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bearing

(Encyclopedia)bearing, machine part designed to reduce friction between moving parts or to support moving loads. There are two main kinds of bearings: the antifriction type, such as the roller bearing and the ball ...

ball bearing

(Encyclopedia)ball bearing: see bearing.

radio range

(Encyclopedia)radio range, geographically fixed radio transmitter that radiates coded signals in all directions to enable aircraft and ships to determine their bearings. An aircraft or ship can determine its line o...

Great Artesian Basin

(Encyclopedia)Great Artesian Basin, c.670,000 sq mi (1,735,300 sq km), between the Eastern Highlands and the Western Plateau, E central Australia, extending S from the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland, to NE South A...

Mother Lode

(Encyclopedia)Mother Lode, belt of gold-bearing quartz veins, central Calif., along the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The term is sometimes limited to a strip c.70 mi (110 km) long and from 1 to 61⁄2 mi...

Comus

(Encyclopedia)Comus kōˈməs [key], in late Roman legend, god of mirth and revelry. A follower of Dionysus, he was represented as a drunken youth bearing a torch. In Milton's poetic masque, Comus, he is the mischi...

shaft sinking

(Encyclopedia)shaft sinking, excavation from the surface of an opening in the earth. Shafts, which are generally vertical, are usually distinguished from tunnels, which are horizontal. Little difficulty is experien...

Natashkwan

(Encyclopedia)Natashkwan nătˌăshkwŏnˈ, nətăshˈkwən [key], river, 241 mi (388 km) long, rising in S Labrador, N.L., Canada, and flowing S across E Que. to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is noted for trout and...

crowberry

(Encyclopedia)crowberry, evergreen alpine and arctic shrub of the genus Empetrum (or, sometimes, other related species), bearing black, red, or purple berrylike fruits. Some are cultivated in rock gardens. Crowberr...

anther

(Encyclopedia)anther, pollen-bearing structure of the stamen of a flower, usually borne on a slender stalk called the filament. Each anther generally consists of two pollen sacs, which open when the pollen is matur...