Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Pitcairn, John

(Encyclopedia)Pitcairn, John pĭtˈkârn [key], 1722–75, British royal marine officer in the American Revolution. Major Pitcairn commanded the advance guard of the British troops at Lexington (see Lexington and C...

sirenian

(Encyclopedia)sirenian sīrēˈnēən [key] or sea cow, name for a large aquatic mammal of the order Sirenia. Living sirenians are the dugong and the manatee, both found in warm, shallow waters in sheltered regions...

New Bern

(Encyclopedia)New Bern, city (1990 pop. 17,363), seat of Craven co., E N.C., a port and trading center at the junction of the Neuse and Trent rivers; inc. 1723. There is lumbering and food processing, and textiles ...

Müller, Johannes Peter

(Encyclopedia)Müller, Johannes Peter mŭlˈər [key], 1801–58, German physiologist and anatomist. From 1833 until the end of his career he was professor at Berlin. He was famed as a teacher; for his extensive r...

Kroehl, Julius Hermann

(Encyclopedia)Kroehl, Julius Hermann, 1820–67, German-American inventor and engineer, b. Memel, Prussia (now Klaipeda, Lithuania). Immigrating in 1844 to the United States, he became an iron manufacturer and civi...

sea pansy

(Encyclopedia)sea pansy, fleshy, leaf-shaped colony of marine organisms belonging to the genus Renilla in the same phylum as the jellyfish. The colony consists of a stalk formed by a large organism called a primary...

German silver

(Encyclopedia)German silver, name for various alloys of copper, zinc, and nickel, sometimes also containing lead and tin. They were originally named for their silver-white color, but use of the term silver is now p...

Isabey, Jean Baptiste

(Encyclopedia)Isabey, Jean Baptiste zhäN bätēstˈ ēzäbāˈ [key], 1767–1855, French portrait painter and miniaturist. He was a pupil of J. L. David and was greatly influenced by Fragonard. His portraits are ...

lamprey

(Encyclopedia)lamprey, name for several primitive marine and freshwater jawless fishes of the order Petromyzontiformes. As in the other jawless fish, the hagfish, the adult lamprey retains the notochord, the suppor...

Moerner, W. E.

(Encyclopedia)Moerner, W. E. (William Esco Moerner), 1953–, American physical chemist, b. Pleasanton, Calif., Ph.D. Cornell, 1982. Moerner worked at the IBM Almaden Research Center from 1981 to 1995 and at the Un...