Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

pudding

(Encyclopedia)pudding. Early writers on cookery class puddings and dumplings together. The earliest puddings were boiled in a bag or cloth. Later they were placed in a buttered bowl, covered with a cloth, and steam...

Keokuk, chief of the Sac and Fox

(Encyclopedia)Keokuk kēˈəkək [key], c.1780–1848, Native American, chief of the Sac and Fox, b. near present-day Rock Island, Ill. When Black Hawk supported the British in the War of 1812, Keokuk refused to jo...

proof, in mathematics

(Encyclopedia)proof, in mathematics, finite sequence of propositions each of which is either an axiom or follows from preceding propositions by one of the rules of logical inference (see symbolic logic). Mathematic...

Shannon, Claude Elwood

(Encyclopedia)Shannon, Claude Elwood, 1916–2001, American applied mathematician, b. Gaylord, Michigan. A student of Vannevar Bush at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he was the first to propose th...

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...

Kidderminster

(Encyclopedia)Kidderminster, city (1991 pop. 50,385), Worcestershire, W central England. The city had a prosperous cloth trade from the 14th to 18th cent. Kidderminster carpets have been produced since 1735. Associ...

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...

Brancusi, Constantin

(Encyclopedia)Brancusi, Constantin bränkyo͞oˈzē, Rom. bränˈko͞osh [key], 1876–1957, Romanian sculptor. Brancusi is considered one of the foremost of modern artists. In 1904 he went to Paris, where he worke...

Jareb

(Encyclopedia)Jareb jârˈĭb [key], in the Bible, Assyrian king, perhaps a symbolic name. ...

Grosz, George

(Encyclopedia)Grosz, George grōs [key], 1893–1959, German-American caricaturist, draughtsman, and painter, b. Berlin. Before and during World War I he contributed drawings on proletarian themes to Illustration a...