Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

473 results found

Carolus-Duran

(Encyclopedia)Carolus-Duran kärôlüsˈ-düräNˈ [key], 1837–1917, French painter whose original name was Charles Auguste Émile Durand. He was influenced by Courbet and studied in Lille and Paris. In 1861 he w...

Curie

(Encyclopedia)Curie kürēˈ [key], family of French scientists. Pierre Curie, 1859–1906, scientist, and his wife, Marie Sklodowska Curie, 1867–1934, chemist and physicist, b. Warsaw, are known for their work o...

Lumière, Louis Jean

(Encyclopedia)Lumière, Louis Jean ōgüstˈ [key], 1862–1954, French inventors, brothers. They invented the Cinématographe, which was patented and demonstrated in 1895. This mechanism was the first to photograp...

agnosticism

(Encyclopedia)agnosticism ăgnŏsˈtĭsĭzəm [key], form of skepticism that holds that the existence of God cannot be logically proved or disproved. Among prominent agnostics have been Auguste Comte, Herbert Spenc...

Gemayel

(Encyclopedia)Gemayel zhĕmīˈəl [key], Maronite Christian family active in Lebanese politics; leaders of the Phalange party (1937–82), and later the Phalange militia. Pierre Gemayel, 1905–84, founded the rig...

Jones, Brian

(Encyclopedia)Jones, Brian, 1947–, British balloonist, b. Bristol. A former Royal Air Force pilot, he entered the world of ballooning in the 1980s, and in 1997 became an organizer for the attempt of the British-b...

Borschberg, André

(Encyclopedia)Borschberg, André, 1952–, Swiss engineer, businessman, and pilot. With Bertrand Piccard (see under Piccard, Auguste) he founded Solar Impulse to develop a solar-powered plane capable of circumnavig...

L'Huillier, Anne

(Encyclopedia)Anne L'Huillier, 1958–, b. Paris, France, French-Swedish physicist, studied at Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, and Commissariat à l’Energ...

Perrot, Jules

(Encyclopedia)Perrot, Jules pĕrōˈ [key], 1810–92, French dancer and choreographer, b. Lyons. Perrot studied with Auguste Vestris (see under Vestris, Gaetan) and Salvatore Vigano. He gained fame as a dancer be...

Bleimor

(Encyclopedia)Bleimor: see Calloc'h, Jean Pierre. ...

Browse by Subject