Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Wheatstone, Sir Charles

(Encyclopedia)Wheatstone, Sir Charles hwētˈstōn, –stən [key], 1802–75, English physicist and inventor. He was professor at King's College, London, from 1834. A pioneer in telegraphy, he was coinventor with ...

Chantrey, Sir Francis Legatt

(Encyclopedia)Chantrey, Sir Francis Legatt lĕgˈət chănˈtrē [key], 1781–1841, English sculptor, famous for his portrait busts and statues. Among his many well-known works are equestrian statues of Wellington...

Grant, Sir Francis

(Encyclopedia)Grant, Sir Francis, 1803–78, Scottish portrait painter. He was self-taught in painting, for which he abandoned a career in law. He began as a painter of hunting scenes (The Melton Hunt and The Cotte...

MacEwen, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)MacEwen, Sir William məkyo͞oˈən [key], 1848–1924, Scottish surgeon. A professor of surgery at the Univ. of Glasgow, he was noted for his work on bone grafting, on the radical cure of hernia, and...

Elyot, Sir Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Elyot, Sir Thomas ĕlˈyət, ĕlˈēət [key], c.1490–1546, English author. He wrote the earliest Latin-English dictionary (1538) and is remembered especially for his sensible and well-written treat...

Baker, Sir Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)Baker, Sir Benjamin, 1840–1907, English civil engineer. He helped build London's underground railway, Tower Bridge, and the Blackwall Tunnel, and with Sir John Fowler he designed and built the bridg...

Back

(Encyclopedia)Back, river, c.600 mi (970 km) long, rising in lakes, Northwest Territories, Canada, and flowing northeast through Nunavut across the tundra to Chantry Inlet. Numerous lakes lie along its course. It i...

Gardiner, Sir Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Gardiner, Sir Christopher, fl. 1630–32, figure in the early history of the Massachusetts Bay colony. When the Puritans arrived in Massachusetts Bay in 1630, they found that Gardiner had preceded the...

Johnson, Guy

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Guy, c.1740–1788, Loyalist leader in colonial New York, b. Ireland. He emigrated to America as a boy and married (1763) a daughter of Sir William Johnson, whom he succeeded as superintenden...

Eliot, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Eliot, Sir John, 1592–1632, English parliamentary leader. He was a staunch defender of parliamentary liberties. Eliot instituted (1626) the impeachment proceedings against Charles I's favorite, the ...
 

Browse by Subject