Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Welf Dynasty ... Welsh pony

Welf Dynasty: dynasty of German nobles and rulers who were the chief rivals of the Hohenstaufens in Italy and central Europe in the Middle Ages and who later included the Hanoverian Welfs, who, with the accession of George I to the British ...
welfare economics: branch of economics that seeks to evaluate economic policies in terms of their effects on the well-being of the community. It became established as a well-defined branch of economic theory during the 20th century.
welfare state: concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and ...
Welhaven, Johan Sebastian Cammermeyer: Norwegian poet and critic who attacked the crudity and extreme nationalism of many of his contemporaries, particularly the nationalist poet Henrik Wergeland, who advocated complete cultural independence for Norway; their feud is the most famous in Norwegian literature.
Welk, Lawrence: American bandleader and accordion player, whose effervescent brand of "champagne music" was featured for more than 30 years on his successful show, one of the longest-running programs on television (1955-71).
Welkom: city, Free State province, South Africa, southwest of Johannesburg. It was founded in 1947 amid goldfields, the development of which brought rapid growth, quickly making it the province's second largest town. It attained municipal status in 1961 and was declared ...
well logging: field technique used in mineral exploration to analyze the geologic formations penetrated by a drill hole.
well-field system: the communal land organization supposedly in effect throughout China early in the Chou dynasty (c. 1111-255 BC). The well-field system was first mentioned in the literature of the late Chou dynasty (c. 4th century BC), especially in the writings of ...
well-made play: a type of play, constructed according to certain strict technical principles, that dominated the stages of Europe and the United States for most of the 19th century. The technical formula of the well-made play, developed around 1825 by the French ...
Welland: city, regional municipality of Niagara, southeastern Ontario, Canada. It lies along the Welland River and Welland Ship Canal. During the War of 1812 the area was the scene of several battles between British-Canadian and American forces. Founded as The Aqueduct ...
Welland Canal: waterway in southern Ontario, Can., that provides navigation for large vessels between Lake Erie to the south and Lake Ontario to the north and forms an important link in the St. Lawrence Seaway. The canal was necessary because the Niagara ...
Welland, River: river in the eastern Midlands, England. The Welland River rises in the county of Leicestershire and flows eastward past Market Harborough and Stamford for about 70 miles (110 km) into Lincolnshire to enter the southwestern corner of the shallow North ...
Weller, Thomas H.: American physician and virologist who was the corecipient (with John Enders and Frederick Robbins) of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1954 for the successful cultivation of poliomyelitis virus in tissue cultures. This made it possible to study ...
Welles, Gideon: U.S. secretary of the navy under presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.
Welles, Orson: American motion-picture actor, director, producer, and writer. His innovative narrative techniques and use of photography, dramatic lighting, and music to further the dramatic line and to create mood combined to make his Citizen Kane (1941)-which he wrote, ...
Wellesley: town (township), Norfolk county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S., just west of Boston. Originally part of Dedham, it became the Western Precinct of Needham when that town was set off in 1711. Incorporated as a separate town in 1881, it was named ...
Wellesley College: private women's college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, U.S., one of the Seven Sisters schools. A liberal arts college, Wellesley grants bachelor's degrees in humanities, including Chinese, Japanese, and Russian languages; in social science, including Africana studies, religion, and economics; and in ...
Wellesley Islands: group of islands lying off the northwestern coast of Queensland, Australia, in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Sighted in 1644 by the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman, they were charted (1802-03) by the British navigator Matthew Flinders and named in honour of ...
Wellesley, Richard Colley Wellesley, Marquess: also called (from 1781) 2nd Earl Of Mornington, Viscount Wellesley Of Dangan Castle, or (from 1797) Baron Wellesley Of Wellesley, original surname Wesley British statesman who, as governor of Madras and governor general of Bengal (both 1797-1805), greatly enlarged the ...
Wellesz, Egon: Austrian composer and musicologist, highly esteemed as an authority on Byzantine music.
Wellfleet: town (township), Barnstable county, Massachusetts, U.S. It lies on the northeastern arm of Cape Cod, 12 miles (19 km) south-southeast of Provincetown. First settled about 1724, it was incorporated in 1763 and gained prominence in the 19th century as a ...
Wellhausen, Julius: German biblical scholar best known for his analysis of the structure and dating of the Pentateuch.
Wellingborough: town and borough (district), administrative and historic county of Northamptonshire, England, situated east of Northampton along the River Nene. Wellingborough grew as a market town in the Middle Ages. After a fire in 1738, it was rebuilt on its present ...
Wellington: local government region, extreme southern North Island, New Zealand. It includes the cities of Wellington (the national capital) and Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt, Porirua, and Masterton. The broad Hutt River valley, once the locale of dairy farms and market gardens, ...
Wellington: town ("parish"), Taunton Deane district, administrative and historic county of Somerset, England, just west-southwest of Taunton. The first duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley, who took his title from the town), victor of the Battle of Waterloo (1815), is commemorated by ...
Wellington: town, east-central New South Wales, Australia. It lies at the confluence of the Macquarie and Bell rivers. The site, used by John Oxley as a base for exploration (1817-18), was named by him after the Duke of Wellington. A convict ...
Wellington: capital city, port, and major commercial centre of New Zealand, located in the extreme south of North Island. It lies on the shores and hills surrounding Port Nicholson, an almost landlocked bay that is ranked among the world's finest harbours. ...
Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of, Marquess of Douro, Marquess of Wellington, Earl of Wellington, Viscount Wellington of Talavera and of Wellington, Baron Douro or Wellesley: British army commander during the Napoleonic Wars and later prime minister of Great Britain (1828-30). He first rose to military prominence in India, won successes in the Peninsular War in Spain (1808-14), and shared in the victory over Napoleon at ...
Wellman, William: American film director whose more than 80 movies included Hollywood classics of documentary realism.
Wells: city, Mendip district, administrative and historic county of Somerset, England, at the foot of the Mendip Hills. The name derives from the many springs rising near the cathedral, which was begun in the 12th century and dominates the city. In ...
Wells Fargo: American financial services company with banks in many states, especially in the West. The founders of the original company were Henry Wells (1805-78) and William George Fargo (1818-81), who had earlier helped establish the American Express Company. They and other ...
Wells, Carolyn: prolific American writer remembered largely for her popular mysteries, children's books, and humorous verse.
Wells, Charles Jeremiah: English writer, author of Joseph and His Brethren (1823), a long dramatic poem in the style of the Elizabethan dramatists, which enjoyed an immense vogue among the Pre-Raphaelites and their followers after it was praised first by Dante Gabriel Rossetti ...
Wells, David Ames: popular American writer on science and economics who, as chairman of the National Revenue Commission, helped to create the U.S. Bureau of Statistics and to establish an empirical basis for taxation in the United States.
Wells, Dicky: leading black American jazz trombonist noted, especially in the big band era, for his melodic creativity and expressive techniques.
Wells, Emmeline Blanche Woodward: American religious leader and feminist who made use of her editorship of the Mormon publication Woman's Exponent to campaign energetically for woman suffrage.
Wells, H G: English novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian, best known for such science fiction as The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds and such comic novels as Tono-Bungay and The History of Mr. Polly.
Wells, Henry: pioneer American expressman, one of the founders of the American Express Company and of Wells Fargo & Company.
Wells, Horace: American dentist, a pioneer in the use of surgical anesthesia.
Wells-Barnett, Ida Bell: African American journalist who led an antilynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s.
Wellsburg: city, seat (1797) of Brooke county, in the northern panhandle of West Virginia, U.S. It lies along the Ohio River, about 15 miles (24 km) north of Wheeling, West Virginia, and opposite Brilliant, Ohio. Settled in 1772, it was chartered ...
Wels: city, Bundesland ("federal state") Oberosterreich, north-central Austria. It lies along the Traun River at the foothills of the Eastern Alps, southwest of Linz. The site has been occupied since prehistoric times. Wels originated as the Roman Ovilava, capital of Noricum ...
wels: large, voracious catfish of the family Siluridae, native to large rivers and lakes from central Europe to western Asia. One of the largest catfishes, as well as one of the largest of European freshwater fishes, the wels attains a length ...
Welsbach, Carl Auer, Freiherr von: (baron of) Austrian chemist and engineer who invented the gas mantle, thus allowing the greatly increased output of light by gas lamps.
Welser Family: family of German merchants, most prominent from the 15th to the 17th century. It first became important in the 15th century, when the brothers Bartholomew and Lucas Welser carried on an extensive trade with the Levant and elsewhere, and had ...
Welsh corgi: either of two breeds of working dogs developed to handle cattle. They are similar in appearance but are of different origins. Their resemblance results from crosses between the two breeds.
Welsh language: member of the Brythonic group of the Celtic languages, spoken in Wales. Modern Welsh, like English, makes very little use of inflectional endings; British, the Brythonic language from which Welsh is descended, was, however, an inflecting language like Latin, with ...
Welsh law: the native law of Wales. Although increasingly superseded by English law after the 13th century, Welsh law has been preserved in lawbooks that represent important documents of medieval Welsh prose.
Welsh literary renaissance: literary activity centring in Wales and England in the mid-18th century that attempted to stimulate interest in the Welsh language and in the classical bardic verse forms of Wales. The movement centred on Lewis, Richard, and William Morris, Welsh scholars ...
Welsh literature: body of writings in the Welsh language with a rich and unbroken history stretching from the 6th century to the present.
Welsh pony: breed of small horse popular as a child's or an adult's mount. A hardy breed that developed in the Welsh mountains, the Welsh pony was originally used in coal mines. A saddle type was developed by introducing Thoroughbred and Arabian ...