# General Information (W)

Wacht am Rhein
Wacht am Rhein (Watch on the Rhine) is a German national song written in 1840 by Max Schneckenburger and composed in its popular form in 1854 by Karl Wilhelm. It was the battle-song of the german army in 1870 to 1871.

Wad
Wad is a hydrated manganese dioxide, occurring in brownish black, earthy masses. It is used as a pigment and was formerly used in the preparation of chlorine.

Wadi
A wadi is an irrigation canal found in Arab countries.

Wafer
Prior to gummed envelopes, wafers were adhesive disks used for securing letters. Common wafers were made of fine flour, which was pressed between two heated plates of smooth iron. Transparent wafers were made of isinglass or gelatin.

Waif
Waifs are goods thrown away by a thief in his flight.

Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett written in 1953. It was Beckett's first stage success, and is an absurdist comedy about two men endlessly waiting for someone named Godot to arrive.

Waits
Waits were street musicians. They were an established institution during the 17th century, wearing 'waits badges' with the twon arms. Those of Exeter existed as early as 1400. Their instruments (hautbois) were also styled 'waits' and the same title was extended to the night guard of the city of London.

Wake
A wake is the practice of watching round a corpse before it is buried.

Wall-paper
Wall-paper was introduced into Europe around 1555 from China and Japan by the Dutch and Spanish and slowly replaced tapestry, stamped leather and other mural hangings as the prdominant wall covering coming into general use around 1830.

Wallace's Line
Wallaces' Line is a biological dividing line passing north-north-east between the East Indian islands of Bali and Lombok and Borneo and Celebes, to the west of which the flora and fauna are distinctly Asian in character, while to the east and south the Australian elements begin to be marked, and very soon become predominant. It was named after the biologist Wallace who clearly defines it in his book 'Island Life' published in 1880.

Waltz
The waltz is a dance of uncertain origins. It was introduced into France from Germany in 1795 and reached England in 1812.

Wampum
The wampum is a broad belt formed of strings of shells and worn as an ornament or girdle by North American Indians. The name was also given to the interior parts of the clam shell which was used as currency amongst some Indians.

Warp
Warp threads are the parallel threads which traverse a loom from end to end.

Warping
Warping is a mode of increasing the fertility of land along the banks of rivers liable to overflow by allowing them to deposit their mud, called 'warp', upon the surface overflown.

Wassails
Wassails was a festival occuring on New Year's Eve in England. The wassailers, usually the younger men and women of the village, went round to all the houses, singing and mumming and wherever they stopped the inhabitants refreshed them with food and drink before they continued on their way. It was originally a fertility festival to promote good crops in the coming year, with the wassailers visiting all the fields and orchards where they sang invocations and poured mead. Wassails eventually died out after the 17th century.

Water
Water is a liquid oxide of hydrogen. It exists in nature as solid ice or snow; in the liquid form in oceans, lakes, streams; and as a vapour in the atmosphere. As a true vapour it is invisible, but condensing becomes visible as mist, fog, cloud, rain or dew. In addition water is contained within the earth in enormous quantity; and the underground water is a great store which we use when it issues in springs or which can be reached in some cases by wells and borings.

Water of crystallization
In chemistry, water of crystallization is water present in the crystal of a hydrate.

Water table
The water table is the level of ground below which the rocks are saturated with water.

Watergate
Watergate was a political scandal in the USA resulting in the resignation of president Nixon in 1974.

Watling Street
Watling Street is the old name for the Roman road from Dover to London, and from London through St Albans to Shrewsbury and Chester.

Watlingstreet
Watlingstreet was a British Roman road extending from Dover, through London, St Albans, Dunstable and Towcester into north Whales with a branch extending to Scotland.

Wax
Wax is a solid fatty substance.

Weaving
Weaving is the art of interlacing yarn threads or other filaments by means of a loom, so as to form a web of cloth or other woven fabric. Two sets of threads are used which traverse the web at right angles to each other. The first set extends from end to end of the web in parallel lines and is called the warp; while the other set of threads crosses and interlaces with the warp from side to side of the web and is called the weft.

Wednesday
Wednesday is the third day of the week.

Week
The week is the period of seven days now universally adopted. It is of Hebrew or Chaldaean origin. It is generally regarded as a memorial of the creation of the world according to the Mosaic account. Dion Cassius attributes the invention of the week to the Egyptians. The Ptolemaic arrangement of the heavenly bodies, according to their distances from the earth, is Saturn (the most distant), Jupiter, Mars, the sun, Venus, mercury and the Moon; and it was a principle of the ancient astrology that these bodies presided in this succession over the hours of the day. If the first hour be assigned to saturn, the twenty-fifth or first hour of the next day, will fall to the sun; the forty-ninth, or first hour of the second day will fall to the moon and so on. from the Latin designations of the planets have been formed the modern names - Saturday (Saturn), Sunday (Sol), Monday (moon), Tuesday (Tiu, the Saxon Mars), Wednesday (Woden or Mercury), Thursday (Thor or Jupiter) and Friday (Frygga or Venus).

Weft
Weft are threads crossing from side to side of a web and interwoven with warp.

Welding
Welding is the process of joining two pieces of metal together by hammering, pressure or fusion.

Weregild
Weregild was the Anglo-Saxon money-value of a man's life. It varied in amount and had to be paid by a murderer to the murdered man's relatives.

Westrumite
Westrumite was a road-dust preventing material composed primarily of petroleum and ammonia. It was developed around 1900 in response to the spread of motoring and the dust raised by cars using the roads.

White dwarf
A white dwarf is small hot star.

White Lead
White lead is a basic carbonate of lead once used as a pigment. The best quality is prepared by the Dutch process, in which sheets or grids of pure lead are placed in pots containing a little dilute acetic acid. A number of these pots are stacked in a heap, surrounded by horse manure for several months. Lead acetate forms and can then be converted into the basic carbonate. It went out of fashion as a pigment due to its toxicity and high cost.

White Star Line
The White Star Line was a line of steamships owned by the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company which was formed in 1869. The maiden voyage was bu the Oceanic Liner which sailed to New York in 1871. In 1899 a Liverpool, South Africa and Australia service was established. In 1902 the line launched the Celtic II, which at the time was the largest steamer ever built at 20,904 tons.

White Tower
The White Tower is the keep of the Tower of London. It was built around 1070 by William the Conqueror.

Whitley Councils
Whitley Councils were industrial committees set up in the early part of the 20th century in Britain to enable employers and employees to discuss problems of mutual interest with a view towards avoiding strikes and lockouts. Neither side was keen to make use of them, and they were abandoned in the late 1920s. Today a similar service is provided by conciliation in the form of ACAS.

Wig
A wig (a contraction of periwig) is a covering for the head made from natural or artificial hair attached to a foundation so as to imitate a natural head covering.

Wigwam
A wigwam is the hut or dwelling place of the Indians of North America. It is conical in shape, and is built of some light material such as the bark of trees. Sometimes the skins of animals stretched across poles constitute a wigwam.

Will's Coffee House
Will's Coffee House was a famous convivial resort in Russell Street at the end of Bow Street in London. It was first called the Red Cow, then the Rose. Dryden was the first to make Will's the resort of the wits of his time and it was for long the open market for libels and lampoons. After Dyden's death in 1700 the house was patronised by among others Pope. About 1712 the custom was transferred by Addison to Batton's coffee house on the opposite side of the street.

Will-O'-the-Wisp
Will-o'-the-wisp (Ignis Fatuus) is a pale flickering flame sometimes seen over marshes.

Winch
A winch is a machine, the essential part of which consists of a drum driven by hand or powered through gearing, and used to receive a rope which is wound upon it.

Windmill
A windmill is a machine for grinding corn, pumping water etc., deriving its power from the pressure of the wind on its sails.

Window Tax
The Window Tax was an additional taxation levied in England in proportion to the number of windows in a house. It was first levied in 1695 and abolished in 1851. To avoid the tax many people bricked up some of their windows.

Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a royal palace in Windsor, Berkshire, England. It was built by William the Conqueror as a fortress and enlarged by Henry I who made it into a palace. Henry III strengthened its fortifications and Edward III was born in it and after his accession rebuilt and greatly enlarged the palace.

Winter
Winter is the coldest of the seasons. It is defined astronomically as beginning in the northern hemisphere with the sun's entry into the sign of Capricorn, around December 21st and ending with the vernal equinox.

Wintergreen Oil
see "Methyl salicylate"

Wish-bone
see "Merry thought"

Witchcraft
In their original sense the words 'witch' and 'wizard' denoted the possessors of knowledge, or wise people. Much of the witchcraft of Europe was derived from the science of the Magi, or the magicians of ancient Chaldaea and Persia. Original witchcraft was both a science and a religion, hence leading to its persecution. In early Hebrew enactments against witchcraft it is evident that a struggle existed between conflicting sets of ideas, and this struggle continued in Christian times resulting in the persecution of the science as well as the religion and to the perversions that exist today, for example much herbalism is the scientific aspect of 'witchcraft', but much has been forgotten. It is likely that the struggle was predominantly one for power over the people - an ignorant or unwise people are easier to exploit by priests than a people well educated in the ways of science and nature.

Wolfram
Wolfram is another name for the element tungsten.

Wolframite
Wolframite is the most important tungsten ore. It has a relative hardness of 5.

Wood pitch
Wood pitch is a by-product of charcoal manufacture, made from wood tar, the condensed liquid produced from burning charcoal gases. The wood tar is boiled to produce the correct consistency. It has been used since ancient times for filling in the spaces between the hull planks in wooden ships to make them watertight.

Wood's Metal
Wood's metal is a fusible alloy consisting of 50 per cent bismuth, 25 percent lead, 12.5 per cent tin and 12.5 per cent cadmium.

Woodwind
A woodwind instrument is one with which sound is produced by blowing into a tube.

Wool
Wool is the fibrous covering of sheep.

WordPerfect Office
WordPerfect Office is a groupware computer program. It is a network version of WordPerfect Library. Office's calendar facility is similar to an electronic day-planner and displays a nine-week calendar with appointment list, prioritised to-do list, and memo window. To aid in group timemanagement, the program.s scheduler compares the calendars of each group member using Office, and displays the possible times they are available. Once you select the time and date of the group members you want to schedule appointments with, Office notifies them. They can either accept, reject, or temporarily ignore the notification; Office notifies the initiator of an acceptance. You can also use Office to schedule resources such as conference rooms or slide projectors. The electronic mail facility lets you send, receive, forward, reply, or print messages to individuals or groups. The package provides automatic message notification and lets you check the status of a message at any time. The shell facility lets you switch from one program to another or transfer data between programs. Office's work log lets you keep track of time and/or keystrokes used on a particular project which is useful for client-billing procedures. Office is set apart from other networking utility programs that offer only one or two of its capabilities.

Wrestling
Wrestling is a form of combat contest between two opponents in which the object is to grapple the opponent to the floor.

Writer's Cramp
Writer's Cramp is a spasm occuring chiefly amongst those who write much. Similar spasms occur amongst piano players, violin players, tailors and others. In its early stages it is a true cramp, but prolonged continuance of the condition may result in scrivener's palsy or paralysis. With the advent of the computer writer's cramp has become less common but has been replaced by repetetive strain injury (RSI), which many may think is a new industrial injury, in fact it has been a problem for more than a hundred years.

Wynd
A wynd is a narrow street or passage off a main thoroughfare.

Wyvern
In heraldry, a wyvern (or wivern) is a device representing a monster whose fore part is that of a dragon with legs and wings, and the hinder part is in the form of a serpent with a barbed tail.

Copyright 1997,1998 Servile Software Enquiries to Matthew Probert

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