WINCHELL

2093

WINDOM

Washington: Congressional Government: a Study in American Politics; The State: Elements of Politics; Division and Reunion; and History of the American People.

Win'chell, Alexander, a distinguished American geologist and author, was born at North East, Dutchess County, N. Y., Dec. 31, 1824, and died at Ann Arbor, Mich., Feb. 19, 1891. In 1847 he graduated from Wesleyan University, Middle-town, Conn., taught natural science afterwards, and for a time was president of Masonic Female University, Selma, Ala. In 1854 he became professor of physics and civil engineering in the University of Michigan, and in the following year was transferred to the chair of geology, zoology and botany there, which he held until 1873. Between 1873 and 1878 he held the same position at the University of Kentucky and a lectureship in geology at Vanderbilt University. In 1897 he was recalled to the University of Michigan as professor of geology and paleontology, a post which he retained for the remainder of his life. His published writings embrace Sketches of Creation, The Doctrine of Evolution, The Geology of the Stars, Reconciliation of Science and Religion, Pre-Adamites, Sparks from a Geologist's Hammer, World-Life: a Comparative Geology, Geological Excursions and Geological Studies.

Win'chester, Ky., county-seat of Clark County, on the Chesapeake and Ohio, Louisville and Nashville and Lexington and Eastern railroads, 18 miles east of Lexington. It is the seat, dating from 18Ŏ6, of Kentucky Wesleyan College (Methodist Episcopal South), while the city dates from 1792 and is in a good farming country. Its chief industries include the manufacture of furniture, carriages, spokes and rims, overalls, gasoline engines, confectionery and planing-mill products. Population 7,156.

Winchester, Mass., a town in Middlesex County, on the Boston and Maine Railroad, eight miles northwest of Boston, of which it in large degree is a suburban residence with a fine system of parks. Settled early in the 17th century, it has been known successively as Waterfield, Charleston Village, Woburn and, finally, as Winchester. Besides a state aviary and a Home for the Aged, it has a well-equipped public library. Its industries embrace machinery of various kinds, felt and leather goods, watch-hands etc. Population 9,3°9-

Winchester, Va., county-seat of Frederick County, on the Baltimore and Ohio and Cumberland Valley railroads, about 75 miles west-northwest of Washington. Historically it is noted for its importance in the Revolutionary and the Civil War. It possesses a number of educational institutions, including Valley Female College of the Methodist Episcopal Church

South; and it has National and Confederate cemeteries in the neighborhood. Besides its farming, lumbering and stock-raising, it is noted for its glove, leather, woolen, flour and paper works, besides bark-mills and an ice-plant. Population 5.76.5.

Wind'mill', a wheel driven by the wind for the purpose of obtaining power. Windmills have been used since the 12 th century in Europe. The European mill, sometimes called the Dutch mill from its extensive use in Holland for pumping purposes, usually consists of four inclined, radial arms, revolving on an axis nearly horizontal. These arms are covered with canvas, and the diameter of the wheel generally is very large. One is mentioned with a diameter of 150 feet, but a common diameter is about a third of this. These wheels are largely used for pumping water and for grinding grain. They have various schemes for setting them to face the wind, a common method in Germany being to rotate the whole tower on wheels. The windmill has been developed in the United States along different lines, and the American windmills are so superior to the older forms that now they practically control the market. The American windmill consists of a wheel with a great number of narrow, radial, inclined arms of wood or metal, the axis of the wheel being horizontal and the direction of the wheel being regulated by an arm carrying a vane. These wheels vary in diameter from ten to 30 feet; the largest sizes in ordinary winds develop as high as four H. P. The ordinary pumping-wheel develops less than one-quarter H. P. The number of hours that they run depends on local conditions. Wolff, who has written the best book on windmills, estimates an average of eight running hours a day for most parts of the United States. The number of windmills in use is very great, and the manufacture of them is a very large industry. One firm in the United States is said to make nearly 20,000 windmills annually. For small powers where constant and continuous service is not vital, as in pumping water, grinding feed etc., windmills are, according to Wolff, the cheapest power available.

Win'dom, William, an American politician and financier, was born at Waterford, Ohio, on May 10, 1827. After being admitted to the bar, he went to Minnesota and entered politics as a Congressman in 1858. He was regularly reelected for ten years, and was in his second term as United States senator when, in 1881, he was appointed secretary of the treasury in President Garfield's cabinet. On Garfield's death he resigned and was at once sent back to ths senate, having in the short time that he held his secretaryship gained the repu-