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apprenticeship

(Encyclopedia)apprenticeship, system of learning a craft or trade from one who is engaged in it and of paying for the instruction by a given number of years of work. The practice was known in ancient Babylon, Egypt...

Haywood, William Dudley

(Encyclopedia)Haywood, William Dudley, 1869–1928, American labor leader, known as Big Bill Haywood, b. Salt Lake City, Utah. He began work as a miner at 15 years of age. In 1896 he joined the newly organized West...

sweating system

(Encyclopedia)sweating system, method of exploiting labor by supplying materials to workers and paying by the piece (see piecework) for work done on those materials in the workers' homes or in small workshops (swea...

Windsor, cities, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Windsor wĭnˈzər [key]. 1 Town (1991 pop. 3,625), central N.S., Canada, at the mouth of the Avon River on an arm of Minas Basin. It is the center of a gypsum and limestone-quarrying area. Manufactur...

Western Federation of Miners

(Encyclopedia)Western Federation of Miners (WFM), a radical labor union that organized the miners and smelter workers of the Rocky Mountain states. Created in 1893 by the merger of several local miners' unions, the...

Van Tyne, Claude Halstead

(Encyclopedia)Van Tyne, Claude Halstead, 1869–1930, American historian, b. Tecumseh, Mich. An assistant professor at the Univ. of Michigan (1903–6) and a professor there from 1906 to his death, he became head o...

Hamilton, Alice

(Encyclopedia)Hamilton, Alice, 1869–1970, American toxicologist, physician, and educator, b. New York City, M.D. Univ. of Michigan, 1893; she continued her studies in Germany. A pioneer in industrial diseases and...

Johnson, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Sir John, 1742–1830, Loyalist leader in the American Revolution, b. Mohawk valley, N.Y.; son of Sir William Johnson. He fought against the Native Americans in Pontiac's Conspiracy and was o...

steam engine

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Steam engine steam engine, machine for converting heat energy into mechanical energy using steam as a medium, or working fluid. When water is converted into steam it expands, its volume increa...

Mignet, François Auguste Marie

(Encyclopedia)Mignet, François Auguste Marie fräNswäˈ ôgüstˈ märēˈ mēnyāˈ [key], 1796–1884, French historian and journalist. With his lifelong friend, Adolphe Thiers, Mignet edited the National, a po...