Wood (Botanical sense the hard solid)
in a botanical sense. the hard, solid, non-succulent stem of any plant, and in a chemical sense, lignin, a hardened form of cellulose, the principal constituent of all vegetable life, with a small proportion of resinous and incrusting matter. Wood thus only differs from vegetable fibers-cotton, flax, hemp, etc. -in its physical condition. Woody stems are divided into two great classes, according to the manner in which they grow. The first and most important class is the exogens or exogenous stems, so called on account of the annual increments being added on the outside of the stem just within the bark, and the layers of growth are seen in such stems in a series of concentric circles, each ring of which represents the growth of one year. This class embraces all the trees of temperate climates, and, indeed, the greater part of all tree life. The second class endogenous stems-shows no rings of annual growth, but a cross section exhibits a series of dark spots, more or less closely studded, and always more densely packed toward the outer circumference.
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Wood (FERNANDO an American)
FERNANDO, an American politician; born in Philadelphia, June 14, 1812. In 1820 he removed to New York City and entered business as a shipping merchant. He became identified with political organizations, being elected to Congress in 1841 on the Democratic ticket, serving one term. In 1850 he retired from business and in 1854 was elected Mayor of New York; introduced various reforms and was re-elected almost without opposition. The riot troubles of 1857 prejudiced many citizens against the municipal administration and he was defeated for re-election, but was again Mayor in 1859. In 1861, when secession was under discussion, he recommended that New York should secede and become independent. He was elected to Congress in 1863 and 1867. He died in Washington, D. C., Feb. 14, 1881.
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Wood (III)
THOMAS JOHN, an American military officer; born in Munfordville, Ky., Sept. 25, 1823; was graduated at the United States Military Academy in 1845; served with General Taylor in the Mexican War, taking part in the battles of Palo Alto, Monterey, and Buena Vista; served on the Texas and Kansas frontier for 12 years; and through the Civil War in the Army of the Cumberland, being present at all the battles of that army including Shiloh, Perryville. Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, the Atlanta campaign, Franklin, Nashville, and at Stone River, where he was severely wounded; and was engaged in operations for the relief of Knoxville and the invasion of Georgia till he was again severely wounded at Lovejoy's Station. He was promoted Major-General of volunteers in 1865; and mustered out of the volunteer service Sept. 1, 1866. He was brevetted 1st lieutenant, U. S. A., for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle of Buena Vista, Brigadier- General for Chickamauga, and Major- General for Nashville. He died in 1906.
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Wood Alcohol
. See Alcohol 2026 Editor's Note: Alcohol was ten years from national Prohibition (1920) when this was written — the Anti-Saloon League was already the most effective pressure group in American politics. See Prohibition . (Ed: BR 2026-07-01)
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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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