one that works flat instead of up and down. In machinery the sets of wheels are joined by bands or belts, or work by cogs or teeth. See Clock, Steamboat and Watch.
Wheel′er, Benjamin Ide, president of the University of California since July 18, 1899, was born in Randolph, Mass., July 15, 1854. He graduated from Brown University in 1875. He received his A.M. in 1878; his Ph.D. from Heidelberg in 1885; and honorary LL.D from Harvard in 1900, Brown 1900, Yale 1901, Johns Hopkins 1902, Wisconsin 1904 and Columbia 1905. He was instructor at Brown University during 1879-81; and at Harvard in 1885-6. He became professor of comparative philology at Cornell in 1886 and at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece, in 1896. He is corresponding member of the Kaiserliches Archæologisches Institut. He is author of The Greek Noun-Accent; Analogy in Language; Introduction to the History of Language; Dionysos and Immortality; Organization of Higher Education in the United States; and Life of Alexander the Great. He was editor of the department of philology in Johnson's Universal Cyclopedia and in Macmillan's Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology.
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Wheeler, Joseph, American soldier, a distinguished cavalry general of the Confederate army and in command of the cavalry division of the United States army of Santiago in the war with Spain, was born at Augusta, Ga., Sept. 10, 1836, and graduated at West Point in 1859. In April, 1861, he entered the Confederate army, and by the close of that year he rose to the rank of brigadier and later to that of major-general and lieutenant-general. He was at Shiloh, served under Bragg in the west, distinguished himself at Chickamauga, and opposed Sherman in his march through Georgia and South Carolina. During the war he was thrice wounded and had 16 horses shot under him. In 1869 he settled at Wheeler, Ala., where he became a planter and lawyer, and in 1880 was returned to Congress as a Democrat from Alabama, and served continuously until May, 1898, when he became major-general of volunteers, and was assigned to the command of the cavalry division in the army of Santiago. He was present at the battles of Las Guasimas and San Juan Hill, and was the senior member of the commission to arrange for the surrender of Santiago de Cuba. During 1899 General Wheeler was on service in the Philippines, and in August, 1900, he retired from the army, having reached the age-limit. He died on Jan. 25, 1906.
Wheeler, William Almon, nineteenth vice-president of the United States, was born at Malone, N. Y., on June 30, 1819. He began his political career as a state senator in 1858. In 1860 he was in Congress, and again during 1866-77. The compromise which allayed the disturbed condition of politics in Louisiana in 1874 was largely his work, and he was also foremost in returning his back-pay to the national treasury when the act increasing the salary of congressmen was passed. He was elected to the vice-presidency in 1876, when Hayes was president. He died on June 4, 1887.
Wheel′ing, W. Va., county-seat of Ohio County, in the narrow strip known as the Panhandle, on Ohio River. Part of the city is built on an island in the river, connected with the mainland by a suspension bridge. It has the capitol building, used for governmental purposes while it was the capital of West Virginia, postoffice, custom-house, public library, opera-house and other fine buildings. It is chiefly known as a manufacturing city, the coal in the region furnishing an abundance of cheap fuel as well as natural gas, which is used in many factories. There are blast-furnaces, iron-foundries and forges, manufactories of mowing and reaping machines, steam-engines, wagons, carriages, nails, leather, paper, extensive glass-factories, potteries and cigar-factories. It was the capital of West Virginia until 1870 and in 1875. Population 41,641.
Whelk, the name for marine gasteropod mollusks belonging especially to the family of Buccinidæ. The common whelk of the northern Atlantic is eaten in England. These animals look somewhat like very large snails. The shell is pointed, but has only a few whorls. The animal has a broad body, with tentacles projecting from the head. It can be entirely retracted within its shell. It burrows in the sand, and feeds on clams and other bivalve mollusks. Some whelks are used for bait.
Whig Party, The. (1) In British history one of the two political parties in the state, of an advanced and reforming character, now known as Liberals. The term had its origin in the middle of the 17th century and was applied to the Scotch Presbyterians (Covenanters as opposed to the Cavaliers), who had rebelled against the crown; and thus the appellation was at first regarded as a contemptuous epithet, hurled at them by the Tory party — the organization opposed to them in the state and favoring monarchy and conservative rule. The Whigs may be said to be the successors of the Cromwellian Roundheads, whose liberal principles led them to favor and defend the Revolution of 1688, insist upon parliamentary control of the government, and
