Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/552

* WHEEL. 466 WHEELEK. Gk. (ciiicXos, kyklos, circle, Skt. cakra, wheel). Part of the apparatus for steering a large ship. It consists of a horizontal barrel on which the tiller ropes are wound in opposite directions — - one on the forward end and one on the after — and one or more wheels with eight to twelve radial spokes which project beyond the rim of the wheel six or eight inches to form handles. The difference in diameter of the wheel and barrel is a measure of the gain in power that the wheel affords. In vessels steered by steam the wheel is used, but it is smaller than in hand-steered ships, and either connects to the steering engine by means of shafts and gearing or operates small wire ropes which lead to the engine valve. WHEEL, Breaking ox the, A mode of in- flicting the punishment of death, which existed among the Greeks and Romans, and was used in Western Europe until the end of the eighteenth century for assassins, incendiaries, highwaymen, and pillagers of churches. It was first instituted in France by an edict of 1534. There was con- siderable variety in the mode in which this pun- ishment was inflicted, at diifcrent times and in difTerent places. The accused was sometimes ex- tended on beams formed like an X and his bones were broken by Idows with an iron bar. Then the body was placed on a wheel, bent round, with its arms and legs behind the back and its head turned up to the sky. The culprit was then left to die, and his sufTerings sometimes continued for twen- ty-four hours or more. By way of terminating sooner the suffering of the victim, the execu- tioner w'as sometimes permitted to deal two or three severe blows on the chest or stomach, known as coups de grace; and occasionally, in France at least, the sentence contained a pro- vision that the criminal was to be strangled after the first or second blow. Bodies of persons wlio }iad been belieaded were often exposed on the wheel. The punishment of the wheel was abolislied in France in 1789, and in Prussia in 1811. WHEEL AND AXLE. A machine which is a modification of the lever (q.v. ). Its most primitive form is a cylindrical axle, on which a wheel concentric with the axle is firmly fastened. When emploved for raising heavy weights, the weight is attached to a rope which is wound round the axle, and the force raising the weight is applied to a rope wound round the grooved rim of the wheel. The wheel and axle is neither more nor less than a lever whose ex- trcMiilies are not points as in the normal form, but the circumferences of circles. Accordingly the raising force and weight are not attached to particular points in these circumferences, but to cords wound round them, and thus the imagi- nary simple lever (formed by joining the points where the cords become tangents to the circles) is preserved unaltered in position and magnitude. The conditions of equilihrimn are, that F (the force required to raise the weight) X R (the radius of the wheel) = W (the Weight) X the radius of the a.!e, or, since the circumferences of circles are proportional to their radii, that !•' : W : : circumference of axle : circumference nf wheel. When there is no wheel, but only a winch, the circumference described liy the power in one revolution is substituted for the circum- ference of the wheel. The capstan and icindlass are simple and connnon examples of this niecliani- cal power, and combinations of toothed wheels, or of wheels from one to another of which motion is communicated by an endless band, are com- pound illustrations of the same. WHEEL ANIMALCULE. See Rotitera. WHEEL-BUG. .Sec Pir.te Bug. WHEE'LEB, Andrew Carpenter (1835- 1903). An American author. He was born in Xew York City, and became a reporter on the Ti»ics. As a young man he went to Jlilwaukee, Wis., and remained there till the outbreak of the Civil 'ar, when he went to the front as corre- spondent. In 1805 he returned to New York and was connected with the Leader and the ^'orld. While dramatic critic of the latter paper he be- gan the publication of essays and sketches un- der the pseudonym of Nym Crinkle. These were widely read, and many of them were afterwards collected in book form. Afterwards he wrote under the name of J. P. Mowbray (sometimes J. P. JI. ). As Nym Crinkle he produced between 1870 and 1885: Tlw Chronieles of MUtcaukee; The Primrose Path of Dalliance ; The Iron Trail; Easier in a Hospital Bed ; and a play. The Twins, which was an adaptation of Dic1<ens's Talc of Tico Cities. As J. P. Mowbray he published: A Jour- ney to 'Xature (1901) ; The llaking of a Country Home (1902); Tanyled I'p in Beulah (1902); and The Conquering of Kate (1903). WHEELER, Ben.jamin Ide (1854—). An Amcriran educator, born at Randolph, Mass. He graduated at Colby Academy in 1871, and at Brown University in 1875; taught in the classical department of the Providence High School in 1875-79; was an instructor in Brown in 1879- 81 ; and then studied for four years in the univer- sities of Leipzig, Heidelberg, Jena, and Berlin ; also traveled in Greece ; and received the Ph.D. from Heidelberg. Upon his return to America he was for one year an instructor in Harvard, but in 188G became professor of comparative phi- lology in Cornell Univer.sit.v, and two years later professor of Greek. In 1899 he became president of the University of California. Among his published works are: Dcr grieehisehe yoniinalac- cent (1885) ; Analogy, and the Hcope of Its Ap- plication in Language (1887); Introduction to the Study of the History of Language, in collabo- ration with II. A. Strong and W. S. Logeman (1891) ; Principles of Language Groa'th (1891) ; The Organization, of Higher Education in the United iStatcs (1897); and Life of Alexander the (Ireat (1900), in the "Heroes of the Nations Series." WHEELEK, JcsEl'll (1830—). An . ieriean soldier, born at Augusta, Ga. He graduated at West Point in 1859, was commissioned a second lieutenant of dragoons, and served at the cavalry school at Carlisle, Pa., until April, 1801. when he resigned his commission anil entered the Con- federate service. In the following September he was ajipointed colonel nf the Nineteenth Alabama Infantry, and was actively enu'aged in the earliir campaigns in Kentucky and Tennessee. .At Shi- loh. in .pril, 1802. he commanded a brii^adc. and later in the year was transferred to the cavalry and participated in the battle nf l'erryille and other engagements of General Bragg's Kentucky