Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Wolverhampton ... Wood, Robert Williams

Wolverhampton: metropolitan borough, metropolitan county of West Midlands, historic county of Staffordshire, England. It lies in the northwestern part of the industrial Black Country, near the farmlands of Shropshire and Staffordshire. The early town was mainly an agricultural centre. With the ...
wolverine: (species Gulo gulo, or sometimes G. luscus in North America), member of the weasel family (Mustelidae) that lives in cold northern latitudes, especially in timbered areas, around the world. It resembles a small, squat, broad bear 65-90 cm (26-36 inches) ...
Woman Citizen, The: American weekly periodical, one of the most influential women's publications of the early decades of the 20th century. It came into existence as a result of a substantial bequest from Mrs. Frank Leslie to Carrie Chapman Catt, the head of ...
woman suffrage: the right of women by law to vote in national and local elections.
Woman's Christian Temperance Union: American organization, founded in November 1874 in Cleveland, Ohio, in response to the "Woman's Crusade," a series of temperance demonstrations that swept through New York and much of the Midwest in 1873-74. Annie Wittenmyer, an experienced wartime fund-raiser and administrator, ...
Woman's Journal: American weekly suffragist periodical, first published on January 8, 1870, by Lucy Stone and her husband, Henry Blackwell, to address a broad segment of middle-class female society interested in women's rights. As an official publication of the American Woman Suffrage ...
Woman's Peace Party: American organization that was established as a result of a three-day peace meeting organized by Jane Addams and other feminists in response to the beginning of World War I in Europe in 1914. The conference, held in January 1915 in ...
wombat: any of three large terrestrial species of Australian marsupials. Like woodchucks, wombats are heavily built and virtually tailless burrowers with small eyes and short ears. Wombats, however, are larger, measuring 80 to 120 cm (31 to 47 inches) long. Chiefly ...
Women of All Red Nations: American organization, founded in 1974, that developed out of a group of women supporting the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the early 1970s. Though both men and women were involved in AIM's activism, only the former were severely punished for ...
Women Strike for Peace: organization that evolved out of an international protest against atmospheric nuclear testing held on November 1, 1961. On that day between 12,000 and 50,000 women in various nations demonstrated to protest nuclear testing and to voice concern, in particular, about ...
Women's Armed Services Integration Act: law enacted in 1948 that permitted women to serve as full members of the U.S. armed forces.
Women's Army Corps: U.S. Army unit created during World War II to enable women to serve in noncombat positions. Never before had women, with the exception of nurses, served within the ranks of the U.S. Army. With the establishment of the WACs, more ...
Women's Equality Day: annual event in the United States, observed on August 26 since its inception in 1971, marking women's advancements toward equality with men. August 26, 1970, marked the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted American women ...
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom: organization whose opposition to war dates from World War I, which makes it the oldest continuously active peace organization in the United States. It encompasses some 100 branches in the United States and has other branches in approximately 50 countries. ...
Women's Land Army: U.S. federally established organization that from 1943 to 1947 recruited and trained women to work on farms left untended owing to the labour drain that arose during World War II.
women's movement: diverse social movement, largely based in the United States, seeking equal rights and opportunities for women in their economic activities, their personal lives, and politics.It is recognized as the "second wave" of the larger feminist movement. While first-wave feminism of ...
Women's National Loyal League: organization formed on May 14, 1863, by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton that sought to end the American Civil War through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that abolished slavery. To this end they organized a Mammoth Petition ...
Women's Trade Union League: American organization, the first national association dedicated to organizing women workers. Founded in 1903, the WTUL proved remarkably successful in uniting women from all classes to work toward better, fairer working conditions. The organization relied largely upon the resources of ...
won: monetary units of South Korea and North Korea. The Bank of Korea has the exclusive authority to issue banknotes and coins for South Korea. Banknotes are issued in denominations ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 won. The notes are adorned on ...
Wonder, Stevie: American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, a child prodigy who developed into one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century.
Wonhyo Daisa: also called Wonhyo Buddhist priest who is considered the greatest of the ancient Korean religious teachers and one of the Ten Sages of the Ancient Korean Kingdom.
Wonju: city, Kangwon do (province), north-central South Korea. Historically, its location in the eroded basin of the T'aebaek Mountains on the South Han River has been militarily strategic. After the Korean War (1950-53), it developed as a military ...
Wonsan: city, southeastern North Korea. Situated on the coast of the Sea of Japan (East Sea), about 80 miles (130 km) east of P'yongyang, it is protected by two promontories and 20 islands in the Yonghung Bay and has the best ...
Wonthaggi: town, southern Victoria, Australia. It lies 5 miles (8 km) inland from the coast on Bass Strait. The explorer William Hovell discovered black-coal deposits at nearby Cape Paterson in 1826, but early attempts at mining were unsuccessful. Coal deposits at ...
wood: the principal strengthening and nutrient-conducting tissue of trees and other plants and one of the most abundant and versatile natural materials. Produced by many botanical species, wood is available in various colours and grain patterns. It is strong in relation ...
Wood Buffalo National Park: park in northern Alberta and southern Northwest Territories, Canada, between Athabasca and Great Slave lakes. It has an area of 17,300 sq mi (44,807 sq km) and was established in 1922. A vast region of forests and plains crossed by ...
wood duck: (Aix sponsa), small colourful North American perching duck (family Anatidae), a popular game bird. Once in danger of extinction from overhunting and habitat destruction, the species has been saved by diligent conservation efforts. Wood ducks nest in tree cavities up ...
wood engraving: a printmaking technique in which a print is made from a design incised on the transverse section, or end, of a hardwood block. The technique was developed in England in the last half of the 18th century, and its first ...
Wood Family: celebrated English family of Staffordshire potters, a major force in the development of Staffordshire wares from peasant pottery to an organized industry. The family's most prominent members were Ralph Wood (1715-72), the "miller of Burslem"; his brother Aaron (1717-85); and ...
wood frog: (Rana sylvatica), terrestrial frog (family Ranidae) found from the southeastern United States to Alaska. In the United States and parts of Canada the wood frog generally inhabits damp woodlands; in the north it frequents areas that, in spring, are supplied ...
wood hoopoe: any of 6 species of tropical African birds of the family Phoeniculidae (order Coraciiformes). Sometimes they are placed in the hoopoe family, Upupidae.
wood louse: either of two related terrestrial crustaceans, the pill bug (q.v.) and the sow bug (q.v.).
wood mouse: any of about 20 species of small-bodied rodents found from northern Europe eastward to southern China and the Himalayas. Body size varies; different species weigh from 15 to 50 grams (0.5 to 1.8 ounces) and measure from 6 to 15 ...
wood owl: any of 11 species of birds of prey of the genus Strix, family Strigidae, characterized by a conspicuous facial disk but lacking ear tufts. Wood owls occur in woodlands and forests in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The name wood ...
wood pigeon: (species Columba palumbus), bird of the subfamily Columbinae (in the pigeon family, Columbidae), found from the forested areas of Europe, North Africa, and western Asia east to the mountains of Sikkim state in India. It is about 40 cm (16 ...
Wood River: city, Madison county, southwestern Illinois, U.S. Part of the St. Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area, it lies on the Mississippi River near the confluence of the Wood and Missouri rivers. It was from this site that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark ...
wood sorrel: any plant of the genus Oxalis, numbering several hundred species, within the family Oxalidaceae. The name is chiefly used for O. montana, a stemless trifoliate (i.e., with three leaflets) herb native to North America from southern Canada southward to Tennessee ...
wood tar: liquid obtained as one of the products of the carbonization, or destructive distillation, of wood. There are two types: hardwood tars, derived from such woods as oak and beech; and resinous tars, derived from pine wood, particularly from resinous stumps ...
wood turtle: (Clemmys insculpta), long-tailed turtle of the family Emydidae, found from Nova Scotia through the eastern and central United States. The rough upper shell of the wood turtle is about 15-20 cm (6-8 inches) long and bears concentrically grooved pyramids on ...
wood wasp: insect belonging to any of three families of the order Hymenoptera: Xiphydriidae, Orussidae (sometimes spelled Oryssidae), and Syntexidae. Orussidae are known as parasitic wood wasps; Syntexidae are known as cedar wood wasps.
Wood, Anthony: English antiquarian whose life was devoted to collecting and publishing the history of Oxford and its university.
Wood, Evelyn: American educator who developed a widely used system of high-speed reading.
Wood, Fernando: American congressional representative and mayor of New York City who led the Northern peace Democrats-or "Copperheads"-during the American Civil War.
Wood, Grant: American painter who was one of the major exponents of Midwestern Regionalism, a movement that flourished in the United States during the 1930s.
Wood, John, the Elder: English architect and town planner, a resident of Bath from 1727 who fixed the physical character of that resort city. Though some of his individual buildings were noteworthy exercises in Palladianism (a kind of 16th-century Italian Renaissance classicism), he was ...
Wood, John, The Younger: British architect whose work at Bath represents the culmination of the Palladian tradition initiated there by his father, John Wood the Elder. Bath is one of the most celebrated achievements in comprehensive town design.
Wood, Leonard: medical officer who became chief of staff of the U.S. Army and governor general of the Philippine Islands (1921-27).
Wood, Mary Elizabeth: American librarian and missionary, whose efforts brought numerous libraries to China and established a strong program in that country to train librarians.
Wood, Mrs. Henry: nee Ellen Price English novelist who wrote the sensational and extremely popular East Lynne (1861), a melodramatic and moralizing tale of the fall of virtue. Translated into many languages, it was dramatized with great success, and its plot has been ...
Wood, Robert E: U.S. business executive under whose leadership Sears, Roebuck and Co. grew to become the world's largest merchandising company.
Wood, Robert Williams: U.S. physicist who extended the technique of Raman spectroscopy, a useful method of studying matter by analyzing the light scattered by it.