Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

jack, mechanical device

(Encyclopedia)jack, mechanical device used to multiply a relatively small applied force so that it can lift and support heavy loads, or sometimes, move massive objects into a desired position. The lever jack, often...

Jones, Robert Edmond

(Encyclopedia)Jones, Robert Edmond, 1887–1954, American scene designer, b. Milton, N.H. With his design in 1915 for The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife, a new era of scene design began in the United States. His use o...

Kiruna

(Encyclopedia)Kiruna kēˈrünä [key], city (1990 pop. 20,470), Norrbotten co., N Sweden. The northernmost city in Sweden, it is the center of the Lapland iron-mining region. The ore is shipped on the Lapland rail...

sublimation, in chemistry

(Encyclopedia)sublimation sŭblĭmāˈshən [key], change of a solid substance directly to a vapor without first passing through the liquid state. The term is also used to describe the reverse process of the gas ch...

syncopation

(Encyclopedia)syncopation sĭngˌkəpāˈshən, sĭnˌ– [key] [New Gr.,=cut off ], in music, the accentuation of a beat that normally would be weak according to the rhythmic division of the measure. Although th...

bacon

(Encyclopedia)bacon, flesh of hogs—especially from the sides, belly, or back—that has been preserved by being salted or pickled and then dried with or without wood smoke. Traditionally, the process consisted of...

photoengraving

(Encyclopedia)photoengraving, photomechanical process in the graphic arts, used principally for reproducing illustrations. The subject is photographed, and the image is recorded on a sensitized metal plate, which i...

Wyandotte

(Encyclopedia)Wyandotte wīˈəndŏt [key], industrial city (1990 pop. 30,938), Wayne co., SE Mich., a suburb of Detroit on the Detroit River; inc. as a city 1867. Salt deposits there supply the city's extensive ch...

wax figures

(Encyclopedia)wax figures, sculptures usually made of beeswax or tallow, which is susceptible to modeling, casting, and coloring. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans used wax to make sacred images or death masks. Wax...

Birdseye, Clarence

(Encyclopedia)Birdseye, Clarence, 1886–1956, American inventor and founder of the frozen food industry, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., studied at Amherst College. From 1910 he worked as a naturalist, and in 1912 he went to L...