Abstract. We show, by presenting two examples, that a somewhat forgotten condition of Hasegawa (Proc Jpn Acad 40:262-266, 1964) is useful in proving convergence of operator semigroups, and may be more handy than the standard range condition. Also, we present the semigroup related to Blackwell's example (Ann Math Statist 29:313-316, 1958) as an infinite product of commuting Markov semigroups. Intriguingly, it is hard to find a manageable description of the generator of this semigroup. As a result, it is much easier to prove the existence of the infinite product involved by direct argument than it is to do this using the Trotter-KatoSova-Kurtz-Hasegawa theory.Mathematics Subject Classification. 47D06, 47D09.