Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Ellsworth, Elmer Ephraim

(Encyclopedia)Ellsworth, Elmer Ephraim, 1837–61, American Civil War hero, b. near Mechanicville, N.Y. Just before the Civil War he became famous for his Zouave company, which toured the North giving exhibition dr...

Merchant Adventurers

(Encyclopedia)Merchant Adventurers, name given originally to all merchants in England who engaged in export trade, but later applied to loosely organized groups of merchants in the major ports concerned with export...

Damoh

(Encyclopedia)Damoh dəmōˈ [key], town, Madhya Pradesh state, central India. It is a district administrat...

sewing machine

(Encyclopedia)sewing machine, device that stitches cloth and other materials. An attempt at mechanical sewing was made in England (1790) with a machine having a forked, automatic needle that made a single-thread ch...

deduction

(Encyclopedia)deduction, in logic, form of inference such that the conclusion must be true if the premises are true. For example, if we know that all men have two legs and that John is a man, it is then logical to ...

Jujuy

(Encyclopedia)Jujuy ho͞ohwēˈ [key], city (1991 pop. 182,663), capital of Jujuy prov., NW Argentina, on the Bermejo River. In the scenic foothill region of the E Andes, it is the center of an agricultural, mining...

Drake, Joseph Rodman

(Encyclopedia)Drake, Joseph Rodman, 1795–1820, American poet and satirist, b. New York City. Under the name “The Croakers,” he and his friend Fitz-Greene Halleck wrote a series of light satirical verses for t...

Coffin, Charles Carleton

(Encyclopedia)Coffin, Charles Carleton, 1823–96, American journalist, b. Boscawen, N.H. During the Civil War, he was a correspondent in the field for the Boston Journal, and he served in the same capacity in the ...

mordant

(Encyclopedia)mordant môrˈdənt [key] [Fr.,=biting], substance used in dyeing to fix certain dyes (mordant dyes) in cloth. Either the mordant (if it is colloidal) or a colloid produced by the mordant adheres to t...

Kawanishi

(Encyclopedia)Kawanishi käwäˈnēshē [key], city (1990 pop. 141,253), Hyogo prefecture, central Honshu, Japan, on the Ina River. It is an agricultural and commercial center that produces leather, dyed cloth, hat...