Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Paré, Ambroise

(Encyclopedia)Paré, Ambroise äNbrwäzˈ pärāˈ [key], c.1510–1590, French surgeon. Serving in the army, he revived the use of ligature instead of cautery with boiling oil and continued to devise and champion ...

nail, in carpentry

(Encyclopedia)nail, metal pin driven by force applied at one end into pieces of material, usually wood, to join them together. The strength of a nailed joint depends on the properties of the wood, the type and numb...

cambium

(Encyclopedia)cambium kămˈbēəm [key], thin layer of generative tissue lying between the bark and the wood of a stem, most active in woody plants. The cambium produces new layers of phloem on the outside and of ...

Merrick, David

(Encyclopedia)Merrick, David, 1912–2000, American theatrical producer, b. St. Louis, Mo., as David Margulois. Merrick began his remarkably successful series of theatrical productions in 1954 with Fanny, his first...

Lodge, Sir Oliver Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Lodge, Sir Oliver Joseph, 1851–1940, English physicist, grad. University College, London (B.S., 1875; D.Sc., 1877). He made valuable contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy and condu...

brasses, monumental

(Encyclopedia)brasses, monumental, or sepulchral brasses, memorials to the dead, in use in churches on the Continent and in England in the 13th cent. and for several centuries following. They are usually set in the...

King, Henry

(Encyclopedia)King, Henry, 1592–1669, English poet. He became bishop of Chichester in 1642. Elegies constitute nearly half his work, his most notable being “The Exequy,” written on the death of his young wife...

composition board

(Encyclopedia)composition board, wood product produced in the form of a board or sheet, formed of cellulose fibers or particles derived from wood or other sources, and used principally as a building material. The o...

Gibbons, Grinling

(Encyclopedia)Gibbons, Grinling, 1648–1721, English wood carver and sculptor, b. Rotterdam. From the reign of Charles II to that of George I he was master wood carver to the crown. Sir Christopher Wren employed h...
 

Browse by Subject