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Ctesibius

(Encyclopedia)Ctesibius tĭsĭbˈēəs [key], fl. 2d cent. b.c., Alexandrian Greek inventor. He reputedly was the first to discover and apply the expansive power of air as a motive force. Among the inventions ascri...

Darwin, Sir George Howard

(Encyclopedia)Darwin, Sir George Howard, 1845–1912, English astronomer and mathematician; 2d son of Charles Darwin. He was Plumian professor (from 1883) of astronomy and experimental philosophy at Cambridge, and ...

Bugge, Sophus

(Encyclopedia)Bugge, Sophus sōˈfo͝os bo͞oˈgə [key], 1833–1907, Norwegian philologist. He made a notable edition of the Old Norse runes, and his was the first critical edition (1881–89; 2d series 1896) of ...

Lorenz, Konrad

(Encyclopedia)Lorenz, Konrad kônˈrät lôrˈĕnts [key], 1903–89, Austrian zoologist and ethologist. He received medical training at the Univ. of Vienna and spent two years at the medical school of Columbia Uni...

Belo Horizonte

(Encyclopedia)Belo Horizonte bəlˌo͝orēzôNˈtĭ [key] [Port.,=beautiful horizon], city, capital of Minas Gerais ...

decadents

(Encyclopedia)decadents, in literature, name loosely applied to those 19th-century, fin-de-siècle European authors who sought inspiration, both in their lives and in their writings, in aestheticism and in all the ...

Epstein, Sir Jacob

(Encyclopedia)Epstein, Sir Jacob ĕpˈstīn [key], 1880–1959, sculptor, b. New York City. He studied with Rodin in Paris and later worked chiefly in England. In revolt against the ornate and the pretty in art, Ep...

Henson, Jim

(Encyclopedia)Henson, Jim (James Maury Henson), 1936–90, American puppeteer, creator of the Muppets, b. Greenville, Miss., grad. Univ. of Maryland (A.B., 1960). In 1954 he got his first job as a local television ...

Celsus

(Encyclopedia)Celsus sĕlˈsəs [key], 2d cent., Roman philosopher, an aggressive antagonist of Christianity. His works have been lost, but the substance of his True Discourse is given by Origen in his Against Cels...

Avenches

(Encyclopedia)Avenches äväNshˈ [key], anc. Aventicum, town, Vaud canton, W Switzerland. During the 1st and 2d cent. a.d., Avenches flourished under the Romans as the chief town of Helvetia. ...