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Mulready, William

(Encyclopedia)Mulready, William məlrĕdˈē [key], 1786–1863, Irish genre painter. He began as a drawing master and an illustrator of children's books. After 1809 he devoted himself to genre subjects and gained ...

Graf, Urs

(Encyclopedia)Graf or Graff, Urs o͝ors [key], c.1485–1528, Swiss wood engraver, etcher, painter, and goldsmith, studied at Basel. He was influenced by the work of Dürer and Hans Baldung. One of the first to emp...

horsepower

(Encyclopedia)horsepower, unit of power in the English system of units. It is equal to 33,000 foot-pounds per minute or 550 foot-pounds per second or approximately 746 watts. The term horsepower originated with Jam...

Neopaganism

(Encyclopedia)Neopaganism, polytheistic religious movement, practiced in small groups by partisans of pre-Christian religious traditions such as Egyptian, Greek, Norse, and Celtic. Neopagans fall into two broad cat...

Steig, William

(Encyclopedia)Steig, William, 1907–2003, American cartoonist and children's book writer, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. He began drawing cartoons for the The New Yorker in the 1930s, and ultimately produced over 1,600 spontan...

Briosco, Andrea

(Encyclopedia)Briosco, Andrea ändrĕˈä brēôsˈkō [key], 1470?–1532, Italian architect and sculptor, known also as Andrea Riccio [curly-headed], b. Padua. As an architect, he created models for the church of...

Lairesse, Gerard de

(Encyclopedia)Lairesse, Gerard de gāˈrärt də lārĕsˈ [key], 1641–1711, Flemish painter of allegorical and religious subjects, b. Liège. Most of his life was spent in Holland, where he achieved great succes...

Napa

(Encyclopedia)Napa năpˈə [key], city (1990 pop. 61,842), seat of Napa co., W Calif., on the Napa River; inc. 1872. There are wineries and factories that produce medical and electronic equipment, beverages, appar...

Garabogazkol

(Encyclopedia)Garabogazkol kəräˌ-bəgäzˌ-gôlˈ [key], shallow bay,, in Turkmenistan. An arm of the Caspian Sea, it acts as a natural evaporation basin, drawing off the water of the Caspian and depositing salt...

Crompton, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Crompton, Samuel, 1753–1827, English inventor of the mule spinner, or muslin wheel, an important step in the development of fine cotton spinning. Working as a young man in a spinning mill, he knew t...