Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Weber, Carl Maria von ... Wei Yuan

Weber, Carl Maria von: German composer and opera director during the transition from Classical to Romantic music, noted especially for his operas Der Freischutz (1821; "The Freeshooter"), Euryanthe (1823), and Oberon (1826).
Weber, Ernst: Austrian-born American engineer who was a pioneer in the development of microwave communications equipment and who oversaw the growth of the Polytechnic Institute in New York City.
Weber, Ernst Heinrich: German anatomist and physiologist whose fundamental studies of the sense of touch introduced a concept-that of the just-noticeable difference, the smallest difference perceivable between two similar stimuli-that is important to psychology and sensory physiology.
Weber, Joe; and Fields, Lew: American comedy team that was popular at the turn of the 20th century. They were known for broad slapstick sketches in "Dutch" dialect that had undertones of sharp satire.
Weber, Lois: American actress, producer, and director who is best remembered for her crusading films of social concern in the early days of the motion picture industry.
Weber, Max: German sociologist and political economist best known for his thesis of the "Protestant ethic," relating Protestantism to capitalism, and for his ideas on bureaucracy. Weber's profound influence on sociological theory stems from his demand for objectivity in scholarship and from ...
Weber, Max: Russian-born American painter, printmaker, and sculptor who, through his early abstract works, helped to introduce such avant-garde European art movements as Fauvism and Cubism to the United States.
Weber, Wilhelm Eduard: German physicist who, with his friend Carl Friedrich Gauss, investigated terrestrial magnetism and in 1833 devised an electromagnetic telegraph. The magnetic unit, termed a weber, formerly the coulomb, is named after him.
Weberian apparatus: distinctive chain of small bones characteristic of fish of the superorder Ostariophysi (carps, characins, minnows, suckers, loaches, catfish, and others). The Weberian apparatus consists of four pairs of bones, called ossicles, derived from the vertebrae immediately following the skull. The ...
Webern, Anton von: Austrian composer of the 12-tone Viennese school (see atonality). He is known especially for his passacaglia for orchestra, his chamber music, and various songs (Lieder).
webspinner: any insect of the mainly tropical order Embioptera of about 150 species. The fragile, yellow- or brown-coloured webspinner has biting mouthparts, feeds on dead plant material, and is from 4 to 7 millimetres (about 0.2 inch) long. Most males have ...
Webster: town (township), Worcester county, south-central Massachusetts, U.S., on the French River, 18 miles (29 km) south of Worcester city. Within the town limits is Lake Chaubunagungamaug (now also called Lake Webster), 3 miles (5 km) long and the focus of ...
Webster City: city, seat (1856) of Hamilton county, central Iowa, U.S., on the Boone River, 17 miles (27 km) east of Fort Dodge. It was settled in 1850 by Wilson Brewer and was known as Newcastle until 1856, when it became the ...
Webster, Ben: American jazz musician noted for the beauty of his tenor saxophone tone and for his melodic inventiveness.
Webster, Daniel: American orator and politician who practiced prominently as a lawyer before the U.S. Supreme Court and served as a U.S. congressman (1813-17, 1823-27), a U.S. senator (1827-41, 1845-50), and U.S. secretary of state (1841-43, 1850-52). He is best known as ...
Webster, Jean: American writer who is best remembered for her fiction best-seller Daddy-Long-Legs, which was also successful in stage and motion picture adaptations.
Webster, John: English dramatist whose The White Devil (c. 1609-c. 1612) and The Duchess of Malfi (c. 1612/13, published 1623) are generally regarded as the paramount 17th-century English tragedies apart from those of Shakespeare.
Webster, Marie: American quilt designer and historian, author of the first book entirely devoted to American quilts.
Webster, Noah: American lexicographer known for his American Spelling Book (1783) and his American Dictionary of the English Language, 2 vol. (1828; 2nd ed., 1840). Webster was instrumental in giving American English a dignity and vitality ...
Webster-Ashburton Treaty: (1842), treaty between the U.S. and Great Britain establishing the northeastern boundary of the U.S. and providing for Anglo-U.S. cooperation in the suppression of the slave trade. The treaty established the present boundary between Maine and New Brunswick, granted the ...
Wechsler, David: American psychologist and inventor of several widely used intelligence tests for adults and children.
Weddell Sea: deep embayment of the Antarctic coastline that forms the southernmost tip of the Atlantic Ocean. Centring at about 73° S, 45° W, the Weddell Sea is bounded on the west by the Antarctic Peninsula of West Antarctica, on the east ...
Weddell seal: nonmigratory earless seal (family Phocidae) found around the South Pole, on or near the coast of Antarctica. The Weddell seal is a rotund animal that grows to about 3 metres (10 feet) in length and about 400 kg (880 pounds) ...
Weddell, James: British explorer and seal hunter who set a record for navigation into the Antarctic and for whom the Weddell Sea is named.
Weddigen, Otto: German submarine commander whose feat of sinking three British armoured cruisers in about an hour, during the second month of World War I, made him one of the most famous of submarine heroes.
Wedekind, Frank: German actor and dramatist who became an intense personal force in the German artistic world on the eve of World War I. A direct forebear of the modern Theatre of the Absurd, Wedekind employed episodic scenes, fragmented dialogue, distortion, and ...
Wedel-Jarlsberg, Herman, Count: (Landgreve) Norwegian patriot and statesman. He was the leading advocate of Norwegian-Swedish union in the last years of the Danish-Norwegian state and the first Norwegian governor (statholder) in the Norwegian-Swedish union (1814-1905).
Wedemeyer, Albert Coady: American military leader who was the principal author of the 1941 Victory Program, a comprehensive war plan devised for the U.S. entry into World War II.
wedge: in mechanics, device that tapers to a thin edge, usually made of metal or wood, and used for splitting, lifting, or tightening, as to secure a hammer head onto its handle. Along with the lever, wheel and axle, pulley, and ...
Wedgwood ware: English stoneware, including creamware, black basaltes, and jasperware, made by the Staffordshire factories originally established by Josiah Wedgwood at Burslem, at Etruria, and finally at Barlaston, all in Staffordshire. In the decade of its first production, the 1760s, Wedgwood ware ...
Wedgwood, Josiah: English pottery designer and manufacturer, outstanding in his scientific approach to pottery making and known for his exhaustive researches into materials, logical deployment of labour, and sense of business organization.
Wednesday: fourth day of the week (q.v.).
weed: any plant growing where it is not wanted. Ever since human beings first attempted the cultivation of plants, they have had to fight the invasion by weeds into areas chosen for crops. Some unwanted plants later were found to have ...
Weed, Thurlow: American journalist and politician who helped form the Whig Party in New York.
Weehawken: township, Hudson county, northeastern New Jersey, U.S. It lies 5 miles (8 km) north of Jersey City and opposite New York City on the Hudson River. An industrial port and railroad centre, it is the western portal of the Lincoln ...
week: period of seven days, a unit of time artificially devised with no astronomical basis. The origin of the term is generally associated with the ancient Jews and the biblical account of the Creation, according to which God laboured for six ...
Weeki Wachee Spring: spring and tourist attraction in Hernando county, west-central Florida, U.S., 55 miles (90 km) north of St. Petersburg. The spring, with a measured depth of more than 250 feet (75 metres), produces a crystal clear water flow of more than ...
Weelkes, Thomas: English organist and composer, one of the most important composers of madrigals .
Weems, Mason Locke: American clergyman, itinerant book agent, and fabricator of the story of George Washington's chopping down the cherry tree. This fiction was inserted into the fifth edition (1806) of Weems's book The Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington (1800).
weever: any of four species of small marine fishes of the family Trachinidae (order Perciformes). Weevers are long-bodied fishes that habitually bury themselves in the sand. They have large, upwardly slanted mouths and eyes near the top of the head. There ...
weevil: true weevil of the insect family Curculionidae. This family is not only the largest family of the order Coleoptera (about 40,000 species) but is also the largest family in the animal kingdom. Most weevils have long, elbowed antennae that may ...
Wefers, Bernard J., Sr.: American sprinter who held the world record for the 200-metre dash (straightaway; 1896-1921, though tied by five other runners) and for the 220-yard dash (straightaway; 1896-1921, also tied by the same five runners).
Wegener's granulomatosis: uncommon disorder marked by inflammation and necrosis (death of tissue) of small blood vessels. The disease commonly occurs in mid-adult life. Almost any organ may be affected, but most often the diseased vessels are in the respiratory tract, kidneys, and ...
Wegener, Alfred Lothar: German meteorologist and geophysicist who formulated the first complete statement of the continental drift hypothesis.
Wehlau, Treaty of: (Sept. 19, 1657), agreement in which John Casimir, king of Poland from 1648 to 1668, renounced the suzerainty of the Polish crown over ducal Prussia and made Frederick William, who was the duke of Prussia as well as the elector ...
Wehling, Ulrich: German skier who was the only three-time winner of the Nordic combined (two ski jumps totaled, plus a 15-km race) in Olympic history. In doing so, he was the first male competitor who was not a figure skater to win ...
Wei: one of the many warring states into which China was divided during the Eastern Chou period (770-221 BC). The state was located in what is now Shansi province, in north-central China. Wei was originally a vassal kingdom that was annexed ...
Wei Chung-hsien: eunuch who completely dominated the Chinese government between 1624 and 1627, ruthlessly exploiting the population and terrorizing the official class. He is usually considered by historians to have been the most powerful eunuch in Chinese history.
Wei Dynasty: (AD 386-534/535), the longest lived and most powerful of the northern Chinese dynasties that existed before the reunification of China under the Sui and T'ang dynasties.
Wei River: river in Kansu and Shensi provinces, China, a western tributary of the Huang Ho. It rises in the Ma-wei Mountains in the Kansu plateau, between Lin-t'ao and Wei-yuan, flows east, between the north-south Lung Mountains and the east-west Tsinling Mountains, ...
Wei Yuan: historian and geographer of the Ch'ing dynasty (1644-1911/12).