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Steelyard, Merchants of the

(Encyclopedia)Steelyard, Merchants of the, German hanse, or merchants guild, residing at the Steelyard on the Thames near the present Ironbridge Wharf at London, England. The merchants of the Hanseatic League in Lo...

Fathers of the Church

(Encyclopedia)Fathers of the Church, collective name for the Christian writers of early times whose work is considered generally orthodox. A convenient definition includes all such writers up to and including St. G...

Puebla, city, Mexico

(Encyclopedia)Puebla, city (1990 pop. 1,007,170), capital of Puebla state, E central Mexico. Its official name is Heroica Puebla de Zaragoza, in honor of Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza, who defeated French forces there in 1...

table tennis

(Encyclopedia)table tennis, game played, usually indoors, by two or four players; it is more or less a miniature form of lawn tennis. It is also called Ping-Pong, after the trade name that a manufacturer adopted (c...

Table Bay

(Encyclopedia)Table Bay, inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, 6 mi (9.7 km) wide, lying off Western Cape, South Africa. Table Mt. overlooks the bay, which was visited in the late 15th cent. by Portuguese voyagers to India....

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

(Encyclopedia)Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, a fundamental document of French constitutional history, drafted by Emmanuel Sieyès, adopted by the Constituent Assembly on Aug. 26, 1789, and embodied i...

Round Table

(Encyclopedia)Round Table, in Arthurian legend, the table at which King Arthur and his knights held court. It was allegedly fashioned at the behest of Arthur to prevent quarrels among the knights over precedence. A...

León, city, Mexico

(Encyclopedia)León, city (1990 pop. 758,270), Guanajuato state, central Mexico. It is located in a fertile river valley c.5,600 ft (1,700 m) high, but with a mild, temperate climate. Frequent floods, which in 1888...

water table

(Encyclopedia)water table, the top zone of soil and rock in which all voids are saturated with water. The level of the water table varies with topography and climate, and depends on the degree to which the groundwa...

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