William Simons

text: Simons also made guest appearances in "Doctor Who: The Sun Makers", "Auf Wiedersehen Pet", "Francis Storm Investigates", "Coronation Street", "The Sweeney", "Minder" as 'Pongo' Harris, "Dempsey & Makepeace", "Give Us a Break", "The Darling Buds of May", "Wish Me Luck", "Bergerac", "Casualty", "The Bill", "Lovejoy", "Enemy at the Door" and "Rumpole of the Bailey".


title: Ernest Renan

text: Joseph Ernest Renan (; 27 February 18232 October 1892) was a French Orientalist and Semitic scholar, expert of Semitic languages and civilizations, historian of religion, philologist, philosopher, biblical scholar, and critic. He wrote influential and pioneering historical works on the origins of early Christianity, and espoused popular political theories especially concerning nationalism and national identity. Renan is known as being among the first scholars to advance the now-discredited Khazar theory, which held that Ashkenazi Jews were descendants of the Khazars, Turkic peoples who had adopted Jewish religion and migrated to Western Europe following the collapse of their khanate.


title: Ernest Renan

text: He was born at Tréguier in Brittany to a family of fishermen. His grandfather, having made a small fortune with his fishing smack, bought a house at Tréguier and settled there, and his father, captain of a small cutter and an ardent republican, married the daughter of a Royalist tradesman from the neighbouring town of Lannion. All his life, Renan was aware of the conflict between his father's and his mother's political beliefs. He was five years old when his father died, and his sister, Henriette, twelve years his senior, became the moral head of the household. Having in vain attempted to keep a school for girls at Tréguier, she departed and went to Paris as a teacher in a young ladies' boarding-school.


title: Ernest Renan

text: Ernest, meanwhile, was educated in the ecclesiastical seminary of his native town. His school reports describe him as "docile, patient, diligent, painstaking, thorough". While the priests taught him mathematics and Latin, his mother completed his education. Renan's mother was half Breton. Her paternal ancestors came from Bordeaux, and Renan used to say that in his own nature the Gascon and the Breton were constantly at odds.


title: Ernest Renan

text: During the summer of 1838, Renan won all the prizes at the college of Tréguier. His sister told the doctor of the school in Paris where she taught about her brother, and he informed F. A. P. Dupanloup, who was involved in organizing the ecclesiastical college of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet, a school in which the young Catholic nobility and the most talented pupils of the Catholic seminaries were to be educated together, with the idea of creating friendships between the aristocracy and the priesthood. Dupanloup sent for Renan, who was then fifteen years old and had never been outside Brittany. "I learned with stupor that knowledge was not a privilege of the Church ... I awoke to the meaning of the words talent, fame, celebrity." Religion seemed to him wholly different in Tréguier and in Paris. He came to view Abbé Dupanloup as a father figure.


title: Ernest Renan

text: In 1840, Renan left St Nicholas to study philosophy at the seminary of Issy-les-Moulineaux. He entered with a passion for Catholic scholasticism. Among the philosophers, Thomas Reid and Nicolas Malebranche first attracted him, and, then he turned to G. W. F. Hegel, Immanuel Kant and J. G. Herder. Renan began to see a contradiction between the metaphysics which he studied and the faith he professed, but an appetite for verifiable truths restrained his scepticism. "Philosophy excites and only half satisfies the appetite for truth; I am eager for mathematics", he wrote to Henriette. Henriette had accepted in the family of Count Zamoyski an engagement more lucrative than her former job. She exercised the strongest influence over her brother.


title: Ernest Renan

text: It was not mathematics but philology which was to settle Renan's gathering doubts. His course completed at Issy, in 1844 he entered the college of St Sulpice in order to take his degree in philology prior to entering the church, and, here, he began the study of Hebrew. He realized that the second part of the "Book of Isaiah" differs from the first not only in style but in date, that the grammar and the history of the "Pentateuch" are later than the time of Moses, and that the "Book of Daniel" is clearly written centuries after the time in which it is set. At night he read the new novels of Victor Hugo; by day, he studied Hebrew and Syriac under Arthur-Marie Le Hir. In October 1845, Renan left St Sulpice for Stanislas, a lay college of the Oratorians. Still feeling too much under the domination of the church, he reluctantly ended the last of his associations with religious life and entered M. Crouzet's school for boys as a teacher.


title: Ernest Renan

text: Renan, educated by priests, was to accept the scientific ideal with an extraordinary expansion of all his faculties. He became ravished by the splendor of the cosmos. At the end of his life, he wrote of Amiel, "The man who has time to keep a private diary has never understood the immensity of the universe." The certitudes of physical and natural science were revealed to Renan in 1846 by the chemist Marcellin Berthelot, then a boy of eighteen, his pupil at M. Crouzet's school. To the day of Renan's death, their friendship continued. Renan was occupied as usher only during evenings. During the daytime, he continued his researches in Semitic philology. In 1847, he obtained the Volney prize, one of the principal distinctions awarded by the Academy of Inscriptions, for the manuscript of his "General History of Semitic Languages." In 1847, he took his degree as "Agrégé de Philosophie" – that is to say, fellow of the university – and was offered a job as master in the "lycée" Vendôme.


title: Ernest Renan

text: In 1856, Renan married in Paris Cornélie Scheffer, daughter of Hendrik Scheffer and niece of Ary Scheffer, both French painters of Dutch descent. They had two children, Ary Renan, born in 1858, who became a painter, and Noémi, born in 1862, who eventually married philologist Yannis Psycharis. In 1863, the American Philosophical Society elected him an international Member.


title: Ernest Renan

text: Within his lifetime, Renan was best known as the author of the enormously popular "Life of Jesus" ("Vie de Jésus", 1863). Renan attributed the idea of the book to his sister, Henriette, with whom he was traveling in Ottoman Syria and Palestine when, struck with a fever, she died suddenly. With only a New Testament and copy of Josephus as references, he began writing. The book was first translated into English in the year of its publication by Charles E. Wilbour and has remained in print for the past 145 years. Renan's "Life of Jesus" was lavished with ironic praise and criticism by Albert Schweitzer in his book "The Quest of the Historical Jesus".


title: Ernest Renan

text: Renan argued Jesus was able to purify himself of "Jewish traits" and that he became an Aryan. His "Life of Jesus" promoted racial ideas and infused race into theology and the person of Jesus; he depicted Jesus as a Galilean who was transformed from a Jew into a Christian, and that Christianity emerged purified of any Jewish influences. The book was based largely on the Gospel of John, and was a scholarly work. It depicted Jesus as a man but not God, and rejected the miracles of the Gospel. Renan believed by humanizing Jesus he was restoring to him a greater dignity. The book's controversial assertions that the life of Jesus should be written like the life of any historic person, and that the Bible could and should be subject to the same critical scrutiny as other historical documents caused controversy and enraged many Christians, and Jews because of its depiction of Judaism as foolish and absurdly illogical and for its insistence that Jesus and Christianity were superior.


title: Ernest Renan

text: Renan was not only a scholar. In his book on St. Paul, as in the Apostles, he shows his concern with the larger social life, his sense of fraternity, and a revival of the democratic sentiment which had inspired "L'Avenir de la Science". In 1869, he presented himself as the candidate of the liberal opposition at the parliamentary election for Meaux. While his temper had become less aristocratic, his liberalism had grown more tolerant. On the eve of its dissolution, Renan was half prepared to accept the Empire, and, had he been elected to the Chamber of Deputies, he would have joined the group of "l'Empire liberal", but he was not elected. A year later, war was declared with Germany; the Empire was abolished, and Napoleon III became an exile. The Franco-Prussian War was a turning-point in Renan's history. Germany had always been to him the asylum of thought and disinterested science. Now, he saw the land of his ideal destroy and ruin the land of his birth; he beheld the German no longer as a priest, but as an invader.