Columbia Encyclopedia

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Penticton

(Encyclopedia)Penticton, city (1991 pop. 27,258), S British Columbia, Canada, located where the Okanagan River flows into Okanagan Lake. It is a service and trade center for the Okanagan valley, a resort and fruit-...

Rambouillet

(Encyclopedia)Rambouillet, town (1990 pop. 25,293), Yvelines dept., N France. It is a summer resort in the heart of a magnificent forest. Sheep are raised, and radio equipment and plastics are made. The nearby châ...

Fleetwood

(Encyclopedia)Fleetwood, town, Lancashire, NW England, on Morecambe Bay at the mouth of the Wyre estuary. Fleetwood, a port, trades and has a ferry service with the I...

ophthalmology

(Encyclopedia)ophthalmology ŏfˌthălmŏlˈəjē [key], branch of medicine specializing in the anatomy, function and diseases of the eye. Ophthalmologists specialize in the medical and surgical treatment of eye di...

Farnsworth, Philo Taylor

(Encyclopedia)Farnsworth, Philo Taylor, 1906–71, American inventor, b. Beaver, Utah, grad. Brigham Young Univ., 1925. He demonstrated (1927) a working model of a television system. His “dissector tube” (calle...

Friendly, Fred W.

(Encyclopedia)Friendly, Fred W., 1915–98, American broadcaster and author, b. New York City as Ferdinand Friendly Wachenheimer. He began his career at age 22 at a radio station in Providence where he wrote, produ...

Maazel, Lorin Varencove

(Encyclopedia)Maazel, Lorin Varencove, 1930–2014, American conductor, b. Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. A musical prodigy, he spent his childhood in Los Angeles, where he made his conducting debut at nine and his vio...

Sutton

(Encyclopedia)Sutton, outer borough (1991 pop. 164,300) of Greater London, SE England. It is mainly residential, but plastics, chemicals, radio components, and paper goods are produced. The areas of Sutton were men...

polarization of light

(Encyclopedia)polarization of light, orientation of the vibration pattern of light waves in a singular plane. Unpolarized light can be converted into a single polarized beam by means of the Nicol prism, a device ...

interstellar matter

(Encyclopedia)interstellar matter, matter in a galaxy between the stars, known also as the interstellar medium. The interstellar gas, which constitutes about 99% of the interstellar matter, consists mostly of hyd...