Filmmaking

Filmmaking is the process of making a film, from an initial story idea or commission through scriptwriting, shooting, editing and finally distribution to an audience. Typically it involves a large number of people and can take anywhere between a few months and several years to complete. Filmmaking takes place all over the world in a huge range of economic, social and political contexts, using a variety of technologies and techniques.

Stages of filmmaking

• Filmmaking consists of five main stages:
• Development. The script is written and drafted into a workable blueprint for a film.
• Pre-production. Preparations are made for the shoot, in which cast and crew are hired, locations are selected, and sets are built.
• Production. The raw elements for the finished film are recorded.
• Post-production. The film is edited, sound effects, music and any computer effects are added, and the film is completed.
• Sales and distribution. The film is picked up by a distributor and reaches its audience.

Development

This is the stage where an idea is fleshed out into a viable script. The producer of the movie will find a story, which may come from books, plays, other films, true stories, original ideas, etc. Once the theme, or underlying message, has been identified, a synopsis will be prepared. This is followed by a step outline, which breaks the story down into one-paragraph scenes, concentrating on the dramatic structure. Next, a treatment is prepared. This is a 25 to 30 page description of the story, its mood and characters, with little dialog and stage direction, often containing drawings to help visualize the key points.

The screenplay is then written over a period of several months, and may be rewritten several times to improve the dramatization, clarity, structure, characters, dialogue, and overall style. However, producers often skip the previous steps and develop submitted screenplays which are assessed through a process called script coverage. A film distributor should be contacted at an early stage to assess the likely market and potential financial success of the film. Hollywood distributors will adopt a hard-headed business approach and consider factors such as the film genre, the target audience, the historical success of similar films, the actors who might appear in the film and the potential directors of the film. All these factors imply a certain appeal of the film to a possible audience and hence the number of “bums on seats” during the theatrical release. Films rarely make a profit from the theatrical release alone, therefore DVD sales and worldwide distribution rights need to be taken into account.

The movie pitch is then prepared and presented to potential financiers. If the pitch is successful and the movie is given the “green light”, then financial backing is offered, typically from a major film studio, film council or independent investors. A deal is negotiated and contracts are signed.

Pre-production

In pre-production, the movie is designed and planned. The production company is created and a production office established. The production is storyboarded and visualized with the help of illustrators and concept artists. A production budget will also be drawn up to cost the film.

• The producer will hire a crew. The nature of the film, and the budget, determine the size and type of crew used during filmmaking. Many Hollywood blockbusters employ a cast and crew of thousands while a low-budget, independent film may be made by a skeleton crew of eight or nine. Typical crew positions include
• The director is primarily responsible for the acting in the movie and managing the creative elements.
• The assistant director (AD) manages the shooting schedule and logistics of the production, among other tasks.
• The casting director finds actors for the parts in the script. This normally requires an audition by the actor. Lead actors are carefully chosen and are ften based on the actor’s reputation or “star power.”
• The location manager finds and manages the film locations. Most pictures are shot in the predictable environment of a studio sound stage but occasionally outdoor sequences will call for filming on location.
• The production manager manages the production budget and production schedule. He or she also reports on behalf of the production office to the studio executives or financiers of the film.
• The director of photography (DP or DOP) or cinematographer creates the photography of the film. He or she cooperates with the director, director of audiography (DOA) and AD.
• The art director manages the art department, which makes production sets, costumes and provides makeup & hair styling services.
• The production designer creates the look and feel of the production sets and props, working with the art director to create these elements.
• The storyboard artist creates visual images to help the director and production designer communicate their ideas to the production team.
  The production sound mixer manages the audio experience during the production stage of a film. He or she cooperates with the director, DOP, and AD.
• The sound designer creates new sounds and enhances the aural feel of the film with the help of foley artists.
• The composer creates new music for the film.
• The choreographer creates and coordinates the movement and dance - typically for musicals. Some films also credit a fight choreographer.

Production

Sesame Workshop crews film an improvised segment of Sesame Street, a children’s series, on location in Washington Square Park in New York City.

In production the movie is created and shot. More crew will be recruited at this stage, such as the property master, script supervisor, assistant directors, stills photographer, picture editor, and sound editors. These are just the most common roles in filmmaking; the production office will be free to create any unique blend of roles to suit a particular film.

A typical day’s shooting begins with an assistant director following the shooting schedule for the day. The film set is constructed and the props made ready. The lighting is rigged and the camera and sound recording equipment are set up. At the same time, the actors are wardrobed in their costumes and attend the hair and make-up departments.

The actors rehearse their scripts and blocking with the director. The picture and sound crews then rehearse with the actors. Finally, the action is shot in as many takes as the director wishes.

Each take of a shot follows a slating procedure and is marked on a clapperboard, which helps the editor keep track of the takes in post-production. The clapperboard records the scene, take, director, director of photography, date, and name of the film written on the front, and is displayed for the camera. The clapperboard also serves the necessary function of providing a marker to sync up the film and the sound take. Sound is recorded on a separate apparatus from the film and they must be synched up in post-production.

The director will then decide if the take was acceptable or not. The script supervisor and the sound and camera teams log the take on their respective report sheets. Every report sheet records important technical notes on each take.

When shooting is finished for the scene, the director declares a “wrap.” The crew will “strike,” or dismantle, the set for that scene. The director approves the next day’s shooting schedule and a daily progress report is sent to the production office. This includes the report sheets from continuity, sound, and camera teams. Call sheets are distributed to the cast and crew to tell them when and where to turn up the next shooting day.

For productions using traditional photographic film, the unprocessed negative of the day’s takes are sent to the film laboratory for processing overnight. Once processed, they return from the laboratory as dailies or rushes (film positives) and are viewed in the evening by the director, above the line crew, and, sometimes, the cast. For productions using digital technologies, shots are downloaded and organized on a computer for display as dailies.

When the entire film is in the can, or in the completion of the production phase, the production office normally arranges a wrap party to thank all the cast and crew for their efforts.

Post-production

Here the film is assembled by the film editor. The modern use of video in the filmmaking process has resulted in two workflow variants: one using entirely film, and the other using a mixture of film and video.

In the film workflow, the original camera film (negative) is developed and copied to a one-light workprint (positive) for editing with a mechanical editing machine. An edge code is recorded onto film to locate the position of picture frames. Since the development of non-linear editing systems such as Avid, Quantel or Final Cut Pro, the film workflow is used by very few productions.

In the video workflow, the original camera negative is developed and telecined to video for editing with computer editing software. A timecode is recorded onto video tape to locate the position of picture frames. Production sound is also synced up to the video picture frames during this process.

The first job of the film editor is to build a rough cut taken from sequences (or scenes) based on individual “takes” (shots). The purpose of the rough cut is to select and order the best shots. The next step is to create a fine cut by getting all the shots to flow smoothly in a seamless story. Trimming, the process of shortening scenes by a few minutes, seconds, or even frames, is done during this phase. After the fine cut has been screened and approved by the director and producer, the picture is “locked,” meaning no further changes are made. Next, the editor creates a negative cut list (using edge code) or an edit decision list (using timecode) either manually or automatically. These edit lists identify the source and the picture frame of each shot in the fine cut.

Once the picture is locked, the film passes out of the hands of the editor to the sound department to build up the sound track. The voice recordings are synchronised and the final sound mix is created. The sound mix combines sound effects, background sounds, ADR, dialogue, walla, and music.

The sound track and picture are combined together, resulting in a low quality answer print of the movie. There are now two possible workflows to create the high quality release print depending on the recording medium:
In the film workflow, the cut list that describes the film-based answer print is used to cut the original colour negative (OCN) and create a colour timed copy called the colour master positive or interpositive print. For all subsequent steps this effectively becomes the master copy. The next step is to create a one-light copy called the colour duplicate negative or internegative. It is from this that many copies of the final theatrical release print are made. Copying from the internegative is much simpler than copying from the interpositive directly because it is a one-light process; it also reduces wear-and-tear on the interpositive print.
In the video workflow, the edit decision list that describes the video-based answer print is used to edit the original colour tape (OCT) and create a high quality colour master tape. For all subsequent steps this effectively becomes the master copy. The next step uses a film recorder to read the colour master tape and copy each video frame directly to film to create the final theatrical release print.

Finally the film is previewed, normally by the target audience, and any feedback may result in further shooting or edits to the film.

Distribution

This is the final stage, where the movie is released to cinemas or, occasionally, to DVD, VCD or VHS (though VHS tapes are less common now that more people own DVD players). The movie is duplicated as required for theatrical distribution. Press kits, posters, and other advertising materials are published and the movie is advertised.

The movie will usually be launched with a launch party, press releases, interviews with the press, showings of the film at a press preview, and/or at film festivals. It is also common to create a website to accompany the movie. The movie will play at selected cinemas and the DVD is typically released a few months later. The distribution rights for the film and DVD are also usually sold for worldwide distribution. Any profits are divided between the distributor and the production company.

Independent Filmmaking

Filmmaking also takes place outside of the studio system and is commonly called independent filmmaking. Since the introduction of DV technology, the means of production have become more democratized. Filmmakers can conceivably shoot and edit a movie, create and edit the sound and music, and mix the final cut on a home computer. However, while the means of production may be democratized, financing, distribution, and marketing remain difficult to accomplish outside the traditional system. Most independent filmmakers rely on film festivals to get their films noticed and sold for distribution. However, the Internet has allowed for relatively inexpensive distribution of independent films; many filmmakers post their films online for critique and recognition. Although there is little profitability in this, a filmmaker can still gain exposure via the web.

Film

Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects.

Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment, and a powerful method for educating — or indoctrinating — citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication; some movies have become popular worldwide attractions, by using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue.

Traditional films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to an effect known as persistence of vision — whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers perceive motion due to a psychological effect called beta movement.

The origin of the name “film” comes from the fact that photographic film (also called film stock) has historically been the primary medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for an individual motion picture, including picture, picture show, photo-play, flick, and most commonly, movie. Additional terms for the field in general include the big screen, the silver screen, the cinema, and the movies.

Mechanisms for producing artificially created, two-dimensional images in motion were demonstrated as early as the 1860s, with devices such as the zoetrope and the praxinoscope. These machines were outgrowths of simple optical devices (such as magic lanterns) and would display sequences of still pictures at sufficient speed for the images on the pictures to appear to be moving, a phenomenon called persistence of vision. Naturally, the images needed to be carefully designed to achieve the desired effect — and the underlying principle became the basis for the development of film animation.

With the development of celluloid film for still photography, it became possible to directly capture objects in motion in real time. Early versions of the technology sometimes required a person to look into a viewing machine to see the pictures which were separate paper prints attached to a drum turned by a handcrank. The pictures were shown at a variable speed of about 5 to 10 pictures per second depending on how rapidly the crank was turned. Some of these machines were coin operated. By the 1880s, the development of the motion picture camera allowed the individual component images to be captured and stored on a single reel, and led quickly to the development of a motion picture projector to shine light through the processed and printed film and magnify these “moving picture shows” onto a screen for an entire audience. These reels, so exhibited, came to be known as “motion pictures.” Early motion pictures were static shots that showed an event or action with no editing or other cinematic techniques.

Ignoring Dickson’s early sound experiments (1894), commercial motion pictures were purely visual art through the late 19th century, but these innovative silent films had gained a hold on the public imagination. Around the turn of the twentieth century, films began developing a narrative structure by stringing scenes together to tell narratives. The scenes were later broken up into multiple shots of varying sizes and angles. Other techniques such as camera movement were realized as effective ways to portray a story on film. Rather than leave the audience in silence, theater owners would hire a pianist or organist or a full orchestra to play music fitting the mood of the film at any given moment. By the early 1920s, most films came with a prepared list of sheet music for this purpose, with complete film scores being composed for major productions.

The rise of European cinema was interrupted by the breakout of World War I while the film industry in United States flourished with the rise of Hollywood. However in the 1920s, European filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein, F. W. Murnau, and Fritz Lang, along with American innovator D. W. Griffith and the contributions of Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton and others, continued to advance the medium. In the 1920s, new technology allowed filmmakers to attach to each film a soundtrack of speech, music and sound effects synchronized with the action on the screen. These sound films were initially distinguished by calling them “talking pictures”, or talkies.

The next major step in the development of cinema was the introduction of so-called “natural” color. While the addition of sound quickly eclipsed silent film and theater musicians, color was adopted more gradually as methods evolved making it more practical and cost effective to produce “natural color” films. The public was relatively indifferent to color photography as opposed to black-and-white, but as color processes improved and became as affordable as black-and-white film, more and more movies were filmed in color after the end of World War II, as the industry in America came to view color as essential to attracting audiences in its competition with television, which remained a black-and-white medium until the mid-1960s. By the end of the 1960s, color had become the norm for film makers.

Since the decline of the studio system in the 1960s, the succeeding decades saw changes in the production and style of film. New Hollywood, French New Wave and the rise of film school educated independent filmmakers were all part of the changes the medium experienced in the latter half of the 20th century. Digital technology has been the driving force in change throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century.

Film theory seeks to develop concise, systematic concepts that apply to the study of film as art. It was started by Ricciotto Canudo’s The Birth of the Sixth Art. Formalist film theory, led by Rudolf Arnheim, Bela Balazs, and Siegfried Kracauer, emphasized how film differed from reality, and thus could be considered a valid fine art. Andre Bazin reacted against this theory by arguing that film’s artistic essence lay in its ability to mechanically reproduce reality not in its differences from reality, and this gave rise to realist theory. More recent analysis spurred by Lacan’s psychoanalysis and Ferdinand de Saussure’s semiotics among other things has given rise to psychoanalytical film theory, structuralist film theory, feminist film theory and others.

Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films. In general, these works can be divided into two categories: academic criticism by film scholars and journalistic film criticism that appears regularly in newspapers and other media.

Film critics working for newspapers, magazines, and broadcast media mainly review new releases. Normally they only see any given film once and have only a day or two to formulate opinions. Despite this, critics have an important impact on films, especially those of certain genres. Mass marketed action, horror, and comedy films tend not to be greatly affected by a critic’s overall judgment of a film. The plot summary and description of a film that makes up the majority of any film review can still have an important impact on whether people decide to see a film. For prestige films such as most dramas, the influence of reviews is extremely important. Poor reviews will often doom a film to obscurity and financial loss.

The impact of a reviewer on a given film’s box office performance is a matter of debate. Some claim that movie marketing is now so intense and well financed that reviewers cannot make an impact against it. However, the cataclysmic failure of some heavily-promoted movies which were harshly reviewed, as well as the unexpected success of critically praised independent movies indicates that extreme critical reactions can have considerable influence. Others note that positive film reviews have been shown to spark interest in little-known films. Conversely, there have been several films in which film companies have so little confidence that they refuse to give reviewers an advanced viewing to avoid widespread panning of the film. However, this usually backfires as reviewers are wise to the tactic and warn the public that the film may not be worth seeing and the films often do poorly as a result.

It is argued that journalist film critics should only be known as film reviewers, and true film critics are those who take a more academic approach to films. This line of work is more often known as film theory or film studies. These film critics attempt to come to understand how film and filming techniques work, and what effect they have on people. Rather than having their works published in newspapers or appear on television, their articles are published in scholarly journals, or sometimes in up-market magazines. They also tend to be affiliated with colleges or universities.

Beer

Beer is the world’s oldest and most popular alcoholic beverage. It is produced by the fermentation of sugars derived from starch-based material the most common being malted barley; however, wheat, corn, and rice are also widely used, usually in conjunction with barley. Less widely used starch sources include millet, sorghum and cassava root in Africa, potato in Brazil, and agave in Mexico, among others.

The starch source is steeped in water, along with certain enzymes, to produce a sugary wort which is then flavoured with herbs, fruit or most commonly hops. Yeast is then used to cause fermentation, which produces alcohol and other waste products from anaerobic respiration of the sugars. The process of beer production is called brewing.

Beer uses many varying ingredients, production methods and traditions. The type of yeast and production method may be used to classify beer into ale, lager and spontaneously fermented beers. Some beer writers and organizations differentiate and categorize beers by various factors into beer styles. Alcoholic beverages fermented from non-starch sources such as grape juice (wine) or honey (mead), as well as distilled beverages, are not classified as beer.

Beer is one of the worlds’ oldest beverages, possibly dating back to 6th millennium BCE, and is recorded in the written history of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. The earliest known chemical evidence of beer dates to circa 35003100 BCE. As almost any substance containing carbohydrates, namely sugar or starch, can naturally undergo fermentation, it is likely that beer-like beverages were independently invented among various cultures throughout the world. The invention of bread and beer has been argued to be responsible for humanity’s ability to develop technology and build civilization.

Beer produced before the Industrial Revolution was mainly made and sold on a domestic scale, although by the 7th century CE beer was also being produced and sold by European monasteries. During the Industrial Revolution, the production of beer moved from artisanal manufacture to industrial manufacture, and domestic manufacture ceased to be significant by the end of the nineteenth century. The development of hydrometers and thermometers changed brewing because they allowed the brewer more control of the brewing process and greater knowledge of the results.

Today, the brewing industry is a huge global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries. More than 133 billion liters (35 billion gallons) are sold per year producing total global revenues of $294.5 billion (?147.7 billion) in 2006.

InBev is the largest beer-producing company, followed by SABMiller, which became the second-largest brewing company when South African Breweries acquired Miller Brewing in 2002. Anheuser-Busch holds the third spot.

Beer is made by brewing. The essential stages of brewing are mashing, sparging, boiling, fermentation, and packaging. Most of these stages can be accomplished in several different ways, but the purpose of each stage is the same regardless of the method used to achieve it.

Mashing manipulates the temperature of a mixture of water and a starch source (known as mash) in order to convert starches to fermentable sugars. The mash goes through one or more stages of being raised to a desired temperature and left at the temperature for a period of time. During each of these stages, enzymes (alpha and beta amylase primarily) break down the long dextrins that are present in the mash into simpler fermentable sugars, such as glucose. The number of stages required in mashing depends on the starch source used to produce the beer. Most malted barley used today requires only a single stage.

Sparging (a.k.a. lautering) extracts the fermentable liquid, known as wort, from the mash. During sparging the mash is in a vessel known as a lauter-tun, which has a porous barrier through which wort but not grain can pass. The brewer allows the wort to flow past the porous barrier and collects the wort. The brewer also adds water to the lauter-tun and lets it flow through the mash and collects it as well. This rinses fermentable liquid from the grain in the mash and allows the brewer to gather as much of the fermentable liquid from the mash as possible. The leftover grain is not usually further used in making the beer. However in some places second or even third mashes would be performed with the not quite spent grains. Each run would produce a weaker wort and thus a weaker beer.

Boiling sterilizes the wort and increases the concentration of sugar in the wort. The wort collected from sparging is put in a kettle and boiled, usually for about one hour. During boiling, water in the wort evaporates, but the sugars and other components of the wort remain; this allows more efficient use of the starch sources in the beer. Boiling also destroys any remaining enzymes left over from the mashing stage as well as coagulating proteins passing into the wort, especially from malted barley, which could otherwise cause protein ‘hazes’ in the finished beer. Hops are added during boiling in order to extract bitterness, flavour and aroma from them. Hops may be added at more than one point during the boil. As hops are boiled longer, they contribute more bitterness but less hop flavour and aroma to the beer.

Fermentation uses yeast to turn the sugars in wort to alcohol and carbon dioxide. During fermentation, the wort becomes beer. Once the boiled wort is cooled and in a fermenter, yeast is propagated in the wort and it is left to ferment, which requires a week to months depending on the type of yeast and strength of the beer. In addition to producing alcohol, fine particulate matter suspended in the wort settles during fermentation. Once fermentation is complete, the yeast also settles, leaving the beer clear. Fermentation is sometimes carried out in two stages, primary and secondary. Once most of the alcohol has been produced during primary fermentation, the beer is transferred to a new vessel and allowed a period of secondary fermentation. Secondary fermentation is used when the beer requires long storage before packaging or greater clarity.

Packaging, the fifth and final stage of the brewing process, prepares the beer for distribution and consumption. During packaging, beer is put into the vessel from which it will be served: a keg, cask, can or bottle. Beer is carbonated in its package, either by forcing carbon dioxide into the beer or by “natural carbonation.” Naturally carbonated beers may have a small amount of fresh wort/sugar and/or yeast added to them during packaging. This causes a short period of fermentation which produces carbon dioxide.

The basic ingredients of beer are water; a fermentable starch source, such as malted barley; and yeast. It is common for a flavouring to be added, the most popular being hops. A mixture of starch sources may be used, with the secondary starch source, such as corn, rice and sugar, often being termed an adjunct, especially when used as a lower cost substitute for malted barley.

Water

Beer is composed mostly of water, and water used to make beer nearly always comes from a local source. The mineral components of water are important to beer because minerals in the water influence the character of beer made from it. Different regions have water with different mineral components. As a result, different regions are better suited to making certain types of beer. For example, Dublin has hard water well-suited to making stout, such as Guinness, and Pilzen has soft water well-suited to making pale lager, such as Pilsner Urquell. As a result, it is argued that the mineral components of water have an influence on the character of regional beers.

Starch source

The starch source in a beer provides the fermentable material in a beer and is a key determinant of the character of the beer. The most common starch source used in beer is malted grain. Grain is malted by soaking it in water, allowing it to begin germination, and then drying the partially germinated grain in a kiln. Malting grain produces enzymes that convert starches in the grain into fermentable sugars. Different roasting times and temperatures are used to produce different colours of malt from the same grain. Darker malts will produce darker beers.

Nearly all beer includes barley malt as the majority of the starch. This is because of its fibrous husk, which is important in the sparging stage of brewing, and high concentration of amylase, a digestive enzyme which facilitates conversion of starch into sugars. Other malted and unmalted grains (including wheat, rice, oats, and rye, and less frequently, corn and sorghum) may be used.

Hops

The flower of the hop vine is used as a flavouring and preservative agent in nearly all beer made today. The flowers themselves are often called “hops.” The use of hops in beer was recorded by captive Jews in Babylon around 400 BCE. Hops were used by monastery breweries, such as Corvey in Westphalia, Germany, from 822 CE, though the date normally given for widespread cultivation of hops for use in beer is the thirteenth century.

Hops contain several characteristics that brewers desire in beer: hops contribute a bitterness that balances the sweetness of the malt; hops also contribute floral, citrus, and herbal aromas and flavours to beer; hops have an antibiotic effect that favours the activity of brewer’s yeast over less desirable microorganisms; and the use of hops aids in “head retention”, the length of time that a foamy head created by carbonation will last. The bitterness of beers is measured on the International Bitterness Units scale. Beer is the sole major commercial use of hops.

In the past, other plants have been used for similar purposes; for instance, Glechoma hederacea. Combinations of various aromatic herbs, berries, and even ingredients like wormwood would be combined into a mixture known as gruit and used as hops are now used.

Yeast is the microorganism that is responsible for fermentation in beer. Yeast metabolizes the sugars extracted from grains, which produces alcohol and carbon dioxide, and thereby turns wort into beer. In addition to fermenting the beer, yeast influences the character and flavour. The dominant types of yeast used to make beer are ale yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and lager yeast (Saccharomyces uvarum); their use distinguishes ale and lager. Brettanomyces ferments lambics, and Torulaspora delbrueckii ferments Bavarian weissbier. Before the role of yeast in fermentation was understood, fermentation involved wild or airborne yeasts. A few styles such as lambics rely on this method today, but most modern fermentation adds pure yeast cultures directly to wort.

Some brewers add one or more clarifying agents to beer. Common examples of these include isinglass finings, obtained from swimbladders of fish; kappa carrageenan, derived from seaweed; Irish moss, a type of red algae; polyclar (artificial), and gelatin. Clarifying agents typically precipitate out of the beer along with protein solids, and are found only in trace amounts in the finished product.

A great many beers are brewed across the globe. Local traditions will give beers different names, giving the impression of a multitude of different styles. However, the basics of brewing beer are shared across national and cultural boundaries.

The British beer writer Michael Jackson wrote about beers from around the world in his 1977 book The World Guide To Beer and organised them into local style groups based on local information. This book had an influence on homebrewers in United States who developed an intricate system of categorising beers which is exemplified by the Beer Judge Certification Program.

The traditional European brewing regions Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Denmark, The Netherlands and Austria have local varieties of beer. In some countries, notably the USA, Canada and Australia, brewers have adapted European styles to such an extent that they have effectively created their own indigenous types.

A common method of categorizing beer is by the behaviour of the yeast used in the fermentation process. In this method of categorizing, those beers which use a fast-acting yeast, which leaves behind residual sugars, are termed ales, while those beers which use a slower and longer acting yeast, which removes most of the sugars, leaving a clean and dry beer, are termed lagers.

Differences between some ales and lagers can be difficult to categorise. Steam beer, K?lsch, Alt, and some modern British Golden Summer Beers use elements of both lager and ale production. Baltic Porter and Bi?re de Garde may be produced by either lager or ale methods or a combination of both. However, lager production results in a cleaner tasting, dryer and lighter beer than ale.

A modern ale is commonly defined by the strain of yeast used and the fermenting temperature.

Ales are normally brewed with top-fermenting yeasts (most commonly Saccharomyces cerevisiae) , though a number of British brewers, including Fullers and Weltons, use ale yeast strains that have less pronounced top-fermentation characteristics. The important distinction for ales is that they are fermented at higher temperatures and thus ferment more quickly than lagers.

Ale is typically fermented at temperatures between 15 and 24 C (60 and 75 F). At these temperatures, yeast produces significant amounts of esters and other secondary flavour and aroma products, and the result is often a beer with slightly “fruity” compounds resembling apple, pear, pineapple, banana, plum, or prune, among others. Typical ales have a sweeter, fuller body than lagers.

Lager is the English name for bottom-fermenting beers of Central European origin. They are the most commonly consumed beers in the world. The name comes from the German lagern (”to store”). Lagers originated from European brewers storing beer in cool cellars and caves and noticing that the beers continued to ferment, and also to clear of sediment. Lager yeast is a bottom-fermenting yeast (e.g., Saccharomyces pastorianus), and typically undergoes primary fermentation at 712 C (4555 F) (the “fermentation phase”), and then is given a long secondary fermentation at 04 C (3240 F) (the “lagering phase”). During the secondary stage, the lager clears and mellows. The cooler conditions also inhibit the natural production of esters and other byproducts, resulting in a “cleaner” tasting beer.

Modern methods of producing lager were pioneered by Gabriel Sedlmayr the Younger, who perfected dark brown lagers at the Spaten Brewery in Bavaria, and Anton Dreher, who began brewing a lager, probably of amber-red colour, in Vienna in 18401841. With improved modern yeast strains, most lager breweries use only short periods of cold storage, typically 13 weeks.

Lambic beers, a speciality of Belgian beers, use wild yeasts, rather than cultivated ones. Many of these are not strains of brewer’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), and may have significant differences in aroma and sourness. Yeast varieties such as Brettanomyces bruxellensis and Brettanomyces lambicus are quite common in lambics. In addition, other organisms such as Lactobacillus bacteria produce acids which contribute to the sourness.

The most common colour is a pale amber produced from using pale malts. Pale lager is a term used for beers made from malt dried with coke. Coke had been first used for roasting malt in 1642, but it wasn’t until around 1703 that the term pale ale was first used.

In terms of sales volume, most of today’s beer is based on the pale lager brewed in 1842 in the town of Pilsen, in the Czech Republic. The modern pale lager is light in colour with a noticeable carbonation, and a typical alcohol by volume content of around 5%. The Pilsner Urquell, Bitburger, and Heineken brands of beer are typical examples of pale lager, as are the American brands Budweiser, Coors, and Miller.

Dark beers are usually brewed from a pale malt or lager malt base with a small proportion of darker malt added to achieve the desired shade. Other colourants such as caramel are also widely used to darken beers. Very dark beers, such as stout use dark or patent malts that have been roasted longer. Guinness and similar beers include roasted unmalted barley.

Draught beer from a pressurised keg is the most common method of dispensing in bars around the world. A metal keg is pressurised with carbon dioxide (CO2) gas which drives the beer to the dispensing tap or faucet. Some beers, notably stouts, such as Guinness and “smooth” bitters, such as Boddingtons, may be served with a nitrogen/carbon dioxide mixture. Nitrogen produces fine bubbles, resulting in a dense head and a creamy mouthfeel.

In the 1980s, Guinness introduced the beer widget, a nitrogen pressurised ball inside a can which creates a foamy head. The words “draft” and “draught” can be used as marketing terms to describe canned or bottled beers containing a beer widget, or which are cold filtered rather than pasteurised.

Cask-conditioned ales (or “cask ales”) are unfiltered and unpasteurised beers. These beers are termed “real ale” by the Camra organisation. Typically, when a cask arrives in a pub, it is placed horizontally on a stillage and allowed to cool to cellar temperature (typically around 13 C / 55.4 F), before being tapped and vented a tap is driven through a (usually rubber) bung at the bottom of one end, and a hard spile or other implement is used to open a hole in the side of the cask, which is now uppermost. The act of stillaging and then venting a beer in this manner typically disturbs all the sediment, so it must be left for a suitable period to “drop” (clear) again, as well as to fully condition this period can take anywhere from several hours to several days. At this point the beer is ready to sell, either being pulled through a beer line with a hand pump, or simply being “gravity-fed” directly into the glass.

Most beers are cleared of yeast by filtering when bottled. However, bottle conditioning beers retain some yeast either by being unfiltered, or by being filtered and then reseeded with fresh yeast. It is usually recommended that the beer be poured slowly, leaving any yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottle. However, some drinkers prefer to pour in the yeast; this practice is, in fact, customary with wheat beers. Typically, when serving a hefeweizen, 90% of the contents are poured, and the remainder is swirled to suspend the sediment before pouring it into the glass. Alternately, the bottle is inverted prior to opening.

Many beers are sold in beverage cans, though there is considerable variation in the proportion between different countries. In 2001, in Sweden 63.9% of beer was sold in cans. People either drink from the can or pour the beer into a glass. Cans protect the beer from light and have a seal less prone to leaking over time than bottles. Cans were initially viewed as a technological breakthrough for maintaining the quality of a beer, then became commonly associated with less-expensive, mass-produced beers, even though the quality of storage in cans is much like bottles. Glass bottles are always used for bottle conditioned beers, so are associated with higher-regarded beers. Plastic (PET) bottles are used by some breweries.

The temperature of a beer has an influence on a drinker’s experience. Colder temperatures allow fully attenuated beers such as pale lagers to be enjoyed for their crispness; while warmer temperatures allow the more rounded flavours of an ale or a stout to be perceived. Beer writer Michael Jackson proposes a five-level scale for serving temperatures: well chilled (7 C/45 F) for “light” beers (pale lagers), chilled (8 C/47 F) for Berliner Weisse and other wheat beers, lightly chilled (9 C/48 F) for all dark lagers, altbier and German wheat beers, cellar temperature (13 C/55 F) for regular British ale, stout and most Belgian specialities and room temperature (15.5 C/60 F) for strong dark ales (especially trappist beer) and barley wine.

Beer is drunk from a variety of vessels, such as a glass, a beer stein, a mug, a pewter tankard, a beer bottle or a can. Some drinkers consider that the type of vessel influences their enjoyment of the beer. In Europe, particularly Belgium, breweries offer branded glassware intended only for their own beers.

The pouring process has an influence on a beer’s presentation. The rate of flow from the tap or other serving vessel, tilt of the glass, and position of the pour (in the centre or down the side) into the glass all influence the end result, such as the size and longevity of the head, lacing (the pattern left by the head as it moves down the glass as the beer is drunk), and turbulence of the beer and its release of carbonation.

 

The 5th Annual Canadian Brewing Awards Gala was held this past Wednesday, November 21st at the Dub Linn Gate Irish Pub in Vaughan. Gold, silver and bronze medals (or more accurately, tap handles) were awarded in 21 different beer style categories, with the winners chosen from over 200 beers submitted by breweries from coast to coast.

Locally, the big winner was Mill Street Brewery, who won a total of five medals: one gold, one silver, and three bronze. This was the best medal total of the night, which netted them the Brewery of the Year award. Running a close second was Etobicoke’s Great Lakes Brewing, with four awards, and other Ontario winners included Black Oak, Cameron’s, Magnotta, Muskoka, F&M, Brick, Steelback, Walkerville and Niagara.

Here’s the complete winners list for the 2007 CBAs. (Note that in some categories, less than three beers reached the minimum points threshold in the judging to receive an award, so in those cases only a gold or gold & silver were awarded.)

North American Style Amber Lager
GOLD Red Leaf Smooth Red Lager, Great Lakes
SILVER Harvest Lager, Bushwakker Brewing Co. Ltd
BRONZE J.R. Brickman Amber, Brick Brewing Co.

Bock Traditional German Style
GOLD Copper Bock, Canoe Brewpub

Fruit and Vegetable Beer
GOLD Frambozen, Mill Street Brewery
SILVER Raspberry Wheat, Phillips Brewing Co.
BRONZE Great Lakes Pumpkin Ale, Great Lakes

North American Style Dark Lager
GOLD Steelback Tiverton Dark Lager, Steelback
SILVER Hermann’s Dark Lager, Vancouver Island Brewing
BRONZE Black Jack Black Lager, Great Lakes

Light (Carlorie Reduced) Lager
GOLD Jack Rabbit, Big Rock Brewery
SILVER Moosehead Light, Moosehead Breweries Ltd
BRONZE Steelback Light, Steelback Brewery

Wheat Beer Belgian Style White
GOLD Blanche de Chambly, Unibroue
SILVER Belgian-Style Wit, Mill Street Brewery

Wheat Beer German Style Hefeweizen
GOLD Muskoka Hefewissbier, Lakes of Muskoka Cottage Brewery Inc.
SILVER True North Wunder Weisse, Magnotta

European Style Lager (Pilsner)
GOLD Walkerville Premium Blond, Walkerville Brewing
SILVER Kelowna Pilsner, Tree Brewing
BRONZE Whistler Premium Export Lager, Whistler Brewing

Strong or Belgian Style Ale
GOLD Swans Legacy Ale, Swans Buckerfields Brewery
SILVER St-Ambroise Vintage Ale, McAuslan Brewing
BRONZE Surly Blonde, Phillips Brewing Co.

Cream Ale
GOLD True North Cream Ale, Magnotta Brewery
SILVER Russell Cream Ale, Russell Brewing Co.
BRONZE Cameron’s Cream Ale, Cameron’s Brewing

North American Style Lager
GOLD Muskoka Lager, Lakes of Muskoka Cottage Brewery
SILVER Golden Horseshoe Premium Lager, Great Lakes
BRONZE Cameron’s Lager, Cameron’s Brewing

North American Style Blonde/Golden Ale
GOLD Piper’s Pale Ale, Vancouver Island Brewing
SILVER Griffin Extra Pale Ale, McAuslan Brewing
BRONZE Stock Ale, Mill Street Brewery

Porter
GOLD Black Oak Nutrcracker Porter, Black Oak Brewing Co.
SILVER London Style Porter, Propeller Brewing Co
BRONZE Coffee Porter, Mill Street Brewery

English Style Pale Ale (Bitter)
GOLD Cutthroat Pale Ale, Tree Brewing
SILVER Red Devil Pale Ale, R & B Brewing Co.
BRONZE Black Oak Pale Ale, Black Oak Brewing Co.

India Pale Ale
GOLD Imperial Pale Ale, Garrison Brewing Company
SILVER Amnesiac DBL IPA, Phillips Brewing Co.
BRONZE Hophead India Pale Ale, Tree Brewing

Brown Ale
GOLD Stonehammer Premium Dark Ale, F&M Brewery
SILVER Nut Brown Ale, Garrison Brewing Company
BRONZE Tall Timber Ale, Mt. Begbie Brewing Co.

Scotch Ale
GOLD McAuslan Scotch Ale, McAuslan Brewing
SILVER Swans Scotch Ale, Swans Buckerfields

North American Style Amber/Red Ale
GOLD Blue Buck, Phillips Brewing Co.
SILVER Race Rocks Amber, Lighthouse Brewing Co.
BRONZE (tie) Irish Red Ale, Garrison Brewing Company
BRONZE (tie) Tankhouse Ale, Mill Street Brewery

Stout
GOLD Swans Oatmeal Stout, Swans Buckerfields
SILVER Espresso Stout, Yukon Brewing Company
BRONZE Keepers Stout, Lighthouse Brewing Co.

Wheat Beer North American Style
GOLD Grasshopper, Big Rock Brewery
SILVER Sungod Wheat Ale, R & B Brewing Co.
BRONZE High Country Kolsch, Mt. Begbie Brewing Co.

Honey/Maple Lager or Ale
GOLD Niagara Honey Brown, Niagara Brewing Co.
SILVER Steelback Tiverton Bear Honey Brown, Steelback Brewery
BRONZE J.R. Brickman Honey Red, Brick Brewing Co.

Special Awards
BEER OF THE YEAR, Garrisons Imperial Pale Ale
BREWERY OF THE YEAR, Mill Street Brewery

Orkney’s Dark Island Champion Winter Beer of Scotland

Orkney Brewery’s Dark Island ale has been named Champion Winter Beer of Scotland.

The ale won the accolade at the 21st Aberdeen and North East Beer Festival, organized by the Aberdeen, Grampian and Northern Isles branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).

The 4.6% abv ale has twice won CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Scotland award, while the brewery’s Skullsplitter ale took runner-up spot in the Champion Winter Beer category last year. Orkeny Brewry is operated by Sinclair Breweries.

Norman Sinclair, managing director of Sinclair Breweries, said: “We’re absolutely over the moon to win such a prestigious award. Dark Island has always been extremely popular with customers, but it’s a boost to have it judged independently and see it come out on top like this, beating off some really stiff competition.”

Gorillas

Gorillas, the largest of the living primates, are ground-dwelling omnivores that inhabit the forests of Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and (still under debate as of 2007) either four or five subspecies. Its DNA is 97%98% identical to that of a human, and are the next closest living relatives to humans after the two chimpanzee species.

Gorillas live in tropical or subtropical forests. Although their range covers a small percent of Africa, gorillas cover a wide range of elevations. The Mountain Gorilla inhabits the Albertine Rift montane cloud forests of the Virunga Volcanoes, ranging in altitude from 2225 to 4267 m (7300-14000 ft). Lowland Gorillas live in dense forests and lowland swamps as low as sea level.

The American physician and missionary Thomas Staughton Savage first described the Western Gorilla (he called it Troglodytes gorilla) in 1847 from specimens obtained in Liberia. The name was derived from the Greek word Gorillai (a “tribe of hairy women”) described by Hanno the Navigator, a Carthaginian navigator and possible visitor (circa 480 BC) to the area that later became Sierra Leone.

Until recently there were considered to be three gorilla species: the Western Lowland Gorilla, the Eastern Lowland Gorilla and the Mountain Gorilla. There is now agreement that are two species with two subspecies each. More recently it has been claimed that a third subspecies exists in one of the species.

Primatologists continue to explore the relationships between various gorilla populations. The species and subspecies listed here are the ones upon which most scientists agree.
Genus Gorilla
Western Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla)
Western Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)
Cross River Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli)
Eastern Gorilla (Gorilla beringei)
Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei)
Eastern Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri)

The proposed third subspecies of Gorilla beringei, which has not yet received a full Latin designation, is the Bwindi population of the Mountain Gorilla, sometimes called the Bwindi Gorilla.

Gorillas move around by knuckle-walking. Adult males range in height from 165-175 cm (5 ft 5 in 5 ft 9 in), and in weight from 140200 kg (310440 lb). Adult females are often half the size of a silverback, averaging about 140 cm (4 ft 7 in) tall and 100 kg (220 lb). Occasionally, a silverback of over 183 cm (6 ft) and 225 kg (500 lb) has been recorded in the wild. However, obese gorillas in captivity have reached a weight of 270 kg (600 lb). Gorillas have a facial structure which is described as mandibular prognathism, that is, their mandible protrudes farther out than the maxilla.

Eastern gorillas are darker colored than Western gorillas, with Mountain gorilla being the darkest of all. Mountain gorillas also have the thickest hair. The Western lowland gorilla can be brown or grayish with a reddish forehead. In addition, gorillas that live in lowland forests are more slender and agile than the more bulky Mountain gorilla.

Almost all gorillas share the same blood type (B) and, like humans, have individual finger prints.

A silverback is an adult male gorilla, typically more than 12 years of age and named for the distinctive patch of silver hair on his back. A silverback gorilla has large canine teeth that come with maturity. Black backs are sexually mature males of up to 11 years of age.

Silverbacks are the strong, dominant troop leaders. Each typically leads a troop of 5 to 30 gorillas and is the center of the troop’s attention, making all the decisions, mediating conflicts, determining the movements of the group, leading the others to feeding sites and taking responsibility for the safety and well-being of the troop. Yonger mals called blackbacks may serve as backup protection.

Males will slowly begin to leave their original troop when they are about 11 years old, traveling alone or with a group of other males for 25 years before being able to attract females to form a new group and start breeding. While infant gorillas normally stay with their mother for 34 years, silverbacks will care for weaned young orphans, though never to the extent of carrying the little gorillas.

If challenged by a younger or even by an outsider male, a silverback will scream, beat his chest, break branches, bare his teeth, then charge forward. Sometimes a younger male in the group can take over leadership from an old male. If the leader is killed by disease, accident, fighting or poachers, the group will split up, as the animals disperse to look for a new protective male. Very occasionally, a group might be taken over in its entirety by another male. There is a strong risk that the new male may kill the infants of the dead silverback.

Food and foraging

Gorillas are omnivores, eating fruits, leaves, shoots, and sometimes insects which make up only 12% of their diet. Gorilla spend most of the day eating. Their large sagittal crest and long canines allow them to crush hard plant like bamboo. Lowland gorillas feed mainly on fruit while Mountain gorillas feed mostly on herbs, stems and roots.

Reproduction and lifespan

Gestation is 8? months. There are typically 3 to 4 years between births. Infants stay with their mothers for 34 years. Females mature at 1012 years (earlier in captivity); males at 1113 years. Lifespan is between 3050 years. The Philadelphia Zoo’s Massa set the longevity record of 54 years at the time of his death.

Gorillas are closely related to humans and are considered highly intelligent. A few individuals in captivity, such as Koko, have been taught a subset of sign language (see animal language for a discussion).

Tool use

The following observations were made by a team led by Thomas Breuer of the Wildlife Conservation Society in September 2005. Gorillas are now known to use tools in the wild. A female gorilla in the Nouabal?-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo was recorded using a stick as if to gauge the depth of water whilst crossing a swamp. A second female was seen using a tree stump as a bridge and also as a support whilst fishing in the swamp. This means that all of the great apes are now known to use tools.

In September 2005, a two and a half year old gorilla in the Republic of Congo was discovered using rocks to smash open palm nuts inside a game sanctuary.. While this was the first such observation for a gorilla, over forty years previously chimpanzees had been seen using tools in the wild, famously ‘fishing’ for termites. It is a common tale among native peoples that gorillas have used rocks and sticks to thwart predators, even rebuking large mammals. Great apes are endowed with a semi-precision grip, and certainly have been able to use both simple tools and even weapons, by improvising a club from a convenient fallen branch. With training, in twentieth century carnival and circus acts, chimpanzees have been taught to operate simple motorbikes.

Studies
The word “gorilla” comes from the history of Hanno the Navigator, a Carthaginian explorer on an expedition on the west African coast. They encountered “a savage people, the greater part of whom were women, whose body were hairy, and whom our interpreters called Gorillae” . The word was then later used as the species name, though it is unknown whether what these ancient Cartheginians encountered were truly gorillas, another species of ape or monkeys, or humans.
19th century: The first scientific writings about gorillas dates back to the 1847 Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, where Troglodytes gorilla is described, with a few other species following in the next couple of years.
Early 20th century: The next systematic study was not conducted until the 1920s, when Carl Akely of the American Museum of Natural History traveled to Africa to hunt for an animal to be shot and stuffed. On his first trip he was accompanied by his friends Mary Bradley, a famous mystery writer, and her husband. After their trip, Mary Bradley wrote On the Gorilla Trail. She later became an advocate for the conservation of gorillas and wrote several more books (mainly for children). In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Robert Yerkes and his wife Ava helped further the study of gorillas when they sent Harold Bigham to Africa. Yerkes also wrote a book in 1929 about the great apes.
Mid 20th century: After WWII, George Schaller was one of the first researchers to go into the field and study primates. In 1959, he conducted a systematic study of the Mountain Gorilla in the wild and published his work. Years later, at the behest of Louis Leakey and the National Geographic, Dian Fossey conducted a much longer and more comprehensive study of the Mountain Gorilla. It was not until she published her work that many misconceptions and myths about gorillas were finally disproved, including the myth that gorillas are violent.

Both species of gorilla are endangered, and have been subject to intense poaching for a long time. Threats to gorilla survival include habitat destruction and the bushmeat trade. In 2004 a population of several hundred gorillas in the Odzala National Park, Republic of Congo was essentially wiped out by the Ebola virus.. A 2006 study published in Science concluded that more than 5,000 gorillas may have died in recent outbreaks of the Ebola virus in central Africa. The researchers indicated that in conjunction with commercial hunting of these apes creates “a recipe for rapid ecological extinction” .

Gorillas have been a recurring element of many aspects of popular culture and media for at least the last hundred years. For example, gorillas have featured prominently in monstrous fantasy films like King Kong and pulp novels like Tarzan and Conan have featured gorillas as physical opponents to the titular protagonists.

Famous Gorillas:

Colo - female gorilla - born 22Dec56 to Millie and Baron Macombo (mom/dad). Colo is the first gorilla born in captivity and she’s still living where she was born, in Columbus, Ohio, where she and her ever-expanding family live.

Binti Jua & her daughter, Koola - Binti was born 17Mar88 in Columbus, Ohio to Lulu and Sunshine. After being hand-reared, Binti was finally introduced to other gorillas at Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. There, she kept to herself a lot, since it was difficult getting into the “clique” of Alpha and her daughters, Babs and Aquilina who were there at the time. Even so, Binti eventually met the old silverback, Abe, and had his only offspring, Koola, born 21Feb95. In the summer of 1996 when a little boy fell into the gorilla exhibit, Binti carefully cradled the boy and brought him to the keeper’s door, where she left him so he could be rescued. Binti became world-famous, and she deserves her celebrity, since - like Jambo before her - she helped more people see just how gentle, intelligent and remarkable gorillas really are!

Jambo - silverback gorilla. Jambo is famous for several reasons. He was born 17Apr61 in Basle, Switzerland and was the first baby gorilla in captivity to be raised by his own mother, Achilla (his father was Stephi). Jambo went to the Channel Island of Jersey, where he was a wonderful silverback and father to many offspring, who now reside in zoos virtually all over the world. Before the world knew Binti Jua, Jambo took care of another little boy who fell into his enclosure in the mid 1980’s. Home-video of the huge silverback gently stroking the unconscious little boy’s back were some of the first to show the masses how gentle gorillas really are. Sadly, Jambo died in 1992 and his keeper and best friend, Richard Johnstone-Scott, wrote a wonderfully moving book about his time with this superb silverback.

Koko - female gorilla - Koko is the world-famous “talking” gorilla, who speaks ASL - the sign language of the deaf. Recently she held a live conversation on AOL, using her human companions as translators. We were privileged to meet Koko in 1989, where Jane signed to her “I love gorillas” and Koko immediately signed back “Love gorillas YOU!” which we captured on video tape. Binti Jua is Koko’s niece!

Ivan in Tacoma, WA- silverback gorilla - born in Africa in 1964. Ivan is the famous “shopping mall gorilla” who spent most of his life alone in a shopping mall, without ever seeing another gorilla, until he came to Zoo Atlanta in the fall of 1994. When I took this photo, Ivan was just about to go into quarantine for his trip to Atlanta, and he was in a lot of pain from some dental problems. Even so, Ivan “painted” us a picture and was a very gracious, gorilla’s gorilla.

Ivan in Atlanta - A year later, I saw Ivan who had been sitting behind the rocks, ignoring the public, but came out to get a closer look when I purred and rumbled at him. Did he remember me?? Who knows? On subsequent visits to see Ivan in Atlanta, he usually will stroll out for a look-see, so I’d like to think he at least recognizes me as a friend of gorillas. Ivan is in with 2 female gorillas and in the spring of 1998 he had his first sexual experience, so maybe he’ll become a super dad like Willie B!

Snowflake - silverback WHITE gorilla - born in Africa in 1962 and now living in Barcelona, Spain. Also known as Copito de Nieve and Floquet de Neu, Snowflake is not an albino (or is he? See update below!). Although he has white hair, his eyes are blue, not pink. These photos were taken soon after one of his females had died, so his favorite female, Ndengue stayed nearby. Like many fair-skinned, blue eyed humans, Snowflake squints a lot in the bright sunlight and often people think he is grimacing or angry, which he is not. In fact, we were pleased to see how “normal” he behaved during our visit with him. Snowflake acted like a real gorilla’s gorilla and he’s sired over 20 babies, who have all turned out to be regular dark haired gorillas. Although most of his offspring did not survive, one now lives in Japan. Only one other white gorilla has been reported - seen in the wild as a baby with his/her mother, but s/he soon disappeared and was presumed dead.

On one of your gorilla haven pages, you state: “Snowflake - silverback WHITE gorilla - born in Africa in 1962 and now living in Barcelona, Spain. Also known as Copito de Nieve and Floquet de Neu, Snowflake is not an albino. Although he has white hair, his eyes are blue, not pink.” Actually, MANY albinos have blue eyes. It is an old wive’s tale that albinos must have pink eyes. Blue-eyed albinos are discussed by both the International Albinism Center and the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation, on their web sites.
So I wrote to my friends in Barcelona and got this reply, emailed on August 5th:

Hello Jane,
I am one of the veterinarians from Barcelona Zoo and have taken care of his health for the last 9 years. I got a message regarding albinism in snow fale (or “Copito de Nieve” as we say) from the Primate curator of BZ (Tereas Abello). There was a presentation in the American Association of Veterinary Dermatologist few years ago titled “Albinism in a Gorilla” by Ferrer, Fernandez, Castellels and Fernandez…if you want we can send you a reprint (it is a short communication). We conclude in that paper that snowflake is affected by a oculocutaneous albinism that could be equivalent to Type I-B or yellow albinism in human beings. This seems to be associated with reduced but sufficient levels of residual tyorinase activity to produce small amounts of pigment. His skin is totally white and the membranes are pale pink. hairs are also whiten although in some areas (head and shoulders) they were light yellow creamy. Iris is blue to gray and small amounts of pigment were found in the iridial stroma and in the retina. Pigment was absent in the posterior epithelium and the iris was fully translucent on globe transllumination. I hope this information is useful for your considerings, Regards,

Chicory - silverback gorilla - born 13May85 in New Orleans to mom Fanya and dad BomBom. Chicory came to Brookfield Zoo in Chicago as a youngster where he and Ndume became best buddies during the time I watched them (in the late 1980’s). . Chicory is famous since he had a brain tumor which human specialists operated on successfully in 1994. For some reason when I took this photo, Chicory was housed alone while the other gorillas were in the main exhibit. There was a 4 inch ledge where he could climb and hold onto to get a better view of people or things that interested him - it wasn’t very comfortable, so he couldn’t stay there for long. He hadn’t seen me for a while (and I’ve known him since he was about 3 years old) and he climbed up to sit on the tiny ledge. He’s looking at me almost like he’s asking where I’ve been and “asking” if I know when he is going to be let back in with his group! Sadly Chicory died unexpectedly and inexplicably August 22, 1998 at the age of 13 years. I will confess I am still easily brought to tears thinking about the loss of the potential this wonderful individual had, but I smile when I think of watching him grow from a toddler to a magnificent silverback..

TAXONOMY

Suborder: Anthropoidea
Infraorder: Catarrhini
Superfamily: Hominoidea
Family: Hominidae
Subfamily: Homininae
Genus: Gorilla
Species: beringei, gorilla
Subspecies: G. b. beringei, G. b. graueri, G. g. diehli, G. g. gorilla

Other names: gorilla (Finnish); gorille (French); gorilla (German); gorila (Spanish); bergsgorilla, gorilla, or l?glandsgorilla (Swedish); G. gorilla: western gorilla; G.g. diehli: Cross River gorilla; G.g. gorilla: western lowland gorilla; G. beringei: eastern gorilla; G.b. beringei: Bwindi, mountain, or Virunga; G.b. graueri: eastern lowland gorilla or Grauer’s gorilla
MORPHOLOGY

Western and eastern gorillas are more genetically distant from one another than are chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus) (Butynski 2001). There are few striking physical differences between subspecies of gorilla, though differences in dentition and craniometric analyses reveal distinguishing morphological characteristics of each subspecies (Rowe 1996; Leigh et al. 2003). To some extent, even the inexperienced observer can distinguish the subspecies from one another. Mountain gorillas have significantly longer hair than their conspecifics, while western gorillas have brown, not black, hair on their heads, and eastern gorillas have longer faces and broader chests than western gorillas (Rowe 1996; Nowak 1999). Gorillas have dark brown to black fur and black skin. Dominant adult males, called silverbacks, have a prominent sagittal crest and striking silver coloration from their shoulders to rump. Males and females are sexually dimorphic, with males weighing up to 181 kg (400 lb) in the wild and 227 kg (500 lb) in captivity and measuring, on average, 1700 mm, while females weigh between 72 and 98 kg (159 and 216 lb) and measure, on average, 1500 mm (4.92 ft) (Rowe 1996).

Gorilla gorilla gorilla

Spending the majority of their lives on the ground, the main locomotion pattern of gorillas is quadrupedal knuckle-walking although they do climb and spend limited amounts of time standing bipedally. Because of their sheer size, adult gorillas must climb near the main trunk of a tree or on large branches while juveniles and adolescents are more agile (Tutin et al. 1995; Rowe 1996).

Gorillas live between 30 and 40 years in the wild and up to 50 years in captivity (Stoinski pers. comm.).
RANGE

Gorillas are patchily distributed in east central and equatorial west Africa, separated by the Congo River and its tributaries. Western gorillas (including western lowland and Cross River gorillas) are found in a geographic area of about 709,000 km2 (273,746 mi2) covering parts of Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Angola, and far-western Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Cross River gorillas are found in only a 750 km2 (290 mi2) area in Nigeria and Cameroon, a pocket of land that is isolated from the majority of this region. Eastern gorillas (including mountain and eastern lowland gorillas) are found in portions of eastern DRC, Uganda, and Rwanda, in an area approximately 112,000 km2 (43,243 mi2), though mountain gorillas are restricted to two locations, Virunga Volcanoes where the borders of Uganda, Rwanda, and DRC meet, and Bwindi-Impenetrable National Park, Uganda (Nowak 1999; Butynski 2001; Sarmiento 2003).

Because of their great geographical separation, about 750 km (466 mi), western and eastern gorillas live in dramatically different habitats (Tutin & Vedder 2001). Even within-species habitat variation is quite great, from swamp to montane forest. Eastern gorillas live in submontane and montane forests from 650 to 4000 m (2132 to 13,123 ft)(Butynski 2001; Sarmiento 2003). Mountain gorillas live at the highest elevations, from 2200 to 4000 m (7218 to 13,123 ft), in the Virunga Volcanoes while eastern lowland gorillas occupy submontane forests from 700 to 2900 m (2297 to 9514 ft)(Butynski 2001). Where mountain gorillas exist, there are two rainy and two dry seasons per year, with average rainfall of 2000 mm (6.56 ft) per year (McNeilage 2001). The rainy seasons are from March until May and September to November while the dry seasons are June through August and December through February (McNeilage 2001; Robbins & McNeilage 2003). Temperatures range between 3.9° C (39° F) and 14.5° C (58° F), though they may reach 25.8° C (78.44° F) (Sarmiento 2003). Eastern lowland gorillas live in primary and secondary forests in both highland and lowland forests across their range. They occupy montane, bamboo, and lowland forests at elevations of 600 to 3308 m (1969 to 10,853 ft)(Ilambu 2001). There are two rainy seasons, the first lasting from March to June and the shorter lasting from September to December. There are also two dry seasons, the longer from June to September and the shorter from December until March (Yamagiwa et al. 1996).

Western gorillas live in lowland, swamp, and montane forests from sea level to 1600 m (5249 ft)(Butynski 2001; Sarmiento 2003). As their common name implies, western lowland gorillas live in lowland and swamp forests at elevations up to 1600 m (5249 ft) while Cross River gorillas inhabit low-lying and submontane forests at elevations from 150 to 1600 m (492 to 5249 ft)(Sarmiento 2003). Western lowland gorillas that live in mixed swamp forests experience one rainy and one dry season per year. Average rainfall is 1526 mm (5.01 ft) with the greatest amount of rain falling between August and November and diminishing during December through March (Poulsen & Clark 2004).
ECOLOGY

The considerable dietary differences between mountain, western, and eastern lowland gorillas impact home range size and social behavior. Despite these differences, though, all gorilla groups exhibit synchronized activities and, throughout the day, alternate between rest periods and travel or feeding periods (Stewart 2001). Mountain gorillas are folivores, feeding on leaves, stems, pith, and shoots of terrestrial herbaceous vegetation. They preferentially choose high quality, high protein, low fiber, and low tannin foods from a small number of species and incorporate little fruit into their diets (McNeilage 2001). Where bamboo is available, it is usually favored and they spend much time digging to unearth tender shoots. Because they depend on a readily available, easily accessed food source, there is little competition for resources between groups, their home ranges are small, typically between three and 15 km2 (1.16 and 5.79 mi2), and they move only 500 m (.311 mi) or less within a typical day (McNeilage 2001; Robbins & McNeilage 2003). Though they only utilize a few species in each habitat, mountain gorillas show wide dietary flexibility which enables them to occupy a wide variety of habitats within their range (McNeilage 2001).

The diet of eastern lowland gorillas is more diverse than the mountain gorillas’ and changes seasonally. While leaves and pith are staple parts of their diets, eastern lowland gorillas depend heavily on fruit (25 percent of their total diet), especially during the times of year when fruits are abundant. When they include insects in their diet, eastern lowland gorillas prefer ants (Yamagiwa et al. 1994). Eastern lowland gorillas generally use a small area for a few days and then travel long distances to another area. Eastern lowland gorillas that depend more heavily on fruit must travel farther in a day to find fruiting trees and have larger home ranges because of a relative scarcity of fruit. Their home ranges vary from 2.7 to 6.5 km2 (1.04 to 2.51 mi2) while their day range is between 154 and 2280 m (.096 and 1.42 mi)(Yamagiwa et al. 1996).

Western lowland gorillas have little dependable access to high quality terrestrial herbs across their range, but some areas are rich in aquatic herbs and they do eat herbaceous vegetation. Fruit is widely available, though dispersed, across their range, and is a central component of their diet, especially during times of fruit abundance (Tutin 1996; Doran & McNeilage 2001; Doran et al. 2002). Termites and ants are also important dietary staples. Western lowland gorillas have the largest home ranges and travel the farthest of all gorilla subspecies because of their reliance on fruit. The average distance traveled per day is 1105 m (.687 mi) and western lowland gorillas range over seven to 14 km2 (2.70 to 5.41 mi2) (Tutin 1996).

In some parts of their ranges, gorillas are sympatric with chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and dietary overlap in plant food and fruit is great. Where they occur together, gorillas and chimpanzees also have similar habitat use patterns and ecological competition is likely to occur (Kuroda et al. 1996). Though they share a similar niche, competition has not been recorded at any of the sites where the two apes overlap (McNeilage 2001).

Gorillas are vulnerable to predation by leopards (Panthera pardus), though direct documentation of attacks is difficult to obtain and rare. Evidence from leopard scat in areas where gorillas range is often the only means of confirming leopard predation, though even this is questionable as the large cats could simply be scavenging carcasses (Fay et al. 1995).

Content last modified: October 4, 2005

Written by Kristina Cawthon Lang. Reviewed by Tara Stoinski.

Gorillas Fight Human Invaders Using Weapons

This new discovery may help explain how early man learned to use natural objects as hunting and fighting weapons long ago.

Gorillas in the Cross River section of Cameroon were spotted throwing dirt clumps, stones, and sticks at humans they perceived as invaders. This was the first time the gorilla has been seen using tools aggressively.

Researchers believe that this is how early human ancestors learned to use tools as weapons, possibly against predators. However, they believe that the gorillas could have learned this from humans as well. Humans have thrown stones at the gorillas before, which may be how the animals learned the behavior.

Wildlife Conservation Society team member Jacqueline Sunderland Groves said:

“The area is largely isolated from other gorilla groups, but there are herdsmen on the mountain. In one encounter a group of gorillas threw clumps of grass and soil at the researchers while acting aggressively. Another gorilla threw a branch. A third encounter saw the gorillas throwing soil at a local man who was throwing stones at the apes.”

This observation, coupled with the sighting of a gorilla in the Congo using a stick as a tool to gauge water depth and cross a swamp, suggests the use of tools could have occurred before the evolutionary split of humans from today’s primates.

Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower is an iron tower built on the Champ de Mars beside the River Seine in Paris. The tower has become a global icon of France and is one of the most recognizable structures in the world.

The Parisian landmark is the tallest structure in Paris and one of the most recognized structures in the world and is named after its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel. 6,719,200 people visited the tower in 2006 and more than 200,000,000 since its construction. This makes the tower the most visited paid monument in the world per year. Including the 24 m (79 ft) antenna, the structure is 324 m (1,063 ft) high (since 2000), which is equivalent to about 81 levels in a conventional building.

When the tower was completed in 1889 it replaced the Washington Monument as the world’s tallest structure a title it retained until 1930 when New York City’s Chrysler Building (319 m 1,047 ft tall) was completed. The tower is now the fifth-tallest structure in France and the tallest structure in Paris, with the second-tallest being the Tour Montparnasse (210 m 689 ft), although that will soon be surpassed by Tour AXA (225.11 m 738.36 ft).

The structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tons. Depending on the ambient temperature the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7 in) due to thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun. The tower also sways 6-7 cm (2-3 in) in the wind.

The first and second levels are accessible by stairs and lifts. A ticket booth at the south tower base sells tickets to use the stairs which begin at that location. At the first platform the stairs continue up from the east tower and the third level summit is only accessible by lift. Once you are on the first or second platform the stairs are open for anyone to ascend or descend regardless of whether you have purchased a lift ticket or stair ticket. The actual count of stairs includes 9 steps to the ticket booth at the base, 328 steps to the first level, 340 steps to the second level and 18 steps to the lift platform on the second level. When exiting the lift at the third level 15 more steps exist to ascend to the upper observation platform. The step count is printed periodically on the side of the stairs to give an indication of progress. The majority of the ascent allows for an unhindered view of the area directly beneath and around the tower except during brief stretches of the stairway that are enclosed.

Maintenance of the tower includes applying 50 to 60 tons of three graded tones of paint every seven years to protect it from rust. On occasion the colour of the paint is changed the tower is currently painted a shade of brownish-grey. However, the tower is actually painted three different colours in order to make it look the same colour to an observer on the ground with the colors changing from dark to light from top to bottom. On the first floor there are interactive consoles hosting a poll for the colour to use for a future session of painting. The co-architects of the Eiffel Tower are Emile Nouguier, Maurice Koechlin and Stephen Sauvestre.

The structure was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle, a World’s Fair marking the centennial celebration of the French Revolution. Eiffel originally planned to build it in Canada, for the Universal Exposition of 1888, but they rejected it. The tower was inaugurated on 31 March 1889, and opened on 6 May. Three hundred workers joined together 18,038 pieces of puddled iron (a very pure form of structural iron), using two and a half million rivets, in a structural design by Maurice Koechlin. The risk of accident was great, for unlike modern skyscrapers the tower is an open frame without any intermediate floors except the two platforms. Yet because Eiffel took safety precautions including use of movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died.

The tower was met with resistance from the public when it was built, with many calling it an eyesore. (Novelist Guy de Maupassant who claimed to hate the tower supposedly ate lunch at the Tower’s restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the one place in Paris where you couldn’t see the Tower.) Today, it is widely considered to be a striking piece of structural art.

One of the great Hollywood movie clich?s is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the tower. In reality, since zoning restrictions limit the height of most buildings in Paris to 7 stories, only the very few taller buildings have a clear view of the tower.

Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years, meaning it would have had to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiration of the permit. The military used it to dispatch Parisian taxis to the front line during the First Battle of the Marne, and it therefore became a victory statue of that battle.

At the time the tower was built many people were shocked by its daring shape. Gustave Eiffel was criticised for the design and accused of trying to create something artistic, or inartistic according to the viewer, without regard to engineering. Eiffel and his engineers, as renowned bridge builders however, understood the importance of wind forces and knew that if they were going to build the tallest structure in the world they had to be certain it would withstand the wind. In an interview reported in the newspaper Le Temps, Eiffel said: Now to what phenomenon did I give primary concern in designing the Tower? It was wind resistance. Well then! I hold that the curvature of the monument’s four outer edges, which is as mathematical calculation dictated it should be (…) will give a great impression of strength and beauty, for it will reveal to the eyes of the observer the boldness of the design as a whole.

translated from the French newspaper Le Temps of 14 February 1887

The shape of the tower was therefore determined by mathematical calculation involving wind resistance. Several theories of this mathematical calculation have been proposed over the years, the most recent is a nonlinear integral differential equation based on counterbalancing the wind pressure on any point on the tower with the tension between the construction elements at that point. That shape is exponential.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the tower has been used for radio transmission. Until the 1950s, an occasionally modified set of antenna wires ran from the summit to anchors on the Avenue de Suffren and Champ de Mars. They were connected to long-wave transmitters in small bunkers; in 1909, a permanent underground radio centre was built near the south pillar and still exists today. On 20 November 1913 the Paris Observatory, using the Eiffel Tower as an antenna, exchanged sustained wireless signals with the United States Naval Observatory which used an antenna in Arlington, Virginia.

The object of the transmissions was to measure the difference in longitude between Paris and Washington, DC.

The tower has two restaurants: Altitude 95, on the first floor (95 m, 311 ft, above sea level); and the Jules Verne, an expensive gastronomical restaurant on the second floor, with a private lift. This restaurant has one star in the Michelin Red Guide. In January 2007 a new multi-Michelin star chef Alain Ducasse was brought in to run Jules Verne.

The uppermost observation deck, with a height of 275 metres, is the highest area of an architectural structure in the European Union open for the public.

The passenger lifts from ground level to the first level are operated by cables and pulleys driven by massive water-powered pistons. As they ascend the inclined arc of the legs, the elevator cabins tilt slightly, but with a slight jolt, every few seconds in order to keep the floor nearly level. The elevator works are on display and open to the public in a small museum located in one of the four tower bases, and waiting queues are much shorter than those for the tower ascent.

On 10 September 1889 Thomas Edison visited the tower. He signed the guestbook with the following message To M Eiffel the Engineer the brave builder of so gigantic and original specimen of modern Engineering from one who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu, Thomas Edison.

In 1902, the tower was struck by lightning (see photo below). 100 m (330 ft) of the top had to be reconstructed and the damaged lights illuminating the tower had to be replaced.
Father Theodor Wulf in 1910 took observations of radiant energy radiating at the top and bottom of the tower, discovering at the top more than was expected, and thereby detecting what are today known as cosmic rays.
In 1925, the con artist Victor Lustig twice “sold” the tower for scrap metal.
In 1930, the tower lost the title of the world’s tallest structure when the Chrysler Building was completed in New York City.
From 1925 to 1934, illuminated signs for Citro?n adorned three of the tower’s four sides, making it the tallest advertising space in the world at the time.
Upon the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French so that Adolf Hitler would have to climb the steps to the summit. The parts to repair them were allegedly impossible to obtain because of the war. In 1940 Nazi soldiers had to climb to the top to hoist the swastika, but the flag was so large it blew away just a few hours later, and it was replaced by a smaller one. When visiting Paris, Hitler chose to stay on the ground. It was said that Hitler conquered France, but did not conquer the Eiffel Tower. A Frenchman scaled the tower during the German occupation to hang the French flag. In August 1944, when the Allies were nearing Paris, Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, to demolish the tower along with the rest of the city. Von Choltitz disobeyed the order. The lifts of the Tower were working normally within hours of the Liberation of Paris (!)
On 3 January 1956, a fire damaged the top of the tower.
In 1957 the present radio antenna was added to the top.
In the 1980s an old restaurant and its supporting iron scaffolding midway up the tower was dismantled; it was purchased and reconstructed on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans, Louisiana by entrepreneurs John Onorio and Daniel Bonnot, originally as the Tour Eiffel Restaurant, known more recently as the Red Room. The restaurant was re-assembled from 11,000 pieces that crossed the Atlantic in a 40-feet cargo container.
In 1985’s James Bond action/adventure film A View to a Kill, Sir Roger Moore as James Bond chases May Day played by actress Grace Jones at the Eiffel Tower. She parachuted from the tower. The video of the film’s theme, performed by the group Duran Duran, also included several scenes of the band staged on the tower.
On New Year’s Eve 2000, the Eiffel Tower played host to Paris’ Millennium Celebration. Fireworks exploded from the whole length of the tower in a spectacular display.
In 2000, flashing lights and four high-power searchlights were installed on the tower. Since then the light show has become a nightly event. The searchlights on top of the tower make it a beacon in Paris’ night sky.
The tower received its 200,000,000th guest of all-time in 2002.
At 19:20 on 22 July 2003, a fire occurred at the top of the tower in the broadcasting equipment room. The entire tower was evacuated; the fire was extinguished after 40 minutes, and there were no reports of injuries.
Since 2004, the Eiffel Tower has hosted an ice skating rink on the first floor during the winter period. Skating is free in Paris.

Images of the tower have long been in the public domain; however, in 2003 SNTE (Soci?t? nouvelle d’exploitation de la tour Eiffel) installed a new lighting display on the tower. The effect was to put any night-time image of the tower and its lighting display under copyright. As a result, it was no longer legal to publish contemporary photographs of the tower at night without permission in some countries.

The imposition of copyright has been controversial. The Director of Documentation for SNTE, St?phane Dieu, commented in January 2005, “It is really just a way to manage commercial use of the image, so that it isn’t used in ways we don’t approve.” However, it also potentially has the effect of prohibiting tourist photographs of the tower at night from being published as well as hindering non profit and semi-commercial publication of images of the tower.

In a recent decision, the Court of Cassation ruled that copyright could not be claimed over images including a copyrighted building if the photograph encompassed a larger area. This seems to indicate that SNTE cannot claim copyright on photographs of Paris incorporating the lit tower.

In certain jurisdictions, this claim of copyright is explicitly disallowed. In Irish copyright law, works “permanently situated in a public place or in premises open to the public” may be freely included in visual reproductions.

Eiffel Tower at night

To see Eiffel tower at night is one of the most impressing moments you can enjoy in Paris. It is an immense structure that was built without any practical function like today’s towers usually have (TV broadcasting). It should serve as a city dominant only and show the greatness of French engineering to be memorized throughout the entire world. Eiffel Tower was built officially to celebrate the anniversary of the French revolution and was planed to be a part of the Universal Exhibition (the parent of today’s EXPO). Total costs of the building reached 7.8 million francs, but the admissions of the 1989 exhibition went to the amazing sum of 5,919,884 francs, and thus the tower proved to be not only a great monument, but also a good bargain.
The building process ended on March 31, 1889 with hoisting the French flag to the top, and thus Eiffel Tower is over 117 years old today. The contractor of Eiffel Tower was Gustave Eiffel & Cie and the tower was build under the technical leadership of two engineers: Maurice Koechlin & Emile Nouguier. The main architect was Stephen Sauvestre who began the studies on this tower in 1884 and the construction itself began in 1887. Only 2 years, 2 months, 5 days and 300 workers undertook the building process of such a tower, monumental especially for that century.
Eiffel Tower consists of 18,038 pieces and 2,500,000 rivets with the total weight of the entire metal structure reaching 7,300 tons, but the structure itself has a weight of 10,100 tons. The pure weight of paint layers on this structure is 40 tons and Eiffel tower is constantly being painted over. The height of Eiffel Tower is 324 meters (up to the flagpole, but it varies up to 15 centimeters depending on the air temperature because of the temperature expandability of steel). The maximum sway caused by dilation is 18 centimeters and the one caused by wind is 12 centimeters. Number of steps is also incredible: 1665. The size of base area of Eiffel tower is 10,281.96 square meters. If you want to visit Eiffel Tower, it could be interesting for you, that its coordinates are Latitude - 48?51′32″ North and Longitude - 002?17′45″ East, and you surely will discover it very quickly. The total number of visitors is something more than 225,000,000. It is amazing to see this monument, especially to see Eiffel Tower at night in its full glory and lights.

Industrial Maintenance

Open 365 days a year, welcoming somewhere close to 7 million visitors, the Eiffel Tower resembles a bustling factory behind the scenes!

Utility Goods

The monument depends on the national electrical company, EDF, to meet the Tower demands: 7,500,000 kilowatt hours yearly with 580,000 exclusively for the illuminations. Eighteen transformers handle the flow of current and in case of breakdown, 3 electrical groups will automatically take over. More than 100 bulb models are represented in the 10,000 that light up the Tower illuminations. The electricians must regularly change them, a task that involves climbing the structure itself. The entire installation relies on a network of 80 kilometers of electrical cables. Furthermore, 65,000 square meters of drinking water and 705,000 kilowatt hours of cooling and heating are also necessary annually.

Also, not to be overlooked, is the number of entrance tickets sold each year to visitors, especially since the Tower is the monument the most visited in the world. The Tower consumes 2 tons of paper per year in order to issue the necessary annual number of tickets.

Cleaning

Specialized industrial cleaning teams keep the Tower in tip-top condition. In order to complete their task throughout the year, they use 4 tons of paper or rag wipes, 10,000 doses of detergents, 400 liters of metal cleansers and 25,000 garbage bags.

The Elevators

Three elevators are at the service of visitors to go to the second floor and another four assure the ascension from the second floor to the top level. There is also a utility lift and an elevator reserved exclusively for visitors dining at the prestigious Jules Verne Restaurant.

An essential element of the monument, these elevators travel a distance of more than 103,000 kilometers annually, in other words, two and a half times around the earth!

Each compartment as well as the computer and electrical systems coupled to this historic machinery are overseen with great care: overhauled and repaired, parts replaced and joints greased, and close inspection of the 16 kilometers of cables. The elevators are the subject of constant check-ups by the monument’s technicians, who are also on the site very early each day to start up the systems before the visitors arrive. The host and hostesses are the actual elevator operators.

Security

The Tower is under surveillance 24 hours a day.
In case of fire, the Tower is equipped with 530 detectors, a network of sprinklers and 200 fire extinguishers of all types.
The fire hydrants on the first two floors receive their water from the ground via a column of water, while the top level draws from pressurized reservoirs.

A Career at the Tower

Many are those working with the SETE, the Tower operating company, and varied are their positions. There are the host and hostesses who speak several languages, available to assist the visitors from the four corners of the Earth. Among the technical staff, there are electricians, mechanics, plumbers, painters, locksmiths, computer engineers, carpenters…

The Tower is also home to numerous boutiques with their sellers, a post office, restaurants with their waiters and cooks, security guards, the maintenance team, the administrative employees…

Nikola Tesla Greatest Genius Ever

 

Nikola Tesla symbolizes a unifying force and inspiration for all nations in the name of peace and science. He was a true visionary far ahead of his contemporaries in the field of scientific development. New York State and many other states in the USA proclaimed July 10, Tesla’s birthday- Nikola Tesla Day.

Many United States Congressmen gave speeches in the House of Representatives on July 10, 1990 celebrating the 134th anniversary of scientist-inventor Nikola Tesla. Senator Levine from Michigan spoke in the US Senate on the same occasion.

The street sign “Nikola Tesla Corner” was recently placed on the corner of the 40th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan. There is a large photo of Tesla in the Statue of Liberty Museum. The Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey has a daily science demonstration of the Tesla Coil creating a million volts of electricity before the spectators eyes. Many books were written about Tesla : Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla by John J. O’Neill and Margaret Cheney’s book Tesla: Man out of Time has contributed significantly to his fame. A documentary film Nikola Tesla, The Genius Who Lit the World, produced by the Tesla Memorial Society and the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, The Secret of Nikola Tesla (Orson Welles), BBC Film Masters of the Ionosphere are other tributes to the great genius.

Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 in Smiljan, Lika, which was then part of the Austo-Hungarian Empire, region of Croatia. His father, Milutin Tesla was a Serbian Orthodox Priest and his mother Djuka Mandic was an inventor in her own right of household appliances. Tesla studied at the Realschule, Karlstadt in 1873, the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria and the University of Prague. At first, he intended to specialize in physics and mathematics, but soon he became fascinated with electricity. He began his career as an electrical engineer with a telephone company in Budapest in 1881. It was there, as Tesla was walking with a friend through the city park that the elusive solution to the rotating magnetic field flashed through his mind. With a stick, he drew a diagram in the sand explaining to his friend the principle of the induction motor. Before going to America, Tesla joined Continental Edison Company in Paris where he designed dynamos. While in Strassbourg in 1883, he privately built a prototype of the induction motor and ran it successfully. Unable to interest anyone in Europe in promoting this radical device, Tesla accepted an offer to work for Thomas Edison in New York. His childhood dream was to come to America to harness the power of Niagara Falls.

Young Nikola Tesla came to the United States in 1884 with an introduction letter from Charles Batchelor to Thomas Edison: “I know two great men,” wrote Batchelor, “one is you and the other is this young man.” Tesla spent the next 59 years of his productive life living in New York. Tesla set about improving Edison’s line of dynamos while working in Edison’s lab in New Jersey. It was here that his divergence of opinion with Edison over direct current versus alternating current began. This disagreement climaxed in the war of the currents as Edison fought a losing battle to protect his investment in direct current equipment and facilities.

Tesla pointed out the inefficiency of Edison’s direct current electrical powerhouses that have been build up and down the Atlantic seaboard. The secret, he felt, lay in the use of alternating current ,because to him all energies were cyclic. Why not build generators that would send electrical energy along distribution lines first one way, than another, in multiple waves using the polyphase principle?

Edison’s lamps were weak and inefficient when supplied by direct current. This system had a severe disadvantage in that it could not be transported more than two miles due to its inability to step up to high voltage levels necessary for long distance transmission. Consequently, a direct current power station was required at two mile intervals.

Direct current flows continuously in one direction; alternating current changes direction 50 or 60 times per second and can be stepped up to vary high voltage levels, minimizing power loss across great distances. The future belongs to alternating current.

Nikola Tesla developed polyphase alternating current system of generators, motors and transformers and held 40 basic U.S. patents on the system, which George Westinghouse bought, determined to supply America with the Tesla system. Edison did not want to lose his DC empire, and a bitter war ensued. This was the war of the currents between AC and DC. Tesla -Westinghouse ultimately emerged the victor because AC was a superior technology. It was a war won for the progress of both America and the world.

Tesla introduced his motors and electrical systems in a classic paper, “A New System of Alternating Current Motors and Transformers” which he delivered before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1888. One of the most impressed was the industrialist and inventor George Westinghouse. One day he visited Tesla’s laboratory and was amazed at what he saw. Tesla had constructed a model polyphase system consisting of an alternating current dynamo, step-up and step-down transformers and A.C. motor at the other end. The perfect partnership between Tesla and Westinghouse for the nationwide use of electricity in America had begun.

In February 1882, Tesla discovered the rotating magnetic field, a fundamental principle in physics and the basis of nearly all devices that use alternating current. Tesla brilliantly adapted the principle of rotating magnetic field for the construction of alternating current induction motor and the polyphase system for the generation, transmission, distribution and use of electrical power.

Tesla’s A.C. induction motor is widely used throughout the world in industry

and household appliances. It started the industrial revolution at the turn of the

century. Electricity today is generated transmitted and converted to mechanical

power by means of his inventions. Tesla’s greatest achievement is his polyphase

alternating current system, which is today lighting the entire globe.

Tesla astonished the world by demonstrating. the wonders of alternating current electricity at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Alternating current became standard power in the 20th Century. This accomplishment changed the world. He designed the first hydroelectric powerplant in Niagara Falls in 1895, which was the final victory of alternating current. The achievement was covered widely in the world press, and Tesla was praised as a hero world wide. King Nikola of Montenegro conferred upon him the Order of Danilo.

Tesla was a pioneer in many fields. The Tesla coil, which he invented in 1891, is widely used today in radio and television sets and other electronic equipment. That year also marked the date of Tesla’s United States citizenship. His alternating current induction motor is considered one of the ten greatest discoveries of all time. Among his discoveries are the fluorescent light , laser beam, wireless communications, wireless transmission of electrical energy, remote control, robotics, Tesla’s turbines and vertical take off aircraft. Tesla is the father of the radio and the modern electrical transmissions systems. He registered over 700 patents worldwide. His vision included exploration of solar energy and the power of the sea. He foresaw interplanetary communications and satellites.

The Century Magazine published Tesla’s principles of telegraphy without wires, popularizing scientific lectures given before Franklin Institute in February 1893.

The Electrical Review in 1896 published X-rays of a man, made by Tesla, with X-ray tubes of his own design. They appeared at the same time as when Roentgen announced his discovery of X-rays. Tesla never attempted to proclaim priority. Roentgen congratulated Tesla on his sophisticated X-ray pictures, and Tesla even wrote Roentgen’s name on one of his films. He experimented with shadowgraphs similar to those that later were to be used by Wilhelm Rontgen when he discovered X-rays in 1895. Tesla’s countless experiments included work on a carbon button lamp, on the power of electrical resonance, and on various types of lightning. Tesla invented the special vacuum tube which emitted light to be used in photography.

The breadth of his inventions is demonstrated by his patents for a bladeless steam turbine based on a spiral flow principle. Tesla also patented a pump design to operate at extremely high temperature.

Nikola Tesla patented the basic system of radio in 1896. His published schematic diagrams describing all the basic elements of the radio transmitter which was later used by Marconi.

In 1896 Tesla constructed an instrument to receive radio waves. He experimented with this device and transmitted radio waves from his laboratory on South 5th Avenue. to the Gerlach Hotel at 27th Street in Manhattan. The device had a magnet which gave off intense magnetic fields up to 20,000 lines per centimeter. The radio device clearly establishes his piority in the discovery of radio.

The shipboard quench-spark transmitter produced by the Lowenstein Radio Company and licensed under Nikola Tesla Company patents, was installed on the U.S. Naval vessels prior to World War I.

In December 1901, Marconi established wireless communication between Britain and the United States earning him the Nobel prize in 1909. But much of Marconi’s work was not original. In 1864, James Maxwell theorized electromagnetic waves. In 1887, Heinrich Hertz proved Maxwell’s theories. Later, Sir Oliver Logde extended the Hertz prototype system. The Brandley coherer increased the distance messages could be transmitted. The coherer was perfected by Marconi.

However, the heart of radio transmission is based upon four tuned circuits for transmitting and receiving. It is Tesla’s original concept demonstrated in his famous lecture at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in 1893. The four circuits, used in two pairs, are still a fundamental part of all radio and television equipment.

The United States Supreme Court, in 1943 held Marconi’s most important patent invalid, recognizing Tesla’s more significant contribution as the inventor of radio technology.

Tesla built an experimental station in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1899, to experiment with high voltage, high frequency electricity and other phenomena.

When the Colorado Springs Tesla Coil magnifying transmitter was energized, it created sparks 30 feet long. From the outside antenna, these sparks could be seen from a distance of ten miles. From this laboratory, Tesla generated and sent out wireless waves which mediated energy, without wires for miles.

In Colorado Springs, where he stayed from May 1899 until 1900, Tesla made what he regarded as his most important discovery– terrestrial stationary waves. By this discovery he proved that the Earth could be used as a conductor and would be as responsive as a tuning fork to electrical vibrations of a certain frequency. He also lighted 200 lamps without wires from a distance of 25 miles( 40 kilometers) and created man-made lightning. At one time he was certain he had received signals from another planet in his Colorado laboratory, a claim that was met with disbelief in some scientific journals.

The old Waldorf Astoria was the residence of Nikola Tesla for many years. He lived there when he was at the height of financial and intellectual power. Tesla organized elaborate dinners, inviting famous people who later witnessed spectacular electrical experiments in his laboratory.

Financially supported by J. Pierpont Morgan, Tesla built the Wardenclyffe laboratory and its famous transmitting tower in Shoreham, Long Island between 1901 and 1905. This huge landmark was 187 feet high, capped by a 68-foot copper dome which housed the magnifying transmitter. It was planned to be the first broadcast system, transmitting both signals and power without wires to any point on the globe. The huge magnifying transmitter, discharging high frequency electricity, would turn the earth into a gigantic dynamo which would project its electricity in unlimited amounts anywhere in the world.

Tesla’s concept of wireless electricity was used to power ocean liners, destroy warships, run industry and transportation and send communications instantaneously all over the globe. To stimulate the public’s imagination, Tesla suggested that this wireless power could even be used for interplanetary communication. If Tesla were confident to reach Mars, how much less difficult to reach Paris. Many newspapers and periodicals interviewed Tesla and described his new system for supplying wireless power to run all of the earth’s industry.

Because of a dispute between Morgan and Tesla as to the final use of the tower. Morgan withdrew his funds. The financier’s classic comment was, “If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the meter?”

The erected, but incomplete tower was demolished in 1917 for wartime security reasons. The site where the Wardenclyffe tower stood still exists with its 100 feet deep foundation still intact. Tesla’s laboratory designed by Stanford White in 1901 is today still in good condition and is graced with a bicentennial plaque.

Tesla lectured to the scientific community on his inventions in New York, Philadelphia and St. Louis and before scientific organizations in both England and France in 1892. Tesla’s lectures and writings of the 1890s aroused wide admiration among contemporaries popularized his inventions and inspired untold numbers of younger men to enter the new field of radio and electrical science.

Nikola Tesla was one of the most celebrated personalities in the American press, in this century. According to Life Magazine’s special issue of September, 1997, Tesla is among the 100 most famous people of the last 1,000 years. He is one of the great men who divert the stream of human history. Tesla’s celebrity was in its height at the turn of the century. His discoveries, inventions and vision had widespread acceptance by the public, the scientific community and American press. Tesla’s discoveries had extensive coverage in the scientific journals, the daily and weekly press as well as in the foremost literary and intellectual publications of the day. He was the Super Star.

Tesla wrote many autobiographical articles for the prominent journal Electrical Experimenter, collected in the book, My Inventions. Tesla was gifted with intense powers of visualization and exceptional memory from early youth on. He was able to fully construct, develop and perfect his inventions completely in his mind before committing them to paper.

According to Hugo Gernsback, Tesla was possessed of a striking physical appearance over six feet tall with deep set eyes and a stately manner. His impressions of Tesla, were of a man endowed with remarkable physical and mental freshness, ready to surprise the world with more and more inventions as he grew older. A lifelong bachelor he led a somewhat isolated existence, devoting his full energies to science.

In 1894, he was given honorary doctoral degrees by Columbia and Yale University and the Elliot Cresson medal by the Franklin Institute. In 1934, the city of Philadelphia awarded him the John Scott medal for his polyphase power system. He was an honorary member of the National Electric Light Association and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. On one occasion, he turned down an invitation from Kaiser Wilhelm II to come to Germany to demonstrate his experiments and to receive a high decoration.

In 1915, a New York Times article announced that Tesla and Edison were to share the Nobel Prize for physics. Oddly, neither man received the prize, the reason being unclear. It was rumored that Tesla refused the prize because he would not share with Edison, and because Marconi had already received his.

(Tesla’s friend Mark Twain, famous American writer)

On his 75th birthday in 1931, the inventor appeared on the cover of Time Magazine. On this occasion, Tesla received congratulatory letters from more than 70 pioneers in science and engineering including Albert Einstein and Mark Twain. These letters were mounted and presented to Tesla in the form of a testimonial volume.

 

Tesla died on January 7th, 1943 in the Hotel New Yorker, where he had lived for the last ten years of his life. Room 3327 on the 33rd floor is the two-room suites he occupied.

A state funeral was held at St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York City. Telegrams of condolence were received from many notables, including the first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Vice President Wallace. Over 2000 people attended, including several Nobel Laureates. He was cremated in Ardsley on the Hudson, New York. His ashes were interned in a golden sphere, Tesla’s favorite shape, on permanent display at the Tesla Museum in Belgrade along with his death mask.

In his speech presenting Tesla with the Edison medal, Vice President Behrend of the Institute of Electrical Engineers eloquently expressed the following: “Were we to seize and eliminate from our industrial world the result of Mr. Tesla’s work, the wheels of industry would cease to turn, our electric cars and trains would stop, our towns would be dark and our mills would be idle and dead. His name marks an epoch in the advance of electrical science.” Mr. Behrend ended his speech with a paraphrase of Pope’s lines on Newton: “Nature and nature’s laws lay hid by night. God said ‘Let Tesla be’ and all was light.”

Nikola Tesla (Serbian Cyrillic: ) (10 July 1856 7 January 1943) was an inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer. Born in Smiljan, Croatian Krajina, Military Frontier, he was an ethnic Serb subject of the Austrian Empire and later became an American citizen. Tesla is best known for his many revolutionary contributions to the discipline of electricity and magnetism in the late 19th and early 20th century. Tesla’s patents and theoretical work formed the basis of modern alternating current electric power (AC) systems, including the polyphase power distribution systems and the AC motor, with which he helped usher in the Second Industrial Revolution.

After his demonstration of wireless communication (radio) in 1893 and after being the victor in the “War of Currents”, he was widely respected as America’s greatest electrical engineer. Much of his early work pioneered modern electrical engineering and many of his discoveries were of groundbreaking importance. During this period, in the United States, Tesla’s fame rivaled that of any other inventor or scientist in history or popular culture, but due to his eccentric personality and unbelievable and sometimes bizarre claims about possible scientific and technological developments, Tesla was ultimately ostracized and regarded as a mad scientist. Never having put much focus on his finances, Tesla died impoverished at the age of 86.

The SI unit measuring magnetic flux density or magnetic induction (commonly known as the magnetic field ), the tesla, was named in his honour (at the Conf?rence G?n?rale des Poids et Mesures, Paris, 1960).

Aside from his work on electromagnetism and engineering, Tesla is said to have contributed in varying degrees to the establishment of robotics, remote control, radar and computer science, and to the expansion of ballistics, nuclear physics, and theoretical physics. In 1943, the Supreme Court of the United States credited him as being the inventor of the radio. Many of his achievements have been used, with some controversy, to support various pseudosciences, UFO theories, and early new age occultism. Contemporary biographers of Tesla have deemed him “the man who invented the twentieth century” and “the patron saint of modern electricity.”

Tesla is honoured in both Serbia and Croatia, as well as his adopted home, the United States.

Early years

According to legend, Tesla was born precisely at midnight during an electrical storm, to a Serbian family in the village of Smiljan near Gospi?, in the Lika region of the Croatian Krajina in Military Frontier (part of the Austrian Empire), in the present-day Croatia.

His baptism certificate reports that he was born on June 28 (N.S. July 10), 1856, and christened by the Serbian Orthodox priest Toma Oklobd?ija. His father was Rev. Milutin Tesla, a priest in the Serbian Orthodox Church Metropolitanate of Sremski Karlovci. Milutin was born on 19 Feburary 1819 in the village of Meduc, county Medak in Lika, Austrian Empire, as son of Nikola Tesla (b. 1789 in the military frontier, settled after his service in the Napoleonic Wars in Gospic in 1815) and Ana Kalini?, from the famous frontier Kalinic family. Tesla’s family asserted its last name as such in Lika. His paternal origin was the Dragani? family from the Tara valley area below the geographical entity known as Old Vlach, from one of the local Serb clans. His mother was ?uka Mandi?, herself a daughter of a Serbian Orthodox Church priest. She came from a family domiciled in Lika and Banija, but with deeper origins to Kosovo. She was talented in making home craft tools. She memorized many Serbian epic poems, but never learned to read. His godfather, Jovan Drenovac, was a captain in the army protecting the Military Frontier.

Nikola was one of five children, having one brother (Dane, who was killed in a horse-riding accident when Nikola was five) and three sisters (Milka, Angelina and Marica).:3 His family moved to Gospi? in 1862. Tesla went to school in Karlovac. He finished a four year term in the span of three years.

Tesla then studied electrical engineering at the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz (1875). While there, he studied the uses of alternating current. Some sources say he received Baccalaureate degrees from the university at Graz. However, the university says that he did not receive a degree and did not continue beyond the first semester of his third year, during which he stopped attending lectures. Others have stated that he was discharged without a degree for nonpayment of his tuition for the first semester of his junior year. According to a college roommate, he did not graduate.

In December 1878 he left Graz and broke all relations with his family. His friends thought that he had drowned in Mura. He went to Maribor, Slovenia, where he was first employed as an assistant engineer for a year. He suffered a nervous breakdown during this time. Tesla was later persuaded by his father to attend the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague, which he attended for the summer term of 1880. However after his father died he left the university, having completed only one term.

Tesla engaged in reading many works, memorizing complete books. He had a photographic memory. Tesla related in his autobiography that he experienced detailed moments of inspiration. During his early life, Tesla was stricken with illness time and time again. He suffered a peculiar affliction in which blinding flashes of light would ap