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Chittenden, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Chittenden, Thomas chĭtˈəndən [key], 1730–97, governor of Vermont, b. East Guilford, Conn. After moving to Vermont in 1774, he was active in the Windsor Convention, which declared (1777) Vermont...

actinometer

(Encyclopedia)actinometer ăkˌtənŏmˈətər [key], instrument used to measure the heating power of radiation. Actinometers are used chiefly in meteorology to measure solar radiation as transmitted directly by th...

wampum

(Encyclopedia)wampum wämˈpəm [key] [New England Algonquian,=white string of beads], beads or disks made by Native Americans from the shells of mollusks found on the eastern coast or along the larger rivers of No...

bolometer

(Encyclopedia)bolometer bōlŏmˈətər, bə– [key], instrument for detecting and measuring radiation, e.g., visible light, infrared radiation, and ultraviolet radiation, in amounts as small as one millionth of a...

Green Mountain Boys

(Encyclopedia)Green Mountain Boys, popular name of armed bands formed (c.1770) under the auspices of Ethan Allen in the Green Mountains of what is today Vermont. Their purpose was to prevent the New Hampshire Grant...

wind

(Encyclopedia)wind, flow of air relative to the earth's surface. A wind is named according to the point of the compass from which it blows, e.g., a wind blowing from the north is a north wind. The diurnal, or dai...

African Methodist Episcopal Church

(Encyclopedia)African Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodist denomination (see Methodism). It was established in 1816 in Philadelphia with Richard Allen as its first bishop. In 1991 there were about 3.5 million memb...

belt

(Encyclopedia)belt, girdle or band worn around the body, originally to confine loose garments. Later the girdle became a decorative accessory and was used to carry belongings. The Greeks and Romans wore ornamental ...

blackbody

(Encyclopedia)blackbody, in physics, an ideal black substance that absorbs all and reflects none of the radiant energy falling on it. Lampblack, or powdered carbon, which reflects less than 2% of the radiation fall...

Teller, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Teller, Edward, 1908–2003, American physicist, b. Budapest, Hungary, Ph.D. Univ. of Leipzig, 1930, where he studied under Werner Heisenberg. Fleeing the Nazis, he came to the United States in 1935 a...