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London weignt. We were induced, moreover, to preserve the troy weight, because all the coinage has been uniformly regulated by it; and all medical prescriptions or formula always have been estimated by troy weight, under a peculiar subdivision, which the college of physicians have expressed themselves most anxious to preserve." It was resolved, therefore, to continue the use of troy weight, and also, on account of the accuracy of the troy standard, to raise the avoirdupois weight from this basis. "We found," continue the commissioners, "the avoirdupois weight, by which all heavy goods have been for a long time weighed (probably derived from avoirs (averia), the ancient name for goods or chattels, and poids, weight), to be universally used throughout the kingdom. This weight,

27 grains 16 drams

however, seems not to have been preserved with such scrupulous accuracy as troy weight, by which more precious articles have been weighed; but we have reason to believe that the pound cannot differ by more than one, two or three grains, from 7000 grains troy. It, therefore, occurred to us, that we should be offering no violence to this system of weights, if we declared that 7000 grains troy should be hereafter considered as the pound avoirdupois." It was accordingly enacted that, from January 1st, 1826, the standard brass weight of one pound troy weight, made in 1758, should be the genuine

standard measure of weight, and be denominated the imperiai standard troy pound, containing 5700 grains, and that 7000 such grains should be a pound avoirdupois.

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= 4374 7000

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This weight is used in almost all commercial transactions, and in the common dealings of life.

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A pack of wool contains 240 lbs. A truss of hay weighs 56 lbs., and of straw 36. stone of glass is 5 lbs.; a seam 24 stone.

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structed in decimal progression, from 10,000 grains downwards to one hundredth of a grain. By comparing the number of grains in the avoirdupois and troy pound and ounce respectively, it appears that the troy pound is less than the avoirdupois, in the proportion of fourteen to seventeen nearly; but the troy ounce is greater than the avoirdupois, in the proportion of seventy-nine to seventy-two nearly. The carat, used for weighing diamonds, is 3 grains. The term, however, when used to express the fineness of gold, has a relative meaning only. Every mass of alloyed gold is supposed to be divided into twenty-four equal parts: thus the standard for coin is twenty-two carats fine; that is, it consists of twenty-two parts of pure gold, and two parts of alloy. What is called the new standard, used for watch-cases, &c., is eighteen carats fine.

3. Ancient Weights.—It is well known that this subject is involved in considerable difficulty. The following table gives the estimates of different authors, in regard to some of the ancient weights.

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English Troy Grains.

8.2 Christiani.
9.1 Arbuthnot.
51.9 Chr.
54.6 Arb.
69. Paucton.
3,892 Chr.
5,189 Chr.
5,464 Arb.
6,900 Pauc.
6,994 Arb.

enna.

WEIGL, Joseph, a distinguished opera composer, born in 1766, at Eisenstadt, in Hungary. In his fifteenth year, he composed a small opera. Gluck and Salieri aided him, and he became director of the Italian opera. In 1807, he was in Milan, where his Il Rivale di se Stesso attracted much attention. He now resides in ViHis genius is more adapted to the agreeable and gay than to the grand. Some of his most admired productions are, La Principessa d'Amalfi; Giulietta e Pierotto; I solitarj; L'Amor marinaro ; L'Uniforme; and, in a different style, his Orphan Asylum (1808); Swiss Family (1809); the Hermit of the Alps; Francisca de Foix; the Fall of Goldau (1812). He has also written other operas, besides some oratorios.

WEIMAR, SAXE (in German, SachsenWeimar); a sovereign grand-duchy of Germany, lying on the south of the Prussian government of Erfurt, and bordering on Gotha. It is composed of two parts or provinces, separated from each otherthe principality of Weimar, and the principality of Eisenach, with a population of 226,628 souls, on 1400 square miles. The province of Weimar comprehends the duchies of Weimar and Jena, with a part of the principality of Altenburg, the chief part of the circle of Neustadt, and the petty districts of Ilmenau, Oldisleben, and Alstadt, which lie scattered in Thuringia. The province of Eisenach lies on the west side of Gotha, and to the east of Hesse-Cassel. (See Eisenach.) The surface of the province of Weimar is agreeably diversified; the soil fertile, producing corn sufficient for consumption; and it has good pastures, which feed numerous flocks of sheep; but large cattle are less attended to. The province of Eisenach is more mountainous and less fertile. The revenue is about $800,000. The government is a limited monarchy, administered by the grand-duke, with a representative constitution, granted by the duke May 5, 1816, which established a diet composed of deputies from the nobles, citizens and peasants, and guarantied the freedom of Roman the press. The grand-duke of SaxeWeimar-Eisenach has the twelfth vote Roman in the German diet, in conjunction with the other princes of the Ernestine line (see Saxons), and one vote by himself in the plenum. The grand-duchy has one university, that of Jena (q. v.), with (in 1829) 619 students, two gymnasia, and numerous inferior institutions for education. The religion is Lutheran.

Talent, 60 minæ cwt. English.

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Grains.
146.5 Arb.

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6,425
8,326

66

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51.9
oz. Chr.

oz. Arb.

54 Pauc.

415.1 Chr.
437.2 Arb.
431.2 Pauc.

Pound 12 Roman ounces.

WEIMAR; capital of the grand duchy, on the Ilm; 94 miles west of Dresden; lon. 11° 21' E.; lat. 50° 59 N.; population, 9917. It is situated in a pleasant valley, with a woody mountain to the north, and hills of little elevation to the south and east, while the river winds along the south side of the town. The prospect is agreeable, particularly in summer, when the gardens surrounding the town appear to encircle it with foliage. The houses are built in a plain and somewhat antique style. The grand ducal residence is a large castle, finely situated to the east of the town, with a park extending to the banks of the Ilm, and open to the public. The Belvidere, another residence of the reigning family, is situated on a delightful eminence to the south. The town contains two Lutheran churches, a work-house, an hospital, a gymnasium, a seminary for school-masters, an academy for drawing, painting and sculpture, a theatre, erected in 1825, an extensive institution connected with the study of geography and statistics, and a public library of upwards of 130,000 volumes. Weimar is a town of literary celebrity, and long held the same rank in Germany, for literature, as Dresden has for the fine arts; and, owing to the liberal patronage of the court, a number of the best writers of the last and present age have either been educated or residents here. In the early years of the present century, there were residing here more than twenty writers of note, among whom were Schiller, Göthe, Herder, Wieland and Kotzebue; the last of whom was a native.

WEIMAR, Anna Amalia, duchess of Saxe. (See Amalia.)

WEIMAR, Charles Augustus, grand duke of Saxe, born in 1756, and died in 1828, may well boast of having done great things in a little state. He was educated by his mother Amalia (q. v.), who-first collected the lights of learning in the little court of Weimar. The young prince was carefully instructed by able men, among whom was Wieland, and, after travelling in France and Switzerland, assumed the reins of government in 1775. During his reign of fifty-three years, he was not only the father of his people, but the patron of learning and the arts. Göthe, Herder, Wieland, Schiller, von Voigt, von Einsiedel, von Knebel, Musäus, and others, were among the ornaments of his court; and the university of Jena experienced his patronage. In 1816, he granted his people a representative constitution. The jubilee of his accession to

the government was celebrated, in 1825, with delight by his grateful subjects.-He was succeeded by his son Charles Frederic, born in 1783, who married a sister of Alexander, emperor of Russia.-His second son, Charles Bernard, born in 1792, is major-general in the service of the king of Netherlands. He married the sister of the duke of Saxe-Meiningen, another of whose sisters is the wife of William IV of England. He served under Napoleon, and obtained the cross of the legion of honor on the field of Wagram. In 1825, he travelled through the U. States, and has published an account of his travels, which has been translated into English-Travels in the United States (Philadelphia, 18281 WEIMAR, Bernard, duke of. (See Bernard.)

WEINSBERG; a town in the circle of the Neckar, in Würtemberg, on the Sulm, with 1720 inhabitants. The ruins of the castle of Weibertreu (Wives-faith) recall to mind its siege, in 1140, when the emperor Conrad III granted free egress to the women only, who were allowed to carry off the best of their possessions on their back. The women came out, each carrying her husband on her back. The emperor pardoned the men. (See Guelphs.)

WEISHAUPT, Adam, born at Ingolstadt, in 1748, studied at the same place, became, in 1772, professor extraordinarius of law, and, in 1775, professor of natural and canon law. As the professorship of canon law had, until then, always been given to ordained clergymen, the elergy attacked him, particularly as he, though a pupil of the Jesuits, showed himself their bitterest enemy, after the abolition of their order. He now formed a connexion with several able men, and strove to gain them over to his system of cosmopolitism; but, as he went to work openly, the public authorities could not be made to believe that his designs were dangerous. The Jesuits, therefore, attacked him the more bitterly in private. As a jurist, he obtained much fame: his lectures attracted students belonging to all the faculties; and be made use of this opportunity to propagate his cosmopolitism, and for this purpose founded the order of Illuminati (q. v.), which afterwards became so famous. Weishaupt lost his professorship, in 1785, in consequence of the persecutions of the Catholic clergy and his own imprudence, and went to Gotha, where he published several works-1. Complete History of the Persecution of the Illuminati in Bavaria; 2 System of the Illuminati; 3. Description

of the Illuminati; 4. Pythagoras, or Considerations on the Secret Art of Ruling; 5. Materials for the Advancement of the Knowledge of the World and of Men.

WEISS, Christian Samuel, professor of mineralogy in the university of Berlin, director of the royal mineralogical museum, member of the academy of sciences at Berlin, &c., one of the most distinguished mineralogists of the age, was born in 1780, at Leipsic, studied at the school and the university of his native city, and at the mining academy (q. v.) of Freiberg, in Saxony, where he was one of the most distinguished pupils of Werner. He subsequently made mineralogical journeys, examined the extinct volcanoes in the south of France, visited Paris, and attended the lectures of the celebrated Haüy (q. v.), then delivered private lectures in Leipsic, and, in 1809, was made professor ordinarius of natural philosophy at the same place, on which occasion he bublicly defended his dissertation De indagando Formarum Crystallinarum Charactere Geometrico principali. In this treatise, which he subsequently continued, the principles of a division of all the forms of crystals into certain systems are found. In 1811, he was made professor of mineralogy at the university of Berlin. He has formed, already, a number of good mineralogists, and developed the mathematical part of mineralogy according to a very natural method. In 1813, he wrote a treatise on the Natural Division of the Systems of Crystallization, printed in the Transactions of the academy of Berlin (of which he became a member in 1813) for 1814 and 1815. Mohs (q. v.) was also subsequently led to adopt such a division as the basis of all crystallography. Besides the writings already mentioned, he has written a series of treatises in the Transactions of the academy, and the society for the promotion of the natural sciences, in Berlin. His system of minerals is a natural one, in which the correct determination of the species and genus is the principal point. Though he adopts the form as a fundamental principle in determining the species, he, nevertheless, does not exclude the results of chemical investigation. As a geologist, he early adopted views of his own, and, with von Buch and others, believed, contrary to the opinion of Werner, that there are internal powers which have determined the character of the surface of the globe, and changed the mountain layers that previously existed.

WEISSE, Christian Felix, a writer who

has done much for the improvement of children, was born Feb. 8, 1726, at Annaberg, in the Saxon Erzgebirge. He went, in 1745, to the university of Leipsic, where he studied philology. There he became acquainted with Klopstock, Cramer, the Schlegels, and others. With Lessing he formed an intimate friendship, and wrote, in connexion with him, for the German theatre. In 1759, he went, as tutor of a young count, to Paris. He afterwards produced songs and other poems, plays, &c., and, in 1760, his Library of Polite Learning and the Fine Arts. In 1762, he was appointed tax- - gatherer, which office he held till his death. After 1774, he ceased to write for the stage, and chiefly turned his attention to works for children. His Songs for Children, and his A B C Book were received with great applause. In 1775, he began his Children's Friend, which, within six years, went through five editions; and there are few Germans whose youth has not been delighted and improved by this book. His Correspondence of the Family of the Children's Friend was a continuation of this. He died in 1804. He has described himself with much candor in his Autobiography, edited by E. C. Weisse and S. G. Frisch (Leipsic, 1806).

WELCKER, Frederic Theophilus, professor of archeology in the university of Bonn, was born at Grünberg, in HesseDarmstadt, in 1784. He studied at Giessen, and, in 1806, went to Rome, where he enjoyed the personal instruction of Zoëga (q. v.), which determined the character of his subsequent pursuits. In 1819, he published Zoëga's Life, Collection of his Letters, &c. (Göttingen, 2 vols.), a worthy monument to the memory of the distinguished Dane. His diligent study of the classics, and of the plastic remains of antiquity, is very apparent in his works, in which, sometimes, as in the works of Zoëga, the abundance of the matter is productive of obscurity. 1809, he was appointed professor extraordinarius of archæology and Greek Literature at Giessen. In 1816, he was made professor at Göttingen. Since 1819, he has been one of the most distinguished professors of Bonn. Among his writings are the following:-Comedies of Aristophanes; On the Hermaphrodites of ancient Art, a treatise published in the Studies of Daub and Creuzer (1808, 4 vols.), with which he began a series of instructive antiquarian essays, published in Zoëga's Bassi Relievi of Rome (Giessen, 1811), Zoëga's Treatises (Göttingen, 1817),

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and in the Journal for the History and Explanation of Ancient Art (3 numbers, 1817 and 1818). Among his strictly philological works are his Fragmenta Alemani Lyrici (Giessen, 1815); Hipponactis et Ananii Fragmenta (Göttingen, 1816); De Erinna et Corinna Poetriis, in the Meletem. (2d vol.) of Creuzer; and his Theognidis Fragmenta (Bonn, 1826); and particularly the excellent edition prepared by him, in connexion with Frederic Jacobs, of Philostratus and Callistratus (Philostrati Imagines et Callistrati Statua; Leipsic, 1823). Hermann (q. v.) has opposed his views on the trilogy of Eschylus, given in his Prometheus of Eschylus (1824), on account of which he wrote a supplement to that treatise in 1826. Another work, On a Cretan Colony in Thebes, the Goddess Europa and Cadmus (Bonn, 1824), is rich in the results of well-directed investigation. He was suspected, for some time, by the Prussian government, of being concerned in the liberal movements; and his papers were sealed up and taken from him, but, after some time, were restored.

WELD. (See Wold.)

WELDING is the intimate union produced between the surfaces of two malleable metals, when heated almost to fusion and hammered. This union is so strong that when two bars of metal are properly welded, the place of junction is as strong, relatively to its thickness, as any other part of the bar. Only two of the old metals are capable of firm union by welding, namely, platina and iron. The same property belongs to the newly-discovered metals potassium and sodium. To weld bar iron to another piece of iron requires a heat equal to 8.877 Fahr.

Welding Heat, in smithery; a degree of heat given to iron, &c., sufficient to make any two bars or pieces of iron unite by a few strokes of the hammer, and form one piece.

WELL, in naval affairs; an apartment formed in the middle of a ship's hold, to enclose the pumps from the bottom to the lower deck. Its use is to defend the pumps from damage, and prevent the entrance of ballast, &c., which would otherwise choke the tubes in a short time, and render the pumps incapable of service. By means of this enclosure, the artificers may, likewise, more readily descend into the hold to examine or repair the pumps, as occasion requires.

WELLAND CANAL. (See Inland Navigation.)

WELLESLEY, Richard Colley Wellesley, marquis of, eldest son of the earl of

Mornington, was born in 1760, and educated first at Eton and afterwards at Oxford, where he was distinguished for his classical attainments. In 1784, he succeeded to his father's title, and next year was returned member of parliament for Beeralston, in Devonshire, and, having attached himself to Mr. Pitt, was united in the commission of the treasury. A financial speech which he made in the house of commons having attracted considerable notice, he became a favorite of the king, and at the next election was returned for New Windsor, which was called the king's borough. He was also made a commissioner for India affairs. In 1797, he was created an English baron, by the title of baron Wellesley, and was nominated to the high office of governor-general of India, for which country he immediately sailed. After his arrival there, he soon began to act with vigor. The period was, indeed, a critical one. Bonaparte had accomplished the conquest of Egypt, and was supposed to meditate an attack on the Indian possessions of England, in which the French encouraged Tippoo Saib, the sultan of Mysore, to assist. In this emergency, the first step taken by lord Wellesley, was to secure and fortify the island of Perim, which commands the entrance of the straits of Babelmandel; the next was to open a negotiation with Tippoo, to induce him to remain neutral. The sultan, however, was so elated by the prospect of such formidable aid as would enable him to subdue or humble the British, that he treated the overtures of his lordship with neglect. Lord Wellesley determined, therefore, to strike an immediate blow against him; and, accordingly, the army under general Harris was ordered to advance rapidly towards Seringapatam. After a siege of a month, the capital of Mysore was taken by assault; the sultan was slain (see Seringapatam, and Tippoo), and his dominions were partitioned. For this service, his lordship was raised to the dignity of an Irish marquis. In 1801, he despatched a considerable force up the Red sea, to assist in wresting Egypt from the power of the French. He next turned the British arms against the Mahrattas, and, after a hard struggle, conquered the whole country between the Jumna and the Ganges, and compelled Scindiah and the rajah of Berar to make peace. (See Mahrattas.) In 1805, he was recalled, at his own request, with a pension of £5000, and replaced by lord Cornwallis. The opponents of lord Wellesley censured his administration as

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