WEST INDIES 



0219 



WESTMINSTER ABBEY 



and named Virgin Islands. Porto Rico has 

 been an American possession since 1898. The 

 other islands are colonies, the most important 

 of which are the following: 



BRITISH : Bahamas, Jamaica. Trinidad, Barba- 

 dos, Leeward Islands, Windward Islands, Turks. 

 DUTCH : Curacao. 

 FRENCH : Guadeloupe. Martinique. 



Most of the six and one-half million people 

 on the islands are of African ancestry, although 

 white people rule everywhere except in Haiti. 

 For several centuries the islands were associ- 

 ated with the slave trade. The blacks have 

 made little progress since being freed, but 

 many thousands of them who were employed 

 on the construction of the Panama Canal have 

 received a new outlook on the world which is 

 sure to result in their advancement. The 

 principal products of the islands are sugar and 

 fruit. 



Related Subjects. The reader may gain from 

 the following articles in these volumes detailed 

 information as to the islands that comprise the 

 Indies : 



Leeward Islands 



Martinique 



Porto Rico 



Santo Domingo 



Trinidad 



Virgin Islands of the 



United States 

 Windward Islands 



Antilles 



Bahama Islands 



Barbados 



Cuba 



Curagao 



Guadeloupe 



Haiti 



Jamaica 



WEST INDIES, DANISH*, the name formerly 

 applied to a small group of islands lying east 

 of Porto Rico. In 1917 they were purchased 

 from Denmark by the United States, and are 

 now known as -Virgin Islands of the United 

 States. They are described in these volumes 

 under that heading. 



WEST'INGHOUSE, GEORGE (1846-1914), an 

 American capitalist and manufacturer, who in- 

 vented the air brake now known by his name. 

 It is considered the greatest life-saving device 

 the world has yet seen. He was born at Cen- 

 tral Bridge, N. Y. While studying in the pub- 

 lic schools of Schcncctady he found time to 

 work in his father's large manufactory for 

 agricultural machinery, and early revealed me- 

 chanical and inventive skill. During the War 

 of Secession he served for two years in tl>. 

 Union army, and in 1864 became assistant < 



in the United States nn 



year he registered as a student of Union Col- 

 lege of Schcncctady. 



The first invention of Westinghouae was a 

 railway frog, a movable device by which a train 

 pnnom from one track to another. Gradually 

 his attention was directed to brakes and the 



impracticability of using steam for a power 

 brake. Experiments with compressed air led 

 to the invention of the air brake in 1868, and 

 it was later perfected. Westinghouse encoun- 

 tered great difficulties in getting his air brake 

 adopted. His idea was greeted with ridicule, 

 one well-known financier and railroad magnate 

 telling him that he could not expect to stop a 

 train with wind. However, so great was the 

 instant success of the air brake when installed 

 that the scoffers who had refused to listen to 

 the claims of the inventor were afterwards 

 compelled, at enormous cost, to adopt the 

 Westinghouse air brake throughout their vast 

 railway systems. Large works for the produc- 

 tion of his inventions were established, first at 

 Pittsburgh and later in many parts of Europe. 



Other devices patented by him were im- 

 provements in railway signaling, the use of the 

 alternating instead of the direct current for 

 power and lighting on a large scale, a method 

 used in the Chicago Exposition of 1893, and 

 for long-distance transmission of power. All 

 of the plants for the manufacture of the West- 

 inghouse products are organized with a high 

 degree of efficiency, and represent large capi- 

 talization. 



Among honors bestowed upon him were the 

 Order of Leopold, from the king of Belgium, 

 the Royal Order of the Crown of Italy, and 

 the decoration of the French Legion of Honor. 



WESTMIN'STER AB'BEY, a church in 

 London, one of the most famous in all the 

 world. It is in no sense an abbey, but is so 

 called because it stands on the site of the old 

 Benedictine monastery, or abbey (see ABBEY). 

 The present structure was practically completed 

 in the thirteenth century, and replaced a 

 church of two centuries earlier which had been 

 erected by Edward the Confessor. Numerous 

 and important additions and alterations were 

 made later ; Henry VII in the sixteenth century 

 built the beautiful chapel which bears his name, 

 and the west towers were added in the eight- 

 eenth century by Sir Christopher Wren. In 

 form, as it stands to-day, the Abbey is a Latin 

 cross, 423 feet in length The body of the 

 church is 102 feet in height, and the towers are 

 225 feet. Both within ami without, the church 

 is imposing in proportions and in .- 



It is not, however, by reason of its arclm- < - 

 tural beauties that Westminster Abbey is cele- 

 brated; it is a very real part of the history of 

 the English people. All the English kings from 

 th- time of William the Conqueror (1066) 

 cept Edward V, have been crowned there, and 



