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Rh formidable, and this and other causes forced the company into liquidation. Two years later, a civil engineer, named Derwent, started boring at Aripero. He, too, struck oil, but failed to make a financial success of the venture. No further steps were taken toward winning oil until about 1900, when Mr. Randolph Rust, a local resident (Mayor of Port of Spain in 1921), imported modern oil-boring machinery and successfully struck oil at Aripero in 1901. Other prospectors came on the scene, and in 1910 followed the suc- cessful flotation of the Trinidad oilfields, and Trinidad enjoyed such a boom as no West Indian colony had experienced, at any rate for many a long day. On April 27 in the following year Sir George Le Hunte, the then governor, opened the valve at the end of the pipe line on Brighton pier, thus inaugurating the new industry, which has since been developed at a rapid rate. With many new wells being drilled it was certain that the production of oil, which in 1920 amounted to 72,905,947 gal., would undergo material expansion. (A. E. A.)

WESTINGHOUSE, GEORGE (1846-1914), American inventor and manufacturer, was born at Central Bridge, N.Y., Oct. 6 1846. In 1856 his father moved to Schenectady, N.Y., and began to manufacture farm implements. The boy early dis- played inventive talent and when 15 designed and constructed a rotary engine. He entered the Union army in the Civil War in 1863 but in 1864 was appointed third assistant engineer in the navy. At the close of the war he resigned and entered Union College, but in his sophomore year, on the advice of the presi- dent, he withdrew to devote his time to mechanical invention. In 1865 he had invented a device for replacing derailed cars and also a reversible steel railway frog, but from lack of capital was unable to develop a business in Schenectady. In 1868 he went to Pittsburgh and arranged for the manufacture of his devices, which he himself sold to the railways. In 1869 he patented his air-brake and organized the Westinghouse Air Brake Co. In 1872 he invented the automatic air-brake (see 4.414). This brake was quickly adopted by railways in America and gradually in Europe. He also developed a system of railway signals, operated by compressed air with the assistance of electrical contrivances. In 1885 he acquired certain patents for alternat- ing current machinery. In June 1912 he received the Edison gold medal for " meritorious achievement in connexion with the development of the alternating current system for light and power." In 1893 this system was installed at the Chicago Exposition. Later his Pittsburgh establishment built dynamos for the power plants at Niagara Falls, for the rapid transit systems of New York City, and for the London Metropolitan railway. Westinghouse also devised a method for conveying gas through long-distance pipes thus making it a practicable fuel. In 1910 he was elected president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He died in New York March 12 1914. He was president of some 30 corporations with a capital of about $200,000,000, employing more than 50,000 persons.

WESTLAKE, JOHN (1828-1913), English jurist, was born at Lostwithiel, Cornwall, Feb. 4 1828. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1850. He was called to the bar in 1854, and attained a great reputation as an author- ity on international law. In 1874 he became a Q.C. and bencher of Lincoln's Inn, and in 1885 successfully contested the Rom- ford division of Essex in the Liberal interest. In 1888 he became professor of international law at the university of Cambridge, a position which he held until 1908. He was also an hon. pres- ident of the Institute of International Law, and from 1900 to 1906 a member of the Hague arbitration court. He died at Chelsea April 14 1913.

His works include A Treatise on Private International Law, or the Conflict of Laws (1858; 5th ed. 1912); Chapters on the Principles of International Law (1894); International Law, Part I., Peace (1904; 2nd ed. 1910); Part II., War (1907).

WESTON, AGNES (1840-1918), English philanthropic worker, was born in London March 26 1840. In 1868 she took up hospital visiting and parish work in Bath, and through beginning a correspondence with a seaman who asked her to write to him, developed into the devoted friend of sailors, superintendent of the Royal Naval Temperance Society and founder of the Royal Naval Sailors' Rests, or clubs for sailors, at Devonport and Portsmouth. She published Life Among the Bluejackets in 1909. She died at Devonport Oct. 23 1918. Shortly before her death her work for the navy had been recognized by the bestowal of the G.B.E.

See S. G. Wintz, Our Bluejackets, Miss Weston's Work (1894).

WEST POINT (see 28.558). The following important buildings were completed at West Point after 1910: the Administra- tion Building, East Academic Building, Riding Hall, two new cadet barracks, cadet chapel and chaplain's quarters, artillery barracks and artillery stable, cavalry barracks and cavalry stable, eight sets of officers' quarters, two apartment buildings each containing eight sets of officers' quarters, and a cadet laundry. By Act of May 4 1916, the number of cadetships authorized at the academy was increased to 1,332. By author- ity of the War Department, April 1915, candidates were per- mitted, in lieu of passing the regular entrance examination, to qualify for admission upon the presentation of satisfactory certificate of previous academic work in accredited institutions. By Acts of 1919 and 1920, the pay of cadets was fixed at $780 per annum and one ration per day or commutation thereof at the rate of $1.08 per day. The World War and the demand for trained officers led the War Department to direct the graduation of the First or Upper Class April 20 1917, and of the Second Class Aug. 30 1917. The next year the need for officers resulted in the graduation of three classes, the first, June 12 1918, and the second and third together, Nov. i 1918. A class of new cadets was admitted at an irregular time, Nov. 2 1918, and provision was made for a temporary one-year course. After the Armistice the War Department directed, May 12 1919, that the course of instruction be fixed for three years, but the following year Congress specified that the course should be four years. The academic authorities thereupon reorganized the curriculum in the light of the most recent military and educational experience.

The new schedule contained the following salient features: (i) The upper classes on duty undergo military training June 15 to Aug. 30 at a regular army cantonment away from West Point ; (2) The new Fourth Class enter the academy July I and receive at West Point preliminary military training until Aug. 30; (3) During the academic year, extending from Sept. I to June 15, tactical drills and supervised athletics alternate daily (except Wednesdays and Saturdays) after 4 P.M. for all cadets; (4) Academic instruction be given during periods between 8 A.M. and 4 P.M. in the following subjects to the respective classes Fourth Class, mathematics, English, French and surveying; Third Class, mathematics, English, French, political history, drawing and theoretical tactics; Second Class, natural and experimental philosophy, chemistry and elec- tricity, Spanish, military hygiene ; First Class, military engineering, law, military art and history, ordnance and gunnery, economics and government. Ten Saturdays throughout the year were set apart for lectures to the whole corps by eminent men.

The number of graduates of the academy 1910 to 1920 inclusive was 1,959. The superintendents since 1910 have been: T.H.Barry (b. 1855) 1910-2; C. P. Townsley (b. 1855) 1912-5; John Biddle (b. 1859) 1916-7 ; S. E. Tillman(b. 1847) 1917-9; Douglas McArthur (b. 1880) 1919-22. (L. H. H.*)

WEST VIRGINIA (see 28.560). In 1920 the pop. was 1,463,701, as against 1,221,119 i n I 9 IO an increase of 242,582 or 19-9%. The urban pop. (for places of 2,500 or more) increased from 18-7% in 1910 to 25-2% in 1920. The density of pop. was 60-9 in 1920; 50-8 in 1910. The following table shows the growth of the ten largest cities for the decade 1910-20:

1920

1910

Percentage increase

Wheeling

56,208

41,641

34-9

Huntington.

50.177

31,161

61-0

Charleston

39,608

22,996

72-2

Clarksburg

27,869

9,201

202-9

Parkersburg.

20,050

17,842

12-4

Fairmont

17,851

9,7"

83-8

Bluefield ...

15-282

11,188

36-6

Martinsburg.

12,515

10,698

17-0

Morgantown.

12,127

9,150

35-5

Agriculture. Of the land area of the state 62-2 % in 1920 was in farms and 57'7 % was improved. The number-of farms, which was 96,685 in 1910, decreased to 87,289 in 1920 (9-7%). The total farm acreage decreased from 10,026,442 to 9,569,790 (4-6%), but the total value of all farm property increased from $314,738,540 in 1910 to $496,439,617 in 1920 (57-7%). The value of farm lands and buildings increased from $264,390,954 to $410,783,406; implements