Whittle, Sir Frank (b. June 1, 1907, Coventry, Warwickshire, Eng.—d. Aug. 8, 1996, Columbia, Md., U.S.) British aviation engineer and pilot who invented the jet engine. He obtained his first patent for a turbojet engine in 1930, and in 1936 he cofounded Power Jets Ltd. The outbreak of World War II spurred the British government to support Whit¬ tle’s work, and the first jet-powered aircraft took off in 1941. He was knighted in 1948 and awarded the Order of Merit in 1986.
Whitworth, Sir Joseph (b. Dec. 21, 1803, Stockport, Cheshire, Eng.—d. Jan. 22, 1887, Monte-Carlo, Monaco) British mechanical engi¬ neer. Working for Henry Maudslay, he devised a scraping technique for making a true plane surface. He followed this with a measuring machine and a system of accurate dimensional standards or master gauges to go with it, and screws with standardized threads (1841), among other inno¬ vations. His machine tools became internationally known for their accu¬ racy and quality.
WHO See World Health Organization
wholesaling Selling of merchandise to anyone other than a retail cus¬ tomer. The term may include sales to a retailer, wholesaler, broker, dis¬ tributor, or business enterprise. Wholesaling usually involves sales in quantity and at a cost significantly lower than the average retail price. It has become an important step in the supply chain since the introduction of mass production and mass marketing techniques in the 19th century. Without wholesalers, manufacturers would have to market their products directly to a huge number of customers at high unit costs, and buyers would have to deal with an inconveniently large number of suppliers.
Walt Whitman, photograph by Mathew Brady.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
2056 I whooping cough ► Wiesbaden
There are three major categories of wholesalers. Merchant wholesalers, the most important category, are independent businesses that buy mer¬ chandise in great quantities from manufacturers and resell it to retailers. Manufacturers’ sales branches are businesses founded by manufacturers to sell directly to retailers. Merchandise agents and brokers represent various manufacturers; they usually do not buy the merchandise they handle but instead arrange for shelf space and the display of merchandise. So-called warehouse stores sell large quantities of goods at near-wholesale prices. See also retailing.
whooping cough or pertussis Acute, very contagious childhood disease, typically with bouts of coughing followed by a long, loud inha¬ lation (whoop) and ending with mucus expulsion and often vomiting. Caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis, it initially resembles a cold with a short dry cough. Within one or two weeks, coughing bouts begin; this phase usually lasts four to six weeks. Serious complications include bronchopneumonia (pneumonia involving the bronchi), asphyxia, seizures, and signs of brain damage. Treatment is with antibiotics. The pertussis vaccine is usually combined with tetanus and diphtheria toxoids as part of routine childhood immunizations.
whooping crane Migratory North American bird ( Grus americana ) and one of the world’s rarest birds, on the verge of extinction. The tall¬ est North American bird, it is almost 5 ft (150 cm) tall and has a wing- spread of about 7 ft (210 cm). It is white with black-tipped wings, black legs, and a bare red face and crown.
Its shrill, whooping call can be heard for 2 miles (3 km). Almost extermi¬ nated in the early 20th century, it became the object of intensive con¬ servation efforts; by century’s end there were still fewer than 300 wild and captive individuals. See also SANDHILL CRANE.
Whorf VworfV Benjamin Lee
(b. April 24, 1897, Winthrop, Mass.,
U.S.—d. July 26, 1941, Wethers¬ field, Conn.) U.S. linguist. He worked professionally as a fire-prevention authority. The concept he developed (under Edward Sapir’s influence) of the equation of culture and language became known as the Whorf (or Sapir-Whorf) hypothesis. He maintained that a language’s structure tends to condition the ways its speakers think—for example, that the way a people views time and punctuality may be influenced by the types of verb tenses in its language. Whorf was also noted for his studies of Uto-Aztecan languages, especially Hopi, and Mayan hieroglyphic writing.
Whymper Yhwim-psrV Edward (b. April 27, 1840, London, Eng.—d. Sept. 16, 1911, Chamonix, Fr.) British mountaineer and artist. He became a mountaineer after making sketches for a book on the Alps. In 1865 he made the first ascent of the Matterhorn; an accident on the descent caused the death of four of his companions. His Scrambles Amongst the Alps (1871) and Travels Amongst the Great Andes (1892) describe his experiences and are illustrated with his own engravings.
Wicca Modem Western witchcraft movement. Some practitioners con¬ sider Wicca the religion of pre-Christian Europe, forced underground by the Christian church. That thesis is not accepted by historians, and mod¬ ern Wicca is usually dated to the work of Gerald B. Gardner (1884-1964) and Doreen Valiente (1922-1999), who, after the repeal of the last Witch¬ craft Act in England (1951), went public with their cult of witchcraft, which centered on a homed god of fertility and a great earth goddess. Gardner is credited with introducing the term Wicca. So-called “Dianic” Wicca focuses on the Goddess as the supreme being and usually excludes men. Wiccans share a belief in the importance of the feminine principle, a deep respect for nature, and a pantheistic and polytheistic worldview. They practice some form of ritual magic, almost always considered good or constructive. Some are solitary practitioners; others belong to covens.
Wichita Vwi-cho-.toV City (pop., 2000: 344,284), south-central Kansas, U.S. On the Arkansas River, the city was founded in 1864 as a trading post on the site of a Wichita Indian village; it developed with the Texas cattle trade along the Chisholm Trail and the rapid spread of agricultural settle¬ ment along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Co. In the 1870s
it was a major cattle-shipping centre. It developed as a centre of the air¬ craft industry in the 1920s. Aircraft construction continues; other eco¬ nomic activities include oil refining, grain processing and storage, and livestock marketing.
Wideman, John Edgar (b. June 14, 1941, Washington, D.C., U.S.) U.S. writer and educator. After graduating from the University of Penn¬ sylvania he became the second African American to receive a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University. He published his first novel, A Glance Away, in 1967. His first work of nonfiction was the acclaimed Brothers and Keepers (1984), in which he examines his relationship with his brother, who is serving a life sentence in prison. He won PEN/Faulkner Awards for Sent for You Yesterday (1983) and Philadelphia Fire (1990), a fictional account of the bombing of the militant black group MOVE combined with an examination of his relationship with his son, now in prison.
widgeon See wigeon
Wieland Yve-JantV Heinrich Otto (b. June 4, 1877, Pforzheim, Ger.—d. Aug. 5, 1957, W.Ger.) German chemist. He won a 1927 Nobel Prize for research on bile acids which showed that the three acids then isolated had similar structures and were also structurally related to cho¬ lesterol. He also found that different forms of nitrogen in organic com¬ pounds can be detected and distinguished from each other, an important contribution to structural organic chemistry. Wieland’s theory that oxida¬ tion in living tissues occurs through removal of hydrogen atoms, not addition of oxygen (see oxidation-reduction), was of great importance to physiology, biochemistry, and medicine.