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gazetteer

(Encyclopedia)gazetteer găzˌĭtērˈ [key], dictionary or encyclopedia listing alphabetically the names of places, political divisions, and physical features of the earth and giving some information about each. T...

Dewey, Melvil

(Encyclopedia)Dewey, Melvil, 1851–1931, American library pioneer, originator of the Dewey decimal system, b. Adams Center, N.Y., grad. Amherst (B.A., 1874; M.A., 1877). A man of originality and of enormous energy...

Russell, Morgan

(Encyclopedia)Russell, Morgan, 1886–1953, American painter, b. New York City. Russell, together with Stanton Macdonald-Wright, founded synchromism in Paris in 1913. Structuring his paintings on interlocking plane...

Ladd-Franklin, Christine

(Encyclopedia)Ladd-Franklin, Christine, 1847–1930, American scientist, b. Windsor, Conn., grad. Vassar 1869. She was the first woman student to enter Johns Hopkins (1878), her special studies being directed towar...

sky

(Encyclopedia)sky, apparent dome over the earth, background of the clouds, sun, moon, and stars. The blue color of the clear daytime sky results from the selective scattering of light rays by the minute particles o...

Hooker, Sir William Jackson

(Encyclopedia)Hooker, Sir William Jackson, 1785–1865, English botanist. A leading authority of his time on ferns, he formed a famous herbarium and built up the Glasgow Garden and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew....

fiber optics

(Encyclopedia)fiber optics, transmission of digitized messages or information by light pulses along hair-thin glass or plastic fibers. Each fiber is surrounded by a cladding having a high index of refractance so th...

aquamarine

(Encyclopedia)aquamarine ăkˌwəmərēnˈ, äkˌ– [key] [Lat.,=seawater], transparent beryl with a blue or bluish-green color. Sources of the gems include Brazil, Siberia, the Union of Myanmar, Madagascar, and p...

khaki

(Encyclopedia)khaki kăkˈē, käˈkē [key] [Hindi,=dust-colored], closely twilled cloth of linen or cotton, dyed a dust color. It was first used (1848) for uniforms for the English regiment of Sir Harry Burnett L...

Toyokuni

(Encyclopedia)Toyokuni tōyōˈko͞onē [key], 1769–1825, Japanese color-print artist, whose name in full was Toyokuni Utagawa. He was one of the leading masters of the period of the popular ukiyo-e school. After...