Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Western Union Telegraph Company

(Encyclopedia)Western Union Telegraph Company, enterprise created (1851) to provide telegraphic communications services in the United States. Originally known as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegra...

telegraph

(Encyclopedia)telegraph, term originally applied to any device or system for distant communication by means of visible or audible signals, now commonly restricted to electrically operated devices. Attempts at long-...

company union

(Encyclopedia)company union: see union, labor. ...

Western European Union

(Encyclopedia)Western European Union (WEU), European security and defense organization. It was set up in Brussels in 1955 as a defensive, economic, social, and cultural organization, consisting of Belgium, France, ...

Union Pacific Railroad

(Encyclopedia)Union Pacific Railroad, transportation company chartered (1862) by Congress to build part of the nation's first transcontinental railroad line. Under terms of the Pacific Railroads Act, the Union Paci...

Gray, Elisha

(Encyclopedia)Gray, Elisha, 1835–1901, American inventor, b. Barnesville, Ohio. He patented many electrical devices, most of them having to do with the telegraph. His telautograph (1888) for transmitting handwrit...

Western Province

(Encyclopedia)Western Province, province (1990 pop. 607,497), c.63,000 sq mi (163,170 sq km), W Zambia. The capital is Mongu. The area, covered mostly by savanna, is drained by the Zambezi River. Livestock and grai...

Western Federation of Miners

(Encyclopedia)Western Federation of Miners (WFM), a radical labor union that organized the miners and smelter workers of the Rocky Mountain states. Created in 1893 by the merger of several local miners' unions, the...

Western Reserve

(Encyclopedia)Western Reserve, tract of land in NE Ohio, on the southern shore of Lake Erie, retained by Connecticut in 1786 when it ceded its claims to its western lands (see Northwest Territory). In 1792, Connect...

International Telecommunication Union

(Encyclopedia)International Telecommunication Union (ITU), specialized agency of the United Nations, with headquarters at Geneva. It was created in 1934 as a result of the merging of the International Telegraph Uni...