Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bell, Alexander Graham

(Encyclopedia)Bell, Alexander Graham, 1847–1922, American scientist, inventor of the telephone, b. Edinburgh, Scotland, educated at the Univ. of Edinburgh and University College, London; son of Alexander Melville...

Bell, Alexander Melville

(Encyclopedia)Bell, Alexander Melville, 1819–1905, Scottish-American educator, b. Edinburgh. Bell worked out a physiological or visible alphabet, with symbols that were intended to represent every sound of the hu...

Bell

(Encyclopedia)Bell, city (1990 pop. 34,365), Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1927. It is chiefly residential, with printing, metal fabrication, and the manufacture of industrial machinery and lighting fixtures. ...

bell

(Encyclopedia)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 clapper within or f...

Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Alexander, 1888–1934, king of Yugoslavia (1921–34), son and successor of Peter I. Of the Karadjordjevi family, he was educated in Russia and became crown prince of Serbia upon the renunciation (...

Bras d'Or Lake

(Encyclopedia)Bras d'Or Lake brä dôr [key], arm of the Atlantic Ocean, c.360 sq mi (930 sq km), indenting deeply into Cape Breton Island, N.S., SE Canada, and occupying much of the interior. A narrow channel link...

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...

Brantford

(Encyclopedia)Brantford, city (1991 pop. 81,997), S Ont., Canada, on the Grand River. It is a leading manufacturing city, noted particularly for its large farm implement factories. The city was named for the Mohawk...

kite

(Encyclopedia)kite, in aviation, aircraft restrained by a towline and deriving its lift from the aerodynamic action of the wind flowing across it. Commonly the kite consists of a light framework upon which paper, s...

Curtiss, Glenn Hammond

(Encyclopedia)Curtiss, Glenn Hammond, 1878–1930, American inventor and aviation pioneer, b. Hammondsport, N.Y. He was a member of Alexander Graham Bell's Aerial Experiment Association (1907–9). In 1908 he made ...

Browse by Subject