Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Inside Passage

(Encyclopedia)Inside Passage, natural, protected waterway, c.950 mi (1,530 km) long, threading through the Alexander Archipelago off the coast of British Columbia and SE Alaska. From Seattle, Wash., to Skagway, Ala...

liquefied petroleum gas

(Encyclopedia)liquefied petroleum gas or LPG, mixture of gases, chiefly propane and butane, produced commercially from petroleum and stored under pressure to keep it in a liquid state. The boiling point of liquefie...

mandolin

(Encyclopedia)mandolin mănˌdəlĭnˈ, mănˈdəlĭnˌ [key], musical instrument of the lute family, with a half-pear-shaped body, a fretted neck, and a variable number of strings, plucked with the fingers or with...

Charpak, Georges

(Encyclopedia)Charpak, Georges zhôrzh shärpäkˈ [key], 1924–2010, French physicist, b. Dąbrowica, Poland (now Dubrovytsia, Ukraine), Ph.D Collège de France, 1954. Affiliated with CERN (1959–91), Charpak wo...

chattel

(Encyclopedia)chattel chătˈəl [key], in law, any property other than a freehold estate in land (see tenure). A chattel is treated as personal property rather than real property regardless of whether it is movabl...

Van de Graaff, Robert Jemison

(Encyclopedia)Van de Graaff, Robert Jemison văn də gräf [key], 1901–67, American physicist, b. Tuscaloosa, Ala., grad. Univ. of Alabama (B.S., 1922), Ph.D. Oxford, 1928. He was research associate at Massachuse...

polyester

(Encyclopedia)polyester, synthetic fiber, produced by the polymerization of the product formed when an alcohol and organic acid react. The outstanding characteristic of polyesters is their ability to resist wrinkli...

polystyrene

(Encyclopedia)polystyrene pŏlˌēstīˈrēn [key], widely used plastic; it is a polymer of styrene. Polystyrene is a colorless, transparent thermoplastic that softens slightly above 100℃ (212℉) and becomes a v...

Hilda, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Hilda, Saint, 614–80, English abbess of Whitby, princess of Northumbria. She became a Christian at the age of 13 and a nun at 33. About 647 she set out for a convent in France, but was recalled by S...

Brookhaven National Laboratory

(Encyclopedia)Brookhaven National Laboratory, scientific research center, at Upton (town of Brookhaven), Long Island, N.Y. It was founded in 1947 by Associated Universities, a management corporation sponsored by ni...