Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/383

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WAYNESBORO 825 WEATHER BUREAU interest in public affairs. Having mar- ried and settled to farming (1767), he was elected to the Pennsylvania conven- tion and Legislature in 1774, served on the committee of safety, and in 1775 raised a legiment with which he took pax't in the campaign against Canada. He fought with distinction and v/as wounded at the battle of Trois Rivieres (Jan. 3, 1776) ; held the fortress of Ticonderoga and Mount Independence till May, 1777; and, after receiving the commission of Brigadier-General, led a division at Brandywine (Sept. 11), and commanded the right wing at German- town (Oct. 4). He made a dashing raid on the British lines in the winter of 1777-1778, carrying off a great quantity of supplies, and on the night of July 15, 1779, achieved the most brilliant of the American victories in the storming of Stony Point, for which he received a gold medal and the thanks of Con- gress. By a bayonet charge he rescued Lafayette in Virginia in 1782; made a daring attack on the whole British Army at Green Spring (July 6), and de- feated the British and Indians in Georgia. After the war "Mad Anthony" retired quietly to his farm, but he was made Major-General in 1792, and again took the field, this time against the western Indians, whom he overthrew at Maumee Rapids, and forced to conclude the treaty of Greenville (1795). On his way back to his farm at Waynesboro he died at Presque Isle (now Erie), Dec. 15, 1796. A monument was erected to him at Waynesboro in 1809. WAYNESBORO, a borough of Penn- sylvania, in Franklin co. It is on the Western Maryland and the Cumberland Valley railroads. It is an important in- dustrial community, having^ manufac- tures of engines, boilers, grinders, and other steel and iron products. Pop. (1910) 7,199; (1920) 9,720. WEASEL, in zoology, the genus PiUoriiis; specifically, P. vtdguris, the common weasel; length about 12 inches, of which the tail occupies nearly a quarter; body extremely slender and arched, head small and flattened, eyes black and remarkably quick and lively, ears short and rounded; the neck is long, being but little shorter than the trunk and very flexible; tail short, and without a terminal tuft of hair; legs short, and furred to end of toes. Upper part light reddish-brown, under surface quite white. WEATHER BUREAU, the govern- ment office maintained by all civilized nations for the systematic observing and predicting of the weather from day to day. Many of these were established before weather predictions were consid- ered practicable or even possible, and in such offices the original object of the in- stitution was the collection of climatic statistics considered as an important item in the description of the country and the study of its agriculture, dis- eases, and other vital phenomena. Of such older statistical bureaus may be in- stanced the Meteorological Division of the Suregon-General's Office, U. S. A., of the Statistical Bureau in Berlin, of the Central Physical Observatory at St. Petersburg, and of the office of the Registrar-General, London. Some of these climatic bureaus have had their scope enlarged by the imposition of the addi- tional duty of weather and storm pre- dictions, but in most cases an entirely new office has been established for this special work; such, for instance, are the Meteorological Office in London, founded in 1861 under the Board of Trade, and now under the administration of the Royal Society, the Meteorological Divi- sion of the Astronomical Observatory at Paris, enlarged in 1859, and now trans- ferred to the Meteorological Bureau of France; the Seewarte at Hamburg, founded in 1867, now in part transferred to the Royal Meteorological Institute for Saxony at Berlin; the Central Office for Meteorology at Rome; the Meteorolog- ical Office of the Customs Bureau at Hong Kong; the office of the Meteoro- logical Reporter for India at Calcutta; the Imperial Signal Office at Tokio, Japan; and the Weather Bureau, for- merly of the Signal Office in the Depart- WEASEL ment of War at Washington, but now a part of the Department of Agriculture. The appointment of official predicters in all countries whose territories are suffi-. ciently well covered by telegraph sta- tions is at once a demonstration of the