Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

stayed in office until March 1921. He

died inWashington, D.C., on February

3, 1924.

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League of Nations • Roosevelt,

Theodore • Taft,William Howard

• United States • Villa, Pancho •World

War I

Wind

Wind is the movement of air near

Earth’s surface. Wind can be a gentle

breeze or a strong gale. The most

powerful wind happens during storms

called tornadoes, cyclones, and

hurricanes.

Changes in the temperature of air, land,

and water cause wind. When air flows

over a warm surface, it heats up and

rises. This leaves room for cooler air to

flow in. The flowing air is wind.

Winds are named after the direction

from which they come, not the direction

toward which they blow. For example,

wind blowing from west to east is called

a westerly.

Winds greatly affect the weather. They

bring cool air into warm areas. They also

can bring rain, snow, or even dust and

sand. For example, in southern Asia

winds known as monsoons bring rain

during the summer. This happens

because cool, moist air from over the

ocean moves in over the warm land.

Large movements of air around Earth

are called planetary winds. Some of the

best-known planetary winds are the

tropical easterlies, or trade winds. The

trade winds are two large belts of wind

on either side of the equator. They blow

steadily toward the west.

Since early times people have harnessed

the power of wind. Early sailors relied

on the planetary winds to travel across

oceans. Early peoples also built

windmills, or machines that used wind

power to turn stones or other machines

to grind grain. Today people use

A strong winter wind blows snow and

bends trees.

48 Wind BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

windmills to power machines that

create electricity.

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Air • Earth •Weather

Windhoek

Population

(2001 estimate)

216,000

Windhoek is the capital of Namibia, a

country in southern Africa. It is Namibia’s

largest city by far. A ring of hills

surrounds the city.

The economy ofWindhoek is very

important to Namibia.Windhoek is the

country’s main center of trade, banking,

industry, and transportation. Factories in

the city make such products as cloth,

clothing, leather goods, and processed

foods.

The first settlers in what is nowWindhoek

were the Khoekhoe and Herero

peoples. The town was once called

Aigams, meaning “hot water.” The name

referred to the region’s natural hot

springs, where steaming-hot water

spouts from the ground. Europeans later

changed the name toWindhoek.

Germany took over the town in the late

1800s. South Africa took control of

Windhoek and the rest of Namibia in

1915. In 1990 Namibia became an

independent country withWindhoek as

its capital.

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Namibia

Windmill

A windmill is a machine that harnesses

the power of the wind.Windmills may

be used to grind grain into flour, to

pump water, or to produce electricity.

A windmill has a number of blades that

spin around when wind blows on them.

The blades are mounted on a tall tower

or building. They are connected to a

vertical shaft, or rod. When the blades

spin, they turn the shaft. The turning

shaft powers a device that does work—

for example, a water pump or millstones,

which grind grain. The shaft also

may provide power to a machine called a

generator, which produces electricity.

German colonists designed some of the

buildings of Windhoek, Namibia, to look

like buildings in Germany. Modern buildings

now rise nearby.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Windmill 49

 

People in western Asia built the earliest

known windmills more than 1,000 years

ago. They used these windmills to grind

grain.Windmills spread to Europe by

the 1100s. The Dutch used them to

pump water out of low-lying areas near

the sea. By the 1800s, however, many

people used steam engines rather than

wind power to run mills and to do other

work. Today modern windmills, called

wind turbines, produce electricity for

many communities.

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Machine •Wind

Winnebago

TheWinnebago are Native Americans

of the midwestern United States. They

call themselves Ho-Chunk, which

means “people of the first voice.”

TheWinnebago traditionally lived in

dome-shaped homes called wigwams.

They made their wigwams by covering a

wood frame with bark. TheWinnebago

grew corn, squash, and beans. They

hunted small animals in the forest. They

also traveled to the prairies to the southwest

to hunt bison (buffalo).

TheWinnebago knew only other Native

Americans until 1634. In that year

French explorers arrived in their lands

near Green Bay, in what is now eastern

Wisconsin. TheWinnebago traded with

the French for such goods as metal pots

and guns. But manyWinnebago died

from diseases brought by the French,

especially smallpox.

By the early 1800s theWinnebago had

spread into southwesternWisconsin and

A Winnebago of Wisconsin weaves a basket

in the early 1900s.

Windmills on a hillside in California are used to generate electricity.

50 Winnebago BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

northwestern Illinois. In the 1820s and

1830s the U.S. government forced the

Winnebago to give up all their land east

of the Mississippi River. The government

moved the tribe first to Iowa, then

to Minnesota, and then to South