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Fay, Frank

(Encyclopedia)Fay, Frank, 1870–1931, and W. G. Fay, 1872–1947, brothers, both Irish actors. The Fay brothers formed the Irish National Theatre, an amateur group founded on the conviction that only Irish actors ...

ambergris

(Encyclopedia)ambergris ămˈbərgrēs [key], waxlike substance originating as a morbid concretion in the intestine of the sperm whale. Lighter than water, it is found floating on tropical seas or cast up on the sh...

Fernald, Merritt Lyndon

(Encyclopedia)Fernald, Merritt Lyndon fûrˈnəld [key], 1873–1950, American botanist, b. Orono, Maine, grad. Harvard, 1897. He taught at Harvard (1902–49) and was director of the Gray Herbarium there from 1937...

Erebus, Mount

(Encyclopedia)Erebus, Mount, volcanic peak, 12,280 ft (3,743 m) high, on Ross Island, in the Ross Sea, E Antarctica. One of the loftiest volcanoes of the world, it was discovered in 1841 by the British explorer Jam...

Helper, Hinton Rowan

(Encyclopedia)Helper, Hinton Rowan, 1829–1909, American writer, b. Davie co., N.C. He was in California during the gold rush and later returned east to write The Land of Gold (1855). His next book, The Impending ...

Hill, Sir Rowland

(Encyclopedia)Hill, Sir Rowland, 1795–1879, English educator, inventor, and postal reformer. He introduced the system of self-government in his school at Hazelwood in Birmingham. In his Plans for the Government a...

Goddard, Robert Hutchings

(Encyclopedia)Goddard, Robert Hutchings, 1882–1945, American physicist and rocket expert, b. Worcester, Mass., grad. Worcester Polytechnic Institute (B.S., 1908), Ph.D. Clark Univ., 1911. From 1914 he was associa...

Joffe, Abram

(Encyclopedia)Joffe, Abram əbrämˈ yôˈfyə [key], 1880–1960, Soviet scientist, b. Ukraine, grad. St. Petersburg Technological Institute, 1902. From 1902 to 1906 he worked in Munich as an assistant to W. C. Ro...

Leung Chun-ying

(Encyclopedia)Leung Chun-ying, 1954–, Hong Kong business and political leader, often referred to as C. Y. Leung. He studied surveying at Hong Kong Polytechnic and real estate management in Bristol, England. Retur...

maroon

(Encyclopedia)maroon, term for a fugitive slave in the 17th and 18th cent. in the West Indies and Guiana, or for a descendant of such slaves. They were called marron by the French and cimarrón by the Spanish. Form...