Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2022 December 2

= December 2 =

Ownership in the United States
Who possesses ownership rights over the United States, government, real property, finance, and commerce? Is it Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Larry Page? Is it Rupert Murdoch, Brian L. Roberts, Anne Cox Chambers, and Peter Thiel? What about Charles Koch, George Soros, Jim Walton, Mark Cuban, JB Pritzker, Mitch McConnell, Stephen Schwarzman, Oprah Winfrey, Jack Ma, Ray Dalio, and Larry Ellison? 135.180.147.13 (talk) 02:33, 2 December 2022 (UTC)
 * The government owns it. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 03:24, 2 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Your question is too vague to be answerable. Real property is owned by millions of different people. See real property and ownership rights. The people you name all have ownership rights over lots of stuff. Shantavira|feed me 09:44, 2 December 2022 (UTC)

Earliest railway locomotive eponym
Which was the first railway locomotive to be named after a living person? The first I can find is Earl of Airlie (locomotive) in September 1833. Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:30, 2 December 2022 (UTC)


 * A Natural History of Proper Naming in the Context of Emerging Mass Production: The Case of British Railway Locomotives before 1846 is a fascinating read, and I hope would be an acceptable source. The earliest I see in a quick scan is one called Prince Regent from 1812. 70.67.193.176 (talk) 16:48, 2 December 2022 (UTC)
 * A fascinating read indeed; thank you. Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 17:42, 2 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Although our article on John Blenkinsop, the designer and builder of that 1812 locomotive, says;
 * Three other locomotives followed, one later in 1812, one around 1813, and the last one in 1815. One of these three was named Lord Wellington, and the other two allegedly were named Prince Regent and Marquis Wellington, though there is no contemporary mention of those names.
 * Another contender is the 1813 Blücher, named after Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, the hero of the Battle of Leipzig in October of that year. However, I suspect this may also have been a later appellation, since Blücher may not have been a household name in Britain until he pulled our irons out of the fire at Waterloo in the summer of 1815. Alansplodge (talk) 12:34, 3 December 2022 (UTC)