Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

182 results found

barbed wire

(Encyclopedia)barbed wire, wire composed of two zinc-coated steel strands twisted together and having barbs spaced regularly along them. The need for barbed wire arose in the 19th cent. as the American frontier mov...

wire

(Encyclopedia)wire, metal filament, strand, or solid rod usually having a round cross section. Metals and alloys used for wiremaking are chosen for high tensile strength and ductility or for their electrical conduc...

wire saw

(Encyclopedia)wire saw: see quarrying.

wire service

(Encyclopedia)wire service: see news agency.

DeKalb

(Encyclopedia)DeKalb dēkălb [key], city (2020 pop. 40,290), DeKalb co., N Ill., in a farm area; inc. 1861...

fence

(Encyclopedia)fence [short for defense], humanly erected barrier between two divisions of land, used to mark a legal or other boundary, to keep animals or people in or out, and sometimes as an ornament. In newly se...

Berlin Wall

(Encyclopedia)Berlin Wall, 1961–89, a barrier first erected in Aug., 1961, by the East German government along the border between East and West Berlin, and later along the entire border between East Germany and W...

Horn, Gyula

(Encyclopedia)Horn, Gyula, 1932–2013, Hungarian political leader, b. Budapest, grad. Don Rostov College, Russia. In 1956 he joined Hungary's Communist party and helped crush the anti-Soviet uprising. He worked in...

range

(Encyclopedia)range, large area of land unsuited to cultivation but supporting native grasses and other plants suitable for livestock grazing. Principal areas in the western hemisphere are the pampas of South Ameri...

trench warfare

(Encyclopedia)trench warfare. Although trenches were used in ancient and medieval warfare, in the American Civil War, and in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5), they did not become important until World War I. The i...