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stamp tax

(Encyclopedia)stamp tax, method of collecting duties on certain transactions by means of a validating stamp attached to the taxable instrument, which may be a judicial act, a commercial document, a transfer of prop...

weather vane

(Encyclopedia)weather vane or wind vane, instrument used to indicate wind direction. It consists of an asymmetrically shaped object, e.g., an arrow or a rooster, mounted at its center of gravity so it can move free...

Morse, Samuel Finley Breese

(Encyclopedia)Morse, Samuel Finley Breese, 1791–1872, American inventor and artist, b. Charlestown, Mass., grad. Yale, 1810. He studied painting in England under Washington Allston and achieved some success. He r...

galvanometer

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Galvanometer galvanometer gălˌvənŏmˈətər [key], instrument used to determine the presence, direction, and strength of an electric current in a conductor. All galvanometers are based upo...

concerto

(Encyclopedia)concerto kənchârˈtō [key], musical composition usually for an orchestra and a soloist or a group of soloists. In the 16th cent. concertare and concertato implied an ensemble, either vocal or instr...

radiometer

(Encyclopedia)radiometer rāˌdēŏmˈətər [key], instrument for detection or measurement of electromagnetic radiation; the term is applied in particular to devices used to measure infrared radiation. One of the ...

Jodrell Bank Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Jodrell Bank Observatory jôdˈrəl [key], observatory for radio astronomy located at Jodrell Bank, Macclesfield, England. Founded in 1945 on the site of a botanical experiment station, it is administ...

Hooker, John Lee

(Encyclopedia)Hooker, John Lee, 1917–2001, American blues singer and guitarist, b. near Clarksdale, Miss. From a cotton-sharecropping family, he learned the blues from his stepfather and various visiting Delta bl...

Howe, Elias

(Encyclopedia)Howe, Elias, 1819–67, American inventor, b. Spencer, Mass. He was apprenticed in 1838 to an instrument maker and watchmaker in Boston at whose suggestion he turned his attention to devising a sewing...

deed

(Encyclopedia)deed, in law, written document that is signed and delivered by which one person conveys land or other realty (see property) to another. A deed may assure the extent of the conveying party's ownership ...