Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) British labour union. The Dockers’ Union (founded 1889) took the lead in the merger of 14 unions to form the TGWU in 1922. The union grew rapidly under the leadership of Ernest Bevin (1922-40). As a general union it was able to enroll workers excluded by the craft unions, and its membership included workers engaged in transportation industries (except the rail¬ roads) as well as in the automotive, construction, chemical, and textile industries. It exerted a strong influence on British labour policy and was the largest British union during much of the 20th century, reaching a peak of more than two million members in the 1970s, though its membership declined thereafter. See also Labour Party; Trades Union Congress.
transsexualism Self-identification with one sex by a person who has the external genitalia and secondary sexual characteristics of the other sex. Early in life, such a person adopts the behaviour characteristic of the opposite sex. Surgery and hormone therapy now allow permanent sex change, a procedure first performed in 1952. The male-to-female opera¬ tion is more common because the genital reconstruction is more satisfac¬ tory. The male transsexual’s penis and testes are removed and an artificial vagina created; breasts are created with implants or female sex hormones.
A four-speed manual transmission. Power from the rotating input shaft turns the countershaft (or layshaft), which meshes with all four forward gears and the reverse gear on the output shaft. Which gear drives the output shaft is determined by the positions of the synchronizer assemblies, which are controlled by the gearshift stick (here, first gear is engaged). The unengaged gears simply revolve around the out¬ put shaft without transmitting power.
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transubstantiation ► treaty I 1933
Female transsexuals may undergo mastectomy and hormone treatments to produce male secondary sexual characteristics, but attempts to create an artificial penis have not been satisfactory.
transubstantiation In Christianity, the change by which the bread and wine of the Eucharist become in substance the body and blood of Jesus, though their appearance is not altered. This transformation is thought to bring the literal truth of Christ’s presence to the participants. The doctrine was first elaborated by theologians in the 13th century and was incorpo¬ rated into documents of the Council of Trent. In the mid-20th century, some Roman Catholic theologians interpreted it as referring to a change of meaning rather than a change of substance, but in 1965 Paul VI called for the retention of the original dogma.
transuranium element Any of the chemical elements after uranium in the periodic table (with atomic numbers greater than 92). All are radio¬ active (see radioactivity), with half-lives ranging from tens of millions of years to fractions of a millisecond. Only two, neptunium (93) and pluto¬ nium (94), occur in nature, and only as traces in uranium ores as a result of neutron irradiation. Transuranium elements with atomic numbers through 112, along with 114 and 116, have been produced in laboratories. Each appears to resemble the elements above it in the periodic table; in particular, the actinides, thorium (90) through lawrencium (103), are simi¬ lar to the lanthanides, cerium (58) through lutetium (71). The naming of the transuranium elements has been fraught with controversy regarding which laboratory first made the discovery and should propose the name and whether elements should be named for living persons. See also Glenn Seaborg.
Transvaal \trans-'val\ formerly (1856-77, 1881-1902) South Afri¬ can Republic Former province, northeastern South Africa. Located between the Limpopo and Vaal rivers, the region was inhabited c. 1800 chiefly by various Bantu- speaking peoples. The Boers (Afrikaners) began migrating there during the Great Trek of the 1830s. They established the short-lived South African Republic in 1856. Discoveries of diamonds and gold deposits (1868-74) heightened British interest in the region, and the British annexed the republic in 1877. A Boer rebellion restored it in 1881. Further discovery of gold in 1886 brought more foreigners, who eventu¬ ally outnumbered the Boers. In 1895 Leander Starr Jameson attempted to incite them to overthrow the Boer government. In 1899 Transvaal joined with Orange Free State against Britain in the South African (Boer) War. It was taken in 1900, and in 1902, following the British victory, it became a crown colony. It was granted self-government in 1906 and joined the Union (now Republic) of South Africa in 1910. In 1994 the Transvaal was split into four provinces. The region is extremely rich in mineral and agricultural resources.
Transylvania Historic region, northwestern and central Romania. It comprises a plateau surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains and the Tran¬ sylvanian Alps. It formed the nucleus of the Dacian kingdom and was included in the Roman province of Dacia in the 2nd century ad. The Mag¬ yars (Hungarians) conquered the area at the end of the 9th century. When Hungary was divided between the Habsburgs and the Turks in the 16th century, Transylvania became an autonomous principality within the Otto¬ man Empire. It was attached to Habsburg-controlled Hungary at the end of the 17th century. Transylvania was the scene of severe fighting in the Hungarian revolution against Austria in 1848. When Austria-Hungary was defeated in World War I, the Romanians of Transylvania proclaimed the land united with Romania. Hungary regained the northern portion during World War II, but the entire region was ceded to Romania in 1947.
Trapp family Austrian singers. Maria Augusta Kutschera (1905-87), the family’s best-known member, was an orphan and novitiate in a Bene¬ dictine convent in Salzburg. Later, as a governess, she won the hearts of the seven children of the widower Baron Georg von Trapp (18807-1947) and of the baron himself. They married in 1927, had three children, and later began singing German and liturgical music under the Reverend Franz Wasner, with whom the family fled in 1938 from Nazi-dominated Aus¬ tria to Italy, and finally to Stowe, Vt., U.S. They toured the world to great acclaim, disbanding in 1955. Their story was the subject of the musical The Sound of Music (1959; film, 1965).
trapshooting Shooting sport with moving targets. A shotgun (usually 12-gauge) is used. The targets are clay disks (called pigeons) that are sprung into the air from a trap. A later variant is skeet shooting. Trapshoot¬ ing’s origins date to the 18 th century, when marksmen shot at live pigeons released from cages or box traps. The modern clay-pigeon variety has
been included in Olympic Games competition since 1900. A single trap throws 25 targets at varying angles; each competitor fires four 25-target rounds.
Trasimeno X.tra-ze-'ma-noV Lake Lake, Umbria, central Italy. The larg¬ est lake of the Italian peninsula, it has an area of 49 sq mi (128 sq km) and is shallow, with a maximum depth of 20 ft (6 m). It is fed by small streams and has an artificial subterranean outlet (opened 1898) to the Tiber River. In 217 bc Hannibal defeated a Roman army led by Flaminius there in the Second Punic War. In World War II it was the scene of severe fight¬ ing (1944) between the British and German armies.
Travancore Vtra-v3n-,kor\ Former princely state, southwestern India. Now part of Kerala state, it was part of the kingdom of Kerala in the early centuries ad. In the 11th century it fell under the Cola empire; the Hindu kings of the Vijayanagar empire held it briefly in the 16th century, after which it came under Muslim rule. In the mid-18th century it became the independent state of Travancore; then it was under British protection from 1795. After Indian independence, it merged with Cochin to form the state of Travancore-Cochin; boundaries were redrawn, and it was renamed Ker¬ ala in 1956.