Tilly, Johann Tserclaes, count von (b. February 1559, Tilly, Bra¬ bant, Spanish Netherlands—d. April 30, 1632, Ingolstadt, Bavaria) Bavar¬ ian general in the Thirty Years' War. He gained military experience in the Spanish Army of Flanders fighting under Alessandro Farnese (1585) against the Dutch and in 1594 joined the emperor Rudolf II’s army against the Turks. Appointed by Maximilian I of Bavaria to reorganize the Bavar¬ ian army (1610), Tilly created an efficient force that became the spear¬ head of the Catholic League in the Thirty Years’ War. He led the League’s forces to victories in the Battle of White Mountain (1620) and at Lutter (1626). In 1630 he added the imperial forces to his command. In 1631 he besieged the Protestant city of Magdeburg, but its destruction proved disastrous for him. Failing to stop the Swedish advance into Germany, he was defeated at Breitenfeld (1631) and was fatally wounded in a later battle.
Tilsit Vtil-zit\, Treaties of (1807) Agreements that France signed sepa¬ rately with Russia and Prussia at Tilsit, northern Prussia (now Sovetsk, Russia). The treaties followed Napoleon’s victories in the Napoleonic
Bill Tilden
CULVER PICTURES
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
tilth ► Times Literary Supplement I 1911
Wars and established his supremacy in western and central Europe. France and Russia became allies and divided Europe between them, reducing Prussia and Austria to helplessness. In secret provisions, Russia joined the Continental System against British trade. By 1810 Russian trade was hampered and the tsar opened Russian ports to neutral ships, caus¬ ing the alliance to fail and paving the way for Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812.
tilth Physical condition of soil, especially in relation to its suitability for planting or growing a crop. Factors that determine tilth include the for¬ mation and stability of aggregated soil particles, moisture content, degree of aeration, rate of water infiltration, and drainage. The tilth of a soil can change rapidly, depending on environmental factors such as changes in moisture. The objective of tillage (mechanical manipulation of the soil) is to improve tilth, thereby increasing crop production; in the long term, however, conventional tillage, especially plowing, often has the opposite effect, causing the soil to break down and become compacted.
timber framing Construction of frame or post-and-beam structures using large, heavy, wood members, specifically lumber 5 in. (13 cm) or more in the least dimension. The term implies stylistic features of a heavy nature. Half-timber work, in which the spaces between the heavy visible frames of interior and exterior walls are filled in with (nonstructural) material such as brick, plaster, or mud, was common in Asia and Europe. Half-timbering found its highest expression in the Tudor style. See also FRAMED Structure, POST-AND-BEAM SYSTEM.
timbre Ytam-bsrV Quality of sound that distinguishes one instrument, voice, or other sound source from another. Timbre largely results from a characteristic combination of over¬ tones produced by different instru¬ ments. This distinctive combination (which usually varies across the range of pitches) is what principally permits a listener to distinguish a clarinet from a flute, an alto from a tenor, or even a Stradivarius violin from a Guarneri violin, when both are sounding the same pitch. One element of timbre results from the differing methods of producing the sounds (blowing, bowing, striking, etc.), especially audible at the moment a note begins.
Timbuktu French Tombouctou
Town (pop., 1998: 32,000), Mali, on the southern edge of the Sahara near the Niger River. Founded c. ad 1100 by Tuareg nomads, it became an important post on the trans-Saharan caravan routes. After it was incorpo¬ rated within the Mali empire, probably in the late 13th century, it became a centre of Islamic culture (c. 1400- 1600). It reached its apex as a com¬ mercial and cultural centre under Songhai rule c. 1500 but declined rapidly after being conquered by Moroccan forces in the late 16th century. The French captured it in 1894. It became part of independent Mali in 1960. The city was desig¬ nated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988.
time Measured or measurable period. More broadly, it is a con¬ tinuum that lacks spatial dimen¬ sions. Philosophers have sought an understanding of time by focusing on the broad questions of the relation between time and the physical world and the relation between time and consciousness. Those who adopt an absolutist theory of time regard it as a kind of container within which the
universe exists and change takes place, and believe that its existence and properties are independent of the physical universe. According to the rival relationist theory, time is nothing over and above change in the physical universe. Largely because of Albert Einstein, it is now held that time can¬ not be treated in isolation from space (see space-time). Some argue that Einstein’s theories of relativity vindicate relationist theories, others that they vindicate the absolutist theory. The primary issue concerning the relation between time and consciousness is the extent, if any, to which time or aspects of time depend on the existence of conscious beings. Events in time are normally thought of in terms of notions of past, present, and future, which some philosophers treat as mind-dependent; others believe that time is independent of perception and hold that past, present, and future are objective features of the world. See also geologic time, Greenwich Mean Time, standard time, Universal Time.
Time Major U.S. weekly newsmagazine, published in New York City. It was founded in 1923 by Henry R. Luce (as business manager) and Briton Hadden (as editor). It became the most influential newsmagazine in the U.S., with a format of short articles arranged in subject “departments,” which became the standard for later general newsmagazines. After Had¬ den’s death in 1929, Luce was long the magazine’s guiding force, and it reflected his moderately conservative political viewpoint. By the 1970s it had assumed a more neutral, centrist stance in its reportage. In addition to the U.S. circulation, editions are published in Canada, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific.
time-and-motion study Analysis of the time spent in going through the different motions of a job or series of jobs in the evaluation of indus¬ trial performance. Such studies were first instituted in offices and facto¬ ries in the U.S. in the early 20th century. They were widely adopted as a means of improving work methods by subdividing the different opera¬ tions of a job into measurable elements, and they were in turn used as aids in standardization of work and in checking the efficiency of workers and equipment.
time dilation In the theory of special relativity, the “slowing down” of a clock as perceived by an observer in relative motion with respect to that clock. Time dilation becomes noticeable only at speeds approaching that of light and has been accurately confirmed by the apparent increased life¬ time of unstable subatomic particles traveling at nearly the speed of light and by the precise timing of atomic clocks carried on airplanes. See also Lorentz-FitzGerald contraction.
Time of Troubles See Time of Troubles
Time Warner Inc. Largest media and entertainment conglomerate in the world. The corporation resulted from the merger of media giant Time Warner Inc. and the online company America Online, Inc., in 2001; origi¬ nally named AOL Time Warner, the corporation dropped AOL from its name in 2003. Major media outlets include the magazines Time , Sports Illustrated , and People and the cable and broadcast television networks HBO, CNN, TBS, and WB. From its start as a bulletin-board system in 1985, AOL grew to become the world’s largest Internet service provider by the mid 1990s. The Internet “stock bubble” of the late 1990s enabled it to acquire the much larger Time Warner Inc. See also Warner Bros.