Knight's cyclopædia of the industry of all nations, 1851 / [edited by George Dodd].

Date:
[1851]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Knight's cyclopædia of the industry of all nations, 1851 / [edited by George Dodd]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    977/1000
    1847 1846 1845 1844 1843 1842 1841 1840 253 199 242 (?) 145 207 223 213 WHAEF. 121,410 92,877 158,484 138,585 107,134 163,097 157,043 166,445 WHEEL AND AXLE. 1782 320,545 219,703 274,843 207,082 205,801 103,810 205,104 203,441 Whalebone also forms an important item in the products of the fisheries. The quanti- ties imported into the United States during the last ten yeai-s have been as follow :— 1850 2,242,012 lbs. 1849 1,990,640 „ 1848 1,755,892 „ 1847 3,450,124 „ 1846 2,723,939 „ 1845 3,116,100 „ 1844 3,015,145 „ 1843 1,933,321 „ 1842 1,329,234 „ 1841 1,942,885 „ The year 1850 was a very profitable one m the southern fishery, and more than usually unprofitable in the northern. WHAKF, is a place constructed or set apart for the loading and unloading of goods. In this sense the word includes the quays of all sea-ports at which goods are requu-ed to be shipped or landed. The sea-beach or natural ground on the banks of a river or canal, is not a wharf. Wharfs in docks and similar situa- tions are made legal by special acts of parUa- ment, as the London Docks, &c., and there are some places which are deemed wharfs from immemorial usage. For the use of a wharf certain rates are usually charged, which are called wharfage. The wharfs of the port of London were estabhshed in 1558, in the fii-styear of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Several sufferance wlmrfs have been since added to these, under the authority of the commissioners of customs, and other sufier- ance wharfs are occasionally authorised for the landing and keeping of goods by the cus- tom-house till the duties are paid or the goods bonded. No goods except diamonds and bullion, fresh fish of Britisli taking, and turbots and lobsters fresh, however taken or imported, are allowed to be unshipped from any ship arriving from foreign parts beyond seas, or landed or put on shore, except at legal quays appointed by her majesty for landing of goods, or at some wharf appointed by the commissioners of cus- toms. Goods entitled to drawback or bounty are only to be shipped in Great Britain by wharfingers appointed by the commissioners of customs. WHEAT. The species and varietiea of wheat are numerous ; but thero are t}ireo principal kinds, so different in appearance that they claim peculiai- attention. These ai'e the hard wheats, the soft wheats, and the Polish wheats. The hard wheats ai'e the pro- duce of wai-m chmates, such as Italy, Sicily, and Barbary. The soft wheats grow in the northern parts of Europe as in Belgium, Eng- land, Denmark, and Sweden. The Polish wheats grow in the comitry from which they derive their name, and are also hai-d wheats. It is from theur external form that they are distinguished from other wheats. The hard wheats have a compact seed nearly transpa- rent, which, when bitten through, breaks short, and shows a very white flour within. The soft wheats are those usually cultivated in Britain; they have an opaque coat or skin; which, when first reaped, gives way readily to the pressure of the thumb and finger. These wheats require to be well dried and hardened before they can be conveniently ground into flour. The PoHsh wheat has a long chaff which is much longer than the seed, a large oblong seed, and an ear cyUndrical in ap- peai-ance. It is a delicate spring wheat, and not very productive in the climate of England. The hai-d wheats contain much more glu- ten than the soft wheats. It is this quantity of gluten which causes the ItaUan wheats to be used exclusively for the pastes which form so large a portion of the food of that nation. Teemicelli.] The soft wheats contain the greatest quantity of starch, which fits them for the vinous fermentation, by its conversion into sugar and alcohol: for brewing or distil- hng, therefore, the soft wheats are the best. The distinction between the lointer and summer wheats is one which arises entirely from the season in which they have been usually sown; for they can readily be converted into each other, by somng earlier or later, and gradually accelerating or retarding then- growths. The difference in colom- between :ed and white wheats is owing chiefly to the soil; white wheats gradually become darker and ultimately I'ed in some stiff wet soils, and the red wheats lose their colour and become first yellow and then white on rich, light, and mellow soils. The quantity of wheat imported in 1849 was 3,872,134 quarters ; the quantity entered for home consumption was 4,509,020 quarters. The gross amount of duty received was 226,785i. WHEEL AND AXLE is a machine con- sisting usually of a cylinder to which a wheel is firmly united, so that tlae axes of both are coincident. The capstan, the windlass, and the helm-wheel of a ship are only so many