Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Burnham, Sherburne Wesley

(Encyclopedia)Burnham, Sherburne Wesley, 1838–1921, American astronomer, b. Thetford, Vt. After serving as observer at Dearborn Observatory, Chicago (1877–81, 1882–84), and as astronomer at Lick Observatory (...

Newcomb, Simon

(Encyclopedia)Newcomb, Simon no͞oˈkəm, nyo͞oˈ– [key], 1835–1909, American astronomer, b. Nova Scotia, grad. Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard, 1858. Living in the United States from 1853, he was appointe...

ballistics

(Encyclopedia)ballistics bəlĭsˈtĭks [key], science of projectiles. Interior ballistics deals with the propulsion and the motion of a projectile within a gun or firing device. Its problems include the ignition a...

seeing

(Encyclopedia)seeing, in astronomy, the clarity with which stars and other celestial objects can be observed. It is primarily determined by the atmosphere of the earth. The most obvious phenomenon is twinkling, whe...

Balla, Giacomo

(Encyclopedia)Balla, Giacomo, 1871–1958, Italian painter, one of the founders of futurism. He moved from Turin to Rome in his twenties and began painting in a realist style. He travelled (1900) to Paris, where he...

Lartigue, Jacques Henri

(Encyclopedia)Lartigue, Jacques Henri zhäk äNrēˈ lärtēgˈ [key], 1894–1986, French photographer. The first exhibition of Lartigue's work, at New York City's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 1962, revealed a r...

Fenton, Roger

(Encyclopedia)Fenton, Roger, 1819–69, English pioneer photographer. Originally a barrister, Fenton worked from the early 1850s until 1862 as a fashionable architectural, still-life, portrait, and landscape photog...

Peretz, Isaac Loeb

(Encyclopedia)Peretz or Perez, Isaac Loeb both: pĕrˈĕts; lōbˈ [key], 1852–1915, Jewish poet, novelist, playwright, and lawyer, b. Zamosc, Poland. A voice of the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment, Peretz was ...

Pesellino, Il

(Encyclopedia)Pesellino, Il ēl pāzāl–lēˈnō [key], 1422–57, Italian painter of the Florentine school, whose real name was Francesco di Stefano. He was a grandson and pupil of Giuliano Giuochi, called Pesel...

Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson

(Encyclopedia)Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson ōˈbərhōltˌsər [key], 1868–1936, American historian, b. Chester co., Pa. He studied abroad and then worked on various Philadelphia newspapers. He edited the Manufactur...