attracts upwards a body of water or scudding, saltwater spray. The waterspout usually lasts but a few minutes, though under certain weather-conditions and meteorological influences many of them occur together. The condition that predisposes their appearance is the unstable equilibrium of the air, coupled with a gyratory motion imparted to it, which writhes and twists the cloud-spout in its rapid, tapering whirl. When observed at sea, at their bases the ocean is always violently agitated and massed in heaps with a leaping or coiling motion. Contrary to current belief, waterspouts are little affected by being fired at with cannon.
Wa′tertown, Mass., a town in Middlesex County, embracing a group of villages, an attractive suburb of Boston and six miles west of it, on the Charles River and the Boston and Maine Railroad. The place has an early history, being settled in 1630, and two years later made a protest against arbitrary taxation, on the occasion of being called upon to aid the construction of a fort at Cambridge. In the Revolutionary War the second and third provincial congresses of the state convened here; while to Watertown many people of Boston, driven from their homes by the British, came to reside. A national arsenal is situated here, and besides its municipal offices it has a library. Its industries include many manufacturing plants, embracing paper and paper-bags, hosiery and knitted ware and automobiles. Population about 12,875.
Watertown, N. Y., county-seat of Jefferson County, is on Black River, ten miles from Lake Ontario. The river crosses the city and falls 112 feet in about two miles, thus giving fine water-power for the manufactures of the place. Flour-mills, paper-mills, foundries, breweries, sewing-machine works and factories of paper flour-sacks, boots and shoes, cigars, carriages and sashes, together with the New York Air Brake works, are the most important of its manufactures. It also has a large trade with the fine agricultural region in which it is situated. The city annually expends $103,000 on its public schools, which have a force of 130 teachers and an enrollment of 4,600 pupils. It was settled in 1800, and became a city in 1869. Population 26,730.
Watertown, Wis., a city in Dodge and Jefferson Counties, is on Rock River, 35 miles northeast of Madison. It has a large trade and a number of manufactories, as flouring-mills, threshing-machine works, brick, furniture and shoe and box -factories. It is the seat of Northwestern University, a Lutheran institution founded in 1864, and of the University of the Sacred Heart (R. C.), chartered in 1872. It has admirable public and parish schools, a free public library and some fine churches. Population 8,829.
Wa′terville, Me., a town on the right bank of the Kennebec River, 18 miles northeast of Augusta. Ticonic Falls give it a fine water-power, around which are clustered the factories of boot-shanks, sash and doors, shirts, furniture, carpets, paper and woolen mills. Electric power for light and transportation has also been developed, and the Maine Central railroad-shops, the most extensive in the state, are located here. It is the seat of Colby College, a Baptist institution, which was first called Waterville College, becoming Colby College in 1867. It has several fine buildings and a library of 35,000 volumes; besides, there are Coburn Classical Institute; Ursuline Academy (R. C.), an excellent system of public and parish schools; and school libraries. Population 11,458.
Watervliet (wa′tẽr-vlët), N. Y. (formerly West Troy village, incorporated as a city since 1890), in Albany County, on the Hudson River, opposite Troy and a few miles north of Albany. Here, on a reservation, is Watervliet Arsenal with its ordnance-constructing plant, powder and ammunition magazines etc, owned and operated by the national government. The Erie Canal passes through the reservation, and the arsenal controls considerable wharfage on the Hudson. The town grows apace, and in civic institutions, as well as in residences, begins to assume the status of a city. Population 15,074.
Water-Wheel, a wheel so arranged as to transform water-power into rotary mechanical power. The work done is due to the force of gravity on the water, and the possible work is equal to the fall multiplied by the weight of the water. To get the maximum work it is necessary that the water shall enter without shock and leave the wheel without further fall and velocity, conditions which of course, can only be approximated. But water-wheels give efficiencies which rival that of other prime motors Efficiencies of over 90 per cent. have been reached, while efficiencies of 75 to 85 per cent, are commonly attained In the best wheels. Water-wheels have been used from a very remote period in human history. Up to about 1825 practically all wheels used were of three types: overshot, undershot and breast wheels. These were wheels revolving on horizontal axes. They had buckets or paddles on the circumference. As the name implies, the water fell from above into the buckets of the overshot wheel, while in the case of the breast wheel the height of the water was about that of the axis of the wheel, and in the undershot wheel the water flowed below and moved the wheel by impact against the blades. The overshot and breast wheels commonly reached efficiencies of from 75
