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WH Smith is a British firm of newspaper, book and stationery retailers. The firm was founded in Duke Street, Grosvenor Square, London in 1821 by two brothers, William Henry Smith and Henry Edward Smith as a firm of newspaper agents, booksellers, stationers, printers and binders. The firm was originally controlled entirely by William Henry Smith from 1829 until 1846 when his eldest son, William Henry Smith, the Conservative politician, was taken into partnership. Its first railway bookstall was opened at Euston on the first of November 1848, and by the end of 1905 more than 200 stalls on the London and North West and Great Western Railway had been opened.
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Wacht am Rhein (Watch on the Rhine) is a German national song written in 1840 by Max Schneckenburger and composed in its popular form in 1854 by Karl Wilhelm. It was the battle-song of the German army in 1870 to 1871.
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The Wacky Races was an American animated cartoon television show for children, produced from 1968 to 1970 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. The show was inspired by films such as 'Monte Carol or Bust' and featured a bizarre collection of racers with their equally bizarre vehicles enduring races across country, rather than on a racing track. Perhaps most famous of the characters were the fiendish 'Dick Dastardly' - voice provided by Dave Willock - and his sidekick, 'Muttley' - voice provided by Don Messick - who went on to appear in their own cartoon shows. Other characters of note included the glamorous 'Penelope Pitstop' with her voice provided by Janet Waldo, who drove a pink-coloured sports-car come mobile beauty salon, and seven-dwarves inspired 1920s Chicago gangsters 'The Ant Hill Mob' whose voices were provided by Mel Blanc, driving their classic 1920's car.
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A wadi is an irrigation canal found in Arab countries.
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Prior to gummed envelopes, wafers were adhesive disks used for securing letters. Common wafers were made of fine flour, which was pressed between two heated plates of smooth iron. Transparent wafers were made of isinglass or gelatine.
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Waiting For God is a British sitcom television series by Michael Aitkens, starring Stephanie Cole, Graham Crowden, Daniel Hill, Janine Duvitski, Sandy Payne and Andrew Torell in a story about the ongoing adventures of a bolshy resident of a Bournemouth old people's home and her eccentric resident friend. Waiting For God was produced by the BBC and ran from 1990 to 1994.
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Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett written in 1953. It was Beckett's first stage success, and is an absurdist comedy about two men endlessly waiting for someone named Godot to arrive.
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A wake is the practice of watching round a corpse before it is buried.
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Waking a witch was a method of torture formerly employed on women who refused to confess to being a witch. A metal bridle with four prongs was fastened around the head, the prongs being thrust into the victim's mouth, and this bridle was chained to a wall so that the victim was unable to lie down. Men kept vigil by the victim to prevent her from sleeping, and she was kept until she confessed, often suffering for several days before relenting.
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Walker Vs Jennison was an American legal case, the decision in which in 1783 was the deathblow to slavery in Massachusetts. A negro servant had been beaten and imprisoned by a citizen who claimed him as his slave. The public would not overlook the offence. The Supreme Court held in Worcester County judged the defendant guilty of assault and fined him forty shillings. The Court held that the State Constitution of 1780, in declaring all men free and equal, had abolished slavery in Massachusetts.
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Wall-paper was introduced into Europe around 1555 from China and Japan by the Dutch and Spanish and slowly replaced tapestry, stamped leather and other mural hangings as the predominant wall covering coming into general use around 1830.
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The Walpole Grant was a grant of 2,500,000 acres of land between 38 degrees and 42 degrees north latitude and east of the Scioto River made on August the 14th 1773. The Walpole Company was formed in 1766. In 1769 the company petitioned for the grant of land, which was finally made by the crown in 1773. The Walpole Company was opposed by the Mississippi Company, formed some years later by a body of wealthy Virginia planters.
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A ward of court is a minor under the care of a guardian (appointed by the parents or the court), who exercises rights of custody over the child subject to the general control and discretion of the court. Alternatively, the term is also applied to a minor in respect of whom a wardship order has been made and over whom the court exercises parental rights and duties. A child becomes a ward of court when a wardship order is made and remains a ward until he reaches the age of 18 or the court orders that he should cease to be a ward. Any child who is actually in England or Wales (or ordinarily resident in England or Wales) may be made a ward of court, even though he is neither domiciled there nor a British subject. Marriage of a ward does not terminate the wardship.
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Warp threads are the parallel threads which traverse a loom from end to end.
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Warping is a mode of increasing the fertility of land along the banks of rivers liable to overflow by allowing them to deposit their mud, called ' warp', upon the surface overflown.
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The Washington Gazette was the earliest news publication of the District of Columbia. The paper was established at Washington by Benjamin Moore on January the 11th 1796. It was published semi-weekly, but was discontinued.
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Wassails was a festival occurring on New Year's Eve in England. The wassailers, usually the younger men and women of the village, went round to all the houses, singing and mumming and wherever they stopped the inhabitants refreshed them with food and drink before they continued on their way. It was originally a fertility festival to promote good crops in the coming year, with the wassailers visiting all the fields and orchards where they sang invocations and poured mead. Wassails eventually died out after the 17th century.
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The Watauga Association was an organization formed in 1769 for the settlement of that territory now comprised in the State of Tennessee. The colonies thus established continued to be known as the settlements of the Watauga Association until 1777.
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A watch is a portable timepiece carried in the pocket or commonly worn upon band around the wrist.
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Watch night is a religious service held on New Years Eve until after midnight. The practice was started by Methodists during the 18th century.
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The water table is the level of ground below which the rocks are saturated with water.
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Watergate was a political scandal in the USA resulting in the resignation of president Nixon in 1974.
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Watling Street is the old name for the Roman road from Dover to London, and from London through St Albans to Shrewsbury and Chester.
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A weather-vane (or vane) is a revolving metal plate or flat pointer often ornamental such as in the shape of a cockerel (from whence the alternative name of weathercock), fixed to a church spire or the top of another building for indicating the wind direction.
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Weaving is the art of interlacing yarn threads or other filaments by means of a loom, so as to form a web of cloth or other woven fabric. Two sets of threads are used which traverse the web at right angles to each other. The first set extends from end to end of the web in parallel lines and is called the warp; while the other set of threads crosses and interlaces with the warp from side to side of the web and is called the weft.
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In western cultures wedding anniversaries are traditionally associated with the giving of gifts made of materials which vary depending upon the number of years the couple has been married. Similarly, wedding anniversaries are also known by the material, so the 25th wedding anniversary is popularly known as the 'silver wedding anniversary' after the material associated with it. While there are variations to the list, a general one follows: 1st Paper 2nd Cotton 3rd Leather 4th Fruit 5th Wood 6th Sugar 7th Copper 8th Bronze 9th Pottery 10th Tin 11th Steel 12th Silk 13th Lace 14th Ivory 15th Crystal 20th China 25th Silver 30th Pearl 35th Coral 40th Ruby 45th Sapphire 50th Gold 55th Emerald 60th Diamond 70th Platinum
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Wednesday is the third day of the week.
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The week is the period of seven days now universally adopted. It is of Hebrew or Chaldean origin and is generally regarded as a memorial of the creation of the world according to the Mosaic account. Dion Cassius attributes the invention of the week to the Egyptians. The Ptolemaic arrangement of the heavenly bodies, according to their distances from the earth, is Saturn (the most distant), Jupiter, Mars, the sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon; and it was a principle of the ancient astrology that these bodies presided in this succession over the hours of the day. If the first hour be assigned to Saturn, the twenty-fifth or first hour of the next day, will fall to the sun; the forty-ninth, or first hour of the second day will fall to the moon and so on. From the names of the planets have been formed the modern names - Saturday (Saturn), Sunday (Sun), Monday (Moon), Tuesday (Tiu, the Saxon equivalent of Mars), Wednesday (Woden the Norse equivalent of Mercury), Thursday (Thor the Norse equivalent of Jupiter) and Friday (Frygga the Norse equivalent of Venus).
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Weft are threads crossing from side to side of a web and interwoven with warp.
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A weigh was a British measure of cheese equivalent to 256 lbs, in use during the 19th century.
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Westrumite was a road-dust preventing material composed primarily of petroleum and ammonia. It was developed around 1900 in response to the spread of motoring and the dust raised by cars using the roads.
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Wheaton's Reports are twelve volumes of American law reports by Henry Wheaton, containing cases from the US Supreme Courts from 1816 to 1827, with appendices containing discussions of the 'Principles and Practice of Prize Courts', many of them written by Judge Story.
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A whirlpool is a circular eddy in the sea produced by the coming together of two currents, or in a river by the way the channel is formed.
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A whiskey or whisky was a kind of light, two wheeled, one-horse drawn gig.
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The Whisky Insurrection was a revolt in America against the execution of a Federal excise law, which came to a head in western Pennsylvania in August, 1794, and was suppressed the same year. Scarcity of cash in the wild districts of North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania, had made distillation the chief means of support among the mountaineers, whisky being used as a medium of exchange. The excise law was passed on March the 3rd, 1791. During the next three years there were constant protests and insurrectionary mass meetings headed by one Bradford. William Findley, John Smilie and Albert Gallatin were the quieter leaders. Revenue officers were tarred and feathered by Bradford and his followers, and there was a general state of lawless opposition despite the efforts of Findley and Gallatin. In October, 1794, 15,000 militia were ordered out by President George Washington, and under General Henry Lee marched into western Pennsylvania, and the revolt was promptly suppressed. Bradford fled the country, but a number of tlie ringleaders were arrested and imprisoned. The affair was important in the United States as exihibiting the power of the then new Federal Government.
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Whisky Ring was the name applied to an American criminal association of revenue officers and distillers, formed in St Louis in 1872 to defraud the Government of the internal revenue tax on distilled liquors. By 1874 it had spread into national proportions. Distillers were often forced to enter the ring or expect ruin in their business. There were branches of the ring at Chicago, Milwaukee, Peoria, Cincinnati and New Orleans, and an agent at Washington to corrupt the Treasury agents. In 1874 about $1,200,000 of taxes were unpaid. In 1875, at the suggestion of Mr. George Fishback, editor of the St Louis Democrat the Secretary of the Treasury appointed Mr. Myron Colony, of the Cotton Exchange, to make a secret investigation of the frauds. Through his efforts indictments were brought against 238 persons, and the Government was shown to have been defrauded of $1,650,000 in ten months. Among those concerned was General Babcock, President Grant's private secretary, and many other Government officials.
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Whit-leather is a leather made from horse skin, whitened and formerly used for whip-thongs and hedging-gloves.
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White is a colour combining the reflection of all wavelengths of light. There are numerous shades of white, quite where grey ends and white begins is a matter for poetic interpretation.
- Antique white - A very pale yellowish-brown off white colour.
- Beige - A drab, yellowish-grey colour.
- Cream - A yellowish-white colour, frequently more yellow than ivory.
- Ivory - A yellowish-white or off-white colour (the colour of ivory) often associated with skin tone.
- Linen - A flat, pale yellowish-grey just off white.
- Magnolia - A pinkish white colour.
- Milky - A brilliant white colour.
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A white dwarf is small hot star.
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The white hart is a popular British pub sign, showing a white hart wearing a gold chain. The symbol was the badge of Richard II adopted from his mother, and was adopted by his courtiers and adherents. In nature, a white hart is a white stag. In Britain the native deer is the Red Deer, and the term white hart properly applies to a very rare white red deer stag, however the name is also given to any white stag over about five years of age. White deer are very rare in any popular deer species.
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The White League an American organization formed in the South in 1874 to check the growth of political power among the negroes.
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The wicked bible is a nickname given to the bible printed by Barker and Lucas in 1632 on account of an error made in the printing. The seventh commandment has the word 'not' omitted making it read:
"Thou shalt commit adultery."
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The Wide-Awakes were a political division of the American Republican party, organized in 1860 to promote the election of Abraham Lincoln; one of the first organizations of uniformed torchlight-parade enthusiasts in American politics.
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The term widget generally applies to a manufactured contrivance. More recently the term has been specifically applied to a device added to beer cans and glasses for the generation and maintenance of the froth at the top of the beer, the head.
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A widget glass is a beer glass, the inside base of which has a small raised pattern, known as the widget. The widget assists in maintaining a constant release of carbon dioxide bubbles from the beer which results in a more persistent froth or head being present on the beer. Widget glasses first appeared around 1999.
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A wild goose chase is a colloquial expression originally for an erratic course taken by someone followed by someone else, and now for a fruitless or hopeless quest. the expression comes from the difficulty experienced in catching a wild goose (properly a greylag goose).
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The term Wild West refers to the frontier society of 19th-century USA. Around the masculine, saloon-bar world of the gold rushes and the cowboy cattle-drives of Texas, California, and the largely unsettled western territories there early developed a mythology. Bandits such as Billy the Kid and Jesse James were romanticised, as were General Custer and his 'last stand'. An early perpetrator of the myth was Edward Z. C. Judson, who, under the pseudonym Ned Buntline, wrote penny (dime) novels romanticising the exploits of his friend W. F. Cody as 'Buffalo Bill'. The latter in turn organised 'Wild West Shows' from 1883 onwards, which included the appearance of the Indian Chief Sitting Bull and which travelled as far afield as Europe.
There is no evidence that the West was much less law-abiding than the rest of the USA. Nonetheless, the 'Wild West' was no purposeless myth; it suggested an arena in which individuals struggled to make order out of chaos and to progress through individual effort and moral worth. The North American continent had had a succession of 'Wests', as its frontiers receded, and that known as the Wild West was the last. It disappeared after 1890, with the end of Indian hostilities, the decline of the long-distance cattle drives, the building of the railways, and the steady growth of population.
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The Wildlife Trusts partnership is a royal society for nature conservation, comprising a network of 47 independent British wildlife charities and more than 100 urban wildlife groups, patroned by the Prince of Wales, which cares for more than 2400 nature reserves, covering an area of 76200 hectares in the British Isles ranging from remote islands off the Scottish coast to restored industrial sites in the heart of London. The Wildlife Trusts' President is Professor David Bellamy, and Vice Presidents are Sir David Attenborough, Professor Chris Baines (who is also President of the Urban Wildlife Partnership), Sir John Burnett, Professor GL Lucas, Professor David MacDonald, Julian Pettifer, Sir James Swaffield, Professor Robert Worcester and Dame Miriam Rothschild.
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Will's Coffee House was a famous convivial resort in Russell Street at the end of Bow Street in London. It was first called the Red Cow, then the Rose. John Dryden was the first to make Will's the resort of the wits of his time and it was for a long time the open market for libels and lampoons. After John Dyden's death in 1700 the house was patronised by among others Alexander Pope. About 1712 the custom was transferred by Joseph Addison to Batton's coffee house on the opposite side of the street.
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The Wilmot Proviso was an American anti-slavery proposal. On August the 8th, 1846, President Polk of America, in a special message to Congress, requested 'money for the adjustment of a boundary with Mexico', that is, for the purchase of Mexican territory outside of Texas. A bill appropriating $2,000,000 was at once introduced into the House. David Wilmot, a Democrat, of Pennsylvania, proposed as an amendment the since famous 'Wilmot Proviso', which 'provided that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted'. The bill thus amended passed the House, but failed in the Senate. On January the 4th, 1847, a bill appropriating $3,000,000 instead of $2,000,000 was proposed by Preston King. It passed the House with the proviso attached, but the latter was dropped in the Senate. For a number of years the Wilmot Proviso was brought up and debated whenever new territories were to be organized. It was discussed in the case of Oregon, California, Utah and New Mexico, but was not finally established until June the 9th, 1861, when Congress passed an act prohibiting 'slavery in any territories of the United States now existing, or which may be hereafter formed or acquired'.
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A wind egg is an egg laid without a shell.
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The window tax was a tax levied by the British government first in 1697 to replace revenue lost through the clipping of coins. The tax levied charges depending upon the number of windows, which led to many buildings bricking up their windows to reduce their tax burden. In 1851 the window tax was abolished.
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The Winebrennerians (Church of God), are a Christian denomination organized in 1830 by John Winebrenner, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in order to advocate a more intense Christian life. They have a church government like that of the Presbyterians and hold views like those, partly of the Baptists, partly of the Methodists.
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Winter is the coldest of the seasons. It is defined astronomically as beginning in the northern hemisphere with the sun's entry into the sign of Capricorn, around December 21st and ending with the vernal equinox.
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In their original sense the words 'witch' and 'wizard' denoted the possessors of knowledge, or wise people. Much of the witchcraft of Europe was derived from the science of the Magi, or the magicians of ancient Chaldaea and Persia. Original witchcraft was both a science and a religion, hence leading to its persecution. In early Hebrew enactments against witchcraft it is evident that a struggle existed between conflicting sets of ideas, and this struggle continued in Christian times resulting in the persecution of the science as well as the religion and to the perversions that exist today, for example much herbalism is the scientific aspect of ' witchcraft', but much has been forgotten. It is likely that the struggle was predominantly one for power over the people - an ignorant or unwise people are easier to exploit by priests than a people well educated in the ways of science and nature.
In the USA, the early New Englanders believed that human beings could, by compact with evil spirits, obtain power to suspend the laws of nature and thus injure their fellows. In 1671 Samuel Willard, a minister of Massachusetts, proclaimed that a woman of his congregation, Knapp by name, was bewitched, though her insanity was clearly proven. Between 1684 and 1693 more than 100 persons were tried and convicted of witchcraft in the United States, and many of them were hanged. Special courts were appointed by Governor Phipps for the trial of witches. Witnesses were frequently guilty of open perjury, for the charge of witchcraft soon came to be used as a means of striking a private enemy. The witchcraft epidemic was especially prevalent at Salem, where a number of persons professed themselves bewitched and singled out those who had bewitched them. Educated men like Increase Mather firmly believed in it. In 1693 the superstition in the USA began to weaken chiefly through the writings and protests of Thomas Brattle and Robert Calef, of Boston. The same belief prevailed elsewhere at that time.
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Wood screws or screw nails are nails which are screwed into the material instead of being hammered. Until 1760 they were not popularly used owing to the high cost of their production, but in 1760 a machine was invented for their manufacture and in 1817 a German clockmaker patented an automatic screw-making machine. In 1854 an American invented a practical serviceable machine for producing screws and the industry took off, especially in Birmingham, England.
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Wool is the fibrous covering of sheep.
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Worcester Vs Georgia was an important American legal case decided by the Supreme Court. Samuel Worcester, a missionary among the Cherokee Indians, was, in 1831 seized by the authorities of Gwinnett County, Georgia, indicted and sentenced to four years' imprisonment for residing among the Indians in defiance of an act of the Georgia Legislature of 1830. This act recited that any white person found living among the Indians without license from the Governor of Georgia was liable to imprisonment. Samuel Worcester pleaded the unconstitutionality of the act, and by writ of error the case was brought before the Supreme Court in 1832. That body confirmed Samuel Worcester's plea and found judgment in his favour, on the ground that the Georgia Act, being repugnant to the treaties made between the United States and the Cherokee nation, was
unconstitutional and void.
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Wouldst is an archaic term for would, used for example in the phrase wouldst thou? Now being would you?
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A writ is an order issued by a court. A writ of summons is an order by which an action in the High Court is started. It commands the defendant to appear before the court to answer the claim made in the writ by the plaintiff. It is used in actions in tort, claims alleging fraud, and claims for damages in respect of personal injuries, death, or infringement of patent. A writ of execution is used to enforce a judgement; it is addressed to a court officer instructing him to carry out an act, such as collecting money or seizing property. A writ of delivery is a writ of execution directing a sheriff to seize goods and deliver them to the plaintiff or to obtain their value in money, according to an agreed assessment. If the defendant has no option to pay the assessed value, the writ is a writ of specific delivery.
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A writer is a sable signwriting brush terminating in a chisel edge, as opposed to a pencil which is pointed.
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In 1754 the British Parliament, at the petition of Shirley, then Governor of Massachusetts, passed an act providing for a more thorough enforcement of the navigation and revenue laws. General warrants were to be issued by the courts to revenue officers to continue for an indefinite period, and not returnable into the court, for the seizure and examination of goods imported by illicit traders. These were called writs of assistance. They were legalized by the Townshend Acts of 1767. The colonists vehemently objected to them on the grounds of their vague and general terms which they claimed left the way open to great abuses against the liberty of the subjects, in the search of premises. In February, 1761, arguing against an application for such writs before the Superior Court of Massachusetts, James Otis declared the navigation laws illegal, and denied the claim of Parliament to legislate for the colonies.
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Wroth is an archaic term for angry, irate.
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A wynd is a narrow street or passage off a main thoroughfare.
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The Wyoming Controversy was a controversy which arose between Pennsylvania and Connecticut in 1782 regarding the jurisdiction of certain lands within the limits of the former State, but which had been settled by Connecticut adventurers. In 1784 the Pennsylvanians attempted to dispossess the Connecticut claimants. This led to bloodshed and to a revival of the Susquehanna Company in Connecticut for the establishment of the latter's claims. John Pranklin, the moving spirit of the Susquehanna Company, was seized and imprisoned by Timothy Pickering, clerk and commissioner of the new county of Luzerne, formed by Pennsylvania from the Connecticut claims in 1787. The question was finally settled in favour of Pennsylvania's jurisdiction in 1790.
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In 1776 two Continental companies had been placed in the Wyoming Valley for the protection of the settlers, chiefly Connecticut emigrants. Two years later Major John Butler, commanding a force 800 strong, of Indians, British and Torries, descended upon the valley. On July the 3rd, 230 Americans, in six companies, led by Colonel Zebulon Butler, attempted to oppose the British raids. Their unorganized lines fell upon the British about four o'clock in the afternoon. The Americans were completely wiped out, as were the adult male settlers. Women and children were spared, however.
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