(Encyclopedia) Leonard, Elmore (John Elmore Leonard), 1925–2013, American novelist, b. New Orleans, grad. Univ. of Detroit (1950). “Dutch” Leonard began publishing Western tales in the early 1950s,…
(Encyclopedia) Wallenberg, RaoulWallenberg, Raoulrä&oomacr;lˈ vălˈĕnbâr [key] 1912–47, Swedish diplomat and businessman. In 1944, he was assigned to Sweden's legation in Budapest, where he helped…
(Encyclopedia) spark chamber, in physics, device for recording the passage of elementary particles produced by reactions in a particle accelerator. Particles pass through a stack of metal plates or…
(Encyclopedia) trumpet, brass wind musical instrument of part cylindrical, part conical bore, in the shape of a flattened loop and having three piston valves to regulate the pitch. Its origin is…
(Encyclopedia) unemployment insurance, insurance against loss of wages during the time that an able-bodied worker is involuntarily unemployed. The goal of such insurance is to provide a minimal…
(Encyclopedia) witenagemotwitenagemotwĭtˌənəgĭmōtˈ [key] [Old Eng.,=meeting of counselors], a session of the counselors (the witan) of a king in Anglo-Saxon England. Such a body existed in each of…
(Encyclopedia) Woods, Tiger (Eldrick Woods), 1975–, American golfer, b. Cypress, Calif. The son of an African-American father and a Thai mother, he was a college star at Stanford and became the only…
(Encyclopedia) rammed earth, material consisting chiefly of soil of sufficiently stiff consistency that has been placed in forms and pounded down. It has been used for buildings and walls since…
(Encyclopedia) scale, in weights and measures, instruments for determining weight, generally for other than laboratory use. For the principles of operation of all weighing devices, see balance.…
