Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

naphtha

(Encyclopedia)naphtha năpˈthə, năfˈ– [key], term usually restricted to a class of colorless, volatile, flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixtures. Obtained as one of the more volatile fractions in the fractional ...

taxidermy

(Encyclopedia)taxidermy tăkˈsĭdûrˌmē [key], process of skinning, preserving, and mounting vertebrate animals so that they still appear lifelike. The fur or feathers are cleaned, and the skin, treated with a c...

projective geometry

(Encyclopedia)projective geometry, branch of geometry concerned with those properties of geometric figures that remain invariant under projection. The basic elements are points, lines, and planes, and the following...

butane

(Encyclopedia)butane byo͞oˈtān [key], C4H10, gaseous alkane, a hydrocarbon that is obtained from natural gas or by refining petroleum. It can be liquefied at room temperature by compression. There are two struct...

Purcell, Edward Mills

(Encyclopedia)Purcell, Edward Mills, 1912–97, American physicist, b. Taylorville, Ill., Ph.D. Harvard, 1938. During World War II, Purcell was a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation La...

Loyalists

(Encyclopedia)Loyalists, in the American Revolution, colonials who adhered to the British cause. The patriots referred to them as Tories. Although Loyalists were found in all social classes and occupations, a dispr...

Warm Springs

(Encyclopedia)Warm Springs, resort, Meriwether co., W Ga. The salutary properties of the water springing from Pine Mt. were known to Native Americans, and white settlers learned of them in the late 18th cent. By th...

Berkman, Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Berkman, Alexander bĕrkˈmän, bûrkˈmən [key], 1870–1936, anarchist, b. Vilna (then in Russian Lithuania). He immigrated to the United States c.1887. Angered by the violent suppression of the Ho...

library

(Encyclopedia)library, a collection of books or other written or printed materials, as well as the facility in which they are housed and the institution that is responsible for their maintenance. Modern libraries m...

Kroto, Harry

(Encyclopedia)Kroto, Harry (Sir Harold Walter Kroto), 1939–2016, British chemist, b. Harold Walter Krotoschiner, Ph.D. Univ. of Sheffield, 1964. Kroto was the son of German parents who fled Nazi rule to England. ...
 

Browse by Subject