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Blue Circle Industries Plc Business Information, Profile, and History

84 Eccleston Square
London,
SW1V 1PX
United Kingdom

History of Blue Circle Industries Plc

The U.K. cement industry has its roots in the early 1800s. In 1824, Joseph Aspdin, a Leeds bricklayer, patented Portland cement, although others lay claim to its invention. The early years of the U.K. cement industry were characterized by the operating of many small producers in small, regionally competitive markets. Exports represented a fair proportion of earnings for such firms, many of whom operated along the River Thames and River Medway, and shipped cement to Europe in barges. It was a tough industry in these early years, characterized by long hours and a payment-by-results system for its work force.

During the last decade of the 19th century, with U.K. cement manufacturers having enjoyed a lengthy period of little or no foreign competition, they finally began to lose their export markets to domestic production both in Europe and the United States. This situation encouraged a spate of mergers within the industry, notably that between Brooks, Shoobridge and Company and Hilton, Anderson and Company, forming Hilton, Anderson, Brooks and Company.

The formation of Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers (APCM) in 1900 was due largely to the endeavors of Henry Osborne O'Hagan, a financier whose business interests were wide and varied and who principally was involved in share issues and dealings. In this task he was aided by two others, John Bazley White, a cement manufacturer, and his solicitor, H. S. Leonard, whose goal had been to bring about the amalgamation of all the cement manufacturers in the country.

Their task was a difficult one, as the competitive nature of most manufacturers prevented them from divulging necessary information to others in the industry. By July 1900, however, contracts had been drawn up for the amalgamation of 27 cement producers. All of the 27 companies bar 3 were located in the Thames-Medway area. The others were I.C. Johnson and Company of Gateshead; C. Francis, Son and Company of the Isle of Wight; and the Arlesey Lime and Portland Cement Company of Hitchin. Four other producers who refused to join the amalgamation had reached working agreements with the group, and between these 31 producers, over 80% of the country's production was accounted for.

The flotation involved an agreement between London's main cement merchants, ensuring that all their requirements were supplied by APCM--this was the first attempt by APCM to exert market influence from its dominant position--and the purchase of 3,697 acres of freehold land, and 1,058 acres of leasehold land in areas with raw material deposits and suitable dock and wharf facilities. Also involved was the purchase of railways and rolling stock, plant, and river barges.

The new company, Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers (1900) Ltd., had a nominal capital of £8 million, and its board of directors was comprised of one member from each company, with the two largest companies able to nominate the chairman and vice chairman. However the share issue, intended to raise £7.3 million, did not go smoothly, falling £2 million short. O'Hagan, who had failed to get the issue underwritten, had to return to the vendors, who finally agreed to find another £1.1 million, as did O'Hagan. Further trouble arose when three of the vendor firms broke away from the association, apparently unhappy with the lack of public support for the issue.

APCM attempted to impose a higher level of prices in the market, but the builders' merchants, led by George Wragge, reacted by increasing imports until prices assumed their previous levels. These were difficult times for Frederick White, the first chairman, and his 25-strong board of directors. By 1907, in the face of increasing competition in the domestic market, APCM's share of U.K. output had fallen to three-fifths of its 1900 level, and it was struggling to maintain market share in London.

The association sought a price agreement in its early years, with O'Hagan once again playing a major role, although many agreements were made and broken as competition and the rapid use of new technology caused prices to fall. It was clearly beneficial to APCM to secure such an agreement to enable it to set output levels among its constituent manufacturers and ensure a steady production rate in the medium to long term.

Over this period, 1906 to 1910, there were changes on the board of directors. Lord St. Davids was offered the post of chairman when it came to light that three-quarters of the ordinary shares were owned by a syndicate headed by this prominent financier and industrialist. It was agreed between O'Hagan and Lord St. Davids that a further £2 million would be found to try to secure a complete amalgamation of the cement industry.

This undertaking led to a spate of mergers over the next few years, starting with the takeover of Trechmann, Weekes and Company, and--most notably--G. and T. Earle, a high-quality cement producer operating in Lancashire and Yorkshire.

By December 1911, British Portland Cement Manufacturers was formed as a subsidiary of APCM, with capital of £3.5 million. BPCM contained 33 firms which had been taken over by APCM, and together they controlled around 75% of the industry. A.C. Davis of the Saxon and Norman Cement Company was appointed managing director in control of production. Although he was initially opposed to the amalgamation, his experience and knowledge of cement manufacture was unrivalled, and of great value to the newly formed subsidiary.

During World War I, APCM played a small, but significant role, placing its labor and transport resources at the disposal of the Admiralty, and promising all its workers their jobs back after the war. At the end of the war, the boards of both APCM and BPCM amalgamated, and thereafter both companies shared a board of directors.

An important development in 1918 was the formation of the Cement Makers Federation (CMF), intended to negotiate on behalf of the industry and promote greater cooperation within it. The CMF's members constituted 90% of the industry and it set local prices throughout the United Kingdom The first two CMFs failed, but the third achieved a small degree of success under an independent chairman, Viscount Woolmer.

After World War I came the slump of the early 1920s, but by the middle of the decade output rose. Over this period, a financial group had been acquiring ordinary shares until APCM was forced to admit Sir Philip Nash of Metropolitan Vickers, and General Critchley, both representatives of the Associated Anglo-Atlantic Corporation, to its board. A young financier by the name of Henry Horne was the head of this corporation; it appears his intent was to gain overall control, although he was bankrupted in the attempt.

In the aftermath, General Critchley pushed for a reduction in the number of executive directors, as APCM was top-heavy, and used the £100,000 annual salaries APCM saved to pay dividends on the ordinary shares. Despite a frosty response this was carried out, leaving only five executive directors, namely Sir Malcolm Stewart as chairman, Alfred Stevens as finance director, Harold Anderson as sales director, and A.C. Davis in charge of works. General Critchley stayed on in charge of publicity, transport, and personnel.

A common-price agreement was reached in 1934, covering price and production arrangements, and by December of that year was in operation in the form of a price and quota scheme. This agreement, although shaky at first, in fact lasted until 1987, and helped APCM determine investment levels, production, and sales.

World War II led to a dramatic increase in production as the United Kingdom prepared its coastal defenses beginning in 1940. However, most government contracts had been completed by 1944, leading to a general decline in sales and a shortage of orders. During the war, two of APCM's most influential figures retired, Alfred Stevens and Charles Davis. Alfred Stevens had been the first secretary of the association, and a managing director since 1906. He had played a vital role in the formation of BPCM.

The first postwar annual meeting, on July 16, 1946, was notable for the retirement of Sir Malcolm Stewart as chairman. He then became president, while the chairmanship went to George Earle, previously of G. and T. Earle. These were difficult times for APCM, which was under threat of nationalization, and also faced problems with the Town and Country Planning Act, which made it more difficult to develop industrial sites on new land.

The threat of nationalization receded in the 1950s. This was a period of rapid expansion in the cement industry, with large-scale public-sector projects in hand. By January 1957, when the new chairman John Reiss was appointed, record figures for both domestic production and exports were announced.

Throughout the early years of the next decade, the company was still pursuing the course of expansion through acquisition, the most notable acquisitions being the Midland Gravel Company and Hilton Gravel, both major quarrying firms. These formed the basis of Blue Circle's sand and gravel division.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, APCM faced problems in developing new sites as it sought to expand its production facilities. Most of these problems were caused by the Town and Country Planning Act, and a shift in public opinion toward conservation. However, despite many hold-ups, APCM managed to develop works at Westbury, Wiltshire; a mineral works on the Humber; and cement works at Shoreham in Kent, Dunstable in Bedfordshire, Hope, Cauldon in Staffordshire, and Dunbar in Scotland.

In 1965 John Reiss commissioned the management consultants McKinsey & Company, to analyze APCM's management structure and methods and present a report detailing its findings, conclusions, and recommendations. This report was completed by October 1966; it suggested that the existing management structure was inadequate for the future development of the company. The report concluded that there was no visible cohesion between the fina.gnce department, the works department, and the sales department, and that this was having an adverse effect on the profitability of the company.

However, few of McKinsey's recommendations were acted upon in the late 1960s. There was a general feeling that the existing structure had proved itself, and that the proposals for change were too radical. It took a new chairman, Anthony Binny, to recall McKinsey in 1976, and implement these changes in 1977.

In 1978 APCM became Blue Circle Industries. By now the group had four operating groups, namely Blue Circle Cement UK, the largest, and run by John Duthie; Blue Circle Enterprises, responsible for the sale and manufacture of non-cement products, run by Tom Chesterfield; Blue Circle Technical, responsible for research and development, run by David Stirling; and Blue Circle International, responsible for overseas investments and international consultancy activities. The head of this division, responsible for around half of the group's total profits, was Dr. Gordon Marshall.

The most important event in the company's activities toward the end of the 1960s was the construction of the North-fleet works, the largest cement works of its type in the world, which finally came on stream in the early 1970s. This new plant provided Blue Circle with the opportunity to shut down some of its older and less economical factories while still gaining from a net increase in capacity.

The oil crisis and high inflation of 1973 were unfavorable for the company, but a coal strike added a new dimension to its troubles, with the three-day week and cuts in electricity consumption reducing production levels, and creating two million tons of excess capacity by 1975, as exports fell and firms closed down. Sir John Reiss, chairman for 18 years, retired in 1975 and was replaced by Norman Mullins. Sir John Reiss had joined APCM in 1934, succeeded Sir George Earle as chairman in 1957, and was best remembered for his foresight in developing Blue Circle's overseas interests. His replacement, Norman Mullins, died a year after taking over as chairman, leaving Anthony Binny as chairman.

During the last years of the decade and the first years of the 1980s, Blue Circle, began expanding once again, through a series of acquisitions both at home and abroad. The most notable investments were an 82% stake in the Chilean cement company Fabrica de Cemento El Melan, later raised to 96% at a cost of £23 million, and the purchase of Armitage Shanks, a bathroom-fittings manufacturer, in 1980. The purchase of Armitage Shanks showed the extent to which Blue Circle had diversified, and was evidence of its desire to enter the lucrative North American market. Soon Blue Circle had acquired a Texan company, Kilgore Ceramics, expanded its interests in Malaysia and South Africa, and taken over Aberthaw Cement in south Wales.

In the 1980s, Blue Circle's overseas profits dipped dramatically as Chile and Mexico experienced debt problems, affecting sterling values of overseas profits. However, this was offset by continued expansion in the U.S. market. Blue Circle's special products division was absorbed into Blue Circle Enterprises after it continually failed to produce a significant contribution to group profits.

U.S. expansion continued with the purchase of three cement plants from Martin Marietta, based in Oklahoma, Alabama, and Georgia, at a cost of $100 million . This was followed in 1985 by the purchase of the Atlantic Cement Company in New York State for $145 million. Blue Circle now had around 6% of the U.S. market, a considerable achievement in a short time.

Throughout this period of expansion and acquisition, Blue Circle has continually upgraded its existing plants. It has not been afraid to dispose of parts of the group that fail to realize the required level of profits as was the case with Blue Circle Aggregates, sold in 1981, and two builders' merchants, Macnaughton Blair and Johnson and Patan of Scotland.

The year 1989 saw U.K. cement profits rise by nearly 50%, reflecting an increased level of construction activity in the United Kingdom, and the acquisition of Myson, a producer of plumbing and heating equipment. The group also sold its interests in Mexico for £250 million.

Blue Circle's investment in the modernization of existing plants is likely to continue into the next century, with particular expansion in the U.S. market across all its product ranges.

Principal Subsidiaries: Associated International Cement Ltd.; Blue Circle Property Holdings Ltd.; Blue Circle Dartford Estates Ltd.; Crossways 25 Ltd. (50%); Saxon Developments Ltd.; The Ockley Brick Company Ltd.; Ockley Building Products Ltd.; Armitage Shanks Group Ltd.; Birmid Qualcast PLC; Atco Ltd.; New World Domestic Appliances Ltd.; Potterton International Ltd.; Qualcast Garden Products Ltd.; Qualcast Bathrooms Ltd.; Myson Group PLC; Cemento Melon SA (Chile, 98%); Malayan Cement Berhad (59%); Armitage Shanks (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd.; Blue Circle Holdings Inc. (U.S.A.); Blue Circle Inc. (U.S.A.); Blue Circle Atlantic Inc. (U.S.A.); Blue Circle Raia Inc. (U.S.A.); Blue Circle Aggregates Inc. (U.S.A.); Circle Cement Ltd. (Zimbabwe, 76%); Wright Rain Africa (Private) Ltd. (Zimbabwe).

Related information about Blue

In the UK, a sporting honour awarded at Oxford and Cambridge universities to students who represent their university against the other in the annual matches of certain sports. Ribbons of dark blue (Oxford) or light blue (Cambridge) were first awarded to competitors after the second Boat Race in 1836, but now holders may wear ties, blazers, and sweaters in the appropriate colour.

otheruses
Blue is any of a number of similar colors. blue light has the shortest wavelength range of the three additive primary colors. The English language commonly uses "blue" to refer to any color from navy blue to cyan.

The complementary (opposite) color of blue is yellow.

Blue in RGB system

In the RGB color system, colors are formed by mixing a red, a green and a blue color.

Naming and etymology

Blue in English

The modern English word blue(german:blau) comes from the Middle English, bleu or blwe, which came from an Old French word bleu of Germanic origin (Frankish or possibly Old High German blao, "shining"). A Scots and Scottish English word for "blue-grey" is blae, from the Middle English bla ("dark blue," from the Old English bl脱d). see flavescent and flavine), with Greek phalos (white), French blanche (white) (loaned from Old Frankish), and with Russian ?????, belyi ("white," see beluga), and Welsch blawr (grey) all of which derive (according to the American Heritage Dictionary) from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhel- meaning "to shine, flash or burn", (more specifically the word bhle-was, which meant light coloured, blue, blond, or yellow), from whence came the names of various bright colors, and that of color black from a derivation meaning "burnt" (other words derived from the root bhel- include bleach, bleak, blind, blink, blank, blush, blaze, flame, fulminate, flagrant and phlegm). Some Nguni languages of southern Africa, including Tswana languageure momaa na utilize the same word for blue and green. In traditional Welsh (and related Celtic languages), glas could refer to blue but also to certain shades of green and grey; Instead, it traditionally treats light blue (???????, goluboy) as a separate color independent from plain or dark blue (?????, siniy), with all 7 "basic" colors of spectrum (red - orange - yellow - green - (:ru:??????? / goluboy / light blue, not equal cyan) - (:ru:????? / siniy / dark blue) - violet);

Blue in the environment

A clear sky on a sunny day appears blue because of Rayleigh scattering of the light from the Sun.

Large quantities of water appear blue because red light around 750 nm is absorbed as an overtone of the O-H stretching vibration. weber) is a blue-leafed variety of the Mexican agave, used for making tequila.

Bluebonnets are two lupine annual flowers in the Lupinus genus that are native to Texas: Lupinus subcarnosus and Lupinus texensis. In Scots it refers to the bird Parus c?ruleus.
Bluebell may refer to both the bulbous plants in the Hyacinthoides genus of lilies, or the plants in the genus Mertensia.
Blueberry refers to any of the plants in the genus Vaccinium, all of which have flowers with edible berries colored blue to blue-black, which are also called "blueberries".
Blue Flag Iris, Iris versicolor, also commonly known as the Harlequin Blueflag.
Blue Jacaranda, an ornamental tree with blue flowers.

Animals

The Blue Jay is a bird within the family corvidae.
Cobalt blue tarantulas are large, brightly colored spiders.
Hyacinth Macaw, as well as many other species of parrot.
Bluebill is a synonym for scaup, the name for two diving ducks in the Aythya genus: Greater Scaup (Aythya marila) and Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis).
Bluebirds are any of the North American songbirds in the genus Sialia: Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis), Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana), or Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides). They are medium-sized thrushes that usually have blue plumage and, in males, a rust-color breast.
Blueback salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) is a synonym for sockeye salmon.
Blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus)are the largest animals in the world.
Bluebottles or blow-flies are any of the flies in the genus Calliphiora that have a brightly-colored metallic body and breed in decaying organic material. Bluebottle is also another name of the Portuguese man-of-war, Physalia.
Blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) is a long bluish North American catfish species, often weighing more than 45 kg (100 pounds).
Blue poison dart frogs (Dendrobates azureus) are poisonous South American frogs that bioaccumulate neurotoxins in their blue skin.

When a dog or cat is described as having a "blue" coat, it refers to a shade of grey which takes on a bluish tint, and diluted variant of a pure black coat. Breeds such as the Kerry Blue Terrier dog and Russian Blue cat have solid "blue" coats, as does the "British Blue" variety of the British Shorthair cat. Others, such as the Australian Shepherd and Border Collie, may have blue merle coats, which is "blue" mixed in with a solid, usually brown or black, base color. (See also Blue Dog Democrats, below).

The western skink has a brilliant cobalt blue tail.

Geography

Mountains and ranges

Blテ・ Jungfrun (the Blue Virgin), a small island hill off the coast of southeast Sweden, near the larger island of テ僕and, traditionally thought to be a meeting place of witches (according to tradition such a mountain is called Blテ・kulla, but only exists in legend)
Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland. Other ranges termed the "Blue Mountains" are found in northeastern Oregon (North America) and elsewhere.
Blue Ridge Mountains, eastern edge or front range of the Appalachian Mountains.
Sinite Kam?ni (Bulgarian: ?????? The Blue Stones) is a rocky massive in Eastern Stara Planina Mountain immediately North of the town of Sliven in Bulgaria.

Rivers

Blue Nile, a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia.
Blue Earth River, a tributary of the Minnesota River in Minnesota, United States. The Blue Earth River is named from the bluish green earth that was used by the Sisseton Dakota as a pigment, found in a shaley layer of the rock bluff of this stream about three miles from the river mouth.

Symbolism and expressions

Blue often denotes injury, such as in the phrase "black and blue," since it is the color of a bruise. This shift occurred in the 2000 Presidential election in which states which leaned toward Al Gore were colored blue by the major news networks and those that leaned towards George W. The phrase "true blue" also means "genuine" (example : "He's a true blue Aussie").

Blue comedy is comedy that uses references to socially taboo subjects such as sexual or lavatorial double entendre. This term is most common in Britain but also used in the United States and Israel.

Blue law is the term for laws regulating issues of morality, such as alcohol, gambling, or pornography.

Although blue is traditionally associated with boys as pink is associated with girls, there have also been periods in which pink was considered proper for boys and blue for girls, and times when no set color convention appears to have been in place.

Blue is the color of the snooker ball which has a 5-point value.

Blue is a variety of credit card issued by American Express.
The German word for blue is used for "drunk". "blau machen" (make blue) means to skip work.
In Russian, the word for light blue is slang for "gay".
In auto racing, a blue flag advises a car to yield to faster traffic behind.
Blue balls is a slang term for a temporary fluid congestion in the scrotum and prostate region.
Royalty are sometimes described as having blue blood.
A "blue chip" is the nickname for a stock that is thought to be safe and in excellent financial shape.
In the United States, $1 bills are delivered by the Federal Reserve Bank in blue straps.
Blue is the color claimed by the Crips street gang.
Blueprint is a term for a design of something, usually important items.

Books and written works

In the United Kingdom the traditional covering for Parliamentary and official publications and reports in the nineteenth century was a deep blue, and the reports came to be known as "blue books". The Blue Book is a term for a policy document issued by the Federal Communications Commission in the United States in 1946, urging television networks to uphold their commitment to public service. Compare with the yellow pages or white pages.

In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy there are many references to the Hooloovoo, "a super-intelligent shade of the color blue."

In House of Leaves every instance of the word House is in blue.

On Being Blue: A Philosophical Inquiry is a book-length essay by William H.

IBM's chess computer (which defeated chess champion Garry Kasparov) was called Deep Blue.

Users of Microsoft Windows often use the term "blue" to describe a computer that has encountered a "blue screen of death."

A blue box is an electronic device with a tone pulsator that simulates a telephone operator's dialing console by replicating the tones used to switch long-distance calls and using them to route the user's own call, bypassing the normal switching mechanism.

In medical diagrams, blue is used to represent veins carrying deoxygenated blood back to the heart. The blue color of veins is associated with deoxygenated myoglobin, a compound similar to hemoglobin and found in tissues.

In astronomy, a blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month, the third full moon in a season that has four, or a moon that appears blue because of particles in the atmosphere. www.dow.com/styrofoam/what.htm

In the CIE 1931 color space, the complement of blue is yellow.

Blue 80A filters are used to correct the excessive redness of tungsten lighting in color photography.

The Blu-ray and HD DVD formats utilize a blue-violet laser operating at a wavelength of 405 nm. Conventional DVDs and CDs use red and infrared lasers at 650 nm and 780 nm respectively.

National, athletic, and university associations

Azzurro, a light blue, is the national color of Italy (from the livery color of the former reigning family, the House of Savoy).

Blue (along with white) is the national color of Greece and Israel and the color is seen on the Israeli and Greek flags.

Dark blue is associated with the University of Oxford and Florida International University Light blue is associated with the University of Cambridge. Other universities with the mascot include Central Connecticut State University, Dillard University, Lawrence Technological University, State University of New York at Fredonia, and the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

The Columbus Blue Jackets are a National Hockey League team based in Columbus, Ohio. The Blue Jays are the mascots of the Toronto Blue Jays, a Major League Baseball team, and its two minor league affiliates: the Dunedin Blue Jays in Dunedin, Florida, and the Pulaski Blue Jays in Pulaski, Virginia. Law enforcement, and uniformed police, often wear blue uniforms and have become associated with the color, as seen in phrases such as "boys in blue," "blue line," and "blue wall." Most police cars have blue colors, and United Nations peacekeepers are uniformed in blue and white. Since laws prohibit police from declaring a strike, the "blue flu" is a "sickout": a type of strike action in which police call in sick.

Blue is associated with many air forces and navies because of the color of their dress uniforms, while green is associated with armies.

Navy blue is a particular shade of blue worn by sailors in the Royal Navy since 1748 and subsequently adopted by other navies around the world. The Blue Angels are an acrobatic flight squadron of the United States Navy.
In the United States Army, "Old Glory Blue" (Navy blue) is the color of infantry, "Cobalt Blue" is the color of the Chemical Corps, "Oriental Blue" is the color of Military Intelligence, and Ultramarine Blue is the color of the Army Aviation.
When the United States Air Force became independent from the Army in 1947, it inherited ultramarine blue as its distinctive color.
The Royal Air Force and many other air forces use "Air Force Blue" (Sky blue) as their distinctive colour; however their uniforms are often in blue-gray or dark blue.

Blue has historically been used for many uniforms of the French military.

Political associations

Main article: Political colour

Blue, like white, may represent authority, as opposed to revolutionary red or anarchist black.

Internationally, blue is the symbol for conservatism and conservative political parties. There are several notable exceptions and different meanings other than the conservatism:

Nation	Political party	Ideology	Color(s)
Australia	Liberal Party	Liberal conservatism	Blue
Bulgaria	Union of Democratic Forces(SDS)	Liberal conservatism	Blue
Canada	Bloc Quテゥbテゥcois	Quebec sovereignty/Social democracy	Light blue
Canada	Conservative Party	Conservatism/right-wing	Blue
Republic of China	Kuomintang(Chinese Nationalist Party,KMT)	Three Principles of the People/Chinese reunification/Conservatism/Anti-communism/Chinese nationalism	Blue
Finland	National Coalition Party	Liberal conservatism	Blue
Germany	Free Democratic Party	Liberalism	Blue and yellow
Malta	Nationalist Party	Christian democracy/Conservatism	Blue
Paraguay	Authentic Radical Liberal Party	Liberalism	Blue
Portugal	Democratic and Social Center / People's Party	Christian democracy/Conservatism/right-wing	Blue
Puerto Rico	New Progressive Party	Puerto Rican statehood	Blue
Sweden	Moderate Party	Liberal conservatism	Blue
United Kingdom	Conservative Party	Conservatism	Blue
United States	Democratic Party	Liberalism	Blue*

*In the United States, since the 2000 presidential election, blue represents the Democratic Party, and "blue states" are states that tend to favor the Democrats. (The rival right-wing Republicans became associated with red, and states that favor the Republicans are "red states." The Blue Dog Democrat coalition is a caucus of conservative Democrats in Congress.

During the American Civil War, blue was used to represent the Union, while gray represented the Confederacy. This representation was based on the uniforms worn by the respective armies, although uniforms remained non-standard throughout the war and sometimes the colors were switched.
The coalition with the Kuomintang(KMT), People's First Party, and the New Party in Taiwan, which favors unification with mainland China is called the Pan-blue coalition due to the color of the party banner of the Kuomintang which is considered the dominant party of the coalition.

Religion

Blue plays a symbolic role in a number of world religions. In the Hindu faith, persons of a transcendental, or divine nature are displayed as being blue in colour to indicate their dark complexion. To many Jews, because of its association with religious tradition, popular folklore, and the modern state of Israel, it has become the quintessential Jewish color.

In the Torah, the Israelites were commanded to put fringes, tzitzit, on the corners of their garments, and to weave within these fringes a ?twisted thread of blue (tekhelet).? Numbers 15:38. In ancient days, this blue thread was made from a dye extracted from a Mediterranean snail called the hilazon. Blue has been considered especially effective against the Evil Eye, perhaps because blue eyes are such a rarity among Semitic peoples and because blue is so rare in the plant and animal world.

According to several rabbinic sages, blue is the color of God?s Glory. Numbers Rabbah 14:3; in Arabic.) Many items in the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary in the wilderness, such as the menorah, many of the vessels, and the Ark of the Covenant, were covered with blue cloth when transported from place to place. Numbers 4:6-12.

The Israeli flag has two blue stripes and a blue Star of David against a white background. Modern tallitot, for example, often have blue stripes on a white background.

For more, see Blue in Judiasm.

Television

Blue is the color and name of the main character (a dog) in the preschool animated educational television show Blue's Clues.

On Star Trek, medical and scientific personnel wear blue uniforms.

On Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Blue notes are the most important notes in the blues scale.

Bands called "Blue" include two British musical groups: the rock group Blue and the boy band Blue. Blue Man Group is a performance art group founded in New York City in 1987.

Blue Train is an influential jazz album by John Coltrane. Rhapsody in Blue is a symphonic jazz composition for jazz band, piano, and orchestra by George Gershwin, while Love is Blue is a popular tune from the 1960s originally recorded by Vicky Leandros and most notably performed by Paul Mauriat.

"Blue" has been used as a song title by many artists, notably LeAnn Rimes and Eiffel 65. Cristian Castro's song "Azul" (Spanish for "blue") repeats the line "This love is blue as the sea" (Este amor es azul como el mar).

Other songs which use the word blue include:

"We the People Who Are Darker than Blue" by Curtis Mayfield, appearing on his debut album
"Blue Room in Archway" and "Song from the Blueroom" by The Boo Radleys, both appearing on the album Kingsize
"Blue Jay Way" and "For You Blue" by The Beatles (both written by George Harrison), appearing on the albums Magical Mystery Tour and Let It Be respectively
"Blue Turns to Grey" by The Rolling Stones
"Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who, appearing on the album Who's Next
"Blue" by Yoko Kanno, featured in hit Japanese anime Cowboy Bebop
"Blue Savannah" by Erasure, appearing on the album Wild!
"Dark Blue" by No Doubt, the last track on their album "Return of Saturn"
"Tangled Up in Blue" by Bob Dylan, the first track on the album Blood on the Tracks
"Miss Blue" by Filter, Appearing as the last listed track on the album Title of Record
"The Blues Are Still Blue" by Belle And Sebastian
"Blue Orchid" by The White Stripes is the first single for their fifth album, "Get Behind Me, Satan".
"Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65
"Blue" by A Perfect Circle
"The Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss II
"Blue Shades" by Frank Ticheli
"The Blue" by David Gilmour, the third track on the album On An Island.
"Blue" by The Sugababes
"Blue Monday" by New Order (original) as well as Orgy (remake / cover)
"Post Blue" by Placebo
"Out of the Blue" by Delta Goodrem, the first single on the album Mistaken Identity
"Still Got The Blues" by Gary Moore, from the album of the same name
"Blue Spanish Sky" by Chris Isaak from the album Heart Shaped World (on which Wicked Game is also recorded)

Use in painting

Traditionally, blue has been considered a primary color in painting, with the secondary color orange as its complement, but this is not consistent with modern scientific color theory. As the mixing of pigments is a subtractive color process, the true primary colors in painting and printing are cyan, magenta and yellow (with black often added for practical reasons;

Blue pigments

Azurite
Cerulean blue
Cobalt blue
Milori B

Natural etalons of blue

Emission spectrum of Cu²⁺
Electronic spectrum of aqua-ions CuH₂O₅²⁺

Additional topics

Company HistoryConstruction Materials

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