The Sangam literature (Tamil: சங்க இலக்கியம், caṅka ilakkiyam), historically known as 'the poetry of the noble ones' (Tamil: சான்றோர் செய்யுள், Sāṉdṟōr Seyyuḷ), connotes the early classical Tamil literature and is the earliest known literature of South India. The Tamil tradition links it to legendary literary gatherings around Madurai in the ancient Pandya kingdom. It is generally accepted by most scholars that the historical Sangam literature era, also known as the Sangam period, spanned from c. 100 BCE to 250 CE, on the basis of linguistic, epigraphic, archaeological, numismatic and historical data; though some scholars give a broader range of 300 BCE to 300 CE and new archaeological findings push the date back to 600 BCE.
The Eighteen Greater Texts (Patiṉeṇmēlkaṇakku), along with the Tamil grammar work Tolkappiyam, are collectively considered as Sangam literature. These texts are classified into the Ettuttokai (Eight Anthologies) and Pattupattu (Ten Idylls). They encompass both Akam (interior) themes, focusing on personal emotions and love, and Puram (exterior) themes, emphasizing heroism, ethics, and societal values. Notable works include Akananuru (400 love poems), Purananuru (400 heroic poems), Kurunthogai (short love poems), and Natrinai (poems set in five landscapes). The Pattuppāṭṭu highlights specific regions and rulers, with works like Malaipadukadam and Perumpanarrupadai serving as guides to wealth and prosperity.
The Sangam literature fell into obscurity for much of the 2nd millennium CE but was preserved by monasteries near Kumbakonam. These texts were rediscovered and compiled in the 19th century by Tamil scholars, notably Mahamahopadhyaya Dr. U.V. Swaminatha Iyer. Over five decades, Iyer undertook extensive travels to locate palm-leaf manuscripts, leading to the revival of ancient Tamil history, including insights into the Chera, Chola, and Pandya kingdoms, Tamil chieftains such as Pari, and the rich descriptions of Sangam landscapes and culture.
The Black Sand and Gold Recovery Company was an early twentieth-century mining and industrial enterprise based in Chicago, Illinois, organized to extract gold, iron, and other valuable minerals from the black sands of the Pacific Coast.
Incorporated in Arizona with a capital stock of five million dollars, the company was built around the patented Lovett Magnetic Separator, invented by Chicago engineer Thomas J. Lovett, which could separate iron from wet sand and recover metals such as gold, platinum, and zircon. The company was created by Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn a physician and publisher known for his Chicago School of Psychology and as editor of Suggestion magazine, engineer and inventor Thomas J. Lovett, and businessman John H. McFarland. Its board of directors included J. F. Batchelder of the U.S. Government's Lewis and Clark Exposition, William Hoskins industrialist and National Vice President of the American Chemical Society and Henry W. Hoyt of Allis-Chalmers. The Lovett Magnetic Separator was publicly demonstrated in 1905 at the Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland, Oregon, where government metallurgists confirmed that the black sands contained large recoverable quantities of gold and iron.
Dr. Parkyn would serve as the fiscal agent and promoted the company widely through his Suggestion magazine and affiliated journals, emphasizing its patented control over the Lovett process and its potential to commercialize the government-verified mineral wealth of the Pacific Coast black sands. Parkyn's use of his magazine as a central marketing tool was part of a wider trend in the emerging New Thought movement of the day, where publications combined teachings on success and mental science with the promotion of business and investment ventures.
The Motzorongo Plantation Company was an American-owned agricultural enterprise in Veracruz, Mexico, organized in 1902 by Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn and his father, James Parkyn, of Chicago. Both were associated with the Chicago School of Psychology, which they had establish, and applied its New Psychology principles of confidence, cooperation, and scientific management to business. Promoted through Parkyn's magazine Suggestion, the venture was presented as a model of moral and industrial progress, combining large-scale agriculture with the New Thought ideals of mental science and practical success. Centered on a estate featuring a modern sugar mill, coffee and rubber groves, and private rail connections, it was the largest American-controlled property in Mexico for many years.
The company gained international attention in April 1914 when reports claimed that General Victoriano Huerta’s troops had captured and executed twenty American employees of the Motzorongo Plantation. The alleged killings, relayed by Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan to Parkyn, sparked national outrage and brought the United States and Mexico to the brink of war before the reports were proven false and the prisoners released.
Operation Fitzwilliam was a highly classified US Air Force operation with the objective of developing methods for Long Range Detection (LRD) of nuclear detonations. Conducted in conjunction with Operation Sandstone, the 1948 atomic tests at Eniwetok Atoll, it integrated airborne radioactive debris collection, seismic monitoring, and atmospheric acoustic wave detection to ensure that the U.S. could detect, track, and analyze nuclear detonations worldwide.