Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

277 results found

bell, musical instrument

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Bell bell, in music, a percussion instrument consisting of a hollow metal vessel, often cup-shaped with an outward-flaring rim, damped at one end and set into vibration by a blow from a clappe...

Burns, John

(Encyclopedia)Burns, John, 1858–1943, British union leader and politician. A factory worker as a child, he was largely self-educated and was led by his reading to radical socialism. Burns became an outstanding or...

Benoni, city, South Africa

(Encyclopedia)Benoni bənōˈnē [key], city, Gauteng prov., NE South Africa, on the Witwatersrand, now administratively part of the Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality. It is the distribution center for a gold-mi...

Upshaw, Gene

(Encyclopedia)Upshaw, Gene (Eugene Upshaw, Jr.), 1945–2008, American football player and labor union leader, b. Robstown, Tex. He attended Texas College of Arts and Industries (now Texas A&M, Kingsville), whe...

Quill, Michael Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Quill, Michael Joseph, 1905–66, American labor leader, b. Co. Kerry, Ireland. Quill was active (1919–23) in the movement for Irish independence before emigrating (1926) to the United States. He wo...

Pankhurst, Emmeline Goulden

(Encyclopedia)Pankhurst, Emmeline Goulden ĕmˈəlīnˌ, –lēnˌ, go͞olˈdən, păngkˈhûrst [key], 1858–1928, British woman suffragist. Disappointed in the disinterest in women's suffrage shown by the Libera...

Lewis, John Llewellyn

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, John Llewellyn, 1880–1969, American labor leader, b. Lucas co., Iowa; son of a Welsh immigrant coal miner. He became a miner and after 1906 rose through the union ranks to become president (1...

Free-Soil party

(Encyclopedia)Free-Soil party, in U.S. history, political party that came into existence in 1847–48 chiefly because of rising opposition to the extension of slavery into any of the territories newly acquired from...

Eisner, Kurt

(Encyclopedia)Eisner, Kurt ko͝ortˈ īsˈnər [key], 1867–1919, German socialist. He studied at the Friedrich Wilhelm Univ. in Berlin and edited several leading socialist newspapers. In 1917 he joined the newly ...

Crookes tube

(Encyclopedia)Crookes tube, device invented by Sir William Crookes (c.1875) consisting essentially of a sealed glass tube from which nearly all the air has been removed and through the walls of which are passed two...