WALLOONS 



6130 



WALNUT 



:nate). The population of the town in the 

 latter year was 12,508. 



Wallingford has a Masonic Temple, a public 

 library, a sanitarium and a government build- 

 ing. It manufactures sterling silver goods, iron 

 and brass beds, plated ware, insulated wire and 

 celluloid novelties. The town was settled in 

 1670 by about a hundred pioneers from New 

 Haven. Near the borough the Wallingford 

 Community was organized in 1851, the success- 

 ful Oneida Community (which see) being the 

 stimulus. 



WALLOONS, wahloonz' , the name given to 

 the Celtic inhabitants of the provinces of 

 Southern Belgium, descendants of the ancient 

 Belgae. They are more like the French than 

 the Germans, and are remarkable for their 

 thoroughgoing business ability. Many noted 

 statesmen of Belgium are descended from Wal- 

 loon ancestry. In stature the people are short, 

 and most of them have dark complexions. Un- 

 til the fifteenth century the Walloon dialect 

 was the literary language of the country, but 

 at that time its place was taken by French. 

 In 1916 there were 3,000,000 Walloons in Bel- 

 gium. See BELGIUM, subhead Inhabitants and 

 Languages. 



WALL PAPER, or PAPER HANGINGS, a 

 term embracing paper, plain or decorated with 

 various designs, which is used for covering 

 walls and ceilings of rooms. The use of paper 

 for these purposes is of Chinese origin, and 

 was not extended to other parts of the world 

 until the eighteenth century. In Europe pre- 

 vious to the introduction of paper hangings, 

 wall decorations consisted chiefly of tapestry 

 and velvet hangings, and the first strips of 

 wall paper were in imitation of these hangings. 

 Other designs and effects were gradually intro- 

 duced, and a vast industry was created; but 

 in England and other European countries the 

 most costly wall papers in use are still based 

 on imitation of old tapestry effects. In 

 America, the tendency has been to produce 

 entirely new effects, and the adoption of mod- 

 ern machinery has so increased production that 

 while the annual output of wall paper at the 

 end of the eighteenth century only reached the 

 value of $25,000 a year, it is now estimated that 

 the yearly product reaches a total value of 

 nearly $25,000,000. 



The first machines for the printing of wall 

 paper could only produce sheets which had to 

 be pasted together before the pattern or design 

 could be applied. The cylindrical roller presses 

 of the present day, however, make it possible 



to produce it in practically unending rolls, the 

 pattern being applied or printed much in the 

 same way in which a modern newspaper is 

 printed, excepting that the presses are very 

 complicated, for the production of colors and 

 for embossing. 



Great advance has recently been made in the 

 designing of wall paper, all large manufacturing 

 concerns employing a staff of designers who 

 strive for original and artistic effects. In hang- 

 ing the paper, or pasting it on the walls, skill 

 is required to place the paper without wrinkling 

 and to secure the proper matching of the pat- 

 tern. 



WALNUT, wawl'nut, a family of nut-bearing 

 trees, comprising about a dozen species, all of 

 which are valued for their wood and for their 

 sweet, edible fruit. Most of the species are na- 

 tive to North America or Asia. In America 



THE BLACK WALNUT 



Form of the tree, as seen, in winter ; leaves 

 and nuts, whole and in cross section. 



three species are well known; these are the 

 butternut, or white walnut (see BUTTERNUT, 

 page 1027), the black walnut and the English, 

 or Persian, walnut. The black walnut, a splen- 

 did tree that attains a height of 150 feet and a 

 diameter of six feet, is distributed from South- 

 ern Ontario to Florida and west to Nebraska 

 and Texas. It is a noble shade and ornamental 

 tree, but is chiefly valued for its hard, durable, 

 fine-grained wood. This wood is of a dark, 

 purplish-brown color with a silvery luster, and 

 is highly esteemed for interior finishing, furni- 

 ture and gunstocks. Black walnut has become 

 rare with recent years; the old-fashioned wal- 

 nut bedroom sets, chests and tables prized as 

 heirlooms are now very valuable, as few of 



