Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Rockefeller, John Davison

(Encyclopedia)Rockefeller, John Davison, 1839–1937, American industrialist and philanthropist, b. Richford, N.Y. He moved (1853) with his family to a farm near Cleveland and at age 16 went to work as a bookkeeper...

maser

(Encyclopedia)maser māˈzər [key], device for creation, amplification, and transmission of an intense, highly focused beam of high-frequency radio waves. The name maser is an acronym for microwave amplification b...

restaurant

(Encyclopedia)restaurant, a commerical establishment where meals can be bought and eaten. In the 16th cent. English inns and taverns began to serve one meal a day at a fixed time and price, at a common table, and u...

Sherman Antitrust Act

(Encyclopedia)Sherman Antitrust Act, 1890, first measure passed by the U.S. Congress to prohibit trusts; it was named for Senator John Sherman. Prior to its enactment, various states had passed similar laws, but th...

Ur

(Encyclopedia)Ur ûr [key], ancient city of Sumer, S Mesopotamia. The city is also known as Ur of the Chaldees. It was an important center of Sumerian culture (see Sumer) and is identified in the Bible as the home ...

vaporization

(Encyclopedia)vaporization, change of a liquid or solid substance to a gas or vapor. There is fundamentally no difference between the terms gas and vapor, but gas is used commonly to describe a substance that appea...

Poussin, Nicolas

(Encyclopedia)Poussin, Nicolas nēkôläˈ [key], 1594–1665, French painter, b. Les Andelys. Poussin was considered the greatest of living painters by his contemporaries. Although he spent most of his life in Ita...

electroencephalography

(Encyclopedia)electroencephalography əlĕkˌtrōĕnsĕfˌəlŏgˈrafē [key], science of recording and analyzing the electrical activity of the brain. Electrodes, placed on or just under the scalp, are linked to a...

Pennsylvania Dutch

(Encyclopedia)Pennsylvania Dutch [Ger. Deutsch=German], people of E Pennsylvania of German descent who migrated to the area in the 18th cent., particularly those in Northampton, Berks, Lancaster, Lehigh, Lebanon, Y...

mood

(Encyclopedia)mood or mode, in verb inflection, the forms of a verb that indicate its manner of doing or being. In English the forms are called indicative (for direct statement or question or to express an uncertai...