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Davy, Sir Humphry

(Encyclopedia)Davy, Sir Humphry, 1778–1829, English chemist and physicist. The son of a woodcarver, he received his early education at Truro and was apprenticed (1795) to a surgeon-apothecary at Penzance. While d...

Greenback party

(Encyclopedia)Greenback party, in U.S. history, political organization formed in the years 1874–76 to promote currency expansion. The members were principally farmers of the West and the South; stricken by the Pa...

Dollond, John

(Encyclopedia)Dollond, John dŏlˈənd [key], 1706–61, English optician and inventor. A silk weaver, he taught himself languages, mathematics, and science, becoming a noted scholar as well as a scientist. He inve...

Bristol, city, England

(Encyclopedia)Bristol, city and unitary authority (2021 est. pop. 694,000), SW England, at the confluence of the Avon and Frome rivers. Bristol, a leading internation...

Northwich

(Encyclopedia)Northwich nôrthˈwĭch [key], town (1991 pop. 32,664), Cheshire West and Chester, W central England, at the confluence of the Weaver and Dane rivers. Northwich was once the center of England's salt p...

Trumbull, Jonathan

(Encyclopedia)Trumbull, Jonathan, 1710–85, colonial governor of Connecticut, b. Lebanon, Conn. He was prominent in the colony after 1733, serving in the assembly, of which he became speaker, and in other offices....

Shannon, Claude Elwood

(Encyclopedia)Shannon, Claude Elwood, 1916–2001, American applied mathematician, b. Gaylord, Michigan. A student of Vannevar Bush at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he was the first to propose th...

Dett, Robert Nathaniel

(Encyclopedia)Dett, Robert Nathaniel, 1882–1943, American composer and pianist, b. Drummondville, Que. After receiving degrees from Oberlin College and the Eastman School of Music, Dett studied in Paris with Nadi...

Drew, Robert Lincoln

(Encyclopedia)Drew, Robert Lincoln, 1924–2014, American documentary filmmaker, b. Toledo, Ohio. After serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, he worked for Life as a writer and editor. On a Neima...