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Grau, Jacinto

(Encyclopedia)Grau, Jacinto häthēnˈtō grou [key], 1877–1958, Spanish dramatist, b. Barcelona. Participating in Spain's early-20th-century literary renaissance, Grau slowly gained recognition for his strikingl...

Belidor, Bernard Forest de

(Encyclopedia)Belidor, Bernard Forest de bĕrnärˈ fôrĕˈ də bālēdôrˈ [key], 1693–1761, French engineer. He wrote numerous books dealing with mathematics, artillery, and hydraulic, civil, and military eng...

Vaasa

(Encyclopedia)Vaasa väˈsä [key], Swed. Vasa, city (1998 pop. 56,587), Western Finland prov., W Finland, on the Gulf of Bothnia. It is a port and agricultural market. Timber, iron, and steel are produced. Charter...

Pratt, Daniel

(Encyclopedia)Pratt, Daniel, 1799–1873, American industrialist, b. Temple, N.H. He moved to Georgia at the age of 20, and after he had become a partner in a cotton gin he went (1833) to Alabama, where he founded ...

prime meridian

(Encyclopedia)prime meridian, meridian that is designated zero degree (0°) longitude, from which all other longitudes are measured. By international convention, it passes through the site of the Royal Observatory ...

public defender

(Encyclopedia)public defender, governmental official who represents indigent persons accused of crime. U.S. Supreme Court decisions expanding the right to counsel to pretrial proceedings and holding that a person c...

Gardner

(Encyclopedia)Gardner. <1> City (2020 pop. 23,287), Johnson co., NE Kans; founded 1857. A suburb of Kansas City, the town is located where the Santa Fe and ...

Gatling, Richard Jordan

(Encyclopedia)Gatling, Richard Jordan, 1818–1903, American inventor, b. Winton, N.C. He invented agricultural implements, which he manufactured in St. Louis, and then studied medicine in Indiana and Ohio, but he ...

Hill, Benjamin Harvey

(Encyclopedia)Hill, Benjamin Harvey, 1823–82, American statesman, b. Jasper co., Ga. A highly successful lawyer and Whig politician, he supported the Whig-Democratic alliance that carried Georgia in favor of the ...

Duane, James Chatham

(Encyclopedia)Duane, James Chatham, 1824–97, American army engineer, b. Schenectady, N.Y., grad. Union College, 1844, and West Point, 1848; grandson of James Duane. In the Civil War he organized the engineer equi...