Powell, Lewis F(ranklin), Jr. (b. Sept. 19, 1907, Suffolk, Va., U.S.—d. Aug. 25, 1998, Richmond, Va.) U.S. jurist. After studying law at Washington and Lee University and Harvard University, he returned to practice law in Virginia. As chairman of the Richmond school board, he oversaw peaceful school integration in 1959; he later chaired the state
Anthony Powell, 1974
FAY GODWIN
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1538 I Powell ► Poznan
board of education and served as president of the American Bar Associa¬ tion. Widely respected in legal circles, he was nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States by Pres. Richard Nixon in 1971; he took his seat in 1972 and served until 1987. He adopted moderate-to-liberal positions on civil rights, affirmative action, and separation of church and state, though his views on law enforcement were conservative.
Powell, Michael (Latham) (b. Sept. 30, 1905, Bekesbourne, Kent, Eng.—d. Feb. 19, 1990, Avening, Gloucestershire) British film director. He directed his first movie, Two Crowded Hours, in 1931 and made over 20 low-budget films before Alexander Korda teamed him with screenwriter Emeric Pressburger (1902-88) to make the successful U-Boat 29 (1939). Forming their own production company, they made movies such as The Thief of Bagdad (1940), The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), Stairway to Heaven (1946), Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948), and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951). Powell made the controver¬ sial Peeping Tom (1960) without Pressburger. Powell’s films were notable for their use of brilliant colour, fantasy, and experimental cinematogra- phy.
Powell, Robert Baden- See Robert S. Baden-Powell
Powell, William (b. July 29, 1892, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.—d. March 5, 1984, Palm Springs, Calif.) U.S. film actor. He acted on Broadway from 1912 and made his screen debut in Sherlock Holmes (1922). Powell played villains in the silent movies, and with the coming of sound he moved into light mysteries, playing his first detective in The Canary Mur¬ der Case (1929). An intelligent, debonair leading man, he became a top star as the sophisticated, bemused detective Nick Charles, opposite Myrna Loy, in the hit The Thin Man (1934) and its successful sequels. His later notable films include The Great Ziegfeld (1936), My Man Godfrey { 1936), and Life with Father (1947).
power In science and engineering, the time rate of doing work or deliv¬ ering energy. Power ( P) can be expressed as the amount of work done (W), or energy transferred, divided by the time interval ( t ): P = Wit. A given amount of work can be done by a low-powered motor in a long time or by a high-powered motor in a short time. Units of power are those of work (or energy) per unit time, such as foot-pounds per minute, joules per second (called watts), or ergs per second. Power can also be expressed as the product of the force ( F) applied to move an object and the speed (v) of the object in the direction of the force: P = Fv. See also horsepower.
Power, Charles Gavan (1888-1968) Canadian politician. Born in Sillery, Quebec, he was seriously wounded in World War I. He served in the Canadian House of Commons 1917-55. In W.L. Mackenzie King’s government he served as minister for pensions and national health (1935— 39) and postmaster general (1939^-0). As minister for national defense for air (1940-44), he promoted the interests of Canadian air forces serv¬ ing under British command and created Canadian squadrons in Europe.
Power, Tyrone (Edmund) (b. May 5, 1914, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.—d. Nov. 15, 1958, Madrid, Spain) U.S. actor. The descendant of a long line of actors, he toured with a Shakespearean repertory company before making his Broadway debut in Romeo and Juliet (1935). His first film hit was Lloyds of London (1936). He became noted for his action- adventure roles in movies such as The Rains Came (1939), The Mark of Zorro (1940), Blood and Sand (1941), Nightmare Alley (1947), and The Mississippi Gambler (1953), while continuing to act on stage in plays such as Saint Joan (1936), Mister Roberts (1950), and Back to Methuselah
(1958).
power of attorney See power of attorney
Powers, Hiram (b. June 29, 1805, Woodstock, Vt., U.S.—d. June 27, 1873, Florence, Italy) U.S.-bom Italian sculptor. He worked as an artist- assistant in a waxworks museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, then moved to Washington, D.C., where he modeled busts of such figures as Andrew Jackson (1834). In 1837 he settled permanently in Florence. He attracted international notoriety with his marble Greek Slave (1843), an image of a nude young woman in chains, which caused a sensation at Fondon’s Crystal Palace Exposition in 1851. An artist of outstanding technical abil¬ ity, he was one of the most popular sculptors of his time. See photograph opposite.
Powhatan \,pau-3-'tan, pau-'ha-t 3 n\ (d. April 1618, Virginia) American Indian leader, father of Pocahontas. At the peak of his power, he ruled the 13,000 to 34,000 people of the Powhatan empire. He initially acted
ambivalently toward the English settlement at Jamestown, Va., and some¬ times permitted attacks against the colonists. After Pocahontas married an English settler in 1614, however, Powhatan maintained peaceful relations with the colonists until the end of his life.
Powhatan Confederacy of more than 30 North American Indian tribes living in Oklahoma, New Jersey, and Virginia, U.S., and in Canada. Powhatan languages belong to the Algonquian language family. They once occupied most of Tidewater Virginia and the eastern shore of Chesa¬ peake Bay. The confederacy was named for its powerful chief, Powhatan, to whom the tribes provided military support and paid taxes in the form of goods. Many of the villages, consisting of long dwellings covered with bark or reed mats, were palisaded. Powhatan women cultivated corn, beans, and squash; the men hunted and waged war, chiefly against the Iroquois. The intermittent hostilities with the English settlers, often called the Powhatan War (1622-44), ended with the breaking of the confederacy.
powwow American Indian ceremony or gathering of various kinds. Powwows originally were healing ceremonies, but the word could also refer to exuberant celebrations, with dancing and singing, of success in hunting or victory in battle. Meetings of tribal councils were also called powwows. Today the word is used for large-scale Indian social gather¬ ings, often representing more than one tribe, with traditional drumming, singing, and dancing. Modern powwows draw tourists as well as partici¬ pants, and craft items and souvenirs are offered for sale.
Powys Vpo-9s\ County (pop., 2001: 126,344), east-central Wales. The county seat is at Llandridod Wells. It is named after the Welsh princedom
of Powys, located in the border country between Wales and England. At its most powerful in the 12th cen¬ tury, the princedom was unable to gain ascendancy in Wales because it was so close to the border area where the cultures of Wales and England intermingled. Main elements in the landscape are the valley lowlands leading to Shrewsbury and Hereford. There are remains of Iron Age and Roman settlements.
poxvirus Any of a group of viRUSes responsible for a wide range of pox diseases in humans and other ani¬ mals. Poxvirus was the cause of smallpox. (Human chickenpox is caused by varicella-zoster virus.) The virus particle is somewhat brick¬ shaped, and its surface is studded with hollow spikes. It contains DNA. Unlike other DNA viruses, poxvi¬ ruses appear to develop entirely within the cytoplasm of affected cells. The virus of rabbitpox has been used with mixed success in Australia to control the wild rabbit population.
Poyninas \ , poi- 1 nh]z\ / Sir Edward (b. 1459, Southwark?, near London, Eng.—d. October 1521, Westenhanger, Kent) English soldier and administrator. A sup¬ porter of Henry Tudor (later Henry VII), he served as the king’s lord deputy of Ireland (1494-95), where he enacted legislative measures (“Poynings’ Laws”) that applied all English public laws to Ireland and required every act of the Irish parlia¬ ment to be approved by the king and privy council.