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Robur The Conqueror
''Robur the Conqueror'' (french: link=no, Robur-le-Conquérant) is a science fiction novel by Jules Verne, published in 1886. It is also known as ''The Clipper of the Clouds''. It has a sequel, '' Master of the World'', which was published in 1904. Plot summary The story begins with strange lights and sounds, including blaring trumpet music, reported in the skies all over the world. The events are capped by the mysterious appearance of black flags with gold suns atop tall historic landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty in New York, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. These events are all the work of the mysterious Robur (the specific epithet for the English oak (''Quercus robur'') and figuratively taken to mean "strength"), a brilliant inventor who intrudes on a meeting of a flight-enthusiasts' club called the Weldon Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Members of the Weldon Institute are all firm believers that mankind shall master the ski ...
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Léon Benett
Léon Benett (born Hippolyte Léon Benet; 1839–1916) was a French painter and illustrator. He was born in Orange, Provence. He changed his name to "Léon Benett" to differentiate his career in the French administration from his work as a draftsman. Benett is the most important illustrator of books written by Jules Verne; between 1873 and 1910 he illustrated twenty-five novels from the Voyages Extraordinaires series. He also illustrated other books by Verne. He also illustrated works of Victor Hugo, Leo Tolstoy, Thomas Mayne Reid, André Laurie, Camille Flammarion, and others. Benett's illustrations often depict exotic countries, arising from his real experiences as a government employee in which he visited Algeria, Cochinchina, Martinique, and New Caledonia. He died in Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte ...
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Dirigible
An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early dirigibles, the lifting gas used was hydrogen, due to its high lifting capacity and ready availability. Helium gas has almost the same lifting capacity and is not flammable, unlike hydrogen, but is rare and relatively expensive. Significant amounts were first discovered in the United States and for a while helium was only available for airships in that country. Most airships built since the 1960s have used helium, though some have used hot air.A few airships after World War II used hydrogen. The first British airship to use helium was the ''Chitty Bang Bang'' of 1967. The envelope of an airship may form the gasbag, or it may contain a number of gas-filled cells. An airship also has engines, crew, and optionally also payload accommodation ...
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Clipper Ship
A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century Merchant ship, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had a large total sail area. "Clipper" does not refer to a specific sailplan; clippers may be schooners, brigs, brigantines, etc., as well as full-rigged ships. Clippers were mostly constructed in British and American shipyards, although France, Brazil, the Netherlands and other nations also produced some. Clippers sailed all over the world, primarily on the trade routes between the United Kingdom and China, in transatlantic crossing, transatlantic trade, and on the New York-to-San Francisco route around Cape Horn during the California Gold Rush. Dutch clippers were built beginning in the 1850s for the tea trade and passenger service to Java. The boom years of the clipper era began in 1843 in response to a growing demand for faster delivery of ...
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Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky; November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American actor. Known for his "granite features and brawny physique," he gained international fame for his starring roles in action, Western, and war films; initially as a supporting player and later a leading man. A quintessential cinematic "tough-guy", Bronson was cast in various roles where the plot line hinged on the authenticity of the character's toughness and brawn. At the height of his fame in the early 1970s, he was the world's No. 1 box office attraction, commanding $1 million per film. Born to a Lithuanian-American coal mining family in rural Pennsylvania, Bronson served in the United States Army Air Forces as a bomber tail gunner during World War II. He worked several odd jobs before entering the film industry in the early 1950s, playing bit and supporting roles as henchmen, thugs, and other "heavies". After playing a villain in the Western film ''Drum Beat'', he was cast in ...
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Human Sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein a monarch's servants are killed in order for them to continue to serve their master in the next life. Closely related practices found in some tribal societies are cannibalism and headhunting. Human sacrifice was practiced in many human societies beginning in prehistoric times. By the Iron Age with the associated developments in religion (the Axial Age), human sacrifice was becoming less common throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia, and came to be looked down upon as barbaric during classical antiquity. In the Americas, however, human sacrifice continued to be practiced, by some, to varying degrees until the European colonization of the Americas. Today, human sacrifice has become extremely rare. Modern secular laws treat human sacrifices ...
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Strategic Bombing
Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systematically organized and executed attack from the air which can utilize strategic bombers, long- or medium-range missiles, or nuclear-armed fighter-bomber aircraft to attack targets deemed vital to the enemy's war-making capability. The term terror bombing is used to describe the strategic bombing of civilian targets without military value, in the hope of damaging an enemy's morale. One of the strategies of war is to demoralize the enemy so that peace or surrender becomes preferable to continuing the conflict. Strategic bombing has been used to this end. The phrase "terror bombing" entered the English lexicon towards the end of World War II and many strategic bombing campaigns and individual raids have been described as terror bombing by commen ...
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Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures and one for television. Price's first film role was as leading man in the 1938 comedy '' Service de Luxe''. He became well known as a character actor, appearing in films such as '' The Song of Bernadette'' (1943), '' Laura'' (1944), ''The Keys of the Kingdom'' (1944), ''Leave Her to Heaven'' (1945), '' Dragonwyck'' (1946), and ''The Ten Commandments'' (1956). He established himself as a recognizable horror-movie star after his leading role in '' House of Wax'' (1953). He subsequently starred in other horror films, including '' The Fly'' (1958), ''House on Haunted Hill'' (1959), ''Return of the Fly'' (1959), ''The Tingler'' (1959), '' The Last Man on Earth'' (1964), ''Witchfinder General'' (1968), '' The A ...
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Master Of The World (1961 Film)
''Master of the World'' is a 1961 colour science fiction film based on the Jules Verne novels ''Robur the Conqueror'' and its sequel '' Master of the World'', with a screenplay written by Richard Matheson. The film stars Vincent Price, Charles Bronson and Henry Hull and was directed by William Witney and produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff, Anthony Carras (who also edited) and James H. Nicholson. American International Pictures released the film as a double feature with a gorilla movie titled ''Konga''. Plot A man known only as Robur (Price) shoots down and takes on board his flying ship Prudent (Hull), his daughter Dorothy (Webster), her fiancé Evans (Frankham), all of whom were exploring a volcanic crater in their balloon, along with US government agent Strock (Bronson), who had hired them to look for evidence of an eruption. The supposed eruption was caused by Robur working on his airship; he had also inadvertently broadcast a biblical passage over a voice amplifier, stirri ...
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Autorotation (helicopter)
Autorotation is a state of flight in which the main rotor system of a helicopter or other rotary-wing aircraft turns by the action of air moving up through the rotor, as with an autogyro, rather than engine power driving the rotor. Bensen, Igor.How they fly – Bensen explains all" ''Gyrocopters UK''. Accessed: 10 April 2014. Quote: "air.. (is) deflected downward"Charnov, Bruce HCierva, Pitcairn and the Legacy of Rotary-Wing Flight ''Hofstra University''. Accessed: 22 November 2011. The term ''autorotation'' dates to a period of early helicopter development between 1915 and 1920, and refers to the rotors turning without the engine."Autorotation", ''Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)''. Random House, Inc. 17 April 2007
It is analogous to the

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Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about ten islands within an approximate radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island (Rangiauria). They include New Zealand's easternmost point, the Forty-Fours. Some of the islands, formerly cleared for farming, are now preserved as nature reserves to conserve some of the unique flora and fauna. The islands were uninhabited when the Moriori people arrived around 1500 CE and developed a peaceful way of life. In 1835 members of the Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama Māori iwi from the North Island of New Zealand invaded the islands and nearly exterminated the Moriori, enslaving the survivors. Later during the period of European colonisation of New Zealand, the New Zealand Company claimed that the British Crown had never include ...
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Circumnavigation
Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical object, astronomical body (e.g. a planet or natural satellite, moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the Magellan's circumnavigation, Magellan–Elcano expedition, which sailed from Sanlucar de Barrameda, Spain in 1519 and returned in 1522, after crossing the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pacific, and Indian Ocean, Indian oceans. Since the rise of commercial aviation in the late 20th century, circumnavigating Earth is straightforward, usually taking days instead of years. Today, the challenge of circumnavigating Earth has shifted towards human and technological endurance, speed, and List of circumnavigations#Miscellaneous, less conventional methods. Etymology The word ''circumnavigation'' is a noun formed from the verb ''circumnavigate'', from the past participle of the Latin verb '':wikt:circumnav ...
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Push-pull Configuration
An aircraft constructed with a push-pull configuration has a combination of forward-mounted tractor (pull) propellers, and backward-mounted ( pusher) propellers. Historical The earliest known examples of "push-pull" engined-layout aircraft include a trio of experimental German World War I designs: chronologically comprising the only Fokker twin-engined design of the period, the Fokker K.I from 1915; followed by the unusual Siemens-Schuckert DDr.I triplane fighter design of late 1917, and concluding with the laterally-offset "push-pull" Gotha G.VI bomber prototype of 1918. An early post-World War I example of a "push-pull" aircraft was the Short Tandem Twin: another was the Caproni Ca.1 of 1914 which had two wing-mounted tractor propellers and one centre-mounted pusher propeller. Around 450 of these and their successor, the Ca.3 were built. One of the first to employ two engines on a common axis (tandem push-pull) was the one-off, ill-fated Siemens-Schuckert DDr.I fighter o ...
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