Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Hargreaves, James

(Encyclopedia)Hargreaves, James härˈgrēvz [key], 1720?–1778, English engineer. In 1762 he made an unsuccessful attempt to develop a machine for carding, a process preparatory to spinning, and in 1764 he invent...

James, P. D.

(Encyclopedia)James, P. D. (Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park), 1920–2014, English mystery novelist, b. Oxford. From 1964 to 1979 she worked in the forensic science and criminal law divi...

La Farge, John

(Encyclopedia)La Farge, John lə färzh [key], 1835–1910, American artist and writer, b. New York City. He studied with William Morris Hunt in Newport, R.I., and with Thomas Couture in Paris. La Farge began his c...

free verse

(Encyclopedia)free verse, term loosely used for rhymed or unrhymed verse made free of conventional and traditional limitations and restrictions in regard to metrical structure. Cadence, especially that of common sp...

Adventists

(Encyclopedia)Adventists ădˈvĕnˌtĭsts [key] [advent, Lat.,=coming], members of a group of related religious denominations whose distinctive doctrine centers in their belief concerning the imminent second comin...

thermoelectricity

(Encyclopedia)thermoelectricity, direct conversion of heat into electric energy, or vice versa. The term is generally restricted to the irreversible conversion of electricity into heat described by the English phys...

Trent Affair

(Encyclopedia)Trent Affair, incident in the diplomatic relations between the United States and Great Britain, which occurred during the American Civil War. On Nov. 8, 1861, the British mail packet Trent, carrying J...

Ballantyne, James

(Encyclopedia)Ballantyne, James bălˈəntīn [key], 1772–1833, Scottish editor and publisher. Ballantyne and his brother John set up a publishing business in Edinburgh with the aid of Sir Walter Scott. The firm ...

Smith, Horatio

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Horatio or Horace, 1779–1849, and James Smith, 1775–1839, English parodists, brothers. They wrote the famous Rejected Addresses (1812) which burlesqued such contemporary poets as Wordsworth...

Pall Mall

(Encyclopedia)Pall Mall pĕl mĕl, păl măl [key], street in the City of Westminster borough, London, England. It is the main thoroughfare of St. James's district. St. James's Palace, Marlborough House, and a numb...
 

Browse by Subject