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Saxon people
The Saxon people or Saxons were a large Germanic people located in what is now northwestern Germany and a small section of the eastern Netherlands. It is important to note that the historical Saxons did not inhabit the modern German federal state called Saxony. They are first mentioned by the geographer Ptolemy as a people of southern Jutland and present-day Schleswig-Holstein, hence they appear subsequently to have expanded to the south and west. The word 'Saxon' is believed to be derived from the word seax, meaning a variety of single-edged knife. The Saxons were considered by Charlemagne, and some historians, to be especially war-like and ferocious.
Continental Saxons
A majority of the Saxons remained in continental Europe dwelling in a territory known as Old Saxony. The Anglo-Saxon historian Bede writing around the year 730 remarks that "the old Saxons have no king, but they are governed by several eorldermen (satrapas) who during war cast lots for leadership, but who in time of peace are equal in power". However, the territory appears to have consolidated itself and by the end of the 8th century there was a political entity called the Duchy of Saxony.
The Saxons long avoided becoming Christians (see Ewald the Black) and being incorporated into the orbit of the Frankish kingdom, but were decisively conquered by Charlemagne in a long series of annual campaigns (772 - 804). With defeat came the enforced baptism and conversion of the Saxon leaders and their people. Even their sacred tree, Irminsul, was destroyed.
Under Carolingian rule, the Saxons were reduced to a tributary status. There is evidence that the Saxons, as well as Slavic tributaries like the Abodrites and the Wends, often provided troops to their Carolingian overlords. The dukes of Saxony became kings (Henry I, the Fowler, 919) and later the first Emperors (Henry's son, Otto I, the Great) of Germany during the 10th century, but lost this position in 1024. The duchy was divided up in 1180 when Duke Henry the Lion, Emperor Otto's grandson, refused to follow his cousin, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, into war in Italy.
The region in southeastern Germany known as the Kingdom of Saxony between 1806 to 1918 and the Free State of Saxony after 1990, was not a traditional homeland of the Saxon peoples. This region acquired its name through political circumstances and was originally called the Margrave of Meissen. The rulers of this area acquired control of the Duchy of Saxony in 1423 and eventually applied the name Saxony to the whole of their kingdom. Since then this section of southeastern Germany has been referred to as Saxony (German: Sachsen), a source of many misunderstandings about the original homeland of the Saxons, mostly in the present-day German state of Lower Saxony (German: Niedersachsen).
The label "Saxons" was generally applied to German settlers who migrated during the 13th century to south-eastern Transylvania in present-day Romania, where their descendants numbered a quarter of a million in the early decades of the 20th century. Most have left since World War II, many of them during the 1970s and 1980s due to the Romanianisation policies of the Ceauşescu regime.
Invasion of Britain
A number of Saxons, along with Angles, Jutes, Franks and Frisians, invaded or migrated to the island of Great Britain (Britannia) around the time of the collapse of Roman authority in the west. Saxon "pirates" had been harassing the eastern and southern shores of Britannia for centuries before - prompting the construction of a string of coastal forts called the litora Saxonica or Saxon Shore and many Saxons and other folk had been permitted to settle in these areas as farmers long before the end of Roman rule in Britannia. However, in 449 following a particularly devastating raid in the north from the Picts and their allies the Romano-British administration invited two Jutish warlords - namely Hengist and Horsa - to occupy the island of Thanet in north Kent and act as mercenaries against the Picts at sea. After the Jutes had executed this mission and defeated the Picts they returned with demands for more lands. When this was rejected they rose in revolt and provoked an insurrection amongst all the settled farming folk of Germanic stock with them.
Three separate Saxon Kingdoms emerged
1. The East Saxons: Settled around Colchester, creating the area of Essex.
2. The South Saxons: led by Aelle, created the area of Sussex
3. The West Saxons: led by Cerdic, ruled the Kingdom of Wessex from their capital Winchester.
During the period of Ecbert to Alfred the kings of Wessex emerged as Bretwalda, unifying the country, with the shorter-lived Middlesex eventually became part of the kingdom of England in the face of Danish Viking invasions.
Historians are divided about what followed. Some argue that the takeover of lowland Britain by the Anglo-Saxons was peaceful. However, there is only one known account from a native Briton who lived at this time (Gildas) and his description is anything but:
"For the fire...spread from sea to sea, fed by the hands of our foes in the east, and did not cease, until, destroying the neighbouring towns and lands, it reached the other side of the island, and dipped its red and savage tongue in the western ocean. In these assaults...all the columns were levelled with the ground by the frequent strokes of the battering-ram, all the husbandmen routed, together with their bishops, priests, and people, whilst the sword gleamed, and the flames crackled around them on every side. Lamentable to behold, in the midst of the streets lay the tops of lofty towers, tumbled to the ground, stones of high walls, holy altars, fragments of human bodies, covered with livid clots of coagulated blood, looking as if they had been squeezed together in a press; and with no chance of being buried, save in the ruins of the houses, or in the ravening bellies of wild beasts and birds; with reverence be it spoken for their blessed souls, if, indeed, there were many found who were carried, at that time, into the high heaven by the holy angels...Some, therefore, of the miserable remnant, being taken in the mountains, were murdered in great numbers; others, constrained by famine, came and yielded themselves to be slaves for ever to their foes, running the risk of being instantly slain, which truly was the greatest favour that could be offered them: some others passed beyond the seas with loud lamentations instead of the voice of exhortation...Others, committing the safeguard of their lives, which were in continual jeopardy, to the mountains, precipices, thickly wooded forests, and to the rocks of the seas (albeit with trembling hearts), remained still in their country."
Gildas Sapiens
De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniæ c.560AD
Wars between the native Romano-Britons and the invading Jutes, Saxons and Angles continued for over 400 years with the Britons being gradually driven to and contained in the mountain strongholds of Wales and Scotland.
Collectively the Germanic settlers of Britain, mostly Saxons, Angles and Jutes, came to be called the Anglo-Saxons.
Both Old English and modern Middle Low German are derived from Old Saxon.
Modern remnants of the Saxon name
Since reunification in 1990, three federal states of Germany derive their name from the Saxons: Niedersachsen, or Lower Saxony, whose area corresponds roughly to the traditional Saxon lands between the Netherlands and the Elbe River; Sachsen-Anhalt, or Saxony-Anhalt, located around the city of Magdeburg; and the Free State of Sachsen, or Saxony, which includes the city of Dresden.
In the Finnish and Estonian languages the words that historically applied to ancient Saxons have changed their meaning over the centuries to denote the whole country of Germany (Saksa in both) and the Germans (saksalaiset and sakslased, respectively) now. In some Celtic languages the word for the English nationality is derived from Saxon, e.g. the Scottish term Sassenach, and the Welsh term Sais.
The German-speaking minority in Romania is still referred to as Transylvanian Saxons as well.
External links
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/saxonadvent/saxonadvent.html James Grout: Saxon Advent, part of the Encyclopædia Romana]
Category:Ancient Germanic peoples
Category:Anglo-Saxon England
Category:History of the Germanic peoples
Category:Ethnic groups of Europe
ja:サクソン人
Germanic peoples:This article is about modern Germanic peoples. For the history of Germanic peoples before the middle ages, see Germanic tribes.
Germanic peoples are ethnic groups of Germanic origin, the linguistic, cultural, and racial descendants of the old Germanic tribes.
Groups
The normally used list of present-day Germanic peoples includes:
- Danes
- Dutch
- English
- Flemings
- Frisians
- Germans (including Ethnic Germans in other countries)
- Icelanders
- Norwegians
- People of German ancestry in Austria
- People of German ancestry in Switzerland
- Swedes
- Faroese
- Luxembourgians
- Liechtensteiners
and their cultural descendants around the world, including large groups in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and Afrikaners and Anglo-Saxons of South Africa.
A list of Assimilated Germanics (explained below) includes:
- French
- Italians
- Lowland Scots (including the Scottish Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands)
- Northern Irish
- Spaniards
- Portuguese
- Finnish
Assimilated Germanics
Not every genetic descendant of the old Germanic tribes considers themselves to be Germanic, for the simple reason that all people around the world tend to identify themselves more by their culture than by the combination of their genes.
From the Migrations Period and forth, Germanic peoples are often referred to as quick to assimilate into foreign cultures. Established examples include the Romanized Norsemen in Normandy, and the societal elite in medieval Russia among whom many were the descendants of Slavified Norsemen (a theory, however, contested by some Slavic scholars in the former Soviet Union, who name it the Normanist theory).
The island of Great Britain is similarly considered an example of assimilation, where elements of the Germanic tribes called the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes merged with Celts and French-speaking Norsemen.
Scotland is historically a country of mixed Germanic and Celtic culture and settlement; while the Scottish Highlands and Galloway were until recently more Celtic and akin to Celtic Ireland in its culture and Scottish Gaelic language, the Scottish Lowlands share their culture and language closely with its neighbour to the south and other Germanic peoples, speaking the Scots language. The Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands, though a part of Scotland, were historically Scandinavian in culture, though they no longer speak their native language Norn as an influx of Lallans speaking lowland Scots resulted in its displacement.
Ireland is also a country of mixed Germanic and Celtic culture, but for different reasons than Scotland. As with Scotland, Ireland had much Scandinavian settlement, both in Viking and Anglo-Norman colonies. Through centuries of British dominance, many parts of Ireland gradually developed a character that was more British than native Celtic, particularly in Ulster and Leinster.
France saw a great deal of Germanic settlement, and even its namesake the Franks were a Germanic people. Entire regions of France (such as Alsace, Burgundy and Normandy) were settled heavily by Germanic peoples, contributing to their unique regional cultures and dialects. But most of the languages spoken in France today are Romance languages, while the people have a heavy Gallic substratum that predates Latin and Germanic settlement.
Portugal and Spain also had some measure of Germanic settlement, due to the Visigoths and the Suevi (Quadi and Marcomanni), who settled permanently. The Vandals (Silingi and Hasdingi) were also briefly present, before moving on to North Africa, where they left no trace of Germanic settlement and were absorbed into the local population.
Italy, especially the area north of the city of Rome, has also had a history of heavy Germanic settlement. Germanic tribes such as the Visigoths, Vandals, and Ostrogoths had successfully invaded and sparsely settled Italy in the 5th century AD. Most notably, in the 6th century AD, the Germanic tribe known as the Lombards entered and settled primarily in the area known today as Lombardy.
Problems with the concept
Even though this concept is frequently used, it is inherently problematic. The only straightforward criterion is language, as Germanic languages can be rather easily distinguished from other language groups. Ancestry and racial criteria, by contrast, are rather dubious because of the mixing of the ancient Germanic tribes with other people over the course of history, including the countries where Germanic languages are spoken today, as interbreeding with people not of Germanic origin was usually not prohibited and allowed gene flow throughout Europe.
Cultural criteria are equally unclear: For example, the Germanic peoples of central Europe share many cultural similarities with neighbouring Slavic peoples or Latin peoples (depending on geographic proximity) which they do not share with Scandinavians or inhabitants of the British Isles. The inhabitants of the Alps have many unique cultural traits irrespective of their linguistic adherence.
Some people believe that it is rather aribitrary to group peoples on the basis of the origin of their language with the ancient Germanic tribes (as it is done here), while the last 1500 years of history have influenced their culture to a much larger extent.
External links
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/bloodofthevikings/genetics_results_01.shtml Germanic Roots of Great Britain], A Genetic Study
- [http://www.geocities.com/reginheim/countries.html Present Day Germanic Distribution]
Category:Ethnic groups of Europe
Category:Germanic peoples
Saxony
With an area of 18,413 km² and a population of 4.3 million, the Free State of Saxony (German: Freistaat Sachsen; Sorbian: Swobodny Stata Sakska) is the tenth-largest in area but sixth in population among Germany's sixteen states. Re-established upon Germany's reunification in 1990, it occupies the approximate area of the former kingdom (until 1918) of the same name. Dresden serves as the capital city.
In the early Middle Ages the term Saxony referred to a different region, occupying today's states of Lower Saxony and Bremen and the northern (Westphalian) part of North Rhine-Westphalia. The Saxons had migrated there from the area of present-day Schleswig-Holstein between 250 and 500. See the history section below.
Note that Saxony might not be directly related to every other meaning of word "Saxons"; that is, a Saxon is not necessarily an inhabitant of Saxony (e.g. it can mean also Saxon people or Saxons of Romania). For full disambiguation of the meaning, see Saxon.
Geography
Saxony borders, from the east and clockwise, on Poland, the Czech Republic and the German states of Bavaria, Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg. Its capital is Dresden, and the other principal cities are Leipzig and Chemnitz. Since 1989 the population of the state and its urban centers has diminished because of migration to the former West Germany.
The main axis of Saxony is the Elbe river, crossing the state from southeast to northwest. Another important river, west of the Elbe, is the Mulde. The Neiße river forms the Polish border. The portions in the east of Saxony are the southern parts of the historical region of Lusatia (Lausitz) and are called Upper Lusatia (Oberlausitz); the minority of the Sorbs live in the region, which is bilingual today.
The countryside rises gradually from north to south, culminating in the mountain ranges along the Czech border. The Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge) extend from Bavaria to the Elbe river. The Elbe itself has cut a majestic gorge to pass the mountains of the Elbsandsteingebirge, better known as Saxon Switzerland. Further east the mountains are less high and form a hilly countryside called the Lausitzer Bergland. See also List of places in Saxony.
Saxony is divided into 3 Regierungsbezirke - Chemnitz, Dresden, Leipzig - which are subdivided into 22 districts:
image:Districts_Saxony.png
Furthermore there are seven independent cities, which don't belong to any district:
# Chemnitz (C)
# Dresden (DD)
# Görlitz (GR) (didn't belong to Saxony 1815-1945)
# Hoyerswerda (HY) (decided to accompany Saxony in 1990)
# Leipzig (L)
# Plauen (PL)
# Zwickau (Z)
Economy
Saxony has been observed to have the most vibrant economy among the former GDR states. Its economy grew by 2.1% in 2004, making it the only eastern state to exceed the national average. Nonetheless, unemployment remains high and investment is scarce. Because of these factors, Saxony, along with the rest of the east (excluding Berlin) qualifies as an "Objective 1" development region within the European Union, and thus can receive investment subsidies of up to 30% until 2013. In the interests of encouraging growth, the state government has attempted to develop tourism in the region, notably in the lake district of Lausitz (Economist, Aug. 27, 2005).
History
Main article: History of Saxony
Prehistoric Saxony was the site of some of the largest of the ancient Central European monumental temples, dating from the 5th millennium BC. Notable archeological sites have been discovered in Dresden and the village of Aythra near Leipzig.
For the origins of the Saxon tribes see Saxons.
Foundation of the first Saxon state
The first Duchy of Saxony emerged about 700 AD in today's Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. In the 10th century the dukes of Saxony were at the same time kings (or emperors) of the Holy Roman Empire (Ottonian or Saxon Dynasty). At that time, a Saxon noble family of Billungs received extensive fiefs in Saxony, and the Emperor eventually gave them the title of Duke of Saxony. After the extinction of the male line of Billungs, the duchy was given to Lothar of Supplinburg, who then also became Emperor for a short time.
In 1137 Saxony was passed to the Welfen dynasty, who were descendants (1) of Wulfhild Billung, eldest daughter of the last Billung duke, and (2) of the daughter of Lothar of Supplinburg. It reached its peak under Duke Henry the Lion, and after his death it began to decline (Henry had declined to participate the later Italian wars of his liege lord, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, and those expeditions to Italy ended in disasters. The furious emperor retaliated and sent his troops to end duke Henry's dominion). In 1180 large portions west of the Weser were ceded to the bishops of Cologne, while some central parts between Weser and Elbe remained to Welfs, later forming the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg). The remaining Eastern lands, together with the title of Duke of Saxony, were passed to an Ascanian dynasty (who descended from Eilika Billung, Wulfhild's younger sister) and divided in 1260 into the two small states of Saxony-Lauenburg and Saxony-Wittenberg. Saxony-Lauenburg was later renamed Lauenburg and was no longer part of Saxony or its history. Saxe-Wittenberg was confirmed to have inherited the "main" ducal title of Saxons and as such was recognized as Elector of the Empire in 14th century.
Foundation of the second Saxon state
Saxony-Wittenberg, in present Saxony-Anhalt, became subject to the margravate of Meißen and ruled by the Wettin dynasty) in 1423. A new powerful state was established, occupying large portions of present Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt. Although the center of this state was far southeast of the former Saxony, it came to be referred to as Upper Saxony and then simply Saxony, while the former Saxon territories were now known as Lower Saxony.
In 1485, Saxony was split as a collateral line of the Wettin princes received what later became Thuringia and founded several small states there (see Thuringia). The remaining Saxon state became even more powerful, becoming known in the 18th century for its cultural achievements, although it was politically inferior to Prussia and Austria, which pressed Saxony from either side.
Saxony in the 19th and 20th centuries
With the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Saxony became a kingdom, and Elector Frederick Augustus III became King Frederick Augustus I. Frederick Augustus made the mistake of remaining loyal for too long to Napoleon I, and he was taken prisoner and his territories declared forfeit by the allies in 1813, with the intention of their being annexed by Prussia. Ultimately, the opposition of Austria, France, and Britain resulted in Frederick Augustus being restored to his throne at the Congress of Vienna, but Saxony was forced to cede the northern part of the kingdom to Prussia. These lands became the Prussian province of Saxony, which is today incorporated in Saxony-Anhalt. What was left of the Kingdom of Saxony was roughly identical with the present federal state.
During the 1848-49 constitutionalist revolutions in Germany, Saxony became a hotbed for revolutionaries, with anarchists such as Mikhail Bakunin and democrats including Richard Wagner and Gottfried Semper taking part in the May Uprising in Dresden in 1849.
After 1918 Saxony was a state in the Weimar Republic and was the scene of Gustav Stresemann's overthrow of the KPD/SPD led government in 1923, during the Nazi era and under Soviet occupation. It was dissolved in 1952, and divided into three smaller 'Bezirke' based on Leipzig, Dresden and Karl-Marx-Stadt, but reestablished within slightly altered borders in 1990 upon German reunification. Today Saxony also includes a small part of Silesia around the town of Görlitz which remained German after the war and which for obvious reasons of unviability as a separate state was incorporated into Saxony.
See also:
- Rulers of Saxony
- Ottonian dynasty
- Wettin dynasty
List of minister presidents of Saxony
For earlier rulers, see Rulers of Saxony.
# 1918 - 1919: Richard Lipinski (USPD)
# 1919 - 1920: Georg Gradnauer (SPD)
# 1920 - 1923: Wilhelm Buck (SPD)
# 1923: Erich Zeigner (SPD)
# 1923 - 1924: Alfred Fellisch (SPD)
# 1924 - 1929: Max Heldt (SPD)
# 1929 - 1930: Wilhelm Bünger (DVP)
# 1930 - 1933: Walter Schieck (no party)
# 1933 - 1935: Manfred Freiherr von Killinger (NSDAP)
# 1935 - 1945: Martin Mutschmann (NSDAP)
# 1945 - 1947: Rudolf Friedrichs (SPD, then SED)
# 1947 - 1952: Max Seydewitz (SED)
# 1990 - 2002: Kurt Biedenkopf (CDU)
# since 2002: Georg Milbradt (CDU)
References
- "Still Troubled". The Economist. August 27th-September 2nd, 2005.
External links
- [http://www.sachsen.de/ Official governmental portal]
- [http://www.weihnachtsfreu.de Christmas time in Saxony]
Category:Saxony
Category:States of Germany
Category:Former countries in Europe
ko:작센 주
ja:ザクセン州
simple:Saxony
Ptolemy:This article is about the geographer and astronomer Ptolemy. For Alexander the Great's general, see Ptolemy I Soter. For others named "Ptolemy" or "Ptolemaeus", see Ptolemy (disambiguation).
Ptolemy (disambiguation).]]
Claudius Ptolemaeus (Greek: Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος; ca. 100 – ca. 178), known in English as Ptolemy, was an ancient geographer, astronomer, and astrologer who probably lived and worked in Alexandria, off the coast of Egypt.
Ptolemy was the author of several scientific treatises, two of which have been of continuing importance to later Islamic and European science. One is the astronomical treatise that is now known as the Almagest (in Greek Η μεγάλη Σύνταξις, "The Great Treatise"). (See Ptolemaic system.) The other is the Geography, which is a thorough discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world.
Astronomy
In the Almagest, one of the most influential books of classical antiquity, Ptolemy compiled the astronomical knowledge of the ancient Greek and Babylonian world; he relied mainly on the work of Hipparchus of three centuries earlier. It was preserved, like most of Classical Greek science, in Arabic manuscripts (hence its familiar name) and only made available in Latin translation (by Gerard of Cremona) in the 12th century. Ptolemy formulated a geocentric model that was widely accepted until it was superseded by the heliocentric solar system of Copernicus. Likewise his computational methods (supplemented in the 12th century with the Arabic computational Tables of Toledo) were of sufficient accuracy to satisfy the needs of astronomers, astrologers and navigators, until the time of the great explorations. They were also adopted in the Arab world and in India. The Almagest also contains a star catalogue, which is probably an updated version of a catalogue created by Hipparchus. Its list of forty-eight constellations is ancestral to the modern system of constellations, but unlike the modern system they did not cover the whole sky (only the sky Ptolemy could see).
Geographia
Ptolemy's other main work is his Geographia. This too is a compilation of what was known about the world's geography in the Roman Empire during his time. He relied mainly on the work of an earlier geographer, Marinos of Tyre, and on gazetteers of the Roman and ancient Persian empire, but most of his sources beyond the perimeter of the Empire were unreliable.
The first part of the Geographia is a discussion of the data and of the methods he used. Like with the model of the solar system in the Almagest, Ptolemy put all this information into a grand scheme. He assigned coordinates to all the places and geographic features he knew, in a grid that spanned the globe. Latitude was measured from the equator, as it is today, but Ptolemy preferred to express it as the length of the longest day rather than degrees of arc (the length of the midsummer day increases from 12h to 24h as you go from the equator to the polar circle). He put the meridian of 0 longitude at the most western land he knew, the Canary Islands.
Canary Islands), indicating the countries of "Serica" and "Sinae" (China) at the extreme right, beyond the island of "Taprobane" (Sri Lanka, oversized) and the "Aurea Chersonesus" (Southeast Asian peninsula).]]
Ptolemy also devised and provided instructions on how to create maps both of the whole inhabited world (oikoumenè) and of the Roman provinces. In the second part of the Geographia he provided the necessary topographic lists, and captions for the maps. His oikoumenè spanned 180 degrees of longitude from the Canary islands in the Atlantic Ocean to China, and about 80 degrees of latitude from the Arctic to the East Indies and deep into Africa; Ptolemy was well aware that he knew about only a quarter of the globe.
The maps in surviving manuscripts of Ptolemy's Geographia however, date only from about 1300, after the text was rediscovered by Maximus Planudes.
Maps based on scientific principles had been made since the time of Eratosthenes (3rd century BC), but Ptolemy improved projections. It is known that a world map based on the Geographia was on display in Autun, France in late Roman times. In the 15th century Ptolemy's Geographia began to be printed with engraved maps; an edition printed at Ulm in 1482 was the first one printed north of the Alps. The maps look distorted as compared to modern maps, because Ptolemy's data were inaccurate. One reason is that Ptolemy estimated the size of the Earth as too small: while Eratosthenes found 700 stadia for a degree on the globe, in the Geographia Ptolemy uses 500 stadia. It is not certain if these geographers used the same stadion, but if we assume that they both stuck to the traditional Attic stadion of about 185 meters, then the older estimate is 1/6 too large, and Ptolemy's value is 1/6 too small. Because Ptolemy derived most of his topographic coordinates by converting measured distances to angles, his maps get distorted. So his values for the latitude were in error by up to 2 degrees. For longitude this was even worse, because there was no reliable method to determine geographic longitude; Ptolemy was well aware of this. It remained a problem in geography until the invention of chronometers at the end of the 18th century. It must be added that his original topographic list cannot be reconstructed: the long tables with numbers were transmitted to posterity through copies containing many scribal errors, and people have always been adding or improving the topographic data: this is a testimony to the persistent popularity of this influential work.
In his Optics, a work which survives only in a poor Arabic translation, he writes about properties of light, including reflection, refraction and colour. His other works include Planetary Hypothesis, Planisphaerium and Analemma.
Ptolemy and astrology
Ptolemy's treatise on astrology, the Tetrabiblos, was the most popular astrological work of antiquity and also enjoyed great influence in the Islamic world and the medieval Latin West. The Tetrabiblos is an extensive and continually reprinted treatise on the ancient priciples of astrology in four books (Greek tetra means "four", biblos is "book"). That it did not quite attain the unrivalled status of the Syntaxis was perhaps because it did not cover some popular areas of the subject, particularly horary astrology (interpreting astrological charts for a particular moment to determine the outcome of a course of action to be initiated at that time), electional astrology, and medical astrology.
The great popularity that the Tetrabiblos did possess might be attributed to its nature as an exposition of the art of astrology and as a compendium of astrological lore, rather than as a manual. It speaks in general terms, avoiding illustrations and details of practice. Ptolemy was concerned to defend astrology by defining its limits, compiling astrological data that he believed was reliable and dismissing practices (such as considering the numerological significance of names) that he believed to be without sound basis.
Much of the content of the Tetrabiblos may well have been collected from earlier sources; Ptolemy's achievement was to order his material in a systematic way, showing how the subject could, in his view, be rationalized. It is, indeed, presented as the second part of the study of astronomy of which the Syntaxis was the first, concerned with the influences of the celestial bodies in the sublunar sphere. Thus explanations of a sort are provided for the astrological effects of the planets, based upon their combined effects of heating, cooling, moistening, and drying.
Ptolemy's astrological outlook was quite practical: he thought that astrology was like medicine, that is conjectural, because of the many variable factors to be taken into account: the race, country, and upbringing of an person affects an individual's personality as much if not more than the positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets at the precise moment of their birth, so Ptolemy saw astrology as something to be used in life but in no way relied on entirely.
Ptolemy and music
Ptolemy also wrote an influential work, Harmonics on music theory. After criticizing the approaches of his predecessors, Ptolemy argued for basing musical intervals on mathematical ratios (in contrast to the followers of Aristoxenus) backed up by empirical observation (in contrast to the overly-theoretical approach of the Pythagoreans). He presented his own divisions of the tetrachord and the octave, which he derived with the help of a monochord. Ptolemy's astronomical interests also appeared in a discussion of the music of the spheres.
Named after Ptolemy
- Ptolemaeus crater on the Moon.
- Ptolemaeus crater on Mars.
References
- Berggren, J. Lennart and Jones, Alexander. 2000. Ptolemy's Geography: An Annotated Translation of the Theoretical Chapters. Princeton University Press. Princeton and Oxford. ISBN 0-691-01042-0.
- Stevenson, Edward Luther. Trans. and ed. 1932. Claudius Ptolemy: The Geography. New York Public Library. Reprint: Dover, 1991. (This is the only complete English translation of Ptolemy's most famous work. Unfortunately, it is marred by numerous mistakes and the placenames are given in Latinised forms, rather than in the original Greek).
External links
Primary sources
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Ptolemy/Tetrabiblos/home.html Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos at LacusCurtius] (English translation, with introductory material)
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Periods/Roman/_Texts/Ptolemy/home.html Ptolemy's Geography at LacusCurtius] (English translation, incomplete)
- [http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/III-2-F-b-2/V-1/page/0162.html.ja Extracts of Ptolemy on the country of the Seres (China)] (English translation)
Secondary material
- [http://www.skyscript.co.uk/ptolemy.html Ptolemy at SkyScript] - The Life and Work of Ptolemy
- [http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~ajones/ptolgeog/ Alexander Jones, "Ptolemy and his Geography"]
- [http://obs.nineplanets.org/psc/theman.html Ptolemy biography] (Bill Arnett's site)
- [http://wwwuser.gwdg.de/~fhasele/ptolemaeus/index.html Ptolemy's Geography of Asia] - Selected problems of Ptolemy's Geography of Asia (currently in German)
- [http://www.fiks.de/rom/index.htm?rom10.htm Ptolemy's Geography of Northwestern Europe]
- [http://www.newberry.org/smith/slidesets/ss08.html History of Cartography] including a discussion of the Geographica
- [http://www.csiss.org/classics/content/76 Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy): Representation, Understanding, and Mathematical Labeling of the Spherical Earth]
Ptolemy
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ko:클라우디오스 프톨레마이오스
ja:クラウディオス・プトレマイオス
th:ทอเลมี
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the 16 Bundesländer in Germany. The former English name was Sleswick-Holsatia, the Danish name is Slesvig-Holsten, the Norwegian name is Slesvik-Holstein, the Plattdüütsch name is Sleswig-Holsteen, and the North Frisian name is Slaswik-Holstiinj. Historically the name refers to a larger region, containing present-day Schleswig-Holstein and the county of South Jutland in Denmark.
Geography
Schleswig-Holstein lies on the base of the peninsula of Jutland between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea.
The former Duchy of Holstein constitutes the southern part of Schleswig-Holstein, whereas Southern Schleswig constitutes the northern part. Furthermore the Duchy of Lauenburg and the former Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck in the southeast of the state are part of today's Schleswig-Holstein.
The former Duchy of Schleswig, (Slesvig in Danish), has been divided between Denmark and Germany since 1920. Northern Schleswig, today the Danish county of South Jutland (Sønderjylland), was ceded to Denmark after a referendum following Germany's defeat in World War I.
Schleswig-Holstein borders on Denmark in the north, the North Sea in the west, the Baltic Sea and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in the east, and Lower Saxony and Hamburg in the south. Kiel is the capital of this Bundesland.
In the western part of the state there are lowlands with virtually no hills. The North Frisian Islands, as well as almost all of Schleswig-Holstein's North Sea coast, form Schleswig-Holstein's Mud Flats National Park (Nationalpark Schleswig-Holsteinisches Wattenmeer) which is the largest national park in Central Europe and is unique. Germany's only high-sea island Heligoland is situated further out in the North Sea. The Baltic Sea coast in the east of Schleswig-Holstein is marked by bays, fjords and cliff lines. There are rolling hills (the highest elevation is the Bungsberg at 168 metres) and many lakes, especially in the eastern part of Holstein called the Holsteinische Schweiz ("Switzerland of Holstein") and the Duchy of Lauenburg. Just one island lies off the eastern coast: Fehmarn. The longest river – besides the Elbe – is the Eider; the most important waterway is the Kiel Canal which connects the North Sea and Baltic Sea.
See also List of places in Schleswig-Holstein.
Schleswig-Holstein is divided into eleven Kreise (sg. Kreis; district):
image:sh kreise.jpg
Furthermore there are four independent cities, which do not belong to any district:
# Kiel
# Lübeck
# Neumünster
# Flensburg
Languages
The official languages are German, Plattdüütsch, Danish and Frisian. Plattdüütsch—the classic language of the state—is spoken in most parts of the state, Danish by the Danish minority, Frisian by the North Frisians at the North Sea Coast and the Northern Frisian Islands and a special Frisian dialect called Hallun on the Island of Heligoland. High German was introduced in the 16th century, mainly for official purposes, but is today the most used language, since its use was made compulsory by the Prussian government after 1864.
History
1864
1864
1864
Main article: History of Schleswig-Holstein
The Duchy of Schleswig was originally an integral part of Denmark, but was in medieval times established as a fief under the Kingdom of Denmark, with the same relation to the Danish Crown as for example Brandenburg or Bavaria had to the German Emperor. Saxonic Holstein became a part of the Roman Empire after Charlemagne's Saxonic campaigns in the late 8th century, and was eventually established as a single united province. Holstein had been inherited by the Sovereign Family of Holstein, who were the reigning family since the state's creation, around 800, with the Sovereign as Head of the Royal House. Around 1100 the Duke of Saxony gave Holstein, as it was his own country, to Count Adolf I of Schauenburg, and the Sovereign Family thereby gave up their country to prevent a conflict. Since that time Holstein would become either a duchy or a county. This was the start of a long fight between Denmark and Germany. The Sovereign Family still exists nowadays, however with no rights, but still with the style and titles. His Majesty, Albert Evert I, Sovereign Baron of Holstein is at the moment the sovereign of a state that has not been a sovereign country for centuries.
Schleswig and Holstein have at different times belonged in part or completely to either Denmark or Germany, or have been virtually independent of both nations. Schleswig has almost never been a duchy. The exception is that Schleswig had never been part of Germany until the Second War of Schleswig in 1864. For many centuries, the King of Denmark was both a Danish Duke of Schleswig and a German Duke of Holstein, the Duke of Saxony. The short version is: Schleswig was either integrated into Denmark or was a Danish fief, and Holstein was a German fief and once a sovereign country long ago. Both were for several centuries ruled by the Kings of Denmark. In 1721 all of Schleswig was united as a single duchy under the King of Denmark, and the great powers of Europe confirmed in an international treaty that all future Kings of Denmark should automatically become Duke of Schleswig and Schleswig would consequently always follow the same line of succession as the one chosen in the Kingdom of Denmark.
The German National awakening following the Napoleonic Wars led to a strong popular movement in Holstein and Southern Schleswig for (re-)unification with a new Prussian-dominated Germany. However, this development sparked an equally strong Danish national awakening in Denmark and Northern Schleswig calling for the complete reintegration of Schleswig into the Kingdom of Denmark and demanding an end to discrimination against Danes in Schleswig. In 1848 King Frederick VII of Denmark declared that he would grant Denmark a liberal constitution and the immediate goal for the Danish national movement was to ensure that this Constitution would not only give rights to all Danes, i.e. not only to the Kingdom of Denmark, but also to Danes (and Germans) living in Schleswig. Furthermore, they demanded the protection of the Danish language in Schleswig since the dominant language in almost a quarter of Schleswig had changed from Danish to German since the beginning of the nineteenth century.
A Liberal constitution for Holstein was not seriously considered in Copenhagen since it was a well-known fact that the political elite of Holstein was far more conservative than the one in Copenhagen. This proved to be true, as the politicians of Holstein demanded that the Constitution of Denmark be scrapped – not only in Schleswig but also in Denmark, as well as demanding that Schleswig immediately follow Holstein and become a member of the German Confederation and eventually a part of the new united Germany. These demands were rejected and in 1848 the Germans of Holstein and Southern Schleswig rebelled. This was the beginning of the First War of Schleswig (1848-51) which ended in a Danish victory. Elements of this period were fictionalized in Royal Flash, the second of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman novels.
In 1863 conflict broke out again as King Frederick VII of Denmark died leaving no heir. According to the line of succession of Denmark and Schleswig, the crowns of both Denmark and Schleswig would now pass to Duke Christian of Glücksburg (the future King Christian IX), the crown of Holstein was considered to be more problematic. This decision was challenged by a rival pro-German branch of the Danish royal family, the House of Augustenburg (Danish: Augustenborg) who demanded, as in 1848, the crowns of both Schleswig and Holstein. The passing of a common constitution for Denmark and Schleswig in november 1863 then gave Otto von Bismarck a chance to intervene and Prussia and Austria declared war on Denmark. This was the Second War of Schleswig which ended in a Danish defeat. British attempts to mediate failed, and Denmark lost Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg to Prussia and Austria.
Following the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, section five of the Peace of Prague stated that the people in Northern Schleswig should be granted the right to a referendum on whether they would remain under Prussian rule or return to Danish rule. This promise was never fulfilled by Germany.
Following the defeat of Germany in World War I, the Allied powers arranged a referendum in Northern and Central Schleswig. In Northern Schleswig (10 February 1920) 75 % voted for reunification with Denmark and 25 % voted for Germany. In Central Schleswig (14 March 1920) the results were reversed; 80 % voted for Germany and just 20 % for Denmark, primarily in Flensburg. No vote ever took place in the southern third of Schleswig. On 15 June 1920, Northern Schleswig officially returned to Danish rule. The Danish-German border was the only one of the borders imposed on Germany following World War I which was never challenged by Hitler.
As a matter of trivia, the term "Holstein" derives from the Old Norse and Old Saxon, Holseta Land, meaning simply "Woodland". Originally, it referred to the central of the three Saxon tribes north of the Elbe river, Tedmarsgoi, Holcetae, and Sturmarii. The area of the Holcetae was between the Stör river and Hamburg, after Christianization their main church was in Schenefeld.
The term Schleswig takes its name from the city of Schleswig. The name derives from the Schlei inlet in the east and vik meaning inlet or settlement in Old Saxon and Old Norse.
The Kiel Canal crosses Schleswig-Holstein and allows German shipping to cross from the Baltic to the North Sea without leaving German territory, however its main purpose was to save the 280 nautical miles needed to go around Jutland, north of Denmark. It had a vital role in assisting German commerce and war efforts during the twentieth century.
List of Minister-presidents of Schleswig-Holstein
# 1945 - 1947: Theodor Steltzer
# 1947 - 1949: Hermann Lüdemann
# 1949 - 1950: Bruno Diekmann
# 1950 - 1951: Walter Bartram
# 1951 - 1954: Friedrich-Wilhelm Lübke
# 1954 - 1963: Kai-Uwe von Hassel (CDU)
# 1963 - 1971: Helmut Lemke
# 1971 - 1982: Gerhard Stoltenberg (CDU), see List of Honorary Citizens of Schleswig-Holstein
# 1982 - 1987: Uwe Barschel (CDU)
# 1987 - 1988: Henning Schwarz (CDU)
# 1988 - 1993: Björn Engholm (SPD)
# 1993 - 2005: Heide Simonis (SPD)
# 2005 - : Peter Harry Carstensen (CDU)
External links
- [http://www.schleswig-holstein.de/ Official governmental portal]
- [http://www.numismondo.com/pm/sch/ Schleswig-Holstein Plebiscite Paper Money] - 1919, 1920 Issues
Category:Schleswig-Holstein
Category:States of Germany
als:Schleswig-Holstein
ko:슐레스비히홀슈타인 주
ja:シュレースヴィヒ＝ホルシュタイン州
simple:Schleswig-Holstein
Knife:"Knives" is also an episode of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5; see Knives (Babylon 5).
Knives (Babylon 5) knife]]
A knife is a sharp-edged hand tool used for cutting. A knife usually consists of a blade, commonly less than 12 inches (30cm) in length, attached to a handle. The blade of a knife is usually pointed and may have one or two cutting edges. Knives have been used as tools and weapons since the Stone Age.
The first knives were flint or other rock, chipped or ground to an edge, sometimes with a handle. Later on with advances in smelting and metallurgy the blades were made of bronze, iron, then steel. While the materials have changed over time, the basic design remains the same.
Together with the fork and spoon, the knife has been a common eating utensil in the West since the Middle Ages. In the West, multi-purpose pocket knives are probably the most common knives carried today, and the importance of the knife as a weapon is declining.
Anatomy of a knife
A knife consists of a blade, a tang and a handle. The tang is an extension of the blade into the handle. Some knives have a handguard, so that fingers cannot slip onto the edge and be cut.
A fuller, sometimes called a blood gutter or blood groove, is a groove on the side, along a blade. According to a popular myth, it lets bleeding occur from an artery without removing the knife. In reality, its only function is to make knives and swords lighter while sacrificing little strength; on most knives it has more decorative worth. Additionally, a groove on the blade can reduce surface tension between the blade and the item being cut, thereby allowing easier movement or removal of the blade.
[http://www.agrussell.com/knife_information/knife_encyclopedia/articles/blood_groove.html See 1]
Some knives also have a shoulder in which the blade thickens as it meets the handle. In piercing, this helps keep the knife from jamming, for example in bone. In kitchen knives, it keeps chopped items from moving back toward the hand.
The handle of a knife should be made of a non-slip material. For a large knife, it is desirable that the handle is thick enough that one's fingers just meet one's palm when the knife is gripped tightly. A hole in the end of the handles allows the knife to be hung or placed on a lanyard.
Blades
Materials
Knife blades are usually made of steel; although there are a few knives using materials like high tech ceramic and titanium, these are very uncommon. Stainless steels have gained popularity in the latter half of the twentieth century because they are highly resistant to corrosion (though they can rust under extreme conditions). Tests done by Razor Edge Systems, and described in their book "The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening" indicate that stainless steel knives hold an edge better than regular steels. Stainless and semi-stainless steels include D2, S30V, 154CM, ATS-34, and 440C. Chromium is the major alloying element in stainless steels, giving them the 'stainless' quality.
Steels having high carbon but low chromium content are prone to rust and pitting if not kept dry.
A variety of exotic steels and other materials can be used to form blades. Knife manufacturers such as Spyderco and Benchmade typically use 154CM, VG-10, S30V, and CPM440V (also known as S60V), as well as high-speed high-hardness tool steels like D2 and M2. Other manufacturers sometimes use titanium, cobalt, and cobalt containing alloys. All three are more ductile than typical stainless steels, but have quite a vocal support group despite concerns about health effects of cobalt content. The craft of Damascus steel may be lost, but marketers today misuse its name to apply to pattern welding, which creates layered and admired patterns. The cost of the process restricts it to high-end knives. There is typically more demand for exotic alloys in the utility, outdoor, and tactical or combat knife categories than there is in the kitchen knife category.
Forschner/Victorinox make decent, inexpensive kitchen knives; high-end manufacturers include Wüsthof, Global, Henckels and Böker (Tree Brand). Some manufacturers, particularly of kitchen knives, make ceramic blades; these are harder and stay sharp longer, but because of their brittleness, chip and break more readily.
All knife steel is tempered martensite, which means that a fine-grained crystal structure with lattice irregularities, that make it hard, is formed as it is quenched, changing it from the austenitic structure that it has at high temperature to a hard, but brittle martensitic structure. The blade is then tempered by heating to an intermediate temperature for a period to make it less brittle. Knife steel has fairly low nickel content, because nickel tends to keep steel in the austenitic structure, even when cold. Stainless knife steels are high in carbon, but "carbon steel" means there is not also a lot of chromium.
Stainless steel is steel with very high (12–18%) chromium content. It is corrosion resistant (though knife steel is less so than higher nickel stainless steel) because, except in acid, one of the metals or one of the oxides is always stable. Stainless steel usually has particles of chromium (or other alloy metal) carbides. These explain its reputation for long wear (the carbides are harder than the metal) and for being harder to sharpen and not taking as good an edge as rustable, low alloy ("carbon") steel (the ceramic particles themselves cannot be sharpened easily.) The bulk hardness and toughness of stainless steel tend to be lower than those of low alloy steel.
Vanadium and molybdenum are important alloy metals because they make the gain size smaller, which improves hardness and toughness. Vanadium, and perhaps molybdenum, also increase corrosion resistance.
Shapes
There are a variety of knife blade shapes; some of the most common are listed below.
tempered
(1) A normal blade has a curving edge, and flat back. A dull back lets the wielder use fingers to concentrate force; it also makes the knife heavier and stronger for its size. The curve concentrates force on a small point, making cutting easier. Therefore, the knife can chop as well as pick and slice.
(2) A curved, trailing-point knife has a back edge that curves upward. This lets a lightweight knife have a larger curve on its edge. Such a knife is better for slicing than a normal knife.
(3) A double edged or spey blade has two edges. The idea is to make a blade that cuts in either direction, with a strong sharp point. This shape is primarily used for fighting knives (daggers, bayonets) because it can cut in both directions and point in line with the handle.
tempered
(4) A clip point blade is like a normal blade with the tip "clipped" to make the tip thinner and sharper. The back edge of the clip can have a false edge that can be sharpened to make a second edge. The sharp tip makes the blade exceptional as a pick, or for cutting in tight places. If the false edge is sharpened it increases the knife's effectiveness in piercing. The Bowie has a clipped blade.
(5) A sheepsfoot knife has a straight edge, and a curved dull back. It gives the most control, because the dull back edge is made to be held by fingers. Sheepsfoot knives are good for whittling, including sheep's hooves.
(6) An Americanized tanto style knife is thick towards the point. It is superficially similar to the points on most Japanese long and short swords (katana and wakizashi). The traditional Japanese tanto knife uses the blade geometry of (1). The edge is straight. The point is actually a second edge on the end of the blade, with a total edge angle of 60-80 degrees.
An ulu knife is a sharpened half-circle. This sort of blade is all edge, with no point, and a handle in the middle. It's good for scraping, and sometimes chopping. It is the strongest knife-shape. An example is a head knife, used in leatherworking both to scrape down leather (reducing thickness), and to make precise, rolling cuts to form shapes.
leatherworking
A drop-point blade is very similar to a clip point, but it features the back convexed down, rather than having a clip taken out of it. It handles much like the clip-point.
Types of knives
Knives can be categorized based on either form or function.
Form
Knives exist in several styles:
; Fixed blade knives : A fixed blade is a knife in which the blade does not fold and extends most of the way into the handle. This type of knife is typically stronger and larger than a folding knife. Activities that require a strong blade, such as hunting or fighting, typically rely on a fixed blade. Some famous fixed blade designs include the Ka-bar and Bowie knives.
; Folding knives : A folding knife is one that has a pivot between handle and blade, allowing the blade to fold into the handle. Most folding knives are small working blades, and pocket knives are usually folding knives.
: Some folding knives have a locking mechanism:
:
- The most traditional and commonplace lock is the slip-joint. This is not really a lock at all, and is found most commonly on traditional pocket knives. It consists of a backspring that wedges itself into a notch on the tang on the back of the blade.
:
- The lockback is the simplest true locking knife. It is found on most traditional locking knives. It is like a slip-joint, but the lock consists of a latch rather than a backspring. To disengage, one presses the latch on the spine of the knife down, releasing the tang.
:
- The linerlock is the most common today on knives, especially so-called "tactical" folders. Its main advantage is that it allows one to disengage the lock with one hand. It consists of a liner bent so that when the blade opens, the liner presses against the rear of the tang, preventing it from swinging back. To disengage, you press the liner to the side of the knife from where it is attached to the inside of the scales.
:
- The framelock is a variant of the linerlock, however, instead of using the liner, the frame functions as an actual spring. It is usually much more secure than a liner lock.
:
- There are many other modern locks with various degrees of effectiveness. Most of these are particular to single brands, most notably Benchmade's AXIS™ lock and SpyderCo's Compression™ lock.
: Many folding knives (particularly locking models) have a small knob, or thumb-screw that allows the user to open the knife quickly with one hand.
; Dorsal vs. Ansall: In the middle ages, a dorsal meant a knife with a 'back', or a one-sided knife. An ansall was a two-sided knife, with a blade on both sides. These terms have since fallen out of use.
Function
ansall
In general, knives are either working knives (everyday-use blades), or fighting knives. Some knives, such as the Scottish dirk and Japanese Tanto function in both roles. Many knives are specific to a particular activity or occupation:
:
- A bread knife is a special knife with a longer, serrated blade especially designed for easily cutting all types of bread. The blade is straight with a blunt end. The serrations (teeth) allow it to cut bread using less vertical force, so keeping the bread from being compressed. They also leave fewer crumbs than most other knives.
:
- A hunting knife is normally used to dress large game. It is often a normal, mild curve or a curved and clipped blade.
:
- A scalpel is a medical knife, used to perform surgery. It is one of the sharpest knives available.
:
- A stockman's knife is a very versatile folding knife with three blades: a clip, a spey and a normal. It is one of the most popular folding knives ever made.
:
- A dive knife or diver's knife is adapted for underwater use. [http://www.divedacor.com Dacor] dive knives have tough thermal plastic handles, durable sheaths, and a convenient push-button release, for example.
:
- Utility, or multi-tool knives may contain several blades, as well as other tools such as pliers. Examples include Leatherman, SOG, Gerber, Wenger and Victorinox (The "Swiss Army knife") tools.
:
- An electrician's knife is specially insulated to decrease the chance of shock.
:
- A kukri is a Nepalese fighting and utility knife with a deep forward curve.
kukri
:
- A machete is a long wide blade, used to chop through brush. This tool (larger than most knives, smaller than a sword) depends more on weight than a razor edge for its cutting power.
:
- A parang, bolo or golok is a knife very similar to a machete but heavier and with a blade designed to move the center of gravity further from the hand for increased chopping power in woodier vegetation.
:
- A survival knife is a sturdy knife, sometimes with a hollow handle filled with equipment. In the best hollow-handled knives, both blade and handle are cut from a single piece of steel. The end usually has an O-ring seal to keep water out of the handle. Often a small compass is set in the inside, protected part of the pommel/cap. The pommel may be adapted to pounding or chipping. Recommended equipment for the handle: a compass (usually in the pommel). Monofilament line (for snares, fishing), 12 feet of black nylon thread and two needles, a couple of plastic ties, two barbed and one unbarbed fishhook (unbarbed doubles as a suture needle), butterfly bandages, halizone tablets, waterproof matches.
:
- Special purpose blades may not be made of metal. Plastic, wood and ceramic knives exist. In most applications, these relatively fragile knives are used to avoid easy detection.
:
- Custom-made knives called microtomes are used to cut specimens for microscopy. The sharpest knives ever constructed are probably the ultramicrotomes with diamond edges used to slice samples for electron microscopes.
:
- A boning knife is used for deboning meat, poultry, and fish.
:
- A palette knife is used by artists for tasks such as mixing and applying paint, and in cooking for spreading icing (in the U.S. this knife is refered to as a frosting spatula). Some palette knives have a serrated edge on one side.
For whittling (artistic wood carving) a blade as short as 25mm (1 inch) is common.
Serrations on a blade "saw" through the item being cut and stay sharp for a long time. The points protect the slicing areas from nicks. A good serration pattern will stay sharp several times as long as a straight edge.
The edge is sharpened at different angles for different purposes. 15 to 25 degrees is a good all-around angle. Slicing knives should have sharper angles, down to ten degrees. Chopping knives need blunter angles, out to thirty degrees.
Using knives
"Always cut away from yourself" is the basic adage to keep in mind while using a knife. By extension, assume that the knife is going to slip, and look where the blade would go. In Boy Scout parlance, an area within the radius of the arm and blade length combined is called the "blood circle". When checking the blood circle it is best to hold the knife by the blade, otherwise you defeat the purpose.
Knives offered to another person should always be offered handle first.
A sharp knife is often claimed to be a safer knife. Dull knives lead to excessive use of force to cut materials, increasing the chance that the blade may slip and the force will be transferred to an unintended destination such as the user or another person or object. Also, a dull or damaged knife will inflict a worse wound than a relatively 'clean' cut from a sharp knife. Conversely it can be argued that what is dangerous is not knowing how sharp a knife is and thus how much force to use.
A knife should be kept clean, dry and sharp. Steel blades rust easily, but oiling will prevent pitting due to oxidation and tarnish. Most knives are not intended as pry bars or screwdrivers. Either use is likely to break off the tip of the blade, or to bend or break the knife beyond repair. Most high-quality knives are also tempered very hard, so that they will retain an edge longer. However, this may also make them brittle.
Sharpening
Knives are sharpened by grinding against a hard surface, typically stone. The smaller the angle between the blade and stone, the sharper the knife will be, but the faster it will dull. A guide is very helpful. Very sharp knives sharpen at 12-15 degrees. Typical knives sharpen at 22 degrees. Knives that chop may sharpen at 25 degrees. In general, the harder the material to be cut the higher the angle of the edge. The composition of the stone affects the sharpness of the blade (finer grain produces sharper blades), as does the composition of the blade (some metals take/keep an edge better than others).
Examples of sharpening tools are the clamp-style systems, which use a clamp with several holes with pre-defined angles. The stone is mounted on a rod and is pulled through these holes, so that the angle remains consistent. Another variant is the crock stick setup, where two sticks are put into a plastic or wooden base to form a V shape. When you pull a knife up the V, the angle is held for you, as long as you hold the blade perpendicular to the base.
Remove a wire edge (burr) if one forms during sharpening. Use a slighly steeper angle with very light pressure to do so. If not removed, it will break off in use, and the knife will instantly become dull. An alternate method of removing a wire edge is stroking from side to side on a very fine stone, using light strokes. This will flip the burr back and forth as it is ground off.
To feel for a wire edge, move your thumb lightly across the edge. It should come off with no resistance. If you feel a little bit of pull at the edge or the nail is sightly abraded, you may have a wire burr.
Honing stones (also called whetstones) come with coarse and fine grits and can be hard or soft describing whether the grit comes free. Arkansas is a traditional source for honing stones, which are traditionally (though a poor practice) used with water or honing oil. India is another traditional source for stones.
Ceramic hones are also common, especially for fine grit size.
Water stones (both artificial and natural) come in very fine grits. They are stored in water, and develop a layer of slurry which dulls the edge if you hone the blade as if honing into the stone. Generally, these are more costly than oilstones. Oil is not to be used on these.
Oil is sometimes used to lift the metal dust, called swarf, off the stone. This is generally bad to do during polishing. There are better ways than oil to clean a hone.
Coated hones, which have an abrasive, sometimes diamonds, on a base of plastic or metal are another kind of hone. Rather expensive, are sharpening blocks made with corundum.
Stropping a knife is sometimes a finishing step. This is traditionally done with a leather strap impregnated with abrasive compounds, but can be done on paper, cardstock, or even cloth in a pinch. It will not cut the edge significantly, but produces a very sharp edge with very little metal loss. It is useful when a knife is still sharp, but has lost that 'scary sharp' edge from use.
Other times the final step is done with a steel. This fine process can effect alignment of the edge. Realigning the edge goes a long way in keeping the knife sharp, as often times, a rolled edge will make an otherwise sharp knife dull.
Mechanical consideration of rolled edges
corundum
If a knife is used as a scraper or encounters hard particles in softer materials or is used asymmetrically, there may be a sideways load near the tip. In this case the knife should resist bending or breaking. Making some simplifying assumptions about the forces and the knife edge's ability to resist them may shed some light on ideal sharpening.
Assume the knife is thin and the force is applied at the very edge. Sheets of material are bent by stretching the outside or compressing the inside. Both the area taking the force and the lever arm converting force to torque are proportional to thickness, so the bending resistance is proportional to the square of the thickness. (That explains the strength per weight of aluminum, compared to steel.) If the force is applied at the edge, the bending torque is proportional to the distance from the edge. So, in this case, the ideal cross section is proportional to the square root of the distance from the edge. This is a (microscopic) parabola. This contrasts to the usual practice of trying to sharpen knives to a wedge near the edge. Perhaps this sheds light on the function of razor straps and on the practice of using two angle guides to sharpen a knife.
On the other hand if the type of use cannot be predicted, it may be better to sharpen it to a wedge and let the first use bend the edge to an appropriate curve. A wedge shape has the property called "scale invariance". It has the same relative shape for any depth of cut.
(These thoughts were stimulated by an article posted on rec.woodworking.)
Legal considerations
Carrying knives in public is generally forbidden by law in many countries. Exceptions may be made for hunting knives, and for knives used for work-related purposes (e.g. chef's knives). Automatic knives (switchblades) are almost universally banned from civilian carry if not possession. Balisongs (butterfly knives) are only slightly less stigmatized, and tend to be treated as switchblades by law enforcement agencies. One exception is Austria, where civilian possesion of automatic knives including double-edged automatic OTF ("out The front") daggers is allowed. Most Western European nations are very unfriendly toward all knives other than small pocket knives and similarly small tools, which are nonetheless not allowed on planes or in certain other venues. Even multitools like the SwissTool, Gerber multitools, and Leatherman multitools are often frowned upon, due to their having relatively large blades and/or locking ability.
Even small knives are forbidden on all commercial airliners and are among the illegal imports that may be confiscated at airports by customs staff even if packed in luggage. The knife laws of different countries vary, but are generally strict in Western countries.
In the USA
Knife laws vary tremendously. In Texas, for example, individuals may carry knives openly or concealed so long as they are single-edged, and are not daggers, switchblades, or gravity knives (balisong legality is questionable — there have been convictions). In some other States, fixed-blade knives are banned, open carry is banned, and sometimes concealed carry of anything except pocket knives is banned. Cities have ordinances further restricting these laws; in San Antonio, TX, it is a violation to carry a folding knife having a locking blade. In some metro areas such as Washington, D.C., going into office buildings or museums, or simply loitering, carrying even small 3" folding knives can be problematic. Other restricted areas in the U.S. include court buildings and federal property (the latter of which technically has a limit of 2.5 inch blades).
In the UK
Knife possession is only legislated in public places in private almost any kind of knife may be owned with the exception of automatic knives (flick knives, balisongs, switchblades) which are under any circumstances illegal. In general, knives carried in public places are legally considered to be offensive weapons and the carrier can be charged with "possession of an offensive weapon". It is however legal to carry a knife if there is a bona fide reason to do so (e.g. chefs) or if it is part of a national costume (e.g. sgian dubh) or if it is carried for religious reasons (e.g. Sikhs). A special exception exists for pen knives (pocket knives) which are legal without reason for possession, folding knifes with locking blades are not considered pen knives and are currently a legal "grey area".
Knife modifications
Knives can be sometimes be customised to the user and/or application:
- The handle can be altered in shape (for better grip) or material (to prevent electric shock or burns).
- The surface finish of the blade can be darkened or polished.
Knife superstitions
It is traditionally believed that the giving of a knife as a gift to a friend will cut or sever the relationship. To avoid such ill luck, the receiver should give a coin in return so as to "pay" for the gift. It is common to include a penny, often taped to the blade, with a knife given as a gift which the receiver is to return as "payment."
Further reading
- Everybody's Knife Bible by Don Paul, ISBN 0938263234
External links
- [http://pweb.netcom.com/~brlevine/sta-law.htm Knife Laws of 50 States]
- [http://www.bladeforums.com BladeForums.com: The Leading Edge of Knife Discussion] - The world's largest knife community
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Category:Blade weapons
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Weapon:The following article refers to the instrument of fighting or hunting. For other uses, see Weapon (disambiguation). See military technology and equipment for a comprehensive list of weapons and doctrines.
military technology and equipment and spearpoint.]]
A weapon is a tool which can be used during combat to kill or incapacitate, to destroy property, or to otherwise render resources non-functional or unavailable. It may be used to attack and defend, and consequently also to threaten. The use of weapons has been recorded since the advent of cave painting, and the process has been formulated resulting in both martial arts and strategic doctrines.
Metaphorically, anything used to damage (even psychologically) can be referred to as a weapon. A weapon can be as simple as a club or as complex as an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
History
The weapon is any tool or object that is used to increase the range and power of a human hand. From the earliest traces of mankind up to our modern civilization, weapons have been a facet of human development. Weapons development has accelerated along with other areas of technology in more modern times. In ancient times, from the dawn of humanity through the Classical civilizations of Greece and Rome, weapons were primarily extensions of an individual's strength, essentially making up for the human body's lack of natural weapons such as claws. These weapons allowed the bearer to be substantially more lethal than a similar human without such a weapon.
The Medieval period, including the Middle Ages, marked a period of distinct advancement in weaponry. Due to some of the unique influences of the period, weapons revolved around two major areas. First was that of knights. These horsemen required new weapons, as well as promoting development of weapons to defeat them. Second was that of castles. The building of castles on a large scale necessitated new weapons to help defend and attack them.
The Renaissance marked the beginning of the implementation of combustion based devices in warfare. The most long-lasting effect of this was the introduction of cannon and firearms to the battlefield, where they are still at the core of modern weaponry. However, many other machines of war were experimented with.
From the American Revolution through the beginning of the 20th Century, human-powered weapons were finally excluded from the battlefield for the most part. Sometimes referred to as the Age of Rifles, this period was characterized by the development of firearms for infantry and cannons for support, as well as the beginnings of mechanized weapons such as the machine gun.
World War I marked the entry of fully industrialized warfare, and weapons as well were developed quickly to meet wartime needs. Many new technologies were developed, particularly in the development of military aircraft and vehicles. World War II however, perhaps marked the most frantic period of weapons development in the history of humanity. Massive numbers of new designs and concepts were fielded, and all existing technologies were improved between 1939 and 1945. Ultimately, the most powerful of all invented weapons was the nuclear bomb.
After World War II, with the onset of the Cold War, the constant technological development of new weapons was institutionalized, as participants engaged in a constant race to develop weapons and counter-weapons. This constant state of weapons development continues into the modern era, and remains a constant draw on the resources of most nations.
Ancient Weapons
The basic tasks a weapon must perform have not changed since ancient times. All weapons do one or more of the following:
#Concentrate pressure: the sharp end of a broken stone or pointed stick will apply more pressure, and do more harm, than the blunt end. A material's hardness determines its ability to apply or resist pressure.
#Store energy: an object accumulates kinetic energy as a person accelerates it, and releases this energy in a much shorter time frame upon impact, thus magnifying a person's power.
#Project force: a thrown rock or long stick allow a person to affect an adversary from a distance.
As shown by the preceding examples, even simple items such as rocks and sticks can often serve these functions better than the human body. The usefulness of such tools made their development of paramount importance for a humanity consisting of small, thinly spread, hunter-gatherer communities. The first known traces of weapons are from the stone age with flint knives, handaxes and heads for large darts. There is no evidence for handaxes being thrown, but very good evidence for them having been used to butcher animals. Instead, darts seem to have been a powerful projectile weapon: anthropologists have thrown reconstructed darts through several inches of oak using atlatls. The broad, leaf-shaped heads penetrate deeply, and easily cut arteries.
arteries
Some weapons are probably much older than the dart, although little early evidence for them exists. These include the sling and the spear. Even though these weapons are quite simple, they were a major military weapon at least until Roman times; a unit of fast-moving skirmishers could be equipped with them at ver | | |
