Britannica Concise 2005

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© 2002 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. MALAYSIA

tries; it was the only Southeast Asian coun¬ try able to do so. In 1917 Siam entered World War I on the side of the Allies. Fol¬ lowing a military coup in 1932, it became a constitutional monarchy and was offi¬ cially renamed Thailand in 1939. It was occupied by Japan in World War II. It participated in the Korean War as a member of the UN forces and was allied with South Vietnam in the Vietnam War. The country subse¬ quently became a regional economic powerhouse, though serious social problems also emerged, including a growing gap between rich and poor and a major AIDS epidemic.

Thailand, Gulf of formerly Gulf of Siam Inlet of the South China Sea. Mostly bordering Thailand, though Cambodia and Vietnam form its southeastern shore, it is 300-350 mi (500-560 km) wide and 450 mi (725 km) long. Thailand’s main harbours lie along its shores, its waters are important fishing grounds, and beaches along its coast are popular tourist attractions.

Thalberg, Irving G(rant) (b. May 30, 1899, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.—d. Sept. 14, 1936, Santa Monica, Calif.) U.S. film executive. He suffered from health problems at a young age, and fearing his life would not be a long one, he threw himself into his career, joining Universal Pic¬ tures after completing high school. He soon became Universal’s studio manager in Hollywood. Hired by MGM as head of production in 1925, he became known as the “boy wonder of Hollywood.” He tightly con¬ trolled MGM’s output by supervising script selection and final film edit¬ ing, and he was responsible for the high quality of movies such as The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), and Romeo and Juliet (1936) and for making stars of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald with Naughty Marietta (1935). Thalberg was one of the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Thales of Miletus \ , tha-lez...ml- , le-t3s\ (fl. 6th century bc) Greek phi¬ losopher. None of his writings survive, and no contemporary sources exist. The claim that Thales was the founder of Western philosophy rests pri¬ marily on Aristotle, who wrote that he was the first to suggest a single material substratum for the universe, namely water. Thales’ significance lies in his attempt to explain nature by the simplification of phenomena and in his search for causes within nature itself rather than in the caprices of anthropomorphic gods.

thalidomide Uho-'li-do-.mldX Drug formerly used as a sedative and to prevent morning sickness during pregnancy. Synthesized in 1954, it was introduced in almost 50 countries, including West Germany and Britain, where it became popular because it was effective and huge overdoses were not fatal. In 1961 it was found to cause congenital disorders; when it is

taken in early pregnancy, some 20% of fetuses have phocomelia (defec¬ tive development of the limbs) and other deformities; 5,000-10,000 such babies were born. It was never distributed for clinical use in the U.S. (see Helen Brooke Taussig). Thalidomide appears effective against inflamma¬ tory and autoimmune disorders, including certain late-stage AIDS symp¬ toms, and is licensed for use in such treatments in some countries.

thallus Vtha-bs\ Plant body of algae, fungi (see fungus), and similar simple, plantlike organisms. Composed of filaments or plates of cells, a thallus ranges in size from a single-celled structure to a complex treelike form. The photosynthetic and supportive cells tend to be organized lin¬ early, but a thallus lacks such differentiated specialized structures as stem, leaves, and conducting tissue. Most thallus plants are currently classified as complex protists.

Thames \'temz\ / Battle of the (Oct. 5, 1813) Decisive U.S. victory over the British in the War of 1812. After the British defeat in the Battle of Lake Erie, U.S. troops under Gen. William H. Harrison pursued retreat¬ ing British soldiers across the Ontario peninsula. The British force of 600 regulars and 1,000 Indians under Tecumseh met 3,500 U.S. troops at the Thames River near Moraviantown, Ont. The outnumbered British were quickly defeated, and Tecumseh was killed. The U.S. victory ended the Indian alliance with the British and made Harrison a national hero.

Thames, River ancient Tamesis Principal river of England. It rises in the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire and winds 205 mi (330 km) eastward across south-central England into a great estuary, through which it emp¬ ties into the North Sea. It is tidal for about 65 mi (104 km). Known by the Romans and by early English chroniclers, it has been celebrated by bards throughout history. One of the world’s most important commercial waterways, it is navigable by large vessels to London.

thanatology \ l tha-n3- , ta-b-je\ Description or study of death and dying and of the psychological mechanisms of dealing with them. One influen¬ tial model proposed in 1969 by the psychiatrist Elisabeth Kiibler-Ross (b. 1926) described five basic stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance; however, not all dying persons follow a regular, clearly identifiable series of responses to their situation. Thanatology also exam¬ ines attitudes toward death, the meaning and behaviours of bereavement and grief, and other matters.

Thanatos Vtha-no-.tasX Ancient Greek personification of death. He was the son of Nyx, goddess of night, and brother to Hypnos, god of sleep. He appeared to humans to carry them off to the underworld when the time allotted to them by the Fates had expired. Thanatos was once defeated by Heracles, who wrestled him to save the life of Alcestis, and he was tricked by Sisyphus, who wanted a second chance at life.

Than? \'tha-ne\ dynasty also Al Than! ("Than? family") Ruling family of Qatar. They are from the Tamlm tribe, which migrated eastward from central Arabia to the Qatar peninsula in the mid-19th century. There have been eight leaders from 1868 to the present. The second sheikh, Qasim ibn Muhammad (1878-1913), is considered Qatar’s founder. The seventh sheikh, Khallfah ibn Hamad (r. 1972-95), was instramental in obtaining Qatar’s independence from Britain in 1971 and became the first emir. The clan comprises about two-fifths of the native Qatari population.

Thanksgiving Day U.S. holiday. It originated in the autumn of 1621 when Plymouth governor William Bradford invited neighbouring Indians to join the Pilgrims for a three-day festival of recreation and feasting in gratitude for the bounty of the season, which had been partly enabled by the Indians’ advice. Neither the standard Thanksgiving meal of turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie nor the family orientation of the day reflects the Plymouth event, however. Proclaimed a national holiday in 1863, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November (though it was moved back one week in 1939-41 to extend the Christ¬ mas shopping season). Canada adopted Thanksgiving as a national holi¬ day in 1879; since 1957 it has been celebrated on the second Monday in October.

Thant, U (b. Jan. 22, 1909, Pantanaw, Burma—d. Nov. 25, 1974, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Third secretary-general of the United Nations (1961— 71), the first Asian to hold the post. He entered the University of Yangon, but the death of his father forced him to discontinue his education before he was able to graduate. He taught high school before entering govern¬ ment service. Posted to the UN in 1952, he became Burma’s UN ambas¬ sador in 1957. In 1961 he became acting secretary-general after the death of Dag Hammarskjold; he became permanent secretary-general in 1962.

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1894 I Thapsus ► theatre-in-the-round

While secretary-general, he played a diplomatic role in the Cuban missile crisis, devised a plan to end the Congolese civil war (1962), and sent peacekeeping forces to Cyprus (1964).

Thapsus \'thap-s3s. Battle of (46 bc) Decisive battle in North Africa in the Roman civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey (49-46). Cae¬ sar had laid siege to the seaport of Thapsus, near present-day Teboulba, Tunisia. Pompey was supported by the legions of his father-in-law, Quin¬ tus Metellus Scipio. When Caesar could not restrain his troops, they surged forward and overwhelmed the enemy, slaughtering about 10,000. It was the final blow delivered by Caesar against the forces of Pompey.

Thar Vtar, 't3r\ Desert or Great Indian Desert Region of hot, dry desert, northwestern India and southeastern Pakistan. Its undulating sur¬ face is composed of sand dunes separated by sandy plains and low, bar¬ ren hills. Several saline lakes are found there. Covering some 77,000 sq mi (200,000 sq km), it is bordered by the Indus River plain, the Aravalli Range, the Arabian Sea, and the Punjab plain.

Thargelia \thar-'ge-le-3, thar-'je-le-9\ In Greek religion, a chief Athenian festival of Apollo, celebrated on the sixth and seventh days of Thargelion (April-May). It was named after the first fruits or the first bread from the new wheat. On the first day, one or two men acting as scapegoats were led through Athens, whipped on the genitalia, and driven across the bor¬ der. An official registration of adopted people took place on the second day.

Tharp, Twyla (b. July 1, 1941, Portland, Ind., U.S.) U.S. dancer, direc¬ tor, and choreographer. She danced with Paul Taylor’s company from 1963 to 1965, when she formed her own troupe and began to choreo¬ graph works such as Deuce Coupe (1973), Push Comes to Shove (1976), Baker’s Dozen (1979), Nine Sinatra Songs (1982), and Fait Accompli (1984). In 1988 she dis¬ banded her company and was resi¬ dent choreographer with the American Ballet Theatre (1988-91).

She has also choreographed for the Broadway theatre (including The Catherine Wheel, 1981) and several films (including Hair, 1979, and Amadeus, 1984). Tharp is notable for her humour and particularly for hav¬ ing been one of the first American choreographers to use popular music.

Thasos \'tha-,s6s\ Island, northern Aegean Sea, northeastern Macedonia, Greece. It covers 146 sq mi (379 sq km). It was colonized c. 700 bc by Greeks from Paros who exploited its gold mines and founded a school of sculpture. The Persians seized Thasos in the early 5th century bc; it later came under the authority of Athens as a member of the Delian League. A Macedonian dependency in 202 bc, Thasos passed to Rome in 196 bc. The Turks ruled it from the mid-15th century ad until it was ceded to Greece in 1913. Its industries include boatbuilding, fishing, and tourism, and it has been a base for offshore oil exploration since the 1970s. Many 7th-2nd-century-BC monuments have been found there.

Thatcher, Margaret, Baron¬ ess Thatcher (of Kesteven) orig. Margaret Hilda Roberts

(b. Oct. 13, 1925, Grantham, Lin¬ colnshire, Eng.) British politician and prime minister (1979-90). She earned a degree from the University of Oxford, where she was one of the first woman presidents of the Oxford University Conservative Associa¬ tion, then worked as a research chemist. After her marriage to Denis

Thatcher (1951), she read for the bar and specialized in tax law. She was elected to Parliament in 1959 and served as secretary of state for educa¬ tion and science (1970-74). As a member of the Conservative Party’s newly energetic right wing, she succeeded Edward Heath as party leader in 1975. In 1979 she became Britain’s first woman prime minister. She advocated individual initiative, confronted the labour unions, privatized national industries and utilities and attempted to privatize aspects of health care and education, pursued a strong monetarist policy, and endorsed a firm commitment to NATO. Her landslide victory in 1983 owed partly to her decisive leadership in the Falkland Islands War. A split in party ranks over European monetary and political integration led to her resignation in 1990, by which time she had become Britain’s longest continuously serving prime minister since 1827.

theatre Live performance of dramatic actions in order to tell a story or create a spectacle. The word derives from the Greek theatron (“place of seeing”). Theatre is one of the oldest and most important art forms in cul¬ tures worldwide. While the script is the basic element of theatrical per¬ formance, it also relies in varying degrees on acting, singing, and dancing, as well as on technical aspects of production such as stage design. The¬ atre is thought to have its earliest origins in religious ritual; it often enacts myths or stories central to the belief structure of a culture or creates com¬ edy through travesty of such narratives. In Western civilization, theatre began in ancient Greece and was adapted in Roman times; it was revived in the medieval liturgical dramas and flourished in the Renaissance with the Italian commedia dell'arte and in the 17th—18th centuries with estab¬ lished companies such as the ComiiDIE-Francaise. Varying theatrical forms may evolve to suit the tastes of different audiences (e.g., in Japan, the kabuki of the townspeople and the no theatre of the court). In Europe and the U.S. in the 19th and early 20th centuries theatre was a major source of entertainment for all social classes, with forms ranging from burlesque shows and vaudeville to serious dramas performed in the style of the Mos¬ cow Art Theatre. Though the musicals of Broadway and the farces of Lon¬ don’s West End retain their popular appeal, the rise of television and movies has eroded audiences for live theatre and has tended to limit its spectators to an educated elite. See also little theatre.

theatre Building or space in which performances are given before an audience. It contains an auditorium and stage. In ancient Greece, where Western theatre began (5th century bc), theatres were constructed in natu¬ ral hollows between hills. The audience sat in a tiered semicircle facing the orchestra, a flat circular space where the action took place. Behind the orchestra was the skene. The theatres of Elizabethan England were open to the sky, with the audience looking on from tiered galleries or a court¬ yard. During this period the main innovation was the rectangular thrust stage, surrounded on three sides by spectators. The first permanent indoor theatre was Andrea Palladio’s Olimpico Theatre in Vicenza, Italy (1585). The Famese Theatre in Parma (1618) was designed with a horseshoe¬ shaped auditorium and the first permanent proscenium arch. Baroque Euro¬ pean court theatres followed this arrangement, elaborating on the interior with tiered boxes for royalty. Richard Wagner’s Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, Ger. (1876), with its fan-shaped seating plan, deep orchestra pit, and darkened auditorium, departed from the Baroque stratified auditorium and reintroduced Classical principles that are still in use. The proscenium the¬ atre prevailed in the 17th-20th centuries; though still popular in the 20th century, it was supplemented by other types of theatre, such as the thrust stage and theatre-in-the-round. In Asia, stage arrangements have remained simple, with the audience usually grouped informally around an open space; notable exceptions are the no drama and kabuki of Japan. See also amphitheatre; odeum.

Theatre Guild U.S. theatrical society. Founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner (1890-1962) and others, the group proposed to produce high-quality, noncommercial plays. Its board of directors shared responsibility for choice of plays, management, and production. After the premiere of George Bernard Shaw’s Heartbreak House in 1920, the Guild became his U.S. agent and staged 15 of his plays. It also pro¬ duced successful plays by Eugene O'Neill, Maxwell Anderson, and Robert Sherwood and featured actors such as the Lunts and Helen Hayes. It helped develop the American musical by staging Porgy and Bess (1935), Okla¬ homa! (1943), and Carousel (1945); it also produced the radio series The¬ atre Guild on the Air (1945-53) and presented plays on television.

theatre-in-the-round or arena stage Theatre in which the stage is located in the centre of the auditorium with the audience seated on all sides. The form evolved from Greek theatre and was used in medieval

Margaret Thatcher, 1983.

AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Theatre National Populaire ► theodicy I 1895

times. From the 17th century the proscenium stage limited audience seat¬ ing to the area directly in front of the stage. In the 1930s, plays at Mos¬ cow’s Realistic Theatre were produced in the round and the arena stage began to gain favour in Europe and the U.S. Its advantages are its infor¬ mality and the rapport it creates between audience and actors, but it requires actors to turn constantly to address new sections of the audience.

Theatre National Populaire \ta- , a-tr 5 -na-syo- , nal-p6-p[E- , ler\ (TNP) French national theatre created in 1920 to bring theatre to the gen¬ eral public. Under the direction of its founder, Firmin Gemier (1869-1933), the TNP initially offered productions from the other national companies. In 1951 it established a permanent company under Jean Vilar (1951-63), giv¬ ing 150 performances a year in and around Paris, charging ticket prices competitive with the movies. By 1959 it was as popular as the Comedie- Francaise. In 1972, in an effort to decentralize the theatre, the government transferred its title to a subsidized theatre company in Lyon.

Theatre of Cruelly Theory advanced by Antonin Artaud, who believed the theatre’s function was to rid audiences of the repressive effects of civilization and liberate their instinctual energy. He proposed to do so by shocking them with mythic spectacles that would include groans, screams, pulsating lights, and oversized stage puppets. He described the Theatre of Cruelty in his book The Theatre and Its Double (1938). Though only one of his plays, Les Cenci, was ever produced in accordance with his theory, his ideas influenced avant-garde movements such as the Living Theatre and the Theatre of the Absurd.

Theatre of Fact or documentary theatre Movement to bring social issues to the stage by emphasizing factual information over aes¬ thetic considerations. An outgrowth of the Living Newspaper technique employed in the 1930s by the WPA Federal Theatre Project in the U.S., the form became popular in the 1960s. In Germany Rolf Hochhuth’s The Representative (1963), Peter Weiss’s The Investigation (1965), and Heinar Kipphardt’s In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer (1964) examined recent historical events through authentic documentary sources such as trial transcripts and statistics. The movement influenced later political drama in Europe and the U.S.

Theatre of the Absurd Body of dramatic works of the 1950s and ’60s that expressed the existentialist philosophy of meaninglessness and the absurdity of life. Playwrights such as Arthur Adamov, Edward Albee, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Eugene Ionesco, and Harold Pinter created Absurdist plays without traditional plots and with characters who engaged in circular, purposeless conversations. Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1953), in which two tramps wait for a mysterious man who never arrives, is a classic of the genre.

theatricalism Twentieth-century theatrical movement that emphasized artifice in reaction to 19th-century naturalism. Marked by stylized acting, a stage projecting into the audience, and frank scenic artifices and con¬ ventions, it did not strive to create the illusion of reality but rather to remind the audience of their role as viewers and critics of the artwork in progress before them. Theatricalism was found in the Expressionist, Dadaist, and Surrealist drama of the early 20th century and has contin¬ ued as a current in the modern theatre.

Thebes \'thebz\ biblical No Ancient city, Egypt. Its remains are located on the Banks of the Nile River. In early times it also included Karnak and Luxor; the Valley of the Kings is situated nearby. The earliest monuments in the city itself date from the 11th dynasty (c. 21st century bc), when the rulers of Thebes united Egypt and made Thebes the capital of Upper Egypt. It remained the capital until the end of the Middle Kingdom (c. 18th century bc). It was obscured for two centuries under the rule of vari¬ ous foreign invaders, after which the kings of Thebes restored Egyptian rule in the 16th century bc and again made it the capital. It flourished as Egypt’s political and religious centre throughout the New Kingdom period and was well known for achievements in sculpture and architecture. It began to decline in the 12th century bc and was sacked by Assyrians in the mid-7th century bc, by Persians in the 6th-4th centuries bc, and by Romans c. 30 bc. Its ruins include great temples and tombs, including the Temple of Amon at Karnak (c. 20th century bc), the tomb of Tutankha¬ men in the Valley of the Kings, and the great mortuary temples of Ramses II and Hatshepsut. The region’s antiquities were collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979.

Thebes Greek Thivai \'the-ve\ Ancient city, Boeotia, east-central Greece, one of the chief Greek city-states. Traditionally said to have been

founded by Cadmus, it was the seat of the legendary Oedipus and the set¬ ting for many classic Greek tragedies. The building of its celebrated seven-gated wall is usually attributed to Amphion. It was a centre of Myce¬ naean power in the Bronze Age (c. 1500-1200 bc). Hostility to Athens led it to side with the Persians in the Persian Wars and with Sparta in the Peloponnesian War. Thebes and Sparta subsequently clashed, and the vic¬ torious Spartans occupied it. It revolted c. 380 bc and defeated Sparta at the battles of Tegyra (375 bc) and Leuctra (371 bc). For the next 10 years it was the chief military power in Greece. It joined Athens against Philip II of Macedon and shared the defeat at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 bc. It was sacked by Alexander the Great in 336 and eventually fell to Rome in the 1st century bc. Among the few ancient remains are remnants of the city walls, the Mycenaean palace (c. 1450-1350 bc), and a temple of Apollo.

theft In law, the crime of taking the property or services of another with¬ out consent. Under most statutes, theft encompasses the crimes of larceny, robbery, and burglary. Larceny is the crime of taking and carrying away the goods of another with intent to steal. Grand larceny, or larceny of property of substantial value, is a felony, whereas petty larceny, or lar¬ ceny of less valuable property, is a misdemeanour. The same principle applies to grand theft and petty theft, which need not necessarily involve the “carrying away” of property and may include the theft of services. Robbery is an aggravated form of larceny involving violence or the threat of violence directed against the victim in his presence. Burglary is defined as the breaking and entering of the premises of another with an intent to commit a felony within. Two offenses usually distinguished from theft are EMBEZZLEMENT and FRAUD.

theism View that all observable phenomena are dependent on but dis¬ tinct from one supreme being. The view usually entails the idea that God is beyond human comprehension, perfect and self-sustained, but also peculiarly involved in the world and its events. Theists seek support for their view in rational argument and appeals to experience. Arguments for God’s existence are of four principal types: cosmological, ontological, teleological, or moral. A central issue for theism is reconciling God, usu¬ ally understood as omnipotent and perfect, with the existence of evil. See also AGNOSTICISM, ATHEISM, DEISM, MONOTHEISM, POLYTHEISM, THEODICY.

Themistocles Uhe-'mis-to-.klezN (b. c. 524—d. c. 460 bc) Athenian politician and naval strategist. As archon (493) he built defensible har¬ bours at Piraeus. In 483 he persuaded the assembly to increase the navy, believing it represented Athens’s best chance of warding off Persian invaders. When the invasion of Xerxes I did come, a Greek naval force at first yielded to Persia at Artemisium, but Themistocles lured Xerxes’ remaining ships to their destruction at the Battle of Salamis. Despite his victory, Athens later ostracized the strongly democratic Themistocles (472) as the city’s politics turned reactionary. When Sparta later accused him of complicity with Persia, he fled the Peloponnese and, until his death, served as governor of some Asian Greek cities still under Persian rule.

theocracy \the-'a-kr9-se\ Government by divine guidance or by offi¬ cials who are regarded as divinely guided. In many theocracies, govern¬ ment leaders are members of the clergy, and the state’s legal system is based on religious law. Theocratic rule was typical of early civilizations. The Enlightenment marked the end of theocracy in most Western coun¬ tries. Contemporary examples of theocracies include Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Vatican. See also church and state; divine kingship.

Theocritus Uhe-'a-kro-tosV (b. c. 300, Syracuse, Sicily—d. 260 bc) Greek poet. Little is known of his life. His surviving poems consist of bucolics and mimes, set in the country, and epics, lyrics, and epigrams, set in towns. The bucolics, his most characteristic and influential works, introduced the pastoral convention into poetry and were the sources of Virgil’s Eclogues and much Renaissance poetry and drama. Theocritus’s best-known idylls include Thyrsis, a lament for Daphnis, the shepherd poet of mythology, and Thalysia (“Harvest Festival”), which presents the poet’s friends and rivals in the guise of rustics.

theodicy \the-'a-d3-se\ Argument for the justification of God, concerned with reconciling God’s goodness and justice with the observable facts of evil and suffering in the world. Most such arguments are a necessary component of theism. Under polytheism, the problem is solved by attribut¬ ing evil to a conflict of wills between deities. The solution is less simple in monotheism, and it can take several forms. In some approaches, the per¬ fect world created by God was spoiled by human disobedience or sin. In others, God withdrew after creating the world, which then fell into decay.

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1896 I Theodora ► theology

Theodora (b. c. 497—d. June 28, 548, Constantinople) Byzantine empress, wife of Justinian I. The daughter of a bear keeper at the Hip¬ podrome in Constantinople, she became an actress and the mistress of Justinian. He married her in 525, and when he became emperor in 527 she was proclaimed empress. Probably the most powerful woman in Byzan¬ tine history, she was her husband’s most trusted adviser, sponsoring legal reforms and wielding great influence in diplomacy, military appointments, and internal politics.

Her impassioned speech gave Justin¬ ian the strength to order the brutal suppression of the Nika revolt (532) and save his empire. She recognized the rights of women and ended per¬ secution of Monophysite Christians, with whom she sympathized.

Theodorakis Vhe-o-do-'ra-kisX,

Mikis (b. July 29, 1925, island of Chios, Greece) Greek composer. He studied at the Athens and Paris con¬ servatories. A member of the war¬ time resistance, he remained active in politics, serving several times in the Greek parliament. As a Commu¬ nist Party member, he was arrested during the 1967 military coup and only released in 1970 under international pressure. He is best known out¬ side Greece for his film scores, including Zorba the Greek (1964), Z (1969), and State of Siege (1972), but he also composed much concert music, including seven symphonies, four operas, ballets (including Anti¬ gone, 1959), and more than 1,000 songs. He is esteemed in his homeland as a national hero.

Theodore I Lascaris Vlas-ko-rosV (b. c. 1174—d. November 1221, Nicaea, Nicaean empire) First emperor of Nicaea, the Byzantine government-in-exile during the Crusaders’ occupation of Constantinople. He distinguished himself during the sieges of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade (1203-04). After the Byzantine capital fell, he gathered a band of refugees, first at Brusa and then at Nicaea, and formed a new Byzan¬ tine state. He took the title of emperor in 1208 and successfully defended Nicaea against the Crusaders, the Turks, and his rival emperor David Comnenus. He signed a treaty (c. 1214) with the Latin emperor of Con¬ stantinople defining Nicaea’s boundaries and betrothed his daughter to the heir to the Latin imperial throne.

Theodore II See Tewodros II

Theodore of Canterbury, Saint (b. c. 602, Tarsus, Cilicia, Asia Minor—d. Sept. 19, 690, Canterbury, Kent, Eng.; feast day September 19) Seventh archbishop of Canterbury (668-690). He was sent from Rome to Canterbury, where he helped establish a famous school at the monas¬ tery later known as St. Augustine’s. Theodore organized and centralized the English church, calling its first general synod (672) to end Celtic practices, affirm church doctrine, and divide dioceses. He deposed Wil¬ frid as bishop of York in 677 but restored him in 686; he also made peace between King Aethelred of Mercia and King Ecgfrith of Northumbia.

Theodore of Mopsuestia \,map-su-'es-ch3\ (b. c. 350, Antioch, Syria—d. 428/429, Mopsuestia, Cilicia) Syrian theologian and spiritual head of the school of Antioch. He entered a monastery near Antioch, where he lived and studied until 378. He was ordained in 381 and became bishop of Mopsuestia c. 392. His exegetical writings used scientific, criti¬ cal, philological, and historical methods of analysis that anticipated mod¬ ern scholarship. Theologically, he believed that Christ had two natures, divine and human, in some kind of union. He stressed the literal sense of scripture and opposed allegorical interpretations. The second Council of Constantinople (553) condemned his views, but he was venerated by the Nestorian church as “the Interpreter.” He is said to have introduced into the Nestorian church the doctrine of universal salvation.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park Preserve, west-central North Dakota, U.S. Established in 1947, it commemorates Pres. Theodore Roosevelt’s interest in the American West. The 110-sq-mi (285-sq-km) park

contains several sites along the Little Missouri River, including a petrified for¬ est, Wind Canyon, eroded badlands, and Roosevelt’s Elkhom Ranch cabin.

Theodoret Uhe-'ad-s-roA of Cyrrhus (b. c. 393, Antioch, Syria—d. c. 458/466) Syrian theologian and bishop whose writings were a moder¬ ating influence on the 5th-century Christological disputes. First a monk, he became bishop of Cyrrhus (near Antioch) by 423. Influenced by St. John Chrysostom and Theodore of Mopsuestia, he opposed allegorical inter¬ pretations of scripture and attributed a human nature to Christ. Accused of being a Nestorian heretic, he made conciliatory statements accepting the term “god-bearer” for Mary (thereby stressing Jesus’ divinity). He was declared a heretic nevertheless (449) and was sent into exile. He was par¬ tially vindicated by the Council of Chalcedon (451), which agreed to declare him orthodox provided he condemn his friend Nestorius, and he reluctantly complied.

Theodoric known as Theodoric the Great (b. 454 —d. Aug. 30, 526) King of the Ostrogoths and founder of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy. Sent by the Byzantine emperor Zeno to invade Italy in 488, he made himself sole ruler by 493 and murdered Odoacer by treachery. With Ravenna as his capital he staved off the Franks and Bulgarians, and he held sway over a kingdom that included Sicily, Dalmatia, and some Ger¬ man lands. An Arian (see Arianism), he tolerated Catholicism and pro¬ moted peace between Goths and Romans.

Theodosius I \,the-3-'d6-she-3s\ or Theodosius the Great in full Flavius Theodosius (b. Jan. 11, 347, Cauca, Gallaecia [Spain]—d. Jan. 17, 395, Mediolanum) Roman emperor of the East (379-392) and of East and West (392-395). Born of Christian parents, he served in the military under his father, a general. He distinguished himself against the Sarmatians and was proclaimed coemperor by Gratian to rule in the east¬ ern empire (379). To settle the contentious debate over true Christianity, he adopted the Nicene Creed as the Christian norm (380). He reached a treaty with the Visigoths (382). When the Spanish general Maximus over¬ threw the new coemperor in the western empire (387), Theodosius defeated the usurper (388) and claimed supreme authority over the whole empire (392). He argued with St. Ambrose over the role of the church in imperial affairs but did not grant power to the church. In 392 forces advo¬ cating paganism led by Arbogast and Eugenius took power in Rome. In 394 Theodosius defeated them and claimed the Christian God victorious over the pagan gods.

Theodosius I Boradiotes V.bor-o-'dI-o-.tezX (b. Antioch—d. after 1183, Constantinople) Greek Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople ( 1179— 83). As patriarch, he upheld stringent conversion requirements for con¬ verts from Islam against the wishes of Emperor Manuel I Comnenus. He also opposed Manuel’s overtures to Pope Alexander III and the Latin church of the West, refusing to cooperate with a proposed reunion of the two branches of Christianity. The succeeding emperor forced Theodosius to abdicate.

Theodosius II (b. April 10,401, Constantinople—d. July 28,450) East¬ ern Roman emperor (408-450). In 402 he was made coemperor with his father, Arcadius (son of Theodosius I), then became sole ruler of the East at age seven, initially under a regency. A gentle, scholarly man, he allowed relatives and ministers to dominate his government. His generals twice repelled the Persians (422, 447) but failed to evict the Vandals from Roman Africa (429) and to prevent Attila’s invasions (441-443,447). The Nestorian heresy caused internal upheaval. Theodosius was credited with building the wall around Constantinople (413), founding the University of Constantinople (425), and promulgating the Theodosian Code (438).

Theodosius of Alexandria (fl. 6th century—d. June 566, Constan¬ tinople) Patriarch of Constantinople (535-566). A moderate Monophys¬ ite, he was opposed by more extreme Monophysites and did not accept the orthodox position expressed by the Council of Chalcedon (451). He was prevented from administering his patriarchate by his detention in Constantinople, but he influenced the independent churches in Antioch, Syria, and Egypt. See Monophysite heresy.

theology Study of the nature of God and the relationship of the human and divine. The term was first used in the works of Plato and other Greek philosophers to refer to the teaching of myth, but the discipline expanded within Christianity and has found application in all theistic religions (see theism). It examines doctrines concerning such subjects as sin, faith, and grace and considers the terms of God’s covenant with humankind in mat¬ ters such as salvation and eschatology. Theology typically takes for

Theodora, detail of a Byzantine mosaic in the church of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy.

ANDRE HELD/J.P. ZIOLO

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Theophilus ► thermal expansion I 1897

granted the authority of a religious teacher or the validity of a religious experience. It is distinguished from philosophy in being concerned with justifying and explicating a faith, rather than questioning the underlying assumptions of such faith, but it often employs quasi-philosophical meth¬ ods.

Theophilus \the-'a-f3-los\ (Presbyter) pseudonym of Roger of

Helmarshausen (fl. 12th century) German monk and writer. He is known for his De Diversis Artibus (c. 1110-40), a thorough account of the techniques of almost all the known crafts of the early 12th century. From his writings it can be deduced that he was a practicing craftsman of the Benedictine order.

theorem In mathematics or logic, a statement whose validity has been established or proved. It consists of a hypothesis and a conclusion, begin¬ ning with certain assumptions that are necessary and sufficient to estab¬ lish a result. A system of theorems that build on and augment each other constitutes a theory. Within any theory, however, only statements that are essential, important, or of special interest are called theorems. Less impor¬ tant statements, usually stepping-stones in proofs of more important results, are called lemmas. A statement proved as a direct consequence of a theorem is a corollary of the theorem. Some theorems (and even lem¬ mas and corollaries) are singled out and given titles (e.g., Godel's theo¬ rem, FUNDAMENTAL THEOREM OF ALGEBRA, FUNDAMENTAL THEOREM OF CALCULUS,

Pythagorean theorem).

theosophy \the-'a-so-fe\ Religious philosophy with mystical concerns that can be traced to the ancient world. It holds that God, whose essence pervades the universe as an absolute reality, can be known only through mystical experience (see mysticism). It is characterized by esoteric doctrine and an interest in occult phenomena. Theosophical beliefs are found in Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, and among students of the Kabbala, but Jakob Bohme, who developed a complete theosophical system, is often called the father of modern theosophy. Today theosophy is associated with the Theo¬ sophical Society, founded by Helena Blavatsky in 1875. See also Annie Besant.

Thera See Thira

Theramenes Vthe-'ra-mo-.nezX (d. 404/403 bc, Athens) Athenian poli¬ tician. In 411 he helped install the Council of the Four Hundred. Sent to quell an insurrection at Piraeus, he instead led the mutineers in deposing the Council. In 410 he helped Alcibiades defeat the Peloponnesian navy at Cyzicus (see Peloponnesian War). Under Alcibiades he taxed shipping from the Black Sea, helping the economy of Athens to recover and help¬ ing restore full constitutional government. During the siege of Athens (405/404) he was sent to deal with Lysander and negotiated terms of capitu¬ lation as Athens underwent three months of starvation. A leader of the Thirty Tyrants installed by Lysander, he fell out with Critias and was forced to drink hemlock.

Therapeutae Vher-o-'pyii-teV Greek "Worshipers" Sect of Jewish ascetics believed to have settled along Lake Mareotis near Alexandria in the 1st century ad. Their origin and fate are unknown, and the only account of them is attributed to Philo Judaeus. They shared with the Ess- enes a dualistic view of the body and soul (see dualism) but differed from them in that their objective was “wisdom.” They viewed the scriptures as allegorical. Devoting themselves entirely to prayer and spiritual exercise, members lived in isolation for six days of the week and met on the Sab¬ bath for discourse and a common meal.

therapeutics \,ther-3-'pyu-tiks\ Treatment and care to combat disease or alleviate pain or injury. Its tools include drugs, surgery, radiation therapy, mechanical devices, diet, and psychiatry. Treatment may be active, to cure a disease (requiring no further treatment after recovery), treat it long-term, or heal a wound; symptomatic, to relieve symptoms until the immune system heals the body; supportive, to keep body functions going until the disease clears; or palliative, to minimize discomfort for patients with no chance of recovery. It almost always includes prevention, usually tertiary (see preventive medicine). Therapeutic measures can be cho¬ sen, combined, and tailored based on accurate diagnosis to fit each patient. See also alternative medicine; chemotherapy; holistic medicine; hydrotherapy;

NUCLEAR MEDICINE; OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY; PHYSICAL MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION;

psychotherapy; respiratory therapy.

Theravada \,ter-3-'va-d3\ Major form of Buddhism, prevalent in Myan¬ mar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. It is the only survivor among the Hinayana schools of Buddhism, and it is generally regarded as

the oldest, most orthodox, and most conservative form of Buddhism. It is relatively uninfluenced by other indigenous belief systems. It is believed to have survived intact from the 500 Elders, who followed in the tradi¬ tion of the monks of the first Buddhist sangha. Theravada has no hierar¬ chical authority structure, though seniority is respected in the sangha. It accepts the Pali canon (see Tripitaka) as authoritative scripture. Therava- dins revere the historical Buddha but do not recognize the various celes¬ tial buddhas and ancillary gods associated with Mahayana Buddhism.

Therese of Lisieux \lez-'yoe\/ Saint orig. Marie-Francoise- Therese Martin (b. Jan. 2, 1873, Alen^on, France—d. Sept. 30, 1897, Lisieux; canonized May 17, 1925; feast day October 1) French Carmelite nun and Doctor of the Church. Born into a devout Roman Catholic fam¬ ily, she entered the convent at Lisieux at age 15, where she was plagued by depression and guilt but was known for her sweetness of temper. At the insistence of the prioress, she wrote an account of her spiritual devel¬ opment, in which she called for an absolute and childlike surrender to God, which she called the Little Way. After her death from tuberculosis at age 24, the book was published as Story of a Soul (1898) and became widely popular, and her burial site at Lisieux became a place of pilgrim¬ age.

Theresienstadt \te-'ra-ze-3n-,shtat\ Nazi concentration camp in World War II. Originally a town in northern Bohemia (now in the Czech Repub¬ lic), it became a walled ghetto for Jews in 1941. After the small non- Jewish population was evacuated in 1942, Jewish captives were shipped there from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, and The Neth¬ erlands. Of the approximately 144,000 Jews sent to Theresienstadt, some 33,000 died in the dense crowding of the ghetto, and 88,000 were shipped on to extermination camps, especially Auschwitz. By the end of World War II, only 19,000 were alive. After the war, the town was resurrected under its Czech name, Terezfn.

thermae \'th9r-me\ Public bathing complex of ancient Rome, designed for relaxation and social activity as well as bathing. The Romans devel¬ oped public baths to a high degree of sophistication and standardization. They consisted of a large open garden surrounded by subsidiary club rooms and a main block that contained three large bath chambers—hot room, steam room, and warm room—and smaller bathrooms, cold room, and courts for exercise. Imperial thermae, such as the Baths of Caracalla (ad 216), were immense and opulently furnished. Service was supplied by slaves moving through underground passageways. Heating was accom¬ plished by circulating heated air from a fire under the floor. Lighting of the enormous rooms was provided by an ingenious system of clerestory windows.

thermal conduction Transfer of heat energy resulting from differ¬ ences in temperature between adjacent bodies or adjacent parts of a body. In the absence of a heat pump, the energy will flow from a region of higher temperature to a region of lower temperature. The transfer of energy occurs as a result of collision among the particles of the matter involved. The rate of transfer of energy is proportional to the cross-sectional area of contact and to the difference in temperature between the two regions. A substance of high thermal conductivity, such as copper, is a good ther¬ mal conductor; one with low thermal conductivity, such as wood, is a poor thermal conductor. See also convection, radiation.

thermal energy Internal energy of a system in thermodynamic equi¬ librium (see thermodynamics) by virtue of its temperature. A hot body has more thermal energy than a similar cold body, but a large tub of cold water may have more thermal energy than a cup of boiling water. Thermal energy can be transferred from one body, usually hotter, to a second body, usually colder, in three ways: conduction (see thermal conduction), con¬ vection, and RADIATION.

thermal expansion Increase in volume of a material as its tempera¬ ture is increased, usually expressed as a fractional change in dimensions per unit temperature change. When the material is a solid, thermal expan¬ sion is usually described in terms of change in length, height, or thick¬ ness. If a crystalline solid has the same structural configuration throughout, the expansion will be uniform in all dimensions. Otherwise, there may be different expansion coefficients and the solid will change shape as the temperature increases. If the material is a fluid, it is more useful to describe the expansion in terms of a change in volume. Because the bonding forces among atoms and molecules vary from material to material, expansion coefficients are characteristic of elements and com¬ pounds.

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1898 I thermal radiation ► Thespis

thermal radiation Process by which energy is emitted by a warm surface. The energy is electromagnetic radiation and so travels at the speed of light and does not require a medium to carry it. Thermal radiation ranges in frequency from infrared rays through visible light to ultraviolet rays. The intensity and frequency distribution of the emitted rays are determined by the nature and temperature of the emitting surface; in gen¬ eral, the hotter the object, the shorter the wavelength. A hotter object is a better emitter than a cooler one, and a blackened surface is a better emit¬ ter than a silvered one. An example of thermal radiation is the heating of the Earth by the Sun.

thermal spring See hot spring

Thermidorian Reaction (1794) Revolt in the French Revolution against the Reign of Terror that was initiated on 9 Thermidor (July 27). Weary of the mounting executions (1,300 in June alone), deputies in the National Convention decreed the arrest of Maximilien Robespierre, Louis de Saint-Just, and other members of the Committee of Public Safety. They and others were guillotined, inaugurating a brief “White Terror” against the radical Jacobin Club. The Directory period followed soon afterward.

thermocouple or thermal junction or thermoelectric ther¬ mometer Temperature-measuring instrument consisting of two wires of different metals joined at each end. One junction is placed where the temperature is to be measured, and the other is kept at a constant lower (reference) temperature. A measuring instrument is connected in the elec¬ trical circuit. The temperature difference causes the development of an electromotive force that is approximately proportional to the difference between the temperatures of the two junctions. Temperature can be read from standard tables, or the instrument can be calibrated to display tem¬ perature directly.

thermodynamics Study of the relationships among heat, work, tem¬ perature, and energy. Any physical system will spontaneously approach an equilibrium that can be described by specifying its properties, such as pres¬ sure, temperature, or chemical composition. If external constraints are allowed to change, these properties generally change. The three laws of thermodynamics describe these changes and predict the equilibrium state of the system. The first law states that whenever energy is converted from one form to another, the total quantity of energy remains the same. The second law states that, in a closed system, the entropy of the system does not decrease. The third law states that, as a system approaches absolute zero, further extraction of energy becomes more and more difficult, even¬ tually becoming theoretically impossible.

thermoluminescence Emission of light from certain heated sub¬ stances as a result of previous exposure to high-energy radiation. The radiation causes displacement of electrons within the crystal lattice of the substance. Upon heating, the trapped electrons return to their normal, lower-energy positions, releasing energy in the process. The longer the substance is exposed to radiation, the greater is the energy released. By measuring the amount of light given off, the duration of exposure to radiation can be determined; thus, thermoluminescence has been used to determine the age of various minerals and archaeological artifacts.

thermometry Uhor-'ma-mo-treX Science of measuring the temperature of a system or the ability of a system to transfer heat to another system. Temperature measurement is important to a wide range of activities, including manufacturing, scientific research, and medicine.

thermonuclear bomb See hydrogen bomb thermonuclear weapon See nuclear weapon

Thermopylae Uhor-'ma-po-leV, Battle of Battle in northern Greece (480 bc) in the Persian Wars. The Greek forces, mostly Spartan, were led by Leonidas. After three days of holding their own against the Persian king Xerxes I and his vast southward-advancing army, the Greeks were betrayed, and the Persians were able to outflank them. Sending the main army in retreat, Leonidas and a small contingent remained behind to resist the advance and were killed to the last man.

thermoreception Sensory capacity (see sense) to detect the tempera¬ ture of the environment and the body. It helps keep body temperature stable by regulating autonomic responses to temperature changes (see homeostasis). Temperature sensations are generated by separate heat and cold receptors (nerve endings) in the skin. Blood-sucking insects and some snakes (e.g., the pit viper) locate prey by its thermal radiation.

thermostat Device that detects temperature changes for the purpose of maintaining the temperature of an enclosed area essentially constant. The thermostat generates signals, usually electrical, to activate relays, valves, switches, and so on when the temperature rises above or falls below the desired value. Thermostats are used to control the flow of fuel to a burner, of electric current to a heating or cooling unit, or of a heated or cooled gas or liquid into the area it serves. They are also used in fire-detection warning systems.

theropod Vthir-s-.padX Any species of bipedal, carnivorous saurischian in the suborder Theropoda. The chicken-sized Compsognathus,the small¬ est known adult dinosaur, probably weighed 2-4 lb (1-2 kg); the tyran- nosaurs weighed tons. The theropods also included Allosaurus, Deinonychus, Megalosaurus, Oviraptor, and Velociraptor. Theropod remains recovered have been from the Late Triassic through the Late Cre¬ taceous Epoch (227-65 million years ago) from all continents except Ant¬ arctica. Their well-developed hind legs provided support and locomotion; their short forelimbs had mobile hands, probably for grasping and tear¬ ing prey. Despite the group’s name, which means “beast (i.e., mammal) foot,” theropod feet usually resembled those of birds. It is widely believed that all modern birds are descended from one line of small theropods.

Theseum \thi-'se-9m\ Temple in Athens dedicated to Hephaestus and Athena as patrons of the arts and crafts. Built c. 450 bc, it is slightly older than the Parthenon. Some of its sculptures represent the exploits of The¬ seus (the source of its traditional name), though reconstructed fragments of its ornamentation reveal that its theme was actually the apotheosis of Heracles. It is surrounded by a single row of Doric columns, with 13 at the sides and six at the ends. It is the world’s best-preserved ancient Greek temple, largely because of its medieval conversion to a Christian church.

Theseus Vthe-se-ss, 'thes-,yus\ Hero of ancient Greek legend. He was the son of Aegeus, king of Athens.

On his journey to Athens, he slew many legendary villains, including Sinis, Sciron, and Procrustes. In Ath¬ ens he found Aegeus married to Medea; she recognized him before her husband did and tried to poison him but failed, and Aegeus declared him heir to the throne. In Crete The¬ seus met Ariadne and slew the Mino¬ taur; on returning to Athens, he forgot to replace the ship’s black sail with a white one signaling his vic¬ tory, and Aegeus threw himself from the Acropolis in grief. Theseus went on to unite and extend the borders of Attica. He captured the Amazon prin¬ cess Antiope (Hippolyte), with the result that the Amazons attacked Athens and Antiope was killed while defending it. He abducted the child Helen and attempted to steal Persephone from Hades, but he was confined in the underworld until his rescue by Heracles. He died when the king of Scyros threw him from a cliff.

thesis play See problem play

Thesmophoria V.thez-ms-'for-e-sX In Greek reugion, a festival held in honor of Demeter Thesmophoros. The celebrants were free married women who had observed chastity for several days and abstained from certain foods. Pigs were thrown into an underground chamber, where they were eaten by snakes. The uneaten, rotted remains were brought up and laid on an altar; if mixed with seeds they were believed to ensure a good crop.

Thespiae \'thes-pe-,e\ Ancient town, Boeotia, eastern central Greece. It was the site of temples and festivals of the Muses and of Praxiteles' famous statue of Eros. It is important in Greek history chiefly as an enemy of nearby Thebes. Its citizens fought the Persians with Spartan forces under Leonidas at the battles of Thermopylae in 480 bc and Plataea in 479. It served Sparta as a base against Thebes 379-372 bc. The Thebans destroyed it in 371 bc, but it was soon rebuilt. It was an important Boeotian town under the Roman empire.

Thespis \thes-pds\ (fl. 6th century bc, Athens) Greek poet, often con¬ sidered the “inventor of tragedy.” He is the first recorded winner (c. 534

Theseus killing the Minotaur, detail of a vase painting by the Cleophrades Painter, 6th century bc; in the British Museum.

COURTESY OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Thessaloniki ► Third Republic I 1899

bc) of a prize for tragedy at the Great Dionysia, a drama festival. Accord¬ ing to the rhetorician Themistius, Aristotle said that tragedy in its earliest stage was entirely choral until the prologue and speeches were first intro¬ duced by Thespis. Thespis, according to Themistius’s account, was thus the first “actor,” and tragic dialogue began when he exchanged words with the leader of the chorus.

Thessaloniki \,the-sa-lo-'ne-ke\ formerly Salonika \s3-Ta-ni-ka\ Seaport (pop., 2001: 363,987), Macedonia, Greece. Founded in 316 bc, it became the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia in 146 bc and grew to great importance. The apostle Paul (see St. Paul) visited c. ad 49-50, and he later addressed epistles to converts there. During the time of the Byzantine Empire, it prospered despite repeated attacks by Avars and Slavs. It was part of the Ottoman Empire from 1430 to 1912. Thes¬ saloniki was the headquarters of the Young Turk movement in 1908 and was returned to Greece in 1913. It was an important Allied base in World War I and was occupied by the Germans in World War II. It is Greece’s second largest city.

Thessaly Vthe-S9-Ie\ Historical region and current administrative region (pop., 2001: 754,893), east-central Greece. The ancient region corre¬ sponded roughly to the modern one. Mount Olympus rises in the northeast. Thessaly is drained by the Pinios River. It was the site of many cultures in the 3rd-2nd millennia bc; by c. 1000 bc Greeks had established power there. Incorporated into the Roman province of Macedon in the 2nd cen¬ tury bc, it was made a separate Roman province in the 4th century ad. In the 7th—13th centuries it was controlled by Slavs, Saracens, Bulgars, and Normans. In the late 14th century it passed to the Turks; it was returned to Greece in 1881. It saw heavy fighting between Allied and Axis forces in 1941.

Thetis \'the-tas\ In Greek mythology, a Nereid loved by both Zeus and Poseidon. When it was revealed that Thetis was destined to bear a son who would be mightier than his father, the two gods gave her to Peleus, king of the Myrmidons. Unwilling to wed a mortal, Thetis resisted Peleus’ advances by changing into various shapes, but Peleus finally captured and married her. Their child was Achilles. Some legends relate that she bore seven children, all of whom perished either when she tried to render them immortal or when she killed them as the offspring of a forced marriage.

thiamin Vthl-o-moM or vitamin B| Organic compound, part of the vitamin B complex, necessary in carbohydrate metabolism. It carries out these functions in its active form, as a component of the coenzyme thia¬ min pyrophosphate. Its molecular structure includes a substituted pyridine ring and a thiazole ring. Thiamin is found most abundantly in whole cereal grains and certain other seeds. Deficiency leads to beriberi.

Thiers \te-'er\, (Louis-) Adolphe (b. April 18, 1797, Marseille, France—d. Sept. 3, 1877, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris) French politician and historian. He went to Paris in 1821 as a journalist and cofounded the opposition newspaper National in 1830. In the July Revo¬ lution he supported Louis- Philippe and served as minister of the interior (1832, 1834-36) and premier and foreign minister (1836, 1840). A leader of the conservative moderates, he crushed all insurrections. Following the February Revolution, he helped elect Louis-Napoleon (later Napoleon III) president of the Second Republic. As a leader of the opposition (1863-70), he attacked Napoleon Ill’s imperial policies. As president of the Third Republic (1871-73), he negotiated the end of the Franco-Prussian War and restored domestic order by crushing the Paris Commune. He also wrote major historical works, most importantly the huge History of the French Revolution (10 vol., 1823-27) and History of the Consulate and the Empire (20 vol., 1845-62).

Thimann Vthl-monV, Kenneth V(ivian) (b. Aug. 5, 1904, Ashford, Kent, Eng.—d. Jan. 15,1997, Haverford, Pa., U.S.) British-born U.S. plant physiologist. He received his Ph.D. from Imperial College in London. In 1934 he obtained and isolated pure auxin, an important plant-growth hor¬ mone and, with several coworkers, proved that auxin promotes cell elon¬ gation, formation of roots, and growth of buds, discoveries that led to the development of a widely used synthetic auxin, 2,4-D. Use of this and simi¬ lar chemicals can prevent the premature falling of fruit and stimulate cut stems to grow abundant roots; because high concentrations of auxins are toxic to most plants, synthetic auxins are also effective weed killers.

Thimphu \thim-'pu\ Town (pop., 1999 est.: 28,000), capital of Bhutan. It lies on the Raidak River in the Himalayas. It was designated the official seat of government in 1962. The Tashi Chho castle, a traditional fortified

monastery and one of the finest examples of traditional Bhutanese archi¬ tecture, houses the offices of the royal government. The local economy is based on agriculture and lumbering.

thin-layer chromatography (TLC) Type of chromatography using as the stationary phase a thin layer (0.01 inch [0.25 mm]) of a special finely ground matrix (silica gel, alumina, or similar material) coated on a glass plate or incorporated in a plastic film. Solutions of the mixtures to be analyzed are spotted near one edge. Solutions of reference compounds are similarly applied. The edge of the plate is then dipped in a solvent. The solvent travels up the matrix by capillarity, moving the components of the samples at various rates because of their different degrees of attach¬ ment to the matrix and solubility in the developing solvent. The compo¬ nents, visible as separated spots, are identified by comparing the distances they have traveled with those of the known reference materials. TLC is useful for biological mixtures, especially lipids in animal or vegetable tis¬ sues and isoprenoids and essential oils found in flowers and other parts of plants. The matrices withstand strong solvents and developers better than the paper used in paper chromatography.

think tank Institute, corporation, or group organized for interdiscipli¬ nary research, usually conducted for governmental and commercial cli¬ ents. Projects for government clients often involve social policy planning and national defense. Commercial projects include developing and test¬ ing new technologies and new products. Funding sources include endow¬ ments, contracts, private donations, and sales of reports. See also RAND Corp.

thinking or thought Action of using one’s mind to produce thoughts, or covert symbolic responses to stimuli. Theories of thought and thought processes have concentrated largely on directed thinking, including prob¬ lem solving. At the beginning of the 20th century, researchers focused on studying mental associations. Theorists of Gestalt psychology in the 1920s and ’30s believed the elements of thought to be in the nature of patterns elicited from experience. Today these elements are often regarded as bits of information undergoing processing. See also cognitive psychology, INFORMATION PROCESSING.

Thira \'the-ra\ ancient Thera Vthir-sX formerly Santorini Island, southern Cyclades, Greece. The remaining half of an exploded volcano, it surrounds a lagoon with volcanic cliffs rising to almost 1,000 ft (300 m). It was settled in the Bronze Age; Minoan remains date to before 2000 bc. One of the largest known volcanic eruptions occurred on the island c. 1500 bc, depositing ash and pumice as far away as Egypt and Israel. The eruption has been linked to such phenomena as the miracles of the Exodus and the sinking of Atlantis. Excavations have revealed a rich Minoan city buried under the volcanic debris. It was resettled by Dorian invaders c. 1000 bc.

Third Estate French Tiers Etat In French history, one of the three orders (with the nobility and the clergy) of the Estates-General before the French Revolution. The unprivileged order, it represented the great major¬ ity of the people. Its transformation with the Tennis Court Oath into a National Assembly in 1789 marked the beginning of the Revolution.

Third International See Comintern

Third Reich Vrik\ Official designation for the Nazi Party’s regime in Germany from January 1933 to May 1945. The name reflects Adolf Hit¬ ler’s conception of his expansionist regime—which he predicted would last 1,000 years—as the presumed successor of the Holy Roman Empire (800-1806, the First Reich) and the German empire under the Hohenzol- lern dynasty (1871-1918, the Second Reich).

Third Republic French government (1870-1940). After the fall of the Second Empire and the suppression of the Paris Commune, the new Consti¬ tutional Laws of 1875 were adopted, establishing a regime based on par¬ liamentary supremacy. Despite its series of short-lived governments, the Third Republic was marked by social stability (except for the Alfred Drey¬ fus affair), industrialization, and establishment of a professional civil ser¬ vice. It ended with the fall of France to the Germans in 1940. Presidents of the Third Republic included Adolphe Thiers (1871-73), Maurice de Mac- Mahon (1873-79), Jules Grevy (1879-87), Sadi Carnot (1887-94), Felix Faure (1895-99), Emile Loubet (1899-1906), Armand Fallieres (1906- 13), Raymond Poincare (1913-20), Alexandre Millerand (1920-24), Gaston Doumergue (1924-31), and Albert Lebrun (1932-40). Other notable lead¬ ers included Leon Blum, Georges Boulanger, Aristide Briand, Georges Clem- enceau, Edouard Daladier, Jules Ferry, Leon Gambetta, Edouard Herriot, Jean Jaures, Pierre Laval, Philippe Petain, and Paul Reynaud.

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1900 I Third Section ► Thomas

Third Section or Third Department Office created in 1826 by Tsar Nicholas I to conduct secret police operations. Designed and headed (1826-44) by Count Aleksandr Benckendorff (1783-1844), it gathered information on political dissidents and banished suspected political crimi¬ nals to remote regions. It collaborated with the Corps of Gendarmes (formed in 1836), a military force that operated throughout Russia, and with a network of spies and informers. The department grew increasingly repressive, and in the 1870s it arrested many Narodniks (Populists) who agitated among the peasantry. It was abolished in 1880, and its functions were transferred to the police of the interior ministry.

third world Political designation originally used (1963) to describe those states not part of the first world—the capitalist, economically devel¬ oped states led by the U.S.—or the second world—the communist states led by the Soviet Union. The third world principally consists of the devel¬ oping world, former colonies of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. With the end of the Cold War and the increased economic competitiveness of some developing countries, the term has lost its analytic clarity.

Thirteen Articles of Faith or Thirteen Principles of Faith Sum¬ mary of the basic tenets of Judaism. It was formulated by Moses Maimonides in his commentary on the Mishna, in an effort to put forth true concepts of God and faith as a tool in avoiding error. Though presented as dogma, his statement was a personal concept and has been much debated and revised. The articles state various doctrines concerning the nature of God, the law, and Moses, and they affirm that the Messiah is coming and that the dead will rise. All versions include the hymn “Yigdal,” which is part of most Jewish prayer services.

Thirty Tyrants (404—403 bc) SpARTAN-imposed oligarchy that ruled Ath¬ ens after the Peloponnesian War. Thirty commissioners were appointed to the oligarchy, which had an extremist conservative core, led by Critias. Their oppressive regime fostered a bloody purge, in which perhaps 1,500 residents were killed. Many moderates fled the city; gathering a force, they returned to defeat the tyrants’ forces in a battle at Piraeus in 403. The 30 fled and were killed off over the next few years.

Thirty Years'War (1618-48) Series of intermittent conflicts in Europe fought for various reasons, including religious, dynastic, territorial, and commercial rivalries. The overall war was mainly a struggle between the Habsburg-controlled Holy Roman Empire and the Protestant principali¬ ties that relied on the chief anti-Catholic powers of Sweden and the Neth¬ erlands. It also involved the rivalry of France with the Habsburg powers, which formed anti-French alliances. The conflicts began in 1618 when the future Emperor Ferdinand II tried to impose Roman Catholicism on his domains and the Protestant nobles rebelled; the war was sparked by the Defenestration of Prague. The battlefield centred on the principalities in Germany, which suffered severely from plundering armies. Early suc¬ cesses by the Catholic League were countered by military gains by Swe¬ den. When the bloodshed ended with the Peace of Westphalia (1648), the balance of power in Europe had been radically changed. France emerged as the chief Western power, and states of the Holy Roman Empire were granted full sovereignty, establishing a framework for a modern Europe of sovereign states.

Thiruvananthapuram formerly Trivandrum Vtro-'van-dranA Sea¬ port (pop., 2001: 744,983), capital of Kerala state, southwestern India. The community became prominent when it was made capital of the kingdom of Travancore in 1745. A large fort contains several palaces and a Vaish- nava temple, which is a noted pilgrimage centre. Its cultural amenities include the University of Kerala (1937).

thistle Weedy species of Cirsium, Carduus, Echinops, Sonchus, and other plant genera of the composite family. The term usually refers to prickly leaved species of Carduus and Cirsium, which have dense heads of small, usually pink or purple flowers. Because they have spiny stems and flower heads without ray flowers, Carduus species are called plumeless thistles. Canadian thistle ( Cirsium arvense) is an attractive but troublesome weed in agricultural areas of North America. The thistle is the national emblem of Scotland.

Thjorsa River Vthy6r-,sau\ River, Iceland. Carrying meltwater from several glaciers, it flows southwest for 143 mi (230 km) to discharge into the Atlantic Ocean. It is the country’s longest river; its lower third flows through an extensive farming region. It is Iceland’s main source of hydro¬ electric power.

Thocmectony See Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins

Thomas, Clarence (b. June 23, 1948, Pinpoint, near Savannah, Ga., U.S.) U.S. jurist. He graduated from Yale Law School and served as assis¬ tant attorney general in Missouri (1974-77), lawyer for Monsanto Co. (1977-79), legislative assistant to Sen. John Danforth (1979-81), assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education (1981-82), and chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) (1982-90). Pres. George Bush appointed him to the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1990 and then to the Supreme Court of the United States; he thereby became the sec¬ ond African American justice on the court, after Thurgood Marshall. His 1991 confirmation hearings attracted enormous public interest and media attention, largely because of accusations of sexual harassment by Anita Hill, a law professor and former colleague of Thomas at the EEOC. Thomas denied the charges, and the Senate narrowly voted to confirm him. A quiet presence on the court, he generally follows a predictable pattern in his opinions—conservative, restrained, and suspicious of the reach of the fed¬ eral government into the realm of state and local politics.

Thomas, Dylan (Marlais) (b. Oct. 27, 1914, Swansea, Wales—d. Nov. 9, 1953, New York, N.Y., U.S.)

Welsh poet and prose writer. He left school at age 16 to work as a reporter. His early verse, as in The Map of Love (1939), with rich meta¬ phoric language and emotional intensity, made him famous. In the more accessible Deaths and Entrances (1946), with “Fern Hill,” he often adopts a bardic, oracular voice. In Country Sleep (1952), con¬ taining “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” and Collected Poems (1952) followed. Thomas’s prose includes the comic Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (1940); a play for voices, Under Milk Wood (1954); and the reminiscence A Child’s Christmas in Wales (1955). His sonorous recitations contributed greatly to his fame. Debt and heavy drinking began taking their toll in the late 1930s, and he died of an alcohol overdose while on tour.

Thomas, George H(enry) (b. July 31, 1816, Southampton county, Va., U.S.—d. March 28, 1870, San Francisco, Calif.) U.S. general. He was a graduate of West Point. When the American Civil War broke out, he remained loyal to the Union despite his Southern birth. He commanded an independent force in eastern Kentucky, where he won the first impor¬ tant Union victory in the west in 1862. At the Battle of Chickamauga he organized an unyielding defense, earning promotion to brigadier general and the nickname “the Rock of Chickamauga.” In 1864 he defeated the Confederate forces of Gen. John B. Hood (1831-79) in the Battle of Nashville, earning another promotion and the gratitude of Congress.

Thomas, Helen (b.Aug. 4,1920, Winchester, Ky., U.S.) U.S. journalist. Born to Lebanese immigrant parents, she grew up in Detroit and joined the UPI news agency in Washington, D.C., in 1943. A pioneer in overcoming the limitations on women in the news media, she became known for her bold and tireless pursuit of information. Assigned to the White House in 1961, she became UPI bureau chief there in 1974. She is best known as the reporter traditionally first recognized at presidential press conferences.

Thomas, Isiah (Lord), III (b. April 30, 1961, Chicago, Ill., U.S.) U.S. basketball player, coach, and executive. He led Indiana University to a national collegiate title in 1981. As a guard for the Detroit Pistons (1981— 94), he amassed 9,061 career assists and helped the team win two NBA championships (1989, 1990); he is regarded as one of the greatest point guards of all time. He subsequently worked as general manager for the Toronto Raptors and New York Knicks and coached the Indiana Pacers.

Thomas, Lewis (b. Nov. 25, 1913, Flushing, N.Y., U.S.—d. Dec. 3, 1993, New York City) U.S. physician and author. He attended medical school at Harvard and later taught at various universities. He was presi¬ dent of New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (1973-83). He translated his passionate interest in and wonder at the intricate mys¬ teries of biology into lucid meditations and reflections on biology in award-winning essays. The best-known of his widely read books is The Lives of a Cell (1974, National Book Award).

Dylan Thomas, 1952.

ROLUE MCKENNA

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Thomas ► Thomson I 1901

Thomas, Lowell (Jackson) (b.

U.S.—d. Aug. 29, 1981, Pawling,

N.Y.) U.S. radio commentator, jour¬ nalist, and author. A war correspon¬ dent in Europe and the Middle East while in his 20s, Thomas helped make T.E. Lawrence famous with his exclusive coverage and later with the book With Lawrence in Arabia (1924). He was a preeminent broad¬ caster with CBS from 1930; his radio nightly news was an American insti¬ tution for nearly two generations, and he appeared on television from its earliest days. Out of his lifelong globetrotting came lectures, travel¬ ogues, and more than 50 books of adventure and comment, including Kabluk of the Eskimo (1932) and The Seven Wonders of the World (1956).

Thomas, Norman (Mattoon)

(b. Nov. 20, 1884, Marion, Ohio,

U.S.—d. Dec. 19, 1968, Huntington,

N.Y.) U.S. social reformer and politician. He was ordained a Presbyterian minister and became pastor of New York’s East Harlem Church. He joined the Socialist Party in 1918 and left his parish post to become secretary of the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation. He helped found the American Civil Liberties Union and served as codirector of the League for Industrial Democracy (1922-37). He was the Socialist Party’s candidate for gover¬ nor (1924), for mayor of New York (1925, 1929), and for U.S. president (1928—48), and he headed the party from 1926. After World War II, as chairman of the Postwar World Council, he campaigned for nuclear dis¬ armament.

Thomas, Saint (b. probably Galilee—d. c. ad 53, Madras, India; West¬ ern feast day December 21, feast day in Roman and Syrian Catholic churches July 3, in the Greek church October 6) One of the Twelve Apostles of Christ. He is best known for requiring physical proof of Jesus’ Resurrection before he could believe it, hence the phrase “doubting Tho¬ mas.” When Jesus reappeared and had Thomas touch his wounds, Tho¬ mas became the first person to explicitly acknowledge Jesus’ divinity, saying “My Lord and my God.” His subsequent history is uncertain; he is said to have evangelized Parthia (modern Khorasan) and even India.

Thomas a Becket See Saint Thomas Becket

Thomas a Kempis orig. Thomas Hemerken (b. 1379/80, Kempen, near Diisseldorf, Rhineland—d. Aug. 8, 1471, Agnietenberg, near Zwolle, Bishopric of Utrecht) Christian theologian and probable author of The Imitation of Christ. He went to Deventer, Neth., c. 1392 and joined the Brethren of the Common Life, a community devoted to the care and education of the poor. In 1387 he entered the Augustinian monastery of canons regular at Agnietenberg. He was ordained a priest in 1413 and devoted himself to copying manuscripts and directing novices. He is cred¬ ited with writing The Imitation of Christ, the most influential devotional work in Christian literature after the Bible. Noted for its simple language and style, it emphasizes spiritual over materialistic life and affirms the rewards of a life centred on Christ. The Imitation and his other treatises and sermons are the best representation of the devotio moderna, a new form of religious devotion that arose at the end of the 14th century.

Thomas Aquinas, Saint See Aquinas, Saint Thomas

Thomism Vto-.mi-zonA Philosophical and theological system developed by St. Thomas Aquinas. It holds that the human soul is immortal and is a unique subsistent form, that human knowledge is based on sensory expe¬ rience but also depends on the mind’s reflective capacity, and that all creatures have a natural tendency to love God that can be perfected and elevated by grace and application. In the 20th century, Thomism was developed by Etienne Gilson (1884-1978) and Jacques Maritain. After World War II, Thomists faced three major tasks: to develop an adequate philosophy of science, to account for phenomenological and psychiatric findings, and to evaluate the ontologies of existentialism and naturalism.

Thompson, Dorothy (b. July 9, 1894, Lancaster, N.Y., U.S.—d. Jan. 30, 1961, Lisbon, Port.) U.S. journalist. After World War I she became a

freelance correspondent in Europe.

Her reporting on the Nazis so infuri¬ ated Adolf Hitler that in 1934 she became the first U.S. correspondent expelled from Germany. Her column “On the Record” was exceedingly popular and was syndicated from 1941 to 1958 in as many as 170 daily newspapers. Her many books include I Saw Hitler! (1932), Refu¬ gees (1938), Let the Record Speak (1939), and The Courage to Be Happy (1957). From 1928 to 1942 she was married to the novelist Sin¬ clair Lewis.

Thompson, E(dward)

P(almer) (b. Feb. 3,1924—d. Aug.

28, 1993, Upper Wick, Worcester,

Eng.) British historian. He served in Italy in World War II and taught at the universities of Leeds (1948-65) and Warwick (1965-71). He left the Communist Party in 1956 when Soviet troops crushed the Hungarian uprising but remained a Marxist and socialist all his life. His best-known work is The Making of the English Working Class (1963), an acclaimed study of the period 1780-1832. Among his other books is Whigs and Hunters (1975). From the late 1970s he devoted much of his time to the antinuclear movement.

Thompson, Emma (b. April 15, 1959, London, Eng.) British actress and screenwriter. After graduating from the University of Cambridge, she acted on stage and television and won acclaim in the miniseries Fortunes of War (1987). While married to Kenneth Branagh (1989-94), she appeared in several of his films, including Henry V (1989), Dead Again (1991), and Much Ado About Nothing (1993). She later starred in Howards End (1992, Academy Award), The Remains of the Day (1993), Sense and Sensibility (1995), for which she won an Academy Award for best screen¬ play, and Primary Colors (1998).

Thompson, Hunter S(tockton) (b. July 18, 1937, Louisville, Ky., U.S.—d. Feb. 20, 2005, Woody Creek, Colo.) U.S. journalist. He had run-ins with the law as a young man and served in the U.S. Air Force. In 1965 he infiltrated the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang and published his account, Hell’s Angels, in 1967. His psychedelic-drug romp, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972), is considered a contemporary classic; it was made into a film in 1998. Other books include Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 (1973), The Great Shark Hunt (1979), and Better Than Sex (1994). He created the genre known as “gonzo journal¬ ism,” a style created from (by his own account) accident and desperation, and his writing—idiosyncratic and subjective in the extreme, and often wildly funny—gained him a large underground following. Thompson died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Thomson, J(ohn) Edgar (b. Feb. 10, 1808, Springfield Township, Pa., U.S.—d. May 27, 1874, Philadelphia, Pa.) U.S. civil engineer and railroad executive. He joined the Pennsylvania engineer corps at age 19. In 1847 he was hired as chief engineer of the newly incorporated Penn¬ sylvania Railroad Co., which aimed to compete with trade lines to the west originating in New York and other eastern states. He became its president in 1852 and oversaw construction of a railway that crossed the Alleghenies without using inclined grades. Over the next 22 years, Thom¬ son consolidated a network of lines from Philadelphia to Chicago, expand¬ ing the company’s track from 250 to 6,000 mi (400-10,000 km).

Thomson, Sir J(oseph) J(ohn) (b. Dec. 18, 1856, Cheetham Hill, near Manchester, Eng.—d. Aug. 30, 1940, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire) English physicist. Educated at the University of Cambridge, he taught there at the Cavendish Laboratory (1884-1918), which he developed into a world-renowned institution, and was master of Trinity College (1918— 40). In 1897 he showed that cathode rays are rapidly moving particles, and, by measuring their displacement by electric and magnetic fields, he determined that these particles were nearly 2,000 times less massive than the lightest known atomic particle. Originally called corpuscles by Thom¬ son, the particles are now known as electrons. His discovery helped revo¬ lutionize the knowledge of atomic structure. In 1903 he suggested a discontinuous theory of light, foreshadowing Albert Einstein’s later theory

April 6, 1892, Woodington, Ohio,

Lowell Thomas

BROWN BROTHERS

Dorothy Thompson, 1934.

AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1902 I Thomson ► Thorndike

of photons. He later discovered isotopes and invented mass spectrometry. In 1906 Thomson received a Nobel Prize for his research into the elec¬ trical conductivity of gases. Throughout his life he was noted as an out¬ standing teacher, and seven of his assistants also became Nobel laureates.

Thomson (of Fleet), Roy (Herbert) Thomson, 1st Baron (b.

June 5, 1894, Toronto, Ont., Can.—d. Aug. 4, 1976, London, Eng.) Canadian-British publisher. Thomson began acquiring radio stations and newspapers in Ontario in the 1930s; later he expanded his interests to Britain and the U.S. and added television holdings. In 1952 he bought The Scotsman newspaper and went to Edinburgh to run it. In 1959 he purchased the Kemsley group of newspapers, the largest in Britain, which included the Sunday Times. In 1967 he made his most important purchase, The Times of London, and thereafter made a major investment in it, pro¬ viding it with financial stability. In the 1970s Thomson joined a consor¬ tium that was successful in discovering two oil fields. It sold The Times in 1981 and divested interests in U.K. newspapers in 1995. The acquisi¬ tion of various publishing and other interests continued into the 21st cen¬ tury, and the Thomson Corp. is today one of the largest publishing conglomerates in the world.

Thomson, Virgil (b. Nov. 25, 1896, Kansas City, Mo., U.S.—d. Sept. 30, 1989, New York, N.Y.) U.S. composer and critic. He attended Har¬ vard University, intending to become a pianist and organist. Studying in Paris with Nadia Boulanger (1921), he met the French composers known as Les Six and their circle and began to compose. While residing in Paris (1925^10), he met Gertrude Stein, with whom he wrote the operas Four Saints in Three Acts (1928) and The Mother of Us All (1946), affecting a charmingly naive style. Back in New York City, he served as music critic of the Herald Tribune (1940-54); his gracefully written criticism was respected for its concern with music rather than performers. His other works include the film scores The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936) and The Louisiana Story (1949, Pulitzer Prize).

Thonet \'to-net\, Michael (b. July 2, 1796, Boppard, Trier —d. March 3, 1871, Vienna, Austria) German Austrian pioneer in the industrializa¬ tion of furniture manufacture. He developed a system of steam-bent veneers c. 1830 and created light, curvilinear chairs. By 1856 he had per¬ fected the bending of solid beechwood with heat and began mass pro¬ duction of bentwood furniture. He set up factories in Hungary and Moravia and opened salons from Moscow to Chicago. By 1870 he was producing furniture in hitherto unheard-of quantities. His furniture is still being manufactured today.

Thor Deity, common to all the early as a great, red-bearded warrior of tre¬ mendous strength. The son of Odin ( according to some legends) and Jord, the earth goddess, he was the implacable foe of the harmful race of giants but was benevolent toward humans. His name is the Germanic word for thunder. His great weapon was his hammer, Mjollnir. His great¬ est enemy was the world serpent Jor- mungand, which he was destined to kill, and be killed by, in the Rag- narok. Thursday is named for Thor.

Thor rocket Missile initially devel¬ oped by the U.S. Air Force as an intermediate-range ballistic missile.

It became operational in 1958 and was later modified to serve as the first stage of launch vehicles for sev¬ eral spacecraft. The Thor missile force was withdrawn in 1963. For space launching, three small auxil¬ iary motors were strapped to a Thor rocket, and this resulted in a thrust nearly twice as powerful as the origi¬ nal.

thoracic \th9-'ra-sik\ cavity or chest cavity Second largest hollow space of the body, enclosed by the ribs, vertebral column, and breastbone and separated from the abdominal cavity by the diaphragm. It contains the lungs and bronchi, part of the esophagus and trachea, and the heart and

major blood vessels. A membrane called the pleura lines the cavity (pari¬ etal pleura) and continues over the lung (visceral pleura) and the rest of the cavity’s contents, defining a space called the mediastinum. Disorders include blood (hemothorax) or air (pneumothorax, which can lead to atelectasis) in the pleural cavity and inflammation of the pleura (pleurisy).

Thoreau \th3-'ro\, Henry David (b. July 12, 1817, Concord, Mass., U.S.—d. May 6, 1862, Concord)

U.S. thinker, essayist, and naturalist.

Thoreau graduated from Harvard University and taught school for sev¬ eral years before leaving his job to become a poet of nature. Back in Concord, he came under the influ¬ ence of Ralph Waldo Emerson and began to publish pieces in the Tran- scendentalist magazine The Dial. In the years 1845-47, to demonstrate how satisfying a simple life could be, he lived in a hut beside Concord’s Walden Pond; essays recording his daily life were assembled for his masterwork, Walden (1854). His A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849) was the only other book he published in his lifetime. He reflected on a night he spent in jail protesting the Mexican-American War in the essay “Civil Disobedi¬ ence” (1849), which would later influence such figures as Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. In later years his interest in Tran¬ scendentalism waned, and he became a dedicated abolitionist. His many nature writings and records of his wanderings in Canada, Maine, and Cape Cod display the mind of a keen naturalist. After his death his collected writings were published in 20 volumes, and further writings have contin¬ ued to appear in print.

Thorez \to-'rez\, Maurice (b. April 28, 1900, Noyelles-Godault, France—d. July 11, 1964, at sea en route to Yalta) French communist politician. He began working as a coal miner at age 12. He joined the French Communist Party c. 1920 and was arrested several times for agita¬ tion. After becoming local party secretary (1923), he rose to secretary- general of the party (1930). He served in the Chamber of Deputies (1932- 39, 1945-60) and helped form the Popular Front government in 1936. He lived in the Soviet Union (1943-44), then returned to France and served as a minister of state (1945) and deputy premier (1946, 1947). He remained a dedicated Stalinist even after Nikita Khrushchev denounced Joseph Stalin in 1956.

thorium Metallic chemical element, chemical symbol Th, atomic num¬ ber 90. One of the actinide series of elements, natural thorium is a mix¬ ture of radioactive isotopes, predominantly thorium-232 (half-life of more than 10 billion years). It is a dense metal that is silver-white in pure form but turns gray or black on prolonged exposure to air. Although not a nuclear reactor fuel itself, thorium-232 can be used in breeder reactors because, on capturing slow-moving neutrons, it decays into fissionable uranium-233. Thorium is added to magnesium and its alloys to improve their high-temperature strength. Added to glass, it yields glasses with a high refractive index, useful for specialized optical applications. It was formerly in great demand as a component of mantles for gas and kero¬ sene lamps and has been used in the manufacture of tungsten filaments for lightbulbs and vacuum tubes.

Thorndike, Edward L(ee) (b. Aug. 31, 1874, Williamsburg, Mass., U.S.—d. Aug. 9, 1949, Montrose, N.Y.) U.S. psychologist. He trained under William James and James McKeen Cattell and later taught at Colum¬ bia University (1904^-0). A pioneer in the fields of animal learning and educational psychology, he developed a form of behaviourism known as connectionism, which holds that learning takes place through associative bonds. He contributed significantly to the development of quantitative experimental methods and to more efficient and scientifically based meth¬ ods of teaching. Among his writings are Introduction to the Theory of Mental and Social Measurements (1904), Principles of Teaching Based on Psychology (1906), Animal Intelligence (1911), and The Psychology of Wants, Interests, and Attitudes (1935).

s

u

Germanic peoples, who appeared

Thor with his hammer, Mjollnir, on his knees, bronze statuette from northern Iceland, c. ad 1000; in the National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik.

COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ICELAND, REYKJAVIK

Henry David Thoreau, portrait by Sam¬ uel Worcester Rowse, 1854; in the Concord Free Public Library, Massa¬ chusetts.

COURTESY OF THE CORPORATION OF THE FREE PUBUC LIBRARY, CONCORD, MASS.

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Thorndike ► thread cross I 1903

Thorndike, Dame (Agnes) Sybil (b. Oct. 24, 1882, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, Eng.—d. June 9, 1976, London) British actress. As a mem¬ ber of the Old Vic company in London (1914-18), she became a leading tragic actress. Noted for her versatility in modem and classic plays, she originated the title role in George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan (1924). She managed several London theatres, and she often costarred with her hus¬ band, the actor-director Lewis Casson, in her more than five decades in the theatre.

Thoroughbred Light breed of racing and jumping horse descended from three desert stallions brought to England between 1689 and 1724. Thoroughbreds have a delicate head, slim body, broad chest, and short back. Most are bay, chestnut, brown, black, or gray. They stand about 16 hands (64 in., 163 cm) high and weigh about 1,000 lbs (450 kg). They are sensitive and high-spirited and are often used to improve other stock.

Thorp, John (b. 1784, Rehoboth, Mass., U.S.—d. Nov. 15, 1848, Provi¬ dence, R.I.) U.S. inventor. He invented the ring spinning machine in 1828. By the 1860s it had largely replaced Samuel Crompton’s spinning mule in the world’s textile mills because of its greater productivity and simplicity.

Thorpe, Jim in full James Francis Thorpe (b. May 28, 1888, near Prague, Indian Territory—d. March 28, 1953, Lomita, Calif., U.S.) U.S. athlete. Of predominantly American Indian (Sauk and Fox) descent, he trained as a football halfback under Pop Warner while attending the Indian Industrial School in Carlisle,

Pa. (1908-12), where he also excelled at baseball, basketball, box¬ ing, lacrosse, swimming, and hockey. In 1912 he won the Olympic decathlon and pentathlon by wide margins, but he was deprived of his medals in 1913 after it was discov¬ ered he had played semiprofessional baseball. He later played profes¬ sional baseball and football, and in 1920-21 he served as first president of what would become the National Football League. His Olympic medals were restored posthumously in 1983.

Thorpe is generally regarded as the greatest American athlete of the 20th century.

Thorvaldsen Vtor-.wol-son,

'tur-.val-sonV Bertel (b. Nov. 19,

1770, or Nov. 13, 1768, Copen¬ hagen, Den.—d. March 24, 1844)

Danish sculptor. Son of an Icelandic wood carver, he studied in Copen¬ hagen and won a scholarship for travel to Rome, where he would remain for over 40 years and pursue one of the most successful sculpting careers of the 19th century. His return to Copenhagen in 1838 was celebrated as a national event. Most of his sculptures are reinterpretations of Classical figures and themes; he also did religious statues and portrait busts.

Thoth Vtoth, 'thoth, 'tot\ Egyptian Djhuty also spelled Djhowtey Egyptian god of the moon and of reckoning, learning, and writing. He was the inventor of writing, the creator of languages, the representative of Re, and the scribe, interpreter, and adviser of the gods. In the myth of Osiris, Thoth protected the pregnant Isis and healed the eye of her son Horus. He judged the deceased and reported the results to Osiris. His sacred animals were the ibis and the baboon, millions of which were mum¬ mified in his honour. He was often represented in human form with the head of an ibis. The Greeks identified Thoth with Hermes; as Hermes Tris- megistos he was regarded as the author of the Hermetic writings.

thought, laws of Traditionally, the three fundamental laws of logic: (1) the law of contradiction, (2) the law of excluded middle (or third), and (3) the principle of identity. That is, (1) for all propositions p, it is impos¬ sible for both p and not p to be true (symbolically, —i(p a —.p)); (2) either p or not p must be true, there being no third or middle true proposition

between them (symbolically p v —ip); and (3) if a propositional function F is true of an individual variable x, then F is true of x (symbolically, (Vx) [F(x) z> F(x)]). Another formulation of the principle of identity asserts that a thing is identical with itself, or (Vx) (x = x).

Thousand and One Nights, The or Arabian Nights' Enter¬ tainment Arabic Alf laylah wa laylah Collection of Oriental sto¬ ries of uncertain date and authorship. The frame story, in which the vengeful King Shahryar’s plan to marry and execute a new wife each day is foiled by the resourceful Scheherazade, is probably Indian; the tales with which Scheherazade beguiles Shahryar, postponing and eventually averting her execution, come from India, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, and possibly Greece. It is now believed that the collection is a composite work originally transmitted orally and developed over a period of several cen¬ turies. The first published version was an 18th-century European transla¬ tion; Sir Richard Burton’s Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (1885-88) has become the best-known English translation.

Thousand Islands Group of about 1,500 small islands extending 80 mi (128 km) in the Saint Lawrence River between New York state, U.S., and Ontario, Canada. Some islands belong to Canada and some to the U.S. The Thousand Islands include summer resort facilities and the Cana¬ dian St. Lawrence Islands National Park, which was established in 1904 and covers 988 ac (400 ha). The Thousand Islands International Bridge, which contains five spans linking some of the islands and is 8.5 mi (13.7 km) long, connects New York and Ontario.

Thrace Ancient and modem region, southeastern Balkan Peninsula. Its borders have varied at different periods. In ancient Greek times it was bounded by the Danube River, the Aegean Sea, and the Black Sea. Modem Thrace corresponds to southern Bulgaria, the Greek province of Thrace, and European Turkey, including the Gallipoli peninsula. The Thracians were Indo-Europeans who settled in the region in the 2nd millennium bc; their culture was noted for its poetry and music, and their soldiers were known as superior fighters. Later colonized by Greeks in the 7th century bc, it became subject to Persia in the 6th century bc and to Macedon in the 4th century bc. Reduced to a Roman province in the 1st century ad, its northern part was annexed to Moesia. It later became part of the Byz¬ antine empire, and in 1453 part of the Ottoman empire. The northern part was annexed by Bulgaria in 1885; the eastern part passed to Turkey in 1923. The region harvests com, rice, grapes, oysters, and eels; the chief cash crop is Turkish tobacco.

thrasher Any of 17 species (family Mimidae) of New World songbirds that have a downcurved bill and are noted for noisily foraging on the ground in dense thickets and for loud, varied songs. Thrashers occur from northern Canada to central Mexico and the Caribbean. The brown thrasher ( Toxostoma rufum), of North America east of the Rocky Mountains, is about 12 in. (30 cm) long and has red-brown plumage with streaked underparts. Long¬ tailed drab species are found in the arid southwestern U.S. and in Mexico.

thread Tightly twisted yarn con¬ sisting of several strands that has a circular cross-section and is used in commercial and home sewing machines and for hand sewing. Thread is usually wound on spools, with thread size (degree of fineness) indicated on the spool end. Cotton thread can be used with fabrics made from yarn of plant origin, such as cotton and linen, and with rayon (made from cel¬ lulose, a plant substance). Silk thread is suitable for silks and wools, both of animal origin. Nylon and polyester threads are appropriate for synthet¬ ics and for knits with a high degree of stretch.

thread cross Object made typically of two sticks bound together in the shape of a cross, with coloured threads wound around their ends to resemble a cobweb, used in Tibetan magical rituals to entrap evil spirits. Similar devices have been found in South Africa, Peru, Australia, and Sweden. They vary from simple diamond shapes to complex wheel- or box-shaped combinations reaching 11 ft (3 m) high. They are often highly decorated, with wool, feather, and bits of paper.

Jim Thorpe demonstrating the drop kick.

THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE

Brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum).

THASE DANIEL

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1904 I Three Emperors'League ► thrush

Three Emperors' League German Dreikaiserbund Diplomatic alignment of the empires of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia devised by Otto von Bismarck in 1872. Its aim was to neutralize disagree¬ ment between Austria-Hungary and Russia over spheres of influence in the Balkans and to isolate Germany’s enemy France. After the first Three Emperors’ League (1872-78) collapsed, Bismarck succeeded in renew¬ ing it (1881, 1884). When Russia declined a third renewal, Bismarck negotiated a separate accord with Russia, the Reinsurance Treaty (1887). See also Austro-German Alliance.

Three Gorges Dam Project Dam designed to span China’s Yangtze River (Chang Jiang). On completion, scheduled for 2009, it would be the largest dam in the world, producing a vast quantity of hydroelectricity from 26 generators. It would also create an immense deepwater reservoir that would allow 10,000-ton freighters to navigate 1,400 mi (2,250 km) inland from the East China Sea. The extremely controversial project would require displacement of more than a million people and destruction of magnificent scenery and archaeological sites. Critics also fear potential pollution and silting of the reservoir and the possibility of the dam’s col¬ lapse. Though construction began in 1993, a third of the National Peo¬ ple’s Congress either abstained or opposed it, and the World Bank would not advance funds, citing environmental and other concerns. Critics have contended that smaller dams on Yangtze tributaries could accomplish the same purpose with fewer risks.

Three Henrys, War of the (1587-89) Last of the Wars of Religion in France, fought between King Henry III, the ultra-Catholic Henri I de Lorraine, duke de Guise, and the Huguenot leader Henry of Navarra (later Henry IV). Early conflicts were won by the Holy League led by Guise, who forced Henry III to sign the Edict of Union in 1588, naming him lieuten¬ ant general of the kingdom. Humiliated, Henry III had Guise assassinated, but the Holy League continued to wield power, and Henry called for help from his cousin, Henry of Navarra. The royalist-Huguenot coalition forced the Holy Leaguers to retreat, but Henry III was assassinated, and, before he died, he exhorted the future Henry IV to become a Roman Catholic.

Three Kingdoms (ad 220-80) Trio of warring Chinese states that fol¬ lowed the demise of the Han dynasty. Cao Cao put his son on the throne of the kingdom of Wei, which controlled northern China. The kingdom of Shu-Han was established in present-day Sichuan by Liu Bei and his adviser Zhuge Liang, and the kingdom of Wu was established in the south, with its capital at Nanjing. They were all subsumed into the Jin dynasty by ad 280. The 60 years of the Three Kingdoms have inspired Chinese literature, and especially historical fiction, ever since.

Three Mile Island Nuclear power station near Harrisburg, Pa., site of the most serious accident in the history of the U.S. nuclear power industry (March 28, 1979). Mechanical failures and human errors caused a partial meltdown of the nuclear core and the release of radioactive gases. Despite assurances that there had been little risk to people’s health, the accident increased public fears about the safety of nuclear power and strengthened public opposition to its use, effectively stopping construction of nuclear reactors and further development of U.S. nuclear power plants.

Three Stooges U.S. comedy team. It was originally formed as a vaude¬ ville team in 1923 by brothers Moe and Shemp Howard (1897-1975, 1900-55), who performed with “Ted Healy and His Stooges.” In 1928 the brothers added Larry Fine (1911-74) to the act, which appeared in Broad¬ way revues. After Shemp left the act (1930), he was replaced by his brother Curly (1906-52). They appeared in several feature films, and in 1934 they began a series of comedy shorts that numbered more than 200 when they ceased in 1958. Their films were characterized by violent slapstick.

3M Co. U.S. corporation headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., manufactur¬ ing a wide range of products. It was incorporated as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co. in 1902; its first product was sandpaper. It grew steadily, adding the original cellophane tape, Scotch tape, as well as mask¬ ing tape to its product line. Other innovations included the widely used Post-it notes, introduced in 1980. 3M’s products include photographic film, videocassettes, computer-synthesized graphics, and health-care products. It is notable among diversified U.S. corporations in that its growth has been primarily by internal means rather than by large-scale acquisitions.

threonine Vthre-3-,nen\ One of the essential amino acids. It occurs in the proteins of egg, milk, gelatin, and other biological substances and may

be synthesized or obtained by hydrolyzing casein. It is used in nutritional and biochemical research and as a dietary supplement.

thresher shark Any of five species (family Alopiidae) of sharks with a long, scythelike tail that may constitute almost half their total length. They are found in tropical and temperate seas worldwide. They eat squid and schooling fishes, attacking after circling and herding their prey into small groups. They sometimes use their tail to stun their prey or, by thrashing the water, to frighten them. They are not considered dangerous to humans. The long-tailed thresher, or fox shark (Alopias vulpinus), is a big, dark fish that grows about 20 ft (6 m) long.

thrips Any of some 5,000 species (order Thysanoptera) of tiny winged insects that feed chiefly on plants, inhabiting temperate and tropical areas worldwide. Many species damage cultivated plants, by either sucking the sap or transmitting viral plant diseases. A few species are predators. Thrips reach a maximum length of about half an inch (15 mm). Most have two pairs of long, narrow, hair-fringed wings.

thrombocyte See platelet

thrombosis \thram-'bo-s9s\ Formation of a blood clot (thrombus) in the heart or a blood vessel. Contributing factors include injury to a blood vessel’s lining from inflammation (thrombophlebitis) or atherosclerosis, blood flow that is turbulent (e.g., from an aneurysm) or sluggish (e.g., from prolonged bed rest), or coagulation abnormalities (e.g., from high num¬ bers of platelets or excessive fats in the blood). Thrombosis, especially in deep veins of the leg, is a particular danger after major surgery. A throm¬ bus can block blood flow at the point of clot formation or break free to block it elsewhere (embolism).

throne Chair of state set on a dais and often surmounted by a canopy, representing the power of the digni¬ tary who sits on it and sometimes conferring that power. In Greek his¬ tory, thrones were identified as seats of the gods; soon the meaning of the word included the symbolic seats of those who held religious or secular power, a meaning common to virtu¬ ally all cultures. The oldest surviving throne was built into the walls of Knossos (c. 1800 bc). Probably the most magnificent was the jewel- studded Peacock Throne of the rul¬ ers of Delhi, stolen from India by Persia in 1739 and thereafter the symbol of the Persian/Iranian mon¬ archy. In the late 17th and 18th cen¬ tury, thrones were often made of silver, but later versions tend to be of gilded wood.

throttle Valve for regulating the supply of a fluid (as steam) to an engine, especially the valve control¬ ling the volume of vaporized fuel delivered to the cylinders of an internal-combustion engine. In an automo¬ bile engine, gasoline is held in a chamber above the carburetor. Air flows down through the throat of the carburetor, past the throttle valve, and into the intake manifold. A throat is formed by the reduced diameter, and acceleration of the air through this smaller passage causes a decrease in pressure related to the amount of air flowing. This decrease in throat pres¬ sure results in fuel flow from the jet into the airstream. Any increase in airflow caused by change in engine speed or throttle position increases the pressure differential acting on the fuel and causes more fuel to flow. See also venturi tube.

thrush Any of about 300 species of songbirds (family Turdidae) that usu¬ ally have a slender bill and “booted” lower legs (i.e., covered in front with one long scale instead of many short ones). Thrushes are 5-12 in. (13-30 cm) long. Most have dull plumage, often with patches of bright yellow, red, or blue. They are found virtually worldwide but are most diverse in the Old World, especially in Africa. The northern species are strong migrants. Occupying a wide range of arboreal and terrestrial habitats, thrushes eat insects and fruit; a few eat snails or earthworms. They lay three to six eggs in an open cup-shaped nest; a few occupy cavities. Some of the thrushes,

So-called throne of King Dagobert I, bronze, from the treasury of Saint- Denis, Paris, probably 8th century with 12th-century additions

COURTESY OF THE BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE, PARIS

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Thuan Thien ► thyme I 1905

including the hermit thrush and wood thrush, have notably beautiful songs. See also blackbird, bluebird, chat, ouzel, redstart, robin.

Thuan Thien See Le Loi

Thucydides Uhii-'si-do-.dezX (b. c. ancient Greek historians. An Athe¬ nian who commanded a fleet in the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides failed to prevent the capture of the important city of Amphipolis and consequently was exiled for 20 years. During that period he wrote his History of the Peloponnesian War. ; evidently he did not live to complete it, for it stops abruptly in 411 bc. It presents the first recorded political and moral analysis of a nation’s war policies, treating the causes of the conflict, the characters of the two states, and the technical aspects of warfare in a carefully drawn, strictly chronological narra¬ tive of events, including some in which he took an active part.

Thugga Vtho-goV modern Dougga \'du-gs\ Ancient city,

North Africa. It was an important Punic city when the Romans assimi¬ lated it c. ad 200. It is the best-preserved Roman site in Tunisia; its ruins include an arch in honour of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus, a forum, baths, villas, an aqueduct, a theatre, and a temple of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. There is also a pre-Roman ruin of a 2nd-century-BC mausoleum.

thumb piano See mbira

Thunder Bay City (pop., 2001: 109,016), west-central Ontario, Canada. It is located on the northwestern shore of Lake Superior. Its first settlement was a French fur-trading post c. 1678. In the 1870s and ’80s silver strikes and the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway brought prosperity to the twin towns of Port Arthur and Fort William that had grown up there. Their rivalry was resolved with the unification of their harbour facilities in 1906; the towns merged in 1970 and created the city of Thunder Bay. It is one of Canada’s busiest ports, with grain storage and transshipment depots; other industries include shipbuilding.

thunderbird In North American Indian mythology, a powerful spirit in the form of a bird that watered the earth and made vegetation grow.

Lightning was believed to flash from its eyes or beak, and the beating of its wings was thought to represent roll¬ ing thunder. The thunderbird was often portrayed with an extra head on its abdomen, particularly on totem poles, and it was frequently accom¬ panied by lesser bird spirits. Though it is best known in North America, evidence of similar figures has been found throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Thunderbolt See P-47

thunderstorm Violent, short¬ lived atmospheric disturbance, almost always associated with cumu¬ lonimbus clouds (very tall, dense rain clouds) and accompanied by thunder and lightning. Such storms usually generate strong, gusty winds and heavy rain, and occasionally hail or tornadoes. Thunderstorms have been known to occur in almost every part of the world, although they are rare in the polar regions. In the U.S. the areas of maximum thunderstorm activity are the Florida peninsula and the coast of the Gulf of Mexico (70-80 days per year).

Thunen Vtue-nonV, Johann Heinrich von (b. June 24, 1783, Jever, Oldenburg—d. Sept. 22, 1850, Tellow, Mecklenburg) German economist and agriculturalist. After carrying out research on his own estate into the relationship between the costs of commodity transportation and the loca¬ tion of production, he set forth his theories in The Isolated State (1826). He used an imaginary city, isolated in the middle of a fertile plain, to create a model of concentric zones of agricultural production. Heavy products and perishables would be produced close to the town, lighter and durable goods on the periphery; returns on the land would diminish as transport costs to the city increased. Thunen’s model influenced many later writers on the subject.

Thurber, James (Grover) (b. Dec. 8, 1894, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.—d. Nov. 2, 1961, New York, N.Y.) U.S. writer and cartoonist. He attended Ohio State University before moving to New York City in 1926. He was on The New Yorker staff from 1927 to 1933 and thereafter remained a leading contributor. His drawings illustrated his first book, Is Sex Necessary? (1929; with E.B. White), and his cartoons became some of the most popular and recognizable in America. In 1940 his failing eye¬ sight forced him to curtail his drawing; by 1952 he had to give it up alto¬ gether as his blindness became nearly total. His writings include My Life and Hard Times (1933), Fables for Our Time (1940), and the children’s book The 13 Clocks (1950). He is noted for his vision of the befuddled urban man who, like the hero of his short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (1939; film, 1946), escapes into fantasy.

Thuringia \thu-'rin-je-o\ German Thiiringen Vtui-riq-snX Historic region and state (pop., 2002 est.: 2,411,000), Germany. It includes the land around the Thuringian Forest in what was formerly southwestern East Germany and covers 6,244 sq mi (16,171 sq km). The capital is Erfurt. The Germanic Thuringians appeared after c. ad 350 and were conquered by the Huns in the mid-5th century. In 1485 Thuringia became part of Saxony and was divided into several states; they joined the German Empire in 1871 and were reunited after World War I. Following the par¬ tition of Germany in 1945, the state became part of East Germany; it was reconstituted as a state of reunified Germany in 1990. The economy is largely industrial.

Thurmond, (James) Strom (b. Dec. 5, 1902, Edgefield, S.C., U.S.—d. June 26, 2003, Edgefield) U.S. politician and senator (1954— 2003). He served as a South Carolina state senator (1933-38) and circuit court judge (1938—41). As governor (1947-51), he expanded the state educational system. At the 1948 Democratic convention Thurmond led the bolt of Southern delegates who objected to the civil-rights plank in the party platform; the so-called Dixiecrats nominated Thurmond as their presidential candidate, and he won 39 electoral votes. In 1954 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, and in 1964 he switched party affiliation to the Republican Party. He became the Senate’s longest-serving member in 1997. An arch conservative, he advocated states’ rights, opposed civil- rights legislation, and supported increases in military spending.

Thurstone, L(ouis) L(eon) (b. May 29, 1887, Chicago, Ill, U.S.—d. Sept. 29, 1955, Chapel Hill, N.C.) U.S. psychologist. He taught prima¬ rily at the University of Chicago (1927-52). Concerned with the mea¬ surement of people’s attitudes and intelligence, he was instrumental in the development of psychometrics. His principal work, The Vectors of the Mind (1935; revised as Multiple-Factor Analysis, 1947), presented the technique of multiple-factor analysis to explain correlations between results in psychological tests.

Thutmose \thut-'mo-s9\ III (d. 1426 bc) Egyptian king of the 18th dynasty (r. 1479-1426 bc), often regarded as the greatest pharaoh of ancient Egypt. He ascended the throne around the age of 10, but his aunt, Hatshepsut, ruled first as his regent and then in her own right for the next 20 years. On her death he began military campaigns to reestablish Egyp¬ tian supremacy in Syria and Palestine. Later he attacked and defeated the kingdom of Mitanni, a powerful Mesopotamian rival of Egypt. He sub¬ dued the Nubian tribes to the south and employed them in the gold mines that became the basis of Egypt’s wealth. He consolidated his victories with more campaigns and established a system whereby native rulers would pay yearly tribute to Egypt and send their heirs as hostages to Egypt, where they would be educated at court. At home he enlarged the temple of Amon at Karnak. His mummy was discovered in 1889 and his mortuary temple in 1962.

thyme \'tlm\ Pungent herb {Thymus vulgaris ) of the mint family, native to southern Europe, the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and Central Asia, and

460—d. c. 404 bc) Greatest or

Thucydides, detail of a Roman bust after a Greek original; in Holkham Hall, Norfolk, England

Wooden thunderbird of the Haida Indi¬ ans, northwest coast of North America, 19th century; in the British Museum

COURTESY OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM

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1906 I thymine ► Tibbett

cultivated in North America. A small, low-growing shrub, it has small, curled leaves that give off a fragrant odour when crushed. The dried leaves and flowering tops are used to flavour a wide range of foods. Bees are fond of thyme, and Sicily’s thyme honey has been famous for centuries. The essential oil has antiseptic and anesthetic properties and is used as an internal medicine; it is also used in perfumes and toothpastes.

thymine \'thl-,men\ Organic com¬ pound of the pyrimidine family, often called a base, consisting of a ring containing both nitrogen and carbon atoms, and a methyl group. It occurs in combined form in many important biological molecules, particularly DNA (where its complementary base is adenine). It or its corresponding nucleoside or nucleotide may be prepared from DNA by selective tech¬ niques of HYDROLYSIS.

thymus Vthl-mosV Pyramid-shaped lymphoid organ (see lymphoid tissue) between the breastbone and the heart. Starting at puberty, it shrinks slowly. It has no lymphatic vessels draining into it and does not filter lymph; instead, stem cells in its outer cortex develop into different kinds of T cells (see lymphocytes). Some migrate to the inner medulla and enter the blood¬ stream; those that do not may be destroyed to prevent autoimmune reac¬ tions. This process is most active during infancy. If a newborn’s thymus is removed, not enough T cells are produced, the spleen and lymph nodes have little tissue, and the immune system fails, causing a gradual, fatal wasting disease. Thymus removal in adults has little effect.

thyroid gland Endocrine gland in the throat that secretes hormones vital to metabolism and growth. Secretion of thyroid hormones—mostly thyroxine (T 4 )—is controlled by thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), released by the pituitary gland when the level of thyroid hormones in the blood drops below a certain threshold (see endocrine system). These hor¬ mones’ primary action in adults is to regulate cellular oxygen consump¬ tion (metabolic rate). They also lower blood cholesterol and are necessary for normal growth and development in children. The thyroid also pro¬ duces calcitonin, a hormone that stimulates deposition of calcium from the blood into the bones, balancing the action of parathyroid hormone. See also goitre; Graves disease; iodine deficiency.

thyroxine \thl-'rak-,sen\ or l-tetraiodothyronine Vel-.te-tro-I-.o- do-'thI-r3-,nen\ or T 4 One of the two major hormones (along with the closely related 1-triiodothyronine, or T 3 ) secreted by the thyroid gland. Its principal function is to stimulate oxygen consumption and thus metabolism in all cells and tissues in the body. Thyroxine is formed by the addition of iodine to the amino acid tyrosine while the latter is in a protein-bound form. Thyroxine secretion is excessive in hyperthyroidism and deficient in hypothyroidism.

Thyssen Vtui-sonV Fritz (b. Nov. 9, 1873, Mulheim, Ger.—d. Feb. 8, 1951, Buenos Aires, Arg.) German industrialist and financial backer of Adolf Hitler. Thyssen entered the family iron, steel, and coal business and inherited his father’s fortune and empire in 1926 (see Thyssen Krupp Stahl). He created a family business trust that came to control more than 75% of Germany’s ore reserves and employ 200,000 workers. Distressed by the rise of socialism in Germany, he supported Hitler and helped finance his rise to chancellor. But Thyssen opposed Hitler’s later policies and fled to Switzerland in 1939, enabling Hitler to confiscate Thyssen’s fortune (about $88 million). Thyssen was arrested in France (1941) and impris¬ oned by the Nazis. After the war, he was convicted as a “minor Nazi” and ordered to pay 15% of his property in restitution.

ThyssenKrupp AG German steel company. The Krupp firm began in 1811 when Friedrich Krupp (1787-1826) founded a steel plant in Essen, and it remained in family hands for a century and a half. Known for its high-quality steel and its cannons and other armaments, Krupp prospered with the rise of the German navy. It enjoyed a monopoly on arms manu¬ facturing during World War I; one of its most potent weapons was “Big Bertha.” After the war, Germany was forbidden to manufacture arms, and parts of the Krupp works were dismantled, though it remained a vast industrial empire. Krupp’s factories were central to Germany’s illegal

rearmament under Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. After World War II, Alfried Krupp (1907-67) was convicted of war crimes for using slave labour and ordered to forfeit all his property, but with the outbreak of the Korean War he was granted amnesty and his property restored. In 1968, after his son renounced the Krupp name and fortune, the company went public. In 1992 it merged with Hoesch AG to become Fried Krupp AG Hoesch- Krupp. Thyssen AG originated as a rolling mill founded by August Thys¬ sen (1842-1926). It merged with seven other steelworks to become Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG, but reassumed its own identity in 1953. After the steel divisions of the rival companies were joined in 1997 to form Thyssen Krupp Stahl, the remaining segments of each company merged in 1999, creating ThyssenKrupp AG. Its products include steel, construc¬ tion and automotive components, elevators, and engineering services.

Tiamat \'te-a-,mat\ In Mesopotamian mythology, a primal goddess who is a personification of salt water and the mother of the gods. When con¬ flict between her husband, Apsu, and the other gods resulted in Apsu’s death, Tiamat waged war on the other divinities, backed by an army of demons she had created. Her battle with, and defeat at the hands of, Mar- duk forms the substance of the Babylonian creation epic Enuma elish. From her body Marduk fashioned the heavens and the earth.

Tian or T'ien \'tyen\ Chinese "Heaven" In indigenous Chinese reli¬ gion, the supreme power reigning over humans and lesser gods. The term refers to a deity, to impersonal nature, or to both. As a god, Tian is an impersonal power, in contrast to the supreme ruler Shangdi, but the two are closely identified and their names are sometimes used synonymously. In later references, Tian is likened to nature or fate. Scholars generally agree that Tian was the source of moral law, but they long debated whether Tian responded to pleas and rewarded and punished human actions or whether events merely followed Tian’s order and principles.

Tian Shan See Tien Shan

Tiananmen \'tyan- , an- , men\ Square One of the largest public squares in the world, originally designed and built in Beijing in 1651 and enlarged in 1958. It is named for the massive stone “Gate of Heavenly Peace” (Tiananmen) at its northern end. It contains and is surrounded by halls, museums, and monuments, including the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall, where Mao’s body rests in state. Tiananmen Square has been the rallying point for political demonstrations since 1919, including the large protests in May-June 1989 that were forcibly repressed. See also Fang Lizhi.

Tiancong See Hongtaiji

Tianjin Vtyen-'jhA or T'ien-chin conventional Tientsin Seaport and municipality with provincial status (pop., 2003 est.: city, 4,933,100; 2002 est.: municipality, 10,070,000), northeastern China. The municipality, on the Bo Hai, is bordered by Hebei province and Beijing municipality and has an area of 4,400 sq mi (11,300 sq km). The city, China’s third largest, lies at the head of the short Hai River, which flows into the Bo Hai; Tianjin is connected to the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) by the Grand Canal. It has been a major transportation and trading centre since the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century. It was a garrison town during the Ming dynasty (1368— 1644). The British and French occupied it during the Second Opium War (1856-60); a treaty signed there in 1858 opened 11 Chinese ports to for¬ eign trade. As a treaty port, it developed rapidly. It was the scene of heavy fighting during the Boxer Rebellion (1900), after which it was placed under an international commission and its walls razed. It is the leading port in northern China and the country’s second largest manufacturing centre. Educational institutions include Tianjin University (1895) and Nankai University (1919).

Tianshi Dao See Five Pecks of Rice

Tiantai \'tyan-'dl\ Japanese Tendai \'ten-'dl\ Buddhist sect founded by Zhiyi in the 6th century ad. Its chief scripture is the Lotus Sutra, and the school is thus known as the Lotus school. Its basic philosophical doctrine is summarized as the Triple Truth: All dharmas lack ontological reality; nevertheless, they have a temporary existence; and they are simulta¬ neously unreal and temporarily existing—an absolute truth that surpasses the others. In Tiantai, all Buddhist learning is arranged in a grand hier¬ archical scheme. In Japan, Saicho attempted to incorporate Zen medita¬ tion, monastic discipline, and esoteric cults. Amalgamation of Shinto and Buddhism was also encouraged.

Tibbett \'tib-3t\, Lawrence orig. Lawrence Mervil Tibbet (b.

Nov. 16, 1896, Bakersfield, Calif., U.S.—d. July 15, 1960, New York,

Thyme ( Thymus vulgaris)

WALTER CHANDOHA

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Tiber River ► tick I 1907

N.Y.) U.S. baritone. He performed as a singing actor before moving into opera. After his 1923 Metropolitan Opera debut, his first major success came in 1925, when he played Ford in Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff. Over the next several years he sang most of the leading baritone roles at the Met¬ ropolitan, continuing with the company for 27 seasons. He also starred in several musical films and appeared on the popular radio show Your Hit Parade.

Tiber River Vtl-borX Italian Tevere \'ta-va-ra\ River, Italy. The coun¬ try’s second-longest river, it rises in the Tuscan Apennines, and flows south for 252 mi (405 km), ultimately passing through the city of Rome before entering the Mediterranean at Ostia. It was an important navigation route for trade in Roman times. Despite sporadic dredging over the centuries, its persistent silting has limited its use in modem times.

Tiberias \tl-'bir-e-3s\ Hebrew Teverya \t3-'ver-y9\ Town (pop., 2004 est.: 40,100) and resort, northeastern Israel. Located on Lake Tiberias (Sea of Galilee), at 689 ft (210 m) below sea level, it is one of the lowest-lying towns in the world. It was founded c. ad 20 by Herod Antipas and named for the Roman emperor Tiberius. After the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in ad 70, it became a centre of Jewish learning and later the seat of the Sanhedrin and rabbinical schools. The Talmud was edited there in the 3rd-6th centuries. Saladin took the town from the Crusaders in 1187. The modern town was refounded under the British mandate in 1922 and became part of independent Israel in 1948. Historic sites include the tomb of the great Jewish scholar Moses Maimonides. Along with Hebron, Jerus¬ alem, and Zefat, it is one of the four holy cities of Judaism.

Tiberius in full Tiberius (Julius) Caesar Augustus orig. Tibe¬ rius Claudius Nero (b. Nov. 16,

42 bc —d. March 16, ad 37, Capreae, near Naples) Second Roman emperor (ad 14-37). He was raised by Augustus, who had married his mother, Livia Drusilla. In his first military command, at age 22, he recovered Roman legionary stan¬ dards lost for decades in Parthia and returned to great acclaim. He was forced to give up his beloved wife to marry Augustus’s daughter Julia (12 bc). Despite becoming tribune, he went into self-imposed exile on Rhodes (6 bc), becoming an angry recluse. By 4 bc Julia was exiled for promiscuity by Augustus, who recalled Tiberius and named him his heir. As emperor he initially ran the state efficiently and instituted some reforms, with only occasional sever¬ ity, such as exiling Rome’s Jewish population on a pretext. When his son Drusus died mysteriously, he gave his trust to Sejanus and was per¬ suaded to move to Capri (27). He became increasingly violent, killing and torturing at a whim. After Seja¬ nus became coconsul in 31, Tiberius became suspicious of his ambition and executed him, then named Caligula his heir. In 37 the Praetorian Guard declared its support for Caligula and killed Tiberius when he was on his sickbed.

Tiberias, Lake or Sea of Galilee Freshwater lake, northern Israel. It is 13 mi (21 km) long and 7 mi (11 km) wide; it lies about 700 ft (212 m) below sea level and receives most of its inflow from the Jordan River. The region has been inhabited for millennia: archaeological finds dating to some 500,000 years ago are among the oldest in the Middle East. In the 1st century ad, the region was rich and populated; Christians know it as the scene of many episodes in the life of Jesus. Today the lake’s waters irrigate the surrounding agricultural region. Modern health resorts have grown up, and the baths at Tiberias are among Israel’s winter resort attractions.

Tibet \ti-'bet\ Tibetan Bod Vbod\ Chinese Xizang \'she-'dzaq\ or Hsi- tsang Autonomous region (pop., 2002 est.: 2,670,000), western China. It is bordered by India (including the Kashmir region), Nepal, Bhutan, and

Myanmar, the provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan, and Qinghai, and Xinjiang autonomous region. It has an area of 471,700 sq mi (1,221,600 sq km), and its capital is Lhasa. Before the 1950s it was a unique entity, with its own Buddhist culture and religion, that sought isolation from the rest of the world. Situated on a plateau averaging 15,000 ft (4,500 m) above sea level, it is the highest region in the world. Its surrounding mountain ranges include the Kunlun Mountains and the Himalayas; Mount Everest rises on its border with Nepal. Tibet emerged as a powerful Buddhist kingdom in the 7th-9th century ad. It came under the control of the Mongols in the 13th century and the Qing (Manchu) dynasty in the 18th century. After the 1911-12 Chinese revolution it gained a measure of autonomy. The Chi¬ nese People’s Liberation Army entered Tibet in 1950, and Chinese author¬ ity was subsequently established over the region. The 14th Dalai Lama, Bstan-’dzin-rgya-mtsho, led an abortive rebellion in 1959, after which he fled to India and set up a government-in-exile. The Tibet Autonomous Region was established in 1965. Many of Tibet’s cultural treasures were destroyed or badly damaged during the Cultural Revolution, but restora¬ tion work has been underway since then.

Tibetan Buddhism Form of Mahayana Buddhism that evolved from the 7th century in Tibet. Based on Madhyamika and Yogacara philosophies, it incorporates the rituals of Vajrayana, the monastic disciplines of early Theravada, and the shamanistic features of Bon. The predominant Tibetan sect for the past three centuries has been Dge-lugs-pa. Its spiritual head is the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan canon is divided into the Bka ’gyur (“Trans¬ lation of the Word”), consisting of canonical texts translated mostly from Sanskrit, and Bstan- ’gyur (“Transmitted Word”), consisting of commen¬ taries by Indian masters. After the Chinese communist takeover in 1959, Tibetans began a massive emigration that has spread Tibetan Buddhism around the globe.

Tibetan language Sino-Tibetan language spoken by more than five million people in Tibet (Xizang), Qinghai, Sichuan, and Gansu provinces in China; Bhutan; northern Nepal; and the Kashmir region of India and Pakistan. Since the occupation of Tibet by China in 1959, enclaves of Tibetan speakers have dispersed to India and other parts of the world. Spoken Tibetan comprises a very diverse range of dialects, convention¬ ally divided into several groups: Western, including Balti and Ladakhi in Jammu and Kashmir; Central, including the speech of Lhasa and most of the Nepalese dialects (including Sherpa); Southern, including the dialects of Sikkim and Bhutan; Khams, or Southeastern, including the dialects of the interior plateau, southern Qinghai, eastern Tibet, and parts of western Sichuan; and Amdo or Northeastern, including the dialects of northern Qinghai, southern Gansu, and northern Sichuan. Most Tibetans share a common literary language, written in a distinctive script of disputed ori¬ gin first attested in the 8th century ad.

tic Sudden rapid, recurring muscle contraction—usually a blink, sniff, twitch, or shrug—always brief, irresistible, and localized. Frequency decreases from head to foot. Unlike a spasm, a cramp, or the movements of chorea or epilepsy, it does not interfere with other movement and can be held off for a time. It can become ingrained as a habit of which the person (most often a nervous child 5-12 years old) is unaware. Most tics are probably psychological, but similar movements occur in some physi¬ cal disorders (e.g., late-stage encephalitis). People with tics have some control over the movement but feel impelled to go through with it to feel better. Tension increases the movement’s likelihood, and distraction reduces it. Psychotherapy, relaxation training, and biofeedback training have had some success in treating tics.

Ticino River \te-'che-no\ River, Switzerland and Italy. It rises on the slopes of the St. Gotthard range, winds south through Ticino canton, traverses Lake Maggiore, and continues south to the Po River, for a total course of 154 mi (248 km). It is navigable below Lake Maggiore, and is an important source of hydroelectric power for Switzerland. Hannibal defeated the Romans on its banks in 218 bc.

tick Any of some 825 parasitic arachnid species (suborder Ixodida, order Parasitiformes), found world¬ wide. Adults may be slightly more than an inch (30 mm) long, but most species are much smaller. Hard ticks start and end each developmental

Tiberius as a young man, marble bust found in Egypt in 1896; in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.

COURTESY OF THE NY CARLSBERG GLYPTOTEK, COPENHAGEN

Cattle tick (Boophilus)

E.R. DEGGINGER/EB INC.

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1908 I Ticonderoga ► Tiffany

stage—egg, larva, nymph, adult—on the ground; at the completion of each stage, they attach to a host (usually a mammal), engorge on blood, then drop to the ground. Soft ticks feed intermittently, pass through sev¬ eral nymphal stages, and live in the host’s den or nest. Hard ticks may draw large amounts of blood, secrete paralyzing or lethal neurotoxins, and transmit diseases. Soft ticks may also carry diseases. The deer tick is the principal vector of Lyme disease.

Ticonderoga X.tl-.kan-do-'ro-goX Town (pop., 2000: 5,167) on Lake George, northeastern New York, U.S. In 1755 the French built Fort Car¬ illon on nearby Lake Champlain. Captured by the British in 1759, the fort was renamed Ticonderoga. In 1775, at the start of the American Revolu¬ tion, it was seized by Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys. The British retook it in 1777 but abandoned it after the Battle of Saratoga. The restored fort and the area around the town are now tourist attractions.

Ticonderoga, Battle of (1775) Engagement in the American Revolu¬ tion. Held by the British since 1759, Fort Ticonderoga (in New York) was overrun on the morning of May 10, 1775, in a surprise attack by the Green Mountain Boys under Ethan Allen, assisted by Benedict Arnold. The artil¬ lery seized there was moved to Boston, Mass., by Henry Knox for use against the British.

Ticunas See Tucunas

tidal flat Level muddy surface bordering an estuary, alternately sub¬ merged and exposed to the air by changing tidal levels. In addition to the alternating submergence and exposure, the varying influences of fresh river water and salty marine waters cause physical conditions to vary more widely than in any other marine environment. The mud of a tidal flat is usually rich in dissolved nutrients, plankton, and organic debris, and it supports large numbers of small animals such as crabs and worms. Veg¬ etation is generally sparse, but mats of blue or blue-green algae (see cyanobacteria) may be present.

tidal power Electricity produced by turbines operated by tide flow. Large amounts of power are potentially available from the tides in cer¬ tain locations, such as Canada’s Bay of Fundy, where the tidal range reaches more than 50 ft (15 m), but this potential power is not continu¬ ous and varies with the seasons. The first working modem tidal power plant was built in France in 1961-67 and has 24 power units of 10,000 kilowatts each.

tidal wave See tsunami

tide Regular, periodic rise and fall of the surface of the sea, occurring in most places twice a day. Tides result from differences in the gravitational forces exerted at different points on the Earth’s surface by another body (such as the Moon). Although any celestial body (e.g., Jupiter) produces minute tidal effects, the majority of the tidal forces on the Earth are raised by the Sun (because of its enormous mass) and the Moon (because of its proximity to Earth). In fact, the tidal forces from the Moon are about twice as strong as those from the Sun. The largest tides (spring tides, exhibit¬ ing very large change in sea level between high and low tides) occur at the new and full moon, when the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun are aligned and the Sun’s tidal forces are added to those of the Moon. The smallest tides (neap tides) occur when the Sun and Moon are at right angles (from Earth), when the tidal forces from the Sun partially cancel those from the Moon. The geometry of the coastline and of the water’s basin also affects the range of the tides.

Tieclc\'tek\, (Johann) Ludwig (b. May 31, 1773, Berlin, Prussia—d. April 28, 1853, Berlin) German writer and critic. He was educated at the universities of Halle, Gottingen, and Erlangen. His first works are asso¬ ciated with early Romanticism, the best appealing to the emotions rather than the intellect. Volksmarchen (1797) includes one of his best short novels. Blond Eckbert. This period culminated in the grotesque, lyrical plays Life and Death of St. Genevieve (1800) and Emperor Octavian (1804). Later his writing moved toward realism. While he was an adviser and critic at the Dresden theatre (1825-42), he became a great literary authority.

T'ien See Tian Tien Chih See Dian Chi

T'ien-chin See Tianjin

Tien Shan Vtyen-'shan\ Chinese Tian Shan or T'ien Shan ("Celestial Mountains") Mountain chain, Central Asia. Lying

mainly in Kyrgyzstan and northwestern China (Xinjiang autonomous region), its ranges and valleys stretch for about 1,500 mi (2,500 km) in an east-west direction. Its highest point is Victory Peak (Pik Pobeda) in Kyrgyzstan, which reaches 24,406 ft (7,439 m); the peak was discovered in 1943 by a Soviet expedition. Most of the area’s population lives in the Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan.

T'ien-shih Tao See Five Pecks of Rice Tientsin See Tianjin

Tiepolo \te-'a-p3-lo\, Giovanni Battista or Giambattista Tie- pofo (b. March 5, 1696, Venice—d. March 27, 1770, Madrid) Italian painter and etcher. In the 1730s and ’40s the Venetian clergy and nobility vied for his works. In 1750 he went to Wurzburg with his sons and col¬ laborators, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo and Lorenzo Tiepolo, to decorate the prince-archbishop’s palace. His Wurzburg frescoes and canvases are his most boldly luminous works. In 1762 he escaped the political dise¬ quilibrium of the Seven Years’ War by accepting an invitation to paint ceilings in the royal palace in Madrid, again with his sons, his last great undertaking; he remained in Spain until his death. Although he initially used a melancholic chiaroscuro style, his later work is full of bright colour and bold brushwork. His luminous, poetic frescoes both extend the tra¬ dition of Baroque ceiling decoration and epitomize Rococo lightness and elegance.

Tiepolo Vtye-po-lo\, Giovanni Domenico or Giandomenico Tiepolo (b. Aug. 30, 1727, Venice—d. March 3, 1804, Venice) Italian painter and printmaker. He was apprenticed to his father, Giovanni Bat¬ tista Tiepolo, in Venice in the early 1740s and worked with him in Madrid from 1762 until the elder’s death in 1770. His most notable early works are the chinoiserie decorations of the Villa Valmarana in Vicenza (1757). Back in Venice, he executed several frescoes and paintings of scenes from the commedia dell’arte. A talented genre painter and caricaturist, he was famous for his many engravings and etchings after his own and his father’s designs.

Tierra del Fuego \te-,er-9-thel- , fwa-go\ Archipelago at the southern extremity of South America. It is separated from the Antarctic Archipelago by the Drake Passage. The southern and western parts are an extension of the Andes Mountains, with peaks exceeding 7,000 ft (2,100 m). About two-thirds of the islands are in Chile, and the remainder are in Argentina. The main island, Tierra del Fuego, is divided roughly equally between Chile (west) and Argentina (east); the city of Ushuaia, Arg., there is the southernmost city in the world. Indigenous peoples were the sole occu¬ pants until 1880, when colonization by Chilean and Argentine nationals was prompted by the discovery of gold. Chile’s only oil field is there.

The region’s name (Spanish: “Land of Fire”) refers to its many volca¬ noes.

Tiete \tya-'ta\ River River, south¬ eastern Brazil. Rising in the moun¬ tains near the Atlantic Ocean coast, it flows northwest about 700 mi (1,130 km) through central Sao Paulo state to join the Parana River. Several of the state’s large cities, including Sao Paulo, are located on or near it, but navigation on the river is impeded by its many falls and rapids.

Tiffany, Louis Comfort (b. Feb.

18, 1848, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d.

Jan. 17, 1933, New York City) U.S. painter, craftsman, philanthropist, decorator, and designer. The son of the famous jeweler Charles Louis Tiffany (1812-1902), he studied painting with American painter George Inness and in Paris; he was a recognized painter before he began to experiment with stained glass in 1875. He founded a glassmaking fac¬ tory in Queens, N.Y., in 1878. There he developed an iridescent glass he

Vase of Favrile glass made by Louis Comfort Tiffany, New York City, 1896; in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

COURTESY OF THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Tiflis ► Tikal I 1909

called Favrile, which achieved widespread popularity in Europe. After 1900 Tiffany’s firm ventured into lamps, jewelry, pottery, and bibelots. He is internationally recognized as one of the greatest forces of the Art Nouveau style.

Tiflis See Tbilisi

tiger Reddish tan, striped great cat (Panthera tigris ) of forests, grass¬ lands, and swamps in eastern Russia, South Asia, Sumatra, and a few small parts of China. Tigers are solitary, nocturnal hunters, preying on medium-sized mammals (e.g., deer). Locality and subspecies determine size, colour, and stripes. Southern tigers, such as the Bengal tiger (P. tigris tigris), are smaller and more brightly coloured than northern ones, such as the rare Siberian tiger (P. tigris altaica ). Males grow to more than 3 ft (1 m) high and 7 ft (2.2 m) long, excluding the 3-ft (1-m) tail, and may weigh 350-640 lb (160-290 kg). Tigers live about 11 years. The persis¬ tent use of tiger parts as tonics or medicines, despite evidence refuting their efficacy, is rooted in the awe that the cat has inspired for millennia. Although internationally protected, tigers are seriously endangered; their populations shrank by more than 90% in the last century, and three sub¬ species are now extinct.

Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris ).

© SILVESTRIS/AUSTRALASIAN NATURE TRANSPARENCIES

tiger beetle Any of some 2,000 species (family Cicindelidae) of vora¬ cious beetles, found worldwide but mostly in the tropics and subtropics.

The larva waits at the top of its bur¬ row (up to 2 ft, or 0.7 m, deep) and grasps approaching insect prey with sicklelike jaws. Hooks on the abdo¬ men anchor it so that the struggling victim cannot pull away, and the prey is dragged into the burrow and eaten. The slender, long-legged adults, less than an inch (25 mm) long, have long jaws that can inflict a painful bite. Many are iridescent blue, green, orange, or scarlet.

tiger moth Any of more than 3,500 species (family Arctiidae) of moths, many with furry or hairy larvae called woolly bears. Most adults have a thick body and white, orange, or green wings. At rest, the wings are folded rooflike over the body. The fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea ) is a seri¬ ous pest. The caterpillars construct webs over leaves, sometimes cover¬ ing large areas with silken sheets. They pupate aboveground in a cocoon made of larval hairs and silk. The Isabella tiger moth (Isia isabella) attains a wingspan of 1.5-2 in. (37-50 mm). Black spots mark its abdomen and yellow wings.

tiger shark Potentially dangerous shark (Galeocerdo cuvieri, family Carcharhinidae), found worldwide in warm oceans, from the shoreline to the open sea. Up to 18 ft (5.5 m) long, the grayish tiger shark has a long, pointed upper tail lobe, and its large teeth are deeply notched along one side. This voracious shark eats fishes, other sharks, turtles, mollusks, birds, carrion, and garbage, including coal, tin cans, and clothing. It is a source of leather and liver oil. See also sand shark.

tiger swallowtail Any of several North American species of black- and-yellow swallowtail butterflies. The eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) is a large, widely distributed species. The yellow male has black margins and black stripes on the wings. The female is similarly marked in the north, where the black and distasteful pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor) does not occur; in the south, where the two coexist, the female tiger swallowtail is very often all or mostly black.

tigereye or tiger's-eye Semiprecious quartz gem displaying chatoy- ancy, a vertical luminescent band like that of a cat’s eye. Bands of par¬ allel, blue asbestos (crocidolite) fibres are first altered to iron oxides and then replaced by silica. The gem has a rich yellow to yellow-brown or brown colour and a fine golden lustre when it is polished. The best stones come from South Africa. See also cat's-eye.

Tiglath-pileser Vtig-.lath-pI-'le-zoA III (fl. 8th century bc) King of Assyria (r. 745-727 bc) who led the last and greatest phase of Assyrian expansion. On taking the throne, he immediately set about strengthening Assyria. He subdivided large prov¬ inces to quash independence move¬ ments, had officials report directly to him, and resettled tens of thousands of people to ensure loyalty. He defeated his northern neighbour,

Urartu (743 bc), then subjugated Syria and Palestine (734) and took over the throne of Babylon. See also Ashurbanipal; Sargon II.

tigon \'tI-gon\ or tiglon \'ti-gbn\

Zoo-bred offspring of a tiger and a lioness. The opposite cross, of a lion and a tigress, produces a liger. Dif¬ ferences in behavior and habitat make interbreeding of the tiger and lion unlikely in the wild. The tigon and the liger have features of both parents, in variable proportions, but are generally larger and darker than either. It is thought that most, if not all, male tigons and ligers are sterile; the females may be able to produce young.

Tig ray \'ti-,gra\ Historic region of northern Ethiopia. Its dramatic land¬ scape includes plateau regions more than 10,000 ft (3,000 m) high and plains below sea level. Though vegetation is sparse, the population engages in agriculture and stock raising. Tigray contains the core of the ancient Aksum kingdom, as well as Ethiopia’s oldest known town, the 3,000-year-old Yeha. It formerly controlled trade routes from the Red Sea to the empire in the south. Its status declined when it lost control of the coast in the 16th century; it was subsequently dominated by the south and was later threatened by the Egyptian, Sudanese, British, and Italian armies. A rebellion begun in 1975 against the Ethiopian government aggravated the effects of a disastrous drought and famine in 1984-85. In 1999 Ethiopia’s border war with Eritrea led to the displacement of more than 300,000 people in Tigray, and famine is a persistent threat.

Tigris \'t!-gros\ River Arabic Dijlah \'dij-b\ Turkish Dicle biblical Hiddekel River, Turkey and Iraq. It originates in the Taurus Mountains at Lake Hazar and flows 1,180 mi (1,900 km) southeast through Turkey and past Baghdad to unite with the Euphrates River at Al-Qurnah in south¬ eastern Iraq; there it forms the Shatt al-Arab. With the Euphrates it defined the ancient region of Mesopotamia. Important for its irrigation capacity, it gave rise to sustained civilization. The ruins of many ancient cities lie on its banks, including those of Nineveh, Calah, Ashur, Ctesiphon, and Seleu-

CIA.

Tijuana \te-'hwa-na\ City (pop., 2000: 1,148,681), northwestern Baja California, Mexico. It lies on the Tecate River near the Pacific Ocean, 12 mi (19 km) south of San Diego, Calif., U.S. It originated as a ranch settle¬ ment on a land grant in 1862 and developed as a border resort with gam¬ bling casinos. In the 20th century it became the main entry point to Mexico for U.S. tourists. It has many U.S.-owned assembly plants as well as food-processing plants and breweries.

Tikal \te-'kal\ Ancient Maya city, northern Guatemala. First occupied as a small village in a tropical rainforest (c. 900-300 bc), it grew into an important ceremonial centre. It flourished c. ad 600-900, when its great

WILLIAM E. FERGUSON

Tiglath-pileser III, relief from Calah (Nimrud), 8th century bc; in the British Museum.

COURTESY OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM

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1910 I Tikhomirov ► Tilsit

plazas, pyramids, and palaces were built and when Maya art flowered in monumental sculpture. At its height it was the largest urban centre in the southern Maya lowlands; the core city had a population of perhaps 10,000 residents with an outlying population of about 50,000. Its main structures covered about 1 sq mi (2.5 sq km). It was abandoned by the 10th cen¬ tury. Major excavation began in 1956; it is now a central part of Tikal National Park, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in

Tikhomirov Uik-om-'yir-eA, Vasily (Dmitrievich) (b. March 30, 1876, Moscow, Russia—d. June 20, 1956, Moscow) Russian ballet dancer and teacher. After training at the Bolshoi school, he joined the Bolshoi Ballet in 1893. He soon became its principal dancer and created roles in a vigorous, athletic style that he later taught to students at the Bolshoi school. He was influential there as a teacher (from 1896) and as director (1924-37). With his wife, Yekaterina Geltzer, he helped preserve the clas¬ sic ballets and techniques after the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Tikunas See Tucunas

Tilak Vte-lak\, Bal Gangadhar (b. July 23, 1856, Ratnagiri, India—d. Aug. 1, 1920, Bombay) Indian scholar and nationalist. Born to a middle-class Brahman family, Tilak taught mathematics and in 1884 founded the Deccan Education Society to help educate the masses. Through two weekly newspapers, he voiced his criticisms of British rule in India, hoping to widen the popularity of the nationalist movement beyond the upper classes. In response to the Partition of Bengal (1905) he initiated a boycott of British goods and passive resistance, two forms of protest later adopted by Mohandas K. Gandhi. He left the Indian National Congress in 1907 when he was deported for sedition but rejoined in 1916, in time to sign a Hindu-Muslim accord with Mohammed Ali Jin- nah. Though militant in his opposition to foreign rule, late in life Tilak advocated a measure of cooperation with the British in order to achieve reforms.

tilapia Uo-'la-pe-oX Any of numerous, mostly freshwater, fish species (genus Tilapia, family Cichlidae), native to Africa. They resemble North American sunfishes; one species grows to 20 lbs (9 kg). Tilapia species are easy to raise and harvest for food; they grow rapidly, resist disease, and eat readily abundant algae and zooplankton. They have been used in warm-water aquaculture systems since the early Egyptian civilization and have been introduced into many freshwater habitats. See also CICHUD.

Tilden, Bill in full William Tatem Tilden (b. Feb. 20, 1893, Phila¬ delphia, Pa., U.S.—d. June 5, 1953,

Hollywood, Calif.) U.S. tennis player. The dominant player of the 1920s, he won seven U.S. men’s singles championships (1920-25,

1929), three Wimbledon singles championships (1920-21, 1930), and two professional titles. He also won many doubles and mixed-doubles titles and 21 of 28 Davis Cup matches. His overpowering play and temperamental personality made him one of the most colourful sports fig¬ ures of his time.

Tilden, Samuel J(ones) (b. Feb.

9, 1814, New Lebanon, N.Y.,

U.S.—d. Aug. 4, 1886, Greystone, N.Y.) U.S. politician. He was a leader of New York’s Democratic Party, and, as state party chairman (1865-75), he effected the overthrow of the Tammany Hall boss William Marcy Tweed. As governor (1875-76) he continued his reforms, exposing the Canal Ring, a group of politicians and contractors who had defrauded the state. In 1876 he was the Democratic nominee for president. The bitterly fought campaign ended in a popular-vote victory for Tilden, but Republicans contested the results in four states. To settle the controversy. Congress appointed the Electoral Commission, which decided in favour of the Repub¬ lican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes (see also electoral college). Unwilling to cause further conflict, Tilden accepted the decision and returned to his prosperous law practice. On his death he left his large fortune to estab¬ lish a free public library for New York City.

tile Thin, flat slab or block used structurally or decoratively in building. Tiles traditionally have been made of glazed or unglazed fired clay, but

modern tiles are also made of plastic, glass, asphalt, and even cork. Ceramic tiles, used for walls, floors, and countertops, are usually machine- pressed, made of fine clays, and very hard. Quarry tiles (used for flooring) and terra-cotta, made of natural clays, are less hard and more porous but very popular for economic and aesthetic reasons. Structural tile, made of fired clay, is a hollow tile containing parallel cells or cores and is used for building partitions. Roof tiles of baked clay and of marble were used in ancient Greece. Tiles came to be widely used in Islamic architecture. Mul¬ ticoloured, glazed tiles were common in Spain from an early period (see azulejo), and from there spread to Portugal and Latin America. By the 15th century, tile work was used widely in northern Europe; blue-painted tiles from Delft, Holland, were especially renowned. Modern clay roofing tiles may be flat or curved; in the Mediterranean countries, S-shaped tiles (pant¬ iles), laid with alternate convex and concave surfaces uppermost, are com¬ mon. Modem wall tiles may be highly glazed and semivitreous.

tilefish or blanquillo \blaq-'ke-,yo\ Any of 24 species (family Bran- chiostegidae, or Malacanthidae) of slender marine fishes found in shallow tropical and warm temperate seas. Tilefish are used as food, especially the large Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps, a deepwater fish of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico with a fleshy appendage on the head and yellow spots on its upper body and some of its fins. Tilefish have a large oblique mouth with strong canines and one rather long dorsal fin with weak spines.

till In geology, the unsorted material deposited directly by glacial ice and showing no stratification. Till is sometimes called boulder clay because it is composed of clay, boulders of intermediate size, or both. The rock fragments are usually angular and sharp rather than rounded, because they are deposited from ice and have undergone little water transport. The pebbles and boulders may be faceted and striated from grinding while lodged in the glacier.

till-less agriculture See no-till farming

Tillich \'ti-lik,\ English \'ti-lik\, Paul (Johannes) (b. Aug. 20, 1886, Starzeddel, Brandenburg, Ger.—d. Oct. 22, 1965, Chicago, Ill., U.S.) German-bom U.S. Protestant theologian. He studied at Berlin, Tubingen, and Halle and was a chaplain with the German army during World War I. He taught successively at Marburg, Dresden, and Frankfurt am Main. In 1933 the Nazi takeover prompted him to immigrate to the U.S. With the aid of Reinhold Niebuhr, he joined the faculty of New York’s Union Theological Seminary. He became respected for his lucid preaching and his Systematic Theology, 3 vol. (1951-63). He moved to Harvard Uni¬ versity in 1955 and to the University of Chicago in 1962. His theological system was an unusual combination of biblical, existentialist, and meta¬ physical elements, and he attempted to convey an understanding of God that depended neither on revelation nor on science. His other works include The Courage to Be (1952) and Dynamics of Faith (1957).

Tillman, Benjamin R(yan) (b. Aug. 11,1847, Edgefield county, S.C., U.S.—d. July 3, 1918, Washington, D.C.) U.S. politician. He worked as a farmer and in the 1880s was a spokesman for poor rural whites. As gov¬ ernor (1890-94), he introduced populist reforms that expanded public education, shifted the tax burden to the wealthy, and regulated the rail¬ roads. He also supported enactment of Jim Crow laws and considered lynching an acceptable law-enforcement measure. In the U.S. Senate (1895-1918), he pressed for agrarian reform. His attacks on his oppo¬ nents earned him the nickname “Pitchfork Ben.”

Tilly, Johann Tserclaes, count von (b. February 1559, Tilly, Bra¬ bant, Spanish Netherlands—d. April 30, 1632, Ingolstadt, Bavaria) Bavar¬ ian general in the Thirty Years' War. He gained military experience in the Spanish Army of Flanders fighting under Alessandro Farnese (1585) against the Dutch and in 1594 joined the emperor Rudolf II’s army against the Turks. Appointed by Maximilian I of Bavaria to reorganize the Bavar¬ ian army (1610), Tilly created an efficient force that became the spear¬ head of the Catholic League in the Thirty Years’ War. He led the League’s forces to victories in the Battle of White Mountain (1620) and at Lutter (1626). In 1630 he added the imperial forces to his command. In 1631 he besieged the Protestant city of Magdeburg, but its destruction proved disastrous for him. Failing to stop the Swedish advance into Germany, he was defeated at Breitenfeld (1631) and was fatally wounded in a later battle.

Tilsit Vtil-zit\, Treaties of (1807) Agreements that France signed sepa¬ rately with Russia and Prussia at Tilsit, northern Prussia (now Sovetsk, Russia). The treaties followed Napoleon’s victories in the Napoleonic

Bill Tilden

CULVER PICTURES

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

tilth ► Times Literary Supplement I 1911

Wars and established his supremacy in western and central Europe. France and Russia became allies and divided Europe between them, reducing Prussia and Austria to helplessness. In secret provisions, Russia joined the Continental System against British trade. By 1810 Russian trade was hampered and the tsar opened Russian ports to neutral ships, caus¬ ing the alliance to fail and paving the way for Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812.

tilth Physical condition of soil, especially in relation to its suitability for planting or growing a crop. Factors that determine tilth include the for¬ mation and stability of aggregated soil particles, moisture content, degree of aeration, rate of water infiltration, and drainage. The tilth of a soil can change rapidly, depending on environmental factors such as changes in moisture. The objective of tillage (mechanical manipulation of the soil) is to improve tilth, thereby increasing crop production; in the long term, however, conventional tillage, especially plowing, often has the opposite effect, causing the soil to break down and become compacted.

timber framing Construction of frame or post-and-beam structures using large, heavy, wood members, specifically lumber 5 in. (13 cm) or more in the least dimension. The term implies stylistic features of a heavy nature. Half-timber work, in which the spaces between the heavy visible frames of interior and exterior walls are filled in with (nonstructural) material such as brick, plaster, or mud, was common in Asia and Europe. Half-timbering found its highest expression in the Tudor style. See also FRAMED Structure, POST-AND-BEAM SYSTEM.

timbre Ytam-bsrV Quality of sound that distinguishes one instrument, voice, or other sound source from another. Timbre largely results from a characteristic combination of over¬ tones produced by different instru¬ ments. This distinctive combination (which usually varies across the range of pitches) is what principally permits a listener to distinguish a clarinet from a flute, an alto from a tenor, or even a Stradivarius violin from a Guarneri violin, when both are sounding the same pitch. One element of timbre results from the differing methods of producing the sounds (blowing, bowing, striking, etc.), especially audible at the moment a note begins.

Timbuktu French Tombouctou

Town (pop., 1998: 32,000), Mali, on the southern edge of the Sahara near the Niger River. Founded c. ad 1100 by Tuareg nomads, it became an important post on the trans-Saharan caravan routes. After it was incorpo¬ rated within the Mali empire, probably in the late 13th century, it became a centre of Islamic culture (c. 1400- 1600). It reached its apex as a com¬ mercial and cultural centre under Songhai rule c. 1500 but declined rapidly after being conquered by Moroccan forces in the late 16th century. The French captured it in 1894. It became part of independent Mali in 1960. The city was desig¬ nated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988.

time Measured or measurable period. More broadly, it is a con¬ tinuum that lacks spatial dimen¬ sions. Philosophers have sought an understanding of time by focusing on the broad questions of the relation between time and the physical world and the relation between time and consciousness. Those who adopt an absolutist theory of time regard it as a kind of container within which the

universe exists and change takes place, and believe that its existence and properties are independent of the physical universe. According to the rival relationist theory, time is nothing over and above change in the physical universe. Largely because of Albert Einstein, it is now held that time can¬ not be treated in isolation from space (see space-time). Some argue that Einstein’s theories of relativity vindicate relationist theories, others that they vindicate the absolutist theory. The primary issue concerning the relation between time and consciousness is the extent, if any, to which time or aspects of time depend on the existence of conscious beings. Events in time are normally thought of in terms of notions of past, present, and future, which some philosophers treat as mind-dependent; others believe that time is independent of perception and hold that past, present, and future are objective features of the world. See also geologic time, Greenwich Mean Time, standard time, Universal Time.

Time Major U.S. weekly newsmagazine, published in New York City. It was founded in 1923 by Henry R. Luce (as business manager) and Briton Hadden (as editor). It became the most influential newsmagazine in the U.S., with a format of short articles arranged in subject “departments,” which became the standard for later general newsmagazines. After Had¬ den’s death in 1929, Luce was long the magazine’s guiding force, and it reflected his moderately conservative political viewpoint. By the 1970s it had assumed a more neutral, centrist stance in its reportage. In addition to the U.S. circulation, editions are published in Canada, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific.

time-and-motion study Analysis of the time spent in going through the different motions of a job or series of jobs in the evaluation of indus¬ trial performance. Such studies were first instituted in offices and facto¬ ries in the U.S. in the early 20th century. They were widely adopted as a means of improving work methods by subdividing the different opera¬ tions of a job into measurable elements, and they were in turn used as aids in standardization of work and in checking the efficiency of workers and equipment.

time dilation In the theory of special relativity, the “slowing down” of a clock as perceived by an observer in relative motion with respect to that clock. Time dilation becomes noticeable only at speeds approaching that of light and has been accurately confirmed by the apparent increased life¬ time of unstable subatomic particles traveling at nearly the speed of light and by the precise timing of atomic clocks carried on airplanes. See also Lorentz-FitzGerald contraction.

Time of Troubles See Time of Troubles

Time Warner Inc. Largest media and entertainment conglomerate in the world. The corporation resulted from the merger of media giant Time Warner Inc. and the online company America Online, Inc., in 2001; origi¬ nally named AOL Time Warner, the corporation dropped AOL from its name in 2003. Major media outlets include the magazines Time , Sports Illustrated , and People and the cable and broadcast television networks HBO, CNN, TBS, and WB. From its start as a bulletin-board system in 1985, AOL grew to become the world’s largest Internet service provider by the mid 1990s. The Internet “stock bubble” of the late 1990s enabled it to acquire the much larger Time Warner Inc. See also Warner Bros.

Times, The Daily newspaper published in London, one of Britain’s old¬ est and most influential, and one of the world’s greatest newspapers. Founded by John I. Walter in 1785 as The Daily Universal Register, it became The Times in 1788, publishing commercial news and notices along with some scandal. By the mid-1800s it had developed into a widely respected national journal and daily historical record. Late in the 19th century its reputation and circulation declined, but it returned to financial security after being bought by Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount North- CUFFE (1908), and its preeminence in editorial matters and news coverage was reestablished under the editorship of William Haley (1952-67). In 1981 it was bought by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.

Times Literary Supplement (TLS) Weekly literary journal long famous for its coverage of all aspects of literature. Founded in 1902 as a supplement to The Sunday Times of London, the TLS sets the tone and standards of excellence in the field of literary criticism. It presents reviews of major books of fiction and nonfiction published in several languages, and its essays are written with sophistication and scholarly authority and in a lively style. It is also noted for its bibliographic thoroughness, for its topical essays by the world’s leading scholars, and for the erudition of its readers’ published letters to the editor. See also The Times.

A mixture of three pure tones (top) yields a complex resultant tone (bot¬ tom), such as might be produced by an actual instrument, whose perceived quality, or "colour," is its timbre. The strong fundamental tone (top)—which would be perceived by the listener as the only tone played —has a frequency of 100. The other tones shown, with frequencies of 300 and 500, are weaker overtones of the fundamental; their relative loudness (amplitude), reflected in the complex resultant wave form, constitutes an essential aspect of the unique timbre the wave form repre¬ sents.

© MERRIAM-WEBSTER INC.

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1912 I Timis River ► Tinguely

Timis \'te- I mesh\ River Serbo-Croatian Tamis \'te-,mesh\ River, west¬ ern Romania and northeastern Serbia and Montenegro. Rising at the west¬ ern end of the Southern Carpathians, it flows in an arc to enter the Danube River just east of Belgrade after a course of 211 mi (340 km).

Timisoara \,te-me-'shwa-ra\ City (pop., 2002: 317,651), western Roma¬ nia. Located near the Timis River, it was first settled in Neolithic and Roman times. It was sacked by the Tatars in the 13th century. Its citadel was rebuilt in the 14th century and for a few years became the residence of Charles I of Hungary. The Turks held the town from 1552 until the Aus¬ trians took it in 1716. Occupied by Serbia in 1919, Timi§oara was allot¬ ted to Romania by the 1920 Treaty of Trianon. Antigovemment demonstrations there in 1989 led to the execution of Pres. Nicolae Ceausescu and the end of communist rule in Romania. It is a manufactur¬ ing, commercial, and cultural centre.

Timoleon \ti-'mo-le-on\ of Corinth (d. after 337 bc) Greek statesman and general. When the city of Syracuse called to its mother city, Corinth, for help in overthrowing its tyrant, Dionysius the Younger, Timoleon was chosen to lead the liberation force. By shrewd tactics he defeated the combined forces of the oppressor and his Carthaginian allies, who he confined to the western end of the island. He introduced constitutional safeguards and invited more Greek immigration. He retired in 337.

Timor Vte-.mor, te-'mor\ Island, southern Malay Archipelago. It is the easternmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. Indonesian-Malay peoples live along the coast and Melanesian aboriginals in the mountains. They speak dozens of Papuan and Malayan languages, as well as Portuguese in the east and Indonesian in the west. The Portuguese began trading with Timor c. 1520. In 1613 the Dutch settled at the island’s southwestern tip, and the Portuguese moved to the north and east. Treaties in 1860 and 1914 divided the island between them. Netherlands Timor (West Timor) was occupied by the Japanese in World War II; in 1950 the Dutch transferred it to Indonesia. East Timor was held by the Portuguese until 1975, when Indonesian troops invaded and annexed the area; it achieved full sover¬ eignty in 2002 (see East Timor).

timothy Perennial grass (Phleum pratense ) of the family Poaceae (or Gramineae), native to Europe and widely cultivated as a hay and pasture grass in North America. The stems grow in large clumps, are 1.5-3 ft (0.5-1 m) tall, and have swollen, bulblike bases. The flower clusters are long, dense, and cylindrical. Alpine, or mountain, timothy (P alpinum) is about half as tall and occurs in wet areas from Greenland to Alaska, and at high altitudes in many other parts of North America and Europe.

timpani \'tim-po-ne\ or kettledrums Large bowl-shaped drums with pedal mechanisms for altering their pitch by changing the membrane’s tension. The timpani are the princi¬ pal orchestral percussion instru¬ ments. Each drum usually has a range of a fifth; they are classically used in pairs. Until c. 1800 each drum was tuned to a single pitch (usually tonic or dominant) that could not be altered in performance.

Primitive kettledrums, or nakers, were played on horseback by Middle Eastern cavalry. In Europe they were primarily associated, in tandem with the trumpets, with court ceremony and the military. They entered the orchestra in the mid-17th century.

Timpanogos N.tim-po-'no-gosX Cave National Monument

Cave system, Utah, U.S. Located on the northwestern slope of Mount Timpanogos (11,750 ft [3,581 m]), the second highest peak of the Wasatch Mountains, it was estab¬ lished in 1922; it occupies 0.4 sq mi (1 sq km). It centres around a three-chambered limestone cave noted for its pink and white crystal-filigreed walls and tinted formations.

Timur \te-'mur\ or Tamerlane Vta-mor-.lanX or Tamburlaine (b. 1336, Kesh, near Samarkand, Transoxania—d. Feb. 19, 1405, Otrar, near

Chimkent) Turkic conqueror of Islamic faith whose conquests reached from India and Russia to the Mediterranean Sea. Timur took part in cam¬ paigns in Transoxania with Chagatai, a descendant of Genghis Khan. (Timur Lenk, or Tamerlane, means “Timur the Lame,” reflecting the battle wounds he received.) Through machinations and treachery he took over Transoxania and proclaimed himself the restorer of the Mongol empire. In the 1380s he began his conquest of Iran (Persia), taking Khorasan and east¬ ern Iran in 1383-85 and western Iran as far as Mesopotamia and Georgia in 1386-94. He occupied Moscow for a year. When revolts broke out in Iran, he ruthlessly suppressed them, massacring the populations of whole cities. In 1398 he invaded India, leaving a trail of carnage. Next he marched on Damascus and Baghdad, deporting the artisans of the former to Samarkand and destroying all the monuments of the latter. In 1404 he prepared to march on China but died early in the march. Although Timur strove to make Samarkand the most splendid city in Asia, he himself preferred to be always on the move. His most lasting memorials are the architectural monuments of Samarkand and the dynasty he established, under which Samarkand became a centre of scholarship and science.

tin Metallic chemical element, chemical symbol Sn, atomic number 50. It is a soft, silvery white metal with a bluish tinge, employed since antiquity in the traditional form of bronze, its alloy with copper. It occurs chiefly as the dioxide (stannic oxide, Sn0 2 ) in cassiterite. Since it is nontoxic, ductile, malleable, and easily worked, it is used to plate steel cans (“tin cans”) for use as food containers and to coat and plate other items. Pure tin is too weak to be used alone, but its many alloys include soft solder, pewter, bronze, and low-temperature casting alloys. It has valence 2 or 4 in compounds, including stannous chloride (used in tin galvanizing and manufacturing polymers and dyes), stannous oxide (used to make tin salts for chemical reagents and plating), stannous fluoride (used as an anticav¬ ity ingredient in toothpastes), stannic chloride (a stabilizer for perfumes and a source of other tin salts), and stannic oxide (a catalyst and a pol¬ ishing powder for steel). Tin bonds with carbon to form organotin com¬ pounds, used to stabilize PVC and in biocides and fungicides.

Tin Pan Alley Genre of U.S. popular music that arose in New York in the late 19th century. The name was coined by the songwriter Monroe Rosenfeld as the byname of the street on which the industry was based— 28th Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway in the early 20th cen¬ tury, around Broadway and 32nd Street in the 1920s, and ultimately on Broadway between 42nd and 50th Streets. “Tin pan” referred to the sound of pianos furiously pounded by “song pluggers” demonstrating tunes to publishers. The genre comprised the commercial music of writers of bal¬ lads, dance music, and vaudeville songs, and its name eventually became synonymous with U.S. popular music. Its demise resulted from the rise of film, audio recording, radio, and TV, which created a demand for more and different kinds of music, and the growth of commercial songwriting centres in cities such as Hollywood and Nashville.

Tinbergen Vtin-.ber-konX, Jan (b. April 12, 1903, The Hague, Neth.—d. June 9, 1994, The Netherlands) Dutch economist noted for his development of econometric models. For 40 years (1933-73) he taught at The Netherlands School of Economics. As economic adviser to the League of Nations (1936-38), he studied the economic development of the U.S. from 1919 to 1932, work that provided a basis for his development of business cycle theory and methods of economic stabilization. In 1969 he shared with Ragnar Frisch the first Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Nikolaas Tinbergen was his brother.

Tinbergen, Nikolaas (b. April 15, 1907, The Hague, Neth.—d. Dec. 21, 1988, Oxford, Eng.) Dutch-born British zoologist, a founder (with Konrad Lorenz) of the science of ethology. Brother of Jan Tinbergen, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Leiden and taught there until 1949, when he took a position at Oxford University. He emphasized the importance of both instinctive and learned behaviour to survival and used animal behaviour as a basis for speculation on human violence and aggres¬ sion. His observations of seagulls led to important generalizations on courtship and mating behaviour. From the 1970s he and his wife, Eliza¬ beth, studied human behavioral disorders, particularly autism. With Lorenz and Karl von Frisch he shared a Nobel Prize in 1973.

tincal See borax Ting Ling See Ding Ling

Tinguely \ta n -'gle\, Jean (b. May 22, 1925, Fribourg, Switz.—d. Aug. 30, 1991, Bern) Swiss sculptor and experimental artist. As a student of

Modern timpani with pedal-controlled tension

COURTESY OF LUDWIG INDUSTRIES, CHICAGO

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

tinplating ► Tiryns I 1913

painting and sculpture in Basel, he showed interest in movement as an artistic medium, and in 1953 he moved to Paris and began to construct sophisticated kinetic sculptures. He created a sensation when his self- destroying Homage to New York (1960) failed to self-destruct at the Museum of Modem Art, New York City; his Study for an End of the World (1961) detonated successfully. Tinguely’s art satirized the mindless over¬ production of material goods in advanced industrial society and expressed his conviction that the essence of both life and art consists of continuous change, movement, and instability.

tinplating Applying a coating of tin to thin steel sheet either by dipping in molten metal or by electrolytic deposition (electroplating); almost all tinplate is now produced by the latter process, in which the tin coating is applied without heat. Essentially a sandwich in which the core is strip steel, tinplate has the strength and formability of steel combined with the noncorrosive and nontoxic properties of tin, and additionally is easy to solder. It is used for containers for food and beverages, paints, oils, tobacco, and numerous other products, as well as in toys, baking equip¬ ment, and parts for radio and other electronic equipment. Modern mate¬ rials, including stainless steel and plastics, have replaced tinplate in many common applications.

Tintoretto orig. Jacopo Robusti (b. c. 1518, Venice, Republic of Venice—d. May 31, 1594, Venice) Italian painter. His father was a silk dyer ( tintore ); hence the nickname Tintoretto (“Little Dyer”). His early influences include Michelangelo and Titian. In Christ and the Adulteress (c. 1545) figures are set in vast spaces in fanciful perspectives, in dis¬ tinctly Mannerist style. In 1548 he became the centre of attention of art¬ ists and literary men in Venice with his St. Mark Freeing the Slave, so rich in structural elements of post-Michelangelo Roman art that it is sur¬ prising to learn that he had never visited Rome. By 1555 he was a famous and sought-after painter, with a style marked by quickness of execution, great vivacity of colour, a predilection for variegated perspective, and a dynamic conception of space. In his most important undertaking, the decoration of Venice’s Scuola Grande di San Rocco (1564-88), he exhib¬ ited his passionate style and profound religious faith. His technique and vision were wholly personal and constantly evolving. Historians of mod¬ ern art recognize him as the greatest representative of Mannerism, inter¬ preted in accordance with the great tradition of Venice.

Tipitaka See Tripitaka

Tippecanoe V.ti-po-ko-'nuV Battle of (Nov. 7, 1811) Victory by U.S. troops over the Shawnee. Gen. William H. Harrison led a U.S. force in pur¬ suit of the Shawnee to destroy an intertribal alliance promoted by Tecum- seh and his brother, The Prophet. At the Indian capital of Prophetstown on the Tippecanoe River in Indiana, the Indians attacked the troops but were repulsed. Both sides suffered equal losses, but the battle was considered a victory for Harrison and helped establish him as a national figure.

Tippett Vtip-atV Sir Michael (Kemp) (b. Jan. 2, 1905, London, Eng.—d. Jan. 8, 1998, London) British composer. Tippett studied compo¬ sition (1923-28) at the Royal College of Music. His early music was con¬ servative, but in the late 1930s he developed a personal, modernistic idiom that was marked by rhapsodic lyricism, intricate counterpoint, and poly¬ phonic rhythms that have a lilting, bounding quality. He devoted most of his energies to compositions with words (generally his own), including the cantatas A Child of Our Time (1941) and The Mask of Time (1984), and the operas The Midsummer Marriage (1952), King Priam (1961), The Knot Garden (1969), and The Ice Break (1976). Beginning with King Priam, his surging rhythms and lush harmonies gave way to a starker, more taut style. His instrumental works include symphonies and string quartets.

Tirane or Tirana \ti-'ra-no\ City (pop., 1999 est.: 279,000), capital of Albania. Founded in the early 17th century by a Turkish general, it gradu¬ ally became a trading centre at the junction of roads and caravan trails. It was named the capital of Albania in 1920. In World War II Tirane was occupied by Axis forces (1939—44). It is Albania’s largest city and main industrial and cultural centre, home to the national library and theatre and site of the University of Tirane (1957).

tire Rubber cushion that fits around a wheel and usually contains com¬ pressed air. Solid-rubber tires were used on road vehicles until they were replaced by air-filled pneumatic tires, which, although first patented by Robert Thomson (1822-1873) in 1845, came into common use only when John Dunlop (1840-1921) put them on bicycles in 1888 and the French manufacturer Michelin began to produce them for motor vehicles. The

tire consisted of an inner tube containing compressed air that was cov¬ ered by an outer rubber casing to provide traction. In the 1950s tubeless tires became standard on most automobiles. Improved tire construction produced the radial-ply tire.

Tiresias \tl-'re-se-9s\ In Greek mythology, a blind Theban seer. In Hom¬ er’s Odyssey he retained his prophetic gifts even in the underworld, where Odysseus was sent to consult him. His prophecy led to the tragedy of Oedipus. It was said that Tiresias lived for seven generations and that he was once turned into a woman for killing the female of two mating snakes; upon thereafter killing the male, he reverted to male. According to one legend, he was blinded by Hera for arguing, on the basis of his unique experience, that women derive greater pleasure from sex than men do; his gift of prophecy was a compensatory gesture from Zeus.

Tirol or Tyrol Ua-'rol, , t!-,rol\ State (pop., 2001: 673,504), western Aus¬ tria. Covering 4,883 sq mi (12,647 sq km), it consists of North Tirol and East Tirol, separated by the state of Salzburg and the Italian region of Trentino-Alto Adige. Tirol is a mountainous area bordered by the Bavar¬ ian Alps and the Otztaler Alps. Its capital is Innsbruck. Tirol came under Roman control in the 1st century bc. In the Middle Ages it was ruled by various counts and bishops until it passed to the Habsburgs in 1363. It was the scene of revolts in 1525 during the Reformation, and again in 1809 against French and Bavarian rule. The southern Tirol was transferred to Italy in 1919. Renowned for its skiing, it attracts many tourists.

Tirpitz \'tir-p3ts\, Alfred von (b. March 19, 1849, Kiistrin, Prussia—d. March 6, 1930, Ebenhausen, near Munich, Ger.) German naval com¬ mander. The son of a Prussian civil servant, he enlisted in the Prussian Navy in 1865, attended the Kiel Naval School, and was commissioned in 1869. As commander of a torpedo-boat flotilla, he devised new tactical principles. Promoted to rear admiral, he commanded a cruiser squadron in East Asia (1896-97). In 1897 he became secretary of state of the impe¬ rial navy department and reorganized the German navy into a formidable high-seas fleet. Promoted to grand admiral (1911), he favoured unlimited submarine warfare in World War I, but opposition to his policy led to his resignation in 1916. In 1917 he cofounded the patriotic Fatherland Party.

Tirso de Molina Vtir-so-da-mo-'le-noV orig. Gabriel Tellez (b. March 9?, 1584, Madrid, Spain—d. March 12, 1648, Soria) Spanish play¬ wright. As a friar of the Mercedarian Order from 1601, he wrote its offi¬ cial history (1637). Inspired by Lope de Vega, he drew upon a wide range of sources and styles for his dramas. Tirso wrote a vast number of works, of which only about 80 have survived. His best-known play, the tragedy The Seducer of Seville (1630), introduced the legendary hero-villain Don Juan. Noted for portraying the psychological conflicts of his characters, he also wrote the tragedy The Doubted Damned (1635) and Antona Garcia (1635), which analyzed mob emotion. Though he also excelled in com¬ edy, he was the greatest Spanish tragedian of his time.

tirtha Vtir-t9\ In Hinduism, a holy river, mountain, or other place made sacred through association with a deity or saint. Such sites are often the destination of pilgrims and the venue for large religious festivals. A Hindu will make such a pilgrimage as an act of devotion, to carry out a vow, to appease a deity, or to seek prosperity. On reaching a tirtha, the pilgrim will usually bathe, circle the temple or shrine, make an offering, have his name recorded by the tirtha priests, and listen to evening music and reli¬ gious discourses.

Tirthankara Uir-'tsq-ks-rsX or Jina \'ji-ns\ In Jainism, a saviour who has succeeded in crossing over life’s stream of rebirths and has made a path for others to follow. Each cosmic age produces 24 Tirthankaras; the first are giants, but, as the age proceeds, they decrease in stature and appear after shorter intervals of time. Of the 24 Tirthankaras of the present age, each of whom is represented by a symbolic colour and emblem, only Parshvanatha and Mahavira are considered actual historical figures. The Tirthankaras are not worshiped as gods but rather honoured as exemplars. See also arhat; bodhisattva; samsara.

Tiryns Vtir-snz, 'tlr-9nz\ Ancient city, eastern Peloponnese, southern Greece. Inhabited from Neolithic times, it developed as an important Mycenaean centre in the Bronze Age, reaching its height c. 1400 bc. It declined as Argos grew in power after 1100 bc. The Argives destroyed it c. 468 bc. Ruins of its palace and massive walls date from the 15th—12th centuries bc. The term cyclopean masonry derives from the huge stones used in its construction, supposedly by the Cyclops for Proteus. The city is also connected with Perseus and Heracles.

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1914 I Tishtrya ► titanium

Tishtrya \'tish-tre-o\ Ancient Iranian god identified with the star Sirius. His principal myth involves a battle with a demonic star named Apausha over rainfall and water. As one of the stars that cause rain, Tishtrya was intimately connected with agriculture.

tissue culture Biological research method in which tissue fragments (a cell, a population of cells, or all or part of an organ) are sustained in an artificial environment for examination and manipulation of cell behaviour. It has been used to study normal and abnormal cell structure; biochemi¬ cal, genetic, and reproductive activity; metabolism, functions, and aging and healing processes; and reactions to physical, chemical, and biologi¬ cal agents (e.g., drugs, viruses). A tiny sample of the tissue is spread on or in a culture medium of biological (e.g., blood serum or tissue extract), synthetic, or mixed origin having the appropriate nutrients, temperature, and pH for the cells being incubated. The results are observed with a microscope, sometimes after treatment (e.g., staining) to highlight par¬ ticular features. Some viruses also grow in tissue cultures. Work with tis¬ sue cultures has helped identify infections, enzyme deficiencies, and chromosomal abnormalities; classify brain tumours; and formulate and test drugs and vaccines.

Tisza \'ti-sa\, Istvdn, Count (b. April 22, 1861, Budapest, Hung., Austrian Empire—d. Oct. 31, 1918, Budapest) Hungarian politician. He entered the Hungarian parliament in 1886 and joined his father, Tisza Kalman, as a leader of the Liberal Party. A defender of the Austro- Hungarian dualist system of government and of Hungary’s landed inter¬ ests, he served as prime minister (1903-05, 1913-17). He opposed voting franchise reform and resigned over the king’s 1917 decree for such reform. A supporter of the alliance with Germany in World War I, he was held responsible for his country’s suffering and was assassinated by Mag¬ yar leftists.

Tisza, Kalman (b. Dec. 16, 1830, Geszt, Hung., Austrian Empire—d. March 23, 1902, Budapest) Hungarian politician and premier (1875-90). A member of an old landowning family, he took part in the struggle for Hungarian national autonomy within the Austro-Hungarian system of dual government. After the Compromise of 1867 he formed a coalition of the nobility, business interests, and small landowners into the new Liberal Party (1875) and became prime minister. His social, political, economic, and legal reforms helped Hungary develop into a modern state. He resigned over interference from the Austrian emperor but continued as leader of the Liberal Party, with his son, Istvan Tisza.

Tisza River or Tisa \'ti-sa\ River River, western Ukraine, eastern Hungary, and northern Serbia and Montenegro. Rising in the Carpathian Mountains of western Ukraine, it flows west, forming a section of the Ukraine-Romania border, then continues southwest across Hungary and into Serbia and Montenegro to empty into the Danube River above Belgrade. It is 619 mi (996 km) long. The Tiszalok Dam (1954) forms the largest reservoir in Hungary. The Tisza is navigable for light-draft boats for about 450 mi (727 km).

tit Any of several woodland and garden songbird species in the genus Parus (family Paridae) having a rather stout, pointed bill. The great tit (P. major), found in Europe, North Africa, and Asia nearly to Java, is about 6 in. (14 cm) long. It has a white face, a black head, and a black center line on its underparts, which are yellow or bufify. The best-known North American species of crested tit is the tufted titmouse (P. bicolor ), a 7-in. (17-cm) bluish gray bird with pinkish brown flanks. See also CHICKADEE.

Titan Vtl-tonX In Greek mythology, any of the children of Uranus and Gaea and their descendants. There were 12 original Titans: the brothers Coeus, Crius, Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Oceanus, and the sisters Mnemo¬ syne, Phoebe, Rhea, Tethys, Thea, and Themis. Encouraged by Gaea, the Titans rebelled against their father. Cronus deposed Uranus by castrating him, and became king himself. Cronus’ son Zeus rebelled against his father, launching a struggle in which most of the Titans sided with Cro¬ nus. Zeus and his siblings finally won after 10 years, and Zeus impris¬ oned the Titans in a cavity below Tartarus.

Titan \'tl-t 3 n\ Largest moon of Saturn. Titan is the only satellite in the solar system known to have clouds and a dense atmosphere. It makes one rotation on its axis (about every 16 days) for each revolution around Sat¬ urn, thus always keeping the same hemisphere toward the planet. With a diameter of 3,200 mi (5,150 km), Titan is the second largest moon in the solar system; only Jupiter’s Ganymede is larger. Its density (about 1.9 times that of water) implies that its interior is a mixture of rocky and icy materials, the latter likely being mostly water ice mixed with frozen ammonia and methane. Its atmosphere is about 95% nitrogen. Its surface, veiled in a thick brownish red haze, was largely a mystery until the arrival at Saturn in 2004 of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft, which revealed a complex topography shaped by rains, winds, flowing liquids, and other processes similar to those acting on Earth’s surface.

Titan rocket Any of a series of U.S. liquid-fueled rockets originally developed as intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) but also used as space launch vehicles. Titan I missiles (used 1962-65), designed to deliver a four-megaton nuclear warhead over 5,000 mi (8,000 km) to targets in the former Soviet Union, were stored in underground silos but had to be raised to ground level and fueled for launch. By 1965 they had been replaced by the much larger Titan II, which could be launched directly from its silo. With a nine-megaton warhead, Titan II was the principal weapon in the land-based U.S. nuclear arsenal until the 1980s, when it was replaced by solid-fueled ICBMs (e.g., Minuteman missiles). NASA used the Titan II to launch Gemini spacecraft in the 1960s; deactivated Titan II missiles refurbished as space launchers continued to be used into the 21st century. The Titan IV, developed in the late 1980s, has larger engines to lift heavy space cargo such as that carried by the space shuttle. Coupled with the Centaur upper-stage vehicle, it is the largest and most powerful expendable launch vehicle in the U.S.

Titanic British luxury passenger liner that sank on April 15, 1912, en route to New York from Southampton, England, on its maiden voyage. Over 1,500 of its 2,200 passengers were lost. The largest and most luxu¬ rious ship afloat, it had a double-bottomed hull divided into 16 watertight compartments. Because four of these could be flooded without endanger¬ ing its buoyancy, it was considered unsinkable. Shortly before midnight on April 14, it collided with an iceberg southeast of Cape Race, New¬ foundland; five compartments ruptured and the ship sank. As a result, new rules were drawn up requiring that the number of places in lifeboats equal the number of passengers (the Titanic had only 1,178 lifeboat places for 2,224 passengers) and that all ships maintain a 24-hour radio watch for distress signals (a ship less than 20 mi [32 km] away had not heard the Titanic ’s distress signal because no one had been on duty). The Interna¬ tional Ice Patrol was established to monitor icebergs in shipping lanes. In 1985 the wreck was found lying upright in two pieces at a depth of 13,000 ft (4,000 m) and was explored by American and French scientists using an unmanned submersible (see Robert Ballard).

I I 11 1

The Titanic.

THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE

titanium \tI-'ta-ne-om\ Metallic chemical element, one of the transition elements, chemical symbol Ti, atomic number 22. A silvery gray, light¬ weight, high-strength, low-corrosion structural metal, it is found combined in almost all rocks and soils and in plants and animals, natural waters, and deep-sea dredgings. Its chief commercial ores are ilmenite and rutile. Its alloys are used for parts for high-speed aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, and ships; in electrodes; in chemical, desalination, and food-handling equip¬ ment; and in prostheses. Its compounds, in which it has valence 2, 3, or 4, include titanium trichloride (used as a catalyst in polypropylene pro-