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Bus

Bus

:This article is about the form of transport. See computer bus or electrical bus for the use of the term in computing and electronics respectively, the bank of the united states (the B.U.S.), or places like Bus, Pas-de-Calais and Bus-Saint-Rémy. Bus-Saint-Rémy competition. Other cities felt they could not compete against Honolulu.]] A bus is a large, motorized, wheeled vehicle intended to carry numerous persons in addition to the driver. The name is a shortened version of omnibus, which means "for everyone".

History

The omnibus, the first organized public transit system, may have originated in Nantes, France in 1826, when a retired army officer who had built public baths on the city's edge set up a short stage line between the center of town and his baths. When he discovered that passengers were just as interested in getting off at intermediate points as in patronizing his baths, he shifted the stage line's focus. His new voiture omnibus ("carriage for all") combined the functions of the hired hackney carriage with the stagecoach that travelled a predetermined route from inn to inn, carrying passengers and mail. His omnibus featured wooden benches that ran down the sides of the vehicle; entry was from the rear. Whether by direct emulation, or because the idea was in the air, by 1832 the idea had been copied in Paris, Bordeaux and Lyons. A London newspaper reported in July 4, 1829 that “the new vehicle, called the omnibus, commenced running this morning from Paddington to the City”. This bus service was operated by George Shillibeer. In New York, omnibus service began in the same year, when Abraham Brower, an entrepreneur who had organized volunteer fire companies, established a route along Broadway starting at Bowling Green. Other American cities soon followed suit: Philadelphia in 1831, Boston in 1835 and Baltimore in 1844. In most cases, the city governments granted a private company—generally a small stableman already in the livery or freight-hauling business—an exclusive franchise to operate public coaches along a specified route. In return, the company agreed to maintain certain minimum levels of service—though one of these standards was not upholstery. The New York omnibus quickly moved into the urban consciousness. In 1831, New Yorker Washington Irving remarked of Britain's Reform Act (finally passed in 1832): "The great reform omnibus moves but slowly." Reform Act).]] The omnibus had many repercussions for society, particularly in that it encouraged urbanization. Socially, the omnibus put city-dwellers, even if for only half an hour, into previously-unheard-of physical intimacy with strangers, squeezing them together knee-to-knee (illustration, left). Only the very poor remained excluded. A new division in urban society now came to the fore, dividing those who kept carriages from those who did not. The idea of the "carriage trade", the folk who never set foot in the streets, who had goods brought out from the shops for their appraisal, has its origins in the omnibus crush. urbanization] The omnibus also extended the reach of the North Atlantic post-Georgian, post-Federal city. The walk from the former village of Paddington to the business heart of London in the "City" was a brisk one for a young man in good condition. The omnibus offered the nearer suburbs more access to the inner city. More intense urbanization was to follow. Within a very few years, the New York omnibus had a rival in the streetcar: the first streetcar ran along The Bowery, which offered the excellent improvement in amenity of riding on smooth iron rails rather than clattering over granite setts, called "Belgian blocks". The new streetcars were financed by John Mason, a wealthy banker, and built by an Irish contractor, John Stephenson. The streetcars would become even more centrally important than the omnibus in the future of urbanization. When motorized transport proved successful after ca 1905, a motorized omnibus was for a time sometimes called an autobus.

Types

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- Coach / Motorcoach
- Double-decker bus
- Articulated bus
- Low-floor
- Midibus
- Minibus
- Trolleybus
- Gyrobus
- Guided bus
- Shuttle bus
- School bus

Manufacture and Manufacturers

See :Category:Bus manufacturers and :Category:Busses.

Bus line operators

See: List of bus companies.

Types of bus service

Buses are an intrinsic part of everyday life, and play an important part in the social fabric of many countries.

Intercity travel

Intercity bus services have become an important travel connection to smaller towns and rural areas in the United States that do not have airports or train service. A new phenomenon in intercity bus travel has been the Chinatown bus.

Tourism

Some places have buses that resemble streetcars in order to attract tourists or otherwise look nice (see right). A similar phenomenon is Duck Tours, which uses DUKWs converted into buses/cruise boats for tour purposes.

Buses in a social context

Desegregation busing

In some areas of the United States, a forced busing system has been used to achieve racial desegregation of public schools. Under a busing plan, children do not necessarily go to the nearest school geographically, but to such a school where there is an appropriate mix of racial diversity.

Buses and segregation

Bus services were also a focal point in the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s in the United States. In the period after the American Civil War ended in 1865, racial segregation in public accommodations, including public transport such as rail and bus services, was enforced through Black Codes and Jim Crow laws. These were made to prevent African-Americans from doing things that a white person could do. For instance, Jim Crow laws required bus drivers to enforce separate seating sections. These laws and enforcement varied among communities and states. In 1955, after a long day of work, Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a public bus, bringing attention to the injustice of differential and degrading treatment based solely upon race. This incident, boycotts of bus services, other protests, and court challenges led a U.S. Supreme Court ruling banning segregation on public buses and helped lead the U.S. Congress to the pass the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act which clarified the unconstitutionality of public racial segregation laws.

Miscellaneous

The usual plural of bus is "buses". "Busses" is sometimes used, but is also the plural of "buss", a dialectal word for "kiss" or a type of boat. In 1955, after a long day of work, Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a public bus, bringing attention to the injustice of differential and degrading treatment based solely upon race. This incident, boycotts of bus services, other protests, and court challenges led a U.S. Supreme Court ruling banning segregation on public buses and helped lead the U.S. Congress to the pass the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act which clarified the unconstitutionality of public racial segregation laws. The bus involved in the Rosa Parks incident has been found and restored and is now on display at the Henry Ford Museum near Detroit Michigan.

External links

- [http://www.natransit.com Hobby site about buses and trains in North America]
- [http://www.busesintl.com/May_2003.htm Busway programs in the Netherlands, bi-articulated bus]
- [http://www.quinion.com/words/articles/omnibus.htm "A word for all: the odd history of "omnibus""]
- [http://www.public-transport.net Buses in Europe]
- [http://www.barraclou.com/bus Barraclou.com - Bus]

References

- Category:Bus transport Category:Passenger equipment zh-min-nan:Kong-chhia ko:버스 ja:バス (交通機関) simple:Bus

Transport

:For other article subjects named transport, see Transport (disambiguation). Transportation redirects here, for other uses, see Transportation (disambiguation). Transport or transportation is the movement of people, goods, signals and information from one place to another. The term is derived from the Latin trans ("across") and portare ("to carry").

Aspects of transport

The field of transport has several aspects: loosely they can be divided into a triad of infrastructure, vehicles, and operations. Infrastructure includes the transport networks (roads, railways, airways, canals, pipelines, etc.) that are used, as well as the nodes or terminals (such as airports, railway stations, bus stations and seaports). The vehicles generally ride on the networks, such as automobiles, bicycles, buses, trains, airplanes. The operations deal with the control of the system, such as traffic signals and ramp meters, railroad switches, air traffic control, etc, as well as policies, such as how to finance the system (for example, the use of tolls or gasoline taxes). Broadly speaking, the design of networks are the domain of civil engineering and urban planning, the design of vehicles of mechanical engineering and specialized subfields such as nautical engineering and aerospace engineering, and the operations are usually specialized, though might appropriately belong to operations research or systems engineering.

Modes of transport

Modes are combinations of networks, vehicles, and operations, and include walking, the road transport system, rail transport, ship transport and modern aviation.

Transport and communications

Transport and communication are both substitutes and complements. Though it might be possible that sufficiently advanced communication could substitute for transport, one could telegraph, telephone, fax, or email a customer rather than visiting them in person, it has been found that those modes of communication in fact generate more total interactions, including interpersonal interactions. The growth in transport would be impossible without communication, which is vital for advanced transportation systems, from railroads which want to run trains in two directions on a single track, to air traffic control which requires knowing the location of aircraft in the sky. Thus, it has been found that the increase of one generally leads to more of the other.

Transport and land use

There is a well-known relationship between the density of development, and types of transportation. Intensity of development is often measured by area of Floor Area Ratio (FAR), the ratio of useable floorspace to area of land. As a rule of thumb, FARs of 1.5 or less are well suited to automobiles, those of six and above are well suited to trains. The range of densities from about two up to about four is not well served by conventional public or private transport. Many cities have grown into these densities, and are suffering traffic problems. Personal rapid transit could provide a solution to this problem. Land uses support activities. Those activities are spatially separated. People need transport to go from one to the other (from home to work to shop back to home for instance). Transport is a "derived demand," in that transport is unnecessary but for the activities pursued at the ends of trips. Good land use keeps common activities close (e.g. housing and food shopping), and places higher-density development closer to transportation lines and hubs. Poor land use concentrates activities (such as jobs) far from other destinations (such as housing and shopping). There are economies of agglomeration. Beyond transportation some land uses are more efficient when clustered. Transportation facilities consume land, and in cities, pavement (devoted to streets and parking) can easily exceed 20 percent of the total land use. An efficient transport system can reduce land waste.

Transport, energy, and the environment

Transport is a major use of energy, and transport burns most of the world's petroleum. Hydrocarbon fuels produce carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas widely thought to be the chief cause of global climate change, and petroleum-powered engines, especially inefficient ones, create air pollution, including nitrous oxides and particulates (soot). Although vehicles in the United States have been getting cleaner because of environmental regulations, this has been offset by an increase in the number of vehicles and more use of each vehicle. Other environmental impacts of transport systems include traffic congestion, toxic runoff from roads and parking lots that can pollute water supplies and aquatic ecosystems, and automobile-oriented urban sprawl, which can consume natural habitat and agricultural lands. Low-pollution fuels can reduce pollution. Low pollution fuels may have a reduced carbon content, and thereby contribute less in the way of carbon dioxide emissions, and generally have reduced sulfur, since sulfur exhaust is a cause of acid rain. The most popular low-pollution fuel at this time is liquified natural gas. Hydrogen is an even lower-pollution fuel that produces no carbon dioxide, but producing and storing it economically is currently not feasible. Other alternative renewable energy sources such as biodiesel are being researched heavily. Another strategy is to make vehicles more efficient, which reduces pollution and waste by reducing the energy use. Electric vehicles use efficient electric motors, but their range is limited by either the extent of the electric transmission system or by the storage capacity of batteries. Electrified public transport generally uses overhead wires or third rails to transmit electricity to vehicles, and is used for both rail and bus transport. Battery electric vehicles store their electric fuel onboard in a battery pack. Another method is to generate energy using fuel cells, which may eventually be two to five times as efficient as the internal combustion engines currently used in most vehicles. Another effective method is to streamline ground vehicles, which spend up to 75% of their energy on air-resistance, and to reduce their weight. Regenerative braking is possible in all electric vehicles and recaptures the energy normally lost to braking, and is becoming common in rail vehicles. In internal combustion automobiles and buses, regenerative braking is not possible, unless electric vehicle components are also a part of the powertrain, these are called hybrid electric vehicles. Shifting travel from automobiles to well-utilized public transport can reduce energy consumption and traffic congestion. Use of non-motorized modes walking and bicycling also reduces the consumption of fossil fuels. However, as most areas get wealthier, the use of these modes declines. There are a few wealthy cities where bicycling comprises a significant share of trips, including Copenhagen, Denmark and Groningen, Netherlands. A number of other cities, including London, Paris, New York, Bogotá, Chicago, and San Francisco, are creating networks of bicycle lanes and bicycle paths to encourage bicycling by increasing safety from traffic.

Transport Research

Transport research facilities are mainly attached to universities or are steered by the state. In most countries (not in France and Spain) one can see now how laboratories are brought into PPP-operation, where industry takes over part of the share. Some major players in Europe:
- Transport Research Laboratory [http://www.trl.co.uk/ TRL UK]
- [http://www.vtt.fi/transport/ VTT FI]
- [http://www.lcpc.fr LCPC FR]
- [http://www.inrets.fr INRETS FR]
- [http://www.certu.fr CERTU FR]
- [http://www.dlr.de/dlr/Verkehr DLR DE]
- [http://www.crf.it CRF IT]
- [http://www.vv.tno.nl TNO NL]
- [http://www.cedex.es/ CEDEX ES]
- [http://www.cemt.org/jtrc/ Joint OECD-ECMT Transport Research Centre]
- [http://www.cemt.org/index.htm European Conference of Ministers of Transport] USA:
- http://www.its.berkeley.edu Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Berkeley
- National Transportation Research Center
- [http://www.trb.org/ Transportation Research Board] The European Commission supports the co-operation and collaboration amongst the transport laboratories by funding projects like EXTR@Web and [http://www.intransnet.org Intransnet]. Especially the transition from planned economy to achieving a stable position on the market will be a challenge for laboratories in the new member states. Another EU-project [http://www.etra.cc etra.cc]is coping with those problems.

Computer/bus

In computer architecture, a bus is a subsystem that transfers data or power between computer components inside a computer or between computers. Unlike a point-to-point connection, a bus can logically connect several peripherals over the same set of wires. Each bus defines its set of connectors to physically plug devices, cards or cables together. Early computer buses were literally parallel electrical buses with multiple connections, but the term is now used for any physical arrangement that provides the same logical functionality as a parallel electrical bus. Modern computer buses can use both parallel and bit-serial connections, and can be wired in either a multidrop (electrical parallel) or daisy chain topology, or connected by switched hubs, as in the case of USB.

History

Early computer buses were bundles of wire that attached memory and peripherals. They were named after electrical buses, or busbars. Almost always, there was one bus for memory, and another for peripherals, and these were accessed by separate instructions, with completely different timings and protocols. One of the first complications was the use of interrupts. Early computers performed I/O by waiting in a loop for the peripheral to become ready. This was a waste of time for programs that had other tasks to do. Also, if the program attempted to perform those other tasks, it might take too long for the program to check again, resulting in lost data. Engineers thus arranged for the peripherals to interrupt the CPU. The interrupts had to be prioritised, because the CPU can only execute code for one peripheral at a time, and some devices are more time-critical than others. Some time after this, some computers (such as the RCA Spectra, running Multics) began to share memory between several CPUs. On these computers, access to the bus had to be prioritised, as well. The classic, simple way to prioritise interrupts or bus access was with a daisy chain. DEC noted that having two buses seemed wasteful and expensive for small, mass-produced computers, and mapped peripherals into the memory bus, so that the devices appeared to be memory locations. At the time, this was a very daring design. Cynics predicted failure. Early microcomputer bus systems were essentially a passive backplane connected to the pins of the CPU. Memory and other devices would be added to the bus using the same address and data pins as the CPU itself used, connected in parallel. In some instances, such as the IBM PC, instructions still generated signals at the CPU that could be used to implement a true I/O bus. In many microcontrollers and embedded systems, an I/O bus still does not exist. Communication is controlled by the CPU, which reads and writes data from the devices as if they are blocks of memory (in most cases), all timed by a central clock controlling the speed of the CPU. Devices ask for service by signalling on other CPU pins, typically using some form of interrupt. For instance, a disk drive controller would signal the CPU that new data was ready to be read, at which point the CPU would move the data by reading the memory that corresponded to the disk drive. Almost all early computers were built in this fashion, starting with the S-100 bus in the Altair, and continuing through the IBM PC in the 1980s. These simple bus systems had a serious drawback for general-purpose computers. All the equipment on the bus has to talk at the same speed, and thus shares a single clock. Increasing the speed of the CPU is not a simple matter, because the speed of all the devices must increase as well. This often leads to odd situations where very fast CPUs have to "slow down" in order to talk to other devices in the computer. While acceptable in embedded systems, this problem was not tolerated for long in commercial computers. Another problem is that the CPU is required for all operations, so if it becomes busy with other tasks, the real throughput of the bus could suffer dramatically. Such bus systems are difficult to configure when constructed from common off-the-shelf equipment. Typically each added PC board requires many jumpers in order to set memory addresses, I/O addresses, interrupt priorities, and interrupt numbers. "Second generation" bus systems like NuBus addressed some of these problems. They typically separated the computer into two "worlds", the CPU and memory on one side, and the various devices on the other, with a bus controller in between. This allowed the CPU to increase in speed without affecting the bus. This also moved much of the burden for moving the data out of the CPU and into the cards and controller, so devices on the bus could talk to each other with no CPU intervention. This led to much better "real world" performance, but also required the cards to be much more complex. These buses also often addressed speed issues by being "bigger" in terms of the size of the data path, moving from 8-bit parallel buses in the first generation, to 16 or 32-bit in the second, as well as adding software setup (now standardised as Plug-n-play) to supplant or replace the jumpers. However these newer systems shared one quality with their earlier cousins, in that everyone on the bus had to talk at the same speed. While the CPU was now insulated and could increase speed without fear, CPUs and memory continued to increase in speed much faster than the buses they talked to. The result was that the bus speeds were now very much slower than what a modern system needed, and the machines were left starved for data. A particularly common example of this problem was that video cards quickly outran even the newer bus systems like PCI, and computers began to include the AGP bus just to drive the video card. By 2004 AGP was outgrown again by high-end video cards and is being replaced with the new PCI Express bus. An increasing number of external devices started employing their own bus systems as well. When disk drives were first introduced, they would be added to the machine with a card plugged into the bus, which is why computers have so many slots on the bus. But through the 1980s and 1990s, new systems like SCSI and IDE were introduced to serve this need, leaving most slots in modern systems empty. Today there are likely to be about five different buses in the typical machine, supporting various devices. A useful differentiation then became popular, the concept of the local bus as opposed to external bus. The former referred to bus systems that were designed to be used with internal devices, such as graphics cards, and the latter to buses designed to add external devices such as scanners. Note, though, that "local" also referred to the greater proximity to the processor of VL-Bus and PCI than ISA. IDE is an external bus in terms of how it is used, but is almost always found inside the machine. "Third generation" buses are now in the process of coming to market, including HyperTransport and InfiniBand. They typically include features that allow them to run at the very high speeds needed to support memory and video cards, while also supporting lower speeds when talking to slower devices such as disk drives. They also tend to be very flexible in terms of their physical connections, allowing them to be used both as internal buses, as well as connecting different machines together. This can lead to complex problems when trying to service different requests, so much of the work on these systems concerns software design, as opposed to the hardware itself. In general, these third generation buses tend to look more like a network than the original concept of a bus, with a higher protocol overhead needed than early systems, while also allowing multiple devices to use the bus at once. On another track, integrated circuits are increasingly being designed from predesigned logic, "intellectual property." Buses such as Wishbone have been developed to permit devices on integrated circuits to talk to one another.

Description

At one time, "bus" meant an electrically parallel system, with electrical conductors similar or identical to the pins on the CPU. This is no longer the case, and modern systems are blurring the lines between buses and networks. Buses can be parallel buses, which carry data words striped across multiple wires, or serial buses, which carry data in bit-serial form. The addition of extra power and control connections, differential drivers, and data connections in each direction usually means that most serial buses have more conductors than the minimum of two used in the I²C serial bus. As data rates increase, the problems of timing skew and crosstalk across parallel buses become more and more difficult to circumvent. One partial solution to this problem has been to double pump the bus. Often, a serial bus can actually be operated at higher overall data rates than a parallel bus, despite having fewer electrical connections, because a serial bus inherently has no timing skew or crosstalk. USB, FireWire, and Serial ATA are examples of this. Multidrop connections do not work well for fast serial buses, so most modern serial buses use daisy-chain or hub designs. Most computers have both internal and external buses. An internal bus connects all the internal components of a computer to the motherboard (and thus, the CPU and internal memory). These types of buses are also referred to as a local bus, because they are intended to connect to local devices, not to those in other machines or external to the computer. An external bus connects external peripherals to the motherboard. Network connections such as Ethernet are not generally regarded as buses, although the difference is largely conceptual rather than practical. The arrival of technologies such as InfiniBand and HyperTransport is further blurring the boundaries between networks and buses. Even the lines between internal and external are sometimes fuzzy, I²C can be used as both an internal bus, or an external bus (where it is known as ACCESS.bus), and InfiniBand is intended to replace both internal buses like PCI as well as external ones like Fibre Channel. Modern trends in personal computers, especially laptops, have been moving towards eliminating all external connections except for modem jack, Cat5, USB, headphone jack, and optional VGA or FireWire.

Bus topology

In a network, the master scheduler controls the data traffic. If data is to be transferred the requesting computer sends a message to the scheduler, which puts the request into a queue. The message contains an identification code which is broadcast to all nodes of the network. The scheduler works out priorities and notifies the receiver as soon as the bus is available. The identified node takes the message and performs the data transfer between the two computers. Having completed the data transfer the bus becomes free for the next request in the scheduler's queue. Bus benefit: any computer can be accessed directly and message can be sent in a relatively simple and fast way. Disadvantage: needs a scheduler to assign frequencies and priorities to organize the traffic. See also: Bus network

Examples of internal computer buses

Parallel

- Accelerated graphics port or AGP (for video cards)
- CAMAC for instrumentation systems
- Extended ISA or EISA
- Industry Standard Architecture or ISA
- Low Pin Count or LPC
- MicroChannel or MCA
- MBus
- Multibus for industrial systems
- NuBus or IEEE 1196
- Peripheral Component Interconnect or PCI
- S-100 bus or IEEE 696, used in the Altair and similar microcomputers
- SBus or IEEE 1496
- VESA Local Bus or VLB or VL-bus (for video cards)
- VMEbus, the VERSAmodule Eurocard bus
- STD Bus for 8- and 16-bit microprocessor systems

Serial

- 1-Wire
- HyperTransport
- I²C
- PCI Express or PCIe
- Serial Peripheral Interface Bus or SPI bus

Examples of external computer buses

Parallel

- Advanced Technology Attachment or ATA (aka PATA, IDE, EIDE, ATAPI, etc.) disk/tape peripheral attachment bus
(the original ATA is parallel, but see also the recent development Serial ATA, below)
- Centronics parallel (generally connects single device, occasionally 2 daisy-chained)
- HIPPI HIgh Performance Parallel Interface
- IEEE-488 (aka GPIB, General-Purpose Instrumentation Bus, and HPIB, Hewlett-Packard Instrumentation Bus)
- PCMCIA, now known as PC card, much used in laptop computers and other portables, but fading with the introduction of USB and built-in network and modem connections.
- SCSI Small Computer System Interface, disk/tape peripheral attachment bus

Serial

- ACCESS.bus (A.b)
- Apple Desktop Bus (ADB)
- Controller Area Network (CAN)
- Fibre Channel
- IEEE 1394 (FireWire)
- RS-485
- Serial ATA or SATA
- Serial Storage Architecture (SSA)
- Universal Serial Bus (USB)

Proprietary

- Floppy drive connector

Examples of internal/external computer buses

- Futurebus
- InfiniBand
- QuickRing
- SCI

External links

- Chip Weems' [http://www.cs.umass.edu/~weems/CmpSci635/635lecture12.html Lecture 12: Buses]
- http://dmoz.org/Computers/Hardware/Buses/ Category:Digital electronics
- Computer bus Category:Motherboard ja:バス (コンピュータ)

Electronics

The field of electronics is the study and use of systems that operate by controlling the flow of electrons or other electrically charged particles in devices such as thermionic valves and semiconductors. The design and construction of electronic circuits to solve practical problems is part of the fields of electronic engineering, and the hardware design side of computer engineering. The study of new semiconductor devices and their technology is sometimes considered as a branch of physics.

Electronic devices today

Electronic devices are used to perform a wide variety of tasks. The main uses of electronic circuits are the controlling, processing and distribution of information, and the conversion and distribution of electric power. Both of these uses involve the creation or detection of electromagnetic fields and electric currents. While electrical energy had been used for some time to transmit data over telegraphs and telephones, the development of electronics truly began in earnest with the advent of radio.

CAD/CAM of electronic circuits

Today's electronics engineers enjoy the ability to design circuits using premanufactured building blocks such as power supplies, resistors, capacitors, semiconductors (such as transistors), and integrated circuits. Electronic design automation software programs include schematic capture programs such as ORCAD , used to make circuit diagrams and printed circuit board layouts.

Electronic systems

One way of looking at an electronic system is to divide it into the following parts: # Inputs – Electronic or mechanical sensors (or transducers), which take signals (in the form of temperature, pressure, etc.) from the physical world and convert them into current/voltage signals. # Signal processing circuits – These consist of electronic components connected together to manipulate, interpret and transform the signals. # Outputs – Actuators or other devices (also transducers) that transform current/voltage signals back into useful physical form. One example is a television set. Its input is a broadcast signal received by an antenna or fed in through a cable. Signal processing circuits inside the television extract the brightness, colour and sound information from this signal. The output devices are a cathode ray tube that converts electronic signals into a visible image on a screen and magnet driven audio speakers.

Electronic test equipment

- Ammeter, e.g. Galvanometer (Measure current)
- Ohmmeter, e.g. Wheatstone bridge (Measure resistance)
- Voltmeter (Measures voltage)
- Multimeter (Measures all of the above)
- Oscilloscope (Measures all of the above, except Ohm, as they change over time)
- Logic analyzer (Tests digital circuits)
- Spectrum analyzer (SA) (Measures spectral energy of signals)
- Vector signal analyzer (VSA) (Like the SA but it can also perform many more useful digital demodulation functions)
- Electrometer (Measures charge)
- Frequency counter (Measures frequency)
- Time-domain reflectometer for testing integrity of long cables

Electronic components

- Electronic components
- Electronic Devices and Circuits

Analog circuits

Most analog electronic appliances, such as radio receivers, are constructed from arrays of a few types of circuits.
- Analog computer
- Analog multipliers
- electronic amplifiers
- electronic filters
- electronic oscillators
- Phase-locked loops
- electronic mixers
- Power conversion
- Electronic Power Supply
- impedance matchers
- operational amplifiers
- comparators

Digital circuits

Computers, electronic clocks, and programmable logic controllers (used to control industrial processes) are constructed of digital circuits. Digital Signal Processors are another example. Building-blocks:
- logic gates
- flip-flops
- counters
- registers
- multiplexers
- Schmitt triggers Highly integrated devices:
- microprocessors
- microcontrollers
- DSP
- Field Programmable Gate Array

Mixed-signal circuits

Mixed-signal circuits, also known as hybrid circuits, are becoming increasingly common. Mixed circuits contain both analog and digital components. analog to digital converters and digital to analog converters are the primary examples. Other examples are transmission gates and buffers.

Heat dissipation

Heat generated by electronic circuitry must be dissipated to improve reliability. Techniques for heat dissipation can include heatsinks and fans for air cooling, and other forms of computer cooling such as liquid cooling for computers .

Noise

Associated with all electronic circuits is noise. Types of noise include
- Shot noise in resistors.
- Johnson-Nyquist noise (Thermal noise) in resistors.
- White noise
- 1/f noise (pink noise, or flicker noise)
- Gaussian noise

Electronics theory

- Mathematical methods in electronics
- Digital circuits
- Analog electronics

External links

Tutorials and projects

- [http://www.electronicsinfoline.com/ Electronics Infoline] Directory for electronics projects.
- [http://www.opamp-electronics.com/tutorials/index.htm Basic Electronic Tutorials On DC, AC, Semiconductor and Digital Theory] Extensive free tutorial material and store.
- [http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/ Electronics tutorials] Modest site, mostly focused on radio electronics, awkward layout.
- Williamson Labs' [http://www.williamson-labs.com/ Electronics tutorial]
- Ian Purdie's [http://my.integritynet.com.au/purdic Electronics tutorial]s
- Iguana Labs' [http://www.iguanalabs.com/maintut.htm Electronics Tutorials and Kits]
- [http://www.electronicdefinitions.com Electronic Meanings and Acronyms]
- [http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/electricCircuits/ Lessons in Electric Circuits] – A free series of textbooks on the subjects of electricity and electronics.
- [http://www.radio-electronics.com/ Radio-Electronics.Com] Free information and resources covering radio and electronics
- [http://www.electronicschat.org/echatwiki/ A hobbyist wiki]
- [http://www.falstad.com/circuit/ Circuit simulator with voltage and current visualization]
- [http://allaboutcircuits.com A comprehensive guide to making integrated circuits]
- [http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electronic/etroncon.html HyperPhysics]
- [http://www.talkingelectronics.com/te_interactive_index.html "Talking Electronics"] Great for amateurs, commercial kits.
- [http://electronics.esolberg.com/ Electronic parts library]
- [http://www.work-readyelectronics.org Work Ready Electronics] Free instructional online course materials for Community College Electronics Instructors and Students.

Some other good sites

- [http://endtas.com/robot/ Endtas robotics community website with lots of free robotic projects. Do it yourself]
- [http://www.ieee.org/ IEEE]
- [http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/ IEEE spectrum]
- [http://www.elexp.com/links.htm Electronix Express]
- [http://www.electronicspoint.com/ Electronics Discussions] Web access to electronics related newsgroups. Category:Electronics Category:Electronic engineering ko:전자공학 ms:Elektronik ja:電子工学 simple:Electronics th:อิเล็กทรอนิกส์

Bank of the United States

There were two organizations known as the Bank of the United States
- First Bank of the United States (1791–1811)
- Second Bank of the United States (1816–1841) Also the current Federal Reserve might be considered under the same title. Category:Defunct banks

Wheel

: A wheel is a circular object that, together with an axle, allows low friction in motion by rolling. Common examples are found in transport applications. More generally the term is also used for circular objects rotating for other purposes, such as a wheel and axle and a flywheel.

Mechanics

Wheels are used in conjunction with an axle, either the wheel turns on the axle or the wheel is rigidly attached to the axle which then turns in bearings in the body of the vehicle. The mechanics are the same in either case. The low density of the friction (compared to dragging) is explained as follows:
- the sliding distance is reduced, because the sliding takes place between the wheels and the axles or between the axles and the bearings
- the coefficient of kinetic friction μ for the sliding friction is less Example:
- If dragging a 100 kg object for 10 m along a surface with μ = 0.5, the normal force on Earth is 980 N and the work done (required energy) is 980 × 10 × 0.5 = 4900 joules.
- Now give the object 4 wheels. The normal force between the 4 wheels and axles is the same (in total) 980 N, assume μ = 0.1, finally the most important factor is the wheel diameter (1000 mm) and axle diameter (50 mm). Now while the object still moves 10 m the sliding frictional surfaces only slide over each other a distance of 0.5 m. So work done is 980 x 0.5 x 0.1 = 49 joules. Additional energy is lost at the wheel to road interface (rolling friction), but it is deformation loss which can be very small. An example would be train wheels on rail tracks). The tradeoff is that a wheeled object in motion carries more momentum than dragging, and thus require an external force in the opposite direction in order to stop the object or change its direction, for example, such as brakes.

History of the wheel

brakesian "battle standard of Ur" (circa 2600 BC)]] According to most authorities, the wheel was invented in ancient Mesopotamia in the 5th millennium BC, originally in the function of potter's wheels. A possibly independent invention in China dates to around 2800 BC. It is also thought that the invention of the wheel dated back to Ancient India. Though they did not develop the wheel proper, the Olmec and certain other western hemisphere cultures seem to have approached the concept, as wheel-like worked stones have been found on objects identified as children's toys dating to about 1500 BC. The wheel was apparently unknown in sub-Saharan Africa, Australia, and the Americas until relatively recent contacts with Eurasians. Eurasian. The wheel is dated late second millennium BCE and was excavated at Choqa Zanbil.]] The invention of the wheel thus falls in the late Neolithic and may be seen in conjunction with the other technological advances that gave rise to the early Bronze Age. Note that this implies the passage of several wheel-less millennia, even after the invention of agriculture. Early wheels were simple wooden disks with a hole for the axle. In the early Roman empire, most horse-carts used a design featuring two chords across the wheel. The spoked wheel was invented much more recently, and allowed the construction of lighter and swifter vehicles. The earliest known examples are in the context of the Andronovo culture, dating to ca 2000 BC (see chariot). Celtic chariots introduced an iron rim around the wheel in the 1st millennium BC. The spoked wheel was in continued use without major modification until the early 20th century. The invention of the wheel turned out to be of great importance not only as a transportation device, but for the development of technology in general, important applications including the water wheel, the cogwheel (see also antikythera mechanism), the spinning wheel, the astrolabe or torquetum. More modern descendents of the wheel include the propeller, the jet engine, the flywheel (gyroscope) and the turbine. The central importance of the wheel also resulted in its becoming a strong cultural and spiritual metaphor for a cycle or regular repetition (see chakra, reincarnation). In July 2001, the wheel was the object of an innovative, but non-inventive, patent as a "circular transportation facilitation device". The patent was obtained by John Keogh, a lawyer from Melbourne, Australia, with the declared intention of demonstrating the unfairness and inaccuracy of the modern patent system.

References

# Casson, Lionel, "Travel in the Ancient World", The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1994. # http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_1418000/1418165.stm

Wheeled vehicles

Vehicles are classified according to number of wheels: # Unicycle, monocycle # Bicycle # Tricycle # Quadricycle

Other options

Ground transport devices without wheels include
- travois
- hovercraft
- magnetic levitation train
- sled

External links

- [http://spp.pinyin.info/abstracts/spp099_wheeled_vehicles.html early wheeled transport around the world, especially China] Category:Mechanical engineering ms:Roda ja:車輪 simple:Wheel

Vehicle

:This article is about the means of transport. For the political meaning, see electoral vehicle. For the economical meaning, see economic vehicle Vehicles are non-living means of transportation. They are most often man-made (e.g. cars, motorcycles, trains, ships, and aircraft), although some other means of transportation which are not made by man can also be called vehicles; examples include icebergs and floating tree trunks. Vehicles may be propelled by animals, e.g. a chariot or an ox-cart. However, animals on their own, though used as a means of transportation, are not called vehicles. This includes humans carrying another human, for example a child or a disabled person. Most land vehicles have wheels. Please see the wheel article for examples of vehicles with and without wheels. Movement without the help of a vehicle or an animal is called locomotion. The word vehicle itself comes from the Latin vehiculum. AVL stands for Automatic Vehicle Location.

Types of vehicles

- Aircraft
- Cars
- Auto rickshaws
- Boats
- Buses
- Coaches
- Motorcycles
- Trains
- Ships
- Vans
- Bicycles
- More...

External Links

- [http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/ Green Vehicle Guide]
- [http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars Vehicle Information] Category:Transportation simple:Vehicle

Public transit

Public transport (Commonwealth English) comprises all transport systems in which the passengers do not travel in their own vehicles. It is also called public transportation, public transit or mass transit (U.S. English). While it is generally taken to include rail and bus services, wider definitions would include scheduled airline services, ferries, taxicab services etc. — any system that transports members of the general public. A further restriction that is sometimes applied is that it should take place in shared vehicles, which would exclude taxis that are not shared-ride taxis. Public transport is the primary form of motor transport on Earth. Whilst in the Western World private cars dominate, in poor countries (which represent the majority of human population) most people can not afford a private car (or in dense urban areas the cost for parking), so walking, (motor)cycling or public transport are often the only options, with only the latter being viable for larger distances (which by their nature represent the majority of transportation). This usually takes the form of mini-buses (jitneys) that may follow fixed routes but are usually flexible, including the option of taxi-style door-to-door transportation. Public transport can be faster than other modes of travel where a separate infrastructure is used and thus much higher speeds are possible than are permitted on roads. Prime examples are in cities where road congestion can be avoided (metro), and for long distance travel (trains). On roads this is also possible if the public transportation has its own separate lanes. However, in reality the lanes are often shared, in which case public transport on roads is usually slower due to the (frequent) stops and changeovers. Additionally, public transport system may be poorly developed and thus may take up to two or even three times longer than an equivalent trip in a private vehicle. Increased road traffic congestion and improved transit systems are reducing or eliminating this disparity in many areas, and public transport use rises sharply with population density. Ultimately, if all transport were public (in the sense of shared), more people per vehicle would mean fewer vehicles on the roads, thus reducing and probably even eliminating traffic jams. Additionally, it would be easier to centrally coordinate the flow of traffic with phased traffic lights, eliminating the usually frequent stops at traffic lights and the absence of parked cars would even create space for extra lanes. Thus, public transportation is potentially much faster than private transportation. The term rapid transit refers to fast public transport in and around cities, such as metro systems (metropolitan rail). The distinction between (national) rail, metro and tram is sometimes blurred, such as in Amsterdam and the wider Randstad area, where trains often run once every 10 minutes, thus taking on the role of a metro, the metro is only partly underground and the so-called light rail is basically a tram that runs on metro lines.

History

light rail Conveyances for public hire are as old as the first manned ferries, and the earliest public transport was water transport, for on land people walked or rode an animal. This form of transport is part of Greek mythology — corpses in ancient Greece were always buried with a coin underneath their tongue to pay the ferryman Charon to take them to Hades. Some historic forms of public transport are the stagecoach, travelling an appointed route from inn to inn, and the horse-drawn boat carrying paying passengers, which was a feature of canal systems from their 17th-century origins. The omnibus, the first organized public transit system within a city, appears to have been originated in Nantes, France, in 1826.

Modern forms of public transport

1826 1826 Public transportation comes in many forms: 1826 1826

Road

- Share taxi
- Auto rickshaw
- Bus normally serving a regular fixed route but could include a variable route, divert-on-demand service, see Bus rapid transit and Dual-mode bus
- Bush taxi of West and Central Africa
- Coach
- Trolleybus
- Jitney
- Limousine
- Matatu, of East Africa
- Paratransit
- Rickshaw
- Taxicab
- Transit bus
- Vanpool
- Vehicle for hire
- Velotaxi

Rail

- Automated guideway transit (AGT), also called Peoplemover
- Cable car on rails, used in cities, a streetcar (tram{{{{

1826

See also 1826 in the United States. 1826 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar).

Events

- February 8 - Argentina. Unitarian Bernardino Rivadavia becomes the first President of the country.
- February 11 - University College London is founded, under the name University of London.
- February 13 - American Temperance Society founded.
- April 1 - Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine.
- June 14-15 – The Auspicious Incident: Mahmud II, sultan of Ottoman Empire, crushes the last mutiny of janissaries in Istanbul
- June 22 - the Pan-American Congress of Panama tries to unify American republics (it fails)
- July 26 - Last auto de fe.
- Nicéphore Niépce creates the first permanent photograph
- First railway tunnel built in route between Liverpool and Manchester in England
- Cholera epidemic begins in India
- The British crown colony of the Straits Settlements is established.

Births

- January 12 - William Chapman Rawlston, banker and financier
- January 26 - Louis Favre, Swiss engineer (d. 1879)
- February 16 - Joseph Victor von Scheffel, German poet (d. 1886)
- February 16 - Julia Grant, First Lady of the United States (d. 1902)
- March 4 - Theodore Judah, railroad engineer (d. 1863)
- March 24 - Matilda Joslyn Gage, pioneering feminist (d. 1898)
- March 29 - Wilhelm Liebknecht, German journalist and politician (d. 1900)
- April 6 - Gustave Moreau, French painter (d. 1898)
- April 26 - George Hull Ward, American general (d. 1863)
- May 3 - King Charles XV of Sweden and Norway (d. 1872)
- May 4 - Frederic Edwin Church, American painter (b. 1900)
- June 24 - George Goyder, surveyor-general of South Australia (d. 1898)
- July 4 - Stephen Foster, American songwriter and poet (d. 1864)
- July 4 - Green Clay Smith, American temperance movement leader (d. 1895]])
- September 17 - Bernhard Riemann, German mathematician (d. 1866)
- November 13 - Charles Frederick Worth, English couturier (d. 1895)
- November 24 - Carlo Collodi, Italian writer (d. 1890)

Exact month/day of birth unknown

William Daniel, American temperance movement leader (d. 1897)

Deaths

- January 3 - Louis Gabriel Suchet, French marshal (b. 1770)
- January 17 - Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, Spanish composer (b. 1806)
- March 29 - Johann Heinrich Voß, German poet (b. 1751)
- June 5 - Carl Maria von Weber, German composer (b. 1786)
- July 4 - Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States (b. 1743)
- July 4 - John Adams, 2nd President of the United States (b. 1735)
- July 8 - Luther Martin, delegate to the American Constitutional Convention (b. 1746)
- November 23 - Johann Elert Bode, German astronomer (b. 1747) Category:1826 ko:1826년 ms:1826 simple:1826

Stagecoach

- For the 1939 film starring John Wayne see Stagecoach (movie).
- For the UK public transport company see Stagecoach Group. ---- Stagecoach Group, ca. 1869]] A stagecoach is a type of four-wheeled enclosed passenger and/or mail coach, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, widely used before the introduction of railway transport. In North America a stagecoach would stop to take on fresh horses at relay stations approximately every 15 miles. Approximately every 6 hours the stops were also convenient places to exchange mail, and to allow the passengers and crew food and rest breaks. Some of these stations would become towns, cities which are still there today. The stagecoach, with seats outside and in, was a public conveyance which was known in England from the 16th century. Until the railway systems of Europe drove the stagecoaches out of business they had regular routes (stages) all over Great Britain and the Continent. In the United States, the history of transcontinental stage-coaching is unique. At a time when sectional tensions were tearing the United States apart, stagecoaches provided the only regular transportation and communication between St. Louis in the East and San Francisco in the West. Butterfield Overland Stage Company also known as the Butterfield Overland Mail Company had won the most coveted prize, a government mail contract. Nine Overland Stage owners had entered bids for the U.S. Mail contract it was awarded to Butterfield Overland Stage Company on September 15, 1857. Originally all of the Overland Stage owners had submitted routes with relay station 's and frontier forts that were north of Albuquerque, New Mexico territory they had no knowledge of what was called the ox bow route. Ox Bow Route was mandated by the southern Postmaster General. The new line be required to go through Fort Smith and then proceed through Texas to El Paso onward to Fort Yuma, California and then up to San Francisco. This route added 600 miles many relay station's and frontier forts to the original bids. Butterfield Overland Stage began rolling on September 15, 1858, twice weekly mail service began. A Butterfield Overland Concord Stagecoach was started in San Francisco and another Overland Stage in Tipton, Missouri they ran over the better roads. As the going got rougher, the passengers and mail were transferred to "celerity wagons" designed for the roughest conditions. Each run encompassed the 2,812 miles and had to be completed in 25 days or less in order to qualify for the $600,000 government grant for mail service. The western fare one way was $200 with most stages arriving 22 days later at its final destination. The Butterfield Overland Stage Company employed over 800 men, had 139 relay stations or frontier forts, 1800 head of stock, horses and mules, and 250 Concord Overland Stages. The first Concord stagecoach was built in 1827. Abbot Downing Company employed thorough braces, 3” wide leather straps, under their stagecoaches which gave the ride of the stagecoaches a swinging motion instead of the jolting up and down of a spring suspension. Company was known the world over for its Concord Stagecoach but actually it manufactured over 40 different types of carriages and wagons at the wagon factory in Concord, New Hampshire. The Concord Stagecoaches were built as solid as the Abbot Downing Company reputation and became known that they didn't break down but just wore out. Abbot Downing Company was best known for its western market in the United States, the Concord stagecoach sold throughout South America, Australia and Africa Over 700 Concord stagecoaches were built by the original Abbot Downing Company before it disbanded in 1847. In March of 1860, John Butterfield was forced out because of debt. The beginning of the Civil War forced the Stage Company to stop using the ox bow route and to use the central overland road instead. The Eastern end of the central route, St. Louis to Denver, was taken over by Ben Holladay. Ben Holladay is characterized as a devoted, diligent, enterprising man who became known as the Stagecoach King. The western end, Denver to San Francisco, the Stage Company was taken over by Wells, Fargo and Company due to large debts that Butterfield owed Wells, Fargo. Mark Twain once stated the Concord Stagecoach was like a cradle on wheels. Mark Twain was a river boat pilot from 1859 till the Civil War closed the river traffic. In 1861 he rode with his brother Orion in Ben Holladay's Overland Mail stagecoach west to Nevada. After a stint with gold fever and he went broke. Wells Fargo did commandeer the monopoly over long distance overland stage coach and mail service with a massive web of relay stations, forts, livestock, men and stage coaches by 1866. Transcontinental stage-coaching came to an end with the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. In Britain their role in carrying the mail from 1784 generated the term "mail coach." In France under the Ancien Régime the turgotines, big mail coaches named for their originator, Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune who was finance minister under Louis XVI of France, and improved roads, where a coach could travel at full gallop across levels, combined with more staging posts at shorter intervals, cut the time required to travel across the country sometimes by half, between 1765 and 1780 (Braudel 1984 fig. 32). 1780 Today the most familiar image of the stagecoach is that seen in film Westerns, but they were also used throughout eastern North America and Europe. The diligence, though not invariably with four horses, was the Continental analogue for public conveyance, with other minor varieties such as the Stellwagen and Eilwagen. Stagecoaches could compete with canal boats, but they were rendered obsolete as the rail network expanded. A constant danger for stagecoach travellers was the threat of robbery by highwaymen or bandits.

External links

- [http://www.anvil.clara.net/stage.htm A comprehensive description of the stagecoaches, including coachmen, posting houses etc.]
- [http://tombstonetimes.com/stagecoaches.html Brief history of U.S. stagecoach companies], written by a present-day stagecoach driver from Tombstone, Arizona

Reference

- Braudel, Fernand, The Perspective of the World, vol. III of Civilization and Capitalism 1979 (in English 1984) Category:Animal powered vehicles Category:Carriages

Buses in London

:This article is a general one on buses in London. For a specific article on the organisation responsible for running most buses in London, see London Buses. The London Bus is one of London's principal icons, with the archetypal red, rear entrance, double deck, Routemaster bus being recognised world-wide.

History

Organisation

bus Buses have been used on the streets of London since 1829, when George Shillibeer started operating his horse drawn omnibus service from Paddington to the city. The London General Omnibus Company or LGOC was founded in 1855 to amalgamate and regulate the horse-drawn omnibus services then operating in London. LGOC began using motor omnibuses, which it built itself, in 1910. In 1912 the Underground Group, which at that time owned most of the London Underground, bought the LGOC. In 1933 the LGOC, along with the rest of the Underground Group, became part of the new London Transport Executive. The name London General fell into disuse, and London Transport instead became synonymous with the red London bus. During the 1980s a decision was made by the government of Margaret Thatcher to privatise the bus operating industry of the United Kingdom, which at that time was dominated by London Transport in London, large municipally owned operator in other major cities and the government owned National Bus Company and Scottish Bus Group elsewhere. For largely political reasons a completely different model was followed in London as compared to the rest of the country. In London a part of London Transport called London Buses was set up, with the remit to contract out operation of services but to determine service levels and fares within the public sector. This regime is still in place, although the ownership of London Buses moved from the central (UK) government controlled London Regional Transport to the Mayor of London's transport organisation, Transport for London in 2000, as part of the formation of the new Greater London Authority.

Vehicles

Until the 1950s, London tended to go its own way in terms of bus design, designing its own vehicles specifically for London use rather than using the bus manufacturers' general products used elsewhere in the UK. The last such bus specifically designed for London was the AEC Routemaster. Since the turn of the Millennium, there has been a shift to low floor double deck and articulated buses. Other buses used in London:
- Bristol VR
- Dennis Trident (Alexander ALX400/Plaxton President body) low floor bus
- Dennis Dart
- Dennis Dart SLF (Plaxton Pointer/Alexander ALX200/Caetano Nimbus body)
- Leyland Titan
- Leyland Olympian
- Mercedes-Benz Citaro rigid/articulated/Fuel Cell bus
- MCW Metrobus
- Optare LFA
- Scania OmniDekka
- DAF/VDL DB250 (Alexander ALX400/Plaxton President/Wright Pulsar Gemini body)
- DAF/VDL SB120 (Wright Cadet/Merit body)
- Volvo Citybus
- Volvo Olympian
- Volvo B7TL

Operation

Local Buses

B7TL Local buses within London form a network managed by London Buses, an arm of Transport for London, although most services are actually operated by private sector operators operating under contract to London Buses. All such buses are painted in a largely red colour scheme, with only minor variations and logos to distinguish the operator in question, and operate the same fare regime. Although the rear entrance, double deck Routemaster is the archetypal London bus, their numbers are now reducing quite quickly due to their age, inability to easily accept wheelchairs or baby transports, and requirement for a two man crew. The first Routemaster built (RM1) was 50 years old in 2004. Two Routemaster operated routes are to be launched in late 2005 as working heritage services, akin to the F Market heritage streetcar line in San Francisco. Most local bus services are now operated by modern low floor buses, which may be single-deck, double-deck, or one of the new type of articulated buses, locally called bendy buses. With the introduction of the London Congestion Charge in central London and because at peak times the Underground is operating at maximum capacity, many bus service improvements have been undertaken, and central bus services are currently enjoying something of a resurgence. Some local bus routes in the outer areas of London do cross the London boundary. London Buses services which cross the boundary will be standard red buses and accept London fares, at least within the boundary. Buses from outside London which cross into London will be in their operators own colour schemes, and may not accept London fares even within the boundary.

Night buses

The first night buses were in existence as early as 1913 and they also form part of the London Buses network. Originally they had their own (premium) fare structure and all the routes were distinguished by an N prefixed route number, for example the N21 running to Foots Cray or the N29 to Winchmore Hill and Enfield. Most night bus services operate from a central London terminus in Trafalgar Square. More recently, under the influence of the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, night buses have adopted the standard London bus fares. Some daytime bus routes have also started operating 24 hours a day, using the same (non-N prefixed) route number throughout the day and night. All night buses (whether on N-prefixed routes or 24-hour routes) are standard red buses. London's night bus services have seen passenger numbers soar in recent years - up by over 80% over levels at the start of the 21st century by mid 2005

Tour buses

A common sight in central London are the open-top buses (i.e. double-decker buses with an open upper deck) which provide tourist services with either live or recorded commentary. Most of these services allow passengers to embark and disembark at chosen stops along their route, continuing their journey on a later bus. There are several competing operators of such services and, although at least one paints their buses in the same red as London's local buses, they have no connection with London Buses. Fares are set by the operators and usually involve a flat fee for a day (or multiple days) usage; there is no need to pre-book and tickets can be bought from the driver and/or bus stop ticket sellers. Other more formally organised tours use luxury buses (coaches in UK English) and in generally need to be booked in advance through travel agents.

Long distance buses

Again normally called coaches in local usage, long distance buses link London with the rest of the UK and with other cities in Europe. Most of these services are run by National Express and their European affiliate Eurolines. National Express's predominantly white vehicles are common on the roads of central London, on their way to and from their terminus at Victoria Coach Station. Recently competition for long distance traffic has been introduced by Megabus, a subsidiary of the large UK bus operating company Stagecoach. This company operates cheap services aimed at students and the like, which must be booked in advance on the web. Other coach services link London to more medium distance destinations, and unlike National Express or Megabus provide walk-on fares. A good example of this are the services to the city of Oxford, where Stagecoach's frequent Oxford Tube service competes with both Go-Ahead's similar Express service and the less frequent but cheaper service from its sister company Megabus.

Airport buses

National Express is also the principal airport operator, serving Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted with its National Express Airport brand. Unlike their longer distance cousins, these services are walk-on services which serve stops throughout central London rather than running to Victoria Coach Station. London City Airport provides express shuttle bus services to connect the airport to rail and underground stations at Canning Town, Canary Wharf and Liverpool Street. These operate at a premium fare (compared to the parallel but slower London Buses services) and will probably not survive the extension of the Docklands Light Railway to the airport in late 2005.

Terrorist incidents

- February 18 1996: An improvised explosive device detonates prematurely on a bus travelling along Aldwych in central London, killing Edward O'Brien, the IRA operative transporting the device and injuring eight others.
- July 7 2005: An explosion occurred as part of a coordinated attack on London, on a double-decker bus at 09:47 (the No. 30, Hackney to Marble Arch, operated by Stagecoach Group for Transport for London which was following a planned diversion from its normal route) in Tavistock Square outside the British Medical Association (BMA) building on Upper Woburn Place, ripping the roof off the top deck and destroying the back of the bus. Thirteen people plus the suicide bomber were killed.

External links

- [http://www.tfl.gov.uk/buses/ London Bus - Transport of London]
- [http://www.londonbuspage.com/ London Bus Page]
- [http://www.londonbuses.co.uk/ London Bus]
- [http://www.overground.org/ Overground.org]
- [http://www.busesatwork.co.uk/ Bus At Work]
- [http://www.yellins.com/transporthistory Toby & John's Local Transport History]
- [http://www.transporthistory.co.uk SE London bus website with many pictures] Category:Bus transport in the United Kingdom Category:London buses

George Shillibeer

George Shillibeer, born in London, England c.1797, worked for the coach company Hatchetts in Long Acre, the coach-building district of the capital. In the 1820s he was offered work in Paris, France where he was commissioned to build some unusually large horse-drawn coaches of "novel design". The aim was to design a coach capable of transporting a whole group of people, perhaps two dozen, at a time. Shillibeer's design worked, and was very stable. It was introduced into the streets of Paris in 1827. Shortly afterwards, Shillibeer built another for a private Quaker school in Stoke Newington near London; this with a total of twenty-five seats, and which entered history as the first school bus. In 1827 Joseph Pearse, a Quaker visitor to the girl's school at Fleetwood House, Abney Park which was supported by the Quaker scientist and philanthropist William Allen, wrote a poetic verse about the school bus: The straight path of Truth the dear Girls keep their feet in, And ah! it would do your heart good Cousin Anne, To see them arriving at Gracechurch Street Meeting, All snugly packed up, 25 in a van. Whilst in Paris, Shillibeer concluded that operating similar vehicles in London but for the fare-paying public with multiple stops, would be a paying enterprise, so he returned to his native city. His first London "Omnibus" took up service on July 4 1829 on the route between Paddington, The Yorkshire Stingo and the Bank via the newly built "New Road" (now Marylebone Rd), Somers Town and City Rd. Four services were provided in each direction daily. This service was described in the first advertisements as being "upon the Parisian mode" and that " a person of great respectabilty attended his vehicle as Conductor". An account of the new service was given in the Morning Post of July 7 1829, :Saturday the new vehicle, called the Omnibus, commenced running from Paddington to the City, and excited considerable notice, both from the novel form of the carriage, and the elegance with which it is fitted out. It is capable of accommodating 16 or 18 persons, all inside, and we apprehend it would be almost impossible to make it overturn, owing to the great width of the carriage. It was drawn by three beautiful bays abreast, after the French fashion. The Omnibus is a handsome machine, in the shape of a van. The width the horses occupy will render the vehicle rather inconvenient to be turned or driven through some of the streets of London. George Shillibeer died in 1866 and is buried in the church graveyard at Chigwell in Essex. In 1979, the 150th anniversary of the commencement of the first omnibus service in London, a memorial service was held at the Chigwell Church attended by the Queen Mother. Shillibeer, George Shillibeer, George

Broadway

Broadway may mean:
-

Bus

History

Types

Manufacture and Manufacturers

Bus line operators

Types of bus service

Intercity travel

Tourism

Buses in a social context

Desegregation busing

Buses and segregation

Miscellaneous

See also

External links

References

Transport

Aspects of transport

Modes of transport

Categories of transport

Transport and communications

Transport and land use

Transport, energy, and the environment

Transport Research

See also

Computer/bus

History

Description

Bus topology

Examples of internal computer buses

Parallel

Serial

Examples of external computer buses

Parallel

Serial

Proprietary

Examples of internal/external computer buses

See also

External links

Electronics

Electronic devices today

CAD/CAM of electronic circuits

Electronic systems

Electronic test equipment

Electronic components

Analog circuits

Digital circuits

Mixed-signal circuits

Heat dissipation

Noise

Electronics theory

See also

External links

Tutorials and projects

Some other good sites

Bank of the United States

Wheel

Mechanics

History of the wheel

References

Wheeled vehicles

See also

Other options

External links

Vehicle

Types of vehicles

External Links

Public transit

History

Modern forms of public transport

Road

Rail

1826

Events

Births

Exact month/day of birth unknown

Deaths

Stagecoach

See also

External links

Reference