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Roman roads

(Encyclopedia)Roman roads, ancient system of highways linking Rome with its provinces. Their primary purpose was military, but they also were of great commercial importance and brought the distant provinces in touc...

voting machine

(Encyclopedia)voting machine, instrument for recording and counting votes. The voting machine itself is generally positioned in a booth, often closed off by a curtain to assure secrecy for the voter. In the case of...

Weill, Kurt

(Encyclopedia)Weill, Kurt ko͝ortˈ vīl [key], 1900–1950, German-American composer, b. Dessau, studied with Humperdinck and Busoni in Berlin. He first became known with the production of two short satirical surr...

cellular telephone

(Encyclopedia)cellular telephone or cellular radio, telecommunications system in which a portable or mobile radio transmitter and receiver, or “cellphone,” is linked via microwave radio frequencies to base tran...

herbicide

(Encyclopedia)herbicide hrˈbəsīdˌ [key], chemical compound that kills plants or inhibits their normal growth. A herbicide in a particular formulation and application can be described as selective or nonselectiv...

O'Neill, Eugene (Gladstone)

(Encyclopedia)O'Neill, Eugene (Gladstone), 1888–1953, American dramatist, b. New York City. He is widely acknowledged as America's greatest playwright. Near the end of his life O'Neill renounced his daughter Oo...

broker

(Encyclopedia)broker, one who acts as an intermediary in a sale or other business transaction between two parties. Such a person conducts individual transactions only, is given no general authority by the employers...

sirenian

(Encyclopedia)sirenian sīrēˈnēən [key] or sea cow, name for a large aquatic mammal of the order Sirenia. Living sirenians are the dugong and the manatee, both found in warm, shallow waters in sheltered regions...

piano

(Encyclopedia)piano or pianoforte, musical instrument whose sound is produced by vibrating strings struck by felt hammers that are controlled from a keyboard. The piano's earliest predecessor was the dulcimer. The ...

ant

(Encyclopedia)ant, any of the 2,500 insect species constituting the family Formicidae of the order Hymenoptera, to which the bee and the wasp also belong. Like most members of the order, ants have a “wasp waist,�...