Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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watercolour ... Watt, James

watercolour: pigment ground in gum, usually gum arabic, and applied with brush and water to a painting surface, usually paper; the term also denotes a work of art executed in this medium. The pigment is ordinarily transparent but can be made ...
watercress: (Nasturtium officinale), perennial plant, of the mustard family (Brassicaceae), native to Eurasia and naturalized throughout North America in cool, flowing streams where it grows submerged, floating on the water, or spread over mud surfaces. Watercress often is cultivated in tanks ...
waterfall: area where flowing river water drops abruptly and nearly vertically (see ). Waterfalls represent major interruptions in river flow. Under most circumstances rivers tend to smooth out irregularities in their flow by processes of erosion and deposition. In time, the ...
Waterford: county in the province of Munster, southern Ireland. It is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the south and from west to east by Counties Cork, Tipperary, Kilkenny, and Wexford. The county's northern boundary follows the River Suir through the ...
Waterford: town (township), New London county, southeastern Connecticut, U.S., on Long Island Sound just west of the city of New London. The area, settled about 1653, was separated from New London and incorporated as a town in 1801. Drained by the ...
Waterford: city, port, county borough of County Waterford, and the major town of southeastern Ireland. It is on the south bank of the River Suir, 4 miles (6 km) above its junction with the Barrow and at the head of Waterford ...
Waterford glass: heavy cut glassware produced in Waterford, Ire., from 1729. Waterford glass, particularly the early variety, is characterized by thick walls, deeply incised geometric cutting, and brilliant polish. The smoky, bluish gray colour of early Waterford glass was considered a drawback, ...
waterfowl: in the United States, all varieties of ducks, geese, and swans; the term is sometimes expanded to include some unrelated aquatic birds such as coots, grebes (see ), and loons. In Britain the term refers only to domesticated swans, geese, ...
Watergate Scandal: (1972-75), U.S. political scandal surrounding the revelation of illegal activities on the part of the incumbent Republican administration of President Richard M. Nixon during and after the 1972 presidential election campaign.
Waterhouse, Alfred: English architect who worked in the style of High Victorian medieval eclecticism. He is remembered principally for his elaborately planned complexes of educational and civic buildings.
Waterhouse, Benjamin: American physician and scientist, a pioneer in smallpox vaccination.
Waterhouse, George Marsden: businessman, politician, prime minister of South Australia (1861-63) and prime minister of New Zealand (1872-73), the only man ever to be premier of two British colonies.
Waterhouse, Keith: English novelist, playwright, and screenwriter noted for his ability to create comedy and satire out of depressing human predicaments.
Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome: a rare type of septicemia (blood poisoning) of rapid and severe onset, marked by fever, collapse and sometimes coma, hemorrhage from skin and mucous membranes, and severe bilateral hemorrhage of the adrenal cortical tissue. The syndrome is most common in ...
waterleaf: any of about eight species of herbaceous plants constituting a genus (Hydrophyllum) in the waterleaf family (Hydrophyllaceae) and native to damp woodlands of North America. Light-greenish mottling on the leaves, suggesting watermarks on paper, gives the genus its name. Notable ...
Waterloo: city, regional municipality of Waterloo, southeastern Ontario, Canada. Its settlement dates from the early 1800s, when a group of Pennsylvania Mennonites led by Abraham Erb settled along the Grand River. The community was named for the Battle of Waterloo (1815). ...
Waterloo: city, seat (1855) of Black Hawk county, northeastern Iowa, U.S., along both sides of the Cedar River, adjacent to Cedar Falls on the west. The site was first settled in 1845 as Prairie Rapids, and the name Waterloo was adopted ...
Waterloo Station: railway station in the borough of Lambeth, London, England. It is one of the largest stations in the United Kingdom. Part of the station serves as a terminus for the Channel Tunnel (Eurotunnel), which connects the isle of Britain to ...
Waterloo, Battle of: (June 18, 1815), Napoleon's final defeat, ending 23 years of recurrent warfare between France and the other powers of Europe. It was fought during the Hundred Days of Napoleon's restoration, 3 miles (5 km) south of Waterloo village (which is ...
watermark: design produced by creating a variation in the thickness of paper fibre during the wet-paper phase of papermaking. This design is clearly visible when the paper is held up to a light source.
watermelon: (Citrullus lanatus, formerly C. vulgaris), succulent fruit of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), native to tropical Africa, but under cultivation on every continent except Antarctica. Its vines grow prostrate, with branched tendrils, deeply cut leaves, and flowers borne singly in the ...
waterpower: power produced by a stream of water as it turns a wheel or similar device. The waterwheel was probably invented in the 1st century BC, and it was widely used throughout the Middle Ages and into modern times for grinding ...
Waters, Ethel: American blues and jazz singer and dramatic actress whose singing, based in the blues tradition, featured her full-bodied voice, wide range, and slow vibrato.
Waters, Muddy: dynamic American blues guitarist and singer who played a major role in creating the post-World War II ensemble blues style.
waterskiing: planing over the surface of the water on broad skilike runners while being towed by a motorboat moving at least 24 km/hr (15 mph). The skier holds onto a handle on a rope attached to the rear of the boat ...
waterspout: a small-diameter column of rapidly swirling air in contact with a water surface. Waterspouts are almost always produced by a swiftly growing cumulus cloud. They may assume many shapes and often occur in a series, called a waterspout family, produced ...
Waterton Lakes National Park: park in southwestern Alberta, Canada, on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, immediately north of the U.S. border and Glacier National Park in Montana. It has an area of 203 square miles (525 square km). Established in 1895, it ...
Watertown: town (township), Litchfield county, west-central Connecticut, U.S., on the Naugatuck River immediately northwest of the city of Waterbury. The site was settled in 1701, and in 1738 the community was organized as Westbury, an ecclesiastical society of Waterbury. It was ...
Watertown: city, seat (1805) of Jefferson county, northern New York, U.S. It lies at the falls (112 feet [34 metres]) of the Black River, 10 miles (16 km) east of Lake Ontario and 72 miles (116 km) north of Syracuse. The ...
Watertown: city, seat (1878) of Codington county, eastern South Dakota, U.S. It lies on the Big Sioux River, between Lakes Kampeska and Pelican, about 95 miles (155 km) north of Sioux Falls. It was laid out in 1878 following the extension ...
Watertown: city, Middlesex county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S., on the Charles River, just west of Boston. One of the four earliest Massachusetts Bay settlements, it was founded by a group led by Sir Richard Saltonstall and was incorporated as a town in ...
Waterville: city, Kennebec county, south-central Maine, U.S., on the Kennebec River 54 miles (87 km) southwest of Bangor and 21 miles (34 km) northeast of Augusta, the state capital. Settled around Fort Halifax (1754) at Ticonic Falls, the community mainly consisted ...
Watervliet: city, Albany county, eastern New York, U.S., on the west bank of the Hudson River (bridged), opposite Troy. Originally part of a land tract bought by Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a diamond merchant of Amsterdam, from the Mohawk Indians in 1630, ...
waterwheel: mechanical device for tapping the energy of running or falling water by means of a set of paddles mounted around a wheel. The force of the moving water is exerted against the paddles, and the consequent rotation of the wheel ...
Watford: town and borough (district), administrative and historic county of Hertfordshire, England, situated on the northwest periphery of London and on the Rivers Colne and Gade and on the Grand Union Canal. It is primarily a residential town for London commuters ...
Watie, Stand: Cherokee chief who signed the treaty forcing tribal removal of the Cherokees from Georgia and who later served as brigadier general in the Confederate Army during the U.S. Civil War. Watie learned to speak English when, at the age of ...
Watkins Glen: village, seat (1854) of Schuyler county, central New York, U.S. It lies at the south end of Seneca Lake, in the heart of the Finger Lakes region, 20 miles (32 km) north of Elmira. Settled in 1791, it was incorporated ...
Watkins, Vernon Phillips: English-language Welsh poet who drew from Welsh material and legend.
Watling Street: Roman road in England that ran from Dover west-northwest to London and thence northwest via St. Albans (Verulamium) to Wroxeter (Ouirokonion, or Viroconium). It was one of Britain's greatest arterial roads of the Roman and post-Roman periods. The name came ...
Watson Lake: community, southern Yukon Territory, Canada. It lies along a small lake on the border with British Columbia. It originated as a 19th-century trading post and was named after Frank Watson, a pioneer trapper-miner. It is now a key communications and ...
Watson, James Dewey: American geneticist and biophysicist who played a crucial role in the discovery of the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the substance that is the basis of heredity. For this accomplishment he was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology ...
Watson, John B.: American psychologist who codified and publicized behaviourism, an approach to psychology that, in his view, was restricted to the objective, experimental study of the relations between environmental events and human behaviour. Watsonian behaviourism became the dominant psychology in the United ...
Watson, John Christian: politician and the first Labour prime minister of Australia (1904).
Watson, Sir William: English author of lyrical and political verse, with a special gift for occasional poems.
Watson, Thomas Augustus: American telephone pioneer and shipbuilder, one of the original organizers of the Bell Telephone Company, who later turned to shipbuilding and constructed a number of vessels for the United States government.
Watson, Thomas J., Sr.: American industrialist who built the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) into the largest manufacturer of electric typewriters and data-processing equipment in the world.
Watson, William: English Roman Catholic priest who was executed for his part in the "Bye Plot" against King James I.
Watson-Watt, Sir Robert Alexander: Scottish physicist credited with the development of radar in England.
Watsuji Tetsuro: Japanese moral philosopher and historian of ideas, outstanding among modern Japanese thinkers who have tried to combine the Eastern moral spirit with Western ethical ideas.
watt: unit of power in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one joule of work performed per second, or to 1746 horsepower. An equivalent is the power dissipated in an electrical conductor carrying one ampere current between points at ...
Watt, James: Scottish instrument maker and inventor whose steam engine contributed substantially to the Industrial Revolution. He was elected fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1785.