their respective names. Before being subjected to fermentation they are largely mixed with sugar. The general processes in the manufacture of British wines closely resemble those which have been just described.

The imports of wine into the United Kingdom vary from about 15,000,000 to nearly 20,000,000 gallons; in an average year, as 1891, the 17,008,000 gallons imported have a value of about £6,000,000. In the same year the United States, in addition to about 25,000,000 gallons made at home (considerably more than half in California), imported 3,860,000 gallons in cask and 750,000 dozen bottles, of a total value of upwards of $10,000,000. In the same year the United States exported 11,679 dozen bottles and 543,192 gallons of wine in cask (total value, $371,500). Of European countries Italy grows most wine, Spain exports most, but the export of France (about 56,000,000 gallons annually) has a higher value than that of Spain. Austria-Hungary produces about a third of the French produce (which latter amounts to over 600,000,000 gallons).

With respect to the high prices realised by old wines of famous vintages, we may state that as much as £2 per bottle has occasionally been given for Port and Tokay; and two bottles of old Burgundy have been sold in England at the very extraordinary price of £80 each.

Dietetic and Medical Value of Wines.-It may be laid down as a general rule that the use of wine, even in moderate quantity, is not only not necessary, but absolutely undesirable for young or adult persons enjoying good ordinary health. As, however, life advances, and the circulation becomes languid, wine in moderation becomes, in the opinion of some medical writers, a valuable article of food; and even in earlier life the physician meets large numbers of townspeople, especially women engaged in sedentary occupations, who cannot digest beer. In such cases the beer is replaced by the more grateful beverage, tea, which, however, when taken too freely, and without sufficient solid food, gives rise to a form of distressing dyspepsia, which too often impels the sufferer to seek refuge in spirits. In many such cases cheap wine, which may be purchased at from 1s. 6d. to 2s. a bottle, mixed with an equal bulk of water, will be found an excellent substitute for the beer or tea. The vast quantities, says Mr Williams, of brilliantly-coloured liquid flavoured with orris-root, which would not be allowed to pass the barriers of Paris, but must go somewhere, is drunk in England at a cost of four times as much as a Frenchman pays for genuine wine (see Williams, Chemistry of Cookery, p. 285). The distinctive elements of wine,' says Dr Druitt, are to be had in abundance in cheap Bordeaux, Burgundy, and other French wines; in Rhine wine; in the Hungarian, Austrian, and some Greek wine; and in all with a natural and not injurious quantity of spirit. In prescribing pure wine-i.e. light natural, virgin wine the practitioner has a perfectly new article of both diet and medicine in his hands.' In cases of debility and indigestion such wine as that which we are now considering, diluted with cold water, may often be freely prescribed with great advantage in place of tea at breakfast, as well as at luncheon and dinner, or dinner and supper, according as the patient arranges his meals. The best of the cheap wines are those of Bordeaux; they are pure, light, and exhilarating; moderately strong, seldom containing 20 per cent. of alcohol; free from sugar and other materials likely to induce gout or headache. The Burgundy wines are fuller, stouter (on an average from 2 to 4 per cent. stronger in alcohol), and higher flavoured than the Bordeaux of equal price.

Some of the Hungarian wines are excellent substitutes for Bordeaux, and, not having the acidity, austerity, and coldness of the latter, are often preferred by patients. Amongst the most important of the dearer kinds of wine are Port, Sherry, and Champagne. Good old Port, now very diffi cult to obtain, is often recommended as a tonic of great value in cases of fever and other forms of extreme debility; but many persons past forty dare not take it if they have any predisposition to gout. Sherry is in general use, and is the only wine admitted into the British Pharmacopoeia, in which it is employed in the composition of aloetic, antimonial, colchicum, and other medicated wines.

can

See Henderson's History of Ancient and Modern Wines; Bence Jones's translation of Mulder's Chemistry of Wine; Payen's Industrial Chemistry, translated by Dr Paull; Druitt's Cheap Wines; Thudichum and Dupré, Origin, Nature, and Varieties of Wine; Cyrus Redding, History and Description of Wines; on Ameriwines and wine-growing, works by Hasmann, Staraszthy, Hyatt, and Rixford; The Wine Manufac turers' Handbook, edited by Gardner; Health Exhibition manual on the Esthetic Use of Wine (Thudichum); Muspratt's Chemistry applied to the Arts and Manufac tures: Chemistry of Cookery, by W. Mattieu Williams, pp. 269-293; Analyse des Vins, by Dr L. Magnier de la Source; П Vino (Florence, 1881), by Professor A. Graf and others; the works of Shaw and Denman, in English; those of Julien, Chaptal, Fauré, and Batilliat, in French; those of Ritter, Balling, Von Babo, Bronner, &c., in German; the chief works on technological chemistry, as Wagner's, in all languages; and the articles VINE, ALCOHOL, BORDEAUX, BURGUNDY WINES, CANARY, CHAMPAGNE, FERMENTATION, HOCHHEIM, MADEIRA, Malmsey, PIPE, PORT WINE, SACK, SHERRY, &c. in this work. For arguments as to the wine of Scripture, see TEMPERANCE, and works there cited; also Dr F. R. Lees's Science Temperance Handbook (vol. viii.).

Winer, Georg BENEDIKT, a great New Testament scholar, was born at Leipzig, 13th April 1789, studied there, and in due time became privat-docent and professor extra-ordinary in Theology. He was called to a chair at Erlangen in 1823, but returned as ordinary professor to Leipzig in 1832, and died there, 12th March 1858. Of his numerous works first in importance stands his invaluable and still unequalled Grammatik des Neutestamentlichen Sprachidioms (1821; 7th ed. by Lünemann, 1867). No less admirable are his Biblisches Realwörterbuch (1820; 3d ed. 2 vols. 1847-48), a storehouse of sound learning and sagacity, and the invaluable Handbuch der theologischen Literatur (1821; 3d ed. 2 vols. 1838-40; supplement, 1842). Winer also edited, with Engelhardt, the Neue Kritische Journal der theologischen Literatur (1824-30), and, unaided, the Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Theologie (1826–32).

Other works are the Komparative Darstellung des Lehrbegriffes der verschiedenen Christlichen Kirchenparteien (1824; 4th ed. by Dr Paul Ewald, 1882; Eng. trans. 1873); Grammatik des biblischen und Targumischen Chaldäismus (1824; 3d ed. by Fischer, 1882; Eng. trans. Andover, 1845). Winer's great grammar of New Testament Greek was translated into English by Moses Stuart and Edward Robinson (Andover, 1825), (from 6th ed. Edin. 1859), J. Henry Thayer (from 7th Agnew and Ebbeke (from 4th ed. Phila. 1839), Masson

ed. Andover, 1869), and W. F. Moulton (Edin. 1870; 2d ed. 1877; 3d ed. 1882). See W. Schmidt, Zum Gedächtnis Dr G. B. Winers,' in the Beiträge zur Sachsischen Kirchengeschichte (1885).

Winfield, capital of Cowley county, Kansas, on Whitewater Creek, 247 miles by rail SW. of Kansas City. Pop. 5184.

Wings. See BIRDS, FLYING.

Winifred, ST, according to the legend, was a noble British maiden, whose head the prince Caradog cut off because she repelled his unholy proposals. The head rolled down a hill, and where

WINKELRIED

See SEMPACH.

it stopped a spring gushed forth-famous after as a place of pilgrimage, Holywell in Flintshire (see WELLS). The saint's head was replaced by St Beuno, and St Winifred survived the miracle fifteen years. For Winfried, see BONIFACE. Winkelried, ARNOLD VON. Winnebago. See WISCONSIN. Winnipeg, capital of the Canadian province of Manitoba, stands at the confluence of the Assiniboine with the Red River, by rail 1424 miles WNW. of Montreal and 512 miles NNW. of Minneapolis. Formerly known as Fort Garry, from the Hudson Bay Company's post so called (pop. in 1871, 241), it was incorporated as the city of Winnipeg in 1873. It is substantially built of stone and brick, with wide streets traversed by tramways and lit with the electric light. The principal buildings are the government offices, city hall, post-office, numerous churches, a fine hospital, and the buildings of the university of Manitoba, which includes an Episcopal, a Presbyterian, and a Roman Catholic college. The city contains great flour-mills and grain-elevators, the shops of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and a number of manu factories, and is the busy centre of a fertile country, with a large carrying trade both by river and rail. Pop. (1871) 241; (1881) 7985; (1891) 25,642.

Winnipeg, LAKE, in Manitoba, 40 miles N. of Winnipeg city, and 650 feet above sea-level, is 280 miles long, 57 miles broad, and has an area of 8500 sq. m. Its largest tributaries are the Saskatchewan (g.v.), the Winnipeg, and the Red River of the North (q.v.); its outlet is the Nelson River (q.v.). Winona, capital of Winona county, Minnesota, on the right bank of the Mississippi (here crossed by an iron railroad bridge), 103 miles by rail SE. | of St Paul. It contains a state normal school, a number of flour and saw mills, foundries, carriage, barrel, and sash and door factories, &c., and ships great quantities of wheat. Pop. (1880) 10,208; (1890) 18,208.

Winsey, or WINCEY, a cloth consisting of woollen warp and cotton weft, or of wool mixed with a portion of cotton. Heavy winseys are used for skirtings, light winsey for men's shirts. The word is believed to be shortened from linsey-winsey, a jingling modification of linsey-woolsey.

Winslow, EDWARD, governor of Plymouth colony, Massachusetts, was born in 1595 at Droitwich, sailed in the Mayflower, was either assistantgovernor or governor from 1624, and thrice returned to England to describe the colony, or defend it against its accusers. He thus came to publish his Good Newes from New England (1624), Hypocrisie Unmasked (1646), and New England's Salamander (1647), all three valuable accounts of the young colony. Appointed by Cromwell chief commissioner of an expedition against the West Indies, he died at sea in 1655.-His son, JOSIAH (1629–80), was assistant-governor from 1657 to 1673, and then governor till his death. In 1675 he was chosen general-in-chief of the United Colonies; and under him the first public school was established in 1675. -His grandson, JOHN (1702-74), carried out, under orders, the removal of the Acadians (see ACADIA); and John Ancrum Winslow (1811-73), descendant of one of Edward Winslow's brothers, commanded the Kearsarge in her action with the Alabama (q. v.), and died an admiral.

Winsor, JUSTIN, born at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1831, studied at Harvard and at Heidelberg, was librarian at Boston 1868-77, and afterwards at Harvard, and has published various bibliographical works, and edited the Memorial History of Boston (4 vols. 1880–81), and a valuable but somewhat chaotic compilation, The Narrative

and Critical History of America (8 vols. 1884-90). In 1891 he issued a Life of Columbus.

Carolina, 218 miles SW. of Richmond, Virginia, Winston, capital of Forsyth county, North with several tobacco-factories. Pop. (1880) 2854; (1890) 8018.

Wint, PETER DE, water-colourist, was born at Stone, Staffordshire, 21st January 1784, the son of a physician, sprung from a Dutch family settled in New York. He was trained to be a mezzotint engraver under J. R. Smith, but soon took to painting both in oil and water-colours, and his fame rests on his beautiful water-colour illustra tions of English landscape, English architecture, and English country-life. Lincoln (where he found a wife), Yorkshire, and parts of Derbyshire were the regions he loved best; but he painted scenes on the Thames, the Trent, and in Wales and elsewhere. He exhibited mainly in the rooms of the Old Water-colour Society, and is well represented both in the National Gallery and at South Kensington. He died at London (where he had mostly lived), 30th June 1849. Among his most famous pictures are The Cricketers,' Lincoln Cathedral,' The Hay Harvest,' 'Nottingham,' 'Richmond Hill,' 'Cows in Water.' 'A Cornfield' and 'A Woody Landscape' are oils at South Kensington.

4

See the Memoir by Walter Armstrong (1888), and Redgrave's David Cox and Peter de Wint in the 'Great Artists' (1891).

Winter. See SEASONS, EARTH.

Winterberry, a name given to several shrubs of the genus Ilex, growing in the eastern parts of North America. I. verticillata, the Virginian Winterberry, has white flowers in clusters, and bright scarlet berries that remain after the fall of the leaf. The bark is astringent and tonic,

Winter-cherry, the Physalis alkekengi, one of the Solanaceae, with edible red berries, also called in the United States Strawberry-tomatoes. P. peruviana, or Peruvian Gooseberry, has yellow berries. The name is given too in the United States to the Cardiospermum halicacabum, also called Balloon Vine, from the large, triangular, inflated fruit.

The oil

Wintergreen. See GAULTHERIA. of wintergreen, named from this plant, is an aromatic stimulant, used chiefly in flavouring confectionery and syrups; and is now obtained from the sweet birch as frequently as from the wintergreen plant. The name is also given to plants of the genera Pyrola and Chimaphila, herbaceous or half-shrubby plants. The twenty species of Pyrola are found throughout the northern hemisphere, several species being natives of Britain; the species of Chimaphila, found in North America, are sometimes distinguished as spotted wintergreen. Both Gaultheria procumbens and a low-climbing plant, Mitchella repens, are called Checkerberry in the United States.

Winter's Bark, a stimulant, aromatic, and tonic bark, named from Captain Winter, who first brought it from the Strait of Magellan in 1579. It is the produce of Drimys Winteri, a native of some of the mountainous parts of South America, and abundant in the lower grounds of Cape Horn and Staten Island-a magnoliaceous evergreen shrub with laurel-like leaves and corymbs of white flowers. The Star Anise (Illicium) is nearly allied to it. The bark of other species of Drimys has properties similar to those of Winter's bark, as that of D. Granatensis, much used in Brazil, and of D. axillaris, a New Zealand tree.

Winterthur, a town of Switzerland, on the Eulach, 17 miles by rail NE. of Zurich, with thriv ing manufactures of locomotives, and of cotton,

silk, and woollen goods, &c. It contains a good town-hall, industrial schools, a museum of Roman antiquities, and a public library of 20,000 vols. Pop. (1888) 15,956. The Roman Vitodurum (now Ober-Winterthur), it was held by the Counts of Kyburg (castle 4 miles off), and then by the Hapsburgs, who sold it to Zurich in 1467. See History by Troll (Vienna, 1842-43).

Winthrop Family.-JOHN, governor of the colony of Massachusetts, was born at Groton, near Hadleigh, in Suffolk, England, January 22, 1588, was bred to the law, appointed justice of peace at the age of eighteen, and on account of his excellent and pious character was in 1629 elected by the governor and company of Massachusetts Bay to govern their colony. He landed at Salem, with the colony's charter and a fleet of eleven ships, on June 22, 1630. He was re-elected governor every year until 1634. In 1636 he became deputygovernor under Sir Harry Vane, with whom he had an animated controversy on the doctrines of Mrs Hutchinson. In 1637 he was elected over Sir Harry, and continued governor, with a brief interval, during his life, and had more influence probably than any other man in forming the political institutions of the northern states of America. He died at Boston, March 26, 1649. Winthrop kept a careful journal, the first part of which was published in 1790, and the whole in 1825-26 (new ed. with additions, 1853). See his Life and Letters, by R. C. Winthrop (Bost. 1864–67).—JOHN, governor of Connecticut, eldest son of the preceding, was born at Groton, England, February 12, 1606; educated at Trinity College, Dublin; made the tour of Europe; went to America in 1631, and was chosen a magistrate in Massachusetts; in 1635 went to Connecticut and built a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut River, being governor of the colony for a year; and founded the city of New London in 1646, settling there in 1650. În 1657 he was elected governor, and, with the exception of one year, held that post till his death. He obtained from Charles II. a charter which united the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven, and was named first governor under it; and he was the father of the paper currency in America. He was a student and a scholar, a fellow of the Royal Society, a Puritan without bigotry, and just and even lenient to those of other religious opinions. He died at Boston, April 5, 1676.-His son, also JOHN, but known as Fitz-John (1639-1707), served under Monk and in the Indian wars, was agent in London for Connecticut (1693-97), and governor of the colony from 1698 till his death. See the Winthrop Papers (Mass. Hist. Soc., 1889).--JOHN, LL. D., American physicist, a descendant of the first Governor Winthrop, was born at Boston in 1714, graduated at Harvard in 1732, and in 1738 was appointed professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy there. In 1740 he observed the transit of Mercury, and in 1761 he went to Newfoundland to observe the second transit in the century. He published papers on earthquakes, comets, and other subjects, was a fellow of the Royal Society, and died May 3, 1779.-ROBERT CHARLES, LL.D., American orator, descendant of the sixth generation from the first Governor Winthrop, was born at Boston, May 12, 1809, graduated at Harvard in 1828, studied law with Daniel Webster, and was admitted to the bar in 1831, but soon abandoned law for politics, and was elected to the state legislature in 1834, where he served till 1840. He then was elected to congress, of which he was a member for ten years, and in 1847-49 was its speaker. In 1850 he succeeded Webster, who became Secretary of State, as senator from Massachusetts, but lost his seat in 1851; and in the same year he was also defeated as a candidate for governor of Massachusetts.

He

is most famous as a speaker on historical occasions (see his Addresses and Speeches, 4 vols. 1852-86), and has published, besides the Life of the first John Winthrop, a volume on Washington, Bowdoin, and Franklin (1876).

Winzet, NINIAN, was born at Renfrew in 1518. Of his parentage and early youth nothing is known. It is probable that he was educated at the uni versity of Glasgow; and he was certainly ordained priest in 1540. About 1552 he was appointed master of the grammar-school at Linlithgow, where he also acted as a notary, and was eventu ally promoted to the provostry of the Collegiate Church of St Michael's. On the establishment of Protestantism in Scotland (1560) Winzet, who adhered to the old religion, was deprived of his various offices, and came to Edinburgh, where he received the countenance of Queen Mary. It was now that he wrote his pamphlets entitled Certane Tractatis for Reformatioun of Doctryne and Maneris, which have given him an honourable place among Scottish Catholics posterior to the Reformation. Forced to quit Scotland in 1563, he made his home in the university of Paris till 1571, when he was summoned to England to perform certain services to Mary who was now in captivity. Returning to Paris the same year, he became a teacher of some distinction in the university, holding thrice in succession the office of Procurator of the German Nation. In 1574 he removed to the English College of Douay, where he became licentiate in theology, and in 1577 his learning and various services to the church were rewarded by his appointment as Abbot of St James's, Ratisbon. In this office, which he discharged with characteristic energy and fidelity, he died in 1592.

See Irving, Lives of Scottish Writers, and Winzet's Works (1891), edited for the Scottish Text Society by the Rev. J. K. Hewison, who has brought together all that is known regarding Winzet and his writings.

Wire. Specimens of metallic shreds dating as far back as 1700 B.C. are stated to have been discovered; whilst a sample of wire made by the Ninevites about 800 B.C. is exhibited at the Kensington Museum, London. Mention of a similar product is made by both Homer and Pliny. Wire was originally made by beating metal into plates, which were cut into narrow strips, and subse quently rounded by hammering. The art of wiredrawing was not practised until the 14th century, or introduced into Great Britain till some three centuries later. The facility with which any metal can be drawn into wire depends upon its ductility. Most metals possess this property; though some, like bismuth and antimony, are so brittle that they can only be drawn out with difficulty, and wire made from such metals is useless from want of tenacity (see DUCTILITY). The general principle involved in the manufacture of wire consists in rolling down ingots or bars into rods of say inch diameter, which are afterwards attenuated and reduced in section by being drawn cold through holes in metal plates or hard stones. The accompanying illustration represents a wire-drawer's bench, A being the draw-plate, and B the drawing-block or cylinder; driven by a prime mover through the gearing as shown. The draw-plate, A, is generally made of hard steel, the holes in it being funnel-shaped. Owing to the excessive friction generated, notwithstanding the use of lubricants, the holes rapidly wear away and enlarge. After being once drawn, the wire is again passed through a smaller hole in the draw-plate, and so the process is repeated until the required size is reached. Fine wire may require from twenty to thirty drawings. The speed of the drawingcylinder is increased as the diameter of the wire diminishes. The metal under treatment gradually

WIRE

hardens, and becoming less ductile requires annealing, after which it is washed in an acid solution and subsequently steeped in lime-water. The ductility of the metal and the diameter of the wire determine the rapidity with which drawing can be

Wire-drawer's Bench.

effected. Iron and brass can be drawn at a speed of from 12 to 45 inches per second, gold and silver fine sections at from 60 to 70 inches per second. Where great accuracy is required, as in chronometer springs, and for gold and silver laces, platinum wire, &c., perforated rubies, or similar hard stones, are fitted to the draw-plate. A silver wire, 170 miles long and about of an inch in diameter, has been drawn through a hole in a ruby, and found by a micrometer to be exactly the same size at the end as at the beginning; whereas the drawing of a length of 16 miles of brass wire through a steel draw-plate necessitates a readjustment of the hole.

Iron was formerly used to a considerable extent for wire, but has been largely superseded by steel. The ultimate tensile strength of steel wire ranges from 40 to 170 tons per square inch of sectional

area.

Wire gauges are, unfortunately, numerous, and apt to cause confusion. A treatise by Hughes in 1879 mentions no less than fifty-five different gauges, forty-five of which were for measuring or determining the sizes of wire manufactured and sold within the United Kingdom. In 1857 Sir Joseph Whitworth introduced his gauge, ranging from an inch too of an inch by regular grada tions of thousandths of an inch, No. 1 being 001 of an inch, and No. 500 being 500 of an inch. The Birmingham wire gauge had also extended application. In 1884 the imperial standard wire gauge, ranging from 7/0 = 500 inches to 50 = '001 inches, was mutually agreed upon as a much desired and uniform gauge, and became law.

The annual production of wire and wire products is enormous, the industry being chiefly seated in the United States (see, e.g., WORCESTER), Great Britain, Germany, and Belgium. The dimensions to which the trade has grown may be judged from the annual output-some 50,000 tons-of one of the leading continental firms. A bare enumeration of the many and varied purposes to which wire is applied, ranging from a pin to a 12-inch hawser, would form a formidable list; whilst each year witnesses its further extended employment in every branch of industry. The one item of barbed wire alone a comparatively recent introduction for fencing purposes-represents an annual output in America and Europe estimated at over 100,000 According to official returns, there are about 184,000 miles of telegraph wire in the overland service of Great Britain; whilst the Western Union Telegraph Co., U.S.A., have some 648,000 miles of wire in their system alone. With few exceptions pins are made of brass wire, and the production of these has been estimated at no less than 50 millions per day in Great Britain alone.

tons.

Wire furnishes an interesting example of the increase in value of a raw material through the labour put upon it. Professor Babbage drew attention to the fact that one pound of iron, originally valued at twopence, would yield 50,000 hair-springs for watches, each weighing about one-seventh of a grain, and selling at a retail price of twopence apiece, or over £400 in all.

WIRE-ROPES are now extensively employed in many trades and industries, superseding hempropes and chains. They seem to have originated in Germany about 1821, and in the suspension bridge at Geneva, built in 1822, ropes of parallel and untwisted wire, bound together on the 'selvagee' method, were employed. Some fifteen years later 'formed' or 'stranded' wire-ropes were manufactured and employed in the Harz mines. Formerly wire-ropes were made from high-class iron; but steel is now almost universally employed in their manufacture. Wireopes are stranded and laid or closed in machines differing only in detail from those employed for making ordinary hemp ropes, both vertical and horizontal types of revolving machine being used. In the manufacture of the heavier wire-ropes the great weights manipulated necessitate a correspondingly massive design of plant. A wire-rope 'strand generally contains from six to nine wires, and never more than eighteen. A laid' rope consists of a heart (a strand either of hemp or wire), around which are twisted six strands containing a similar heart, usually covered with six wires. A 'formed' rope comprises six strands laid round a heart, but each strand consisting of eighteen wires in addition to the core. A 'cable laid' rope is composed of six laid ropes closed together to form one cable. Wire-ropes are generally galvanised to prevent rust, by being drawn through an alkaline or acid liquor, and thence through the galvanising bath of molten spelter,' any superHuous metal being removed from the ropes by their subsequent passage through a bed of sand. Judicious oiling at intervals reduces the cutting action of the wires against each other and lengthens the life of the rope. The applications of wire-ropes are almost numberless, and are constantly increasing. For winding and hauling purposes in mines, &c., wire-ropes are very largely used. The vertical winding ropes used in British mining operations commonly range from 3 to 4 inches in circumference; they are wound on drums from 20 to 30 feet in diameter and at speeds of from 2000 to 2500 feet per minute.

In the United States and Australia hundreds of miles of street and other railways are operated by wire-cable traction, whilst some British cities also possess cable tramways. For aerial ropeways wire-ropes are extensively and successfully employed in all parts of the world. Besides their permanent employment in suspension bridges, such as the Brooklyn Bridge (see BRIDGE, p. 445), wireropes furnish valuable aid in the erection of large bridges, and were largely used in connection with the Forth Bridge and the Sukkur Bridge across the Indus. In the first-named structure no less than 60 miles of wire roping were temporarily employed. For marine, electrical, and kindred purposes, in addition to many others too numerons to detail, wire-ropes are very extensively used. The strength of the steel wire used for ropes ranges from 70 to over 100 tons per square inch of sectional area. To attain equal strength the weight of a hemp rope may be taken at about three times, and that of a chain at about five times the weight of a steel wire-rope. See J. Bucknall Smith, Wire: its Manufacture and Uses (1891).

Wire-worms, the grubs of click beetles (Elater or Agriotes), perhaps the most injurious of farm

a, perfect insect magnified; b, natural size

d, natural size of wire-worm.

or click beetles common in the fields in sum

of perfect insect; c, wire-worm magnified; mer-time. The eggs are laid near the roots of plants, in the ground or in the axils of basal leaves; the grub remains for several years (three to five) as such, burrowing in the ground during the frost of winter, but at other times hardly ceasing from voracious attacks on the roots and underground stems of all sorts of crops. Eventually they pupate in the soil, whence the adult beetle emerges. Common forms are Agriotes obscurus, A. lineatus, A. sputator. They are not to be confused with millipedes, which they slightly resemble. For prevention Miss Ormerod recommends limecompost, guano and superphosphate, soot, nitrate of soda and salt, and other obnoxious dressings, summer fallow, and burning all rubbish, clodcrushing and heavy rolling. On a small scale slices of potatoes or turnips may be successfully used as traps. Among natural enemies of wireworms moles, rooks, plovers, and pheasants are important.

Wisbech, a market-town of Cambridgeshire, in the Isle of Ely, on the Nene, 21 miles ENE. of Peterborough, 13 SW. of Lynn, and 40 N. of Cambridge. The parish church, Norman to Perpendicular in style, has a fine tower; and there are a corn exchange (1811), a cattle-market (1869), a town-hall (1873), the Cambridgeshire hospital (1873), a museum and literary institute, and a public park of 18 acres. A castle, founded by the Conqueror in 1071, was rebuilt by Bishop Morton in 1483, restored by Bishop Andrews in 1617, and again rebuilt from Inigo Jones's designs by Thurloe, Cromwell's secretary, but was demolished in 1816. Visited by King John and Edward IV., it was the prison under Elizabeth of many Catholic recusants, including Bishops Wishart and Watson, the Jesuit Weston, Dr Bagshaw, Catesby, and Tresham (T. G. Law's Conflicts between Jesuits and Seculars, 1890). Godwin was a native, and Clarkson, to whose memory a Gothic cross by Sir G. G. Scott was erected in 1881. Vessels of nearly 500 tons can now ascend the Nene from the Wash, a distance of 7 miles; and Wisbech has a considerable export of cereals and import of timber, with some manufactures of iron, oil, ropes, &c. It was made a municipal borough in Edward VI.'s reign. Pop. (1851) 10,089; (1891) 9395.

See W. Watson's Historical Account of Wisbech (1827); History of Wisbech (1833); 'Wisbech Castle' in the Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. (1879); and Miller's Fenland Past and Present (1878).

Wisby, a once famous seaport on the west coast of the Swedish island of Gothland (q.v.), 130 miles S. of Stockholm. One of the most important commercial cities in Europe during the 10th and 11th centuries, during the 14th and 15th it was a principal factory of the Hanseatic League (q.v.).

The eastern trade, which during the 11th and 12th centuries passed through Russia, and thence down the Baltic to Gothland, centred in Wisby, and greatly enriched that port. In 1361 Valdemar III. of Denmark took the town by storm, and, plundering it, obtained an immense booty. This was a fatal blow to the prosperity of the place. The architecture of Wisby is exceedingly interesting. Its ancient walls and towers exist in almost as entire a state as they were in the 13th century, and render its appearance, as seen from the sea, exceedingly striking. The early grandeur of the town is attested by the fact that it contains, well preserved, the remains of ten churches, all of which

date from the 11th and 12th centuries, are varied

in form and ornament, and are a mine of interest to the student of Early Gothic. The oldest is the church of the Holy Ghost (1046). St Mary's (11901225) is the only church now kept up for the use of the inhabitants. Pop. 6666.

Copyright 1892 in U.S. by J. B. Lippincott Company.

Wisconsin, the twentieth in area and fourteenth in population of the United States, lies between Lakes Michigan and Superior and the Mississippi River, with its tributary the St Croix; the surrounding states are Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. Its length is about 300 miles and its breadth 250, with an area of 56,040 sq. m. The surface is a rolling plain with an elevation of 600 feet, rising to 1800 feet at the divide, about 30 miles south of Lake Superior. The general slope is south-westward toward the Mississippi, into which fourfifths of the streams flow. The principal of these are the Chippewa, the Black, and the Wisconsin, which furnish abundant water-power. The Fox, which occupies part of the same valley with the Wisconsin, flows north-eastward into Green Bay. It also passes through Lake Winnebago, the largest lake entirely within the state (28 miles lakes, often with picturesque outlets through by 10). There are about two thousand small narrow rocky gorges called 'dells,' or in the north striking proof of extensive glacial action, and a forming rapids or cascades. These lakes are a range of hills, the Kettle moraine, marks the covered all the state except the south-western edge of the enormous bed of ice which once part, called by geologists the driftless area. The Archæan rocks of the northern part of the continent. Next come the Huronian rocks, constate testify that this was the oldest part of the taining valuable beds of iron ore, and intermixed in the north-west with the copper-bearing formation of Lake Superior. To the south are sandstone and limestone formations, furnishing excellent

building material, and in the south-west containchiefly of white pine and other coniferous trees, Dense forests, consisting ing lead and zinc ores. but having also oaks and other deciduous trees, once covered most of the state, though the southern part is prairie land, with many oak groves or

cent. of the whole (but see TIMBER, p. 211). The openings. The present forest area is 48 8 per average annual temperature of the state is 42°, but in the southern part it is 46°.

The chief industry in the state is agriculture, employing about 400,000 persons. In 1891 the grain-product was valued at $38,849,322. In the the states, the amount in 1885 being valued at product of lumber Wisconsin ranks third among $27,000,000, while the manufactures of wood were valued at $14,000,000, and those of wagons, &c. at $5,000,000. In the lumber regions extensive conflagrations sometimes occur, the most disastrous being in October 1871, when the fire swept over portions of eight counties and destroyed a thousand lives. In iron-mining Wisconsin holds