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Ramsay, Allan

(Encyclopedia)Ramsay, Allan, 1685?–1758, Scottish poet. An Edinburgh bookseller, he opened one of the first circulating libraries in Great Britain. The Gentle Shepherd (1725), a pastoral comedy, is his most famou...

Lockheed, Allan Haines

(Encyclopedia)Lockheed, Allan Haines, 1889–1969, American aviation pioneer, b. Niles, Calif., as Allan Loughead. He worked as a mechanic and a race car driver, then, following his first flight (1910), he became a...

Gleason, Henry Allan

(Encyclopedia)Gleason, Henry Allan glēˈsən [key], 1882–1975, American botanist, plant geographer, and plant ecologist. His floristic studies of North American vegetation led to his “individualistic concept o...

Allan, Sir Hugh

(Encyclopedia)Allan, Sir Hugh, 1810–82, Canadian financier and shipowner, b. Scotland. He emigrated to Canada in 1826, was employed by a large shipbuilding company in Montreal, and later founded the Allan Line of...

Cormack, Allan MacLeod

(Encyclopedia)Cormack, Allan MacLeod məkloudˈ, côrˈmək [key], 1924–98, American physicist, b. Johannesburg, South Africa. After studying at the Univ. of Cape Town (B.S. physics, 1944, M.S. crystallography, 1...

Poe, Edgar Allan

(Encyclopedia)Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809–49, American poet, short-story writer, and critic, b. Boston. He is acknowledged today as one of the most brilliant and original writers in American literature. His skillfully...

Sandage, Allan Rex

(Encyclopedia)Sandage, Allan Rex, 1926–2010, American astronomer, b. Iowa City, Iowa, Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1953. He was a graduate student under Walter Baade and an assistant to Edwin Hubble....

Neilson, William Allan

(Encyclopedia)Neilson, William Allan nēlˈsən [key], 1869–1946, American educator, b. Scotland, M.A. Univ. of Edinburgh, 1891, Ph.D. Harvard, 1898. He taught English in Scotland and Canada and at Bryn Mawr and ...

blackbody

(Encyclopedia)blackbody, in physics, an ideal black substance that absorbs all and reflects none of the radiant energy falling on it. Lampblack, or powdered carbon, which reflects less than 2% of the radiation fall...

MacNab, Sir Allan Napier

(Encyclopedia)MacNab, Sir Allan Napier, 1798–1862, Canadian political leader, b. Ontario. He fought in the War of 1812 and later became a lawyer. A staunch supporter of English policies, he commanded “the men o...

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