• Westmoreland, William (United States general)

    William Westmoreland was a U.S. Army officer who commanded U.S. forces in the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968. After a year at The Citadel, Westmoreland entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he was made first captain of his class. Upon graduating in 1936, he was

  • Westmoreland, William Childs (United States general)

    William Westmoreland was a U.S. Army officer who commanded U.S. forces in the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968. After a year at The Citadel, Westmoreland entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he was made first captain of his class. Upon graduating in 1936, he was

  • Westmorland (historical county, England, United Kingdom)

    Westmorland, historic county of northwestern England, bounded on the north and west by Cumberland, on the southwest and southeast by Lancashire, on the east by Yorkshire, and on the northeast by Durham. It is now part of the districts of Eden and South Lakeland in the administrative county of

  • Westmorland, Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of, 4th Baron Neville Of Raby (English noble)

    Ralph Neville, 1st earl of Westmorland was an English noble who, though created earl by King Richard II, supported the usurpation of the crown by Henry IV and did much to establish the Lancastrian dynasty. The eldest son of John, 3rd Baron Neville, he was knighted during a French expedition in

  • Westmorland, Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of, 4th Baron Neville of Raby (English noble)

    Ralph Neville, 1st earl of Westmorland was an English noble who, though created earl by King Richard II, supported the usurpation of the crown by Henry IV and did much to establish the Lancastrian dynasty. The eldest son of John, 3rd Baron Neville, he was knighted during a French expedition in

  • Weston (West Virginia, United States)

    Weston, city, seat of Lewis county, central West Virginia, U.S., on the West Fork River. The site was surveyed by Colonel Edward Jackson, grandfather of the American Civil War general Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. Originally named Preston, the town was founded and incorporated in 1818 as the

  • Weston cadmium cell (battery)

    battery: Other primary battery systems: 434 volts) and the Weston cell (cadmium–mercurous sulfate–mercury; 1.019 volts). Magnesium–silver chloride and magnesium–lead chloride batteries are commonly employed in undersea operations where the salt water becomes the electrolyte when the battery is submerged or in situations where low risk to the environment is desired, as in balloon batteries.

  • Weston, Edward (American photographer)

    Edward Weston was a major American photographer of the early to mid-20th century, best known for his carefully composed, sharply focused images of natural forms, landscapes, and nudes. His work influenced a generation of American photographers. Weston was born into a family of some intellectual

  • Weston, Edward (British-born American engineer and industrialist)

    Edward Weston was a British-born American electrical engineer and industrialist who founded the Weston Electrical Instrument Company. Weston studied medicine at the insistence of his parents; but, after receiving his medical diploma in 1870, he went to New York City, where he was employed as a

  • Weston, Maria (American abolitionist)

    Maria Weston Chapman was an American abolitionist who was the principal lieutenant of the radical antislavery leader William Lloyd Garrison. Maria Weston spent several years of her youth living with the family of an uncle in England, where she received a good education. From 1828 to 1830 she was

  • Weston, Paul (American musician and composer)

    Frank Sinatra: The band singer: …and Dorsey arrangers Axel Stordahl, Paul Weston, and Sy Oliver soon tailored their arrangements to highlight Sinatra’s skills. Often teamed with singer Connie Haines, or with Dorsey’s vocal group, the Pied Pipers (featuring future recording star Jo Stafford), Sinatra was featured on memorable sides such as “I’ll Never Smile Again,”…

  • Weston, Randolph E. (American musician and composer)

    Randy Weston was an American jazz pianist and composer, noted for his use of African rhythms. Weston began playing piano in his youth and served in the U.S. Army before beginning a jazz career about age 23. He began leading his own small groups, in nightclubs and concerts, and started recording in

  • Weston, Randy (American musician and composer)

    Randy Weston was an American jazz pianist and composer, noted for his use of African rhythms. Weston began playing piano in his youth and served in the U.S. Army before beginning a jazz career about age 23. He began leading his own small groups, in nightclubs and concerts, and started recording in

  • Weston, Ruth (American singer and actress)

    Ruth Brown was an American singer and actress, who earned the sobriquet “Miss Rhythm” while dominating the rhythm-and-blues charts throughout the 1950s. Her success helped establish Atlantic Records (“The House That Ruth Built”) as the era’s premier rhythm-and-blues label. The oldest of seven

  • Weston-Mott Company (American company)

    Charles Stewart Mott: …when Mott started managing the Weston-Mott Co., his family’s bicycle-tire manufacturing firm in Utica, N.Y., he expanded the business by manufacturing wheels for automobiles as well as bicycles. As president of the company from 1903 to 1913, Mott moved the company to Flint in 1906 to be close to the…

  • Weston-super-Mare (England, United Kingdom)

    Weston-super-Mare, town, North Somerset unitary authority, historic county of Somerset, southwestern England. It is situated on a sandy bay of the Bristol Channel between the promontory of Brean Down (now owned by the National Trust) and Worlebury Hill at the western end of the Mendip Hills.

  • Westover v. United States (law case)

    Miranda warning: Miranda v. Arizona: …two of the other cases, Westover v. United States and Vignera v. New York, also had their convictions overturned by the Supreme Court. The fourth case, California v. Stewart, had already been overturned by the Supreme Court of California for similar reasons, and that decision was affirmed by the U.S.…

  • Westover, Charles Weedon (American musician)

    Del Shannon was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who was one of the first white rock and rollers to write his own songs. He is best known for the pop music classic “Runaway” (1961). After playing in bands as a teenager in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Shannon released his first single,

  • Westover, Cynthia May (American social worker and journalist)

    Cynthia May Westover Alden was an American social worker and journalist whose energies in the latter half of her life focused on securing the welfare of blind infants and children. Cynthia Westover was reared largely by her father, a geologist, in western mining camps, and she could shoot a rifle

  • Westphal balance (instrument)

    specific gravity: …measure specific gravity are the Westphal balance, the pycnometer, and the hydrometer.

  • Westphalia (historical region, Germany)

    Westphalia, historic region of northwestern Germany, comprising a large part of the present federal Land (state) of North Rhine–Westphalia. The ancient Saxons were divided into three main groups: the Westphalians, the Angrians (German: Engern), and the Eastphalians (Ostfalen). The Westphalians, who

  • Westphalia Hall (hall, Dortmund, Germany)

    Dortmund: …(1956) and the Westfalenhalle (Westphalia Hall; 1952), one of Europe’s largest halls, which is used for conventions, exhibitions, and sporting events. In the 1980s a casino and a new town hall were constructed. The city is home to the University of Dortmund (opened 1968), institutes for molecular physiology and…

  • Westphalia, Peace of (European history)

    Peace of Westphalia, European settlements of 1648, which brought to an end the Eighty Years’ War between Spain and the Dutch and the German phase of the Thirty Years’ War. The peace was negotiated, from 1644, in the Westphalian towns of Münster and Osnabrück. The Spanish-Dutch treaty was signed on

  • Westphalia, Treaty of (European history)

    Peace of Westphalia, European settlements of 1648, which brought to an end the Eighty Years’ War between Spain and the Dutch and the German phase of the Thirty Years’ War. The peace was negotiated, from 1644, in the Westphalian towns of Münster and Osnabrück. The Spanish-Dutch treaty was signed on

  • Westphalian Basin (region, Germany)

    Germany: The northern fringe of the Central German Uplands: …of subdued scarpland relief, the Westphalian Basin to the northwest and the Thuringian Basin to the southeast, both partially invaded by glacial outwash from the North German Plain. Hessen and the Westphalian Basin are succeeded northward by the hills of Lower Saxony. The breakthrough of the Weser River into the…

  • Westphalian Wilhelm University of Münster (university, Münster, Germany)

    Münster: …period, is evident in the University of Münster (founded in 1780 as Westphalian Wilhelm University, a full university from 1902; in the 18th century an episcopal palace), the bailiff’s high court, and several churches.

  • Westport (New Zealand)

    Westport, port town, northwestern South Island, New Zealand. It lies at the mouth of the Buller River. Coal and gold were discovered in the area in 1859, and the town was surveyed in 1862. Gold was exploited for only a half-century or so, but coal mining (well developed by the 1870s) continues. The

  • Westport (Connecticut, United States)

    Westport, urban town (township), Fairfield county, southwestern Connecticut, U.S. It lies along Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Saugatuck River just east of Norwalk. The area, which the local Indians called Saugatuck, was settled about 1648; it was renamed and detached from Fairfield,

  • Westside Preparatory School (school, Chicago, Illinois, United States)

    Marva Collins: …system to found the private Daniel Hale Williams Westside Preparatory School. With financial assistance from the government-funded Alternative Schools Network, she began with four students; within a year enrollment had increased to 20 students, most of whom were considered uneducable by the standards of Chicago public schools.

  • Westsylvania (proposed state, United States history)

    West Virginia: Colonial period and Virginia’s dominion: …to establish a 14th state, Westsylvania; these initiatives indicated an early interest in a separate government for the trans-Allegheny country. Dissatisfaction among the pioneers in that region mounted in the cultural, social, economic, and political realms. The frontier residents, who came from many areas, were distinctly different from the aristocratic…

  • Westvaco Inspirations (American publication)

    graphic design: Postwar graphic design in the United States: …director, designed a publication called Westvaco Inspirations for a major paper manufacturer from 1938 until the early 1960s. His playful and innovative approach to type and imagery is shown in the design of a spread from Westvaco Inspirations 210 (1958). Here, Thompson responded to the geometric forms of African masks…

  • Westward Ho (painting by Leutze)

    Emanuel Leutze: …he painted a large composition, Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way (often called “Westward Ho”), illustrating the settlement of the West.

  • westward movement (United States history)

    westward movement, the populating by Europeans of the land within the continental boundaries of the mainland United States, a process that began shortly after the first colonial settlements were established along the Atlantic coast. The first British settlers in the New World stayed close to the

  • Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way (painting by Leutze)

    Emanuel Leutze: …he painted a large composition, Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way (often called “Westward Ho”), illustrating the settlement of the West.

  • Westward to Laughter: A Novel of Adventure (novel by MacInnes)

    Colin MacInnes: Later life and work: …a pair of historical novels, Westward to Laughter: A Novel of Adventure (1969) and Three Years to Play (1970); the book-length essay Loving Them Both: A Study of Bisexuality and Bisexuals (1973); and Out of the Garden: A Novel (1974), his final novel. In the mid-1960s he acted for a…

  • Westwood, Dame Vivienne Isabel (British fashion designer)

    Vivienne Westwood was a British fashion designer known for her provocative clothing. With her partner, Malcolm McLaren, she extended the influence of the 1970s punk music movement into fashion. She was a schoolteacher before she married Derek Westwood in 1962 (divorced 1965). A self-taught

  • Westwood, Lee (British golfer)

    LIV Golf League: First LIV event, players defect from PGA Tour: …participate included Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood. Shortly after Johnson hit the first tee shot in LIV history, Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, sent out a memo announcing that all players involved were suspended from the PGA Tour. The DP World Tour fined and banned LIV players.

  • Westwood, Vivienne (British fashion designer)

    Vivienne Westwood was a British fashion designer known for her provocative clothing. With her partner, Malcolm McLaren, she extended the influence of the 1970s punk music movement into fashion. She was a schoolteacher before she married Derek Westwood in 1962 (divorced 1965). A self-taught

  • westwork (church architecture)

    Carolingian art: …important of these were the westwork, or fortresslike construction with towers and inner rooms through which one entered the nave, and the outer crypt, or extensive chapel complexes below and beyond the eastern apse (projection at one end of the church). The significance of the westwork is not clear, but…

  • Westworld (American television series)

    Ed Harris: …included the HBO TV series Westworld (2016–22), a sci-fi thriller about a theme park featuring humanlike robots. He also starred in James Franco’s In Dubious Battle (2016), an adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel about a farmworkers’ strike in the 1930s. In 2017 Harris appeared in Mother!—as a character simply…

  • Westworld (film by Crichton [1973])

    Yul Brynner: …gunman in the sci-fi thriller Westworld (1973).

  • WET (American magazine)

    graphic design: Postmodern graphic design: A cover for WET magazine, for example, evokes the vibrant cultural scene in southern California. In this work from 1979, a colour photocopy of singer Rick Nelson, collaged images from magazines, Japanese papers, and airbrushed blends of colour are combined into a cohesive design. Greiman also explored the…

  • wet AMD (pathology)

    macular degeneration: Age-related macular degeneration: The most common form of macular degeneration is age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and the incidence of this disease increases dramatically with age, affecting approximately 14 percent of those over age 80. AMD is the most common cause of vision loss in the…

  • wet analysis (chemistry)

    chemical analysis: Classical analysis, also termed wet chemical analysis, consists of those analytical techniques that use no mechanical or electronic instruments other than a balance. The method usually relies on chemical reactions between the material being analyzed (the analyte) and a reagent that is added to the…

  • wet ARMD (pathology)

    macular degeneration: Age-related macular degeneration: The most common form of macular degeneration is age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and the incidence of this disease increases dramatically with age, affecting approximately 14 percent of those over age 80. AMD is the most common cause of vision loss in the…

  • wet beriberi (pathology)

    beriberi: In wet beriberi, a more acute form, there is edema (overabundance of fluid in the tissues) resulting largely from cardiac failure and poor circulation. In infants breast-fed by mothers who are deficient in thiamin, beriberi may lead to rapidly progressive heart failure.

  • wet chemical analysis (chemistry)

    chemical analysis: Classical analysis, also termed wet chemical analysis, consists of those analytical techniques that use no mechanical or electronic instruments other than a balance. The method usually relies on chemical reactions between the material being analyzed (the analyte) and a reagent that is added to the…

  • wet conversion (industrial process)

    papermaking: Finishing and converting: One is referred to as wet converting, in which paper in roll form is coated, impregnated, and laminated with various applied materials to improve properties for special purposes. The second is referred to as dry converting, in which paper in roll form is converted into such items as bags, envelopes,…

  • wet equatorial climate (meteorology)

    wet equatorial climate, major climate type of the Köppen classification characterized by consistently high temperatures (around 30 °C [86 °F]), with plentiful precipitation (150–1,000 cm [59–394 inches]), heavy cloud cover, and high humidity, with very little annual temperature variation. Wet

  • wet fan

    river: Alluvial fans: …of two types—either dry or wet. Dry fans are those that seem to form under conditions of ephemeral flow, while wet fans are those that are created by streams that flow constantly. This classification suggests that fan type is climatically controlled, because ephemeral flow is normally associated with the spasmodic…

  • wet fly (fish bait)

    fly-tying: Features and techniques: …type of fly is the wet fly, designed to drift underwater and to be taken by the fish as either a nymph, a drowned mature fly, a minnow, or at any rate a morsel. The third is the nymph, which seeks to imitate the nymphal or larval stage of a…

  • wet gas (natural gas)

    wet gas, natural gas that contains an appreciable proportion of hydrocarbon compounds heavier than methane (e.g., ethane, propane, and butane). The mixture may be gaseous or both liquid and gaseous in the reservoir; the heavier hydrocarbons are condensable when brought to the surface and are

  • Wet Hot American Summer (film by Wain [2001])

    Amy Poehler: Saturday Night Live: …Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999) and Wet Hot American Summer (2001). In 2001 she was hired as a cast member on SNL. Among the other cast members during her first season were Fey, Rachel Dratch, and Seth Meyers, all of whom she had worked with or met through performing improv in…

  • wet milling

    cereal processing: Cornstarch: In wet milling, the grains are first dry-cleaned so that other cereals and some of the impurities are removed, then steeped in warm water containing sulfur dioxide. This process softens the grains, and the outer skin and the germ are rendered removable. The corn is coarsely…

  • Wet Parade, The (novel by Sinclair)

    Upton Sinclair: His searing novel The Wet Parade (1931; film 1932) is about the tragedy of alcoholism, and The Flivver King (1937) tells the story of Henry Ford and how “scientific management” replaced skilled workers in the automotive industry.

  • Wet Parade, The (film by Fleming [1932])

    Victor Fleming: The 1930s: The Wet Parade (1932), a well-received adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s book about Prohibition, featured Huston and Myrna Loy. More popular was Red Dust (1932), arguably the best of several teamings of Clark Gable and

  • wet process (cement)

    cement: Manufacture of cement: …manufacture are known as the wet, dry, and semidry processes and are so termed when the raw materials are ground wet and fed to the kiln as a slurry, ground dry and fed as a dry powder, or ground dry and then moistened to form nodules that are fed to…

  • wet savanna (grassland)

    savanna: Environment: …be subdivided into three categories—wet, dry, and thornbush—depending on the length of the dry season. In wet savannas the dry season typically lasts 3 to 5 months, in dry savannas 5 to 7 months, and in thornbush savannas it is even longer. An alternative subdivision recognizes savanna woodland, with…

  • wet scrubber (technology)

    air pollution control: Scrubbers: Devices called wet scrubbers trap suspended particles by direct contact with a spray of water or other liquid. In effect, a scrubber washes the particulates out of the dirty airstream as they collide with and are entrained by the countless tiny droplets in the spray.

  • wet season (climate)

    grassland: Environment: …flow, occurs only during the wet season. The tropical grassland climate overlaps very broadly with that of savanna. As previously stated, these vegetation types differ little from each other, a savanna being merely a grassland with scattered trees. Small changes in management and usage can convert one to the other.

  • wet spinning (technology)

    man-made fibre: Solution spinning: Solution spinning includes wet spinning and dry spinning. The former method was first used to produce rayon fibres, and the latter method was used to spin cellulose triacetate to acetate fibres. In both methods, a viscous solution of polymer is pumped through a filter and then passed through…

  • wet tensile strength

    papermaking: Strength and durability: …water in their normal use, wet tensile testing has become important. This test is essentially the same as that for dry tensile strength, except that the specimen is wetted. Paper that has not been specifically treated to produce wet strength possesses from about 4 to about 8 percent of its…

  • Wet Willie (American musical group)

    Southern rock: …Daniels Band, the Outlaws, and Wet Willie joined the fray, fans began to rally around anthems such as Daniels’s “The South’s Gonna Do It.”

  • Wet Zone (region, Sri Lanka)

    Sri Lanka: Drainage: …catchment is well within the Wet Zone, this river has a larger and less seasonally varied flow than the other Dry Zone rivers and so is a major asset for irrigation in the drier parts of the country (the Dry Zone includes the northern part of the country and much…

  • Wet, Christiaan Rudolf de (Boer statesman)

    Christiaan Rudolf de Wet was a Boer soldier and statesman, regarded by Afrikaner nationalists as one of their greatest heroes. He won renown as commander in chief of the Orange Free State forces in the South African War (1899–1902) and was a leader in the Afrikaner rebellion of 1914. As a young man

  • wet-bulb depression (atmospheric science)

    psychrometer: …and wet-bulb temperatures, called the wet-bulb depression. See also hygrometer.

  • wet-bulb temperature

    wet-bulb temperature (WBT), lowest temperature to which a person or an object can be cooled solely by the evaporation of water, given a constant barometric pressure. It is so named because its approximate value is obtained from a wet-bulb thermometer. Whereas a normal, dry-bulb thermometer measures

  • wet-bulb thermometer (instrument)

    hygrometer: …hygrometer that utilizes two thermometers—one wet-bulb and one dry-bulb—to determine humidity through evaporation. A wetted cloth wraps the wet-bulb thermometer at its enlarged end. By rapidly rotating both thermometers, or by blowing air over the bulbs, the temperature of the wet-bulb thermometer is cooler than that of the dry-bulb thermometer.…

  • wet-collodion process (photography)

    wet-collodion process, early photographic technique invented by Englishman Frederick Scott Archer in 1851. The process involved adding a soluble iodide to a solution of collodion (cellulose nitrate) and coating a glass plate with the mixture. In the darkroom the plate was immersed in a solution of

  • wet-fish trawler (ship)

    commercial fishing: Wet-fish trawlers: This type is distinguished by the way the catch is stored on board. It can be either a side or stern trawler with an insulated hold where the fish are stored “wet,” or fresh, after sorting. Ice used to cool the catch may…

  • wet-gate printing (photography)

    motion-picture technology: Film processing and printing: …rephotographed; this process is called wet-gate printing.

  • wet-hulling process

    coffee: Processing the bean: …dry, or “natural,” process, the wet (and washed) process, and a hybrid process called the semi-washed, or “pulped natural,” method. The coffee resulting from those processes is called green coffee, which is then ready for roasting. See also coffee production.

  • wet-impingement scrubber (technology)

    air pollution control: Scrubbers: In orifice scrubbers and wet-impingement scrubbers, the air-and-droplet mixture collides with a solid surface. Collision with a surface atomizes the droplets, reducing droplet size and thereby increasing total surface contact area. These devices have the advantage of lower water-recirculation rates, and they offer removal efficiencies of about 90 percent…

  • wet-nursing (infant-care practice)

    wet-nursing, the practice of breast-feeding another’s infant. In certain periods of history and among some social levels, wet-nursing was a paid profession. The history of wet-nursing is ancient (dating to perhaps 3000 bce) and widespread. It continued as a practice into the 21st century, though in

  • wet-well installation (civil engineering)

    wastewater treatment: Pumps: A wet-well installation has only one chamber or tank to receive and hold the sewage until it is pumped out. Specially designed submersible pumps and motors can be located at the bottom of the chamber, completely below the water level. Dry-well installations have two separate chambers,…

  • Weta Digital (New Zealand company)

    Peter Jackson: In 1993 Jackson cofounded Weta Digital, a visual-effects company that became a leader in the field. Its credits included films by Jackson and others—Weta notably worked on James Cameron’s Avatar—and it received a number of Academy Awards for best visual effects. In 2021 it was announced that the American…

  • Wētā FX (New Zealand company)

    Peter Jackson: In 1993 Jackson cofounded Weta Digital, a visual-effects company that became a leader in the field. Its credits included films by Jackson and others—Weta notably worked on James Cameron’s Avatar—and it received a number of Academy Awards for best visual effects. In 2021 it was announced that the American…

  • Weta Ltd. (New Zealand company)

    Peter Jackson: In 1993 Jackson cofounded Weta Digital, a visual-effects company that became a leader in the field. Its credits included films by Jackson and others—Weta notably worked on James Cameron’s Avatar—and it received a number of Academy Awards for best visual effects. In 2021 it was announced that the American…

  • Wetar Island (island, Indonesia)

    Wetar Island, island in the Banda Sea, Maluku provinsi (“province”), Indonesia. It lies 35 miles (56 km) north of and across the Wetar Strait from the northeastern coast of Timor. Wetar Island is 80 miles (130 km) long east-west and 28 miles (45 km) wide north-south; it is spread over an area of

  • Wetherby (film by Hare [1985])

    David Hare: …addition, he helmed the films Wetherby (1985) and Strapless (1989), for which he penned the screenplays. He wrote and directed Page Eight (2011), Turks & Caicos (2014), and Salting the Battlefield (2014), a trilogy of television films about aging MI5 agent Johnny Worricker (played by Bill Nighy). He also penned…

  • Wethered, Joyce (British golfer)

    Joyce Wethered was a golfer who was widely regarded as the greatest British woman player of her day. Wethered and her brother Roger, who tied for the British Open title in 1921 but lost the play-off, learned the game as children. She was British Ladies’ Open champion four times (1922, 1924, 1925,

  • Wethered, Roger (British golfer)

    golf: British tournaments and players: …champion in 1920 and 1929; Roger Wethered, Amateur champion in 1923; and Scots Hector Thomson, Jack McLean, and A.T. Kyle.

  • Wetherell, Elizabeth (American writer)

    Susan Bogert Warner and Anna Bartlett Warner: In 1851 Susan published a novel entitled The Wide, Wide World under the pseudonym Elizabeth Wetherell. Sentimental and moralistic, the book proved highly popular; it was widely sold in several translations and was reputedly the first book by an American author to sell one million copies. Susan…

  • Wetherell, Marmaduke (British hunter)

    Loch Ness monster: The myth goes global: 1933 the Daily Mail commissioned Marmaduke Wetherell, a big-game hunter, to locate the sea serpent. Along the lake’s shores, he found large footprints that he believed belonged to “a very powerful soft-footed animal about 20 feet [6 meters] long.” However, upon closer inspection, zoologists at the Natural History Museum determined…

  • Wetherill, John (American rancher and trader)

    Navajo National Monument: Byron Cummings, an archaeologist, and John Wetherill, a local rancher and trader, explored the ruins of Keet Seel, the largest of the sites, in 1907. Two years later Cummings and Wetherill discovered the ruins of Betatakin and Inscription House. The 135 rooms of Betatakin are tucked into a cliffside alcove…

  • Wethersfield (Connecticut, United States)

    Wethersfield, urban town (township), Hartford county, central Connecticut, U.S. It lies immediately south of Hartford on the Connecticut River. Settled in 1634 and called Watertown by a group led by John Oldham of Massachusetts, it is the oldest permanent English settlement in Connecticut. In 1637

  • wetland

    wetland, complex ecosystem characterized by flooding or saturation of the soil, which creates low-oxygen environments that favor a specialized assemblage of plants, animals, and microbes. These organisms exhibit adaptations designed to tolerate periods of sluggishly moving or standing water.

  • Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat, Convention on (international agreement)

    Keta: …placed on its list of Wetlands of International Importance by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and in 1999 work began on measures to limit further erosion and to control flooding of the coastal region. Pop. (2010) 147,618.

  • Wetmore, Alexander (American ornithologist)

    Alexander Wetmore was an American ornithologist noted for his research on birds of the Western Hemisphere. As an employee of the Biological Survey of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wetmore was particularly interested in avian anatomy, osteology, fossil birds, migration, and taxonomy. He headed

  • Wetmore, Frank Alexander (American ornithologist)

    Alexander Wetmore was an American ornithologist noted for his research on birds of the Western Hemisphere. As an employee of the Biological Survey of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wetmore was particularly interested in avian anatomy, osteology, fossil birds, migration, and taxonomy. He headed

  • Wetsandorn (Buddha)

    Vessantara, in Buddhist mythology, a previous incarnation of the Buddha Gotama. A crown prince, Vessantara was famous for his vast generosity, and, to the despair of his more practical-minded father, he accepted banishment to the forest, where he attained the ultimate self-abnegation by giving away

  • Wettach, Charles Adrien (Swiss clown)

    Grock was a Swiss clown whose blunders with the piano and the violin became proverbial. He was the son of a watchmaker and began his performance career by partnering with his father in a cabaret act. He then became an amateur acrobat and was allowed to spend each summer with a circus, where he

  • Wette, Wilhelm M. L. de (German biblical scholar)

    biblical literature: Special nature and problems: Wilhelm M.L. de Wette, a German biblical scholar, in 1805 established the predominant modern view that Deuteronomy (or its nucleus, or main portion) was found in Josiah’s time and was a distinctive book, separate from the Tetrateuch. He also held that it was composed shortly…

  • Wetterstein Alps (mountains, Germany)

    Germany: The Alps and the Alpine Foreland: …are the Allgäuer Alps, the Wetterstein Alps—with Germany’s highest mountain, the Zugspitze—and the Berchtesgadener Alps. Like the North German Plain, the Alpine Foreland is fundamentally a depression filled with Paleogene and Neogene gravels, sands, and clays, which are derived from the Alpine orogeny. In contrast to the North German Plain,…

  • Wettin Dynasty (European dynasty)

    Wettin Dynasty, major European dynasty, genealogically traceable to the start of the 10th century ad. Its earliest known ancestors were active in pushing Germany’s frontier eastward into formerly Slav territory; and by the end of the 1080s two of their descendants, brothers, held not only the

  • wetting agent (chemical substance)

    wetting agent, chemical substance that increases the spreading and penetrating properties of a liquid by lowering its surface tension—that is, the tendency of its molecules to adhere to each other. See detergent;

  • Wettingen (Switzerland)

    Hans Ulrich Grubenmann and Johannes Grubenmann: …River at the town of Wettingen, near Zürich, is believed to be the first timber bridge to employ a true arch in its design. The brothers’ ingenious combination of the arch and truss principles made it possible to construct longer and better timber bridges than ever before. More is known…

  • Wetton, John (British musician)

    art rock: … (King Crimson and ELP), and John Wetton (King Crimson, U.K., and Asia). Some of the experimental rock by such American and British artists as Laurie Anderson, David Bowie, Brian Eno, the Velvet Underground, and Frank Zappa is also often categorized as art rock.

  • Wetton, John Kenneth (British musician)

    art rock: … (King Crimson and ELP), and John Wetton (King Crimson, U.K., and Asia). Some of the experimental rock by such American and British artists as Laurie Anderson, David Bowie, Brian Eno, the Velvet Underground, and Frank Zappa is also often categorized as art rock.

  • Wettstein, J. J. (Swiss biblical scholar)

    biblical literature: Critical scholarship: …that of the Swiss scholar J.J. Wettstein’s edition (1751–52). His textual apparatus was relatively uncomplicated. He introduced the use of capital Roman, Greek, or Hebrew letters for uncials and Arabic numbers for minuscules. Later, a Gothic P with exponents came into use for papyri and, in the few cases needed,…