Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 13).

Date:: 1830-33

Credit: Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 13). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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taste and fancy displayed in the forms and decorations of the various results of his ingenuity. So important was the result, that in a very few years he turned the current of importation of the finer earth- en wares into that of exportation. In 1763, he obtained a patent for a new spe- cies of ware, which received the name of queeri's ware, and, continuing his ex- perimental researches, added six other different species of ware to the English manufacture. He was versed in several branches of natural philosophy, and in- vented a pyrometer (q.v.) for measuring the higher degrees of heat employed in the various arts. He was also the proposer of the Grand Trunk canal, uniting the Trent and Mersey, and subsequently com- municating with the Severn and the Grand Junction canal. To this navigation, which was of the greatest benefit to the pottery district, he added a turnpike-road, ten miles in length, which gave still greater facilities to that extensive branch of man- ufacture. His own pottery was near Newcastle-under-Line, in Staffordshire, where he built a village, which he called Etruria. In 1786, he was the promoter of an association in London, denominated the general chamber of the manufac- tures of Great Britain; and he much dis- tinguished himself by opposing Mr. Pitt's proposition for adjusting the commercial intercourse between Great Britain and Ireland. His death took place January 3, 1795, in his sixty-fourth year. To great public spirit and an open hand in the distribution of the large fortune which he acquired by his spirit and enterprise, in beneficial objects and institutions, Mr. Wedgwood united great private benevo- lence, and was a benefactor to the poor in the most enlarged sense of the term. He was a member of the royal and anti- quarian societies. (See ff^Tiite JVare.) Wednesday ; the fourth day of the week (in Latin, dies Mercurii, whence the French Mercredi, the Italian Mercoledi, &c.). The Germans call it Mittwoche (mid-week). The English name is de- rived from the old Scandinavian deity Odin or Woden. In Anglo-Saxon, it is Vodensdae;; in Swedish, Odensdag; in Dutch, Woensdag. We find the same prefix in the name of some English towns: Wednesburv, Wednesfield, &c. (See Week. See, also. Ash-Wednesday.) Week. The week approaches pretty nearly to a quarter of a lunation; but this division of time has no obvious founda- tion in nature. It appears, notwithstand- ing, to have prevailed very extensively over the world from the earliest times; and, what is remarkable, the days of the week are generally named after the sun and planets, only six planets having been known to the ancients. This manner of distinguishing a series of seven days is found to be the same among the ancient Egyptians, Indians and Chinese. Still the order is not that of the distances, magnitude or brightness of the planets. The following ingenious conjecture has been adopted to account for the origin of the names and arrangement of the days of the week:—The planetary arrangement of Ptolemy was thus: 1. Saturn ; 2. Jupi- ter ; 3. Mars; 4. the Sun; 5. Venus; 6. Mercury; 7. the Moon. Each of these planets was supposed to preside succes- sively over each hour of the twenty-four of each day, in the order above given. In this way, Saturn would ])reside over the first hour of the first day, Jupiter over the second hour, Mars over the third, the sun over the fourth, and so on. Thus the sun, presiding over the fourth, elev- enth and eighteenth hours of the first day, would preside over the first hour of the second day; and, carrying on tlie series, the moon would preside over die first hour of the third day, Mars over the first hour of the fourth day, Mercury over the first hour of the fifth day, Jupiter over the first hour of the sixth day, and Venus over the first hour of the seventh day. Hence the names of the days yet used in the learned professions: 1, dies Satumi (Saturday); 2. dies Solis (Sunday); 3. dies Lmnoe. (Monday); 4. dies Martis (Tues- day); 5. dies Mercurii (Wednesday); 6. dies Jovis (Thursday); 7. dies Veneris (Friday). The English names of tlie days of^the week are derived from the Saxons, and are partly adopted from the more civilized nations of antiquity. (For the etymology of the English names, see the separate articles.) Weeninx, John Baptist, a celebrated Dutch painter, was bom at Amsterdam, in 1621. He was the son of an architect, and became the pupil of Abraham Bloe- mart. After residing some time in Italy, he returned to Holland, and settled at Utrecht, where he died in 1C60. He painted small landscapes, animals and historical pieces with great accuracy and perfection, but was deficient in variety.—His son John, born at Amsterdam, in 1644, was more dis- tinguished. He studied at first under his father, and acquired great skill in the de- lineation of animals. Still life, the chase, dead game, &c., are represented in his works with an inimitable truth and great

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