Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

pump

(Encyclopedia)pump, device to lift, transfer, or increase the pressure of a fluid (gas or liquid) or to create a vacuum in an enclosed space by the removal of a gas (see vacuum pumps under vacuum). The centrifugal ...

glacier

(Encyclopedia)glacier, moving mass of ice that survives year to year, formed by the compacting of snow into névé and then into granular ice and set in motion outward and downward by the force of gravity and the s...

Lloyd, Henry Demarest

(Encyclopedia)Lloyd, Henry Demarest, 1847–1903, American reformer, b. New York City. He was on the editorial staff of the Chicago Tribune from 1872 to 1885 but resigned to study social problems. His Wealth agains...

Rockefeller, William

(Encyclopedia)Rockefeller, William, 1841–1922, American financier, b. Tioga co., N.Y.; brother of John D. Rockefeller. He joined (1865) his brother in the oil-refining business. William was a successful stock mar...

Barr, Alfred Hamilton, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Barr, Alfred Hamilton, Jr., 1902–81, American art historian, b. Detroit. Barr taught art history at several colleges and was the first director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York City. He organiz...

Crayer, Gaspar de

(Encyclopedia)Crayer, Gaspar de gäsˈpär də krīˈər [key], c.1584–1669, Flemish religious and portrait painter. He was greatly influenced by Rubens. While lacking the genius of Rubens, Crayer almost rivaled ...

Trevisa, John of

(Encyclopedia)Trevisa, John of trəvēˈsə [key], c.1326–c.1402, English writer. He was the vicar of Berkeley. In 1387 he translated into English Ranulph Higden's Polychronicon, a history of the world, and in 13...

Herzog, Johann Jakob

(Encyclopedia)Herzog, Johann Jakob yōˈhän yäˈkôp hĕrˈtsōkh [key], 1805–82, German Protestant theologian. His most important contribution was the founding and editing of the standard reference work Realen...

Habash al-Hasib

(Encyclopedia)Habash al-Hasib häbäshˈ äl-häsēbˈ [key], d. c.870, Arab mathematician and astronomer. Habash al-Hasib was born in what is now Mary, Turkmenistan, and worked in Baghdad. He calculated tables of ...

Hadley, Herbert Spencer

(Encyclopedia)Hadley, Herbert Spencer, 1872–1927, American lawyer, b. Olathe, Kans. As attorney general of Missouri (1905–9), he successfully prosecuted the Standard Oil Company for violating the state antitrus...