Torricelli Uor-re-'chel-leV Evangelista (b. Oct. 15, 1608, Faenza, Romagna—d. Oct. 25, 1647, Florence) Italian physicist and mathemati¬ cian, inventor of the barometer. He served as secretary to Galileo during the last three months of the latter’s life and was appointed to succeed him at the Florentine Academy. Two years later, pursuing a suggestion by Galileo, he filled a glass tube 4 ft (1.2 m) long with mercury and inverted the tube into a dish. He observed that some of the mercury did not flow out and that the space above the mercury in the tube was a vacuum. After much observation, he concluded that the variation of the height of the mercury from day to day was caused by changes in atmospheric pressure. He never published his findings. His work in geometry aided in the even¬ tual development of integral calculus.
Torrijos \tor-'e-hos\ (Herrera), Omar (b. Feb. 13, 1929, Santiago de Veragua, Pan.—d. Aug. 1, 1981, near Penonome) Virtual dictator of Panama (1968-78). He entered the national guard in 1952 after military studies in Venezuela and the U.S., rose to the rank of general, and came
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Torshavn > total internal reflection I 1925
to power in 1968 in a coup d’etat. A nationalist and populist, he was one of the few Latin American heads of state to visit Fidel Castro in Cuba, though he suppressed leftist labour agitators and students at home. In 1977 he achieved his supreme goal when U.S. Pres. Jimmy Carter signed two treaties agreeing to transfer the Panama Canal and Canal Zone to Pana¬ manian sovereignty in 1999. He died in a plane crash while on a military inspection tour.
Torshavn \'t6rs-,haun\ Port town (pop., 2000: 16,673), capital of the Faeroe Islands, Denmark. Located on Strpmp Island, it was founded in the 13th century. During World War II the British occupied Torshavn as a defense against German forces in Denmark. It is home to about one-third of the population of the Faeroe Islands. Its main industries are fishing and knitwear.
torsion Vtor-shonV balance Device used to measure the gravitational acceleration at the Earth’s surface. It consists essentially of two small masses at different elevations that are supported at opposite ends of a beam. The latter is suspended from a wire that twists because the masses are affected differently by the force of gravity. When the wire is twisted, an optical system indicates the angle of deflection, and the torque, or twisting force, can be calculated. The torque is correlated with the gravi¬ tational force at the point of observation. Torsion balance may also refer to a device used in weighing, a type of equal-arm balance.
torsion bar Rod or bar that resists twisting (see torque) and has a strong tendency to return to its original position when twisted. In an automobile, a torsion bar is a long spring-steel element with one end held rigidly to the frame and the other end twisted by a lever connected to the axle. It thus provides a spring action for the vehicle.
torsk See cusk
tori' Wrongful act, other than a breach of contract, that injures another and for which the law permits a civil (noncriminal) action to be brought. Relief may be obtained in the form of damages or an injunction. The term derives from Latin tortum, meaning “something twisted, wrung, or crooked.” Assault, defamation, malpractice, negligence, nuisance, product liability, property damage, and trespass are all (apart from their potentially criminal and contractual aspects) torts.
tortoise Any of some 40 species (family Testudinidae) of slow-moving, terrestrial, herbivorous turtles, found in the Old and New Worlds but chiefly in Africa and Madagascar.
Tortoises have a high, domed shell, heavy elephantlike hind legs, and hard-scaled forelegs. The four North American species (genus Gopherus) have a brown shell, about 8-14 in.
(20-35 cm) long, and flattened fore¬ limbs adapted for burrowing. The common, or European, tortoise {Testudo graeca) has a shell about 7-10 in. (18-25 cm) long. Most spe¬ cies of giant tortoises on the Galapa¬ gos and other islands are now rare or extinct. One captive Galapagos tor¬ toise had a shell 4.25 ft (1.3 m) long and weighed 300 lbs (140 kg).
torture Infliction of intolerable physical or psychological pain. Torture has been used by governments throughout history for punishment, coer¬ cion, and intimidation and for extracting confessions and information. A common practice in ancient times, it was defended by Aristotle but elo¬ quently opposed by Cicero, Seneca, and St. Augustine. Beginning in the 12th century, torture was increasingly used in Europe; from the mid-14th through the 18th century it was a common part of the legal proceedings of most European countries. The Roman Catholic church supported its use by the Inquisition in cases of heresy. Common instruments of torture were the strappado (for repeatedly hoisting the body by the wrists behind the back and dropping it), the rack (for stretching the limbs and body), and the thumbscrew (for crushing the thumbs). By 1800 torture was ille¬ gal in many European countries, but it became common again in the 20th century, notably in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and it is still widely practiced in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. In 1984 the United Nations adopted an international convention against torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. By the early 21st
century some 130 countries were party to the convention. The belief that only sadists are capable of committing torture was challenged by a study in the 1960s that found that ordinary people could be easily persuaded to inflict pain on others.
Tory Member of a political group in England, especially in the 18th cen¬ tury. Originally an Irish term for an outlaw, the name was applied as a term of abuse to those who supported the hereditary right of James, the Catholic duke of York (later James II), to succeed to the throne of England. They were opposed by the Whigs in that struggle (1679), but the Tories later modified their doctrine of divine-right absolutism. They came to represent the resistance, mainly by the country gentry, to religious tolera¬ tion and foreign entanglements. The Tories’ political power diminished after Viscount Bolingbroke, a leading Tory, fled to France in 1715; Tory sentiment subsequently survived in the unsuccessful Jacobite movement. After 1784, William Pitt the Younger emerged as the leader of a new Tory party, representing the country gentry, merchants, and administrators. After 1815, the party gradually evolved into the Conservative Party, whose members are still referred to as Tories.
Tosa \'to-sa\ Historic region of the Japanese island of Shikoku. It dates at least to the Heian period, when Ki no Tsurayuki (8687-9457), editor of Japan’s first imperially commissioned poetry anthology, wrote a fictional diary drawing on his experiences as governor of Tosa. In 1571 it became a unified domain (han) whose daimyo opposed Tokugawa Ieyasu when he consolidated his control of Japan in the early 17th century; this historical enmity became important at the time of the Meiji Restoration (1868), when samurai from Tosa, like those from Satsuma and ChoshO, helped overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate. See also Itagaki Taisuke; Tokugawa period.
Toscanini V.tas-ko-'ne-neN, Arturo (b. March 25, 1867, Parma, Italy—d. Jan. 16, 1957, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Italian conductor. Tosca¬ nini entered a conservatory at age nine, studying cello, piano, and com¬ position. He began his professional life as a cellist. After substituting for an indisposed conductor in Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida (Buenos Aires, 1886), he conducted in various Italian opera houses, giving the premieres of / Pagliacci (1892) and La Boheme (1896). He was appointed musical direc¬ tor of La Scala, Milan, in 1898, and of the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, in 1908. Principally known for his readings of Verdi’s operas and Beethoven’s symphonies, he also gave remarkable performances of the music of Richard Wagner. Toscanini conducted the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra from 1928 to 1936. In 1930 he became the first non-German to conduct at Bayreuth, but he stopped per¬ forming in Germany to protest Nazi policies. The NBC Orchestra was formed for him in 1937, and he conducted it until his retirement in 1954.