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lightning rod

(Encyclopedia)lightning rod, a rod made of materials, especially metals, that are good conductors of electricity, which is mounted on top of a building or other structure and attached to the ground by a cable. By v...

Dease, Peter Warren

(Encyclopedia)Dease, Peter Warren dēs [key], 1788–1863, Canadian explorer. He was in the North West Company before its merger with the Hudson's Bay Company and later was a Hudson's Bay Company trader. He was a m...

Brogan, Denis William

(Encyclopedia)Brogan, Denis William brōˈgən [key], 1900–1974, British historian and political scientist, b. Glasgow, Scotland. He was educated at the Univ. of Glasgow, Oxford, and Harvard and was professor of ...

Stamp Act

(Encyclopedia)Stamp Act, 1765, revenue law passed by the British Parliament during the ministry of George Grenville. The first direct tax to be levied on the American colonies, it required that all newspapers, pamp...

Weed, Thurlow

(Encyclopedia)Weed, Thurlow thûrˈlō [key], 1797–1882, American journalist and political leader, b. Cairo, N.Y. After working on various newspapers in W New York, Weed joined the Rochester Telegraph and was inf...

Nevin, John Williamson

(Encyclopedia)Nevin, John Williamson, 1803–86, American theologian and educator, b. near Strasburg, Pa., grad. Union College, 1821, and Princeton Theological Seminary, 1826. He was professor of biblical literatur...

Rogers, James Harvey

(Encyclopedia)Rogers, James Harvey, 1886–1939, American economist, b. South Carolina, grad. Univ. of South Carolina (B.A., 1906) and Yale (B.A., 1909; Ph.D., 1916). He was professor of economics at the Univ. of M...

Charles, Jacques Alexandre César

(Encyclopedia)Charles, Jacques Alexandre César zhäk älĕksäNˈdrə sāzärˈ shärl [key], 1746–1823, French physicist. He confirmed Benjamin Franklin's electrical experiments, became interested in aeronautic...

deists

(Encyclopedia)deists dēˈĭsts [key], term commonly applied to those thinkers in the 17th and 18th cent. who held that the course of nature sufficiently demonstrates the existence of God. For them formal religion ...

Flynn, Edward Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Flynn, Edward Joseph, 1892–1953, American political leader, b. New York City. He practiced law in New York City and served (1917–21) in the New York state legislature. Flynn became leader of the D...