Oakley
VIOLET, American painter and designer; born in New York, 1874. Studied at Art Students' League, Penn. Academy of Fine Arts, and in Paris under Aman Jean, Collin, and Lazar. First important work was painting 13 panels, illustrating "Founding of the State of Spiritual Liberty," for the Governor's reception room, State Capitol, Harrisburg, Pa. Decorated the churches All Souls and All Saints, New York, the Pennsylvania Academy, and many private residences. Awarded gold medal St. Louis Exposition, 1904. Medal of Honor Panama-Pacific Exposition, 1915.
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Oakum
a material used between the edges of plank to make the seams watertight. It is made of old hemp ropes well tarred. Picking oakum is a monotonous job in shipyards.
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Oases
fertile spots in a desert, due to the presence of wells or of underground water supplies. The best known and most historically famous are those of the Libyan Desert and the Sahara; they occur also in the deserts of Arabia and Persia, and in the Gobi. The French have created many oases in the Algerian deserts by sinking ARTESIAN WELLS (q. ข.). The chief vegetation of the African oases is palms-especially date and doom palms; with barley, rice, and millet, when the fertile area is large enough to admit of settled occupation. In the Libyan Desert are the oases of Síwa (where was the temple of Jupiter Ammon); in the N., Farafa, Bahriya, and Khargeh (the oasis magna, 120 miles W. of Thebes). In the western Sahara, Tuat, 1,000 miles S. W. of Tripoli, is the best known; in the eastern Sahara are Fezzan, Gadames, Bilma and Air or Asben. See DESERT.
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Oat
or OATS (Avena), a genus of edible grasses cultivated extensively in all temperate climates, and though principally grown as food for horses largely used as human food. There are about 60 species, the principal of which are A. satīva (the common oat), A. nuda (naked oat, pilcorn, or peelcorn), A. orientalis (Tartarian or Hungarian oat), A. brevis (short oat), A. strigosa (bristle-pointed oat). A. chinensis (Chinese oat), etc. The weight per bushel varies from 32 lbs. ing region. The city has industries in (U. S.) to 40 lbs. (Europe); the meal is about half the weight of the oats. The wild oat (A. fatua) is supposed to be the original of all the species, but its native country is unknown. In the calendar year 1918 the oat crop of the United States aggregated 1,538,359,000 bushels. See OATMEAL.
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Oatmeal
panic-grass; a plant of the genus Panicum. Also the meal of the oat deprived of its husk. It is one of the most important and valuable articles of food, containing a greater proportion of proteine compounds than the finest wheaten flour. An analysis of a sample of oatmeal gave 13 per cent. of nitrogenous material, 60-70 per cent. of heat givers, and 3 per cent. of mineral matter. OAXACA. See OAJACA. OB, or OBI, the great river of western Siberia, rising in two branches, the Biya and the Katun (both of which have their origin in the Altai Mountains, within the frontier of the Chinese dominions) and flowing N. W. and N. for 2,300 miles to the great Gulf of Ob in the Arctic Ocean. Its chief tributaries are the Irtish, Tcharysh, Tom, and Tchulym, all navigable. On the banks of the Ob are Barnaul, Tomsk, and Narym. At present only a few steamers ply on the great water-system of the Ob, which nevertheless seems destined to become a great commercial thoroughfare.
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Obadiah
the name of various persons mentioned in the Old Testament. Also the fourth of the minor prophetic books.
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Obaldia
JOSÉ DOMINGO, sometime President of Panama; born at David, province of Chiriqui, 1845, son of a former president of Colombia. Educated at College of Bogota. Elected to Colombian Congr Congress, 1900. A Senator in 1902, he was the only member of the House to favor ratification of the Hay- Herran Treaty, resigned, and was soon appointed Governor of province of Panama. Joined the revolution of 1903, and became second Vice-President of the new Panama Republic. Minister to United States, and member of governing board Pan-American Union, 1906. President of Panama, 1908. Served capably until his death in 1910.
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Oban
a fashionable watering-place of Argyllshire, Scotland, 84 miles W. N. W. of Stirling, and 136 of Edinburgh. It is the great tourist headquarters of the West Highlands. Objects of interest are the picturesque ruins of Dunolly and Dunstaffnage Castles, and a prehistoric cave-dwelling, discovered in 1890. Pop. (1916) 5,600.
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Obeah
(See West Indian Islands .)
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Obeid
EL, capital of Kordofan, in the Sudan, 220 miles S. W. of Khartum. It consists of a number of villages, originally separate and inhabited by distinct races, but now joined together into one town. Gum-arabic, ivory, gold, and ostrich feathers are the chief articles of trade. Near this place, in 1883, a force of Egyptians under Hicks Pasha, with an English staff, was exterminated by a large army of the Mahdi.
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Ober
FREDERICK ALBION, an American ornithologist, traveler, and author; born in Beverly, Mass., Feb. 13, 1849. He traveled extensively in Florida, the West Indies, Mexico, Spain, North Africa, and South America, and wrote: "Camps in the Caribbees" (1880); "The Silver City" (1883); "Young Folks' History of Mexico" (1883); "Montezuma's Gold Mines" (1887); "In the Wake of Columbus" (1893); "Knockabout Club Series," "Under the Cuban Flag" (1896); "My Spanish Sweetheart" (1897); "The Cacique's Treasure Cave" (1901); "Heroes of American History," 12 vols. (1907). He died in 1916. OBER-AMMERGAU. See AMMERGAU, OBER and UNTER.
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Oberammergau
a village in the district of Ammergau on the river Ammer in upper Bavaria. Its inhabitants are an industrious people, occupied largely with the making of crucifixes, figures of saints, and toys. The village is noted for its presentation once in ten years of the Passion Play .
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Oberhausen
a city of Prussia in the Rhine province, on the right bank of the Rhine. Prior to the World War it had important industries, including iron foundries, rolling mills, chemical works, etc. In the neighborhood are important mines of coal, iron, and zinc. Pop. about 90,000.
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