Woman's Relief Corps
an organization created by the mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters of Union soldiers of the Civil War of 1861-1865, for the purpose of aiding and assisting the Grand Army of the Republic, and to "perpetuate the memory of their heroic dead," to "extend needful aid to the widows and orphans," to "cherish and emulate the deeds of our army nurses," and to "inculcate lessons of patriotism and love of country among our children and in the communities in which we live." The organization is composed of departments, which are subdivided into corps, as well as detached corps in several States where no departments exist.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Wombat
a pouched animal of Australia. Wombats are hairy, crouching animals with feet somewhat like those of a bear. They have the teeth of a squirrel and live chiefly on grass and other herbs, holing in a bank like a woodchuck. They carry their young in a pouch. There are three species, all confined to the Australian region where they are hunted for their flesh.
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
Women's Clubs
GENERAL FED- ERATION OF, in the United States, an organization incorporated in 1892, and composed of over 2,675 women's clubs having a membership of 155,000 women in the United States and f foreign countries. The purpose of the Federation is declared in its articles of incorporation to be " to bring into communication with one another the various women's clubs throughout the world, that they may compare methods of work and become mutually helpful. Constitutions of clubs applying for membership should show that no sectarianism or political test is required, and, while the distinctively humanitarian movements may be recognized, their chief purpose is not philanthropic or technical, but social, literary, artistic, or scientific culture." Meetings of the federation are held biennially. There are State federations auxiliary to the General Federation in all the States.
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Wood Alcohol
. See Alcohol
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
Wood Carving
an art of great followed largely in antiquity, now France, Italy, and Switzerland. In recent years it has been made a part of the manual training courses in the public schools of the United States.
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Wood Engraving
the art of engraving designs on wood. It differs from copper and steel plate engraving by having the parts to be printed on the paper in "relief." While plates are printed from the engraved lines by a laborious and necessarily slow process wood engravings, having the object to be represented on the surface, in the manner of a type, may be printed along with the matter they are intended to illustrate on the ordinary printing machine. This, of course, is an important point in the illustration of books, on the ground of cheapness and expedition. Anground of cheapness and expedition. Another sess is that they can be multiplied to any extent by means of the electrotype process. Previous to the invention of movable types whole books of text were also enin wood, and graved the impressions had evidently been taken by rubbing on the back of the paper, instead of steady pressure, as in the printing press, the ink used being some kind of distemper color.
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Wood Nymph
a fabled goddess of the wood; a dryad. In zoölogy, the common name of the beautiful lepidopterous insects comprising the genus Eudryas. The wood nymph (E. grata) expands one inch and a half to one inch and three-fourths, the fore wings pure white, with a broad stripe along ong the front edge for more than half its length, and a broad band around the outer hind margin, of a deep purple brown, the band edged on the inside with olive green, and marked toward the edge with a wavy white line; under side of the fore wings yellow, with a round and kidney-shaped black spot. The hind wings are yellow, with a broad purplish brown hind border above, on which there is a wavy white line; below they have a central black dot. The caterpillar, which infests the grape vine, attains one inch and a quarter in length, is blue transversely, banded with deep orange, the bands dotted with black; the top of the eleventh ring is humped.
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Wood Pulp
a preparation of wood used in the manufacture of paper and in other industries. There are two kinds of wood pulp, one known as ground or mechanical, and the other as chemical. The first is the cheapest and is used chiefly for making newspaper and common wrapping paper stock. In this kind spruce wood is most commonly employed, because it is cheap and gummy, the latter quality being valuable in that it adds much to the tenacity of the material made from the pulp. In the manufacture of ground pulp swiftly revolving emory wheels are worked under water. The spruce logs are pressed against these till reduced to a fine wet sawdust. It has, however, now lost its fiber, and must be mixed with one-fifth chemical wood pulp, so that it will hold together in the form of paper.
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Wood-screw
A moulder's device for making fast to a pattern, consisting of an ordinary screw connected by welding to a stem, with an eye turned and welded to the body. A small hole is bored, which admits the screw without splitting the pattern, and the eye serves as a handle by which to turn the screw and lift the pattern. See SPIKE.
Only in The Encyclopedia of Founding
Wood-spirit
Wood naphtha; is a product of the distillation of wood. Chiefly used for dissolving the rosins in making varnish. It is also called methylic alcohol. See NAPHTHA.
Only in The Encyclopedia of Founding
Woodberry
GEORGE EDWARD, American poet; born in Beverley, ., May 12, 1855; was graduated at an Mass., ass Harvard College in 1877; was Professor of English Literature in Nebraska State University in 1877-1878 and 1880-1882; of Comparative Literature, Columbia, 1891. He retired from this post, 1904. Besides articles in magazines and reviews, he wrote: a "History of Wood Engraving" (1883); "Life of Edgar Allan Poe" (1885); and "The North Shore Watch, and Other Poems" (1890); "Studies in Letters and Life" (1890); "Heart of Man" (1899); "Wild Eden" (1899); "Makers of Literature" (1900); "The Appreciation of Literature" (1907); "The Inspiration of Poetry" (1910); "Two Phases of Cri Criticism" (1918); "The Roamer and Other Poems" (1919). He published also an edition of Shelley (1892), and one of Poe (1895), with E. C. Stedman.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia