Total S.A.

Total S.A. (French pronunciation: ​[tɔtal]; English /toʊˈtæl/ or /toʊˈtɑːl/) is a French multinational integrated oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and international crude oil and product trading. Total is also a large-scale chemicals manufacturer. The company has its head office in the Tour Total in La Défense district in Courbevoie, west of Paris. The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.

History

Compagnie française des pétroles (CFP): 1924–1985

The company was founded after World War I, when the then French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré rejected the idea of forming a partnership with Royal Dutch Shell in favour of creating an entirely French oil company. At Poincaré's behest, Col. Ernest Mercier with the support of ninety banks and companies founded Total on 28 March 1924, as the Compagnie française des pétroles (CFP), literally the "French Petroleum Company". Petroleum was seen as vital in the case of a new war with Germany. As per the agreement reached during the San Remo conference of 1920, the French state received the 25% share held by Deutsche Bank in the Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC) as part of the compensation for war damages caused by Germany during World War I. The French government's stake in TPC was transferred to CFP, and the Red Line agreement in 1928 rearranged the shareholding of CPF in TPC (later renamed the Iraq Petroleum Company in 1929) to 23.75%. The company from the start was regarded as a private sector company in view of its listing on the Paris Stock Exchange in 1929.

S660A

In its United Kingdom Tax Bulletin 64 (April 2003), the Inland Revenue (now HM Revenue and Customs) announced new guidance on the "settlements legislation". This is a body of law which seeks to prevent someone (known as the "settlor") from avoiding tax by reclassifying income as belonging to someone else (known as the beneficiary). The income is then taxed at the beneficiary’s lower rate although the settlor continues to benefit from it. The legislation targets spouses and also parents seeking to divert income via their minor children.

The section of the legislation is 660A of the UK Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988. Using the revised (April 2003) interpretation of s.660A, UK HMRC have been targeting businesses set up by spouses where they are aware that income is split between the spouses, and only one of them directly generates that income. In theory s.660A can apply to partnerships as well as limited companies, this has yet to be tested in the UK courts. In 2007 the interpretation was finally rejected by the Law Lords, resulting in the government proposing new leglisation to tackle the perceived abuse.

S-45A

S-45A was an American satellite, which was lost in a launch failure in 1961. The satellite was intended to operate in a highly elliptical orbit, from which it was to have provided data on the shape of the ionosphere, and on the Earth's magnetic field. It was part of the Explorer programme, and would have been designated Explorer 12 had it reached orbit. It was the second of two identical satellites to be launched; the first, S-45, had also been lost in a launch failure, earlier in the year.

S-45A was launched aboard a Juno II rocket, serial number AM-19G. It was the final flight of the Juno II. The launch took place from Launch Complex 26B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 19:48:05 UTC on 24 May 1961. The system which was intended to ignite the second stage malfunctioned, and as a result that stage failed to ignite. The rocket failed to achieve orbit.

References

1N400x general-purpose diodes

The 1N4001 series (or 1N4000 series) is a family of popular 1.0 A (ampere) general-purpose silicon rectifier diodes commonly used in AC adapters for common household appliances. Blocking voltage varies from 50 to 1000 volts. This diode is made in an axial-lead DO-41 plastic package.

The 1N5400 series is a similarly popular series for higher current applications, up to 3 A. These diodes are typically available in the larger DO-201AD axial package to dissipate heat better.

Overview

These are fairly low-speed rectifier diodes, being inefficient for square waves of more than 15 kHz. The series was second sourced by many manufacturers. The 1N4000 series were in the Motorola Silicon Rectifier Handbook in 1966, as replacements for 1N2609 through 1N2617. The 1N5400 series were announced in Electrical Design News in 1968, along with the now lesser known 1.5 A 1N5391 series.

These devices are widely used and recommended.

The table below shows the maximum repetitive reverse blocking voltages of each of the members of the 1N4000 and 1N5400 series.