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Pontiac, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Pontiac, industrial city (1990 pop. 71,166), seat of Oakland co., SE Mich., on the Clinton River; founded 1818 by promoters from Detroit, inc. as a city 1861. Industries developed early and expanded a...

flight simulator

(Encyclopedia)flight simulator, device providing a controlled environment in which a flight trainee can experience conditions approximating those of actual flight. A simulator generally consists of an enclosure hou...

Hoffmann, Jules Alphonse

(Encyclopedia)Hoffmann, Jules Alphonse, 1941–, French biologist, Ph.D. Univ. of Strasbourg, 1969. Hoffmann was a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research, Strasbourg, from 1974 to 2009. In...

Jones, Anson

(Encyclopedia)Jones, Anson, 1798–1858, last president of the Texas republic (1844–46), b. Seekonk section of Great Barrington, Mass. He studied medicine and after an itinerant business and medical career went (...

Keaton, Buster

(Encyclopedia)Keaton, Buster (Joseph Francis Keaton), 1895–1966, American movie actor, b. Piqua, Kans. Considered one of the greatest comic actors in film history, Keaton used his considerable acrobatic skills, w...

Staudinger, Hermann

(Encyclopedia)Staudinger, Hermann, 1881–1965, German chemist, Ph.D. Univ. of Halle, 1903. Staudinger held faculty positions at the Univ. of Strasbourg (1903–7), the Technical Univ. of Karlsruhe (1907–12), and...

sublimation, in chemistry

(Encyclopedia)sublimation sŭblĭmāˈshən [key], change of a solid substance directly to a vapor without first passing through the liquid state. The term is also used to describe the reverse process of the gas ch...

special effects

(Encyclopedia)special effects, in motion pictures, cinematographic techniques that create illusions in the audience's minds as well as the illusions created using these techniques. Some common examples are the use ...

Buchan, John, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir

(Encyclopedia)Buchan, John, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir bŭkˈən, twēdzˈmyo͞or [key], 1875–1940, Scottish author and statesman. Included among his works are a history (4 vol., 1921–22) of World War I; biographies ...

Wineland, David Jeffrey

(Encyclopedia)Wineland, David Jeffrey, 1944–, American physicist, b. Milwaukee, Wis., Ph.D. Harvard, 1970. Wineland has been a researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Univ. of Col...