penal colony Distant or overseas settlement established to punish criminals with forced labour and isolation from society. Such colonies were developed mostly by the English, French, and Russians. Britain sent criminals to its American colonies until the Revolutionary War; Australia was principally a penal colony from its colonization until the mid-19th century. French Guiana, site of a French penal colony, was infamous for its inhumanity; Devil's Island was still operating during World War II. Russian penal colonies were established in Siberia under the tsars but were most widely used during the Stalin era. Notorious for their harsh punish¬ ments and underfeeding, most penal colonies have now been abolished.
Penang \po-'naq\ Malay Pinang Island (pop., 2000 prelim.: 1,225,501), Malaysia, off the northwestern coast of the Malay Peninsula, part of the state of Pulau Pinang. The capital and chief port is George Town (pop., 2000 prelim.: 180,573), in the northeast. British colonization began in 1786. In 1826 Penang (known until 1867 as Prince of Wales Island) combined with Malacca and Singapore to form the Straits Settle¬ ments. From the mid-19th century it was a market for tin and rubber. In 1948 it became part of the Federation of Malaya, later Malaysia. In the late 20th century it became Malaysia’s prime tourist centre, with resort hotels mainly on the northern coast at Batu Feringgi.
Penates \po-'na-tez, po-'na-tez\ Roman household gods. They were wor¬ shiped privately as protectors of the household and also publicly as pro¬ tectors of the Roman state. They were sometimes associated with other deities of the house, such as Vesta, and their name was often used inter¬ changeably with that of the Lares. Each house had a shrine with their images, which were worshiped at the family meal and on special occa¬ sions. Offerings were portions of the regular meal or of special cakes, wine, honey, and incense. The number and precise identities of the Penates were a puzzle even to the ancients.
pencil drawing Drawing executed with a pencil, an instrument made of graphite enclosed in a wood casing. Though graphite was mined in the 16th century, its use by artists is not known before the 17th century. In the 17th—18th century, graphite was used primarily to make preliminary sketches for more elaborate work in another medium, seldom for finished works. By the late 18th century, an ancestor of the modern pencil was constructed by inserting a rod of natural graphite into a hollow cylinder of wood. Pencil rods produced from mixtures of graphite and clays, true prototypes of the modem graphite pencil, were introduced in 1795. This improvement allowed for better control and encouraged wider use. The great masters of pencil drawing kept the elements of a simple linearism with limited shading, but many artists in the 18th—19th century created elaborate effects of light and shade by rubbing the soft graphite particles with a tightly rolled paper or chamois.
pendant or pendent In architecture, a sculpted ornament suspended from a vault or ceiling, especially an elongated boss (carved keystone) at
the junction of the intersecting ribs of the fan vaulting associated with the English Perpendicular style. In stone ceilings, the use of pendant vaulting was a solution to the difficulty of adapting fan vaulting to very wide church naves. Strong transverse arches were made to span the area, and these in turn supported the elongated keystones. Intermediate rib and panel vaults sprang from these pendants.
pendant Ornament suspended from a bracelet, earring, or necklace and derived from the primitive practice of wearing amulets or talismans around the neck. The practice dates from the Stone Age, when pendants consisted of objects such as teeth, stones, and shells. Commemorative and decorative pendants were com¬ mon in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. In the Middle Ages reliquar¬ ies, or devotional pendants, and crosses were created with jewels. By the beginning of the 16th century,
Renaissance artists were creating pendants for decorative rather than religious use. The late 19th-century Art Nouveau movement often fea¬ tured women’s figures, butterflies, or flowers on pendants.
pendentive In architecture, a tri¬ angular segment of a spherical sur¬ face that forms the transition between the circular plan of a dome and the polygonal plan of its supporting structure. The problem of placing a round dome on a square base assumed growing importance to Roman builders, but it remained for Byzantine architects to recognize the possibilities of the pendentive and fully develop it (see Hagia Sophia). One of the great architectural inventions of all time, the pendentive became very impor¬ tant in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. As a result of Byzantine influence, pendentives are also frequent in Islamic architecture. The vault¬ ing form in which the curve of the pendentive and dome is continuous is known as a pendentive dome.
Penderecki \,pen-d3-'ret-ske\, Krzysztof (b. Nov. 23, 1933, Debica, Pol.) Polish composer and conductor. He studied composition at the Krakow Conservatory and would later serve as its director (1972-87). His early music (1960-74) involved dense note clusters and unorthodox sounds, and he developed his own musical notation to convey the desired effects, resulting in vivid works that attracted international attention, including Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (1960), Stabat Mater (1962), the St. Luke Passion (1963-65), and the opera The Devils of Lou- dun (1969). After 1975 he embraced a more traditional approach with works such as the opera Paradise Lost (1978), concertos for violin (1977), cello (1982), and viola (1983), and Lux aeterna (1983).
Pendergast, Thomas J(oseph) (b. July 22, 1872, St. Joseph, Mo., U.S.—d. Jan. 26,1945, Kansas City, Mo.) U.S. politician. He was active in municipal politics in Kansas City, Mo., and became the political boss of the city’s Democrats by 1916. His political machine dominated city and state politics for almost 25 years and influenced national Democratic conven¬ tions. He helped Harry S. Truman in his early political career. Attacked by opponents for allowing corrupt practices in Kansas City, he was convicted of income-tax evasion in 1939 and served one year in prison.
Pendleton, George (Hunt) (b. July 29, 1825, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.—d. Nov. 24, 1889, Brussels, Belg.) U.S. politician. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1857 to 1865 and was the unsuc¬ cessful Democratic candidate for vice president (with George B. McClel¬ lan) in 1864. A member of the Greenback movement, he advocated the Ohio Idea for redeeming American Civil War bonds. From 1879 to 1885 he served in the U.S. Senate, where he sponsored the Pendleton Civil Service Act. He served as minister to Germany from 1885 to 1889.
Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883) U.S. legislation establishing the modern civil-service system of permanent federal employment based on merit. Public demand for civil-service reform to replace the system based on political party affiliation (the spoils system) resulted in a bill sponsored by Sen. George Pendleton, which provided for selection of government employees by competitive examination administered by a civil-service
Art Nouveau pendant by L. Gautrait, c. 1900; in the Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim, Ger.
COURTESY OF THE SCHMUCKMUSEUM, PFORZHEIM, GER
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1468 i pendulum ► Pennsylvania
commission. Only 10% of government jobs were originally covered by the law, but successive Congresses expanded its scope to include more than 90% of federal employees.