Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

21 results found

tire

(Encyclopedia)tire, device made of rubber and fabric and attached to the outer rim of a vehicle wheel. Solid rubber tires were in limited use before 1850; they are still used in some special applications, e.g., for...

Akron

(Encyclopedia)Akron ăkˈrən [key], city (2020 pop. 190,469), seat of Summit co., NE Ohio, on the Little Cuyahoga River; inc. 1865. Once the heart of the nation's rubber industry, Akro...

wheel

(Encyclopedia)wheel. Through the many millennia of the Paleolithic period and the Neolithic period no use of the wheel was known to humans. Its use was not known to the Native Americans until the Europeans introduc...

Colombes

(Encyclopedia)Colombes kôlôNbˈ [key], city, Hauts-de-Seine dept., N central France, on the Seine River. ...

Gadsden

(Encyclopedia)Gadsden gădzˈdən [key], city (2020 pop. 33,945), seat of Etowah co., NE Ala., on the Coosa ...

Firestone, Harvey Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Firestone, Harvey Samuel, 1868–1938, American industrialist, manufacturer of rubber products, b. Columbiana co., Ohio. The son of a prosperous farmer, Harvey Firestone began to manufacture rubber ti...

carbon black

(Encyclopedia)carbon black, mixture of partially burned hydrocarbons. Carbon black is produced by partial combustion of natural gas. It is used as a black pigment for inks and paints, and is used in large amounts b...

nylon

(Encyclopedia)nylon, synthetic thermoplastic material characterized by strength, elasticity, resistance to abrasion and chemicals, low moisture absorbency, and capacity to be permanently set by heat. After 10 years...

Flory, Paul John

(Encyclopedia)Flory, Paul John, 1910–85, American chemist, b. Sterling, Ill., Ph.D. Ohio State Univ., 1934. Flory was a researcher with the DuPont Company (1934–37) and a professor at the Univ. of Cincinnati (1...

Desnos, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Desnos, Robert rôbĕrˈ dĕsnôsˈ [key], 1900–1945, French poet. Among the best-known surrealist poets, he was one of the chief proponents of so-called automatic writing. He put himself in a tranc...

Browse by Subject