Jeans, Sir James (Hopwood) (b. Sept. 11, 1877, London, Eng.—d. Sept. 16, 1946, Dorking, Surrey) British physicist and mathematician. After teaching at Cambridge and Princeton, he worked as a research asso¬ ciate at the Mount Wilson Observatory (1923-44). He proposed that mat¬ ter was continuously created throughout the universe (see steady-state theory). He wrote on a wide variety of phenomena but is perhaps best known as a writer of popular books about astronomy.
Jeddah See Jiddah
jeep Outstanding light vehicle of World War II, developed by the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps. It weighed 1.25 tons, had a four-cylinder engine, and could climb 60° grades and operate on rough terrain thanks to its four-wheel drive and high clearance. The origin of it name is uncer¬ tain; one theory traces it to the military designation “vehicle, GP” (i.e., general-purpose). Since the war the jeep has been adapted for civilian use, though it has been replaced in the U.S. military by the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), or Humvee.
Jeffers, (John) Robinson (b. Jan. 10, 1887, Pittsburgh, Penn., U.S.—d. Jan. 20, 1962, Carmel, Calif., U.S.) U.S. poet. Born to a wealthy family, he was educated in literature, medicine, and forestry. His lyrics express contempt for humanity and love of the harsh, eternal beauties of nature, notably the California coast near Carmel, where he moved in 1916. His third book, Tamar and Other Poems (1924), cemented his reputation and revealed the unique style and eccentric ideas he later developed in Cawdor (1928), Thurso’s Landing (1932), and Be Angry at the Sun (1941).
Jefferson, Thomas (b. April 13,1743, Shadwell, Va.—d. July 4,1826, Monticello, Va., U.S.) Third president of the U.S. (1801-09). He was a planter and became a lawyer in 1767. While a member of the House of Bur¬ gesses (1769-75), he initiated the Virginia Committee of Correspondence (1773) with Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry. In 1774 he wrote the influ-
Blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata)
JOHN H. GERARD
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ential A Summary View of the Rights of British America , stating that the British Parliament had no authority to legislate for the colonies. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress, he was appointed to the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence and became its primary author. He was elected governor of Virginia (1779-81) but was unable to organize effec¬ tive opposition when British forces invaded the colony (1780-81). Criti¬ cized for his conduct, he retired, vowing to remain a private citizen. Again a member of the Continental Congress (1783-85), he drafted the first of the Northwest Ordinances for dividing and settling the Northwest Territory. In 1785 he succeeded Benjamin Franklin as U.S. minister to France. Appointed the first secretary of state (1790-93) by George Washington, he soon became embroiled in a bitter conflict with Alexander Hamilton over the country’s foreign policy and their opposing interpretations of the Consti¬ tution. Their divisions gave rise to political factions and eventually to political parties. Jefferson served as vice president (1797-1801) under John Adams but opposed Adams’s signing of the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798); the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, adopted by the legislatures of those states in 1798 and 1799 as a protest against the Acts, were written by Jef¬ ferson and James Madison. In the presidential election of 1800 Jefferson and Aaron Burr received the same number of votes in the electoral college; the decision was thrown to the U.S. House of Representatives, which chose Jefferson on the 36th ballot. As president, Jefferson attempted to reduce the powers of the embryonic federal government and to eliminate the national debt; he also dispensed with a great deal of the ceremony and formality that had attended the office of president to that time. In 1803 he oversaw the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the land area of the country, and he authorized the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In an effort to force Britain and France to cease their molestation of U.S. merchant ships during the Napo¬ leonic Wars, he signed the Embargo Act. In 1809 he retired to his plantation, Monticello, where he pursued his interests in science, philosophy, and architecture. He served as president of the American Philosophical Society (1797-1815), and in 1819 he founded and designed the University of Vir¬ ginia. In 1812, after a long estrangement, he and Adams were reconciled and began a lengthy correspondence that illuminated their opposing politi¬ cal philosophies. They died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Though a lifelong slaveholder, Jefferson was an anomaly among the Vir¬ ginia planter class for his support of gradual emancipation. In January 2000 the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation accepted the conclusion, sup¬ ported by DNA evidence, that Jefferson had fathered at least one child with Sally Hemings, one of his house slaves.
Jefferson City City (pop., 2000: 39,636), capital of Missouri, U.S. Located on the Missouri River near the centre of the state, it was selected as the site of the state capital in 1821. Named for Thomas Jefferson, it was incorporated as a town in 1825 and as a city in 1839. Loyalties were divided during the American Civil War, but it remained in the Union. The Capitol, completed in 1918, contains murals by Thomas Hart Benton. It is the trading centre for surrounding farmlands and has diversified manu¬ facturing. Lincoln University was founded there by black veterans of the Union army in 1866.
Jeffreys, Sir Harold (b. April 22, 1891, Fatfield, Durham, Eng.—d. March 18, 1989, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire) British astronomer and geophysicist. In astronomy, he established that the four large outer plan¬ ets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) are very cold, devised models of their planetary structure, and studied the origin of the solar system and the theory of latitude. In geophysics, he investigated the thermal history of the Earth, was coauthor (1940) of the standard tables of travel times for earthquake waves, and was the first to hypothesize that the Earth’s core is liquid. He explained the origin of monsoons and sea breezes and showed how cyclones are vital to the general circulation of the atmo¬ sphere. Jeffreys also worked on probability theory and on methods of general mathematical physics.
Jehangir See Jahangir
Jehovah's Witness Member of an international religious movement founded in Pittsburgh, Pa., by Charles T. Russell in 1872. The movement was originally known as the International Bible Students Association, but its name was changed by Russell’s successor, Joseph Franklin Rutherford (1869-1942). The Witnesses are a millennialist group whose beliefs are based primarily on the apocalyptic sections of the Bible, notably Daniel and the Book of Revelation. They refuse to perform military service or salute the flag, actions which have brought them into direct conflict with governments around the world. They are famous for their door-to-door
evangelizing and for refusing blood transfusions; they believe there is scriptural justification for all their actions and beliefs. Their goal is the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth, and they hold that Jesus —who is believed to be God’s first creation rather than one person in a trinity—is God’s agent in this plan. Their national headquarters is in Brooklyn, N.Y.; their major publications, the Watchtower and Awake!, are published in about 80 languages. See also millennialism.
Jekyll, Gertrude (b. Nov. 29, 1843, London, Eng.—d. Dec. 8, 1932, London) British landscape architect. She pursued painting until 1891, when she turned to garden design. She helped the landscape designer William Robinson (1838-1935) in his writings about the natural garden and wrote several successful books on her own, including Wood and Gar¬ den (1899) and Home and Garden (1900). Her taste was for the simplic¬ ity and orderly disorder of cottage gardens. She later worked closely with Edwin L. Lutyens, developing a modem, informal style of garden marked by a rhythmic use of colour and form.