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Döbereiner, Johann Wolfgang

(Encyclopedia)Döbereiner, Johann Wolfgang yōˈhän vôlfˈgäng döˈbərīnər [key], 1780–1849, German chemist. From 1810 he was professor of the Univ. of Jena. He is known especially for his discovery of sim...

endless screw

(Encyclopedia)endless screw, screw fixed so that it cannot move longitudinally as it rotates. Thus, instead of the usual action in which a screw advances itself through a medium as it turns, the screw remains stati...

Bainville, Jacques

(Encyclopedia)Bainville, Jacques zhäk băNvēlˈ [key], 1879–1936, French historian and journalist. A nationalist and a royalist, he was one of the founders and the foreign editor of the royalist daily, Action f...

Front de Libération du Québec

(Encyclopedia)Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) frôN də lēbĕräsyôNˈ dü kābĕkˈ [key], Canadian separatist group formed in the 1960s to bring about the independence of Quebec, which has a French herita...

fulminate

(Encyclopedia)fulminate fŭlˈmĭnāt [key], any salt of fulminic acid, HONC, a highly unstable compound known only in solution. The term is most commonly applied to the explosive mercury (II) fulminate, also calle...

Housing and Urban Development, United States Department of

(Encyclopedia)Housing and Urban Development, United States Department of (HUD), established 1965 to coordinate and administer programs that provide assistance for housing and community development. The department a...

cerussite

(Encyclopedia)cerussite sērˈəsīt [key], colorless to white or gray mineral, sometimes yellowish or greenish, transparent to opaque, very brittle, crystallizing in the orthorhombic system and occurring also in g...

Las Casas, Bartolomé de

(Encyclopedia)Las Casas, Bartolomé de bärtōlōmāˈ dā läs käˈsäs [key], 1474–1566, Spanish missionary and historian, called the apostle of the Indies. He went to Hispaniola with his father in 1502, and e...

Agent Orange

(Encyclopedia)Agent Orange, herbicide used by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War to expose enemy guerrilla forces in forested areas. Agent Orange contains varying amounts of dioxin. Exposure to the defoliant has be...

Washington, Denzel

(Encyclopedia) Washington, Denzel (Denzel Hayes Washington Jr.), 1954- , African-American actor, b. Mount Vernon, N.Y., Fordham Univ. (B.A., 1977). Washington’s fa...