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Gramme, Zénobe-Théophile

(Encyclopedia)Gramme, Zénobe-Théophile zānôbˈ tāôfēlˈ gräm [key], 1826–1901, Belgian electrical engineer. While working as a model maker for a Parisian manufacturer of electrical devices, Gramme became ...

Giddings, Franklin Henry

(Encyclopedia)Giddings, Franklin Henry, 1855–1931, American sociologist, b. Fairfield co., Conn., grad. Union College, Schenectady, N.Y. In 1894 he became professor of sociology at Columbia, where he earned a rep...

mechanism

(Encyclopedia)mechanism, philosophical theory about the nature of organic systems, holding that organisms are machines in the sense that they are material systems. Mechanism seeks to explain biological processes, i...

Taylor, Brook

(Encyclopedia)Taylor, Brook, 1685–1731, English mathematician. He originated Taylor's theorem, a formula important in differential calculus, which relates a function to its derivatives by means of a power series....

Wieser, Friedrich von

(Encyclopedia)Wieser, Friedrich von frēˈdrĭkh fən vēˈzər [key], 1851–1926, Austrian economist and sociologist. He is noted for his formulas applying the principle of marginal utility to cost phenomena. He ...

Bloch, Ernst

(Encyclopedia)Bloch, Ernst, 1885–1977, German Marxist philosopher. He taught at the Univ. of Leipzig (1918–33), drifting toward Marxist thought during the 1920s. He fled the Nazis after 1933, moving first to Sw...

Alexander, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Alexander, Samuel, 1859–1938, British philosopher, b. Australia. From 1893 to 1924 he was professor of philosophy at Victoria Univ., Manchester. Strongly influenced by the theory of evolution, Alexa...

Munn v. Illinois

(Encyclopedia)Munn v. Illinois, case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1876. Munn, a partner in a Chicago warehouse firm, had been found guilty by an Illinois court of violating the state laws providing for the ...

Sharp, Granville

(Encyclopedia)Sharp, Granville, 1735–1813, English reformer, scholar, and abolitionist. In 1772 he won a case establishing the principle that any slave would become free upon reaching British land. Sharp continue...

Stevin, Simon

(Encyclopedia)Stevin, Simon sēˈmôn stəvīnˈ [key], 1548–1620, Dutch engineer and mathematician. His experiments in hydrostatics showed that the pressure exerted by a liquid is dependent only on its vertical ...