Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

397 results found

electric and magnetic units

(Encyclopedia)electric and magnetic units, units used to express the magnitudes of various quantities in electricity and magnetism. Three systems of such units, all based on the metric system, are commonly used. On...

Dole, Sanford Ballard

(Encyclopedia)Dole, Sanford Ballard, 1844–1926, Hawaiian statesman, b. Honolulu, of American missionary parents. After education in the United States he returned to Hawaii and became prominent in public life. A l...

Henry, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Henry, Joseph, 1797–1878, American physicist, b. Albany, N.Y., educated at Albany Academy. He taught (1826–32) mathematics and natural philosophy at Albany Academy and was professor of natural phi...

Halley, Edmond

(Encyclopedia)Halley, Edmond hălˈē, hôˈlē [key], 1656–1742, English astronomer and mathematician. He is particularly noted as the first astronomer to predict the return of a comet and the first to point out...

Gissing, George

(Encyclopedia)Gissing, George gĭsˈĭng [key], 1857–1903, English novelist. His promising future as a scholar was curtailed by his expulsion from Owens College (later the Univ. of Manchester) because of his asso...

Newhouse, Samuel Irving

(Encyclopedia)Newhouse, Samuel Irving, 1895–1979, American newspaper and magazine publisher, b. New York City as Solomon Neuhaus, known generally as Sam. From 1922 to the 1970s, his Advance Publications acquired ...

Némirovsky, Irène

(Encyclopedia)Némirovsky, Irène, 1903–42, French novelist, b. Kiev. The daughter of a Jewish banker who fled (1918) the Russian Revolution with his family and settled (1919) in Paris, she studied at the Sorbonn...

Lusitania, ship

(Encyclopedia)Lusitania, liner under British registration, sunk off the Irish coast by a German submarine on May 7, 1915. In the sinking, 1,198 persons lost their lives, 128 of whom were U.S. citizens. A warning to...

Massys, Quentin

(Encyclopedia)Massys, Matsys, Messys, or Metsys, Quentin kvĕnˈtĭn mäsīsˈ, mätsīsˈ, mĕ–, mĕt– [key], c.1466–1530, Flemish painter. After studying in Louvain, he moved to Antwerp by 1491, remaining i...

Mawson, Sir Douglas

(Encyclopedia)Mawson, Sir Douglas, 1882–1958, Australian antarctic explorer and geologist, b. England. His first geographical expedition was to the New Hebrides Islands as a geologist in 1903. As a member of the ...

Browse by Subject