WALKING-WHEEL. 



WAR, SCIENCE OF. 



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illegitimatiou, Jiis nest daughter, Elizabeth. Kacli of them in suc- 

 cession had only been heiress presumptive, yet they bore the title, 

 being then next in succession to the crown. 



The titles now borne by the eldest son of the sovereign as heir of the 

 crowna of England and Scotland, are " Prince of Wales and Earl of 

 Chester, Duke of Cornwall and Rothsay, Earl of Carrick, Barou of 

 Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Great Steward of Scotland." 



(Selden's Titlet of Honour, part ii. c. 5; Connack's Account of the 

 /',;( of Wala, Svo. 1751.) 



WALKING-WHEEL. A mechanical contrivance by means of 

 which the dead weight of men, or animals, acting upon one side of a 

 wheel by walking upwards, is made to act as the motive power of the 

 machine to which it is applied. It is frequently used, in quarrying 

 operations, or in agricultural districts, where labour is cheap ; but in 

 large towns it ia rarely the case that the wheel-cranes can be advan- 

 tageously employed, because in those localities artificial sources of 

 power, or the more complicated adaptations of machinery, are found to 

 be more economical than the employment of the dead weight of human 

 beings. The walking-wheels were, however, much used in engineering 

 and architecture in the last century, and they are retained at the 

 present day in the quarries around Paris ; but the tendency of modern 

 practice is unquestionably to lead to their abandonment in favour of 

 more perfect mechanical contrivances. 



The walking-wheel used by Peyronnet at the bridge of Orleans is a 

 good illustration of this class of engines. It consisted of an upright 

 post, or pivot, supported by a strong framework of timber, bearing, 

 upon a metal pivot at its head, an inclined beam, projecting on one 

 side to form the arm of the pulley, and on the other to support the 

 windlass and the walking-wheel. The weights upon either side of 

 the pivot were arranged in such wise that they balanced one another 

 as nearly as possible when the machine was in work ; and the motion 

 WAS given by the movement of the men walking in the interior of the 

 wheel. The power exercised, therefore, in these engines depends upon 

 the ratio of the radius of the men's path to the radius of the axle, and 

 upon the weight of the men employed ; and as in quarrying operations 

 it is possible to increase the diameter of the walking- wheels to almost 

 any dimension which may be desired, they are usually made of great 

 size. Peyronnet made his wheels about 12 feet 9 inches in diameter ; 

 near Paris they are sometimes made of from 1 6 feet to ] 8 feet in 

 diamuter. Generally speaking the men walk on the inside of the 

 wheel ; but occasionally they tread upon, and hold by, rounds placed 

 upnu the periphery of the wheel ; in either case it is essential to provide 

 means by which the motion should be regulated and the men may be 

 prevented from making false steps. If the load at the extremity of 

 the arm should at any time, for instance, exceed the weight of the 

 counterbalancing machinery, there would be a danger of its over- 

 powering the men and of causing the wheel to run backwards ; the 

 consequences of such an accident would be, in all probability, fatal to 

 the men employed ; and it is therefore essential to bear in mind that 

 the useful range of the use of walking-cranes must be limited to the 

 narrow bounds of the weights on the respective sides of the machinery. 

 Walking-wheels are seldom used, even in rude districts, when the 

 weight to be raised exceeds four tons. 



Animal power is occasionally applied to. walking-wheels by making 

 horses, donkeys, and even dogs, move in them ; but all these animals 

 exercise so much greater power when pulling against a cullaj* in a 

 horizontal direction, that they are more commonly and more advan- 

 tageously employed in horizontal mills than in the vertical walking- 

 wheels. The old-fashioned turnspit wheels formerly in use in mediaeval 

 kitchens afford familiar illustrations of this class of machinery. 



The tread-wheels used for the punishment of offenders are, in fact, 

 walking-wheels ; but in them the wheels are designedly so balanced 

 that the mere weight of the prisoners placed upon the boards causes 

 the wheels to revolve, and thus to bring in succession the various 

 boards under the feet of the men, who are compelled to tread upon 

 each of these boards, unless they prefer receiving very heavy and 

 painful blows. No use is made of the power thus exerted, and it 

 seems to be one of the most painful considerations connected with this 

 mode of punishment, that the men feel and know that they are 

 working in vain. 



(Peyronnet, Nourcl Architecture ffydrauliquf ; Borgnis, Traitl complet 

 tie Mecanique^) 



WALNUT, ECONOMICAL USES OF. The walnut tree, though not 

 go valuable as many other trees growing in this country, subserves a 

 great number of useful purposes. The majority of timber trees do not 

 yield fruit palatable to man ; the majority of fruit trees do not yield 

 timber of any considerable size j but the walnut yields both. 



AValnut-wood ia white in young trees ; but in the older varieties, the 

 wood ia solid, compact, veined, and of a brownish colour, slightly 

 haded with lighter brown and black. It was the wood most highly 

 valued for the best kinds of furniture before the introduction of 

 mahogany; and many old mansions contain fine specimens of the work 

 thus produced, exhibiting great beauty of grain, polish, and pattern. 

 Walnut-wood is found very useful for press screws, wooden shoes, 

 clogi, musical instruments, gun-stocks, turnery ware, coach-making, 

 wheel-making. It is preferred to all other kinds of wood for the 

 stocks of muskets and rifles : in 1806 no less than 12,000 walnut trees 

 were required for musket stocks for the British army ; this led to a 



great rise iu price, which in its turn led to a great increase in tlio 

 planting of waluut trees in England. 



Of the use of the fruit of the walnut as food, little need be said 

 here. In some countries the nuts are regarded as a food, in others as 

 a luxury. In a young and green state the whole fruit is pickled, the 

 pulpy husk as well as the undeveloped nut or kernel. Besides the 

 pickling, the French adopt a mode of preserving the green fruit ; 

 they also make a prepared dish from the very young kernels, and a 

 conserve brilfe of kernels in a dried state. Large quantities of walnut 

 oil are obtained from the fruit. The fruit is gathered, the husk re- 

 moved, and the kernels are kept dry throughout the winter. The 

 mucilage has by that time been converted into oil. The nuts are 

 cracked with a small mallet ; the fragments of hard shell are carefully 

 removed, and the soft kernels are crushed under a millstone into a 

 kind of oily paste. This paste is put into strong linen bags and pressed ; 

 the best walnut oil is obtained from it. The residue is taken from tho 

 bags, moistened with warm water, heated in a copper, replaced in tho 

 bags and pressed a second time; oil of an inferior quality is thus 

 obtained. Walnut oil, largely made in France and Italy, is used as a 

 substitute for olive oil at the table, for almond oil in medicine, and 

 for whale oil in lamps. Artists employ it in the preparation of white 

 and delicate colours, on account of its limpidity and quick drying. It 

 is used in France as an ingredient in copper-plate printing ink ; and 

 some authorities state that the backs of prints for which this kind of 

 ink has been employed do not turn yellow so quickly as under the 

 influence of the ordinary English ink. The marc, or oil-cake, remaining 

 from the oil-pressure, is used in some country districts as a material 

 for candles, and in more as a fattening diet for sheep, swine, and 

 poultry. The husks of the unripe fruit readily yield a dark dye a 

 fact rendered evident by the state of the hands of walnut-peelers. 

 Sometimes the flooring of rooms is dyed to a dark colour, by boiling 

 walnut husks to a paste, strewing this paste in a layer on the floor, and 

 allowing it so to remain till dry. 



The walnut tree in spring will yield, by incision of the trunk, a sap, 

 which in some parts of Asia is evaporated into a cheap substitute for 

 sugar ; and a kind of wine may also be distilled from it. A liquor, 

 obtained by boiling the roots of the tree before the rising of tin; sap, is 

 used as a brown dye for the face by gypsies and theatrical performers. 

 The leaves, and the bark of the young shoots, may iu like manner bo 

 made to yield a brown dye. 



Considered in reference to fuel, walnut- wood ranks almost on a level 

 with sycamore ; it burns with a violet flame. It does not take a high 

 rank as a material for charcoal. Potash may be obtained by burning 

 the leaves. Nearly all parts of the tree the fruit, the bark, the root, 

 the wood, the sap have been brought into requisition for medicinal 

 purposes, 



WALTZ ( from Waken, Germ, to roll), a gay dance, in triple time, 

 and executed by two persons, who almost embracing, rapidly turn 

 round on an axis of their own, while moving quickly in a circle whose 

 radius is from ten to twelve feet, according to the dimensions of the 

 room. 



WAPENTAKK (from the Saxon viaepcn, arms, and toe, touch, or 

 bctach, yield) is a term which prevails in Yorkshire, and indicates a 

 territorial division like the hundred of other counties. [SHIRE.] The 

 word is derived from the habit which our Saxon ancestors had of 

 attending with their weapons the meetings of their tribes, whether 

 convened for the administration of justice or to decide on peace or war. 

 This circumstance, inseparable from the assembly, gave a namo to the 

 meeting and to the district whose inhabitants were convened. Various 

 explanations, all however connected with this habit, are given to tho 

 last syllable. By some it is supposed to mean the tourh or rustling of 

 their arms, by which the assembly was wont to signify its opinion of 

 the matters submitted to it ; by others the acceptance by the lord of 

 his tenants' arms in token of their submission to him. These are the 

 two solutions quoted by Spelman. Others, however, say that the word 

 denotes the custom which the vassals had of touch ing the spear of the 

 lord as a mark of homage ; and this seems to be the explanation 

 most usually adopted. (Spelman, Wapentachium et Wtepenyetackium ; 

 Cowell.) 



WAR, SCIENCE OF. The science of war has been divided by 

 military writers into Strategy and Tactics, and sometimes into Grand 

 and Kleraentary Tactics. Under STBATKGY and TACTICS we havu 

 defined what are the limits of those divisions, and given the general 

 principles which govern strategic operations ; as also some of the prin- 

 cipal definitions, such as Base of Operations, Lines of Operations, 

 Interior Lines, &c. It is, therefore, unnecessary to recur to these 

 further than to recapitulate the main principles which are or should 

 be the basis of all militaiy operations, and which, though often neg- 

 lected when stated, appear self-evident truisms. These general prin- 

 ciples are : to bring the mass of the forces successively into collision 

 with portions of the enemy ; to operate as much as possible on his 

 communications without exposing your own ; and, thirdly, with a view 

 of being superior at the point of collision, to act on interior lines. 

 [STRATEGY.] These principles must be borne in mind in making all 

 military combinations, whether for a campaign or on the day of battle ; 

 and such combinations will be more or less good as these principles 

 are more or less carried out. 



In Europe, an army while in tho field can draw much of. it* support 



