80 



WINTER WIRE OF LAPLAND. 



MX hundred men killed, and eight hundred wound- 

 ed. The loss of the British was also severe : 

 some British vessels were sunk. De Winter re- 

 ceived in England the honour due to his courage 

 arid talents. He was exchanged some months 

 after; and a court-martial declared that he had 

 gloriously sustained the honour of the Batavian re- 

 public. In 1798, he was sent, as minister of his 

 republic, to that of France, where he remained in 

 this capacity until 1802, when he received tin- 

 command of an expedition intended to act against 

 Algiers. He cruised for some months on the Bar- 

 hary coast, and at last concluded a treaty with 

 Tripoli. Louis Bonaparte, when king of Holland, 

 made De Winter commander-in-chief of all the 

 forces by sea and land. When Holland was united 

 with France, Napoleon made him grand-officer of 

 the legion of honour, and general-superintendent 

 of the coasts of the North sea. In July, 1811, he 

 gave him the command of the forces assembled at 

 the Texel ; but the fatigues of his new station 

 ruined his health. He went to Paris, where he 

 died June 2, 1812. His remains were deposited in 

 the Pantheon. 



WINTER, PETEB VON, a distinguished composer 

 of vocal music, was born at Manbeim, in 1754, and 

 was the son of a soldier. At the age of ten years, 

 he was appointed a member of the orchestra of 

 the elector. In 1775, he was director of the or- 

 chestra at Manheim, and subsequently at Munich. 

 In 1780, he went to Vienna. In 1782, his first 

 opera, Helen and Paris, was performed at Munich. 

 In 1790, he went to Italy, where he was received 

 with great favour. The first opera which he wrote 

 in Italy was Cato in Utica, first performed in 

 Venice in 1791. In 1795 and 1796, he went to 

 Prague and Vienna. At the latter place, he wrote 

 his most celebrated opera, the Sacrifice Interrupted. 

 In 1802, he visited France and England. In Paris, 

 he composed Tamerlane ; in London, Calypso, 

 Castor and Pollux, Proserpine and Zaire. He also 

 composed many pieces of church music, among 

 which the requiem for the funeral of Joseph II. 

 is distinguished ; also a Miserere. Among his pro- 

 fane cantatas, his Timotheus, or the power of 

 Tones, is particularly famous. He died in 1825, 

 at Munich. His operas, oratorios, and other pieces 

 of vocal and instrumental music, are too numerous 

 to be given here. 



WINTERBURGER, JOHN, established the first 

 printing-press in Vienna, and cast the types him- 

 self. During seventeen years, he worked alone, 

 but subsequently took an assistant. He published 

 numerous editions towards the end of the fifteenth 

 and beginning of the sixteenth centuries ; but the 

 copies have become very rare. 



WINTERFELDT, HANS CHARLES VON, a ge- 

 neral of Frederic the great, was born in 1707, and 

 entered the service in his sixteenth year. Frederic 

 made him a major and his aid-de-camp, after his 

 accession to the throne. In 1740, he was sent to 

 Petersburg to prevent the Russian cabinet from 

 taking part in the first Silesian war. He returned 

 to the army, distinguished himself at Glogau and 

 Mollwitz, and was made coloneL After his vic- 

 tory over the Hungarians at Schlawentiz, April 11, 

 1745, he was made major-general. He took part 

 in the principal battles of that war. Previous to 

 the third Silesian war, certain papers had been ob- 

 tained from the archives of Dresden, by the treach- 

 ery of a clerk. These disclosed the projects of 

 Frederic's enemies ; and, in consequence of Winter- 



feldt's advice, the king anticipated his enemies by 

 the immediate commencement of hostilities. He 

 was subsequently made lieutenant-general, and dis- 

 tinguished himself in many battles in the seven 

 years' war. In September 1757, he was wounded 

 near Gorlitz, and died the next morning. His life, 

 by his son, appeared at Leipsic in 1809. 



WINTHROP, JOHN, governor of the colony of 

 Massachusetts, was born at Groton, in the county 

 of Suffolk, England, in 1587, and went to Massa- 

 chusetts in 1030, having been previously chosen 

 governor. He continued to be re-elected, with the 

 intermission of a few years, until his death, in K',4!>. 

 His Journal contains an accurate account of events 

 in the infant colony, from its foundation to the 

 year of his death. The two first, books were pub- 

 lished in 1790 ; but the third, which was for a long 

 time lost, first appeared in the edition of 1S2IJ 

 (Boston, 2 vols., 8vo.), under the care of J. Savage, 

 who has enriched the work with valuable notes. 

 His son, John, born in England, in 1605, and edu- 

 cated at Cambridge, was a fellow of the royal so- 

 ciety, and governor of the colony of Connecticut. 

 He was the friend of Boyle, Wilkins, and other 

 learned men, and one of the founders of the royal 

 society, to the Transactions of which he contributed 

 several papers. He died in 1676. A son of the 

 latter, Fitz-John, (born 1638, died 1707), was also 

 governor of Connecticut, and member of the royal 

 society. 



WIPPERTHAL, OR VALLEY OF THE WIP- 

 PER, on the right bank of the Prussian province 

 of Juliers-Cleves-Berg, is one of the most industri- 

 ous parts of Germany. Since 1816, the population 

 and industry of this valley have much increased. 

 Here Elberfeld, Gemark, Upper and Lower Barmen, 

 Wipperfeld and Rittershausen form an almost unin- 

 terrupted town, with beautiful buildings and manu- 

 factories, and more than 40,000 inhabitants. 



WIRE-DRAWING is the art of drawing out 

 any of the ductile metals into long and regular 

 threads of a uniform diameter, and of any size and 

 shape. (See Ductility a.\\A Divisibility.) The pro- 

 cess of wire-drawing is extremely simple, the ap- 

 paratus employed consisting only of a draw-plate 

 and a draw-bench. The draw-plate is a thick plate 

 of fine steel, perforated with holes of various sizes, 

 from that of the largest to that of the smallest wire 

 required. These holes are punched in the plate, 

 while hot, by well-pointed punches of German 

 steel, and differ in diameter by almost impercepti- 

 ble gradations. The draw-bench consists of a hori- 

 zontal roller or axis turned by levers. A strap or 

 chain is coiled round the roller, and at the end of the 

 strap is a pair of pincers for taking hold of the end 

 of the piece of metal to be drawn. The dr;i\v- 

 plate being made to bear against the draw-bench, 

 and the levers being turned, the metal is pulled by 

 the pincers through a hole in the draw-plate. It is 

 afterwards drawn successively through smaller holes, 

 being coiled upon the roller as it is drawn out. 

 As the metal becomes stiff and hard by the repeti- 

 tion of this process, it is necessary to anneal it from 

 time to time, to restore its ductility. It is also 

 occasionally immersed in an acid liquid, to loosen 

 the superficial oxide which is formed in the process 

 of annealing. 



WIRE OF LAPLAND ; a shining, slender sub- 

 stance, made of the sinews of the rein-deer, soaked 

 in water, beat, and spun into a sort of thread, ot 

 great strength. The wire, as it is called, is made of 

 the finest of these threads, dipped in melted tin, and 



