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tained with convenience by the simple wheel and axle (see Mechanics), it frequently becomes necessary to transmit the effect of the power to the resistance, through a system of wheels and axles acting upon each other. As the wheel and axle is only a modification of the lever, so a system of such machines, acting one upon another, is only another form of the compound lever. In complex wheel-work, the power is applied to the circumference of the first wheel, which transmits its effect to the circumference of the second wheel, which again transfers the effect to the circumference of the second axle, which acts upon the circumference of the third wheel, and this, in the same way, transmits the effect to the circumference of the third axle, and thus the transmission of the force is continued until it has arrived at the circumference of the last axle, to which the weight or resistance is applied. In light work, where the pressure on the machinery is not very considerable, the wheels and axles are allowed to work by the friction of their surfaces, which is increased by cutting the wood so that the grains of the surfaces in contact shall run in opposite directions; also by gluing upon the surfaces of the wheels and axles buffed leather. There are other ways of transmitting the force of each axle to the circumference of the succeeding wheel. A very common method is, by ropes, straps, bands, or belts, round the circumference of the wheel and axle, which act upon each other. The action is in this manner transmitted by the tension of the rope or strap, and rendered effective by friction with the circumferences on which it is rolled. Wheels and axles connected in this manner are called band-wheels. When the wheel and axle from which it receives motion, are intended to revolve in the same direction, the band is not crossed, but simply passed round them in the shortest manner; but, when the wheel is to revolve in a direction contrary to the revolution of the axle, the strap is crossed between them. This latter method of applying the strap, has the advantage of having more surface to act upon, and, therefore, having more friction; but the most usual way of transmitting the action of the axles to the succeeding wheels, is by means of teeth or cogs, raised on their surfaces. When this is the case, the cogs on the wheels are generally called teeth, and those on the surface of the axle are called leaves. The axle itself, in this case, is called a pinion. The connexion of one toothed wheel with another, in this manner, is

called gear or gearing. The teeth of the wheel, instead of working in the leaves of a pinion, are sometimes made to act upon a form of wheel called a lantern, with cylindrical teeth or bars, called trundles or spindles. Wheels are denominated spur, crown, or bevel-gear, according to the direction or position of the teeth. If the teeth are perpendicular to the axis of the wheel, and in the direction of its radii, it is called a spur-wheel. If the teeth are parallel to the axis of the wheel, and therefore perpendicular to its plane, it is called a crown-wheel. Two spur-wheels, or a spur-wheel and pinion which work in one another, are always in the same plane, and have their axes parallel; but, when a spur and crown-wheel are in connexion, their planes and axes are at right angles. By this means, therefore, rotatory motion may be transferred from a horizontal to a vertical plane, or vice versa. When the teeth are oblique to the plane or axiswheel, it is called a bevelled wheel. In this case, the surfaces on which the teeth are raised, are parts of the surfaces of two cones. The use of the bevelled wheels is to produce a rotatory motion round one axis, by means of a rotatory motion round another which is oblique to it; and, provided that the two axes are in the same plane, this may always be accomplished by two bevelled wheels.

WHEELS, WHeel Carriages. Locomotion.)

(See

WHEELS, WATER. (See Hydraulics.) WHEELER, Sir George, a learned traveller, was born in 1650, and, in 1667, became a commoner of Lincoln hall, Oxford, on leaving which he travelled into Greece and Asia, in company with doctor Spon of Lyons, their primary object being to copy inscriptions and describe antiquities. On his return, he presented to the university of Oxford a valuable collection of Greek and Latin manuscripts. In 164 he took orders, obtained a prebend in the church of Durham, and was presented to the rich rectory of Houghton-le-Spring. He was created doctor of divinity in 1702, and died in February, 1724. In 1682, he published an account of his journey into Greece, in the company of doctor Spon, in six books, folio, which is highly valued for its authenticity and information, interesting to the medallist, antiquary, and student of natural history.

WHEELING, the county town of Ohio county, Virginia, is situated on a high. gravelly, but alluvial bank of the Ohio a little above Wheeling creek ; lat. 40° 7′ N. ; lon. 80° 42′ W.; ninety-five miles below Pittsburgh. The town is surrounded by

bold and precipitous hills, containing inexhaustible quantities of coal. These hills come in so near the river as to leave but a small area for the town; and it is built principally on one street. The great national road from Baltimore, called the Cumberland road, meets the Ohio at this place. Wheeling is the first town on the Ohio where certain embarkation in boats may be calculated on at low water. It has a fine surrounding country, and the land back of it, on the creek, is very fertile. These circumstances, united with its favorable position on the Ohio, give it many advantages. It is a constant resort for travellers, and seems likely to become one of the most important towns on the river. It contains the county buildings, and a great number of warehouses, has manufactures of earthen ware, &c. Many flat and keel boats are built here, and, of late, steamboats in considerable numbers. In 1828, the population was stated, by Mr. Flint, at 2500. In 1830, it was 5221, and is rapidly increasing.

WHERRY. (See Boat.)
WHET SLATE. (See Slate.)
WHEY. (See Milk.)

WHIGS AND TORIES. We have already given Defoe's account of the origin of the latter nickname, under the head Tories. "As to the word whig," says the same writer, "it is Scotch. The use of it began then when the western men, called Cameronians, took arms, frequently, for their religion. Whig was a word used, in those parts, for a kind of liquor the western Highlandmen used to drink, whose composition I do not remember,* and so became common to the people who drank it. It afterwards became a denomination of the poor, harassed people of that part of the country, who, being unmercifully persecuted by the government against all law and justice, thought they had a civil right to their religious liberties, and therefore resisted the power of the prince (Charles II). They took arms about 1681, being the famous insurrection of Bothwell bridge. The duke of Monmouth, then in favor here, was sent against them by Charles, and defeated them. At his return, instead of thanks for his good service, he -found himself ill treated for having used

• Burnet (Memoirs of his own Times) says, that the word whiggam, used by the western Scotchmen in driving their horses, was the origin of the term whig applied to them. Others, with Defoe, derive it from the Scotch word whig, or wigg, signifying whey. Jamieson (Dictionary of the Scotch Language) does not venture to decide.

them too mercifully; and duke Lauderdale told king Charles, with an oath, that the duke had been so civil to the whigs because he was a whig himself in his heart. This made it a court word, and, in a little time, the friends and followers of the duke began to be called whigs; and they, as the other party did by the word tory, took it freely enough to themselves." (Defoe's Review, vii.) Such was the origin of these celebrated party names, which have continued, during the space of 150 years, to be borne by two great divisions of the English aristocracy, and which, at least at many periods, rather deserve the name of factions than of parties. But the origin of the parties themselves was much earlier, and the line of distinction was strongly drawn in the reign of James I, when the long struggle between the crown and the parliament commenced. The court and country parties, the roundheads and cavaliers, the commonwealth's men or republicans and the partisans of absolute power, naturally arose from the mixed character and undefined nature of the English constitution, and the peculiar circumstances in which it was placed by the arbitrary maxims and acts of the Stuarts, and the growing wealth and intelligence of the community. After the dissolution of the monarchy, and its subsequent restoration, a new feature appeared in the principles of its partisansthe doctrine of passive obedience and indefeasible right, which may be considered the true characteristic of the tory, at one period of history. The bigotry and tyranny of James II united all parties against him; and the 'glorious revolution' of 1688 was effected by the combined efforts of the whole nation. "The whigs," says Hume, "suitably to their ancient principles of liberty, which had led them to attempt the exclusion bill, easily agreed to oppose a king whose conduct had justified whatever his worst enemies had prognosticated concerning his succession. The tories and the church party, finding their past services forgotten, their rights invaded, their religion threatened, agreed to drop, for the present, all overstrained doctrines of submission, and attend to the great and powerful dictates of nature. The nonconformists, dreading the caresses of known and inveterate enemies, deemed the offers of toleration more secure from a prince educated in those principles, and accustomed to that practice; and thus all faction was, for a time, laid asleep in England; and rival parties, for

getting their animosity, had secretly concurred in a design of resisting their unhappy and misguided sovereign." During the reign of William (1688-1702), the parties were not, therefore, so distinctly divided as they had been previously, and have been subsequently. The impeachment of Sacheverell (q. v.), during the reign of queen Anne, again brought the two theories of government, which formed the original distinction between the whigs and tories, into collision, and, combined with some bed-chamber intrigues and court quarrels, resulted in the appointment of a tory ministry, at the head of which were Bolingbroke and Oxford. On the accession of the house of Hanover (1714), the scale was again changed, and the whole power was now thrown into the hands of the whigs. (See George I and II, and Walpole; on the origin and early character and history of these parties, see Rapin's Dissertation on the Whigs and Tories, and Bolingbroke's Dissertation upon Parties.) The following remarks from a celebrated whig journal (Edinburgh Review, vol. xxxvii. p. 21-25) will show the state of parties at that critical period, and how little justice there is in the pretensions of the whigs to liberal and popular views of government. "The accession of the house of Hanover divided England into two parties, the whigs, or friends of the new establishment, and the tories and Jacobites, its secret or avowed opponents. The tories, bigoted to the notion of indefeasible right in the succession to the crown, but apprehensive for their religion if a papist should mount the throne, were distracted between their scruples about the validity of a parliamentary settlement and their fears lest, in subverting it, they might restore, or pave the way for the restoration of the Catholic church. Though deterred, by their religious fears, from embarking decidedly in the cause of the Pretender, they kept on terms with his friends, and were not unwilling to disturb, though they hesitated to overturn, a government they disliked, because it was founded on principles they abhorred. The Jacobites, though most of them were zealous members of the church of England, had a stronger infusion of bigotry in their composition, and were ready to restore a popish family, and submit to a popish sovereign, rather than own a government founded on a parliamentary title. It was impossible that either tories or Jacobites should have the confidence of the Hanoverian princes; and, therefore, while those divisions subsisted, all places

of power and profit were in the hands of the whigs. Of these two parties, the tories and Jacobites were the most numerous. They included a certain number of the ancient nobility, and comprehended a very large proportion of the landed interest, and, what gave them a prodigious influence in those days, a vast majority of the parochial clergy. The strength of the whigs lay in the great aristocracy, in the corporations, and in the trading and moneyed interests. The dissenters, who held popery in abhorrence, and dreaded the overbearing spirit of the church, were warmly attached to a government that protected their religious liberty, and, as far as it durst, extended to them every civil right. It has, perhaps, been fortunate in its results for England, that her church was for so many years in hostility to her government. It was during this temporary dissolution of the vaunted alliance between church and state, that religious freedom, such as it exists among us, struck so deep and vigorous a root as to withstand every subsequent effort to blighten or subvert it. It was during this period that the annual indemnity bills were introduced, which, though they have left the stigma, have taken from the test act its sting; and it was during the same period that the toleration act received, in practice, that liberal interpretation which extends its benefits to every possible sect of Christians, the unhappy Catholics only excepted. This protracted struggle be tween the adherents of the house of Hanover and the partisans of the Stuarts, was not, however, unattended with disadvantages. It confounded, for a time, the ancient distinctions of whig and tory, which had turned on constitutional differences of real and eternal importance, and converted two political sects, or parties, into two factions, contending for the crown. The tories, forced to remain in opposition to the government, learned to ape the language, and ended by adopting many of the opinions, of their adversaries. The whigs, believing the preservation of their liberties depended on the maintenance of the parliamentary settlement of the crown, and finding themselves a minority in the country, were constrained to employ measures and sanction proceedings from which their ancestors would have recoiled. To counteract the local influence of the gentry, they practised and encouraged corruption both within parliament and without, and thus turned against their enemies the weapon they had invented under the Stuarts.

To

suppress tumults of the rabble, instigated by the vehicles of tory sentiment, annually exported from Oxford, and dispersed over the kingdom, they armed the magistrates with additional, and, till then, unknown powers; and, to defeat the enterprises of foreign princes, acting in conjunction with the disaffected at home, they maintained a standing army in time of peace." The riot act was passed, the triennial act repealed, and the habeas corpus act suspended by the whigs, on the accession of the house of Hanover, and a shameless system of corruption and laxity of political principle introduced, the whole extent of which has but recently been fully exposed to public view. Walpole was finally compelled to retire, by the united opposition of a party of disaffected whigs, acting under lord Carteret (afterwards Granville) and Mr. Pulteney (q. v.), the tories led by Wyndham, and the Jacobites by Shippen, who, Walpole used to say, was the only man whose price he did not know. The whigs still retained the power; and, after some changes, the Pelham administration was formed, in 1743, by the nomination of Henry Pelham to the place of first lord of the treasury. "A more inglorious period of our annals," says the writer last quoted, "is scarce to be found, than from this year to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)-defeats and disasters abroad, rebellion (that of 1745) and discontent at home, no concert or activity in the government-the king thwarting his ministers at every step, and openly giving his countenance to their enemies his ministers occupied with their mutual jeal ousies and hatreds, neglecting the business of the nation, and, at length, in the midst of a rebellion which had grown to a formidable height from their supineness and incapacity, resigning, in a body (Feb., 1746), to force Mr. Pitt into office, whom they equally feared and hated." The death of Mr. Pelham, in 1754, was followed by new dissensions and political intrigues-a mere scramble for officeterminated by the formation of the Pitt (see Chatham) and Newcastle (brother of Pelham) administration, in 1757. This ministry, which was forced upon the king, in direct opposition to his own wishes, carried England triumphantly through the seven years' war, but was dissolved in 1761, on the accession of George III. (q. v.)-See Walpole's Memoirs of the last ten Years of the Reign of George II (2 vols., 4to., 1822); and Coxe's Memoirs of the Pelham Administration (2

vols., 4to., 1829). The second ground of division, which separated the British nation into the whig and tory parties, could not be said to have any existence after the accession of George III, the first Hanoverian prince who could boast of being born an Englishman ;* and, although the names remained to indicate a distinction, it would not be easy to point out any very decided difference between the factions, other than that of the outs and that of the ins, or the ministerial party and the opposition. The liberals and radicals of more recent times have lately come forward with new vigor; and even the names of whig and tory are not probably destined long to survive the passage of the reform act.

WHIN, in English agriculture; a term sometimes applied to furze; which, when cut in the sap, and bruised in a proper way, by flails, or in other modes, makes excellent green fodder, in winter, for horses. It is also useful, in some measure, to sheep stock, as well as to bees.

WHIPPING. (See Flagellation.)

WHIPPLE, William, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born at Kittery, Maine, in 1730. After receiving as good an education as the public school of his native town could afford, he entered on board a merchant vessel, and, during several years, was engaged in making voyages for commercial purposes, principally to the West Indies. He acquired in this way a considerable fortune, and, abandoning the sea in 1759, commenced business with a brother at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he continued in trade until within a few years of the revolution. In January, 1775, he was a representative of Portsmouth, in the provincial congress assembled at Exeter, for the purpose of electing delegates to the continental congress in Philadelphia, and of a second provincial congress which met at the same place in the ensuing May, by which he was appointed one of the provincial committee of safety. In 1776, he was placed in the general congress, and continued a member until September, 1777. In 1777, the assembly of New Hampshire placed him at the head of one of the brigades organized in consequence of the progress of Burgoyne. He joined Gates's army, and, in the battle of Saratoga, commanded the

* George I could not speak English, and Wal

pole and the monarch were obliged to convers. cupied with German politics than with the doin Latin. George I and II were both more ocmestic government of their English dominions.

New Hampshire troops. He was employed to assist in arranging the terms of capitulation, and in conducting the surrendered army to their encampment on Winter hill, in the vicinity of Boston. In 1778, he shared in the unsuccessful expedition to Rhode Island, under general Sullivan. In 1780, he was chosen a representative to the general assembly of New Hampshire, and was several times reelected. In 1782, he was appointed by Mr. Morris, the superintendent of finance, receiver of public moneys for New Hampshire-an office which infirm health obliged him to relinquish in 1784. In the former year, he was also appointed a judge of the superior court of judicature. He died in November, 1785.

WHIP-POOR-WILL (caprimulgus vociferus, Wilson). This remarkable and wellknown bird arrives in the Middle States about the close of April or the beginning of May, and continues his migrations to the centre of Massachusetts. In the interior, it is said to proceed as high as Hudson's bay. It is a nocturnal bird, and continues the cry, from which it derives its name, till midnight, except in moonlight nights. The whip-poor-will, when engaged in its nocturnal rambles, is seen to fly within a few feet of the surface of the earth, in quest of moths and other insects. During the day, these birds retire into the darkest woods, usually on high grounds, where they pass the time in silence and repose, the weakness of their sight compelling them to avoid the glare of the light. Their food appears to be large moths, beetles, grasshoppers, ants, and such insects as frequent the bark of decaying timber. Sometimes, in the dark, they will skim within a few feet of a person, making a low chatter as they pass. They also, in common with other species, flutter occasionally round domestic cattle, to catch the insects which approach or rest on them; and hence the mistaken notion of their sucking goats, The whip-poor-will is nine and a half inches long, and nineteen in the stretch of the wings; mouth very large, and beset along the sides with a number of long, thick bristles, the longest extending more than half an inch beyond the point of the bill; the plumage above intricately variegated with black, brownish-white and rust color, sprinkled with numerous streaks and spots.

WHIRLIGIG; an instrument of punishment, frequently used in the middle ages, and, in later times, on the continent of Europe. In England, it seems to have

been employed chiefly in the army, to punish trifling offences, committed by sutlers, Jews, brawling women, and such persons. It is a kind of circular wooden cage, turning on a pivot, and, when set in motion, whirling round with such velocity that the delinquent becomes extremely sick. The punishment was generally public. This instrument is sometimes used in insane hospitals, to overcome the obstinacy of lunatics.

WHIRLPOOL. When two opposite eurrents, of about equal force, meet, they sometimes, especially in narrow channels turn upon a centre, and assume a spiral form, giving rise to eddies or whirlpools. The most celebrated of these are the Euripus, near the island of Eubœa, in the Grecian Archipelago; Charybdis (q. v. in the strait between Sicily and Italy; and the Maelstrom (q. v.), off the coast of Norway. When agitated by tides or winds, they sometimes become dangeroUS to navigators.

WHIRLWINDS sometimes arise freen winds blowing among lofty and precipetous mountains, the form of which intluences their direction, and occasions gusts to descend with a spiral or whiring motion. They are frequently, however, caused by two winds meeting each other at an angle, and then turning upon a ce ntre. When two winds thus encounter one another, any cloud which happens to be between them is, of course, ecle densed, and turned rapidly round; and a'i substances, sufficiently light, are carried up into the air by the whirling motio which ensues. The action of a whiriwind at sea occasions the curious phenomenon called a water-spout, which as thus described by those who have witnessed it:-From a dense cloud a cone descends, in the form of a trumpet, with the small end downwards: at the same time, the surface of the sea under it 29 agitated and whirled round, the waters are converted into vapor, and ascer d. with a spiral motion, till they unite with the cone proceeding from the cloud: fre quently, however, they disperse before the junction is effected. Both columns diminish towards their point of contact, where they are not above three or four feet in diameter. In the middle of the cone forming the water-spout, there is a white transparent tube, which becuper less distinct on approaching it; and dis then discovered to be a vacant space, in which none of the small particles o water ascend; and in this, as weil 20 around the outer edges of the water

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